Wolfgang "The Wolf" Mariconn the best smuggler, gun runner, free trader in Endless Expanse Online. He was a pro-gamer and at the age of 40, he came home to an empty house. The year before the last of his kids had gone to college. When he came home the divorce papers were laying on his keyboard. with a note that he needed to stop or he would lose his kids also. That was the day he quit gaming, and in the last 15 years, he has not played a single video game. He got a job at Allcorp as a data entry specialist and never looked back. He walked into his home from work for the last time. After working 15 years at Allcorp he was finally retiring for good.

FRIDAY...

He wanted more time with his kids and grandkids. Walks in the park, zoos, movies, and candy for the grandkids. Sending them home to the parents hooped up on sugar. Ahh to be a grandparent. At least for now, a year ago he had learned about his cancer. The only one he had told was his ex, Jenna. He was planning on telling his boys Mark and Dan this weekend during the BBQ they were going to have here for his retirement. He picked up his phone and dialed his oldest Mark, his oldest James picked up "Hey Grandpa!! Enjoying retirement?" 

"Hahaha, my boy I have been retired for a couple of hours now. How are you doing kiddo?" Wolfgang responded.

"Doing fine grandpa. Got an A on that Biology test yesterday!!!" Jacob responded.

"Good job kiddo, your dad around?" With that question, he heard Jacob scream

"DAD!!! Its Grandpa!!!!!!!!!!!!" Wolfgang laughed even harder, ahh to be young again...

"What's up dad? You doing ok??" was Mark's rapid response.

"Doing as well as I can kiddo. Tomorrow I have to talk to you and your brother. Its something I have put off too long and I cannot put it off any longer." Wolfgang said.

"Ok...well both Dan and I will be there. I got to get the kids ready for bed. Love you and see you tomorrow." Mark responded. 1 year was all he had, after losing most of his time with his kids and driving away his wife with working too much and being on the road. He missed out on a lot and he had vowed not to miss out on his grandkids' lives. Now his body had betrayed him and he was going to break a promise he had made...Hopefully, tomorrow won't go too bad.

SATURDAY...

He flipped the ribs on the grill. He smiled as his grandkids played a game of tag or were swimming in the pool. His kids and their wives were sitting down and talking. Music was playing in the background and even his ex Jenna and her husband Paul were here. This is what he would miss, days where he could enjoy his family. He could not believe he had missed so much of his family's early years and now he was going to lose even more because of a disease. Everything would be done cooking soon, time to get the cold things out. "Dan, get over here and watch the grill." With that Wolfgang headed inside to start grabbing items from the fridge. About halfway done he heard his doorbell and someone knocked on his door too. Ok...everyone that was supposed to be here was here.

He opened up the door to two men and a woman. One man was in some power suit, the other was a bigger guy similarly dressed but was a bodyguard type, and the woman was a personal assistant type. "Hello, Mr. Mariconn. I was hoping for a moment of your time if I may." the man said.

"Well, I am kinda having a family bbq, so, can this wait until another day, Mr...??" Wolfgang responded.

"I apologize, I am Joseph Mathison Owner and CEO of Allcorp. You, sir, don't have much time. From what my scientists have told me, you need to start immediately on the treatment." Joseph responded.

Wolfgang pondered his response, "Very well come in, but I won't give you all day."

"Say your piece and I will consider your words before deciding. Know this, my family is the most important thing to me now. Nothing will take me from them except for my impending death." Wolfgang said as he sat down.

Joseph nodded before responding "Well Mr. Mariconn as you know, Allcorp pretty much works in everything. From entertainment to construction to the medical industry. We dabble a little bit of everything. Well, we hade a breakthrough in a medical involving nanomachines. First-generation nanomachines are very good with emergency repairs to the human body. Our second-generation nanobots will increase the ability for the machines to repair the human body, including at the cellular level. Now, we cannot take away your cancer, but we can reverse the damage it has done to your body and extend your life expectancy by 10 years at least. Now the treatment would be immersion for 6 months straight with weekly treatments of 6 to 12 hours after that depending on what our scientists and doctors say. Due to the immersion, we would have to keep your brain active to utilize the nanobots to the full potential. If we don't want to drive you insane we are going to put you into Endless Expanse Online. We are going to take care of all your medical and gaming costs, and due to you being a test subject so to speak, we will even throw you into the Beta for the new faction in Endless. How does that sound??"

Wolfgang took it all in. It was a lot of information, the potential benefits were amazing. Another 10 years of life, but if the treatment did not work he would lose half the time he had left. He knew he would not alienate his family again though, he would include them in the decision. "One moment, I have to include my family in this decision." Joseph nodded his head in understanding as he walked away. "Mark, Dan, Jenna, can you all come in here...Now before you ask anything, boys I have been keeping something from you because I did not want it to affect anything with my life. I am reaching the point where I don't have a choice in the matter anymore though. It is starting to affect my life more and more and I do not have too many days like today left in me. I have cancer, my doctors tell me I have about another year left if I am lucky. Joseph Mathison here made an offer today, to use a cutting edge medical treatment on me. The downside is though they don't know for sure if it will work and the treatment will last 6 months long. I am sorry about hiding this from you but I just wanted to live my life without this disease affecting my day to day life. I love you boys and your families. You guys are the most important thing in my life." with that his family exploded with questions.

Jenna asked "What are the chances this procedure will help? What chances that it will kill you? How long will the treatment last?"

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Mark, "Why didn't you tell us? How long do you have if you take this procedure? Don't tell my kids, let me and my wife tell them please."

Dan was silent but squinted his eyes at his father. Joseph responded to Jennas' questions first "Wolfgang will have a 90% chance of success. The treatment has less than a 5% chance to kill the subject and over the course of the 6 initial months that will not change. After the initial treatment, the follow-up treatments have a decreased chance of killing the subject. Now after the initial 6-month treatment our scientists and doctors will evaluate how long the treatments will be on a week to week basis and if we need to send you into another long term treatment. ok?" Jenna nodded her head to what he said.

Wolfgang responded to his oldest son's questions "I didn't want to be treated like you are doing right now. Like something has changed. Nothing has changed. I am going to enjoy my life with my family, my cancer is not going to hold me back. If this works, it could increase my life expectancy by another 10 years. If it doesn't I could lose half the time I have left. Now what I want to know is if I should take this treatment or not? This is a big commitment and it affects more than just my life."

Dan responded first, "I think you should do it if you want. The benefits of the treatment if it succeeds outway the bad. Plus I want my kids to keep coming home hooped up on sugar. Yes, I noticed that." Wolfgang and the rest of his family laughed at what Dan said.

"All I ever wanted was for you to be a good father. The last 15 years have proven that, and you are an amazing grandfather. If this treatment can help you continue to be that person. I say do it." Jenna said.

"I just want to be able to spend time with you and for my kids to be able to spend time with you. If this medical treatment can help extend that time...I think it is worth the risk dad." was Mark's response.

"Well you heard my family, what do I do?" Wolfgang responded.

Joseph had a shit-eating grin on his face "Ok pack your bag, you will be leaving with me tomorrow to fly to Maryland. It will be a long flight from California so feel free to pack a book or two. Once we get to the facility you will go through an induction process where you will sign a bunch of paperwork and medical testing and then Monday you should be going under. As far as your family goes, since you will have access to the virtual web we will leave them with VR-bands so they can still see you when they are not busy." With that Joseph and his assistant left.

With that Wolfgang and his family enjoyed their BBQ, although he could feel the concern from his family they would not ruin the last dinner they would have for a while in the real world. As his kids and grandkids left, they all gave him huge hugs. The story was that he was going on a worldwide tour. They would stay in contact through the V-Web, but grandpa didn't have an end date on when he would come back. With the departure of his family, he started packing a bag and getting ready for tomorrow. It was going to be a long day.

Sunday...

Promptly at 9 am, Joseph Mathison rolled up to his driveway. Wolfgang smiled and loaded up his bag into the trunk before getting into the car. "Well, Mr. Mariconn are you ready to face the future?" Joseph said.

"Nervous, and in the last 15 years, I have not been away from my kids or grandkids for more then a couple of days. I will miss them and if this doesn't work...It could cost me even more. I am also going to miss my home too." Wolfgang responded as they drove away from his home.

Joseph nodded "Well the flight should be just over four hours. We will land at the facilities private strip, we will break for lunch and then deal with paperwork. The bane of my existence. Then you will have to go through a full physical. Now on Monday, we will put you into the medical pod, at that time we will start mapping your cerebral pathways so we can put you into VR-Web and Endless Expanse Online. That process will take about 24 hours, after that you will be able to enter VR-Web and Endless Expanse Online. Now the beta race will have ten thousand players total and will launch on Wednesday.' Joseph told Wolfgang. 'You will have 24 hours to get caught up on all the features that have changed since your retirement. An NDA will be signed about your experience and you won't be able to discuss anything about the expansion with anyone outside other players or the Devs. Now a big difference that you were not aware of before I have to tell you is the time compression. It's eight to one, meaning it will be six months out here before you get out but in game four years will have passed. Just FYI, now if you don't mind I am going to sleep for the rest of the ride and plane trip. Goodnight."

Four years in the game was a lot of time, a lot could happen in that time. Planets could be conquered, governments could be toppled, drinking and blockade running here I come...

If he survived all these needles Wolfgang thought. After what felt like the 20th shot into his arm where either something was going in or coming out he didn't even know. He continued to respond to the Doctor's mundane questions...He was tired and hungry. After the four hour flight, he had been subject too two hours of paperwork and briefings before the full physical had begun.

"Ahhhh, Dr. White, I think your subject is ready for bed. If you have any questions email them to him, all the critical tests and questions are done and answered." Joseph Mathison told the doctor. Wolfgang bolted for the door. Josephs laughing followed him as he headed for the cafeteria. Allcorp's research facility had two stories above ground and another two below ground. He had only been to his room, the medical facilities, and the cafeteria. The cafeteria had pretty much any food you could think of, buffet style. After a full tray of food and a quick discussion with Joseph later, he headed for his room for a shower and bed. He would get up at eight am, he would be placed in the pod no later than nine after that he would have access to the VR-Web and Endless Expanse Online within a day. Hopefully, his family would contact him soon. He had also learned that after the treatment was complete, he would have to stay here to get used to his physical body again.

He was excited, he was about to head back into a galaxy he had not seen in fifteen years. he was excited and nervous. Time would tell if he was still a Wolf or if he had turned into a puppy.