The Crystal Worlds was supposed to be the ultimate playground, but for Sam it was work.

He remembered the early days, before he lost his real-world job. The Crystal Worlds were amazing, incredibly immersive, like Lord of the Rings made real. He'd spent two weeks wandering around with a sword in his hand, full of a perpetual sense of awe, certain that this was a place where a man could never be bored.

Now, he was bored.

He still owned the sword, but he hadn't equipped it in years. Now, he wielded a shovel. He'd found one of the least interesting places in the entire game, a little valley with sides that blocked out the view so he couldn't even stare at the horizon and daydream.

Which was just as well. He wasn't going anywhere.

He swung the shovel, digging through the gravel that covered the valley floor. He was in a good spot. Every swing of the shovel caused more gravel to slide down and refill the hole. He could dig all day and never have to move his feet.

He counted as he swung. The count didn't matter; it was just something to occupy his mind. The odds of finding a teleportation stone were just above one percent, so by the time he was close to a hundred fruitless swings …

He dug in with the shovel, scooped up some gravel, and tossed it aside, where it vanished as it landed. And in the bottom of the hole, instead of more gravel, he saw a fist-sized stone.

“Bingo.” He set down the shovel and knelt. The stone felt cool and smooth in his palm as he lifted it, and he turned it over, looking for a destination or a rating.

Instead of a place name or description, he saw a meaningless string of digits scrawled across the bottom of the stone.

He frowned, turning it over in his hands. He must have dug up tens of thousands of teleportation stones over the years. Blue stones were the most common. Almost valueless, they allowed you to jump once to a single preprogrammed location. The stone disappeared when you used it. It was a one-way ticket to one spot. Indigo stones were better. Coded to a single location, they could be used again and again. Black was better than indigo. A black stone would return you to wherever you teleported in from.

The other colors were more valuable. They would take you to multiple locations. White stones were the best. They let you inscribe any destination, and they could be used again and again.

This stone, though, wasn't any color at all. It was … stone-colored. It looked like a rock, and he frowned, wondering if it was just an unusually large piece of gravel.

When he squinted, though, a line of text appeared above the stone. Teleportation Stone, it said. Destination Unknown.

He shrugged, pushing the mystery to the back of his mind. The rent wasn't going to pay itself. He added the stone to his inventory, watching it sparkle and fade from his palm. Then he lifted his shovel and went back to work.

He returned to the real world for lunch. Reality for Sam was a tiny apartment, a bachelor suite with a bed along one wall and a stove and fridge along the other. He rose from the bed, taking off the neural interface helmet that made everything in the game feel so real. He put water on to boil, checked his email, looked at the dirty dishes filling his sink, and decided to leave them for later. He made some Ramen noodles and went through his inventory as he ate. He'd have to make the trek to the market soon. He hated the process of actually selling his stones. It was wasted time, time he wasn't spending digging. His inventory had limits, though.

When lunch was over he picked up a broom, put his helmet back on, and stood in the center of his apartment. The problem with working full time in the game was that you didn't get any exercise. Sam got around that problem by working for a few hours in “semi-immersive” mode. He would stand in the middle of his apartment and swing the broom exactly like a shovel. He would see the valley, feel the weight of the gravel, but his actual body would move with every swing. It worked as long as he stayed in one place. If he tried to walk, he'd crash into the wall of his apartment.

He worked for another half-hour, and his luck was better than usual. In addition to the usual blues he found a couple of yellows and even a green. When his inventory was full he set the broom on the floor of his apartment and switched to full immersion mode.

He selected a black stone, one of the few he'd ever kept, and activated it. The valley disappeared, replaced by the only other location he ever visited in the game, River Fork Village. Modelled on a romantic ideal of medieval European village, River Fork was all quaint cottages and half-timbered buildings. The NPCs smiled constantly as they bustled around, the women in long dresses, the men in baggy trousers and suspenders.

Marvin's Magic Emporium was run by a player, one who'd made the almost unheard-of choice of taking a fat avatar. He smiled from behind the counter as Sam came through the door. They made the same transaction every few days. Marvin bought every stone Sam brought him, selling them to the endless streams of adventurers who came through his doors. They could have gone to the valley or any of a dozen other places where teleportation stones could be mined, and dug their own. But it was boring work, and the mines were always in out-of-the-way places. You could spend hours digging without finding a single stone that would take you someplace you wanted to go.

So players, thousands of them, came to Marvin's store or a hundred similar shops that bought stones from Marvin at wholesale rates. They paid in-game gold, which Marvin turned into real-world money through means of his own. He kept meticulous track of his inventory, and paid Sam scrupulously by bank transfer once a month.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“The usual?” Marvin said, staring into space as he checked the tally.

“The usual,” Sam confirmed.

“Hold on.” Sam frowned. “What's this?” He tilted his head, then lifted a hand, palm out.

A stone of no particular color appeared in his hand.

“Oh, that,” Sam said. “I found that today. Never seen anything like it.” He leaned an elbow on the counter. “What's it worth?”

“Nothing, I suspect,” said Marvin. “Who wants to jump to an unknown destination? You might not even be able to jump back.”

“It's an interesting mystery,” Sam said. “Somebody will pay big bucks for the chance to-”

“Forget it.” The stone vanished from Marvin's palm, and an indicator appeared in the corner of Sam's eye. The stone was back in his inventory. “I can't sell a pig in a poke.”

“But-” Marvin gave him a hard look, and Sam went silent.

“I'll take the rest at the usual rate.”

“Great.” Sam hid his disappointment. Marvin was an important business partner, and it wouldn't do to aggravate him. “I'll see you in a few days.”

“You sure you want to sell all of these? Maybe you should keep the green for a few days. Do a little travelling. See something besides this village.” He gestured around the shop. “I mean, my store is pretty awesome, but it shouldn't be the only place you ever go.”

“Not today,” Sam said. “I'll see you in a few days.” As he turned toward the exit he took a moment to look around the store. Marvin might have been joking, but the truth was, the store really was kind of awesome. The Crystal Worlds held hundreds of similar stores. Probably thousands. But the store didn't have to be unique to be pretty damned cool.

Weapons lined the walls, swords and bows and axes and maces, all of them charmed in some way. Shelves held armor and potions and scrolls and mysterious doodads of unknown function.

It wasn't the store itself that was cool, Sam decided as he walked outside. It was everything that the store implied. Adventure. Combat. Danger and magic. Everything that had drawn Sam to the game, before he lost his job and the game became a way to earn a living.

Back home it was late afternoon, but here in the village it was early morning. Wherever you were in the world, when you first logged in you would spawn in your own time zone. The Crystal Worlds occupied a virtual planet about a tenth the size of Earth. It was a huge place, and you could easily spend a lifetime just exploring the wonders within walking distance of your starting point.

If you didn't want to endlessly walk, though, you needed transportation. That meant mounts, from horses to winged serpents, or public teleportation gates, or teleport stones. The endless demand for efficient travel was the cornerstone of Sam's career.

If only it paid better. He knew he should head back to the valley and put in a few more hours of work. He was filled with a discouraged lethargy, though. He plopped himself down on the edge of the well in the center of the village. Marvin was right. Sam was spending sixty or seventy hours a week in the most glorious virtual environment ever created, and all he ever saw was a valley full of gravel and one sleepy village.

“Sam! Hey, Sam, is that you?”

Sam twisted around, looking in the direction of the voice. It wasn't the incredible visuals or even the sense of touch that really impressed him about the Crystal Worlds. It was the little details, like the fact that sounds actually had directions. He watched a burly man detach himself from a party of adventurers and walk toward him. The man wore dazzling silver armor traced with gold. The sword at his hip had a diamond set in the pommel, and a hilt that glowed. Only when he pulled the glittering helmet from his head did Sam recognize him.

“Jimmy!” Sam stood, feeling a mix of pleasure and embarrassment. Jimmy Carmichael had been at the same company as Sam. Unlike Sam, he'd gone on to better things when the company folded. If he was in the Crystal Worlds, it was to enjoy himself. He had better ways to make a living.

The two of them shook hands. “We came to buy stones.” Jimmy grinned. “Is that your hard work we're benefiting from?”

Sam nodded.

“Good man. I wish I could make my living here.” Jimmy tilted his head back and turned in a slow circle, taking in the view. “God, I love this place.”

“It's great,” Sam muttered sourly.

“Hey, I'm hosting kind of a housewarming party tomorrow night. I bought a castle.” Jimmy laughed. “Can you believe it? I bought a freaking castle!”

“Wow.”

“You said it, buddy. Anyway, the party's gonna be awesome. You have to come.” He squinted into empty air, and his fingers made squiggles and zigzags as he accessed menus. A chime sounded, and an indicator told Sam he had a new message. “There. You've got an official invitation. Any time after seven is good. Calgary time, of course.”

Sam nodded. He had no intention of going to a party where he would never fit in, but he appreciated the invitation just the same.

One of the party members called to Jimmy, and he waved. “Make sure you come, Sam. Okay?” He clapped Sam on the shoulder and moved away to rejoin his companions.

Sam took out his black stone and enabled it. The familiar gravel-strewn valley reappeared, and he equipped his shovel. It was time to get back to work.

But his heart wasn't in it. He leaned on his shovel for a minute, thinking about Jimmy and how he'd become a minor celebrity within the game. His six-member guild, the Dragon Hunters, had been the first to defeat a couple of infamous dungeons. They were all at high levels, seventies at least. Every time they logged into the game, it was for something epic.

“And me? I shovel gravel.” Well, maybe it was time to take an afternoon off. Go see something new. Maybe grind some XP. He did that from time to time when he needed to blow off steam. Not often; in five years he had only reached Level Four. But he wasn't too far from Level Five. Maybe today was the day to level up.

I wish I'd thought of this before I unloaded the stones. There was a gold. I could have gone almost anywhere.

He looked at the shovel, telling himself he should spend some time scooping gravel. As soon as he turned up a good stone he could use it for a little vacation.

“Screw it.” He had a yellow stone, good for unlimited travel to a dozen pre-set destinations. He opened his inventory, put in the shovel, and paused. The strange stone, the one with the mystery destination, was still there.

“Mystery location, huh?” He equipped the stone and spent a moment turning it over in his hands. What was the worst that could happen? He could always log out and back in to return to his valley.

If he ported into someplace dangerous, he could die. The Crystal Worlds treated death pretty harshly. You lost whatever items you were carrying, and you respawned at Level One.

But when you were only Level Four, and you hardly owned anything, it wasn't much of a risk. He took a moment to put the shovel into personal storage, where it would persist even if he died. He equipped his sword, a cheap weapon he'd bought on his first day in the game. It felt strange in his hand. He hadn't touched it in months. He stood there with the sword in one hand and the stone in the other, wondering if he shouldn't just retrieve the shovel and get back to work.

“What the hell,” he said, and activated the stone.