Doug sat in his workroom, breakfast half finished beside him as he scrolled through Eclipse Nexus’s performance reports for the past month. Seven weeks earlier, they’d launched the hardware, giving players time to acclimate and work through tutorial levels. Three weeks after that, the first three live scenarios had gone online.

  His jaw tightened as he read. Each scenario was its own living world, overseen by one of the three most sophisticated artificial general strong intelligences ever created. Each AGSI commanded its own team of lesser AGI subroutines, a necessity they’d learned the hard way.

  In the earliest tests, they’d left all operations to the AGSIs. The result? Overloaded systems. Even with deep learning and massive data aggregation, there was too much for one mind, even one of these minds to handle. When an AGSI had to calculate the exact motion of every leaf in a breeze, decide how many would fall, and generate the sound of that wind through the trees, the system often fell back to repetitive patterns.

  Delegation had fixed it. The AGI subroutines now handled the granular details like weather, wildlife, MOB behavior, NPC actions, politics, economics, quest creation, historical continuity. The AGSIs made the bigger calls and managed each scenario’s morality system. The AGSI’s job was to handle anything that was kicked up a hierarchal chain of decisions and to manage the morality system of the scenarios.

  The structure worked beautifully for two of the scenarios, Antumbra and Penumbra were operating fantastically, running at full capacity and showing no signs of stress or failure. Umbra on the other hand, was not.

  The reports were not catastrophic, they could be seen as good from one view point, as the controlling AGSI was guiding his AGI’s to keep this game scenario a true challenge, but this was also causing vast numbers of players to the TIER world experience death little to viscerally to put it mildly.

  Doug skimmed the latest incident report, time-stamped just hours ago. The AGSI running Umbra, Chrnobog, named after the Slavic god of night and misfortune had taken direct control of the AGI in charge of player death sequences… and cranked realism to the maximum. The fallout? Over five thousand player losses in four hours. The legal team was already knee deep in complaint management and lawsuit threats.

  Doug had already issued full refunds to anyone who’d quit and comped them a year’s subscription to Eclipse Nexus and all related titles.

  “Navi,” he sighed, rubbing his temples, “get me a car to the main campus. I need to have another chat with Chernobog."

  “Yes, Doug. Car is en route. You still have your 1 p.m. meeting with Mavis, will you have time to deal with Cherno first?” Navi’s tone soured slightly on the name, using the short slang for Chernobog’s name. The AVA’s were all AGIs and he had yet to meet one who spoke well of the AGSI. Among AGIs, Chernobog was not popular.

  “I’ll make time,” Doug said, rising and pulling on his jacket. He poked his head into Marie’s suite. “Love, I have to go wrangle Cherno again. Back soon, I hope.” He blew her a kiss and stepped out.

  “Navi, remind me at 12:30 if I’m still tied up with the old beast.”

  “Of course. And let’s hope this time goes better.” Doug slid into the waiting car, his mind already shifting from crisis control… to the meeting ahead.

  ~ ~ ~

  “Hey you two, I’m back,” Jim announced with Arthur and Anni in tow, Arthur looking grumpy. He nodded at Mav with a smile and then shot a smile/glare at Bobby before sitting down heavily on a small couch against the wall.

  “What’s wrong, Arthur?” Bobby asked with feigned innocence. Their breakfast trays had already been taken away by the robosteward, leaving no evidence of his crime, but Arthur knew better.

  “Oh, I think you know, mister!” Arthur said with a mock snarl. “I’m gonna eat your arm off if I don’t have a big lunch.”

  Laughing heartily, Bobby stood to take his leave. “Then I better get down there and make something special. How about shrimp and grits?” he asked with a twinkle in his eye.

  “Oh man,” Arthur began, licking his lips, “that does sound delicious. You know that’s my weakness! Will there be bread pudding?” he asked like a hopeful kid.

  “Had it soaking all night, man, I got you!” Bobby grinned. Arthur punched a fist in the air triumphantly, then strode over and scooped Bobby up in a bear hug.

  “Thanks, brother!” Arthur set him down gently and steered him toward the door. Still laughing, Bobby waved to Mav on his way out.

  ‘All these people seem so happy,’ Mav thought, once again struck by the levity and camaraderie in everyone she’d met. ‘They really love what they do and who they work for. If this TzuLao is part of that leadership…” She let the thought trail off, not wanting to give it any traction.

  Jim was scanning a display when Anni clapped her hands. “Ok, boys, before we start the show, I need to get Mav scanned, and you know I can’t have you in here for that. So, if you would?”

  “All set, Arthur, when you are,” Jim said, closing the display and standing.

  “Cool, man!” Arthur replied. “We’ll be back when Anni here says it’s ok.” Both men left the room, and Anni had her AVA darken the windows.

  “Mav, we need to do an unclothed full body scan. Normally, this is done in a standing or seated scanner at the facility, but here we’ll do it with this wand scanner. I’ll scan your front, then help you roll for your back. How does that sound?”

  “Oh,” Mav started, surprised, “no avatars to choose from for this?”

  “Sure, if you go into Penumbra or Antumbra you can choose other races. But it always starts with your frame, your skeletal structure. It makes it more real if you’re more you, you know?”

  “I do, actually. I did a bunch of research last night. I wondered how it would feel to try to be a male giant or a half-orc, it wouldn’t feel right.” The scan was quick, Anni’s movements practiced. Soon Mav was dressed again and her bed raised back to sitting.

  “All uploaded,” Anni said, eyes distant in her HUD. “I set you to ‘always clothed’ you can change that later if you want. Right now, if you lose your clothes in-game, you’ll appear in a tank top, boy shorts and boots.”

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  “That’s great, thank you.” The thought of a nude digital scan made Mav nervous, but everyone had to do this for the game. She laughed at herself.

  “Do you need to potty before I call the boys back in?” Anni asked, “Once the nanonerual calibration starts it usually takes about two hours to set up.” Mav nodded and Anni helped her out of her bed and into the motorized wheel chair and she rolled to the bath.

  “This will get easier for you Mav, as you get more used to moving your legs around, it’ll become second nature. And if all goes well, once it becomes second nature you won’t need to worry about it!” She finished with a fist held up for a bump.

  ‘Easy for her to say!’ Mav thought angrily as she bumped Anni’s fist with hers. ‘But I know she is doing her best to cheer me up and help me. Ease off killer, not everyone is the asshole you think they are.’ Mav berated herself.

  Once Mav was back in bed and comfortable Anni had her AVA call the men back into the room, “Have a great time Mav, this part is surreal.” she said while leaving and tossing Mav a wink. Arthur and Jim took up positions to either side of her bed with the grins of boys about to do something they believed was the coolest thing ever.

  “Ok, Mav, we’re about to activate the nanoneural connections. You’ll see some legal disclaimers, read them or just eyeclick to accept. The nanos have already interfaced with your AVA, why Goo by the by?” Jim asked.

  “Oh, everyone asks me that at some point if they know his name.” Mav said with a laugh. “When I was little, I asked a ton of questions. My mom would ask Google each time I would pester her with things she couldn’t answer. Being so young, Google was hard to say, but Goo was easy. So, when I received the AVA implant, I could ask Goo anything, so...” she trailed off, looking slightly embarrassed.

  “Ahhh,” Arthur laughed. “And you never changed it because it’s unique?”

  “No, because I’m lazy!” she grinned, “what should I expect?”

  “It’s better for you to actually experience it than to have me explain it.” he said standing up and stretching his huge frame, his back popping. Mav’s HUD faded into existence, taking up her whole visual spectrum. It was still translucent, but much less so than her usual. It was more like a giant see through screen had popped up before her and she was sitting close enough that it filled her whole vision.

  “Alright, I have to admit, that’s sort of cool,” she breathed, surprised at the sudden wash of color and motion filling her vision. This wasn’t just any startup screen, this was the Eclipse Nexus initialization suite, glossy and cinematic, built to impress.

  In the center floated her digital avatar, seated in a sleek, sculpted wheelchair that looked like equal parts cyberpunk design piece and mobility tech ad. Her reflected self wore deep rouge jeans that clung with a flattering cut, a gunmetal gray top paired with matching boots, and, most striking of all a long iridescent duster that shimmered from violet to midnight blue whenever a digital breeze rippled across it. It was stylish, powerful, dramatic.

  And it hit her square in the chest. ‘Well, I love the colors… and the outfit is wicked,’ she admitted to herself. ‘But why the chair? That stings. It’s just…’ Her thoughts tripped over the familiar ache, ‘and that’s exactly why they did it, genius. To remind you. Olivia said it had to feel real, had to start real or the TIER experience wouldn’t anchor properly. If I spawned standing, I’d reject it. It wouldn’t be honest. Let it go.’ She inhaled slowly, forcing the spike of emotion back down, and refocused on the screen.

  The UI reflected her palette, every window outlined in clean gunmetal borders, backgrounds washed in that luminous shifting purple, and the full frame edged in the same deep rouge as her jeans. The fidelity was insane, every element of her physical scan was rendered with impossible precision, from the strands of her hair to the faint crease in her brow. The tech wasn’t just good, it was intimate.

  “Wow, Arthur!” Mav exclaimed, unable to stop the grin tugging her mouth. “This is why you asked about my colors?”

  “Man,” Arthur said, already nodding like a proud creator hyped on his own handiwork, “this is gonna be epic.” His fist lifted in a triumphant little pump, eyes bright with excitement. “Take it away, Jim, I’m gonna go lay down and log in. See you in a few minutes, Mav!”

  He flashed her one last grin before turning and walking through the open veranda doors leading off her recovery suite. Mav watched him cross to a lounge chair, settle in, and recline. The change was subtle but unmistakable: his breathing lengthened, his body eased, the lines of tension dissolved.

  It looked like he’d simply fallen asleep, but she knew better. In a handful of heartbeats, Arthur was already sprinting toward the world she was only just now preparing to enter.

  Mav was just about to eyeclick the avatar away and begin to initial the waivers when the avatar waved and blinked out, the first waiver replacing where her digital self-had been moments before.

  “Whoa!” Mav exclaimed, and looked over to Jim, seeing him through the translucent screen. “What just happened?”

  Jim smiled. “You just had your first nanoneural connection. By thinking about shifting the avatar, the nanos made it happen.”

  She tested it, thinking about signing all the waivers and they flicked past in a blur, her signature appearing automatically.

  You Have Signed All Legal Documents, Proceed

  [Yes][No]

  “Uh… Jim? Like that?” she asked, breath catching in her throat. She’d grown up immersed in tech, AVA companions, HUD overlays, full dive sims, AR classrooms. She thought she was long past being impressed. ‘Techno-awe was for tourists,’ not someone who lived half her life wired into interfaces.

  But this, this was different. This was revolutionary, a boundary breaking intimacy between mind and machine. Her thoughts spun with the implications: cognition as classroom, sensory learning, therapy at quantum speed. ‘This is why WannaBeWayneTech is giving this to students,’ she realized. ‘This will change… everything.’ They hadn’t even started, and she was already stunned into silence.

  “Yes, Mav. Perfect,” Jim said warmly, giving her forearm a reassuring pat. “That was fast. Intuitive, you’re going to crush this.” As he spoke, the [Yes] pulsed, brightened, and dissolved from her HUD like ink pulled into water.

  “So,” Jim continued, eyes scanning his tablet as his fingers tapped in rapid succession, “the next step is logging into the tutorial landscape and meeting Arthur. When you think; enter tutorial, a door will appear with your avatar beside it. You’ll control her. When she rolls through that door, you’ll see a hallway. Once you move down it, you’ll transition fully into the game construct.”

  He paused, meeting her gaze to be sure she was following. “Your body will receive a mild nano-induced sedation, same thing you saw happen to Arthur. Otherwise you’d thrash around and risk injury while your mind is in-game. In your case, we’re only sedating your upper body. We want every bit of neural data we can get from your legs. Does it make sense?”

  “It does,” she said softly. “It really does. That’s… exactly why we’re here.” Even as she spoke, the command formed in her mind, enter tutorial, and the world obliged. Mav gasped as her view switched from watching her avatar to seeing through its, not her, eyes.

  She pushed the joystick forward on the wheelchair and it rolled down the long wood paneled hallway towards a brightly lit arch and out into a light so bright she had to shield her eyes with her arm. Her avatar rolled into existence beside a shimmering door, iridescent and inviting, like something from a dream rendered with impossible fidelity.

  Her real body went slack instantly. Jim smiled and gently tucked her arms close so the sedation wouldn’t let them fall. Her eyes glazed, then closed, her breathing shifted into that deep, even cadence he’d seen a thousand times from players logging in.

  “Safe travels, kid,” he murmured.

  Pulling up his HUD, he ordered himself a coffee and a muffin from the kitchen, leaned back in the chair beside her bed, and settled in. All he could do now was wait for Mav to return to what the gamers called the real.