The full-dive virtual reality technology Raid had desired since he began working his first part-time job in early high school now sat directly in front of him, plugged in and fully operational in the corner of his bedroom. The large oval capsule designed to be laid in during operation called out to him, and he struggled to disobey. He was waiting.

A week had passed since Aff’s launch and it already had a substantial playerbase, meaning Raid and his two friends--whose parents helped them make the FDVR capsule purchases, lucky bastards--would have their work cut out for them if they wanted to become rankers in any field...which they did. Raid aimed for building the coolest player-owned plot, Angela wanted to run a store, and Michael...didn’t know what his goal was outside of being some kind of crafter, but he’d figure it out.

The three had agreed to arrive in a specific Beginnerville--yes, that was the starting town’s name--cafe at exactly 8 o-clock in-game, which was in about an hour. Though, time in the virtual world passed four times faster than in real life so it wasn’t as though they’d only have an hour to choose their specs.

“Ready and ready,” Raid read the texts sent by his friends in their group chat, smiling. That was the go-signal, since he’d been prepared for hours by this point. The teen waited no longer, stepping into the open capsule, plugging his phone into the machine, and pressing a button to close the door above him. He spent a minute making himself as comfortable as possible within the gadgetry that hooked up his brain to the internet before giving the verbal order for the system to begin.

“Link, start! … HAAAAAAAAA!”

He laughed at the joke for another minute before really entering the virtual world. The process was seamless, taking him from his physical body into a neutral-gray void where he lacked a form without so much as a single sensation. Soon, he gained a body with the exact dimensions as his real one when the capsule finished scanning him. Raid didn’t think he’d mind having a different form within the virtual world, but many studies throughout the years had shown that people acclimated to full-dive VR the best when their virtual body matched their real one. Meaning, players risked not having complete control over their motor functions by making themselves taller, for example.

The system finished matching Raid to his identity in seconds after giving him a body, at which point an array of options appeared in the void around him like TVs built into the fabric of space. He ignored all but one--a specific hexagon for a game with a logo depicting a woman clad in armor standing over the bodies of a hundred foes. He selected Authority Fought For, causing a prompt to appear asking him if he’d like to enter the game.

“Hell yeah.”