Kai awoke to his phone buzzing from a notification, a message from an unknown number. Once his eyes no longer were blurry, Kai checked the time. 10 in the morning, he'd slept for a good long time. Kai opened the message to read it.

'Hey,

I was told of your situation by Adam. There is one possible way for us to improve upon your connection to ECLIPSE, to the point where it'd be like a new life. Not to mention, it would make your living cheaper, and we'd even pay you for it. If you're interested, I'll be able to call you sometime today, or midday tomorrow, to discuss this further. Please respond ASAP.

Best regards, Alexandra Hawthorne, Chief Virtual Reality Architect of ECLIPSE.'

It sounded too good to be real, but even with that fear, Kai immediately sent his reply, stating that he was interested.

After that, Kai sent a message to Martin, asking when he would be ready to go back online.

'I've got work today until about 4 or 5 pm. I'll send you a message then. Arson will be free at around the same time.' came a message in reply.

That was a pity, not to mention Kai had the honey jar, and he wasn't sure if he could keep it safe. So he decided on the simple thing, and sent the unknown number a second message, 'Call me as soon as you can, I'll be free.' before going back to sleep.

—

The loud buzzing of Kai's phone alarm woke him up. For a moment, he was lost, unaware of where he was or what the sound meant. Then Kai came to his senses, and willed his phone open.

'Call from: Unknown number' it read, and in an instant, Kai answered the call.

"Good day, Kai. This is Alexandra, I sent you the message earlier today. How do you do?" A cheery feminine voice said over the phone.

"I'm doing about as well as I can."

"Good to hear, now, before we continue, I'd like to open this call in VR. It's a feature we've been working on, works the same way as ECLIPSE, only with private rooms. I'll send you the link."

Kai received a message a few seconds after that, and sure enough it was a simple link.

"Did you get the message?" Alexandra asked, getting Kai's answer in turn, "Okay, good. Open it, meet you there!" The call ended.

It wasn't what Kai had been expecting, but he decided to open the link anyway.

'Are you sure you wish to connect in full immersion VR?' the phone read, to which Kai selected yes. The next thing Kai knew was finding himself in a large, modern meeting room. It had a circular table in the center, surrounded by four comfortable looking armchairs. Grand windows encircled two of the room's four walls, revealing a great cityscape towering to the sky. Kai himself was standing in his ECLIPSE avatar, only wearing a perfectly tailored dark blue suit, and lacking his weapons. In the room there were three people in addition to Kai. Two men, and one woman, each in similar suit's to Kai's.

"Nice to meet you, You must be Kai. I'm Adam, you called me yesterday." The closest person to Kai shook his hand. "This is my boss, Alexandra, and the last person is a lawyer, for the NDA, and any other legal documents that might become necessary."

Kai shook their hands to greet them, still a bit faint from how quickly everything had been happening.

"Before we can continue, we're going to need you to sign the Non Disclosure Agreement. It's just so you won't publicly talk about what we're going to tell you, until when we present the technology to the public. You are free to tell your friends and family, but if they tell further people, you'll be responsible." Alexandra said, pushing a clip of papers and a pen across the table, towards Kai.

Kai signed the papers without much fanfare, after asking a couple questions from the lawyer present.

The lawyer took the papers in his hands. "So, what's this all about?" Kai asked.

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"Alright, so, you are aware of the growing quantum megacomputer, yes? And you know it can simulate reality beyond the atom?" Adam asked, "well, it kinda goes way beyond that. Nobody knows the limits of it anymore, infact it might just have essentially infinite computational power, and Al, the Ai, might just have an endless understanding of reality. It can confidently answer any question, with 100% accuracy, according to itself at least. No way of really knowing. But what that means is that it can perfectly simulate a human mind. Not just the brain, but the mind itself."

Kai was starting to suspect the direction this was going towards, but he didn't want to interrupt Adam's explanation.

"Already, ECLIPSE allows your brain to connect to simulated neurons, effectively making you smarter when logged in, though that is limited by the BCI hardware of the user. It's partly what allows for the huge difference in time dilation. But when we made ECLIPSE public, we came to a realization. A simulated brain and mind can slowly be used to replace a physical brain-" Adam continued, but at that point Kai couldn't not interrupt the talkative man.

"Wait, wait… So, you're suggesting that I make a simulated copy of myself?"

"No, not at all. As Adam said, slowly replaced. Your mind would continue smoothly, no ship of Theseus problem to question. According to Al, it's fully possible, and I honestly trust that Ai more than any scientist. It would truly be you, living entirely simulated in a world more real than reality currently is to you. You would never have to log out, you'd be free to explore another world where you can become infinitely smarter, stronger, more powerful. Not to mention more worlds, like this office, could always be created. There would be no limits. The purpose of ECLIPSE is to be a second reality where anyone can become capable of anything if they put their effort into it. That could be your true reality. Not to mention, you'd be immortal for as long as you wanted." Alexandra explained.

"What are the cons?"

"Only way to do it is to replace your physical brain with a digital one. We have, or more accurately Al has, developed a BCI capable of exactly that. It builds a digital copy of a cell, allows the digital copy to connect to your physical brain cells, and then destroys the cell it replaced. You won't notice anything in the process, not even pain, as long as you stay logged in at the time. When it's done, you will need to sleep and eat in ECLIPSE. With a physical brain, you feel hunger, thirst and tiredness through it, once you're digital, your digital body and brain will feel all that instead. More importantly, you won't be able to log out, and you'll be legally dead."

That… scared Kai more than he'd thought, even though he'd expected it.

"It's still slightly experimental, but we've done fully simulated tests, tried it on animals, and Al has simulated it a thousand times over. It's as safe as can be. If you agree, we recommend you give everything you own to your family and friends before we do the process. We would be handling any debt you might have, and we'd make you an in-game bank account if you don't already have one, where you would get fifty thousand gold coins to get you started in your new life, so long as you allow us to record your physical and simulated brains during the transfer process, and get to keep your body after it, for research purposes."

Nobody said anything for a moment after that, until eventually, Kai made his choice. "Alright, I agree. What do I need to do?"

"That's great, we just need you to sign a few more documents. Things about your body's ownership, the legal ownership of your simulated entity—that should be given to someone you trust, but you'll have ownership of yourself once we win a legal battle—and a few papers that give us permission to kill your physical body." That sounded rather grim in Kai's opinion. "Once that's done, we will send someone to get the new BCI in you."

"About that, doesn't an existing BCI interfere with the install of the new one?"

"Not at all. What we're going to use is nano machines that will be injected into your bloodstream. They will get to your brain, where they can fully map everything that is there. There's no need to try and remove your current one."

Once the paperwork was handled, Kai was left with one question. "This office, does it have time dilation like ECLIPSE?" Kai would be disappointed if it did, it would mean Kai still had much time before his friends came back online.

"Of course, it's been only twenty minutes outside. Each of our employees have spaces like this for themselves, it makes the company much more productive, even though many spend half their time messing around with Al."

"What do you mean?" Kai asked, to which Alexandra grinned.

"Hey Al! Can you turn this room into a huge arcade?" Alexandra said to the air. In an instant, Alexandra, Adam, the lawyer and Kai found themselves standing in the middle of a vast arcade, filled with games throughout the last century. "Alright, Kai. It was nice to meet you. We'll get back to you later, but for now, we need to inform your doctor. You'll get physical copies of the contracts, and everything else, when we start the process."

"Wait," Kai quickly said, "Can I stay here for a while?"

"Of course," Alexandra laughed.

Two dozen hours of experimenting later, having asked Al all sorts of questions on what he can do in the room, Kai had tried everything he could think of. With a day of fun behind him, Kai decided to relax in a cozy space, and wach movies generated for him by All. Two hours later, Martin sent him a message. It was time to jump back online, and Kai couldn't be happier. Soon, he wouldn't have to ever leave, he would never be paralyzed again, he would instead be so much more.