Kaylie was bored. No, she wasn’t bored. She was boooooooooreed. Each day she got up with her routine: wake up, eat, bathe, and then do whatever she could to fill the time that stretched into the infinity of the day before she went to sleep. Her daily routine was degrees of boredom, days stretching into each other.

Of course there were breaks in the routine, events that she looked forward to eagerly in her youth. Parties, gatherings, play dates. As she grew older, these events came less and less. At sixteen, she was allowed to move out of her parents’ home and into her own space. At the time, she was extremely excited to do so; the prospect of freedom had seemed to have all the promise in the world. And for a time, she had been happy with the novelty of living on her own, setting her own schedule, living as she pleased. But routine had quickly bled into routine, and the novelty had quickly faded.

Today was like any other. She awoke in her bed, the house AI slowly raising the shades to allow the light of day into her bedroom. The room was medium sized, with a large bed and the standard furniture: nightstands, a mirror on the wall, soft carpet on the floor. She had lived in a version of this room her entire life. The location and decor changed as she grew older, but not much else. She peed, then looked in the mirror as she brushed her teeth. Her image stared back at her. She had off-white skin, pale from lack of sunlight, and thin. She had a forehead that was a bit too big, and she wore her hair in bangs to hide it most of the time. Right now her brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail, which she wore while sleeping. Her eyes were brown and

Currently, her dwelling was what used to be called an apartment: one bedroom, a bathroom, small kitchen and a living area. Most people lived in them now, and they were just referred to as domiciles. Kaylie had seen pictures of earlier houses that people lived in, with large rooms, multiple bathrooms, and large amounts of empty space around them, creating artificial islands in the sea of cities and suburbs. It was hard for her to imagine why someone would want or need that much space around them: it was unimaginable nowadays.

She lay there and stared at the ceiling for a time, before rising and entering the attached bathroom for her morning pee. Getting dressed, eating breakfast, and preparing for the day were all routine and were actions she completed without really thinking about them. Her house AI prepared her meals for her, freeing her of the need to cook. Clean clothes were provided, delivered via drone and the dirty ones whisked away for cleaning in some distant facility. All of these services were freely provided by the government.

After prepping for the day, she had little else to do but to sit down at her VirNet console and go online. This was how most people lived. Any shopping she needed to do was online and delivered via drones - there were few actual shops or stores in existence now.

As a girl, she had read with some fascination the descriptions of life before the Unification - how people had spent most of their time outside their homes working, or eating, or attending school. Life was much more social because it had had to be. Kaylie’s schooling had been, like everything else, done online in a virtual classroom. Most of her social interaction had been with her classmates, but only through the virtual connection. Several times a week her mother had taken her out to the local park to play along side other children, but like everything else this had been less and less frequently as she got older.

Perhaps the most influencial person in her life had been her grandmother, Marie. Marie had grown up during the Unification, and remembered life before the government had taken over all portions of people’s lives. Her tales of the past, of people going to work and school, gathering in giant shopping malls to purchase goods, of cooking and family gatherings had fascinated Kaylie. Life had been so much more complicated in that time, so different from the way she had grown up. She tried to imagine her life if she had been born in that time, but it was difficult.

During her teenage years, her thoughts about the way she lived had changed and become more accepting. Everyone lived this way; it was just the way it was. Everything provided, with little to no effort on her part. No one had to work, and they were completely free to explore the VirNet and pursue whatever entertainment they wanted. Indeed, for years she had simply lived online, watching videos and old movies, chatting with friends from her online school, and enjoying herself.

For a time Kaylie had thought about continuing past the basic education provided by the government. All advanced education was also free, and she had intended to learn something beyond the basic knowledge imparted to her: how to operate her household devices, basic history of her world, everyday math, and other things. But she quickly discovered that these subjects required work to study - it was not intuitive for her, raised as she was, to grasp ideas like physics, chemistry, geometry. Other languages, such that were spoken in the world before Unification, were simply abstract ideas: not needed in today’s world of universal communication and translation. She had attended school with people from other places: Asia, Russia, Africa, but the online school had automatically translated all language into the native tongues spoken by each student with little to no lag. And as there was little to no motivation besides the satisfaction of learning these things, no reward of money or better living conditions, she quickly lost interest. A few people earned the opportunity to work in government or industry, but mostly that was people who were working with the massive AI systems that in effect ran the world today. Those opportunities were few, and fewer and fewer people dedicated themselves enough to study to qualify.

So Kaylie lived day to day, lost in a world of unlimited entertainment for years. Lately, she had gotten less and less satisfaction despite the plethora of content. It wasn’t an uncommon attitude, but few of her friends mentioned it and it seemed even fewer bothered to try to change it. Things were just the way they were, unchanging. The biggest events in most people’s lives were when the government came out with new entertainment programs and games.

Such was the case now. As Kaylie logged in, she searched for any word on Olympus Online, the new VRMMORPG that was the talk of everyone online lately. Her chat group of friends were abuzz, talking of the new advertisement:

Olympus Online – Tired of the same old grind? Bored with the same old quests? Introducing Olympus Online – the last game you will ever play. Available soon, exclusively on VirNet, to a select few Chosen for greatness. Do you have what it takes?

Rumors abounded with the usual sources and people claiming to be beta testers, but there was little confirmation. She read through the rumors again: unparalleled realism, dynamic quests, etc. It all seemed to promise a break from the same old content that had been recycled ad nauseum.

Kaylie’s VirNet pinged with a request to talk from her friend, Monica. Opening the connection, a 3D version of her friend’s head popped into her field of view. “You see the new ad for Olympus?” her friend bubbled. Monica was the stereotypical teenager - totally focused on herself and what was happening today.

“Yeah, I saw it. What do you think it means by Chosen?” Kaylie asked.

“I don’t know, but I signed up for it! Hope I get picked!”

Kaylie had signed up too, but she was a bit more realistic in that she didn’t expect to be chosen.

“Yeah, me too,” she said.

They continued to talk about Olympus Online for a while, mostly rehashing old rumors, before signing off.

Kaylie played a couple of games for the rest of the morning, then signed off for lunch. Looking at her auto-chef’s menu, she chose a simple meal of chicken and rice, then waited for it to be heated and delivered. The chef ‘dinged’, and then the door slid open and allowed her to remove the food. She ate slowly, browsing the message boards and looking for any more hints about the new game.

Later that afternoon her com chimed, and when she answered a metallic voice, obviously a computer, said “Congratulations – you have been selected for Olympus Online. Please indicate your acceptance. Be advised your verbal agreement is legally binding and this call is being monitored by legal personnel as required by law.”

Wow! She had been chosen as a player! Kaylie couldn’t believe it. Monica was going to be so jealous. Quickly she answered, “Yes, I accept.”

The voice continued, “Details will be emailed to you. Please follow the instructions exactly. Any deviation will count as a breach of contract and will be pursued legally. Good day.”

Kaylie hung up, still stunned. She couldn’t believe her luck! She got on the chat with Monica. “Guess who just got picked for Olympus Online?”

“Shut up! No way! Why you and not me?” Monica pouted. Kaylie rubbed it in some more. “Guess you don’t have what I have.” Her friend glowered at her. “Its just luck, Monica. I’m sure they will be putting more and more people in it.”

Monica said, “Well, I heard that since its a full immersion game, you have to agree to go into a pod, so I don’t know if I even want to anyways.”

“What? An immersion pod? The website didn’t say anything about that!” Kaylie said. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to go that far. I mean, yeah, she was bored of her life just like everyone else, but it was her life. The thought of giving it up was uncomfortable.

Her email alerted. It was her instructions! “Girl, my email just came through! I’m going to read it and see what I have to do. Talk to you later.” She signed off and opened the email.

The email made her eyes widen. Monica had been right! She had to go to an Olympus office to use a full immersion pod! The pods were new, and not really available to the public yet due to their expense. Full roll-out to the public was expected within the year, but for now she would have to use the company pod. Continuing to read, the next part she reacted out loud instinctively. “6 months? I have to go into that thing for 6 months?” Her first reaction was to refuse. How could she leave her home and everything she knew for 6 months? She hit “reply” and began to type out her refusal. Halfway through it hit her: what was she really leaving? Her daily grind? Playing the same old games, watching the same old movies and lets face it, having the same conversations day in and day out with her friends who were all doing the same thing? Her life wasn’t really a fountain of excitement. This might be a chance to experience something new for once.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Kaylie took a deep breath, then replied with an affirmative to the email and then looked up the nearest Olympus office. Good news - there was one within a couple hours of her: she could take a robot bus near there and then walk the rest of the day. When did she have to be there? She checked - 3 days. Plenty of time.

2 days later she had talked to all of her friends, rubbing it in. Monica had been GREEN. She made what little preparations she needed to: she talked to the building manager and they said that her stuff would be put in storage, and she could request another domicile when she came back. She woke up the morning of, and did her normal routine, butterflies fluttering in her stomach. She hadn’t left her domicile for longer than a few hours in years, and she was nervous.

She walked to the bus pickup and boarded the bus. It was a Ford ATLAS van driven by automatic driver program. “Welcome aboard, miss” said the van as she got in, door closing with a soft hiss behind her. She ignored it: one thing she didn’t do was talk to robots. What was the point? She never understood how some people would treat robots and AIs as people - they were just constructs that were programmed to serve real people. The bus drove quickly, and the 2 hour ride passed quickly. She didn’t notice, her thoughts filled with questions and second-thoughts. Was she really doing this? Her mother had been excited for her, but in that perfunctorily way that parents were with their children. “That’s nice, dear” was about it. But Kaylie had never been very close with her parents. Again, what was the point? They didn’t really make in impact on her life, and they had very few shared memories from her childhood that were particularly memorable. Kaylie had spent most of her childhood online, as her parents were not the type to take long family trips. No one did, really, as with the Universal Basic Income the government had stopped most public expenses like national parks and museums. Why bother when you could go online and experience anywhere you wanted?

The bus arrived at her stop and the door hissed open. She got out, checked her portable comp, and triggered the nav program. Her audio implants directed her in her ear as she walked. She paid little attention to the surroundings, which were bland housing units and the occasional square-shaped warehouse. Robot vehicles drove the streets, mostly delivery vehicles, and automatically stopped whenever she had to cross the roads. Drones carrying packages and deliveries flew overhead in static, straight lines.

She was directed by the voice of her nav program to the front of a white, two story building surrounded by a tall, chain link fence. Lights were on every pole and cameras tracked her movements as she walked up to the gate house. A guard stepped out, dressed in your standard uniform. Kaylie was surprised. Human guards? Most security was handled by security bots nowadays, not that she had much experience. She saw them in her neighborhood occasionally, patrolling on their quiet treads.

“Help you, miss?” The guard was tall, light skinned, and had short brown hair in a crew cut. His sunglasses hid his eyes, but there were frown lines and creases that indicated he scowled a lot. He was wearing light blue coveralls, with a VirNet logo on the left shoulder. Some sort of weapon was holstered at his hip.

“My name is Kaylie Musk, and I am supposed to be here for the Olympus Online trial.”

The guard nodded, and gestured for her hand. He held out a fingerprint scanner and she pressed her thumb to it. It beeped and a light on it turned green. He nodded and said, “Ok, you are on the list.” The gate behind him began to open and he gestured for her to walk through it. Inside the gate was the standard set of green lawns and concrete sidewalks that led to the main building. The guard, still anonymous as he hadn’t offered his name, escorted her to the entrance, where there was a woman dressed in a skirt and white button up shirt. The guard said “Good luck, miss” and spun about, marching back towards the front gate. Kaylie stared after him for a few seconds, until the woman’s voice broke her out of her reverie.

“Hello, my name is Valerie.” The woman’s smile blazed from her face. Very, very white teeth gleamed from her face, contrasting with her deep brown skin. Her eyes were hazel, and her hair was tightly pulled back on her head, causing her hair to lie straight back on her skull. Kaylie knew from experience that by the end of the day, the woman probably had a headache from keeping her hair pulled back that tight.

Valerie offered her hand, and Kaylie took it, wincing a bit at the strong handshake. She wasn’t used to physical contact with strangers, and so she was a bit timid about it. She pulled her hand back and said “My name is Kaylie.” Valerie smiled again, showing teeth. It was frankly a bit intimidating.

“Yes, I know. Thank you for showing up and for your interest in Olympus Online. Are you ready to begin?”

“Yes, I suppose so. I’m a bit nervous about this.” Kaylie didn’t know quite what to say. She still was very nervous and her stomach was flipping inside her. She was way outside of her experience and felt very uncomfortable with Valerie; something just seemed off about her.

“I understand, and there is nothing to be nervous about. We will take good care of you. This way.” With that, Valerie spun around and stalked off down the hallway, towing Kaylie in her wake. Kaylie followed, having to speed up quite a bit to match the stiff-legged pace that Valerie set. They passed multiple doors, all closed, until they came to a door labeled “Prep Room.”

They stopped, and Valerie unlocked the door with her finger on the scanner next to the door. Silently, the door unlocked and opened. Inside was a room with some lockers on the wall and a low bench on the floor, all of it hard-looking plastic. There was no one else in the room. Kaylie hesitated at the doorway, then glanced at Valerie. The hard woman was still smiling, but it seemed a bit forced as she said “In you go. Take off all your clothes and personal effects and store them in a locker. There are coveralls in there for you to change into.”

“What do I do after I change?” Kaylie was talking a bit slow, still unsure about all this.

“Wait and someone will find you.” Valerie practically shoved her into the room and closed the door behind her. The lock clicked audibly.

Kaylie looked around, but the room was bare except for the lockers and the bench. She did see a camera in the corner of of the room near the ceiling, and while she didn’t like the idea of disrobing before it, she didn’t see a choice. Opening one of the lockers, she found a white paper coverall of indeterminate size, with a zipper going up the front. Also were a pair of paper slippers. Sighing in frustration, she began taking off her clothes, keeping her back to the camera. Nude, she slipped the coverall on as fast as she could, feet cold on the tile floor. The zipper caught about halfway up, and she yanked hard on it and felt the paper start to tear. She realized she was starting to freak out and deliberately sat down and took a few deep breaths. After a few moments her breathing slowed, and her heart which had been racing started to settle down. She put her feet in the slippers and stood back up, slowly pulling up the zipper until it was almost all the way up. Her breasts pushed against the paper, scratching her nipples, and between the stimulation and the cold they started to poke against the paper. Embarrassed, she kept her back to the camera and hoped that there were not going to be any men to see her like this.

Realizing she was being silly, she sat down and nervously stared at the door for what seemed like forever, but was probably only 5 minutes. The door suddenly clicked, and then opened to find a different woman dressed in a white coverall that was similar to Kaylie’s, but thicker and more permanent looking. Her hair was bound up under a white cap, and she was wearing a surgical mask. “Hello dear” said the woman. Kaylie couldn’t see her mouth, but from the wrinkles around her eyes Kaylie could tell that she was smiling. Kaylie smiled back reflexively. “Hello.”

“Ready to go?” At Kaylie’s nod, she stepped back and said, “This way dear.” As they walked, she continued, “Don’t worry, everything will be fine.” Kaylie chuckled. “Is it that obvious?”

The woman nodded. “I know this is a new experience but you will be in the game soon and everything will be fine. You will love it.”

“Whats it like?” Kaylie asked. “Oh, I haven’t been in yet. They will be letting more and more in soon after the trials are over. You are the lucky one.” The woman spoke softly and her voice made Kaylie feel more comfortable as they walked down the hall. At the end was a door with another scanner, which the woman unlocked with her hand and then allowed Kaylie to enter ahead of her. The door locked behind them, but Kaylie barely noticed as the VirPod in the center of the room held her attention.

“I have to get into that?” She had known in her head that she would be using an immersion pod, but having it in front of her drove it home. “Why do I have to get in there? Can’t a normal interface put me into the game?”

The woman replied, “Yes, it would dear, but the pod will allow you to stay in the game for the long term. The interface to your brain is the same, but the pod will provide you with sustenance, take care of waste, and even exercise you a bit so you don’t get any health problems.” The woman paused, then said “You do understand you will be in there up to 6 months?”

Kaylie nodded. “Yes, I was told that, it just didn’t hit me until now!” They both laughed a little.

“Well, don’t worry, this is safe and well tested. Now, we need to get you undressed and into the pod. Ready?”

Kaylie nodded again and unzipped her coverall. She wasn’t really comfortable being naked in front of anyone, but she steeled herself and stepped out of the coverall and slippers. “Lie down in the pod and close your eyes. You will feel the interface press against the back of your neck.” Kaylie did as commanded and lay down. Soft restraints flowed into place, holding her arms, legs, and chest. At her question, the woman said “just to keep you in place. Lay still please. The interface needs to be put in place.”

She lay there inside the pod. It resembled a big white egg, hinged like a clam on one side. The interior was a soft gel filling, and inside the lid she saw more gel that somehow was staying in place. Kaylie felt a soft prick at the back of her neck, then nothing. The woman, monitoring a screen next to the pod, said softly, “Alright honey, now this part will not be pleasant, but it only lasts a moment. Try to remain calm. Before Kaylie could ask what she meant, the worst pain in her life slammed through her body. She felt like every nerve ending had been exposed and was being bathed in salt water. It was the most painful thing she had ever felt in a life that had until now been protected and coddled. Kaylie screamed.

After an eternity, the pain stopped. Kaylie’s body was arched against the restraints, her eyes bugging out and she screamed for several more seconds before her brain realized that the pain was gone. “What was that?” she screamed at the woman. The woman in white looked distraught, eyes wide. “I’m sorry, honey, it was necessary.”

“What was that?” yelled Kaylie again. Her heart was hammering in her ears, and she was pretty sure she had pissed herself. “We had to measure your pain response threshold.”

“What does that mean?”

“We had to determine what the max amount of pain you can feel in order to calibrate the game. This is full immersion - you will feel pain when you are injured in the game.”

“Will it be that bad? Cause if so, I’m not sure I want to do this.” Kaylie had never felt anything like that before and had no desire to feel it again. If that was what it was like in the game, no thank you! Kaylie had played VR games with combat before, but with a simple temple interface the pain was muted. It was there, and she knew when she was injured, but it was distant, like remembering a pain that had happened to you in the past: you knew it had hurt, but your brain blocked out the actual feeling.

“No, it won’t ever reach that point in the game - that is why we had to set it now, so the AI knows how much feeling to feed you.”

Not very reassured, Kaylie said, “Ok. As long as I never feel that again. That sucked!”

“Yes, I’m not really looking forward to that part when it is my turn.” The woman turned to her screen. “Ok, looks like we are ready to go. Ready?”

Kaylie nodded. She was still shaken from the experience, but she was starting to feel excited now. “No going back” she thought.

“Ok, here we go!” The woman lowered the lid into place and Kaylie felt a mask drop into place over her face. She felt a cool flow of air as cool liquid began to enter the pod and fill it. The level quickly rose over her head and face before she could even start to panic, and she could still breathe. Then she felt a prick at the back of her neck, her body went numb, and her eyes witnessed an explosion of white light.

Outside the pod, a small man in a gray suit stepped into the room. He asked the woman in white, “Any problems?”

She shook her head and removed her mask, showing her face. She was older, with a slightly weathered face. “It went well, except for the pain threshold test. But eliminating the tissue samples until they are unconscious works better.”

The gray man nodded. “Yes, that was our assessment as well.” Not speaking further, he turned and left the room. The pod hummed with electronic life. Far away, KRONUS noted the entry of Kaylie into the world of Olympus Online and sent a message to his fellow AIs - “Phase Two has begun.”