It's late in the afternoon and once the headset comes off, I realize two things. The ringing in my ears is much worse, and the other's this crazy hunger. Within the game world, the character ate lots for the healing boosts alone, so he never had it.

While it was on, the controller prevented me from feeling it with my real body, and now I'm famished. Thank God for the fed's full-course meal. It's still in the mini-fridge and even if it doesn't work, the food is in perfect condition.

All it needs is two minutes in my microwave, and it's good to go. A few days ago this would have been the perfect opportunity to smoke a cigarette, yet I don't crave it right now. There are more important things to take care of.

The nausea and pain from within the system are gone, and the change is so sharp and strange. It's not like it doesn't have side effects. There is this terrible headache to go with my ringing ears, the hunger, and my bladder is about to burst.

It's still better than the poisoning and injuries in the digital world, so why can't I wait to put that thing back on? Does it cause addiction this fast? And what if I didn't take a break, and didn't notice my hunger and bladder in time?

Would the system warn me or... No, let's not think about that. Although, this is a serious enough issue that they might mention in the booklet Baldie gave. It was still in my pockets, and I hadn't changed my clothes since yesterday.

I can flip through it while sitting on my throne, then eat and a shower would be nice too. One hour break, huh? No, we talked for a few minutes, so less should do too. The engagement timer from the quest already ran out so the game let me log off in peace.

This means, half an hour should do then. That's enough for the food, a good dump, and the shower if I do it fast. And why the rush? Well, the government's quest still runs. It's unusual how thinking about it no longer brings up the menu until I realize, the controller is off.

It's been going for over two days and the battery still hasn't run out. How can they power the thing for so long, when it's such a small package? And it must be crazy powerful, considering the graphics and everything. Too bad, I can't look up the stats in half an hour.

To be on the safer side, let's plug in the charger until then at least. The container's internal battery is almost full since it's nice and sunny outside. All the power is solar generated and other than the microwave right now, I haven't used anything today.

The LEDs can rest at night because of the player: it's either on, or I'm sleeping. After finding the in-game browser, the PC is also no longer needed. It's not much of a saving since the Container Park is off-grid anyway, but it shows how the priorities changed.

Okay, remember the leaflet. When was the last time I read something that wasn't digital? Including the school where all our education happened on an old laptop. It's too bad they never let us take it home, though this also meant we got no homework.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

This high-tech stuff came with an actual paper copy of the instructions which is ironic. Of course, the SoniSung box didn't have it by default, it's something Baldie gave me after my first report. It was only yesterday and it feels like ages.

And sure, as he said, it's all online, but it would be so embarrassing to search for something like this. How to not shit myself with a Deep Dive controller on? I don't want it to stay in my browser history, even if incognito mode doesn't have one.

As expected, the booklet mentions this in the safety instructions early on. That's a relief, reading it while also taking a dump. The microwave's ping tells me the food is ready too, but it has to wait. So there is a second overlay that comes from the controller, and not from the game.

You can enable it in the options, though it should be on by default. It tracks the user's needs even as the system suppresses them, and displays them as those gamey lines. They look exactly like those six bars from that ancient game.

What was the name? Sins? Kinks? You could make a family, control them all, and have them do all kinds of whacky stuff. They could have a career, have kids, and after a while, they added a lot of extra content, like vampires and shit.

It all came down to six basic needs, sitting in the lower right corner, to tell the player what the character lacked. Bladder, Hunger, and Energy are all self-explanatory, and the controller can display them. What's surprising is it also shows Fun, Social, and Hygiene, like in that game.

Can the headset tell if you are lonely or dirty? It's so weird, but at least the option exists. You can also keep the same needs visible for the character too, the difference is in the background color. The real needs have a transparent white background and the player has purple.

Like in that game, the bars are green and need to be full, and as they run out, they become yellow, orange, and then red. They have different warning levels for each bar and even on default, once it turns red, it tells the player to stop.

No nasty poop accidents then, that's a relief. And it's no wonder the UI seemed familiar; as it turns out AE Games developed it for SuniSong. They even mention CineMraft as an example game. It takes advantage of this new system, using the controller's UI rather than its own.

The list of developers is crazy. Apart from AE which is already a huge company, they had MyDong, GGC, and even PopStar Games to contribute. The first had a popular crafting game with blocky graphics then disappeared.

They released it in the last century, and the company changed hands many times but the game kept running. GGC started with strategy games before making the famous Roadside Picnic. It takes place in Chornobyl and has mysteries and looting and all.

PopStar Games is most known for its Small Rob Bike series. If they were part of this game, it's no wonder it's full of gankers, and must have strong crime organizations too. Each of them has huge names on their own. Who would have thought CineMfraft had them join forces?

And while it's more of a concept game to take advantage of all the new features of Deep Dive, it works on simple VR and PC too. It must be a different experience, but it explains the large player count. After all, these toys are crazy expensive.

If only rich kids who can afford these headsets could play it, there would have been fewer people in Origin. This is especially true for those low-effort gankers. Imagine spending thousands of credits on a game to waste all your day waiting for a victim.

It's odd how the YouCube ads never mentioned these names. It's almost as if they wanted to advertise the game while keeping it a secret.