Dylan grabbed the headset from the 3D fabricator almost before it was finished printing. Trailed by the scent of fresh microplastic filament, he dashed upstairs to his room. Thankfully he'd been able to finish setup earlier, after the main network chip had printed. Parents were out for the evening at a bare minimum, so it was just him and the freshly installed copy of Savage Realms Online. He was hyped as hell about the game, even though he didn't know much about it. No one did actually - just the fact it was running on this crazy new thing called the Creation Engine, developed by, supposedly, one guy.

That would be enough to raise the suspicions of even the most naive gamer, except that the announcement was bundled with the pattern for a new VR headset needed for the game. Not only was the pattern free, the tech world at large had looked over the specs with a fine toothed comb and deemed it, "pretty fucking legit". Extremely limited alpha access to the game was granted to a few media people, and all of them had come back practically foaming at the mouth at how amazing it was. Naturally when Dylan had gotten the beta invite email yesterday he'd practically had a stroke from excitement.

Throwing himself in his chair, Dylan placed the VR set on his brow and hit the power button.

There was no UI, and the set wasn't so much a visor as it was a simple band resting on his forehead. A soft voice sounded through his head,

"This unit requires authorization to initialize a neurological link. As an experimental technology, by granting this authorization, you waive the rights to pursue damages caused by said technology. Do you accept?"

Always with the legal junk, "Yes, I accept. Just start the game!"

Dylan closed his eyes to blink.

When he reopened them, the wall of his room was gone. It had been replaced an infinite gray emptiness, the floor a slightly darker flat plane extending to the horizon. Slowly from the ground rose up a hexagon of reflective walls, surrounding him on all sides. It showed him himself, clothed only in a loincloth. The image was a perfect representation, down to moles and freckles. Dylan was impressed- most 3D scanners took a hell of a lot longer than that.

The customization UI was comfortingly familiar at least. It filled most of his peripheral vision, and seemed to follow the standard eye-gesture input. He flipped around through it. First thing he noticed with some amusement was that there was gender customization. He toggled it on for the heck of it.

His image in the mirror shifted and blurred, replaced by a startlingly cute girl with a close resemblance to him. It was simultaneously attractive and disturbing - he didn't think he was up for that level of cognitive dissonance. Toggling it back off he looked further. He was able to flip through a number of presets that seemed based around his appearance. Settling on one that looked slightly older and tougher, he added a short full beard and somewhat longer hair. Rounding it out by making himself taller and more muscular, he did a little flexing for the mirrors. Looking good there.

Last step was a name. He picked one he'd used before, saying "Dalen Steelward" to the prompt.

Once again the world faded out, replaced by an intensely blue sky, spotted with blobby cumulus clouds. He felt a moment of disorientation as he realized he was laying down now. The surface under him felt... grainy? A slow whooshing sound of waves confirmed it- he was on a beach. He tried to take it all in. It felt too real. It smelled too real. There was just no way. There wasn't even any loading screen or UI or anything, it was like he'd just teleported to a new world.

The sudden shift was overwhelming. This wasn't anything like VR games he'd played before. He could feel no headset. A spike of anxiety twisted in his gut as he realized he couldn't take off his headset. Suddenly feeling like a trapped animal, he was on the verge of panic.

As he started to get more worked up, he noticed a small thing blinking at the corner of his vision. Focusing on it, he realized it was a small pictograph, which went from transparent to opaque as he stared. A tooltip popped up, helpfully reading,

"Trying to log out? Just focus on the button for a few seconds". As he watched, the icon's background slowly filled left to right.

"Are you sure you want to log out?" He confirmed the same way.

Another blink, and suddenly he was back in his room. His heart was racing, short of breath. He slapped his hands at his forehead and felt relief to feel the headset there once again.

He caught his breath back and stared at the headset for a long moment. Somewhat better prepared this time, he went back in. Blink. Back on the beach, he took stock of his surroundings. Brown sand, studded with seashells, dunes full of grass, it somehow looked more alive than any picture of a beach he'd ever seen. Not that he'd ever been to one - the last public beach had closed down when he was three years old.

In addition to the natural features, he was also surrounded by several warped pieces of wood. Kind of looked like he had washed up here, with the remains of a crappy handmade raft. Suppose it beats waking up in a prison or something, he thought.

His attire matched the backstory as well - ragged linen shirt, and equally ragged pants, no shoes. Felt like they had sand everywhere inside them too, a detail he rather wished the game hadn't duplicated. No gear, no abilities - he compulsively checked the logout button again, and was relieved when it appeared. The game seemed to anticipate when you needed the UI, hiding it otherwise.

Dylan knew some sort of combat coming up - that was one of the things people had raved about in interviews. He wasn't about to try and go into that unarmed. Only one of the pieces of wood was in any condition to use though- the rest were too heavy. He hefted it, marveling at the simple feeling of weight in his hand. After taking a few practice swings, he noticed another unobtrusive tooltip.

Driftwood Cudgel

Damage: 3 (blunt)

* Critically low durability

* Converts to [Driftwood Shank] on breaking

* Ability: Smash Apart

* Smash Apart: Break this weapon on the enemy's body, dealing triple damage and stunning them, but destroying the weapon in the process. [System Assist]

System assist? he wondered. There was no additional information, so he figured he'd have to figure it out the hard way. At least he had some clue how abilities worked - apparently weapons themselves granted them. Maybe armor too? His newb clothes didn't seem to do anything for him, but that wasn't really surprising.

He'd done enough here, it was time to get moving.