Authors Note - Hey There! Welcome to my story. I'm going to be expanding this first chapter into two seperate ones pretty soon, so watch this space.

The alarm clock began to beep at exactly 7 a.m.

Otis buried his face in his pillow, willing the alarm clock to stop beeping, allowing him to sink back into the warm darkness of sleep.

Finally, after 5 or so minutes, Otis dragged himself across his small room towards his dresser. Pulling on jeans and a T-shirt, he flipped over his phone, and pressed the power button once. The phone started up with a soft ding. After about 10 seconds, the boot logo of the phone faded away, and was replaced by his lock screen.

INSTAGRAM: felixw123 liked your post.

TWITTER: frji4 started following you.

VOICEMAIL: You have one new voicemail from UNKNOWN.

Sighing, Otis entered his password and navigated to his voicemail box. He hit play and lifted the phone to his ear.

“You have one new voicemail from an unknown number. Press one to listen to this voicemail, press two to clea-”

Before it could finish, Otis clicked one, and brought up the new voicemail.

“Hello Otis. We know where you are. You thought you could hide from us just by moving cities?’

Otis froze in fear, knowing where this was going.

“You have 24 hours to return the money you owe us. Find us at the abandoned factory on the corner of Farmers street and McClain Avenue.”

Otis dropped the phone, sweating profusely. He stood there for a second, before running to the bathroom and kneeling in front of the toilet.

Otto spent the next fifteen minutes crying, retching, and vomiting. When he finally regained his composure he wandered slowly back into his bedroom. Trembling, he walked to his desk and sank into his desk chair, still sick to the stomach.

He grabbed his laptop, powered it on, and launched Tor Browser. Navigating to a dark web forum he frequented, he logged in with his usual username, Neo. Once logged in, he navigated to the create post page, and began writing.

Title: I owe a gang money I dont have, and I am going to be killed.

Body:

Hello everyone. As you know, I am Neo. I live in downtown Auckland, in New Zealand. Yesterday, I would not have shared that info with you. But today, I don’t think any hitman could match what is going to happen to me. Let me try to explain.

Two years ago, I was living in Los Angeles. I grew up in a family very much involved in the gang lifestyle. When I was 15, my father was killed in a shootout with a rival gang. My mother killed herself two weeks after. Because of this I was left with nowhere to live, and no way to make any money. So, I started selling drugs. I began falling into a state of severe depression. I had nowhere to go. One day I decided to escape. I took with me 2 thousand US dollars. I knew a guy who got me into New Zealand, and i’ve been here ever since. About twenty minutes ago from the writing of this post, I received a voicemail from a man in the gang I stole money from. Basically, he wants it back in twenty four hours, or he’s going to kill me. I have no doubt that he can, would, and will.

Well, signing out. Message me if you have any further inquiries or a way to help me.

Thanks for the good times.

Neo.

Otis hit post, before collapsing into his arms on the desk ,and beginning to cry. As waves of anxiety and impending doom hit him, he convulsed, until eventually, sleep claimed him.

When Otis awoke, he refreshed the page, and saw that his post had a few replies to it.

Osc4r33: Get fucked loser.

Rigus688: I’ll miss u man. Rip.

X: Call me at +64768656473

Oreoboy: Im calling bullshit.

Otis scrolled back up, and studied the third reply. Clicking on the user who posted it, he saw no info.

“Hm, weird.”

He said out loud. His voice was rough and croaky, and it hurt to talk. He felt his eyes sting, and teardrops begin to form at the corners of his already wet eyes.

“No, I won’t cry, I won’t give in.” He said to himself firmly, not believing it himself. To distract himself, he got up from his desk, and walked the two steps to where his phone still lay from earlier. Flipping it over, he saw that the screen had a hairline crack, no doubt caused by the drop. Not sure what else to do, Otis opened his contacts app, and scrolled through his contacts. People from the subway he worked at. An ex girlfriend, an ex friend. No one worth saying goodbye to. As he was about to leave the app, he found his finger hovering over the button that read keypad.

“Well, I have nothing to lose, do I?.” Otis said, tapping on the icon and turning to his computer.

“6..4.7.6.8..6..5..6.4..7..3”

He paused for a second, considering his decision, before tapping call. The dial tone had just ended when a woman picked up, and spoke in a soft, mellow voice.

“Hello Otis. How are you” At this, Otis stood still, stunned.

“Who- how?” He began to say, before she interrupted him.

“I am a representative for Delta productions, and specifically, our new project. Delta Core.”

“Delta Productions? As in the game company?” Otis inquired.

“The very same. Now. I saw your post on a particular forum, and we want to help you out. My name is Kaya, by the way.”

Otis pondered this for a second, before replying.

“And how do you plan to help me?” He asked, with just a touch of sarcasm.

“I’m glad you asked. Here at Delta Productions, we’re about to begin a highly experimental project known to us as the Delta Core. Have you heard of our video game, Delta online?” Otis scoffed at this. Of course he had. It had been around for 20 years, first on the computer, now in VR and occasionally in full immersion pods.

“Yes I have.” He answered simply.

“Alright good. Well, to put it simply, we have developed a technology that allows us to implement consciousness into a game. We are looking to create, for lack of better words, an alternate universe.” Otis was silent. There were so many things he wanted to say, and he didn’t know which to allow to slip through his lips. So, he asked a question.

“Um, how can this help me?” His question was answered immediately.

“We are willing to offer you a spot as the first test subject to this new functionality. We would fly you out to our test station in The Gambia.” Suddenly, Otis knew what she meant.

“I don’t know… this seems kind of risky.” Otis replied quietly.

“I know this is a lot to process. We’ve sent some forms to you through your email though, all you need to do is click a few boxes and send it back, and our driver will be over to your apartment to pick you up within the hour.”

“Wait, how do you know my email, my addr-“

“Think about it” said Kaya, before hanging up, leaving Otis sitting alone in his room.

Immediately, Otis scrambled to open google, duckduckgo, and various other search engines. In each search bar, he typed,

“Kaya Delta Productions.”

Nothing.

“Delta online full immersion”

Nothing.

“Delta Core.”

Nothing.

Otis was just about ready to give up when he had one more idea. Typing quickly, Otis entered the phone number he had just called. A single result was listed in duckduckgo. It appeared to be an article on a dark web blog named “DeltaLeaks”. The name of the article was in all caps, and read “HAS DELTA PRODUCTIONS BEEN TESTING A FULL IMMERSION PROGRAM???!!”. Chuckling slightly at the clickbait-y title, Otis clicked on the link, and to his dissapointment, found that the body of the article read only “More info coming soon.”

“Fuck it.” Otis said, a little too loud. He was about to close down his laptop when he received a notification from his mail service.

“One new message from [email protected]”

Subject: Sign these and send them back. – Kaya.

Body: (N/A)

2 Attachments.

Otis clicked on the first attachment, and a 4 page document opened in his PDF reader. The first page looked like the front of a brochure, which read “An introduction to Delta Core.”. Behind the text, there was an image of a galaxy. In front of this galaxy lay what appeared to be a large metal sphere, with a flat bottom. On the outside this sphere, a line drawing of Delta Productions icon shined with blue light. At closer inspection, Otis realised that just above the company’s icon was a small window. When Otis zoomed in on this window, he could vaguely make out what appeared to be a server room

“Huh, cool.” Otis muttered as he switched to the second page. The second page sported a single paragraph of information, outlining the nature of the game that Otis would be “intergrated” into, as the pamphlet referred to it. The game was called Delta online, and it had been around for as long as Otis could remember. It started out as a competitor to World of Warcraft, and slowly but surely, it became the most popular MMO, then game, on the market. Eventually, It was released on the VR headset “Delta View”, made by the same company. Otis had stopped playing when the desktop version shut down a year ago, as he could not afford the new gear required to play.

The next two pages were a contact info page and what appeared to be a blank page.

“Highly informative…” Otis muttered to himself. He quickly returned to the email and opened the second attachment. This time, the attachment opened in Microsoft Word 2046. This file was clearly the form that the woman on the phone, Kaya, had mentioned. As he skimmed over the fine print of the agreement, it began to dawn on him what signing this would mean. This game, would become, in all senses of the word, his reality. As he read about the process, his eyes were drawn to the final sentence of the agreement, which read simply, “By signing this legal agreement, the individual forfeits their right to freedom of speech, to liberty, and to life.”

Otis sighed and sunk back into his desk chair, his mind abuzz with conflicting thoughts. Then suddenly, as if not in control of his own body, he leaned over to the computer, and began printing the form. As soon as it printed, he closed his laptop and rested the now printed form on it. Grabbing a pen from in the drawere under his desk, he lifted it to the space designated for his signature. The pen had just met the paper when he paused. Otis took a deep breath, steeled himself, and begun to sign. He drew a large curve, two small bumps, and a swirl that somewhat resembled an S.

Once he had signed the form, he placed the form in his scanner, opened his laptop again, and saved the now signed form to his desktop. Logging on to proton mail, he clicked on the email he had just received, and hit reply. He then uploaded the image, and with a deep breath, hit send.

Not even ten seconds later, he received a reply.

Subject: re:Here you go.

Body: Thank you Otis, our driver will be by soon to pick you up.

See you soon

Kaya.

“Holy. Shit. Holy shit holy shit holy shit.” Otis said to himself almost hysterically. As he began to calm down, Otis realised he wasn’t sure what to do.

“Should I pack a bag?” He asked himself out loud, before deciding yes. He grabbed a small duffel bag once used to transport much less inconspicuous goods, and began to pack it with clothes, headphones, a few chocolate bars and a toothbrush. Then, after a moment’s concideration, he added his teddy bear. To be exact, it was his brothers, although Otis had claimed it when he died in a shootout. Even though Otis was aware it wouldn’t matter what he had or hadnt brought once he was put into the game, he wanted to carry a piece of his brother as far as he could.

Just as he had finished packing, a large jeep with black tinted windows pulled up outside his apartment. Looking down from his window, he could make out a Delta Productions logo on the side. Otis quickly shoved his laptop into his bag, took a last look at his small apartment, and walked out the door, slamming it behind him.

Otis practically skipped down the 4 flights of stairs that seperated him from the bottom floor of the apartment block. When he reached the lobby, a man in a black suit sporting the Delta Productions logo was waiting for him.

“Otis?” The man asked.

“Yeah, that’s me.” Otis replied, walking towards the man.

“Come with me please.” The man said simply as he began to walk towards the black jeep, with Otis following him. And as Otis walked towards the car that would take him to his new life, he knew deep down that things were about to get better.