I removed my headset after desyncing from the dive. It had been nearly twenty-four hours since I’d last seen the light of day, and it was the worst experience ever.

My mother must have come into my room at some point to air the place out. The curtains were drawn, windows open so the dreaded chill of autumn could trickle through. The double suns in the sky of Crossland Online had made me forget what a normal day looks like. In reality, there was just one golden ball in the sky instead of a red one alongside it; simple blue skies with a smattering of clouds, no dark, ominous gatherings in the distance promising adventure and excitement.

I sighed and shut the windows, pulling the curtains closed. My stomach growled. The effects of full diving for almost an entire day were starting to show themselves. Food and a shower didn’t sound too bad.

After washing myself clean, I took whatever leftovers were in the fridge and heated them up. Food back home didn’t taste anything like the delicacies in Crossland. Roasted pork head smoked for two weeks. Poached barbarry fish with that green sauce those stingy chefs on Venin Avenue always kept quiet about. I’ve experienced tastes no real-world chef could ever replicate. So whether I had a wagyu steak or a bowl of week-old fried rice, it made no difference. The only thing real-world food had over Crossland was that I couldn’t survive without it. An unfortunate fact.

I sat on my couch and switched on the tv, flipping through channels to find something worth my time, settling on Gaming Media and digging in. A woman reporter stood next to a man in a lab coat sporting round glasses. He still had bedhead, his brown hair all shaggy and blocking his eyes. They stood on a red carpet with multiple camera flashes lighting up both their faces. An interview, huh? The wall behind them had Softnet written hundreds of times across it.

“We’ve stalled for long enough, I believe,” the woman said. She had a nice voice. “I’m sure everyone back home is waiting with bated breath for what you have to say, so I won’t waste any more time. Mr. Yujiro, I think it’s time to share Softnet’s newest product with the world.”

“Yujiro Akira,” I mumbled. Or as we would call him over here, Akira Yujiro. I always found it fascinating that Japanese names, and I suppose some other East Asian ethnicities, sounded so proper when said with their last name first. I couldn’t imagine being called West Arthur; that sounded like a light novel's attempt at making a British-sounding city.

So Softnet was announcing their new game? They used to dominate the vrmmorpg landscape until competitors like GG-entertainment and OpenTime came along. GG was responsible for Crossland, and that meant they had my undying support. Softnet was great and all, but they were a relic at this point, no matter how much of a genius Yujiro was. But I wasn’t complaining. I just needed some background noise until I finished my sad excuse for a meal.

Yujiro prepared himself as if he were a doctor telling a patient they had a week left to live. “Yes. I do believe we’ve held out long enough. Well then, as leading director at Softnet, it is with great pleasure I announce our newest project, NewRealm. As I’m sure most are aware, we at Softnet have spent years now setting the groundwork for this game. As it is planned to be an experience like no other, we had to invent new and innovative technology from scratch; there were no models for us to reference. In one hundred and eighty-seven countries, we have set up our modules in an attempt to create an unbreakable network connection. These are the large spire towers you’ve all seen popping up everywhere.. Many have surmised Augmented Reality, and while they were close, they weren’t exactly correct. AR has been done before, exceptionally well at that. No…we at Softnet aren't looking to spin the wheel, we’re looking to reinvent it.”

Theatrics…I understand PR and popcorn words were important, but go too far and you create an image of your game you’ll never be able to match. “If not AR or VR, what the hell type of game is it?” I said.

As if he heard me, Yujiro responded. “I call it World Dive. A true, full-body experience. No longer will you need to desync to shower or eat or sleep. There will be no boundaries between reality and virtual reality. I’ve blended them. With NewRealm and our World Dive technology, the real and the fake have become one and the same.”

The reporter tilted her head and gave a nervous chuckle. “I’m not quite sure I follow. Do you think you could explain? What did you mean by ``the real and fake have become one?”

“Exactly as it sounds. There will be no headset, no system, no game cartridge. The game will be eternal. When our servers go live, a phenomenon like never before will occur. The data we have stored in our system will be mixed with reality. The numbers will become plants, animals, objects, and more. The world will change to match our code. It’s almost like the planet had strands of DNA, and we rearranged them as we saw fit.”

The camera flashes doubled. The reporter cleared her throat. “Uh…so, what you’re trying to say is that you’ve found a way to bring data…to life? Is that not just augmented reality?”

Yujiro laughed. “In AR, the things you see cannot, under any circumstances, cause you any harm. In World Dive, if you come across something that seems dangerous, I recommend you avoid it. You will die.”

The reporter wasn’t smiling anymore. The once-silent crowd behind the camera began murmuring. “I’m not sure I follow, Mr. Yujiro. If such a thing was possible, then even people who had no intention of taking part in your game would be dragged into it. Children. Pregnant mothers. Hospital patients. The homeless. We’ve seen the threats gamers fight with their avatars. Are you telling me what you and Softnet wish to accomplish is to force these people into battle against those dangers?”

“What we at Softnet wish to accomplish, no, what we have accomplished, is not something so primitive. It’s evolution. The next step of the human race. In evolution, there is often sacrifice. I’m willing to accept that possibility.”

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

The crowd didn’t stay quiet at that. Hundreds of questions flew at Yujiro Akira from the onlookers, so many that their voices melded into an inaudible mess. Taking the mic from the stunned reporter's hands, Yujiro turned to the camera with an expression only a madman could bear.

“What I’m telling you here is not a joke. In twenty minutes from now, our World Dive servers will go live and every single living being on this planet will be whisked into a world they could never imagine. There will be dangers. Your lives will be at risk. If you wish to survive, you must take this seriously. But if you’re able to overcome adversity I assure you there will be a horizon over those hills. Treasures and delicacies beyond your wildest dreams, magic and creatures only possible in games and novels; adventure, turmoil, experiences, freedom. It all awaits you in NewRe—”

I shut the tv off, putting an end to his fanatical rant. Such nonsense. There were limits to creating noise around your product. I suppose this would work for the general populace; many eyes have turned to Softnet now, even those that didn’t know they existed. When this all turns out to be some elaborate PR stunt, people will be inclined to buy whatever they throw out there. It was smart, I’d give them that. Entertaining, too. I didn’t even notice I’d run out of fried rice while watching. But that was that.

I cleared the table and went to do my dishes, taking note of the letter taped above the sink. It seemed my family would be out of town for a while. Not that most of them were home that often anyways. Dad was always at the office and in distant provinces when he wasn’t, my brother still treated his friend's house as if it were his own, and my sister couldn’t bear to look any of us in the face. Who knew where she was living now. Only my mother frequented our home. But she’d be gone too, and that meant I was alone for the next week or so.

I felt the excitement bubble within me. Who needed to go to class anyways? I had dungeons to clear and princesses to save. I returned to my room as quick as my feet could carry me, lounging in my bed and pulling my headset over my eyes. As I switched it on, my vision filled with white light, words filled across the home screen, and I felt the console fiddling around with my nerves to form the necessary connections for a full dive.

“Crossland, start,” I said. In an instant, my body felt as if it were falling through air. The white sky pulled away from me as I fell, replaced by a blue backdrop with orange streaks ripping through it. Next I knew, I was in the plaza of Aventale, the endgame player hub, with Yggdrasil sprawling far above my head.

I was home. For the next couple of minutes, I walked around town to get used to my avatar’s body, passing by mirrors and not seeing my reflection.

My character was a vampire after all. Usually, a monster race wouldn’t be allowed in player towns, but if you completed the grueling, never-ending quest line to receive a pardon from the Queen, you’d be accepted as a regular citizen. It was quite worth it; multiple quest lines opened up that only honorary monster races were able to access, but I digress.

I visited my favorite food stand in the city square, Cream Creme; the cook whipped up a decadent crepe and slid it over the counter as I tossed a bronze coin over to him. Nothing like dessert in Crossland to wash away the blandness of life.

I took a stroll through the city, as I always did during sunset—Aventale was just too beautiful this time of day. Oddly enough, there weren’t many players online. Even as I walked through the streets and frequented popular shops and hangout areas, I probably saw at most ten other people. None of the members from my Supreme Inhumanity guild were online, either. As the name suggested, all of us were non-human races.

I wasn’t in the game for that long when a system message appeared before me.

System Error. Interference With Data Collection Identified. Bypassing Firewall.

That was weird. I can’t remember the last time Crossland had a direct system notification like that. I made my way to the most famous place in the city, a pub on Market Lane, only to find it empty, just the bartender NPC behind the counter shining bottles.

I sighed. It looked like I’d be questing alone today. I bet all the other players were tuning into that Softnet announcement. Fools.

Firewall Breached. Gathering Player Data.

Multiple Data Files Detected.

Deleting Excess Files….

Complete.

Gathering Player Data….

Complete.

Uploading Data.

I watched the system notifications appear and fade over and over. What was going on? This didn’t seem normal.

Player Registration Completed. Welcome, Kruel Vlad, to NewRealm.

NewRealm? Wasn’t that the name of Softnet’s new game?

Out of nowhere, the pub’s floor crumbled. I jumped away, trying to grasp onto the ceiling or wall but was met with empty air as those too fell away into nothingness. Below me was darkness, above me nothing but the same. I fell.

Spiraling in the void, flailing and screaming, I tried to desync from the console but nothing happened. I swiped at the air for the main menu but nothing appeared. I yelled in my mind for a GM to help but no answer came.

As I fell for what felt like over an hour, there was one thing I couldn’t help but wonder. If Yujiro Akira was telling the truth, and the entire world was being dragged into NewRealm, why would the system not identify me as Arthur West?

Why, for the love of god, did it call me Kruel Vlad? That was the name of my avatar in Crossland.

The name of a Vampire.