You know that feeling when you're falling asleep but you feel like your body is falling? Some say it's your conscious drifting away while your mind rests, others think that somehow you are in tune to the earths movements and actually feel yourself falling through space. Whatever it is it's a creepy sensation, and That's what happened to me as I fell asleep tonight, but generally you either wake up or it stops. Tonight it just keeps going, I feel like I'm falling forever. Suddenly it stops, everything is pitch black it's hard to tell if I'm sitting or standing. Slowly all around me starts getting brighter, not so much a sunrise or something natural like that but more like someone is slowly sliding up a dimmer switch. I find myself in a white room, the walls are white, the floor is white, hell if I couldn't feel the chair I was sitting in I wouldn't think it was there. Even I'm wearing a white jumpsuit, not typically what I wear to bed but it's comfortable. Whatever it is this is an odd dream. Maybe I should drink less soda before bed.

"Welcome to the new world" a voice says behind me. I turn around but nothing is there.

"Who's there?" I ask, my voice echos off the walls.

"You don't have to shout" says the same voice now behind me again.

I turn back around and sitting in front of me is an oak desk with a man in a sharp three piece suit, also white.

"Where did you come from?" I ask, this guy definitely wasn't here a moment ago.

"Sometimes the graphics take a bit to load in. I keep telling the devs we need better models but they keep saying 'Oh you never use them, you won't be interacting with the players.' Guess I win that battle."

"Graphics? Devs? Players? What is this a game? Seems like a weird dream to me." I say.

"Did you not read the EULA?" He questions "It was all written there."

"Does anyone read those?" I scoff. "What EULA are you even talking about?"

"You did sign up for the Cryo-Medical beta right? We're going to be in a lot of trouble if we got the wrong person"

"I did but that's just a game I didn't even get a download link!" I say.

" This is why you need to read things before you sign them. Okay well time is short so I'll do the quick version"

"What do you mean time is short?" I say. He simply points at the clock on his desk that I swear wasn't there a moment ago.

"We gave everyone 20 minutes to get adjusted and build their character. You have --" He leans forward to peer at the clock " already wasted four of those minutes asking questions that you should know the answers to so listen carefully. We have found a way to tap into your subconcious while you are sleeping and allow you to play our game while you sleep. You know those viral ads for games where they're like 'level up in your sleep'? Well we can actually do that. We are hoping to use this technology to help patients stuck in long term coma's to strengthen their mental connections and eventually be roused from the coma. Before we go about testing it out on them though we needed to test it out on people who are able to naturally sleep and wake hence our beta testers. You and 19 others from varying backgrounds have been chosen to participate in this trial. To ensure noone is given a head start you are all given this twen--" Looks at clock again " 15 minute period to make your character and get used to your equipment before you are all spawned in together."

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"Okay this sounds awesome! How do I start what races are there? What about classes? Can I do magic?" Now I'm excited.

"First question first, your race is Human, you look how your subconcious sees you, apparently you're not that imaginative" He smirks

"Hey wait I have a great imagination!" I exclaim.

"I was kidding, well you are still human, most peoples subconcious self is human, I believe of the four hundred some odd developers we have only about 10% are a race other than human. As for classes that is more up to you, we don't have traditional classes, more weapon sets we can give you that help you lean into something your interested in. Want to be a tank? We will give you a sword and shield. Want to be an Archer? We will give you a bow and quiver of arrows. You are not prohibited from switching it up, though your proficiency with each type of weapon starts at zero and only gets better with continued practice. So what is your persuasion? What do you have the most fun playing?"

"Well lately I've been the tank for our raids, but that was because no one else wanted to do it. If given the choice I usually go with daggers poisons and sneaking around." I say.

"Ah, a rogue type. Simple enough." He waves his hand towards the wall. When I look over there is gear set neatly on racks. "Go ahead and get changed."

"Like here? With you watching?" I start shaking my head.

"I will turn around if it will help, but you will find as you are changing that like a ken doll, your briefs are not removable so there should be no sense of immodesty" He says, swiveling his chair away from the wall.

I go over to the wall and find a full set of leather armor, pants, gloves, boots, a belt with several loops on it. As I remove my white jumpsuit I notice that like he said it's as if someone painted the underwear onto my body with no way to remove them. "What if I have to like use the bathroom or something?" I ask while putting on the armor.

"Please do not defecate in our game world." he laughs "Remember that you are in your dream, so should you force yourself to go you will probably find a nasty surprise when you awake in the morning. This isn't a long term play session. You will only be here while you sleep."

"What's up with these weapons?" I question, walking to the next rack. "They seem kind of... simple."

"Did you think you would start with Uber gifts from the gods? You are level 1 with zero skills in any weapons. Something like that would just slow you down." He laughs

"I guess that's true, most games start you with dull grey quality items and you have to work your way up." I say sheathing my daggers. "What are these loops for?" I ask.

"Ah that is something I thought of while you were talking about your preferred class." He comes over and leads me to a small table. "In each of these vials there is poison. There's enough for 10 doses per vial."

"And how do I use it?" I ask

"Shall I play the game for you? Experiment! The best way to learn something is to try it out!" He takes the vial from the table and slides it in the loop on my belt. "This is how you should carry them for easy access and so they don't slip and that's all I'll say about that. As we said you will have a full recording of all of your adventures, delivered by email after each session. Over there is a mirror go check yourself out and say something for your fans. You have about a minute left before you spawn in so make it count!" He walks over and sits back at the desk.

As I wander over I take a look at myself in the mirror. I notice I'm a bit taller than in real life and assume that's thanks to my self confidence and positive body image. I fuss with the armor a bit, pulling here and there making sure it sits right, then stand up tall in the mirror.

"Hey guys, Styx here! I got a wonderful opportunity to be part of a private beta test for Cryo-Medicals upcoming game called......" I look back "Hey what is the name of this game? I never saw anything in the email or on the website?"

"Oh right it's -----"

Suddenly everything is black, the only thing I see is red words in front of me "Respawn in 30...29...28.." So much for my intro.