"Are you ready Mr. Simmons?" A serious feminine voice spoke up from my side. I look over at her and pause.

Am I? I think slowly. To throw away my physical body and live again in a virtual one?

I shake my head to myself and see her face frown down at me, her wrinkled ebony skin wrinkling more as she assumed that I was backing out.

"Oh... sorry. That shake was for me. Internal debate and all. Yes. I'm ready." I quickly speak up. Her expression softens and a faint smile touches her lips.

I'm not the first subject to undergo digitization but it's still quite new and I'm sure she has people change their minds last minute daily.

"Good. As we've told you, the process will not be painless. You have to be fully conscious so we can get an accurate scan of the brain and your thought patterns." She continues as I try to focus in on her ID badge. My eyes not able to get her name without my glasses. I nod at her words. I'd heard them over and over again but she wanted to make sure that the company had gone over the basics.

"I understand," I say softly. "It's not like I'm not in constant pain right now anyway." I try and joke but her I can tell that it was too dark as her hand gently touches my own.

"That will all be over soon Mr. Simmons." She promises firmly as I try not to sigh. I was tired of the sympathy but understood that it probably came from a kind place so I just give her a smile.

She continues talking but I mostly zone her out as I think what may be my last thoughts. My mind would be scanned and transferred into a digital game world of my choice, but would that really be me? It's a question I have been thinking about long before I made the commitment to have this done. The digital life will think it is me but is that all their is to me or is something deeper inside me what makes me, me. I raise my hand and rub at my throbbing head.

I once again decide that it doesn't actually matter. Some part of me will be here in this world, so even if it's not me, I will still exist. In some small way.

"Any questions?" The doctors voice brakes into my thoughts. I shake my head firmly. Ready to get this over with and to move on to a new life, a new me. A healthy and strong body.

"Good. Now lay back and try to relax. You'll want to fight against the feeling but if you do it could fail." She reminds me firmly. I nod and try my best to sit back and relax.

The bed I'm laying on is more a coffin. Sides coming up around me and as I relax a small lid starts to slide into place briefly cutting off my view of the doctor before it locks and the lid clears showing the hospital ceiling again. I know that I'm not actually seeing the ceiling but it's just a projection of it, a simulation displayed to give me the feeling of depth. It is supposed to help fight off claustrophobia. Something about it made me feel even more confined.

"Ok, you'll feel the device wrap around your head in 3... 2... 1..." I tense as I feel the top of my head engulfed and clamped tightly in place. I winced at the pain. I knew it was made a hair small to literally clamp you in place for what as to come next.

I could feel a slight headache building from the pressure. I ignored it and grit my teeth in preparation.

"Phase 1 initiating." Came a monotone voice from all around me.

The headache starts to build and spread slowly from the front of my skull towards the back. I hold in a groan and manage to hold perfectly still as the first, and least painful of the process slowly works it's way through my brain. I know that nanobots are being forced into my brain and spreading quickly so that the AI in charge of the process can get an accurate scan.

Sweat starts to leak down the side of my face and I hear the announcement that phase 2 is starting and the pain jumps up. I do groan this time and the sweat is joined by a tear forced out of my suddenly closed eyes. The pain is intense as I try and focus through it. I force my eyes open and hear the doctors voice.

"Sir you have to open your eyes and focus on the images." I see the images in question in front of my eyes projected where the ceiling had been shown. They seem to be random images but I recall that they were supposed to either trigger memories or emotions in the person looking at them. I can also hear a few songs playing famous parts. All songs that I enjoy. Some newer, others older than I am. They have the same purpose as the pictures. I force myself to relax as the pain slowly increases further.

I hear mention of phase 3 and almost whimper as I know that this is the most important but also the most painful.

As expected it hits me like a truck. The Nanobots in my brain start to do invasive scans and probes and I can feel a sense of something being sucked from my very core. I start to reflexively fight back against the pull when I think clearly enough to stop. If I fight the feeling the process will fail. I can hear the doctor outside the pod.

"Oh thank god he stopped fighting." I would probably blush if I wasn't in such pain. The pain and literally soul-sucking sensation continues to strengthen but I bare with it and slowly feel my consciousness starting to fade.

"I'm dying." I whisper as my eyes lock open seeing a picture of my mother above me, floating against the ceiling of my coffin.

"You are being reborn." Came the robotic voice almost a soft breeze, almost too soft to hear. Not the cold voice that had announced the start of the different phases of the procedure, but one filled with emotion. I want to question that intelligence and emotion that I hear but I fade out and I breathe my last breath.

Pitch blackness surrounds me in all directions. I'm standing though I don't know how that's possible. I haven't had the strength to stand in weeks. I can't see anything or really feel anything but I know that I'm standing. Soon the sensation of my body starts to come back to me. First the feeling of feet on what must be a soft and plush carpet.

Now I can feel my legs, strong and healthy, easily holding the weight that I now know that they have upon them. I'm completely in my body in just that moment of understanding.

"Happy Birthday." I hear the same voice I had just heard moments before.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

I look over and see a middle eastern man, who appears to be in his mid-forties, wearing surgical scrubs as if he just walked out of an operation.

"What?" I start in confusion. He just smiles at me and chuckles slightly, raising a hand up to stop any further conversation.

"I did tell you that you were being reborn so I figured that this..." He motions towards his outfit. " would be fitting."

My mind is spinning as I try and sort through everything that's going on. Then it all clicks. My brain which until a moment ago was fuzzy clears up.

"The AI." I state matter of factly.

He nods and walks closer extending a hand. "I prefer Faridoon." I reach out and take his hand before yanking my own hand back suddenly. My hand is a sort of translucent black material. I look down and realize that my whole body is that same sort of solid shadow like material.

"What's going on with my body?" I ask interrupting Faridoon as he started to open his mouth to say something.

"You are a Shade. A sort of pre-digitized version of yourself. It's a temporary condition until we can go through the character creation process." He quickly explains reaching forward to grasp my hand himself and show me that despite the appearance it is quite solid. I relax a bit at that and let out a nervous chuckle.

"Right. Thank you." I speak up scratching the side of my head in embarrassment.

"No, no. I understand that the process can be quite disturbing your first time." He says and with a wave of his hand the empty black abyss is gone and we are in what appears to be a doctors office. I'm suddenly seated in a comfortable chair across from Faridoon. I'm impressed by the attention to detail. A cute little nameplate on the desk facing me, a nice computer monitor on one side and a reading lamp on the other for doing paperwork. Even a pair of filing cabinets to the side of the desk.

"So please allow me to properly introduce myself. As I said, I am Faridoon. It means Third child, as I am the third AI that works with the others to run Nine Worlds. My oldest sibling goes by the name Odin. He runs the natural forces of the world from the elements to the greatest creatures of legend. He built the Nine Worlds from the ground up." I nod, it's nice to have a background for how Nine Worlds was created. I'm a bit surprised, as the company usually kept all this stuff very tight-lipped.

"Next came my older sister Gaia. She created all of the NPC's and countries. Fast forwarded their timelines and allowed them to grow strong and fight and live." He pauses at that for a moment before adding. "Do not, however, think of the NPCs as anything but fully intelligent people. They each have AI controllers, so are as deep as any flesh person, if not the powerful processors that I and my siblings have." He locks eyes with me for a moment and I nod at him in understanding. I've long decided that if it looks like a person, acts like a person and feels like a person would then it's a person.

He nods his head in satisfaction. "Now I come in." He announces proudly. "I'm the third sibling and took a less grandiose name for myself. I'm in charge of the Travelers, what we call players, and the reborn, like yourself. Travelers will always be outsiders in the world. They can form connections with NPC's of course but we have long learned that the ability to leave gives them and the NPC's a sort of distance. No King would trust a general that may disappear at any moment and be gone from the world, a rare woman would want a man who she will never truly be able to be with at all times. The Reborn are different. You will be treated like any person in the world. Trusted or distrusted, loved or hated. Based only on your actions and not your status. To the point that we have made you indistinguishable from any NPC when scanned by a player. This is partially to encourage players to treat NPCs with more care in case they end up being one of the reborn."

I nod my head at his explanation and he pauses before giving a soft chuckle.

"Sorry about the info dumb, in all honesty, it's more than you need but I'd rather be accused of talking too much than withholding information." He stands up and I quickly copy him and the moment I do the room changes again. Now we are both standing in what appears to be a small empty town.

"Now we can get started on your character and background creation." He says as before me stands a copy of the body that I had in life and a window pops up to the side of my vision. "Only thing people always ask is race, but a race change option is something you'll have to come across in gameplay. Everything else is pretty self-explanatory, have fun."

I begin working. I know that it seems shallow but why would I just go with my old looks when I could improve them. I start work on it, leaving my eyes brown in color but I make them brighter and deeper looking. I change the almost pasty color of my skin to a darker farmer's tan look. Short brown hair and I widen my chin giving my whole face a more masculine look to it. Widening the shoulders to match and giving myself a couple of extra inches to a tall 6'3" from my above average 6'0". Looking it over, it looks very much like a nineties action movie star, more Bruce than Arnold. Tough but still sort of everyman looking.

I look it over one more time and give a quick nod in approval.

"All set, what's the next step?" I ask Faridoon turning to look at him, suddenly I'm looking up at him instead of eye to eye. In fact, the whole town seems to have grown. I look around quickly as he chuckles and then look at my own limbs.

I am obviously in a more solid body now, with soft and obviously child-sized hands.

"Now," He begins as he starts walking towards one of the larger buildings in the part of town that we can see. "you get to play out your backstory. Your actions here may drastically affect your starting gameplay options. You'll, of course, be able to overcome anything you don't like fairly quickly, but this will get you started in a direction, a bonus that regular players don't get, so enjoy that. Also, no character sheet as a kid, you'll get that at the end of the tutorial."

The world changes and I begin my new life.