I woke to darkness and confined space, terror flowing through me. Even though I was expecting it, I was unable to push the fear away. “Open,” I croaked, desperate to get out.

The VR pod’s hatch slid open, and I dived out, uncaring for the discomfort as I hit my hip on the side. For seconds, then minutes, I simply lay there gasping for air until I felt ready to act.

I really hope that gets better over time, I thought with a deep sigh. If you told me years ago that I would be willing to lock myself in a box every day, I’d have told you just how crazy you were. Yet look at me now, it’s odd what having a dream does to people.

I gradually got myself together and pulled myself to my feet, hissing in pain at my bruised hip. At least I didn’t have far to go, my bathroom was only two steps from my VR setup. It was the first time I’d ever felt grateful for the size of my apartment.

Since the pod didn’t take care of food or waste products unless you were in a full-time facility observed by a doctor, I had a burning need to go after my five hours in-game. Food could wait till I’d taken care of business.

After I was done, I moved another couple of steps over to my kitchen. I’d stocked up on enough freeze-dried meals for at least the first couple of weeks. While not particularly healthy, they were cheap and would minimize the time I’d need to spend on food preparation.

I chucked one in the microwave to heat, then settled in to check the VSO forums while I waited. It was an interesting read, the starting experience apparently differed vastly depending on the type of world you chose.

While I was about to venture out into the Beast-filled wilderness, others in the core worlds were dealing with rival organizations or criminal groups. Many even talked of having an entirely non-combat experience as they took the first steps to build up their crafting skills or to develop a trade route.

None of these experiences were interesting enough that I regretted picking Altheias, if anything, they reinforced that I’d picked the correct choice for me. I’d much rather go on adventures than try to try to make my way in the massive city worlds people were describing.

The ping of the microwave pulled me from my thoughts, and I moved over to grab my lunch. It was far from the best meal I’d ever had, but it would do for now. I could already see I would be very tired of the meals after a couple of weeks, though.

Hopefully, I'll have established myself enough by then that I can spend a bit more time and money on food, I mused while cleaning up from my meal. By the time I’d gotten everything squared, it was almost time to return to the game.

I turned to stare back at the VR pod. It sat there, seeming to loom over me like a specter heralding future pain. I didn’t want to go back, yet I wasn’t about to avoid it either. I’d put too much into this and burned too many bridges to turn back now.

It will only be for a minute, I tried to console myself ineffectually, then you’ll be in the sky again, free as a bird. With a long day of walking in the bright, open outdoors as well. Taking a deep breath, I opened the pod up and forced myself inside. It was time to get back in the game.

----------------------------------------

I woke with a start, taking in the low hum of the VTOL’s engines and the deeper hum of Brian as he recited a tune I didn’t recognize. See, that wasn’t so bad after all, I thought, trying to normalize the experience. It was a shame I didn’t believe myself.

“Ah, you’re up,“ Brian spoke in his usual brogue. “You're quite the deep sleeper ain't ya? I was beginning to think I’d need to wake you.”

“Does that mean we’re nearly there,“ I asked, looking forward to getting some fresh air, even if it was digital air.

“Aye,“ he nodded. “We're coming up on the location you sent me now. Landing in five.”

That was good timing, I’d almost procrastinated my way into an awkward situation. I still wasn’t entirely sure what the NPCs knew about us being players. Having to explain why I’d been impossible to wake was not on my list of desirable life experiences.

“So what’s the final total,“ I asked, bracing myself to throw some more money away. While I’d seen his general rates, the total was determined by flight distance.

“Call it fifteen hundred,“ he replied with a grin. “Eight hundred for my time here and back, seven hundred for the fuel,” his voice fell as he continued. “Would’ve been a time I’d have only charged two hundred for the fuel, it's hard to come by these days.”

Expensive, but within my means. It would be the repeated trips that would add up, hopefully, I’d get at least some credits on this trip. “Transferring now,“ I replied with a nod. A watch on his wrist, nearly identical to mine, beeped in confirmation a second later.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Brian checked it for a moment before nodding back to me. “Many thanks, “ he said with a wide grin. “Now you’d best get ready, we’ll be there in two.”

I spent the last couple of minutes double-checking my gear and the route I was going to take. Now that I was nearly there, the experience was feeling more real, and more dangerous. Even if the risk wasn’t physical, it was certainly financial.

Losing all the gear I’d just bought would not be fun.

“Coming into land now,“ Brian said, his voice tense and focused. “Keep an eye out for beasties as we land, just because we’re on this side of the border doesn’t mean it’s safe. “

I nodded, gulping nervously. While I was intellectually prepared for having to face combat, I hadn’t thought it would be so soon. My hand trembled as I let it rest on the grip of my pistol.

I hoped I’d be able to shoot straight if it came to that.

The ground approached beneath us, looking mercifully empty. As we approached, Brian deployed his landing gear and came to a soft halt, barely even jostling us in the cockpit. He was clearly an experienced pilot.

I thanked him one last time, before walking down the ramp he deployed. Moments later, he was airborne again and racing back toward the city. I was alone in the middle of nowhere.

Breathing deeply, I surveyed my surroundings, alert for danger. Trees stretched out before me as far as the eye could see. The rise and fall of the hills created a wavelike effect, ripples of green that flowed away in front of me.

It seemed safe enough for now, hopefully, it would stay that way. With the potential for combat at any moment, I was kicking myself for not investigating the stats system before now. I’d been so caught up in my large-scale plans, I’d completely ignored the details.

Sighing, I thought about pulling up my character screen.

Jared Hope

Class: Psionic Aspirant

Level: 1

XP: 10/100

Statistics:

Brawn: 0

Toughness: 1

Agility: 0

Perception: 0

Mind: 1

Will: 2

Free points: 2

Skills:

Archeology level 1

Translation level 1

Traits:

Database of Alien Languages

Status:

Uninjured

Mostly what I expected, I thought as I read over the information. Stats make general sense, looks like I get two points in my primary stat and one point in each of my secondary ones at each level. With the two free points that make six per level in total, assuming I get it all again when I go to level two.

Skills and traits also matched what I’d seen during character creation, the status, however, was confusing. What, no hit points or stamina? So do I just get injured if I’m injured?

While it sounded absurd to think, I was used to attacks bouncing off a hit-point pool in games. I didn’t like what the lack of them pointed to. With a terrible suspicion, I pulled up the settings page.

Yep, there is, I thought in annoyance, Pain threshold set to fifty percent. Fifty percent of what? Reality? So if I get my arm torn off, I would only feel half of the agonizing pain?

“Who would even want that,“ I mused out loud as I dragged the slider all the way over to zero. I hit confirm, only to be met with a warning message.

Warning:

Reducing pain threshold below fifty percent results in decreased synchronization with your real body.

This will cause reduced reaction time in proportion to the decrease.

Are you sure you wish to proceed?

“What the hell,“ I spat. Surely they could have fixed that if they wanted to. They certainly poured enough money into everything else.

Still, there wasn’t anything for it, my goals would be hard enough to reach without being handicapped from the start. I reluctantly slid the setting back over to fifty percent before confirming it. Avoiding injury had just become far more important.

No wonder I’d had to sign so many wavers just to buy the game, thinking on it I probably should have read them all.

Moving out of the settings page, I pulled up my character sheet again. I had two free stat points left and it would be silly not to get every advantage I could. The only question was where to put them.

Given I had a gun, it might be sensible to put them in Perception or Agility, thus improving my chances of hitting something. However, neither of them were primary or secondary stats for my class. Increasing them now would come at the cost of decreasing my potential later.

While It might not be entirely sensible to focus my current build based on my future plans, I’d always been a min-maxer at heart. I couldn’t bear the thought of being restricted later from choices that I made now.

So that left three stats to work with, my primary Will and my two secondary ones, Mind, and Toughness. One of those three stats was immediately useful, particularly given what I’d just discovered about the pain settings.

Toughness it is, I thought as I put both free points into it. Hopefully, that will help resist damage or something.

I’d looked around for information on the different stats, however, the screen didn’t appear to give any out. For some reason, the designers had left it up to us to figure out what they did.

With my stats set, there wasn’t anything else to do other than get moving. I slid the pack onto my back, groaning at the weight. A few minutes spent adjusting the straps helped, improving the feel of it from impossible to just heavy.

All set, I had my watch display an arrow showing the right way before moving out.

It was actually a pleasant walk at first. The sun was bright, but not too hot, and cast dappled areas of shade through the trees. The forest itself was spread out here, like I’d hoped, providing plenty of space to walk past the tall trunks.

Bushes and grass grew underneath them, forming a vast sea of scrubland. I nearly jumped out of my skin the first time I heard a rustling noise from nearby, however, it turned out to just be a small rodent.

I soon grew used to it, as I found that the forest had a thriving ecosystem filled with wildlife. So far, none of it was dangerous either, and I had to fight to keep my concentration up. If I wasn't careful I'd end up treating this as just a fun hike.

It was only two hours later when I’d lost the fight to pay attention, that I heard the first growls coming from behind me.