It had only been twenty minutes since the game had finished but my face still hurt from the rogue snowball. The immersion games were so realistic, the body could be convinced that injuries in the game were real, especially if the impact in-game was hard enough. We’d signed up for a game that felt real and for better or for worse, it did.

“Well done,” I heard, as Marcus sat next to me. I wanted to get past the pain and back into the game, but I couldn’t be 100% sure he wasn’t the person behind the trees, aiming for my face.

“Thank you. You’re second, so we should be enemies.” I joked.

“Yeah, I really hate you.” he added. “Can we talk, somewhere, sometime? After the next round?” I don’t know why, but I felt my heart leap. Do I have a crush on Marcus? I CAN’T have a crush on Marcus. He’s my rival!

“We’re talking now,” I ventured.

“I know, but, away from people, I have stuff to tell you, you should know. How about the garden… we could..”

ALL KSK PLAYERS TO THE RED DOOR

ALL KSK PLAYERS TO THE RED DOOR

Looking up at Marcus, I saw him through my painful nose as I hadn’t seen him before. He looked distressed, but also hopeful. Did he say WE, are we a WE now? WE, as in, me with him, “WE?” MAKE WORDS, YOU DUCK HEAD! But I couldn’t. All I saw was his long, blonde, hair falling over his eyes, which were green, but tinged with worry. I opened my mouth to speak when…

ALL KSK PLAYERS TO THE RED DOOR

ALL KSK PLAYERS TO THE RED DOOR

He rolled his eyes and stood up without waiting for my answer. Come back! Yes, I’ll meet you in the garden! I like your hair! Say WE again! COME BACK! Of course, I couldn’t make anything come out of my mouth.

From the red door, Speedy Sue shrieked at me, “Move your BODY, Third Place! We’re waiting!”

When I entered the room, I saw they actually WERE all waiting for me, including Mr Stand. He nodded at me and gestured that I sit.

“Excellent, now we can start.” Speedy Sue’s eyes met mine and if looks could kill, I’d be deader than a dinosaur. Unconsciously, my hand went to my aching nose.

“Well due to the small injury incurred by one of the players and yet another small anomaly in the game, we’re going to take a small break before the next round.” Small, small, small, he said it three times. If Sue had been hurt, the entire game would be on pause, or turned into a documentary about her brave recovery. It was a mean thought, yes, but for once I didn’t push it away.

“Are there any questions at all, players? Ms Bee?”

“Is this going to impact the next round at all? Because I felt it wasn’t very fair that…” When did Speedy Sue stand up? Wow, she really believes it was unfair that I won.

“No, the next round will be in two hours, as planned, take your seat Miss Sue.”

She did, with a humph, and I raised my hand to speak. “Yes, Miss Tina?”

“I think I need someone to check my face before the next round, please.”

“Of course, we were going to speak to you. If you could follow me, after this. Would you like a support person?” Out of the corner of my eye I saw Marcus move and to my horror, Katie Bee stood up. “No thank you, I’m ok on my own.”

“Well then, Miss Tina, come with me, the others, rest and enjoy the facility.” Mr Stand spoke about the facilities as if the whole place was his mansion with all-white furnishings, and we were toddlers who’d learned to finger-paint. But he signalled for me to follow him, so I did.

Surprisingly, on the other side of the door that only HE used, there was an office with several screens and a surprising amount of people monitoring us. He walked right through it and for a second I saw the dozens of cameras that were following our every movement, from every angle. Dozens is an overstatement, because the more I looked, the more I saw. Mr Stand walked to another room where a huge digital display was trekking small dots. Someone had hastily scribbled on a whiteboard, LOG ALL ANOMALIES.

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I kept my head down and walked behind Mr Stand but I saw people watching me. Some murmured and nudged their companions and others just stared. Surely they’d seen players before, the games weren’t new and people got hurt all the time, so why the watching?

Through that room, there was another that looked like an interview room and two people were waiting there. One was a short, chubby lady in white, similar to a nurse or medic and the other lady looked like a technician, she had a portable neural computer. I’d seen them dozens of times, it was an easy way to communicate with everyone's implants. Great, I’m going to be scanned, here comes the headache.

“Hello dear, I know what you’re thinking, and yes, we’re going to scan you,” the nurse said. “I have some nice pills here for the pain and the scan will tell me how many to give you.” She seemed genuine about helping me, so I sat in the chair she offered as the technician pulled on gloves. “I’m Laney, I’ll be your nurse today,” she joked. “And I’m Rosabelle, I’ll be your technician.” I smiled at them and weakly said, “I’m Tina, from the game.”

“Oh we know,” gushed Rosabelle, as she prepared to connect the scanner. “Just lean back and relax, it won’t take a second.” There was a slight pressure in the implant as she connected it to the scanner and I took a deep breath, relaxing into it.

“You’re doing really well there honey, at least I think so!” said Laney. “We loved the dancing, you’re so upbeat!”

Rosabelle was a little older than Laney and sighed, looking at the read out that was appearing. “Nasty hit, the brain registered it at 45% reality and reacted accordingly. If you were over 50%, we’d have to cancel the next round.”

I had some idea what that meant but I still had to ask, “How could it be more real? I don’t understand.” Rosabelle nodded and said, “Well since the implant was developed twenty years ago, they’re a lot more customisable than they used to be. They’re all still installed the same way but if the games felt TOO real, the players might have a panic attack and then there’d be no games. You have a tenth generation Ebbes.”

I knew that part already, the entire world could be divided into which implant they had. Ebbes and Ficus were the top of the range, while poorer nations wore Tabco or Wolfrells. This facility ran on Ebbes software. Marcus and Speedy Sue had Ficus. Maybe that’s why I keep having problems…

Rosabelle gently disconnected the scanner from my implant and read from the screen out to Laney. “Oh good,” murmured Laney, counting out pills from a packet. “Not too bad. These are fast acting, you’ll feel great soon. Here you go.” I’m not a big pill taker, but I made myself take the two she’d given me with a small cup of water.

I’d forgotten Mr Stand was next to me until I felt an unwelcome hand on my shoulder. “Thank you so much ladies, I’ll be taking Miss Tina now.” I wanted to stay with Rosabelle and Laney, it was nice to hang out with two people with no agenda, no hidden motives, just a bunch of medication and a device for “reading” my brain.

Rosabelle seemed to sense this and frowned a little, saying, “Ok then Tina! You keep doing you, you’re definitely our favourite!”

“What? Me? Why?”

“Lots of reasons, mostly the way you…”

“Thank you ladies, let’s go.” Mr Stand did NOT want us talking. I had a mental image of him sorting tiny people on a conveyor belt, and I was being put into a different box than the others. I followed him, but not before smiling and waving at my two new friends.

We went back a different way and he left me in the corridor near the bedrooms. It had already been almost an hour, so I was expected to play really soon. I had the strange urge to jump on a trampoline or run through a field of flowers and I knew that was the medication kicking in. The pain in my nose vanished and the pressure behind my eyes faded, so I went looking for something to eat.

SMOOTHIE. I want a smoothie, a big fruity smoothie with mango and banana and… calm down, hangry brain, that’s just the pain-relief talking. Give me chocolate, no CHIPS, no I want a whole cake all to myself! No, a cheese cake! No… an ICECREAM CAKE!

I had to get to the room where we had breakfast before my hangry brain made me chew the walls.

I chose a sensible mango smoothie and sipped it slowly when it came, enjoying being alone with just a regular face. I let my brain go blank as I browsed the ancient magazines left behind. Previous winners of other games were all over the covers and there were long, in depth articles about their lives before and after the games. It didn’t occur to me immediately but it did dawn on me that I would be scrutinised just as closely. Oh well, let them probe. They’re going to find out I’m the least interesting person in the game. But I have at least two fans in Rosabelle and Laney. I knew that even if I didn’t win, the fame from being a player could help me set up a business eventually, and for now, that was enough. The hour flew by and before I knew it, there was a familiar sound being broadcast:

PLAYERS, RETURN TO THE LOBBY

PLAYERS, RETURN TO THE LOBBY

The smoothie was long gone and so was the pain of the snowball. I was ready. I didn’t run back, but I held my head a little higher than I normally would. Only Marcus was there before me and he didn’t look at me at all as I entered and went to my spot. That’s definitely a brush-off. I think I can forget about the garden meeting. But he still has really nice hair. And nice eyes. And he’s not a total jerk like someone ELSE I could mention…

It felt strange for the neural link to drop so soon after I’d been scanned, that would be TWO things plugging into my brain in the same day. Speedy Sue arrived just as my vision was aligning to the game reality and she seemed flustered and red faced, but I didn’t have time to wonder why.

MISSION 4: SELL 30 ITEMS WITH 4+ GOOD REVIEWS

Woah, 30 items? The game was beginning to load but all I could see was a giant, green field.

10

I had to think fast. I knew the game got progressively harder and tested player endurance more. This seemed like an enormous jump in pressure but it also stated ITEMS, not drinks. So… maybe the field-setting had something to do with the amount of time we would be there? It could take hours to sell that many!

5

I missed 9, 8 7 and 6! Calm down T, breathe. The setting was becoming sharper. The other stands became clear and I saw the other vans were quite far away from me. I wouldn’t be able to watch the competition, nor could they really see me.

3

Then I saw the sign loading near me and I worked out we were in different spots in a vast, farmers market. There were stands everywhere full of fruits and vegetables, so it would make sense that there would be lots of foot-traffic. That could be good. I could get a line going in this part of the field, I could do this!

MISSION FOUR: GO!

I ran my hands along the counter, feeling the solid setting, surrendering to the real-feel aspect of the game. I was feeling really good until I looked up and saw what was next to me and then my heart sank. My stand was next to a pen full of goats.

That would have been fine, since I have nothing against goats. But a second later, one of the goats was loose and was lowering its head. Oh good, a random goat with murder in his eyes is charging straight at my van!