“So, if they put me in this special medical VR dive capsule, I can play Endaria?” My excited voice chirped, sounding tinny over the implant’s vocoder as I drifted in the treatment pod, my eyes red and itchy behind the goggles I was wearing. My body gave another painful spasm and I gritted my teeth.

Father’s massive hulking form peered down through the viewing port at me, his face twisted in worry and pain as he nodded. “Yes pumpkin… it may give you a bit more time or it may help us fight the progression of the disease.” He said, although I could see the doubt in his features. He didn’t believe what he was preaching. It really didn’t matter. I had heard of Endaria, and figured playing a game, and not constantly feeling my failing, dying body around me would be an improvement.

I saw a nurse come and tap my father on his shoulder and he glared at her. “It’s time for me to leave, they need to run your repair routines.” He said and my eyes widened in fear. No, this wouldn’t be fun. I felt the deadening of pain, and loss of feeling go through my body, even as it twitched and spasmed. I couldn’t feel what was going on now as my neural net coordinated groups of nano machines that fought the creeping degradation in my organs. Something twisted and I felt my stomach lurch, bile on my tongue and I coughed in my respirator. The familiar coppery-iron taste of blood filled my mouth and my weak heartbeat tried to speed up but was slowed down by my pacer. Dizziness made my vision waver and my ears thunder as I shuddered and tears leaked out of my eyes. Was this the end? I didn’t want this to be the last regen, when my body would finally be beyond the point of redemption.

My vision proceeded to spin and pulse, and I felt the lost control of my bladder and bowls, my body fighting to stay alive with every ounce of self. I knew I was slowly losing. Every day it was like this as I fought for each breath, not knowing if it would be my last. I mentally sent commands to my implant to distract myself from the horror and went back to watching live feeds from Endaria, something I had been doing for a couple of months now ever since the game’s release. It was fascinating and like no other game I had seen played.

In this stream an armored soldier was standing in formation with his friends, a leader calling out commands as a muddy stretch of grassland could be seen through the slit of a helm. Shields came down and pikes fell into position as a horde of creatures rushed towards their small band. I could hear the man’s quickening breathing as he murmured a prayer to some god and one eye blurred as sweat trickled down into it. You could literally see the waves of heat in a haze around him and I realized how hot it must feel to be packed together and in that heavy armor.

The creatures slammed into the warriors, impaling themselves onto pikes, the man screaming rather inventive curses as he thrust his forward and then out of an enemy, his pike skidding off of armor with a shuddering screech until it slammed into the neck of a creature behind. His formation advanced as commands sounded and he pulled his pike back as another pike behind him slammed into the throat of the enemy his pike skidded off, it’s point glowing as it broke through some warding before plunging into the creature. It screamed and fell as the pikes advanced.

There was a distant roar and I heard a few exclamations of surprise as something the size of a small house advanced on the formation. A gigantic club raised up high as it brought it down towards the streamer who cursed and sputtered, but gritted his teeth with resignation. He locked his shields tight with his fellows and the call to brace rang out. The streamer was knocked flat as the club hit with a wet sounding crunch and screech of metal as the club broke the man’s arm and skidded off the shield. He was left lying there as the formation closed around him and he was pulled back towards the rear, then lifted up onto a stretcher.

I shifted to another stream, from the same group and saw the formation holding the creature off with pikes from a distance. A chant was going up as the group fought in unison, acting in well drilled discipline.

There was a mighty roar from the other side of the formation, and a snarling griffin dived out of the sky and a lance slammed into one of the attacking monster’s eyes. It snapped the massive head back as the flyer riding the griffin left his lance behind, shaking out his arm as he passed, a stream of curses fading away as the creature flapped its massive feathered wings and gained altitude for another pass.

There was no need, though as the ground shook. The creature slammed down and lay there as the formation swarmed forward with drilled commands being called out, its pikes plunging in and out as it made sure the monstrous abomination was dead. I gasped and felt woozy as I realized my own heart had tried to increase its pulse as I followed the action.

“Now now! Stop getting all excited with that feed watching!” The nurse had stepped in, and pulled up my implant’s display to see what had gotten me worked up. She cut the feed and glared at me through the window shaking her finger. I tried to reconnect but she had blocked me. Snarling at her I whined and begged for her to let me watch the rest but she just shook her head.

“No more of that, I’ll unblock your net access when you wake up. Before I could protest the unfairness of my few actual waking hours cut short for the second time this week, I felt the heaviness of sleep overtake me.

When I awoke, I was lying in a hospital pod, out of my treatment tank. Doctors were standing around looking grim as I felt myself being lifted again, my groggy mind trying to cope with wakefulness as my head ponded with dull thumps of pain. “She’s awake.” One of them stated pointing to me as my heavy eyelids flickered and I tried to breathe but felt the machines doing it for me.

“Daria… can you hear me?” I heard one of them crouch down peer closely at me. I blinked my eyes three times and then shifted to my implant connection and logged into the local net.

“Yes I’m awake! Don’t put me to sleep again please!” I pleaded and he nodded. “Very good… and I’m sorry but we will have to put you back under for your trip to the Gentech HQ. We can’t take the chance that you will overtax yourself on the way there, since we won’t have enough support to keep you alive if that happens in the skimmer.” I screamed at him mentally and he winced and cut the connection, glaring at me with a hint of anger on his face. “Young lady!” None of that! He waved a finger above me and I felt the heaviness overtake me again as I stuck my tongue out at him. Tears leaked from my eyes and I hoped It would all be over soon one way or another. I was tired of being a prisoner of my own mind, drifting through life with precious few waking hours.

I came back to consciousness as my body shuddered in pain. “Keep her stable! She’s awake!” I heard someone yell and I felt the wash of stifling heat and humidity over my body as I was being lifted onto a hospital gurney. I turned my head and saw the ramp of a skimmer briefly before I was pushed out of it and across a landing pad through opening glass doors. The fresh coolness of air conditioning made me shiver, as I realized my body was covered in sweat. “Get a blanket around her!” A doctor ordered as he watched my condition, looking into his implant display for a second. I felt a blanket being wrapped around me as we boarded a freight elevator. They were rushing forward, fear on their faces as I looked around groggily. My body spasmed again and my head spun as my failing heart tried to pump faster. It was paced again, and I shivered as weakness threatened to make me pass out.

“We need to get her into the VR Dive suit!” I heard a woman chide the people gathered around me as I was pushed into a room covered in medical equipment. “We can’t disconnect her from the life support!” I heard a doctor say and the woman just shook her head. “We have a special nano weave suit that can cover her without the need for you to remove your equipment.” She replied as she pushed a thick package forward and studied me for a few moments as she keyed something into a device on the package.

The package beeped and opened up, and she shook the suit onto me. My hospital gown was pulled off my body. The VR dive suit enveloped me and I felt a spreading warmth as the sweat of my body was absorbed by the fabric. There were a few uncomfortable pricks as my plumbing connections were removed, the suit adapting to take over those functions and I winced and tried to shift around on the gurney, but the straps held me secure in place.

“Before we take her to the capsules, let her talk with the testers. One of them wants to see her.” The woman said, as she adjusted her lab coat and pointed to several people filing out of a conference room towards capsules. Several were on hospital gurneys like I was, and I saw a man with a military style haircut study me after he finished speaking and nodded to the attendants to wheel me forward. “What’s your name kiddo? He said and I smiled at him and initiated my implant link, unable to speak with my life support mask on. Blinking for a few moments he nodded. “Heya, my name is Matthew Vandarkin, just wanted to say it will all be alright. You will be fine now.” He said and my mental smile caused his rough features to grin in response.

“Wanted to say a few things before they put you inside that may help. First disable your interface, that’s what I’ve been telling people to do. It will set you back a bit, not having access to the help functions or the skill trees, but if you let yourself learn using intuitive side of the game, you will be much better off in the long run. Second… don’t treat Endaria like a game. It’s not a game, it’s going to be your life for a long time as you are healed. Do not treat the NPCs as computer code. They don’t like that, and it’s a stupid, shortsighted thing to do. Always treat them like real people, that includes being polite when possible.” He said and I frowned as I took all of that in. “Ok... I’ll do that. Thank you for the advice. Can I contact you in game for more help?” I asked him and he shook his head.

“Endaria doesn’t have a friends list. The only way to send messages is at special places in-game, usually at banks and the like, er unless you use devices that can work like com units do here on Earth. You will be fine, as long as you try hard, and push the limits of the game. Don’t settle for being in the background, forge your own destiny. The more involved and powerful you get, the faster you will heal. From what I can see, you need all the help you can get.” He said and smiled at me as he gestured forward. “Good luck!” He called as he ran for his open capsule, and I saw a look of happiness on his face as he climbed in, gave a mock salute to one of the technicians who rolled his eyes at him and shut the capsule.

“We have to remove the life support. Don’t worry the capsule will take over, she will be ok.” I heard the woman arguing with my entourage.

“She will die!” I heard the man say. “Her lungs can’t handle breathing on their own for long! We have to use a special mixture to keep them stable.” I heard and I was pushed forward. She lifted me, as I saw men in security uniforms holding back my doctors. My mask was pulled away, as the tubes were extracted. I gagged and sputtered, my lungs feeling like they were filling with fluid as they struggled, and it hurt to breathe, every breath like fire in my lungs.

Then I was inside the capsule and the lid was being shut, leaving me in darkness as I felt dizzy, struggling to breathe and stay conscious. Each breath was more difficult than the last. The capsule hummed to life around me and I felt my body begin to buzz as the world faded alongside a tingle deep with my skull. I found myself staring into a void. In front of me was a mirror. When the tingle ended and a prompt entered my field of vision, I smiled.