We sit precariously on the edge of the building, about 50 stories up from the flood of neon lights of the cityscape below. Cars race by like fireflies, and the people look tinier than ants as they walk in and out of buildings. Sara's heavy leather boots thud rhythmically against the wall and a few stars poke their way through the light-polluted sky.

"So?" she asks.

Her hair blows around in the light breeze, and she brushes it back into place over her eye. She always kept half of her face covered with hair, something I never understood considering how many people call her cute

"So what?" I ask back, my head half in the clouds.

"So how was your birthday?" She lets out a giggle and her slate-blue eyes crinkle along the edges.

"Oh yeah," I reply with a nervous chuckle, my palm rubbing against the short hair on my head. "Sorry, I guess I was caught up in my thoughts."

"Nothing new there," Sara says with another giggle. "I wonder where your brain goes sometimes."

She looks up at the sky. Her face is a mixture of the streetlights below, and the silver of the moon and stars above. Her freckles glint and sparkle with the night's light. A face like a skyline.

"It was pretty good. I don't really like birthdays, but thanks for making my day."

Her face blushes, it makes her freckles pop out.

"I was thinking maybe I could make your night as well," she says as she looks away from my eyes.

My heart beats faster in my chest, I feel my blood rush to the surface of my skin. My hands become slick with sweat, and suddenly the light breeze of night air feels awfully chilly.

"Make... my night?" I say with an emphasis on the end.

She punches my arm and lets out a deep laugh.

"Not like that, you idiot. I want to give you your birthday present."

Sara pulls out a box that fits in her palm, the paper around it is wrinkled and badly taped. She hands it over to me with a smile.

"Sorry, I'm not that good at present wrapping," she says.

"Hey, it makes it easier to open," I reply. I choose a side and grab the corner of the paper. It tears away with ease, revealing the front of the box. It is a simple black color with some text. "What's Tales of Vaella?"

"It is a new game we've been developing. We got our first major shipment of testers in, conveniently right before your birthday. I couldn't resist, we have to play it together tonight."

"I don't know if I can stay up late again playing video games-" I begin to say.

"It is not like a normal video game," Sara cuts me off. "You don't play while you're awake, you play while you're asleep."

"While I'm asleep?" I ask with a tilt of my head. I knew her company was developing something top secret, but what is she talking about? How do you play a video game while you sleep?

"It hooks up to our digital implants and puts us in a world while we get a good night's rest," she says as her finger taps at the hookup on her temple. "You don't just get to play a game; you live part of the life of a character. You live in a different world, and your 8 hours of dreaming can become over a year of experience. All in one night."

"Over a year?" I say with an air of disbelief.

"Well, I don't know how long exactly. The current high score is just over a year. These are the first open test models, so we get to be the Beta testers. All I know is that it is set in a Fantasy world, and the guys who tried it in Alpha said it changed their lives. They haven't let much else through to the marketing team, but we've been excited for so long to experience it."

I stare at the black box, the tatters of white wrapping paper blowing around its edges. My thumb rolls over the text, it is raised on the surface and feels good against my skin. A whole year of experience in one night, I think to myself.

"This is what Equinox has been working on for the last three years?" I ask her.

"Oh, way long that three years. They only allowed the news to go public that we were working on a project three years ago, but this has been in the works with Steve and Zack for over a decade."

The concept seems too amazing to be true. But what if it works? Does Sara know how valuable something like this is? Of course, she has to, so why is she giving it away to me instead of someone else?

"So why do you want to give it to me?" I ask her bluntly.

"Because you're my best friend, and I want to experience it with someone I trust. When you get home tonight, you want to plug in with me at 11?" She looks at me with a set of eyes that beg and plead. They catch me off guard, and there's no way I can say no, despite her once again not giving me any notice. Besides, I feel excited to try it, the concept seems cool.

"Then I'll see you at 11, in a different world than this," I say as the excitement builds inside me.

She pulls out her phone and gasps. In one motion she turns from the edge and jumps down on the roof, falling silently onto the flattop in her clunky boots. The fiery red of her hair blows in disarray, revealing how the rig on her temple snakes across her neck to the top of her spine. The neural connector is a blue-trimmed chrome strip that curves around her ear.

"You're going to have to get home now, and you better hurry. You don't want to be late, a few minutes in this time can be a day or two in-game," she says as she pulls me down from the ledge.

"Alright, I'm going," I say as she pushes me towards the stairs, my feet dragging across the ground.

She finally lets me walk by myself after I had to argue with her for a second to stop pushing me, and I head to the staircase off the roof. But halfway across the flat top, I stop in my tracks and turn to her.

"Oh, Sara?" I ask.

"What?" Sara asks me, a look of impatience on her face.

I grab her hand and pull her into my arms, they wrap around her back and her hands rest on my sides.

"Thanks," I say. "Thank you for everything."

She moves her hands across my back and pulls me in. The warmth of her body is nice on this cool summer night, and the scent of lavender is in her hair.

"No problem," she whispers into my ear. "Happy birthday, Erik."

. . .

The front door of my apartment flies open, my breath heavy and my legs aching so much that they want to give out. I double-tap the implant on my temple and the time projects into my vision, it says 10:58.

Shit, shit, shit! I'm going to be late, Sara's going to kill me.

I kick my shoes off, and they fly across the hallway, striking the walls and landing haphazardly on the floor. My jacket joins them as I throw it at the hanger, the metal rack rocks and almost topples over. Halfway to my room I stop and check my pockets. SHIT! I think again as I realize the box is in my jacket.

By the time I collect my bearings and get set up in my bedroom, the clock on my implant says 11:00.

Half a minute or so shouldn't be too bad, I think to myself as I lay down on my bed. Sara will understand, she didn't leave much time for me to get ready, and she knows I'm usually late as is.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

The front of the box pulls off with a pop. Inside is a microchip held in place by cardboard tabs. It smells sterile and new, like a car fresh off the lot. I take the chip out and flick it around between my fingertips.

"A lifetime of experiences, all in one night," I mutter under my breath. The words fall into my dark bedroom and seem to hang there for a moment.

"Well, Sara. Let's see how this works."

I lay back in my bed, the time reads 11:01. I tap my implant 5 times in a row and can feel the parts moving inside, the chip reader slides out and waits for me to insert something.

Tales of Vaella fits easily into the slot and I close my eyes as the computer in my head beeps. A series of numbers rolls through the darkness, they increase in speed until they become a wall of light.

Don't they usually say don't go into the light?

A smile sneaks its way onto my face, I guess this is like dying for a night. But it is a game, and Sara's waiting for me on the other side.

"Connection complete, uploading user," I hear inside my head, but it may as well be coming from another planet. It is far and grows farther with each slowing syllable.

The world slips away around me as a new one takes its place.

. . .

"Hello, player?" I hear a soft voice speak.

There's an unnatural heat around me, it is nothing like the air condition of my apartment. I can feel intense sunlight as it beats down on my body. My eyes stay closed, and I can't seem to bring them to open. I feel too tired, almost hungover, it is like I have run a marathon to get here. But where is here anyway?

"Player, are you there?" The voice seems more agitated than before, on the brink of screaming in my ear, but I just can’t manage to get up.

"Player, WAKE UP!"

There's a splash of water on my face, it goes up my nose and I feel like I'm drowning. My body reacts by itself, I sit up before I know what I'm doing and start hacking up water from my lungs. The tiredness fades away while I wipe what feels like saltwater from my eyes.

"There you are! You just needed a little bit of help," the voice says with a playful giggle.

"Who are you?" I ask as my eyes adjust to the light around me. There's a deep ache in my temple and my stomach is doing loops.

"Hi, my name is Till, and I'm going to deliver your tutorial today."

A little girl floats in the air in front of me, and there are specks of light that fall away beneath her. The sparks float and dance beside each other, disappearing before they touch the ground.

"You're a... little girl?" I ask, still groggy from my transfer.

"I am NOT a little girl!" she yells at me. In her hand forms a ball of water, and she chucks it in my face again.

"Okay, I get it," I say as I choke on the liquid in my lungs. "What are you then?"

"I am a Tel'ron, we may have smaller bodies, but we are not children. I'm older than you, stupid human," she says as another orb of water forms in her hand. There’s a white foam streak that twirls around inside the clear blue globe.

As the water flushes from my eyes and I adjust to the light, I see that she’s not a little girl after all. Well, she’s little and a girl, but looks more like a gnome with her features. I imagine a bright red cone on her head and begin to laugh.

“What seems to be so funny?!” Till yells, forming another orb in her free hand.

"I'm sorry," I respond as my hands reach up to protect my face. "Please don't hit me with another, it feels like I'm dying here."

"Pfft, come on. They are only level one dousing spells. Are you really that weak?" She asks. "Oh wait, I guess you are. You just spawned after all."

Spawned, I think to myself. So, it must have worked, I must be in the game.

"Yes, you are in the game," she says with a devious smile on her face, and a giggle that sends chills down my spine.

"Did you just read my mind?" I ask her in disbelief.

"I'm more powerful than you can imagine, of course, I can read your mind," she says as she twirls in the air around me. "But don't worry, I'm not designed to kill players. That's no fun. Torture on the other hand though..."

She looks at the shock on my face and lets out another giggling laugh.

"I'm just pushing your buttons. Now get up so I can teach you the game, I have to get back to the tavern for cards. There are a few goblins I need to win the pants off of."

I get up on my feet and my knees buckle beneath me. It feels like I'm learning to walk again, and I fall flat on my face. The grass is cool between my fingers, the dirt rough as it cakes on my wet hands. A breeze is rolling through the field, and I'm surprised at how real everything feels.

Finally, I make it to my feet and feel steady. The churning of my stomach subsides, and I start to feel normal again. Till taps her foot in the air and crosses her arms, bobbing up and down in the air.

"I'm ready," I say to her.

"Alright, finally! Now, Tales of Vaella is a tiny bit different from other games you've played. We believe that you should figure stuff out by yourself, but let me run you down on the basics," Till says as she produces a small twig from her pocket.

She waves the stick in a pattern and a rune lingers behind in the air. It looks like electricity as it crackles, it glows brightly then disappears. Nothing seems to happen.

"Is that it-"

A bolt of green-tinted lightning strikes the ground in front of me, knocking me back onto my ass. The ground feels hot and a plume of smoke forms where the lightning struck. As the smoke fades away, it reveals a small boar. The hog walks around aimlessly, sniffing the ground and chomping on blades of grass. It looks so small and cute that I can't resist patting my lap and calling for it to come.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, I haven't even explained combat yet," Till says as she slowly drifts away from me.

"Why not?" I ask. "It looks pretty harmless to me."

"Alrighty theeeennnn," she says, her voice laden with doubt and concern.

The boar looks around to see where the noise is coming from. It sets its eyes on me, two small dots that twinkle in the sunlight. They fix on me, its head gluing straight towards me in an unnatural way that gives me the creeps.

"Oh, looks like you've aggro'd him," Till yells down from the top of a tree.

"Aggro'd?" I yell back.

The boar lowers its head. Its horns begin to grow, one piercing through its snout as blood pours onto the ground. I hear the snap of bones reforming as the hog gets bigger, the blood in its mouth beginning to foam into red clouds at the sides. Its eyes now have a crazed look inside them, a deep red glow that bursts from the sockets like flames of hell. It charges at me, the ground giving way underneath its feet, chunks of sod and dirt flinging out into the field.

I feel the ground shaking, the bottoms of my feet leaving the ground for small moments as the boar digs its large hooves into the grass. It’s coming for me, and I don’t know what to do. I feel petrified, scared, unable to move. At the last moment, I roll out of the way of its charge. The boar continues to go until it smashes into a tree and falls onto its side.

"It's stunned, I suggest you make this moment count!" I hear Till yell from the top of the tree.

"How do I do that?!" I yell back at her.

"With your sword, dummy!"

I look down and see a sword on my belt. When I pull it from its sheath the blade gleams in the sunlight. Here goes nothing I think as I run at the boar.

With one leaping strike, I bring my blade down on the boar. Down towards the large mass of flesh and fur as it begins to thrash around and come out of its daze. And miss. The blade sinks into the ground, and the beast retaliates by pushing a twisted horn into my side. It flings me like a ragdoll, and my world starts spinning as I am thrown across the field to the forest's edge. I land near a tree and quickly crawl behind it.

"Smooth one," I hear a whisper in my ear. Till is right beside me now, poking her head around the tree. There's a pain in my side where the boar struck me, a searing feeling. I press my hand to my side, afraid to look at the damage that it did.

"Am I going to die?" I ask her.

"No, you idiot. As a player, you won't take any substantial damage until your shields are down. Look, it's just a cut."

I pull my hand away and realize she's right. There's a small cut in between the tear in my shirt, and nothing else. No hole that reveals my insides, no mortal wound of torn muscle and broken bone. Just what looks like a long papercut on my side, accented by a small trickle of blood.

"So how do I know when my shields are down?" I ask in between pants.

"Just blink twice to bring up the HUD and keep quiet it’s dropped aggro but it will still look for you," she whispers harshly as she peaks her little head around the trunk.

My eyes close twice quickly and a health bar appears in the top left of my vision. About a quarter of it is missing, and there are two numbers beside it.

64/72

"Wait, that thing only did 8 points of damage?"

"It's a bloody tutorial, the boar is only level 5. I mean, usually, they are only level 1, but I may have added a teensy bit of demonic energy this time," Till says to me in an innocent voice.

"What? Why?!" I shout at her.

"To catch up to the others, you're a little behind. Now, take this," she says as my sword appears in her hands. I take it from her and hold it awkwardly to the sky in front of me. It feels so foreign in my hands, how am I expected to kill that thing when I’ve never held a sword in my life?

"Oh, and watch out, it kind of heard you shouting."

Till disappears in a puff as the thunder of the boar's charge gets closer. How the hell am I supposed to kill that thing?

I feel the ground shake to the point where I bounce between the roots, and suddenly the tree behind me shatters into a thousand splinters. The boar's body flies over me, droplets of its blood raining on me with the shower of wood chips. I look at my sword, the blade pointed up towards the soft underbelly of the beast.

My eyes close and I blindly thrust my blade up.

The blade enters the boar as it continues to move forward in the air. It pulls across its stomach, opening it and letting the hot entrails inside cover me like some grotesque pinata. With a loud crash, the boar lands on the ground face first and stops moving.

"Wow, you really gutted him!" Till says as I brush hog’s intestines from my face. "Now hold still, this is my favorite part!"

I feel a rush of energy as a pillar of light surrounds me. The pain in my side fades away, and my sword suddenly feels lighter in my hands. I feel oddly strong, and as the air enters my lungs, I feel them open to a point where my breath reaches the bottom.

"Ding! You just leveled up! Three times by the look of it," she says with a twirl of excitement in the air.

The health bar in the top left fills, and there are two new numbers in my vision.

124/124

"Thank god that's over, and that concludes the tutorial for today," she says.

"What? That's it? Shouldn’t you be giving me a rundown of different class systems? Maybe giving me a quest to raid a goblin camp, or kill some pesky spiders?"

"Yep! That’s it! Now you got to figure it all out on your own, as a real game should be! Bye-bye!"

Till disappears in another puff and leaves me there, breathing heavily and covered in pig guts. I sigh and let my head fall between my knees.

"Oh, one more thing," I hear beside me and nearly jump out of my skin.

"Really watch that health bar. If you die in the game, you die in real life," she says with a series of cackles that make my skin burst with goosebumps.

"What?!" I yell into the forest, but she's no longer here.

It's just me, alone, with the body of a boar as it leaks black-tinged blood into the freshly toppled soil.