As a lab assistant attached nodes to his temples, Jeremy scratched his five o'clock shadow and considered the wisdom of what he was about to do. Then he remembered a certain small business card and a certain whole number written on the back of it. The numbers of zeros behind said whole number was the reason he was sitting here. Easy money, right?

Problem was that Jeremy knew from experience that there was no such thing.

"Alright Mr. Miller," the lab tech said. "Elevator two should be waiting for you. It'll take you where you need to be."

Jeremy approached the elevator lobby on his current floor. Sure enough, the second one opened up. He stepped inside, admiring the amount of control these people exerted to ensure secrecy and keep perfect tabs on everyone. He vaguely wondered what they did when people used the stairs.

After his talk with Mr. Murdoch, Jeremy had been escorted to room a few floors down. He'd waited in more than a few cold rooms while half clothed, waiting for various doctors and nurses to poke prod, measure, scan, and feel him up. He was almost grateful that the dangerous part was coming up.

The elevator went back up a couple of floors. It had no buttons or number indicators inside, so all he knew was that he was between the floor where he had met Mr. Murdoch and the one where had received a full physical. Jeremy had wanted to prepare for his dive, questioning people in the offices, but Mr. Murdoch wanted him to dive in straight away.

The elevator doors opened to reveal a japanese teenaged girl. It was the last thing Jeremy expected to see not because of her age, but what she was wearing. Her hair was tied in twin ponytails on either side of her head. She wore black lipstick with mascara to match, and had fingernails painted different colors. She wore a shirt that was too big and read: 'fUcK oFF, fAcIst'.

"Charming," Jeremy mumbled, reading her shirt.

The girl gave him a raised eyebrow. "No one cares what you think old man."

He didn't have time for this. Jeremy walked around the girl and approached a two men standing together. One had a laptop under his arm. The other wore glasses.

"Could you tell me where I am?" he said, interrupting the conversation. "I'm looking for a lab tech."

The two exchanged a glance and pointed behind him. The girl had her hand raised with an expression that said Jeremy was the stupid person she had ever seen.

"I'm Tomi. Your tech?"

She didn't explain or say anything else, but walked straight past Jeremy further into the hall. When she realized he wasn't following she turned around.

"Well, you coming or what? Time is money, bro."

Tomi walked down the hall and stopped at the door with a badge sensor. She pulled her badge from inside her shirt and pressed it to the wall. Jeremy saw that the badge sported a picture of her looking half way decent and had her name written underneath: Tomiko Nagare. Jeremy followed Tomi to a back room with tech lying around everywhere, some that Jeremy was unfamiliar with. There was a computer with six screens and a reclining leather chair like the kind you might find at a dentist's office, only more comfortable looking.

"Sit there. Sorry about the mess," she said as she sat in front of her computers and began typing away on her keyboard. Jeremy sat and took another look around the dark room. The trash can was full of fast food bags and wrappers, and circuit boards, wires, and note pads were strewn and stacked everywhere. There were open computer cases and what appeared to be storage containers for nitrogen canisters. Where the hell was this kids' parents?

"Have you ever dived before?" Tomi asked. Jeremy brought himself back to reality and reminded himself that this person wasn't his responsibility. He had his own problems.

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

"No. I prefer to deal with computers from behind a screen," he said. Tomi sighed, shook her head, and tossed him a packet of tablets.

"Dramamine. I keep it one hand for clueless first timers. Why did they hire you?"

Jeremy grimaced and forced a tablet down, hoping this was not going to be the daily arrangement for him. Still, she had a point: he was good at what he did, but he usually did it at a desk. Why did he have to go in game? He changed the subject.

"From what I've read, this is full audio visual, partical tactile virtual reality. Is that correct?"

Tomi turned around in her chair and nodded. "That's why you'll need the dramamine. The partial tactile sensory mechanism, or P.T.S.M., can be incredibly nauseating on your first time. It's what makes you feel like you're in the game, more or less. You'll have the sensations of moving in your virtual body and touching virtual objects, but you'll still be able to feel things in the real world too. The guys in R and D are still working on that."

Tomi pointed to a headset and odd-looking headphones mounted on the stand next to the recliner. "Put those on and we'll get you through your first calibration as quickly as possible. Jeremy did as he was told. He put the headset on first, plunging him into darkness. Next he put on the headphones. The moment they clamped onto his ears he was in complete silence. The effect was nerve-wracking.

"Can you hear me, Jeremy?"

It was Tomi's voice. At first Jeremy thought the headphones weren't as soundproof as they had seemed, until he realized the voice was coming form the headphones themselves.

"Yeah. This sound is pretty impressive," he said.

"Yep. It's fully direction, so you'll be able to hear it come from certain sources in game. Wait 'till you see the video," she said. "Press the button on the right side of your headset."

Jeremy felt around until he felt a small square button on his headset. He was beginning to wonder how in the hell players did this by themselves at home.

"Got it," he said, as he pressed the button. A white room blinked into view. He was surprised to find himself standing. Wait. No, he was reclining in the chair. He could feel the recliner on his back. No, he was standing in a white room. He looked behind him and saw nothing, and yet the recliner.....

Jeremy began to feel intensely ill.

"Don't fight it, Jeremy," Tomi said. "You're resisting. The more you resist, the worse it is. Take several deep breaths."

Jeremy breathed in and out, calming himself.

"Good. Focus on the room. The room is what's real. Focus and the nausea will go away."

Jeremy was surprised to find that he was feeling better. "You should've been a shrink, kid," he said, smirking.

"Naw. That's all required training for the gig."

"People do this by themselves?"

"Sure. Keep in mind that most of our users are about half your age, about five years older than me is the median age. They've all experienced virtual or augmented reality of sort of another. You're a bit of a luddite. That might be why they chose you."

Jeremy was too busy keeping the nausea under control to ask Tomi to explain.

"Okay, Jeremy. No time like the present. Dive in three.....two....."

"Wait," Jeremy shouted in panic.

"...One!"

The floor of the white room dropped from underneath him as he was torn away and hurtled into the blue abyss that was the sign in portal for Chrysalis Online.