Brenton was excited. He had submitted an essay to the DI corp., and was one of the 100 finalists. The five people that won would each receive a free DIVE pod with lifetime access to DIVE( Direct Interactive’s Virtual Environment). If you had pre ordered the pod you would be refunded the money. It was a pretty sweet deal for a company to offer.

The Company Direct Interactive was known throughout the world for the development of their Virtual Environment Training Modules. These had been used to train US military for the past fifteen years. It was an amazing leap in technology.

Many other companies tried to procure or hack these pods with no success. DIVE had military protection, and would only sell to the US. The complex VI (virtual intelligence) program they made took any attempt to log in, outside of know and secure pods, as a security threat and instantly disabled the connection.

Today was different though. Today was the first day that DI would give their products to someone other than the military. Today was the first day of the future. DI was giving out five DIVE pods to lucky individuals.

The company, led by a beautiful but stern looking woman named Kelsey, had been developing a game called DIVE for the past five years. Of course this was in conjunction with the tireless effort of the VI.

Brenton couldn’t wait he had a 1/20 chance to get a free DIVE pod. Not only that, but the lifetime access came with a week of gameplay the other people of the world (mostly US at this point) would have to wait for.

There was a press conference held that was currently televised all across America. A large screen was playing a scene of one of the devs fighting a dragon. The player’s health was set to constant, so he couldn’t be killed. He was doing all sorts of attacks and dodges. He didn’t actually use any spells or abilities though. It even seemed as if he were intentionally not hitting the target at some points.

Kelsey stepped up to the stage amid claps from the audience. She was a beauty of 5’11” with flawless features, light skin, freckles and long sandy blonde hair, green-blue eyes that seemed to sparkle, and a voice that could create joy and obedience just hearing it. Even the people of the press were extremely excited for the DIVE pods release.

Kelsey raised her hand, immediately the applause stopped. She neatened the papers she was holding and spoke.

“Today… Today is the dawning of a new technological era.”

She flashed a beautiful smile at the crowd.

“Today we have chosen five contestants to be the forerunners of our new world; today the world of electronics changes forever. In one week we will sale these DIVE pods to the populous, in one week the world will change.

For example: Two busy CEOs and their respective boards need to have a highly detailed private meeting. They could fly across the world or use the internet to communicate, OR they could use our pods. The pods would let them interact with each other completely. All five senses are identified and utilized by our Dive pods. The pods are extremely energy conservative, taking only as much electricity as a common television. “

The press had already heard this. This information was identical to the commercials that seemed to play non-stop on several channels.

She seemed like she would walk off the stage so one person raised his hand.

“Yes?” Kelsey asked.

The reporter swallowed before asking about what was on everyone’s mind.

“What about DIVE? Not the pods, the game. I heard it was virtually indistinguishable from reality.” Kelsey smiled, she had been waiting for this question, determined to say nothing about it unless asked.

“Well,” she said “yes and no. It’s not that it is indistinguishable from reality, it is a reality all of its own. Saying it’s indistinguishable from reality implies that it is not reality, anything that happens in this game will look, sound, smell, taste, and feel real. It is a reality in its own way, a second chance at life. The game itself will be able to change according to the players. The environment, even the npcs, will all grow and adapt to how the players live inside the game.”

A woman walked on stage and handed Kelsey an envelope.

Benton watched the live broadcast with expectations and hope, similar to the feelings a child gets at Christmas.

Kelsey took the envelope and pulled out the first paper. “We asked that each person include the game name of their character, so that if chosen we can protect their privacy. THE WINNERS ARE: ShortDwarf!”

The press gave a polite applause.

Brenton sighed as now his chances dropped tremendously.

“LastingBeauty!”

Another applause, and another sigh.

“Voice0fReason!”

Another applause, but this time Brenton stared dumbfounded at the screen.

Did she say Voice0fReason?

He looked at his mom; she looked as awe struck as he felt. He missed some of what happened next due to his astoundment.

“Again those names are: ShortDwarf, LastingBeauty, Voice0fReason, DefiledHealer, and EDI! Congratulations on all of our winners, you will soon receive a call from our company with further information.”

With that she walked off the stage leaving the reporters dumbfounded. The whole point of this interview was to get details on the game so realistic that the military used its predecessor as training. There were millions of people that would watch the news tonight for that information and millions more that would watch it in the near future. It was the single best selling game of all time outclassing any console sold in America by several millions totaling close to a hundred million per-orders. As if she didn't care about the audience she walked off the stage and out of the room.