I lay in bed for a few minutes, helmet still on.

My session was cut short and nothing made sense. There's no other players in the starting zone with me. Pain is shockingly real. NPCs are far more advanced than I anticipated and my stats don't really make sense. What MMO doesn't have levels in it?

The helmet thuds as a toss it on the ground and disconnect myself. I stomp out of my room and head to the kitchen.

Orange juice is a good source of vitamin C and a great way to pull myself back to reality, so I pour a glass and chug it down.

"So you're actually alive?" I hear Alex from the hall.

"Yea." I frown and pour another glass.

"We looked for you on the starter islands, what's your avatars name? Did you change it from Xelenad to something else?"

"It's Carrots."

"Ha! You're serious?"

"Yea."

"Well, where were you? You know I always play as DmgCtrl and the girls had their normal handles."

"I was..." Telling Alex would mean that Carolina and Suki would find out and I'm not sure I'm ready for that yet.

"You were trying to avoid us, I get it."

"I wasn't..."

"It's alright. We've been roommates for a long time and I know it's difficult with Butes being bossy and Suki distracting you."

"Suki isn't distracting!"

"Right." Alex gives me a slow nod. "We've never wiped because you took a shot for Suki during a raid."

"I was defending the healer."

"Right now, you are defending something else completely."

I finish the second glass and stare and the ring of orange juice that's always left at the bottom.

"It's alright, I can see why you decided to play on your own. DNO is something else."

"Yea, it really is."

"The freedom to make choices, the NPCs not re-spawning when killed the micro economies. It's all pretty overwhelming. I'm exhausted from just trying to get my bearings in the game. The last few days were crazy online. I had to take a long nap after logging out."

"Yea..." A lot of what he's describing fits with what I've seen so far, except, "It's been two days?"

"Yea, of course, it's alright Monday morning, I'm going to get ready for class in a bit. I know a lot of people are saying they'll drop out and just make a living in DNO. But, I'm not sure I'm ready for that. You going online?"

Alex grabs the carton of juice and pours himself a glass. "So?"

"Hm?"

"Are you going back online or are you going to class?"

"I, uh..."

"I'm not going to judge you if you decide to drop out, just make sure you cover your half of the rent."

"No, no. I, uh, umm. I'm not going to drop out. I only have 1 class left anyway."

"Hm, that's right, you did a bunch of the online courses."

"Yea."

"I'm heading out, see you online later?"

"Yea."

"I won't tell the girls you're new handle until you're ready."

"Thanks."

Alex pats my shoulder, "Don't stay online too long without resting in between session, ok?"

I nod and he heads out leaving in the kitchen staring at the door.

"Until I'm ready?" I whisper to myself.

Will I ever be ready to tell them about my strange experience? How will they react?

Either way, I need to get to class. I wasn't lying when I told Alex I only had one class. What I didn't tell him was, I had already finished all the course work and just needed to do the final exam.

DNO was a bit deal, so I was prepared to be done with school by the time it came out.

Back in my room, I open my top drawer and flinch when I see a pink shirt. I'll be glad to never see those horrible pajamas again in my real or virtual life.

Final exams generally involve a lot of intense studying and rigorous memorization. Unless the class is Artistic Expression in Digital Art.

This is the final course I need to complete to get my degree. Passing wasn’t even a question. I already completed all the art assignments and for my final I had to express a complex set of emotions in an art piece.

After a long nap I submit my final piece. The drawing is a digital painting of a woman’s bust with the neck stretch out and arched until the top of her head touched the ground. There was a look of dread and confusion on her face with her hair creating a river that rained on another woman curled up in the fetal position.

My professor loved the piece. Apparently my angst and pain were worth of a passing grade. Who would have thought?

Signing out from the virtual lecture hall, I look at the DDCs and Helmet. There is so many answers I want from the game and the only way to get them is to go back in. At this point I have been offline for almost half a day, so almost two days should have gone by in the game world.

But would it be like that? I mean, I was online for 48 hours and in the game it translated to just over two days. So is there really a time dialation?

Besides, where would I spawn? In the forest by Beatrice’ cabin? Would Beatrice be there ready to blow my head off again? Would she even be alive?

All these questions are driving me insane.

Taking a DDC, I put on the helmet and lay down.

Familiar words show up on the screen.

[Welcome to DomeNET Online Citizen]

[Deep Diving in, 3]

Here we go, this time I’ll make sure and explain things to Beatrice so she doesn’t try and shoot me.

[2]

Plus, I need to figure out what the disc in my bag is.

[1]

[0]

Well, that’s new.

[Welcome Citizen, please customize your character]

“What!?”