A cellphone lit up on a bedside table and started vibrating and ringing. A hand slowly reached out from under the covers. Curses filled the air as a man sat up in bed.

“H-hello?”

“Good morning, am I speaking to a Mr. Winter?”

“Yes, … Who is this?”

“I am Stan with LIFE 2.0, and I am outside your house with a delivery for you.”

“Stan it is 5:00 in the god damned morning, couldn’t this wait until a more reasonable hour?”

“Unfortunately Mr. Winter that is impossible.”

“Fine … I’ll be down in a moment”

Curses filled the air as the man groaned and slowly stretched to wake up.

Suddenly the man’s head jerked up and the last remnants of sleep vanished from his body.

“Wait, did he said LIFE 2.0?!?”

The man looked at his phone and saw that he had an unread email. As he started walking down the stairs, he opened the email which he received at exactly midnight according the timestamp.

> Congratulations! You have won one of the 2,000 early access versions of Fantasia! You have also been awarded a free Platinum package with a subscription to the game! The following rules and regulations apply…

His eyes slowly widened as he scrolled through the email and started sprinting towards his front door. When he reached it he could see two men standing outside with a rather large box. He hurriedly opened the front door.

The man stood there for a second when one of the two uniformed men asked him, “Hello Sir can you please verify you are, a Mr. Viggo Winter?”

The man, Viggo, responded, “Of course give me a moment,”

He leaned over and grabbed his wallet off the table near his front door. He pulled out his driver’s license and handed it over to the man.

The man swiped it through a machine which beeped a confirmation.

“Everything checks out Mr. Winter, where would you like us to set up your Vessel?” the man replied.

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“The living room works I guess,” replied Viggo.

Stan nodded and motioned to the other man who grunted and started to move the box to the room Viggo indicated.

“It will only take a few moments for my partner here to set up the Vessel, would you like to finalize the paperwork before we leave? It will be more convenient for everyone in the long run and means less paperwork for me down the road.” The man grinned.

“I guess if it is easier I’ll do it.” Viggo said.

“Well alright then!” Stan laughed, “Thanks for making my day easier, you just need to sign here, here and initial here please. You know this is the first Vessel that is being delivered to today?”

Viggo shook his head, amazed at his luck.

“My partner over there should almost be done setting up, he is just connecting the vessel to an outlet with a special adaptor. You know these things don’t need to be hard wired into anything? Its just plug and play.” Stan still had a huge grin plastered across his face, “This has to be the easiest delivery job I have ever had” he laughed.

“Hey John are you done yet?” Stan asked.

“Just about Stan, Mr. Winter could you please come over here for me?”

Viggo shrugged and walked over to John who was standing by the gleaming white pod like device.

John started talking, “Alright Mr. Winter, there are a few things you should know about this here Vessel. It connects to the internet wirelessly, and already has Fantasia pre-downloaded. Do not attempt to tamper with the Vessel in any way. The paperwork you just signed states that if you are caught tampering with it you will be fined a huge amount of money. So don’t even think about it.” He glared at Viggo.

“What is this guys deal” Viggo thought to himself.

“I wouldn’t even know how to tamper with something like this” he replied.

John grunted and nodded, “Good. Now please place your hand on this panel Mr. Winter,” Viggo obliged and moved his hand accordingly. “Great, now we wait a moment for it to register to your handprint. Do not be surprised if you feel a slight prick. The Vessel requires a DNA sample to register the device to you and you alone.”

Viggo winced as he felt what was definitely more than a slight prick and sighed, “What is with all the security for a video game? I am afraid I don’t understand.”

“To be honest neither do I Mr. Winter but I was told that it has to be done otherwise the Vessel will not function properly.” John answered while rubbing his neck ruefully.

Viggo heard a beep and looked questioningly at John who nodded and checked something on a tablet he took out of a holster on his belt.

“It seems everything checks out Mr. Winter, we are officially done here. Enjoy the game.” John said as he started walking back towards the front door. Viggo followed them to the door and before he closed it said, “Thank you for the help guys hopefully everything else goes smoothly for you!”

Both Stan and John looked back and waved cheerfully towards Viggo.

He closed the door and rushed back to his living room.

“I can’t fucking believe it…” Viggo muttered to himself as he looked in disbelief towards the gleaming white Vessel that was sitting in his living room.

“No time like the present I suppose” and with that he walked over to the Vessel and placed his hand on the panel that John pointed out earlier.

There was a beep and this time the Vessel opened. Viggo climbed inside eager to start playing Fantasia this game that had everyone in the world going crazy over what it might be like, what type of story it might contain. There were very little if any details about the game available on the internet.

No one was sure what the game might entail or even cover. However everyone wanted to go and purchase a copy. Viggo was about to climb into the Vessel when a loud growling noise filled the room.

“Damn I guess I should eat first huh…” Viggo muttered to himself as he moved towards his kitchen. He moved towards his fridge and pulled out the leftover Chinese food he had ordered the day before. He moved over to his kitchen counter and grabbed a semi-clean fork out of the sink, which he proceeded to wipe clean on his shirt.

Viggo swiftly ate his questionable breakfast then moved back over and climbed into the Vessel. This time he climbed in and after he situated himself inside the Vessel, the lid closed on its own and he was surrounded by blackness. Suddenly a super bright flash of white light blinded him.

“Fuck me, that was way to bright,” he thought to himself “Hopefully that didn’t blind me.”

Little did he know that at the exact same time that he was blinded by that flash of light a silvery stream of nanites injected itself into his arm. He didn’t even notice that he was getting injected.

Eventually the light subdued itself into a message that projected itself in front of his eyes.

> Remaining time until Fantasia is accessible to play: 60 Minutes

“Well that’s not to bad,” he thought to himself. “So what should I do until then?”

Just as he was about to try to open the lid of the Vessel another notification popped up.

 > Would you like to proceed to the Character Creation Menu?

> Verbally reply with Yes or No to proceed.  

“Yes!”