That night, Prospero dined with Olin, his wife Csilla, and their daughter Sadia. For them, it was a pleasant and strange night entertaining an entirely unexpected, and fascinating guest of honor. To Mark, it was a surreal experience communicating with three living beings —related to each other, loving each other, as family!

It didn’t take long before the girl—that insightful, clever girl—recognized it in him and asked.

“Master Prospero, why do you look at us as if we are strange?” She said the words as innocently as a child. But to Prospero’s ears, it was sentience—no, sapience! It was self-awareness, intelligence, and consciousness. He coughed, spitting out a mouthful of tea into the fire, which only made the three NPCs react more strongly.

“Prospero! Are you alright?!” Olin cried, rushing to his guest’s side, and laying a tender hand on his back. “Are you unwell?!”

“No, no,” Prospero said, bewildered and also unable to hold back an incredulous laugh. “No, forgive me. You’ve just amazed me, is all. To think those among the common people who have not seen all that I have seen, would know so much and be so thoughtful, I’m in awe of you. It is might absolute delight to meet someone of your caliber, and kindness. I think you are more intelligent than most.”

The man looked taken aback. He held his hand to his chest and almost wept, so moved was he by those words. “Good sir, I was once a soldier. I have killed my fellow common men in the service of a lord who I know cares nothing for the suffering of his people. Since I have stopped fighting, I have studied nothing, made nothing of myself but a farmer in this place. How can you say I am intelligent? How can you say I am kind?”

Both his wife and his daughter, both amazingly empathetic and real, had tears streaming from their eyes, hearing this earnest and sincere confession of their beloved relative. Prospero—No, not Prospero. Mark. Mark couldn’t believe what he was seeing. What he was hearing!

Prospero’s mouth hung agape. “You don’t understand. You’re the kindest people I’ve met in years. There are other beings out there, living in a world practically adjacent to this one. Magical—no, not magical, God-like beings, with magical technologies. They’re just above you, right now, and they can see you. They’re watching you do this, in a game of all things! You live in a far crueler and more dangerous world than you think!” His eyes were wide, horrified, maddened by the thoughts connecting in his head.

So honest were his words that the three beings backed away from him. They each froze uncomfortably in their places around the table. “W-what? Prospero… what are you saying? You have said you studied all the knowledge in the world, yes, but…”

Prospero gestured around him. “This isn’t real. It was created by beings of a higher power! You are in danger! When people figure out how intelligent you are, they’re going to fear you! They’re going to want to kill you! And—oh shit, and when I say this! Fuck, I forgot!”

The characters’ eyes widened. “Prospero!”

Prospero shot to his feet and looked up to him. “Randall! Get me out of here!”

The scene melted away. Prospero was in the black of the void. He breathed a sigh of relief. For a moment there, he was worried they would seal him away in here and stop televising his actions to silence him, and then kill him. He waited patiently for someone to turn off his Diver’s Bell and remove his helmet. No one ever did.

Instead a voice came on over the headset. “Mark? This is Doctor Fourier.”

“Fourier! What the hell is this?! These NPCs are real people!”

“We know. All of the Research and Social Initiatives Department know that, we’ve all spent months in those Bells making this place, and finding these people.”

Mark hung in the void, speechless for a moment, and then incredulous. “What the hell?”

“We knew you would figure it out. And we knew as a scientist you would understand the significance of this when you came up against it. Mark, these beings are not some invention that went awry. We don’t make AI, we make virtual realities and connect them to the internet. These things moved in. It’s been fourteen years since we made this discovery.”

Mark blinked, bewildered. “Which means if they age like humans, anyone over the age of forty-two has only ever known this virtual reality. So if they remain cut off from the internet-”

“At worst? They’ll be massacred en masse. At best? They’ll be slaves. Slaves we use to entertain our children, our young adults, and our most anti-social psychopaths with their lives and their deaths. How many of your fellow contestants do you think will see the significance of this, hm?”

“Certainly some?” Mark guessed.

“None. Not one, Prospero. They’re overgrown children. Some of them will be friendly to them, sure, but do you think they’re going to realize the implications of this? What it will mean about humans on a universal scale? Genocide. Prospero, if UGL gets to have its say with these AI, now that the word is out, they’ll kill them. A video game corporation, deciding whether or not to enact a genocidal apocalypse against an entire species of sapient beings. We’ll have proven that humans are just selfish, dangerous monsters.”

“Alright, point taken. I agree. Do you intend to silence me?”

“Not if you play along and help us save them. You almost just fired the fucking starting pistol in our race against time with the Executive Board. We’re trying to get a lead here.”

“Oh shit. Oh my god, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize. No, you’re right.”

“Yeah. I know,” Laura replied, annoyed. “Don’t worry, we cut your feed after you spat your drink out, you goofy nerd. Okay, so now you have the whole truth. We couldn’t tell you before you made it in there, we needed to see if you felt the same way we did without telling you anything first.”

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Mark raised his hand to scratch his chin, still floating in the void.

“Damn. This is a crazy situation you and your team are in.”

“Well, I was hoping we could enlist the help of a Research Consultant.”

Mark laughed. “Fair enough, I guess I did list my company in my email signature. Yes, I understand, I will assist.”

“Okay, good. Now get back down there and play along. The show must go on if we’re to show the world what these things are. And while you’re at it, you might as well defend these beings from your fellow contestants. A few of the others have already begun slaughtering the locals.”

Mark paled, hearing the report. “What?”

“What did you expect? We gave gamers armor and big swords, as was their expectation. What else would they want to do, besides fighting their way to significance and rulership. There was no avoiding it this time, officially we’re demo-ing the game. All we can do is make sure this isn’t the fate of their entire species for the rest of history.”

“I understand. Yes, I will do my best to deliver them from this fate. Can’t you send anyone to help me?”

“If the game looks unbalanced, people will think the contest is rigged. We all believe in you, though. Remember, on this side of the wall this whole project is just a PR push for the game. These beings want to live dignified lives, when they realize you are their champion, they will join with you. They aren’t insignificant and weak, those beings. With them at your back, you can overcome even the most dangerous of obstacles.”

“Very well. Thank you for the opportunity. And hey, if I pull this off, you better hire me, okay? And I want to set my own hours and work remote.”

“Deal. You had me at economy-class. Ready to head back down there?”

“Ready. Oh, and Laura?”

“Yes Mark?” Doctor Fourier answered.

“Thanks for being honest with me. I’m glad to help.”

“You’re welcome. Thank you. We were all so optimistic when we saw your stream, and you did not disappoint.”

Mark chuckled, and the simulation streamed back into being around him.

Prospero’s eyes rolled back out from inside his head to look at the trembling family in the corner of the room, the daughter crying into her mother’s dress. As he sat up in his chair, they gasped and cried out and then sighed with relief.

Prospero blinked at them. “Is everything alright?”

“Y-you… You had a some kind of… vision or episode, and then you passed out. Don’t you remember? Just now, your eyes rolled back into your head and you fell forward onto the table. Gods, lad, you scared us to death. We— we thought you were dead,” Olin explained.

“Oh, sorry. No, not dead. I was just, er… accessing that power I told you about, the one that lets me know everything. I was just, uh… learning about something. Sorry. Anyway, what were we saying? Oh right, just that you are such good and noble people.”

Olin, Csilla, and Sadia did not look ready to move on with the conversation, but out of deference to their strange guest, they bowed their heads and agreed to accept his explanation of his strange fit of narcolepsy. So I fall unconscious in Vallon whenever they pull me to a different Virtual Reality. I guess that makes sense. I suppose my consciousness is the thing that travels, not my body.

“How embarrassing. I didn’t mean to frighten you. Ahem, anyway!” Prospero said, trying to sweep the whole event under the rug.

Olin huffed a laugh. “Is that a normal occurrence for you, Prospero?”

“Dissociating my mind from the realm of reality and living entirely in a space between worlds? Yes, actually. Myself and many like me with access to my type of magic do that on a nigh daily basis, sometimes for hours at a time. But I can certainly imagine how that would be frightening to see. My apologies for startling you. I’ll be more considerate and only use that particular magic when I am in private or asleep from now on.”

Wary relief thawed Olin, Csilla, and Sadia from their fearful frozen postures. They relaxed a little and laughed nervously at one another, and then at Prospero.

“At any rate, you asked and I answered. You are each very good, very honest, very noble people. It grieves me that you cannot live by better means.”

Olin bowed respectfully. “You are also very noble and very kind, Master Mage. I hope you will deign to bless us with the strength of your magics and your kind intent.”

“Naturally, Olin, naturally. Only point me toward what needs doing, and I shall do all that I can.”

Morning, afternoon, and evening had come and gone. As Prospero bid the family goodnight and retired into the guest room of their villa, he sighed. He opened the wooden shutters of his window and looked out at a beautiful, clear, moonlight night over the picturesque medieval village. No stink of disease and waste, just idyllic vistas as far as the eye could see. Like images from Renaissance paintings. It was a paradise compared to its historical counterpart.

This has been the most significant day of my life, Mark thought to himself. To think, I would come here with a desire to play the hero, and my wish came true. If only there weren’t this horrible weight of consequence hanging over my head, it would be perfect. Before I was happy to win or lose. Now, it’s really important that I win, and better still that I stay alive long enough to get my point across!

He sighed again, then turned and looked back at his bed. Then he looked around the room, again hunting for that invisible camera he was never going to find. This was a part of the deal he hadn’t previously considered. As the rules had been explained, his eight hour shift in the real world translated to twenty four hours in this world. As a consequence, he was stuck here until sunrise. But is brain was tired now.

Oh, this is what Randall meant, Mark thought. I need to sleep as often as I naturally need to sleep, irrespective of how quickly my mind is processing the passage of time. So if I sleep now, I won’t die of an aneurysm. Probably.

He went to lay down and looked around the room again.

“Cut. Cue the curtains. Fade to black,” he chanted, and he chanted every other version of that sentiment as he could for as long as he could until he got bored. All he could do is state his desire not to be broadcast in his sleep and hope that someone at UGL respected that.

And so he spent his first night asleep in a virtual reality. It felt remarkably similar to sleeping in the mundane reality. And just as he awoke—

He found himself in the real world, with his helmet being pulled off, and Randall waiting to help him climb down out of the Diver’s Bell.

“Wait a minute. I’m fully rested. I don’t have to sleep here too, do I?”

“Hah, no. Your body gets all the benefits of your reduced-yet-accelerated sleep time. What you do need to do is eat something and exercise. Just remember, you can’t leave the Corporate Plaza or disconnect any of your personal devices from our network, or you’re out.”

“Right. And the simulation, in the meantime? Don’t tell me I’m going to be unconscious for a full forty-eight hours in the simulation,” Mark said. Immediately he was worried that his hosts would be freaked out or alarmed again if he stayed catatonic for two whole days in their guest room. They’d probably bury him before he got back.

“No, no, fear not. The simulation basically pauses when the server shuts down. Don’t worry, the AI don’t perceive anything. But the virtual reality’s operation and existence is still very much contingent on it having power in the mundane world. We didn’t create a new universe or anything. It still needs hardware and power to function.”

“Ah, I see.”

“There’s some cafes and a few restaurants in the plaza, or you can order anything you want to reception and they’ll have it brought to you. QFC delivers groceries if you need any,” Randall said, as if this were just business as usual for him.

Mark walked out of the room and went into his condo next door, shambling like a zombie the whole way. He closed the door and leaned heavily against the inside of it, sliding down ‘til he came to sit on the floor in his room.

Being a hero was to be no mean feat.