I sleep. I have no idea for how long - could be months, or milliseconds. I wake up in water, and pressure. I can't breathe. I gasp, and the water rushes in, fills my lungs. I struggle to control my breath, and will myself to calm the panic. Reflexively I take a deep, slow breath, and find that I'm not drowning. The feeling of water flowing through my respiratory system is still alien, but somehow it sustains me. My awareness slowly comes to me. Something is wrong with my body. There's no pain, but everything feels... different somehow. I can't feel my legs. I feel -- something there though. It swims into view - a tail. No, my tail - I know instinctively. My hands are changed too, webbed between with scaly flesh. It all comes rushing back. The procedure had happened, I knew it. I could still feel those "orderlies" hands on my body, holding me firm until cold shackles take over. My body had died in the procedure - I could remember when it happened, how it felt. Why, then, was I here in VR, in Suboceanus? Query: CURRENT_USER status { UserId: JonaSnyd01, UserType: Host, ConnectedSessions: 67,321, TimeSinceLogin: 10s } The thought went out like a bullet shot from my brain - and the response hammered back in like the voice of a robotic god dialed to 11. It was etched in my mind- I could recall every detail of it perfectly. So, user type of host, huh? With sessions connected to me? I had almost believed that suited guy - the one that had told me this was for the betterment of mankind. Yeah, maybe for a select few of mankind. It all leads to one question: did my brain just get up-cycled into a new video game server? Query: CURRENT_USER employment status { Type: hardware EndDate: 31-12-9999 PayRate: 00.00$ } Yes, the robot god confirms it. Virtual slavery is apparently a thing now. Also, ow. I decide to try not to think about that, or any other questions that might slam another spike of data into my head. Instead, I explore the new feeling in my body. The ability to swim comes as naturally as walking. The foreign muscle-memory should be disorienting, but I've experienced it before in other VR games. It's easy to lose myself in the feeling of sheer motion. I appeared in the water somewhere pretty far out from anywhere in particular, under the surface, but only by a few yards. Vars: Self.GlobalPosition = {0,-8,0} So, 8 meters below the world origin. Not sure how I felt about that - it seems like this would be a hot spot for activity. I'd heard of this game, Suboceanus. I could recognize my character model from trailers I'd seen, but I had never actually gotten to playing it. So many good VR games had been coming out lately - it was like the new hardware had made a big technology leap. Full-body immersion, all 5 senses - or 6, depending on the game. Massive concurrent player counts, with seemingly no lag. Minimal hardware - just a visor that covers your temples. A few short years ago we would have been happy with smell-o-vision, and now we had all this. Nobody seemed real eager to talk the technology to the press - they preferred to show how realistic the graphics, how much content they had. The most a tight-lipped team lead would say would be a vague reference of some kind of black box called the "Superreal Engine". I begin to think I knew what had changed about the technology - and how it felt to be inside a black box for a change. Vars: Engine.VersionNum = 12.31b Yeah, real helpful. I swim as I think. My body whips through the water, my whole spine flowing side-to-side in serpentine motion. The freedom and speed are intoxicating - like flying with no worry of falling. Why hadn't I wanted to play this game immediately? Briefly, I wonder if maybe I am better off here - it's not like my life had been all that fulfilling before. Something tickles the back of my mind though - I recognize the Merman design of my body, but this wasn't the perspective I had seen in the trailers. A massive harpoon bursts into the water directly in front of me. I see the water turn red, and sudden pain flares up in what I know is my tail. A lurch, and I'm hauled up from the water, dizzy, hanging upside-down. I'm able to breathe the air, barely. It feels harsh after the seawater, and my eyes blur from the salt breeze. I can't make out much of the ship, but I suddenly know what to expect. It'll be a Victorian Steampunk kind of vessel, kitted out with gears, valves and other analog technology. Despite the pain, I remember the details clearly now - Subocean all about exploring the deep and looting everything therein. The primary antagonist- merpeople. "Pah! A level one fishie? Cut him loose, he's worthless!" I hear a boisterous voice call out. I can't even see my assailants- the chain has pulled me up facing away from the ship. "Can never have too much loot," a cooler voice says from much closer. My slow spin doesn't let me see the owner of this voice either. I feel a hand grab my hair, pulling my neck painfully to one side. A sharp red pain flares along my neck and I experience dying all over again. Action Log: You have died.