I woke up with my arms and legs strapped down to the pod, unable to move or do anything. I was staring at the pod’s desktop screen in front of me, unable to even move my head. It felt like there were needles in my arms, like IV needles. I immediately started panicking. What if SigmaCorp was trying to get more people to die in these pods and be whisked away to virtual reality? What if the pod bugged out and kept me in here forever?! What if-

The pod began talking, apparently having an automated AI inside.

“Hello, and welcome to SigmaCorp’ exclusive new VRPod! We hope you enjoy your stay!” Seemed a bit backwards, since it should have said that before I logged in, not after I logged out. Nothing changed still and I was still strapped into the pod. I struggled a little bit, but the bindings were tight and held me fast. I wasn’t sure what to do, so I just waited. I could see the front window from where I was and it was nighttime, and I was pretty bunked, so I went to sleep. I didn’t even check what time it was. Also it was extremely hard to get to sleep without laying on my side, but, I did eventually.

I woke up the next morning, as the VRPod’s screen greeted me with the time of 9:43 AM. I was still strapped into the VRpod. I decided to go to SigmaCorp’ help website and see if there was anything about this.

“Computer, can you navigate to SigmaCorp website for me?” I asked. A web browser popped up and went to the SigmaCorp website, but I didn’t see any announcements on the front page or anything like that. I navigated to the community forums on the website, which were apparently abuzz with the news of the new VRPod, but nothing about my current issue as I scanned the forum. Maybe I needed to reinstall firmware for the pod or something, so I ordered the pod to do that.

It did it, and nothing happened, even after the pod rebooted, the clamps did not loosen, the straps didn’t loosen, nothing. I tried powering it on and off multiple times. Nothing. I tried ordering the pod to let me go, to loosen everything, to release. Nothing. Finally I resorted to making a forum post, in hopes maybe someone from SigmaCorp would help and see I was in need of a manual release from their end or something. I wrote a post explaining my problem, and actually got the pod to lift me into the 45 degree position, but nothing else. I laid, and waited.

Meanwhile…

“Ma’am. Our scourers came across this forum post from your old Intranet Address.” A military dress-uniformed man, statue-esque faced, wearing a red beret and a crew-cut walked up to a large seat facing a large window, bowed slightly, and held a manilla file folder out for the woman in the chair to take. The woman in the seat did not turn around, but turned slightly and grabbed the folder the man was holding out, turned back to the window and opened the folder. The woman waved her hand to dismiss the man and he turned and walked away, back out of the room. The woman read the paper print-out despite being perfectly capable of reading messages in her own UI, but she liked to have paper trails of literally anything and everything. It reminded her of her old life.

“Very interesting. He is in a bit of a pickle, it seems. I think I’ll leave him there for a while. I am holding half of SigmaCorp’ stock, after all. Actually, fuck it.” She pressed a button on her chair and the well-dressed man came back into the large office again.

“Yes, ma’am?” He bowed slightly yet again in respect to the woman.

“Initiate phase two.” After she said this, she dismissed him again. The man sent several messages through his interface, his eyes flickering wildly as he opened and closed windows and dismissed prompts.

“It’s done, ma’am.”

“Good.” She waved her hand outwardly from her chair again and looked through the file again. “He will be here permanently, the same as me. And the more people who stay logged in permanently, the better things are for everybody.”

***

I fell asleep again in the pod after some time of waiting. If one thing could be said about these things, it was like laying on a cloud with how comfortable it is.

I woke up some time later with one forum reply from someone named Yomo_574.

Don’t make me laugh, SigmaCorp wouldn’t do that to someone! Is this a troll post?

Yeah that really made me feel great about my current predicament. I replied back.

No, this is not a joke. I am currently stuck inside the newest model VRPod and am unable to move an inch. My head is strapped in, my arms are, my legs in two places, as I wrote in my previous post.

I went ahead and posted that and then noticed my feet were actually wet, but I hadn’t pissed my pants or anything like that. There was a wetness slowly creeping up my jeans, and I did not know what the heck was going on. But it felt like I was being slowly dunked into a pool. I edited my post with the information as such and logged back into the game. If I was going to be the victim of some frieakin’ practical joke or something, I was going to extend my life maybe by living in SwordGate forever. A thing I was loathe to do for sure, but it beat being dead.

I logged back in inside the covered wagon. It was a little past dawn. I checked my in-game clock for sure, and it was about 7:30AM. The wagons were still bumping and rolling along the dirt road. One thing that had changed though was that there were a ton of goods in the back of the cart now. Fruits, vegetables, sacks of grain and flour and all sorts of other food. My own stomach grumbled as well. I grabbed a piece of green fruit with what looked to be darker green rounded rectangles patterned on the outside of it. It almost looked like a broken texture, if there weren’t little dots of the same dark green color in-between the rectangles. It was also very smooth skinned, like a plum. I took a bite of it and it tasted like I was eating a large grape, it wasn’t bad. Most of the inside was the same texture as a grape as well, it just had a slightly thicker skin on it, which I ate as well. Maybe a little thicker than an apple skin. Unfortunately the juices from the fruit dribbled down into my beard. Sometimes I forget I’m part-Dwarf. I wiped my beard on my sleeve.

When I took a bite into it, Antivitz woke up from his nap and saw me trying to clean myself up.

“Yeh, fruit’s a bit hard to eat for us Dwarves if it’s juicy. It’ll make your beard stick together and make ye look like a bum who hasn’t washed in ages, hah! Seriously though, don’t steal any more fruit.”

“Sorry,” I said. “I haven’t seen a lot of fruit around here. Is this what they traded for somewhere on the way back to Eunuch?”

“Boyo, we’re going to Ushak! I was thinking about what you said about that letter you got, and figured you could use some backup. I convinced Unwog to come help as well considering I still have to train both of ye in Archaeology.”

“Erm… doesn’t Eunuch need its Archaeology trainer?”

“Nah, I’m barely around in the shop anyway. If something happens to me, well, they’ll replace me in time, I’m sure.” He shrugged. “I don’t plan on anything happening to me though!” He laughed heartily and I had a chuckle with him. “Plus the shop is still open to customers so I’m constantly making money.”

“How are you making money if you’re not there to sell anything?”

“Players can open the shop inventory from their interface and browse the wares, purchase and sell things as well. The shop acts as its own shopkeeper essentially, I just own the shop. But, the general system of things is that if a shopkeeper is in the town the shop is based in, it acts like a normal shop unless you have security measures on it, like I do with the endless shelving and moving nowhere. So if you are in town and don’t lock up your shop before leaving it, thieves can take your stuff from your shop.”

“Ah. That is interesting to note and not something I previously knew. I still have a lot to learn about SwordGate.”

“That ye do, laddie.” He leaned over and ruffled my hair. I smoothed it back out as much as I could.

“Well I appreciate the company, nonetheless. The trip probably would have been pretty boring on my own.” I shut up until I was finished eating the fruit I stole, and Antivitz just leaned his head back and closed his eyes, relaxing as much as he could on these hard wooden benches. I decided to open a ticket to see if I could get through to anyone at SigmaCorp about uh… what seemed to be my pod filling with water, or some other liquid. I felt like my body was being held at ransom or something.

I attempted to access my house’s security cameras (what CEO doesn’t have security cameras in and/or around their house?) and have it look at my pod from a web browser in my interface. It turns out my body was half-submerged in water, or what looked to be water, I couldn’t tell. But it was touching my hands. But I wondered where it was being stored in the pod? I mean I guess the underside could have been filled with water or something but wasn’t the whole thing a giant computer? It didn’t make sense at all to me. Plus the fact I wasn’t being electrocuted by water in a computer.

All of this took a few minutes, during which time Unwog woke up and also grabbed a piece of fruit and pretty much ate the whole thing in almost three bites or so, and was now looking out the back of the wagon, or at me messing with my UI with my hands. I closed my interface.

“Today’s going to be a long day, Unwog.” I said to him. He nodded, zoning out at the opposite side of the wagon, and we watched the passing foliage in silence.