He woke to screaming.

It was muffled as it came through the thick stucco walls of his apartment, but it didn’t stop. Gradually, it crawled its way further into his consciousness, until he could no longer push it away. Slowly his eyes opened, taking little time to adjust to the dull green, fluorescent light that lit his room.

His body was heavy. It always was, but today it felt heavier than usual. His arms were lead and his legs… well, they never responded anyway. He wanted to say that it was because of all the physical activity he did yesterday, but that was in a different body, a different person. In this body, it took multiple tries to sit up, and lifting his hand to scratch his eyes became a trial of unnecessary effort.

He brushed blonde hair out of his eyes. It had grown too long, and was now starting to tickle his ears, much to his chagrin. He shifted his body, hanging his feet off the edge of his unkempt bed. They were thin, with barely any presence of muscle. His veins were clearly visible, like streaks of faded blue marker across his skin. His feet lay flat against his cheap wooden floor, only the barest hints of its coolness registering to his senses. He leaned forward as if to stand, but his legs gave out before he made it up, falling onto his back. He felt surprised, but he should have known better.

“Right, can’t do that now,” he grumbled as he sat back up. He was only in the game for a short time, all things considered, but that was apparently enough to fool his mind into thinking that he was in a normal body again.

If only...

The screaming continued. It held a cadence of someone saying something, but the sound was too smothered to decipher, and it quickly faded to background noise. Regardless, it wasn’t like he could do anything about it.

He reached for the wheelchair that sat next to his bed, hand falling on a worn leather armrest. His arms trembled as he lifted himself, shifting from the bed to the chair, having to fall into the seat before his arms finally gave out. He was breathing deeply by the end of it, and his limbs felt much heavier than before. He took a moment to catch his breath, then tilted the joystick on the chair, turning it towards the door.

There was a tightness to his jaw, something he didn’t notice until he opened the door to the living room. His hand clenched at his arm rest, nails digging into the already peeling leather. He sighed, and unclenched his jaw. Anger wasn’t going to do him any favors.

His living room was lit much like his bedroom. His apartment had no windows, so he kept the lights on. They didn’t use much power, and it was better than sitting in the dark all the time. Why the previous tenant decided to have the lights at such a color, he didn’t know, but he wasn’t up to changing them any time soon. There was only a little in the way of furniture in the living room. He didn’t have a couch, considering that he was in a chair all the time, and he didn’t have to worry about guests, so he kept everything relatively bare aside from a table that sat at the side of the room, near a small TV on the wall, both also hold overs from the previous tenant. He drove over to the table, picking up a small black remote at its side and turning it towards the TV.

The TV blipped on, revealing a woman on the screen, dressed in an outfit that tread a fine line between revealing what he assumed was supposed to be tactical. Her hair was a bright pink, styled into twin tails, and her bright green eyes were focused directly at the camera. She had a slender frame, more suited for a modeling role rather than something combat oriented, which he supposed explained the outfit. This was also contrasted by the large hammer that rested on the ground next to her, towering over her by at least a head. There was a soft rainbow aura around her, mainly focused around her back, bleeding off a pair of translucent pixie wings that carried a pinkish hue.

“Good morning my Faries!” She exclaimed with an excitement that looked forced, but at the same sounded natural, “Titania here to send you some positive vibes in the early morning,” She made the shape of a heart in her hands and did a small dance, “And a one and a two an-”

He clicked his remote, causing the video to close.

“...why the hell was I on that channel?”

He swiped the touchpad on his remote, scrolling through the list of available channels, but unsure of what to watch. He eventually to hit the shuffle button on the remote, bringing up a random channel.

This video also started with someone standing center frame, except this time it was a man, with what appeared to be a city of stone masonry and machinery behind him. It definitely wasn’t of the real world, but that wasn’t surprising. When it came to news and overall coverage, Aelios could be considered an entire genre on its own. The man was dressed in dark clothing, their style a mix of punk and pop. His red scarf stuck out the most, wrapped around his neck enough to the point that it drooped off of his shoulders. His hair was brown, and, like most Player Avatars in Aelios, his face could be considered attractive to some extent, though his expression gave off vibes of arrogance and obnoxiousness.

“Whats up guys!” He yelled into the screen, “Its ya boy Shade, coming at you w-”

He closed the video before anything else could be said, flipping to another random channel.

The video that appeared held a more dynamic camera, one that swiveled and rotated around the two people that were traversing a thick forest. They were outfitted in simple leather armor, much like his starting gear, which told him that they were near Retissia. The camera continued to follow the pair until they stopped at the edge of a clearing. They positioned themselves behind a tree, peering into the clearing, where a tent had been set up. One of the duo, a man with a ponytail, pulled out something that he could only guess as a grenade of some sort. Given the yellow stripe that ran across it, he assumed it was a flashbang or something similar.

His assumptions were proved correct, as the two quickly snuck up to the tent and threw the grenade in, silently snickering to themselves until they were interrupted by a deafening bang. The edges of a flash of light leaked from the tent opening, followed by panicked yelling. A man ran out of the tent, flailing about as the duo fell down laughing, which intensified as the man ran face first into a branch and fell down.

He switched the TV off.

“Why the hell was he sleeping in the game anyway…”

He sighed and wheeled himself over to his kitchen, which was just a small sectioned off portion of this living room, indicated by cheap linoleum. A small fridge sat in an alcove meant for a much bigger fridge, but he never bought enough in the way of groceries to justify that sort of purchase. He popped the fridge open and fished out a breakfast smoothie, giving it a shake as he made his way to his pantry and retrieved a small meal bar.

The screams started to ramp up, and he distracted himself with the stale chocolate taste of his prepackaged meal. A ring came from his door as he finished his bar, prompting a sigh. He threw the empty plastic bottle and wrapper into a near overflowing trashcan and wheeled himself over to his door, bracing his ears for when he opened it.

“You can’t take it! You can’t!” A woman screamed, drawing the attention of the delivery man that stood in front of the door. There was a clean white box in his hands, matching his bright white uniform. He couldn’t help but think the man looked like a milkman straight from the 1950s, which always brought him to the edge of laughing.

This guy was new, given his young appearance and distracted attention.

“This happen often?” The man asked, still not handing over the box.

“More than you would think, mind handing me my package?”

“Huh? Oh, right.”

He took the box from the man, and grabbed the small pad from him as well when he got distracted from the screaming down the hall, enough so that he didn’t notice when it was placed back, signed, in his hands.

“Looks like your job is done here, anything else you need from me?”

“What? Ah, well...” the man stared back down at the pad, then cut him a confused look when he realized it was signed, “...nothing I guess, I’ll leave you to it sir.”

The man walked away, not making it more than a few feet before a door that was a few apartments away flew open. Two men were walking out, carrying a large metallic piece of machinery, curved like some sort of cover. There was a woman that was clinging to one of men’s legs, her appearance emaciated, and her once clean white shirt tainted by sweat stains and spots of food, like she hadn’t changed out of it for days.

“Please,” she sobbed, “please don’t take it, I’ll get the money, I promised.”

“You promised 5 months ago,” one of the men said dispassionately, “You know what happens when you can’t pay up.”

“Listen, you don’t understand!” she screamed, “I’m on the verge of something big, just give me another month and I’ll be able to pay you as much as you want, just don-” she was cut off as then one she clung to shook her off and kept walking. There was a flash of anger in the woman’s eyes, but rather than act out, she crumpled next to the wall and started to whimper, “Please...please no.”

He closed his door, cutting off the woman’s cries, and wheeled over to his table in silence. He tore open the box in his hands and poured its contents over the table. Prescription bottles clattered onto the cheap plywood, filled with an assortment of medications that were meant to keep his pain under control. As if triggered by the medication’s proximity, his hands started to shake. Pain crawled across his limbs, bleeding into his nerves at a steady drip like someone took a hot iron to his senses. Gritting his teeth, he tried to withstand the pain, sweating only after a few minutes. He grabbed at one of the bottles in desperation, knocking the others to the ground with his panicked movements. He poured a few pills into his hand and shoved them into his mouth, dry swallowing them. He nearly choked from the effort, but managed to muscle them down.

It took a few minutes for the medicine to take effect, and until it did he tried to distract himself with other thoughts, other things.

The screams started again, unintelligible through the thick walls of his apartment, but loud enough to cut into his mind along with the pain. He turned on the TV, letting whatever was playing before drown out the woman’s screams. It was promptly replaced by a cackling laughter from the two pranksters before.

Before it could get anymore annoying, the laughter started to fade, and with it, his pain. He felt distant, like he’d been detached from his body somewhat, dulling his senses and his mind. The small remaining logic in his mind hated the feeling just as much as his pain, but his base desires were satisfied for the moment. He stared at the ceiling, the dull green of his lights deteriorating into white as he started to sigh from an artificial sense of release. His vision started to blur, and it was only until his cheeks started to get wet did he blink away his tears.

He shook his head, trying to return himself to some semblance of coherence. Ignoring whatever new display of… whatever it was that was going on, he wheeled himself slowly to his other room, which was closed off by another door.

The room was, like the rest of his apartment, bare aside from a singular piece of furniture. Said piece of furniture was more multipurpose than a simple couch, however. He’d already seen a piece of this machine recently, or rather, the cover of it as it was dragged through the hall outside. It was a VR capsule, designed for a variety of games, but its most popular use nowadays was to serve as a gateway into Aelios. Unlike everything else in his apartment, this piece of equipment showed less wear and tear, and that was because it was the only thing he’d actually bought. He’d like to say that was the reason he didn’t buy any decorations, but he never did see himself as much as a home decorator, especially nowadays.

The capsule was oblong in shape and seamless in design. It was like a stretched, oblong globe that sat in the middle of the room, and it was only until he tapped the side of it did its “seams” begin to show as streaks of green light. The dome split into multiple parts, revealing black leather seat below. For the average person, it would be a simple matter of just stepping into the capsule, but for him the process was much more complicated.

His watch vibrated as he started to lift himself up, but he ignored it, just the mere act of getting up almost made his arms give out under him. He groaned at the effort, and practically fell onto the capsule when he finally got out of his chair. His legs amounted to little more than dead weight during the whole process, constantly attempting to drag him off of the capsule and to the ground. He pulled himself over the lip of the capsule, rolling as he did so to land flat on his back on the cushioned seat.

The effort left him out of breath, sweating, and weak. Pain started to bleed through his drug addled fog, but soon that wouldn’t matter A metallic helmet hung inside the capsule, which he promptly grabbed and strapped to his head. There was a small visor on the helmet, overlapping his eyes and casting a dark filter over his vision. His watch vibrated again, prompting another sigh from him. He lifted his watch to his face and tapped on it, bringing up a small message on the screen.

+++

We missed you! You’re appointment was at 10:00AM today, would you like to reschedule?

+++

He let his arm fall and tapped the button on the inside of the capsule. The dome shut over him, and immediately he was greeted by science. He could still see outside the capsule, but it was larged obscured by an opaque darkness, like his lights turned off. After a brief moment, his helmet visor flickered to life, greeting him with a message.

+++

Good morning, what game would you like to start today?

+++

“Aelios Online.”

+++

Aelios Online has been selected, is this correct?

+++

“Yes.”

+++

Understood, launching Aelios Online, enjoy your game.

+++

As the message finished displaying, his vision blacked out, and he felt himself get pulled away from his body. It was just about as out of body that he could have felt, and while that may have been uncomfortable to some, he could not help but feel relief as all his senses faded away from him. For that brief moment, he felt peace.

---

His eyes opened back up to the ruined building. The sudden shift from his cold, bare apartment to the stuffy heat of the desert ruins was jarring mentally, but his “body” didn’t show any reaction to the steady heat that radiated off of the sandstone.

“So, that’s our plan, sounds reasonable, right?” a man said, when he turned to look at him, he recognized him as Irwin.

He was speaking with Gabriel, who had his hand to his chin, a skeptical look on his face.

“I mean, sure, it’s not like we have much choice in the matter anyways,” Gabriel said.

“Hey now, don’t be like that, it’ll be worth it, I promise.”

Gabriel sighed, but shrugged, “Yeah, yeah, I’ll pass it along, you can go back to doing… whatever it is that you do. Hunt, loot?”

Irwin smirked, “Among other things. I’ll send someone to check on you later. Good luck out there.”

Irwin left without much incident. Gabriel frowned at his back, sighing as the other man was out of sight. He scratched his head, and looked around the room.

“Oh, hey Null, you’re here.”

Null stepped from the shadows and into the small bit of light that bled into the room “Yeah, caught the tail end of that conversation. What was that about?”

“Pretty much the same spiel he gave yesterday. We’re supposed to explore these ruins and give them whatever we find,” Gabriel rolled his eyes, “They’ll be sending someone to check on us every now and then, but other than that we’re on our own.”

“No help or resources?”

“Nope, really altruistic people honestly.”

“Tell me about it,” Null said, “Guys could be less helpful honestly.”

Gabriel gave a sad laugh, finishing it off with another sigh, “Well we better get this show on the road, you ready?”

Null nodded and stood up, “Yeah, let's do it.”