I opened my eyes, blinking. I was standing, even though I knew I should be lying down. Even stranger, as my eyes adjusted, I began to take in the scene around me. It wasn’t the gaming parlor anymore; now, a lush, green forest surrounded me, with a white mist gathering between its trunks and clouding the sky above. I was in the only clearing that I could see, green grass tickling my ankles.

Tickling my ankles… I stared down at myself and saw I had on puffy trousers tucked into wooden clogs and a tunic unlaced at the collar. I couldn’t have looked stranger. Still, despite the garish outfit, I grinned. I’d logged into The Everlands for the first time.

“Hello,” a female voice spoke from over my shoulder, causing me to jump. I whirled around and blinked. The semi-transparent figure of a woman stood before me, looking like she was made of oil swirls on the surface of water. It was the sort of thing I’d expect in a video game, but seeing it still startled me.

“Hello,” I said awkwardly in return.

“You’re new here?” Her translucent lips curved into a shy smile.

“Yes.” I glanced around. It was all so real that I’d forgotten for a second that this ghost-woman in front of me was computer-generated. I didn’t need to be hesitant talking to her. “So you’re my guide or something?”

“Only if you need one. I’m Ava. What’s your name?”

The first break in my new reality came in: the overlay of a text box with a blinking cursor appeared in the world in front of me. I blinked. It was a video game, sure, but until then, my vision had been just like it was in real life. It was uncanny — and fucking wicked — to see the digital aspects integrated with everything else.

But my name… what did I want that to be? I could go with my real name, Sean Marrow. But that was beside the point of me being here. I was supposed to be someone new. Still, choosing a character name was always tricky for me. “Will I be able to change it later?”

Ava blinked at me. “Isn’t a name just what people call you? Tell someone a new name, and that’s your new name. Of course, some people will still think of you by your old name, if you change it multiple times…”

That was a cool feature — very realistic. But after what I’d seen so far, how could I expect anything less? I thought hard for a few moments. If it didn’t matter, I’d go with something I’d always wanted to name myself, after an enigmatic Game of Thrones character. “Call me Darkstar,” I said casually.

“Darkstar?” Ava giggled in her hand. “Are you sure about that?”

My face flushed immediately. Even as my mind spun to think of a new moniker — one a little less embarrassing, apparently — I marveled at the gall of The Everlands’ developers to mock their players in the first sequence. “Fine,” I said, a little surly. “I’ll just be Marrow.”

“Marrow.” Ava tilted her head, eyes looking off into the distance, then nodded. “That will do.” She suddenly spun in a circle, and I took a step back, startled. A moment later, she continued as if nothing had happened. I wondered if that was a buffering movement or something.

“Neither your race,” she announced, “nor your appearance can be changed at this time. To do that, you must earn the opportunity. But if you do, note the peoples of this world who you might change to…”

Suddenly, figures spun and appeared from the mist, suspended in midair. I squinted, trying to see them more clearly, as they didn’t come forward much beyond the trees. They were all humanoid, but had very different features that made them strange and foreign. I recognized them from scouring the internet for details, of course, but I still appreciated it as Ava turned and pointed them out one by one.

“The Devalyn,” she said, pointing to a tall figure who was almost human but for their large, slanted eyes and pointed ears. “The autumn elves. They are a people who have scrambled to survive after their fall from the heavens.”

She turned to a being who looked designed to live in water, with fins protruding from their head, forearms, and calves, and what looked like oily, smooth skin covering the rest of them. “Naiads,” Ava declared. “Sea nymphs. They are only recently come from the sea, and are eager to prove themselves among the land-dwellers.”

She pointed to the next figure, who was at least half human. The bottom half, however, had the bent, hairy legs of a goat, not to mention horns that curled from its forehead. “Satyrs, the people of the forests and mountains. While they are skilled in many of the ways of survival and forestry, they are especially renowned for their great libido.” Ava gave me a wink, and my eyebrows shot up.

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But she quickly moved to the next creature, who I instantly recognized as the type of being she herself was. “Specters.” Her voice flattened as she said it. “A nation made of those who cannot pass to the afterlife Beyond.” She left it at that.

“Gnarish, the underdark dwellers — those who live in the deep and dark places. They, along with those who dwell in the heavens above, are among the oldest of races.” They were shorter and stockier, and looked somewhere between a typical dwarf and a gnome, and had an impressively long and decorated beard.

The next drew my eye more than the rest. It looked like a Komodo dragon had bulked up and learned how to walk upright. Sharp spikes protruded from a diamond-shaped head with black, intelligent eyes. The body below was muscly and sleek, and a powerful tail swayed behind it.

“Commonly portrayed as the enemies of the Everlands,” Ava said. “Drakons, the wyvern people, said to be children of the sleeping dragons themselves. Due to an aggressive past, their current fortunes are more hard-pressed of late, and they are much discriminated in most nations.”

Next was an ordinary human, which I didn’t believe needed an explanation, but Ava stopped nonetheless. “Humans. They, like the other children of the heavens, took the plains for their home. Though they were one of the last of the children and lacking distinct racial advantages, they quickly began to carve out large kingdoms and empires by benefit of their innovative aptitudes, burning ambitions, and rushing during the short length of their lives.”

I grinned at that. It was good to be reminded of how badass it was to be human sometimes.

There was only one figure left, and I suspected here was the mysterious ancestor from the sky finally. It didn’t look domineering, however; if anything it seemed petite, as it was shorter than a man, with slender, avian limbs. Emerging from above its shoulders were translucent, delicate feathers. Ava, though, seemed almost reverent as her arm swept towards the slim figure. “The Valyn, the sky elves. The purported rulers of all the Everlands below, ruling from their floating islands that have never been conquered by any other. Many of the peoples below descended from their ancestors, and all look up to them for their mastery of all arts arcane.”

I didn’t want to become a Valyn even if I had the opportunity at this point, but I knew there’d be at least one good quest relating to them. I couldn’t wait to see what loot came of that.

The tour finished, the figures flew away and back into the mist. Ava spun once more in place, then faced me again. “Come now, Marrow. You have a long walk ahead of you.” My ghostly guide turned and began drifting off into the woods.

I followed her, not wanting to lose sight of her. I was starting to feel more comfortable in the world, but there was so much I still had to learn. At least I didn’t need to ask about movement controls; this virtual body moved as intuitively as my normal body.

“Aren’t you going to tell me any of the rules of the game?” I called after Ava, who was still a dozen paces ahead of me.

“Only when you need them.” Her voice sounded indistinct, faraway, and was getting further. A fog had started to rise around us, and she was fading into it.

Panic rose in my chest. “Wait!” I cried and followed quickly behind.

The thumping of my heart was all I could hear as I stumbled through the white mist. I knew I could log out anytime I wanted, but when you feel the chill dampness on your skin, the uneven ground beneath your feet, the blank nothingness before your eyes, no amount of objective knowledge helps the visceral fear. All I wanted was to get through this section. When the hell was the game going to start? I didn't even know any rules yet other than what I’d read, and since that was conflicting — developers behind the game had a constant misinformation campaign to keep it fresh and exciting for those who hadn’t experienced it yet — who knew if any of it was right.

Finally, the mist began to thin. But though I sighed in relief, before me rose a shadow so high I had to crane my head back to see where it ended. Wondering what it was, I wandered closer, and details of the building came into focus.

It looked like a temple, though it was a blend of ones I'd seen before. It had a pagoda-style roof, but the columns were gray and Romanesque. What drew my eye most, though, was the colossal statue that loomed above. It stared down at me as I approached the temple, a god with an angry, furrowed brow, and a mess of beard and long, straight hair. I recognized him as a Gnarish, one of the ground-dwelling people. In one hand, he had a triple-tailed whip, and in the other, he held the severed head of a Drakon. An angry god, this one. I wondered if the Gnarish and Drakons were mortal enemies or something.

But I wouldn't know if I didn't find some tutorial soon, so I quickly trotted inside the temple. It was dark for some length, and my heart beat harder. I'd never been good with jump scares, and I hoped this wouldn't include them. Finally, twin pools of torchlight appeared ahead out of the inky darkness. A hooded man stood between them, his shadows extending all around him, though he should have had only two. My skin crawled looking at him, but I approached all the same.

“He will guide you.”

I jumped up and balled my fists, ready for a fight, before I recognized Ava's voice. “Hey-Zeus,” I exclaimed. “Don't come up on me like that.”

Ava, luminescent in the darkness, shrugged her spectral shoulders. “Can’t help that you're a baby.”

This game loved to mock its players, didn't it? “Whatever. Where did you go earlier?”

Ava shrugged again. “I only appear when you need assistance. Otherwise, I do whatever I please.”

I doubted that — she likely waited in some nether nonexistence of the game’s code for the next time I needed her. But no need to assault her sensibilities. I didn't know exactly the depth of the AI in this game, but I did know everything I did or said was supposed to have a consequence. Ava might prove useful later if I kept her close.

“Well, wish me luck.” I stepped forward and approached the cowled man between the torches.