He reappeared for the second time that day in a small pitched tent, the kind he had seen in his grandpa’s old movies. He had never seen one in person before. Nobody went camping unless they were rich nowadays anyway. Land was either used for houses, offices, or farming. Well unless you count the Amazons, but no one wanted to camp in the Amazon anymore, at least no sane person.

There wasn’t anything in the tent, he was lying on dirt ground, still in his boxers mind you, and he could feel dirt moving into unpleasant areas, never the less he crawled out of the tent with his thankfully movable legs and was graced with the sight of the same forest that he witnessed when entering the pod. If he had to guess his pod was located in the same spot that his tent was. In the middle of the area was a man dressed in a bright blue military uniform which made him stand-out in the lush green forest. The man looked to be eating a sandwich of all things on a table filled with armor, knives, maces, swords, and bows, it was like a renaissance fair attendees dream. The only thing he could think of was that they looked violently sharp. The end of the table came into view and he noticed Alan and Tommy hunkered down on one of the benches. Both looked like they had just started a road trip cross country and just figured out that being in a self-driving car for 12 hours a day wasn’t as fun as it was chalked up to be. The two were dressed in matching brown shirts and pants that looked like they belonged to a popper in the middle-ages. Tommy was playing with a small knife, even though there was a plethora of clearly more useful weapons around him.

“Did I miss anything” His voice caught the attention of his two companions and both turned to face him

Tommy instantly burst out laughing and showed no signs of stopping “You came out naked, I can’t believe you left the tent naked.”

“There isn’t time for this Tommy we need to catch him up” Yet, Jason could see the suppressed smile that his friend was trying to hide.

“There were no clothes in the tent.“ He defended

“So you just left? Oh, oh man Alan I can see why you keep this guy around”

“There were no clothes in your tent?” Alan said, his mirth now gone and replaced with his normal serious expression “everyone else had a box of starting items in their tent.”

“It may have been the admin, we didn’t really get on well.”

“So he caught you too. I was hoping you weren’t going to be noticed.” Alan said

“it’ll be fine” Tommy reassured “my brother had to deal with these unusual little setbacks when we snuck him in last time, they were never that bad just minor pranks. They’re probably in your tent right now.”

Jason sat down next to Alan who reflexively scooted a little closer to the end of the table.

“You missed a lot, I mean a whole lot. We showed up here an hour before you arrived. The other players already left. Tommy thought you chickened out, but I knew you would show up sometime”

“To be fair you didn’t see him shaking when I left.”

“We’re in some sort of trial right now. We have to beat it and reach the end in one weeks’ time.

“The trial supposed to resemble some old book, there are three stages a forest, which we are in now, snowy mountains, and a volcano. The less gear and the higher nerve sensitivity we have the better reward at the end.” Tommy said his face showing smug superiority at the information.

“And you know all this how?”

“His brother told him, it’s the only reason we are keeping him around for now.”

“Hey, that hurts.” Tommy’s face contorted into an expression of mock offense

“So far there haven’t been any quest logs or skill trees, so I need you to talk to that guy over there to make sure you have the quest.” Alan said ignoring the man’s remark

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“I told you already there aren’t any slots for inventory, or quest logs, there isn’t even a skill log. This is all very hands on. You have to figure everything out for yourself. Well you would if you didn’t have me. There’s only one bar in this game and that’s for nerve sensitivity. This game is and always has been about realism.” Tommy said

“So how do I turn the sensitivity down.”

“Focus in front of you on the table. A little dial should appear, but don’t turn it down we can’t lose this bonus, we’re already behind.” Alan said

“I know, I’m not an idiot.”

“You could have fooled me.” Tommy muttered

Jason tried focusing on the table in front of him. The image in his mind was of one of the dials on a kitchen stove, but nothing happened. He tried instead to imagine a slider and this time it appeared on the table in front of him. Neither of his two companions mentioned seeing it so Jason assumed that neither player could. He considered turning it down anyway just a little, it was cold out here and it didn’t particularly help that he didn’t have any clothes on. Yet, in the end he decided against it. His family needed the money, he wasn’t going to risk an important skill he needed to win because of a little cold.

“Alright I’m heading over.”

“Get some clothes before you talk to the guy. No one wants to see that.” Alan said pointing in his general direction

“yes mother.” He muttered back

With a sigh he pushed himself up from the table and made his way back to his tent. Sure enough, his shirt and pants where now in the tent. He put them on as quickly as he could. They were nowhere near as comfortable as the clothing that he had been wearing before entering the game. They itched almost as much as the ground, but that could have just been the dirt caked on the clothing. He searched around the tent hoping to find the same boots he had seen Alan and Tommy wearing, nothing else was there. He hoped the military guy would have a pair for him.

He made his way over to the large man sitting at the middle of the table. To his surprise they were almost the same size, from a distance the man had looked like a giant. Mr. Military was still eating his sandwich which seemed to, with each bite, would magically appear back to its uneaten state.

In his mind it troubled him that he already found a glitch. If this was his first hour in and there was already a noticeable problem, it didn’t bode well for the coding. He didn’t want to even think about what would happen if the game crashed while he was logged in.

The man looked up from his sandwich with piercing green eyes that made him freeze. Literally, he tried to move, but he was under some kind of full body bind.

“Where are your boots traveler.” The man said

“I wasn’t given any sir. I was actually wondering if you knew where I could get some”

“Your boots should have come with your tent.”

“There weren’t any there when I arrived”

“Then you’re in for a ride because you’re not going to get any from me.” Mr. Military said “Have you been informed of the rules”

“briefly, but I understand.”

“That’s not a good enough answer. Next time you speak to me your answers better be a yes sir, or no sir. Do you understand me? If it happens again you’re going to be walking through this game without any clothes.”

“Yes Sir”

“Good. You can take any item you want. However, you get less of an award at the end for whatever you take. Many travelers tend to forget everything that happens here is just as real as what happens out there. If it’s cold enough you will freeze to death, if you don’t eat you’ll starve and if you get stabbed you will die and appear right back here at the start. Do you understand me?”

“Yes Sir”

“Then get out of my sight”

With the man’s final words Jason once again gained control over his body. He was starting to get a little annoyed about how easy it was for the NPC’s in this game to paralyze him. Well at least he got the quest.

“You still don’t have any boots” Alan’s stated in a deadpan tone

“He wouldn’t give me any. I think I need some from the table, He said I wouldn’t make it without them.“ In truth his feet had been hurting for a while, each step was a mini agony from the little unforeseen pebbles that lined the camp.

“No, we go the way you are, it’s not worth risking the bonus. There are some wolfs out there, we can use their fur to make some kind of make-shift boots then” Tommy said

“I don’t think that’s how it works”

“That’s how it works in the Nexus.” Tommy replied

“Well what if it doesn’t. Did your brother have to make boots here?” Jason said “Because, if it doesn’t work I have to walk back here and get some. Then we’re worse off than when we started.

“We’ll figure out something later Jason. According to my brother this is the most important part of the game, just suck it up it will be worth it in the end.”

“Don’t worry about it man. We’ll figure it out later” Alan said looking just as unsure as Jason felt about the whole situation

“Where Did you guys get the knives anyway”

“They came with the clothes and the packs”

“So, I have to go out there without boots, and without a weapon and just hope everything will be ok.”

“Essentially yes”

“That’s insane, you’re both insane” Jason