Where there was once nothing, a room appeared in its place. Everything was blurry for a moment until my vision corrected itself.

I was in one of the city's dorms. A disheveled bed sat in a corner. The walls were plain and undecorated.

My view was locked into place. Normally, I would be able to turn my head, but for some reason, the movement was locked.

A young boy walked into view. He looked fresh out of ‘Choosing School’. Barely fourteen.

"Choosing School" was all about finding something you loved to do. Before that, there was general education. At all levels, exploration was encouraged.

It had only been a few years since I graduated and picked my specialty, although it felt like ages had passed. I focused on Narrative Design, which is all about creating a story with AI.

I didn't recognize the kid. He had straight blond hair that was a little long and hung over his ears. His eyes were green, and the innocence of childhood lingered in his demeanor.

His profile said his name was Shay Poppy.

“Guys, you won't believe what happened to me today! So I started a zombie character like I said I was going to, and as I was walking to town, some dude in plate mail grabbed me by the shoulders and tossed me to his friend.”

His voice broke, so he cleared his throat. “They, like, took me to some big circle made of more guys in plate mail and told me to wait there.”

The kid was animated and seemed to fidget every few seconds as he delivered his speech.

“They ended up putting me inside the circle with a ton of other undead. I knew something was wrong and started recording after that. Here, I'll show you!”

Was it ironic having a VR video introduce another VRV? Yeah, but Shay was young, so I wasn't going to complain.

Everything darkened, and the encapsulated grays and blues of shambler vision welcomed me home.

Kids flocked to VR and AR games because of the privacy they provided. Companies didn't choose to make their games that way; it had to do with how quantum networks worked.

I was back in the cramped confines of the trap the Enlightened had created. This time, I had a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree view from the perspective of Shay's shambler. Freely moving around wasn't enabled, but that was a stylistic choice some people made when developing VRVs.

Nothing happened for about half a minute, then suddenly, a wash of cold air spread across my skin. I glanced down, and goosebumps popped up.

Shamblers get goosebumps? I pondered.

An instant later, I felt a presence push against my mind. A mental image of Inethiel outside the steel-clad wall of soldiers appeared and then quickly faded.

At that moment, I felt something. It was hard to put words to the sensation, but then it dawned on me. Desperation, the girl had an injured leg.

“Let's help her!” I yelled.

No one responded to my pleas so I pushed forward through the undead horde. They resisted every step I took.

I received no emotion from Shay’s character but could feel it blossoming in spades from Inethiel.

Another wave of cold hit me in my chest, pushing me out of Shay’s character's body. It no longer struggled to get through the Hexed and wove past them easily.

Shay’s shambler eventually hit the wall of soldiers closest to Inethiel. It struggled to move them, but the Enlightened held strong, easily brushing him away.

Several other shamblers joined Shay, and they struggled to get to Inethiel.

A round of despair spread out among the shamblers. I could feel it hit all of us at once.

The video paused, and the scene swapped back to Shay in his dorm again.

“This part is important. Watch!” he said.

We were suddenly back in Shay’s DO point of view, and the video resumed.

I was used to swapping POV’s in rapid sequence, but I remembered the first time it happened. My stomach was a mess that day. There was no doubt that others were probably feeling just as I had.

An image of Inethiel flashed in my mind again. Along with the image, a desire fluttered with it. She wanted me to give her my character.

While I couldn’t sense Shay’s emotions, I knew what he had felt at the time. Revulsion.

Inethiel spoke into our heads, I need your help! I know you’re new, but these men are going to kill you!

A wave of memories flooded my mind. Inethiel was in a field just outside of the Fields of Woe. She controlled several NPC shamblers and used them to overtake two adventures. As they ate the corpses, their experience was shared.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“Whoa,” Shay said.

Together, we can fight them, and together we can win! she impressed.

“Yes!” Shay screamed.

It was obvious why people were so excited about the video and why it had gone viral. The emotion and my shared experiences were somehow captured. The VRVs runtime was about forty minutes.

I skipped ahead, skimming through the footage, and it jumped to several different people's points of view. All of them were the shamblers I’d helped. I had no doubt the rest was more of the same, so I stopped it.

The cafeteria faded into view.

Lily was back, standing with her hands on the back of her chair. Koffer and Kevin were having a conversation.

“It’s gonna be so cool when they’re done,” Koffer said.

Kevin nodded as he stuffed his face with a bite from his burger. It appeared that he had gone through all the others and was on his last one.

I rubbed my eyes as they adjusted to the light. “When what's done?”

“You didn’t watch it all?” Koffer asked.

Lily leaned back and crossed her arms.

“I lived it. I don’t need to watch it,” I said.

Mind you, I was still enthusiastic about the implications. Imagining a world where you could not only live through someone's experience but also feel how they felt at the time was huge. The biggest part about it was the ability to share the context behind those feelings.

My main goal was to stop the painful side effects it caused, which hampered my excitement quite a bit.

The Remnant knew what I was going to ask since I told Dr. Stevens. Stephanie monitored everything that happened in Ambition. She didn’t have access to people's medical data unless we shared it with her and was cut off from the Qweb and web. The technicians that cared for her data center were strict about keeping it that way too. Which meant I'd have to download my data, so I had it locally.

Koffer leaned in. “It’s amazing. The implications are so far-reaching that I can’t fathom its use cases!”

Koffer was beginning to sound a lot like my friend Jakson in Massachusetts. He was considered a genius in quantum engineering by his peers, but he always downplayed their praise. We’d met one year when my parents took me to visit a friend who lived up north.

I wanted to see if Kevin would show the Q.U.B.E. to him but wasn’t sure how to ask. With his mom being as protective as she was, I didn’t see him taking a trip with me to Massachusetts as an option.

“When what's done?” I asked, ignoring Koffers display of intelligence.

“What?” Koffer asked.

“You said, ‘It’s going to be so cool when they’re done,’” I said.

Koffer nodded. “I was talking about the verse and their swap to the Qweb.”

“They’ve been working on it forever,” I said.

A grin spread across Koffer’s face. “I got early access to the quantum servers.”

“Can you invite people?” I asked. My response was quicker than it should have been but everyone I knew had applied and hadn’t received anything back. A Qweb-based Had-e-verse would be amazing.

“I used all of my invites,” he said.

I turned to Kevin, who had just taken his last bite. “Ready for five more?”

His eyes widened.

“I could probably get you and all of your friends an invite,” Koffer said.

“Let me guess, I have to join your little club?” I asked.

Lily pulled her chair out and plopped down on it. “We don't make money from what we do. We just want to entertain people.”

“Like that—”

“Make me the bad guy then,” Lily said.

She already was the bad guy.

“How about a trial period?” Koffer asked.

I crossed my arms. “Will I have to work with her?” I asked.

“No,” Lily said.

Koffer spread his hands across the table. “Wait, I mean, you would have to work together in some capacity.”

“No, she can just go on being angry at me. It'll make the drama better,” Lily said.

Now, that wasn't fair, I didn't want to do what she wanted, even if it meant being true to my feelings. If I didn't join their group, my actions would likely play directly into their plans, anyway.

“You don't have to decide right now,” Koffer said. “I'll get you an invite to the QVerse and—”

“Him too,” I said and gestured at Kevin.

Kevin glanced at me.

“Okay, him too. Let's call it a gesture of goodwill. Even if you don't decide to join, we can't take back the invites so they’re yours,” Koffer said.

That giddy feeling when you get something you really wanted, spread through me. I relaxed and looked down at my cold tofu. Before I decided, I needed some answers. “Are there any other perks for joining?”

“We know a lot of people and we each have our own fans,” he said.

Was he bragging? “And?”

“And that means, if you need something,” Koffer said.

Lily chimed in, “We can probably get it.”

That could come in handy.

“How long would she have to work?” Kevin asked.

Koffer's and Lily's heads turned in unison. “What?”

“Is she required to work a certain amount of hours a week or anything like that?” Kevin asked.

I leaned back and watched Kevin. He had a small amount of mustard stuck to the side of his face so I slid a napkin over to him. We shared a glance, and I tapped my cheek where his face was smudged.

“All of us play every day,” Lily said.

Koffer nodded along with her statement.

I shrugged. “Me too unless I'm studying for school.”

Which reminded me I needed to do something. I opened my menu and forwarded the VRV Darryl had sent me to Dr. Stevens. With it I let him know I was the shambler the people saw in the visions.

Kevin wiped his face. “What if she can't play? Do you have required expectations?”

He had a point. If my parents decided to go on one of their excursions, I wanted to be a part of them still. I'd grown to enjoy traveling. “We do travel a lot.”

“How often?” Koffer asked.

“Once every couple of months. My moms plan it out, so I'll know when and where,” I said.

“So long as you tell your viewers and let us know you should be fine. But like I said, you don't have to decide right now,” Koffer said.

My viewers. That was a completely different concept for me. I'd never performed in front of people before. Roleplaying had always been a personal hobby. Would playing in front of people spoil my enjoyment?

“I have one more question,” I said.

Koffer showed me the palm of his hand. “What?”

“When can you send those invites?” I asked.

***