Chapter 4. Janica

Initializing startup sequence. Creating neural links.

Brain mapping...

“1%” appeared before me. Then the number began to grow, slowly at first.

I heard sounds in each ear. I tasted salty, sweet, bitter, spicy, and savory. Taste in a video game. Weird. I had heard that the pods connected to your brain, but this alarmed me.

37%...

Images flashed through my vision. Old memories. Mom playing with me at the park. Dad sitting next to me as we built our first robot together. He taught me how to solder. He told me I was a genius.

A sense of emotion took over. I hadn’t seen my parents in years. These images were so real. So much more vivid than they were in real life memory. Tears ran down my face.

54%...

Joy turned to confusion, then panic and despair as peaceful memories turned into tragedy. I stood next to my sister at our parents’ funeral. She held my hand so tight.

I nearly ripped myself out of the pod. I didn’t sign up for this.

82%...

My life continued to flash before me like movie snippets. My sister adopted me. We moved into a small apartment in the city, leaving all my friends behind. The teachers who knew my name. My friends. I sat in the back of the classroom, unwilling to speak my mind even when I knew the answer. Kids teased me, taunted me, pushed me. They pushed me into lockers. Until I lost my temper. And then I sat in the principal’s office next to Sofia, and I heard the principal tell her that the other boy had almost died. That was my last day of high school.

96%...

Sofia threw open my bedroom door. She had found a broken electric drum set next to the dumpster of our apartment building. We rewired it together. And then I played. And played. Sofia had to insulate my room so the neighbors couldn’t hear.

Brain mapping complete.

Scanning body… 1%

I felt tingling sensations, starting at my toes and moving upward, almost like being slowly lowered into a cold pool of water. As the sensors reached my testicles, I shuddered, then the worst seemed to be over. The tingles flooded my torso and moved to the tips of my fingers. It moved up my neck and to the lobes of my ears.

Body scan complete. Initializing pain threshold test.

“Wait, hold on,” I said. But nobody seemed to be listening. An itching sensation grew over my body, building in magnitude until it felt like my whole body was burning. I screamed.

Pain threshold detected. Initialization complete. Launching Integration Online (IO)…

“Hello Player and welcome to the character creation.” I heard a rough female voice and turned to see a sprite staring at me with sharp eyes. She looked like Tinkerbell turned bodybuilder, but her complexion was blue. She must have stood about two feet tall on her tiptoes. She hovered at eye level to me with quick, fluttering wings keeping her afloat. At a glance, she looked like the type of girl that loves a mosh pit so much that she has to use crutches the day after a good metal concert. Thick pauldrons sat on her shoulders. Bracers guarded her wrists, and hardened leather covered her torso and legs. She wore studded combat boots. A large mace was strapped to her back.

“Hi,” I said.

“Hello,” she said. “My name is Janica, the best personal guide in the world.”

Strong intro. “I got the best guide in the entire world?”

“That’s right,” she said. She had a proud look about her. “After the brain mapping process, the game paired you with me. It must have known that you needed a lot of help.”

I chuckled. “I definitely need a lot of help, Jan.”

“Jan!” She said, shaking her head. “Absolutely not. You may refer to me as Janica or Your Royalness. I am a third cousin of the Fairy queen. Basically a princess. The Clerk of Alien Relations assigned me to you just moments ago. All visitors are assigned a guide for the first 24 hours.”

So she thought I was a visitor to her world, which must mean that she didn’t know she was in a video game.

“Janica,” I began. “Why do you think I’m here? In your world.”

She didn’t answer, but looked at me like I had brought an acoustic guitar to a rock show. “You don’t know why you’re here?” she asked.

“I do…” I trailed off. “But why do you think I’m here?”

She started talking to herself. “They told me he’d need a lot of support, but I didn’t think it’d be this bad. Maybe I can get assigned. No. Janica, you’re the best. You can help this idiot.”

She started talking to me slowly, pausing between each word. “You are an alien. You took a portal to my world for vacation. To become an ad-ven-tur-er. And then you’ll go home. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

I sighed. “You don’t have to talk to me like I’m a small child,” I said. “I was just curious.”

She threw me a side eye, then mumbled under her breath. “We’ll see about that.”

I had never played a game where the non-player characters didn’t immediately accept players as part of their world. Weird.

The NPC opened up a holographic window in front of me. “What is your name?” She asked, now businesslike.

For the first time, the game felt familiar to me. Most games had a process like this where you picked your name and customized your character.

I thought for a moment about what I’d like to be called. Gamers had all sorts of ways to name themselves, some with hyper masculine names like Orckiller or Destroyer69. Others picked names rooted in recent pop culture references or nods to famous mythology. I could never seem to find a name that fit other than my real life name.

“Warren,” I said.

“Warren,” she repeated. “I’ve never heard that name before.”

“Yeah,” I said. “It’s not common. My dad’s favorite book was a story about rabbits who leave their home, go on a crazy journey, and get into a war with bad rabbits. Rabbits live in warrens. He always told me that I made him think of home.”

She wrote Warren into the window. “Didn’t need to know all that, but okay…”

This was straight-up shocking. She didn’t know she was in a game, but she was opening and closing game-prompts. I couldn’t help myself from trying to make sense of this.

“Janica,” I started. “Is it normal in your world for people to have prompts and screens and such?”

One of her eyebrows shot up. “Of course,” she said. “Is that not normal in your world?”

“Umm, sometimes I guess,” I said.

She sat cross-legged in front of me, but hovering mid-air, wings flapping behind her like a hummingbird. “Before we begin, I will explain the two major tenants of our world.” She put a finger up. “One. Randomization creates variety and chaos. The gods of our world will reward you for bringing randomness to the game.”

I opened my mouth to ask a question, but she zipped over to me and put a finger over my lips.

I actually felt her finger on my lips. In a game.

“Don’t interrupt me,” she said. “This is important.” She raised another finger. She only had three fingers, so it was a good thing that there weren’t four tenants. “Two. Integration. When you bring the experiences, skills, and needs with you from your world into ours, beautiful phenomena can result. Because you chose to use your real name, I’m rewarding you with fifty Silver pieces to your starting purse.”

I perked up at that. Free money! One step closer to making my quota for the week. “Excuse me, Fairy Lady,” I said. “Can I ask a question?”

She slowly began punching her right hand into her left palm, a universal threat. Her eyes narrowed.

“Jan-i-ca,” she said.

“Janica,” I repeated.

“Fine, ask your question.”

“Is fifty silver a lot? How much is that in terms of US dollars — the money from my planet?”

“At the current market rate, 50 silver is the equivalent of $50.14.”

So fifty silver was fifty bucks, give or take. Got it. Not bad. I just made $50 by choosing my own name.

“Do you have any more questions before we begin?”

I thought for a moment. “Do you work for me? Like, do you have to do what I say and stuff?”

She glared at me again. “Right now, I don’t like you, Warren. Thus, I will do the absolute bare minimum that is required of me.”

“Which is?”

“It’s like you’re trying to annoy me. But fine. I am required to share all basic information with you if you ask me.”

Janica was the sassiest NPC that I had ever met. Humanlike, almost.

“And you can’t refuse?”

“I cannot. But don’t push me.”

“Okay,” I said. “So what constitutes basic information?”

“Don’t you have tour guides in your world? People who help you figure out the local customs? Think of me like that. Are you ready to keep going now? We’ve barely started the transition process.”

I nodded.

“Great, let’s begin with appearance.” She snapped her fingers.

A life-size me appeared wearing nothing but undergarments, and for the first time I was able to begin interacting within the game. I reached out and spun myself around. I was 5’9” with sandy hair that reached to my upper back like Jon Bon Jovi during the Slippery When Wet tour. I had deep set blue eyes, a wide mouth, and unlikely ears that stuck out a little too sideways. My body was skinny, not particularly muscular except for my forearms which had strong tendons running from finger to elbow. The result of years of working a sewing machine and banging drumsticks.

“You may use the menu to adjust your appearance. You can change the color of your hair and eyes or generalize your facial features. The process allows you to adjust your look enough that you won’t be recognized from your world. Unfortunately, the transition menu doesn’t allow you to build up your muscles or drastically improve your looks.” She flexed a bicep and tapped on it with her opposite hand. She then squeezed my own bicep, shaking her head.

My eyebrows dropped as I glared at her.

“That’s all controlled by your basic stats. Strength and Constitution will physically make you larger and build up your muscles. Charisma will make you more attractive to others by adjusting the shape of your face and making you more symmetric.”

Statistics must be a part of their existence. Did that mean that she had her own set of stats, and just accepted this as a normal part of life?

I thought it over. Overall, I didn’t see any reason why I should care too much about changing my appearance. I bet that some gamers were going to try to improve their charisma just to be better looking within a game. What a waste. Unless that somehow translated to making more money…

“Janica, you said that integration is a major tenet here. Are there any bonuses to keeping my appearance as is?”

She shifted nervously but didn’t answer.

I smiled. You didn’t have to be good at reading body language to understand that clue.

“I’d like to keep my appearance the same.”

“Great. Let’s move on.”

“Wait,” I said. “I didn’t get a bonus for using my actual appearance?”

She shrugged, but was clearly hiding something.

“Janica, am I missing something?”

“Oh fine,” she said. “Open up your Overlay.”

“Uhh what?”

She sighed. “Think of the word ‘Overlay’.”

I did, and an interface appeared in front of my eyes. A Dialogue box appeared in the lower left and multiple drop-down menus across the top. I tried to open the one that said ‘Map’ by thinking about it, but when I did nothing happened.

“You haven’t even been placed in the world yet, Genius, so you don’t have a map. Focus on the Dialogue box and flip over to the tab that says ‘Alerts’.”

Immediately, I was able to scroll up to read a number of alerts. I read from the top.

Congratulations on beginning your journey in Integration Online.

Based on your Brain Map, we assigned Janica as your personal guide.

You have chosen the name Warren.

Congratulations, by using your real name you have made a minor commitment to Integration. You have been awarded fifty Silver.

The game dialogue read like ones that I had used in previous online role playing games. And, yet, it spoke to me about the game itself. Janica’s dialogue menu must be different from my own. I continued reading.

Congratulations, by using your real appearance, you have made a major commitment to Integration. As a reward, you have been granted access to three restricted options in the Attributes selection process.