Natalie walked back out into the field, noting that the sun was starting to go down. She had maybe, two more hours of daylight left, so she started to search the field for more Sundaisys. It didn't take long to find another good patch of them.

Natalie settled down in the patch concentrating on harvesting, striving to not damaged the flowers. It was very hard, she did notice, the ones she did damage and cast aside. Turned into seeds, after about three minutes or just disappeared.

Natalie gathered the seeds. Placing them into her inventory, she was planning to reseed half of them, back into the field to see if she could grow them. After an hour, she had a nice stack of Sundaisys in her inventory, also pile of seeds. Natalie had gone over the entire field, she was eyeing the rougher field, to the left of the village. Where the forest curved away from the village itself.

The only thing stopping her, from quartering that field. Was the sight of players, running from there, with some sort of creatures chasing them. She didn't have anyway to protect herself just yet. It was getting darker, time to find herself a place to stay for the night. she knew the village wouldn't work, she didn't have enough money, to stay at the village Inn.

"Sam how much time do I have to play?" She asked.

"You have been in game for a total of one hour real time Natalie " Sams voice sounded quietly right by her left ear. "You do not need to logout of the game for another two hours,"

"I have been in this game for three hours already Sam how is that possible?" She asked.

"Time dilation, Natalie this game has a ratio of two ingame hours, equals one real time hour." Sam said.

"Hmm so I can try to find more flowers, for another hour. Then I'll have to logout. Because I won't have enough time, to actually stay in game for a full night," she mused.

"That is correct, I recommend that you logout as soon as you can. Time still moves forward in the game, even if you are not playing it" stated Sam. "It seems your avatar will stay in the world, after you logout, so it would be wise to secure a safe spot for it. While you still have light to see"

Natalie looked around, not far away was some very thick bushes, close to the village. Moving over to them, she looked for an easy way to push under them. After a bit of effort, Natalie found a way in. Pushing a few branches around, until she had a sort of nest in the middle. This would have to do, it wasn't much of a shelter, but it was all she could find.

"Log me out please, Sam" she said.

A few moments later, she was in her virtual room. That had been fun, she hadn't been bored at all. Even if all she had done, was pick flowers, she laughed. Now she had an hour before dinner, after dinner another two hours before work.

She thought about the time dilation, and frowned. She would not be able to play again until, the next day. Just the three hours before work, meant six would go by in the game, and eighteen hours on top of that, in game, before she could log back in again. That didn't sound right, how were people supposed to keep the game going, on those time frames?

She decided to logout of the pod and ask her resident experts about it. Her brother's should be messing around in the family room, about now.

"Log me out please Sam,"

Natalie climbed out of the pod, went downstairs looking for her brothers. She quickly found them in the living room, watching the latest on reality TV.

"Hello little Sister" Brian greeted her. " Did you find a game to play?"

"Yep," she replied with a grin, this was going to be good. "I'm playing Freedom."

Both brothers heads spun towards her, with the precision of laser tracking devices. As they tryed to decide if she is joking or not.

"Your serious" Jake states. "You are actually playing the top premium game to ever grace VR?"

"Yep," she is grinning now, having a lot of fun over their reactions.

"What's it like," Brian asks.

"Well keep in mind, I've only played an hour real time," she started. "It's great everything is so real. I can feel the wind, smell things and taste stuff,"

"An hour? nope they have time dilation," Jake says. "you have been in, for at least two hours game time !"

"Well, truthfully three hours, but that's what I wanted to ask you guys. How is that supposed to work? It will be over eighteen hours, game time, before I can login," Natalie asked. "That's a lot of time wasted."

Jake laughs and messed up her hair, Brian shared a look with Jake, they both smiled.

"It works, because as soon as you logout, the dilation reverses." Brian said. "oh there will still be a small discrepancy, but that can't be help. Truthfully, it adds to the realism of the game in general."

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

"So, since I logged out around five in the afternoon, it will be early morning when I login again," she said.

"Yes, more or less ," Jake confirmed.

"Now tell us how you managed to play Freedom?" Brian asked, while leaning towards her eagerly.

"Oh that? She giggled. "they are running a closed beta. I applied and was accepted."

No sooner then she had finished speaking, both boys were gone, in a mad dash, to their respective rooms. No doubt, to get into the beta, by hook or crook. She laughed, then settled down to watch the show on the TV. Until her mother called for help, with dinner. They were both laughing, by the time Natalie, had finished telling her about her brother's mad dash.

After dinner Natalie, looked for the beta forums. She wanted to see what the player base were saying, about the game. Sitting on the sofa in the living room, she checked out the forum's. As expected, she found nothing but complaints about the game, which the game developers appeared to be ignoring.

Not finding anything helpful on that site, she moved to other gaming news hubs, and found a few threads that related to Freedom. Nothing really helpful. It seemed all of the beta players, were actually keep the NDA. None of them wanting to risk their spot in the game.

Well, it had been a long shot anyway. Besides, it seemed like she was doing better then most, at getting a start in the game, she was at least selling flowers. Not to mention gaining a bit of important information, about the herbalist profession in the game.

After checking the time Natalie, went upstairs and had a shower before getting back into her pod. She login to the virtual space, to see if anyone was around, and found Amanda. Her best friend, was practically camping outside her door, waiting for her.

"At last! I thought you would never login, I've been here for hours!" Amanda exclaimed. "Come on give me permission to enter the sacred grounds."

Natalie laughing, gave a dramatic flourish towards her door.

"Enter oh mighty One, so you may see for yourself the efforts of my labor's," she intoned, then burst into giggles and pushed her friend into the virtual room.

"Sam this is Amanda, she is a friend, be nice now," she called.

"Greetings, Miss Amanda," said Sam. "Natalie, there is a message for you from the central work hub."

"Is it important, Sam? Do I need to see it right away?" She asked.

"Yes you should, Natalie" Amanda said. "You know that all work related messages are priority, go check it out. I'll wait over here and just look around this cool room."

"Miss Amanda, is right Natalie, my programming tells me, that all messages from work related sights, must be viewed as soon as possible." Sam said.

"Ok you two," Natalie laughed. "I'll read it, no need to gang up on me."

She went to her desk opening, the work command, found the message and started reading it.

"Sam, we have been given a new raft of robots, to replace the old set. Why wasn't I told about this earlier?" She demanded. "It's going to take ages to calibrate the new bots into our system. I'll have to start now, if I am to have any chance of finishing tonight's work orders."

"I had only just received the message, as you login, Natalie," Sam responded. "Shall I start the signal transmission to the new raft?"

"Yes, Sam, start it now. As soon as that is finished, direct half your attention to inspect the bots. Make sure they are all in working order," she told him, looking over to were Amanda was standing, Natalie sighed. She was going to have to call their reunion off for now, this couldn't wait.

"Amanda, I'm sorry, but I have to start work early. I have a whole new raft of robots to calibrate into my sector." She said, "Rain check?"

"Ok Natalie, I'll be going then, but don't be a stranger girl. I really love this room, I'm going to try a little harder with mine, this puts it to shame." Amanda replied smiling, trying to hide her disappointment. She had really wanted to reconnect with Natalie. "Maybe we can go out to the mall this weekend, see if we can't find a new dress each."

"Yes, that sounds great, I heard there is a new flavour at the ice cream shop," she said. "You know we have to go try that out too."

"See you on the weekend then." Amanda said, then she turn to the door, gave a little wave and walked out.

Natalie, immediately went back to her desk entering the control section, she could see Sam was still inspecting the robots. So she set the calibrators to start the shakedown, this was going to be a long shift. It took most of the night, to get the robots working properly. Natalie had to do some troubleshooting, with a technician at one point. Eventually all was in working order.

Then they started on the work, that had been put on hold, while installing the robots. Even with the early start, she had just managed to finish the nightly tasks. The new bots working smoothly, much better then the clanking, obsolete trash, she had been working with before.

"Logout Sam." She sighed. She needed a shower and some food, maybe she would eat her breakfast out in the garden. Then a little nap to refresh her mind, before she login to Freedom.

She dragged herself out of the pod, going to the bathroom, only to find the door shut. Natalie checked the time on her wrist comp and groaned. Chelsea, it was her beauty time. There was no moving her, until she had finished her morning routine. Natalie banged on the door.

"Chelsea, how much longer?" She called.

"I won't be long" Chelsea sang out.

Natalie groaned again, that meant she would hold the bathroom hostage, for at least another fifteen minutes. She turned away, slowly walking downstairs, breakfast first then.

After eating enough food for three girls, Natalie cleaned up after herself. Tromping back to the bathroom, she dived in, when she looked and found it empty. She felt so much better, soaking in the shower, had revived her completely.

Natalie entered her pod, she check that everything was okay with new raft of bots, and that she had no messages.

"Okay, Sam, bring Freedom online please, make sure to let me know immediately, if there are any problems or messages," she said.

"Yes, Natalie, Freedom is online, would you like to login?" He asked.

"Yes please, Sam" everything went black, then it brighten to early morning light. She could see the little nest, she had made for herself, in the middle of the bushes.

She opened her inventory, checking on the flowers she had picked the day before. They hadn't changed or deteriorated at all. So anything she put into the inventory, wasn't likely to go bad. Next she halved the seeds she had, working her way out of the bushes. Natalie ventured out into the field. She threw the seeds, so they flew out around her, in a broadcast pattern.

Taking a small handful of seeds, finding a stick, Natalie walked to the right side of the bushes. Poking holes into the ground, dropping a seed into each, covering them over, she watered them using one of her flasks.