The next morning I sat in a comfortable chair in a lobby of the new Ironwood Player Housing Center, located in a renovated building just on the edge of downtown. Brian had asked me to come and complete my initial physical and log into the game the next day to help him stay on schedule. Apparently, the company had a policy stating people first experiencing FIVR with the Long Term Play support devices had to be closely monitored by the medical personnel for the first few hours they are logged in. The facility currently only had enough medical staff to allow one login at a time with new testers, which allowed them to get two new people logged in per day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. With the four other members of our team scheduled to log in Thursday and Friday, I was asked to come in a day before the others, that way the medical staff wouldn’t have to be asked to come in over the weekend.

“Excuse me, Mr. Williams? Could you please follow me?” The receptionist asked as she started to walk towards a row of elevators. I stood with help from my cane and limped towards her. The interior of the lobby smelled of brand new construction, like a mixture of paint and sawdust. In terms of looks, the lobby had seemed more like what you would see in a resort hotel, complete with a front desk, large lounge area, and what appeared to be a bar and restaurant separated from the lounge by floor to ceiling glass cases filled with video game paraphernalia from past Ironwood games.

At the elevator's doors, the receptionist held her phone up to a terminal device. It dinged in an affirmative tone just before the doors slid open. We both walked into the generously sized compartment which was wall to wall stainless steel with dark oak panels. She pressed a button on a panel on the wall, and the doors closed.

As the elevator rose upwards, she took a moment and turned to me. She was a middle-aged woman with almond-shaped eyes with hazel irises. Her jet black hair was tied up into a tight bun and she wore black slacks with a sleeveless green blouse. She had a strong-looking pair of arms and a tired smile that led me to believe she had a few kids running around at home.

“Mr. Williams, I am the building receptionist, Kathy.” She said as she reached out and shook my hand.

“Please, just call me Erik.”

“Erik then. It is nice to meet you. I was given your orientation schedule this morning.” She said as she handed me a piece of paper containing the schedule. “To start off I am taking you to your living quarters.”

As she said this, the elevator quit moving, and the doors slide open. I quickly noted that we were up on the 10th floor. Kathy walked through the door and we made our way down towards one end of the hallway.

“You will be staying in a one-bedroom dwelling down at the end of this hallway. Have you met any of your new coworkers, the ones you will be testing with?” Kathy asked.

“No, not yet. Brian told me I likely wouldn’t meet them until they started logging in tomorrow.” I said as I looked around the hallway.

“Well, that should be interesting. Outside of the game, you will all have plenty of opportunities to get to know one another .” She said as she stopped at the last door on the right side of the hallway. “You and your team will all stay at this end of the hallway. Mr. Washington… I mean Brian stays in the room right across the hall.” She gestured to a door labeled 1001 to indicate Brian's room. Mine was labeled 1002.

She pulled her phone back out and held it up to another terminal, this one next to the door of my new apartment. The terminal lit up a light green and I could hear the lock to my room click. As we walked into the apartment, I was immediately hit by the smell of freshly brewed coffee. Brian had undersold the apartment the previous day. The main room when entering the apartment was a large open concept living area, and eat-in kitchen. The living area came with a large wall-mounted TV, black leather furniture, and an assortment of gaming devices. In the back right corner of the room was the kitchen, which contained a full-size fridge, oven, dishwasher, and mounted microwave, complete with nice granite countertops and kitchen table. All along the left and back wall were windows looking out towards downtown.

“As you can see, the apartments aren’t too big, but I think you will find that they cover all the amenities. Feel free to take several minutes to unpack some of your things and relax. I had a pot of coffee brewed for you and I brought some pastries up for you to enjoy. Someone from HR will be by in about 30 minutes to go over some of your new hire paperwork before taking you to your physical.”

I walked over to the table where there was a small pink box. The scent of muffins and deep-fried dough brought a small smile to my face. “Thank you, Kathy. You didn’t have to go through the trouble of getting me breakfast, but I appreciate it.” I said, genuinely thankful.

She smiled back. “Don’t think anything of it, it is part of my job. In any case, I’m just glad to have a few new faces in the building, even if you’ll all be logged in for a good portion of your time here. Most of the time it's just people in the medical team, the technicians, and a handful of office staff. Aside from working the front desk, I’m also a concierge, and as you can probably guess, I don’t have too much to do at the moment.” She said with a short laugh. “If you're not logged in, and you need anything, just call down to the front desk and let me know. I am here to help.”

I nodded, “I’ll do that, thank you again.”

“Well, I’ll leave you to it, Mr. Will… I mean Erik. Enjoy your day.” She said as she turned and left the room.

I picked my bag up off the floor and I carried it into my bedroom. The room contained a queen-sized bed, nightstands, and a desk with a computer, monitor, and VR headset. I opened both doors that were also in my room. One led to the conjoined bathroom and the other to a walk-in closest.

The closet had more than enough shelving units and hanger space for the clothes that I brought along with me, and I spent several minutes unpacking my bag, taking extra time to refold some shirts that hadn’t traveled well in the bag. I finished by dropping my toiletry bag off in the bathroom, taking a moment to appreciate how roomy it was.

Walking out of the bathroom, I made my way to the kitchen area. I pulled out a plastic ziplock bag from my duffle that contained my cigarettes. Normally, I only smoked every few weeks, maybe only once a month, but I knew I’d likely be dealing with a decent amount of anxiety and I wanted these handy on my log-out days. I placed the bag into the freezer and stored a lighter in a draw next to the fridge.

I took a moment to pour myself a cup of coffee before walking over and taking a seat at the table next to the large window. The view looked out of the skyline of downtown Columbus. The sky was an angry grey, a color that looked like it would turn to heavy precipitation within the next few hours. Before leaving my apartment this morning, Pat had given me the weather forecast for the day.

The National Weather Service had upped the storm from a watch to a warning, and the storm track was now aimed right at the city. With the track of the storm running slightly farther north, it was also bringing warmer temperatures. There was now a chance for the storm to start off as rain or sleet, and with how cold it had been the past week, it was all going to immediately freeze when it hit the ground. But with the slightly higher temperatures, they were no longer certain of how much snow we would get.

If the storm kept tracking farther north, the storm could turn to straight rain and melt off any ice after a few hours. If it tracked back south, the city could be stuck with a sheet of ice under almost a foot of snow. It almost felt bad to know I’d miss the storm. I loved the snow, and there was always something exciting about a big winter storm.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A female HR representative came to my apartment just when Kathy said they would. The paperwork they needed me to fill out was all really straightforward. Just the typical new hire documents for pay, insurances, and benefits. The most unorthodox paperwork I was asked to fill out was another NDA stating that I would not share any private company information until said information was made public and another document stating that the company had the right to record my playtime and use the footage for any future advertising.

She then used a secure security tablet to give me several encrypted keys that were stored on my phone, which would give me access to several areas of the building that I would be visiting regularly, such as my apartment and the FIVR rooms. In addition to this, my P.A.T. was given access to my apartment's systems, and the ability to monitor and interact with my new work accounts.

Once everything was signed and official, the HR rep handed me a packet full of some basic company information, including floor by floor layouts of the building before they escorted me down to the medical wing. As we walked, I took some time to look over the floor layouts.

The first floor consisted of the lobby, guest lounge, bar and restaurant, kitchens, pool, and delivery bay. The public was allowed to enter the first floor and they had access to everything but the pool and worker areas, but in order to gain access to other floors, you needed to either be an employee or a renter.

The second floor was split between FIVR LTP system technicians and medical staff departments. The third and fourth floors housed all the FIVR LTP rooms. The fifth floor contained a renters lounge, a couple of small restaurants and bars, and a convenience store the size of a small supermarket. The sixth floor was non-FIVR entertainment. It housed a few small theatres, an arcade, and some game rooms for things like a pool, air hockey, or board games.

Floors seven through fifteen were all player housing. Seven though Eleven were the one-bedroom units, like the one I was staying in. Twelve through fourteen were mid-tier suites that offered multi-bedroom apartments with larger living areas. The fifteenth floor was for the handful of high roller suites. There seemed to be three separate apartments and a private bar and lounge that only those renters had access to. The final floor was the roof, which held a large pool with areas for sunbathing.

Ironwood wasn’t messing around. While the building's renovations were several weeks away from being complete, the fact that they were building such a large structure, and building more in other cities across the world, showed how confident they were in their game and systems. While the final production of these long play FIVR systems hadn’t started, they obviously viewed the beta testing program as a final formality.

While I was still reviewing some of the information about the building, the HR representative dropped me off in the medical wing on the second floor. I was left to wait in a room that was oddly familiar to the examination room of my old family doctor back in my hometown, which still did little to help ease the anxiety that started to build up inside me.

My hands clenched into fists until my knuckles turned white and my heart started to beat irregularly, every other beat feeling heavy as if it was trying to pump blood through a pinhole. I started using some breathing techniques I had been taught by my old therapist, one of the few useful things he had actually imparted on me during our sessions. I spent the next minutes controlling my breathing, trying to calm myself.

I barely noticed when a tall man with salt and pepper hair walked into the room. A concerned look flashed across his face that was quickly replaced with a polite smile. “Good morning Mr. Williams. I’m Dr. Lambert and I’ll be running your physical today,” he said as we reached out and shook hands. “I hope you don’t mind me asking if you are feeling well, you are looking pretty pale.”

I gave him a nervous laugh before responding, “Ya, I’m fine. If I’m being honest, hospitals make me feel uncomfortable. Well I know this isn’t really a hospital, but it feels like one you know, and it…”

Dr. Lambert held his hand up, cutting me off. I had started to ramble. “It's alright Erik. I hope you don’t mind me calling you Erik,” Dr. Lambert said as he took a seat on a stool next to me. “I’ve had patients in the past who suffered traumatic injuries that have developed similar anxiety triggers. It's nothing you should feel bad or self-conscious about. Having said that, it is something you will need to learn to deal with. You will have a physical exam with me after every extended login, all of which will be here in one of these exam rooms.”

I slowly nodded my head. “I understand. Just don’t hold it against me if my blood pressure spikes when I’m in here.”

Dr. Lampert let out a quick laugh and he shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. A slightly high BP won’t keep you out of the chamber anyway. Now, we’re just going to do some simple tests, get a quick measure of your leg strength, run a cat scan over your leg, and have you answer a few questions about your daily pain levels.” Turning around, Dr. Lampert pulled a pair of latex gloves from a box up on the counter behind where he sat. “Go ahead and remove your brace for me and we’ll get started on the examination.”

The examination took a little over 30 minutes to complete. Like Dr. Lampert had said, the tests were all fairly simple and straightforward. Most of the tests revolved around getting updated numbers for my basic health evaluation which included blood pressure, iron levels, and blood sugar levels. He then spent most of the time examining my leg itself. He started by measuring the strength in my leg by having me perform different types of basic lifts that focused on my calf, quad, and hamstring. This was followed by having a new cat scan taken.

When we returned to the exam room, I started to put my brace back on while Dr. Lampert looked over my results.

Staring at the printouts of the MRI, Dr. Lambert said, “Well Erik, I don’t think this will come as too much of a shock to you, but your leg, in my professional opinion, is kind of messed up.”

“You don’t say,” I said dryly.

“Honestly, I’ve been in medicine for over 20 years, and I have never seen a reconstruction this severe. I’m guessing amputation had been discussed in the past?”

I nodded my head while letting out a sigh. “Ya, they discussed amputation with me a few times. Especially when I developed an infection after my initial surgery. Too much junk in the wound from the compound fracture I guess. That's where I have the large patch of weird skin just above my knee. They had to cut out the whole area of skin and some of the surrounding muscle and leave it open for a few weeks. They ended up using stemcell-grown skin to patch over the area.” I said.

Dr. Lampert pulled out another file and started reading through it. “Let's see here. Your medical file from the accident says a spiral break in the tibia just below the knee, transverse in the fibula, compound in femur just above the knee, and an oblique fracture on the femur just below your ball joint. Plus you partially or fully tore pretty much every tendon in your knee. You've had 6 surgeries, spent over a year of physical rehab learning how to walk again, and the end result is a leg that is at about 30% functionality.” I nodded my head slightly as I stared at the floor.

He looked at me thoughtfully for a moment. “It shows here that your previous doctor suspended your ability to seek any future prescriptions for pain medication and about two weeks after that I see you were denied a new prescription after ‘accidentally’ shutting your hand in a door. Would you agree that this is an accurate accounting of your medical records from your accident and rehab?”

I gripped the edge of the exam table before I looked him in the eyes. “It… is accurate, yes. All of it.” My eyes quickly shifted back down towards the floor.

“And you experience chronic pain. If you had to rate the pain you feel in your leg on a daily basis, what would it be?”

“It's hard to quantify it,” I said. “Some days it's not so bad, a dull constant ache, maybe a two or three out of ten. Every once in a while though, especially later in the day, it can get pretty bad. Deep throbbing pain, especially in my knee. I’d say something close to a seven out of ten.”

Dr. Lambert nodded along as he wrote down some notes in his file. He gathered up the printouts of the MRI and stacked everything together on the counter before turning back to me.

“Well,” he said while forcing a slight smile onto his face, “obviously you’ve had a hard time of it. And I’m sure Brian didn’t play this job off to you as something that would help solve your pain issue. If the electrode treatment works as the developers hope it does, you might eventually experience some increased strength and functionality in your leg, but I wouldn’t expect anything to improve a drastic amount. We are looking for measurable improvement, not a medical miracle. Will this improvement have a positive effect on your pain? It’s… possible. But it's not likely.”

Dr. Lampert got to his feet and walked to the door, pushing it open before he turned back around. “The good news is, while you are in the game, you’ll get to leave this pain behind you, you might experience some occasional phantom pain, especially when you first start out, but it should pass sooner rather than later.” He gave me a large sincere smile. “So, let's go take you upstairs to your capsule. It's time for you to log in.”