Kaelem had adjusted quickly to the change in scenery. He always hated the prison, so he was excited to be out and about. Her house was a single story house with three rooms and a shared bathroom. The bedrooms were decently sized and had space for a bed, two drawers, and a closet. It was indeed a nice place.

He had studied for three days straight so that he could drive without her permission. It was silly, but he wanted to make sure that she would trust him. He didn't want to have to depend on her for anything else.

He decided to take the car out. There were still eleven days left before the release of the game. They had the capsules set up and they both were just waiting for the release date. He parked the car and noticed a black Sedan pulling up next to him. He'd seen it every where he'd went today.

He shrugged, he was just being paranoid. Nobody would be interested in him.

He walked into the diner and looked around with a blank look. There were three men and and two woman serving them. He sat down at the back of the diner and waited for one of the waitresses to come and ask him for his meal.

The door swung open only moments later and a man in a black pristine suit looked around the room. His eyes were covered in sunglasses and he carried a silver metal briefcase. As soon as he saw Kaelem, he walked toward him.

Kaelem was slightly surprised that his paranoia wasn't for nothing. The man placed the case between them and took a seat.

Kaelem found this to be strange and waited for the man to speak, but the only reaction Kaelem got from the man was the suit case being moved toward him. He was surprised, but he turned it toward him and carefully unlatched the lock and lifted the lid.

"What is this?" He didn't trust the man and was confused because there was a laptop with his name on it. This was really starting to worry him.

The man finally spoke, "Open it." His voice was deep and he had a husky Russian accent.

Kaelem shook his head, "Who are you and what do you want with me?" He pushed the case away and folded his arms.

The surprise visitor smiled wickedly and took off his glasses. His eyes were a shade of creamy brown and they seemed so light. They made his face look inviting, but his body language showed that he wish he was somewhere else.

"You're Kaelem, correct?" Kaelem replied with a nod. "Good, then I'm not wasting my time here." He took a second to prepare and then spoke quickly. "You've been selected for a special program that can't be refused. Attempting to refuse will come with great consequences and, honestly, the perks of accepting, in my opinion, are completely worth it." He took on a friendlier tone, but Kaelem only tensed up. He didn't like hard choices or surprises and this sounded like both.

He took a second to think, "What are the consequences?" He was bothered by the fact that his questions had been ignored.

The man's eyes lit up, "I represent the private sector of Unicorn Corps experimental division. We're curious to see and hear your adventures and see how someone who's had your life reacts with others." He shrugged, "It's not that unusual. I'm also in the program. There's eight others that participate. Every eight months of in game time there's a brawl between all ten of us and there's rewards beyond belief, but penalties that are outrageous. " He slowly explained and as he did, he sounded younger and more like a teenager instead of an adult that was conducting experiments.

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Kaelem sighed, he would never escape what he'd done so long ago. The man continued, "I'm Dimitri Ivanov, as I stated previously, a rep. of Unicorn Corp. The laptop is pre-programmed to a character creation screen. It allows you to custom make any avatar and incorporate new races into the game, if that was what you wished for." Kaelem sat back and listened to his explanation. This sounded too good.

"You're not telling me something." He knew this was way too good. Dimitri smiled once more, his sharp teeth showing.

"You could tell?" He didn't sound like he expected an answer and it was confirmed when he started speaking again. "You're incapable of logging out and must play within the vicinity of the other people at Unicorn Corp HQ. You're incapable of logging out for a period of four months at a time, in game time of course."

Kaelem's mouth almost fell open. Four months inside of the game was a month in real life. Dimitri enjoyed his reaction, but continued speaking. "After you log out, which the button is disabled when you enter, you have two days to yourself, in which you can re-enter the game but most people choose to spend time with friends or family, before you have to resume your journey. If you're late to the beginning of a session then you'll be removed from the program, permanently banned from any Unicorn Corp product and will probably have an interesting 'Disappearing Act'."

Kaelem swore, "So there's no choice." He would have agreed anyway since had promised to play already. Without saying anything more he pulled the laptop closer and opened it. It took no time at all to turn on. It simply had an eye scanner.

"You scan your eyes and the first time you log in you'll have unlimited access to the character creation process." Dimitri explained at his confused look. He did as he was told and was rewarded with a black screen and a red box reading: "Eye scan complete."

He closed the lap top and pushed the case back towards Dimitri. He felt sick knowing that he had been forced into something he really didn't want to do. He wanted to explore the world and see all the things that he'd missed out while he was in his "prison", but now he'd been forced right back into something he didn't really want. He figured this time it wouldn't be so bad since he'd be enjoying his time in the game and talking with people that could have decent conversations.

Dimitri had that smile that meant he was hiding something. Kaelem waited for him to speak, but Dimitri simply waited. "What is it?" Kaelem's patience ran out.

"Report tomorrow at oh-nine-hundred for your first session. Another privilege is the opportunity to play before the official release date as a beta crew. We play thousands of years out in the ten days before the release to determine the history.

Kaelem's jaw dropped. This was something that had changed his view on the incident. Being a beta member was the chance of a lifetime, although your character was reset upon the official reset date, you understood the world a lot more. You understand the history and you have knowledge of hidden powers or dungeons. It was invaluable. "You should lead with that next time..." He sighed, his appetite lost, and left.

He now had the job of explaining why he would have to leave so soon to Maddie, as she'd asked him to call her. He sighed again, how would he play with her and become strong enough to compete against the others? He shrugged, "In due time Kaelem, in due time." He turned the car on and sped off to the house.