A Power Game

After Sidney and Roman had left for school, Mhykol promptly wheeled himself to his room and closed the door. It clicked shut with a secretive whisper of whooshing air. Mhykol's hands trembled as he clutched the Netgear between them.

Virtual Reality.

He had dreamed about it time and time again; of being able to walk, or fly, or swim. Simply to be able to do things that other people took for granted; dance, play sports. Anything. He put the helmet over his head.

It was just under the size of a football helmet, smooth and black. The shiny surface felt slick under his long fingers, like a bowling ball. A visor of tinted dark-grey glass slid down over his eyes as he sat, and the Netgear clicked to life. Green light filled Mhykol's vision as the Netgear preformed the identification and security checks. Quickly, Mhykol pulled a cord from his computer, connecting it to the side of the Netgear. He hadn't been programming since he was ten years old for nothing.

The Netgear beeped once, the sound harsh and shrill in the deep silence of the room. There was padding over his ears, but Mhykol still almost flinched at the sharpness of the sound.

"Add System Administrator Privileges; Mhykol Wolfe." His voice sounded silent to his ears.

The light inside of the Netgear went electric, emergency red.

'Please lie down on a comfortable, flat surface.'

The voice was female, and sounded vaguely like the woman was singing. Mhykol followed her instructions, wheeling himself to his bed and lying in it. The cord from his computer was just long enough, and Mhykol breathed a sigh of relief. Lying on the floor would probably be pretty uncomfortable. As he did so, the light went from red to green.

'Authorization Initialized. Netgear code: AE726FU82. Personal Identification: what is your name?'

"Mhykol Welsh."

Mhykol wondered briefly if this counted as talking to himself, but roughly pushed the thought out of his mind.

'Welcome, Mhykol Welsh. Please raise your right hand.'

He did as the lady asked.

'Left hand.'

'Left Leg.'

And so on and so forth, until he had either touched or moved every part of his body. Mhykol figured they would need an accurate body scan in order to simulate your in-game character. Very interesting.

'Thank-you. Final body scan complete. Please choose starter kit.'

Suddenly, a screen appeared before Mhykol's eyes. It seemed to float just above his bed. The Netgear was gone, vanished magically from his head, and all that remained was the white screen. There were six classes he could see; Warrior, Ranger, Magician, Healer, Thief, Assassin.

Mhykol's mind was decided instantly. Raising one hand, he tapped the image of the assassin. The picture was a boy with white hair, dressed in ninja clothes and spinning a long, curved knife around one finger.

'Starter Class: Assassin.' The woman's sweet voice rang in his ears. 'Boosted stats: Attack, Stealth, Speed. Special Abilities: Invisibility, Godspeed, Touch of Death. Are you sure?'

Two symbols appeared in front of Mhykol, floating in the air in front of his face. Both were white circles, one containing a green checkmark, the other with a red 'x'. Mhykol touched the green checkmark.

'Mhykol Welsh; Assassin; Random Special Ability: Godspeed; Starting Items: Health Potion, Longsword, Light Armour. We at Presence of Creation hope you have a nice forever in Euphoria!'

Mhykol smiled as he felt his body growing light, and the room slowly fading around him. Goodbye world. Hello Alternate Reality! The room spun around him, glowing white, and Mhykol laughed in ecstasy.

And then the spinning stopped, the white glow fading. Opening his eyes, Mhykol breathed deeply in amazement.

He was in a forest clearing, no more than thirty feet by thirty feet, and he wasn't alone. The air smelt of fresh-fallen leaves, newly turned soil, and chestnuts. The sunlight fell from the sky like a glowing sword, striking Mhykol in the eyes stunningly. He raised one hand to block it out slightly and continue studying the forest. The warm wind carried the feel of late summer, and the leaves matched. Deep green and swaying, many were outlined in bands of red and royal gold. Far in the distance, Mhykol could see a dozen bands of smoke rising slowly from something.

A village, he supposed, or just a group of people camping together. He made a mental note to check it out later. But for now...

Mhykol reached up one hand. Twitching his long, pale fingers slightly, he felt at the air beside his head. At first, his fingers waved through nothing but air, but slowly, Mhykol began to feel ...something. It was like a tube attached to his head. A tube; or a cord. Pulling on the object, Mhykol smiled in triumph. He had the attachment, he was in. After this, he would go down in history as the worlds greatest hacker. If he was caught, that is, which Mhykol had no intention of happening.

'Control Panel Activated.' The woman's voice rang in Mhykol's ears, and he silently fist-pumped the air. 'Activating Moderator Commands; Initializing Start-up, User Wolfe. Surname Welsh.'

It was that easy, huh? Mhykol had expected to have to hack into the inner security networks, but it seemed that bypassing the guard system entirely had been easier than expected.

'Please Enter a Command.' The woman's voice carried the vaguest hint of a question.

Mhykol paused, thinking quickly. "Activate Special Abilities; Assassin, User Wolfe." He said the words so fast that they seemed to be in the same breath, leading one into the next. "Activate ability parameter, speed. Increase by four. Activate ability parameter, strength. Increase by two. Activate ability parameter, senses. Increase by one."

Suddenly, the world shifted, sharpening. It was as if Mhykol could feel the fingers of the wind trailing like silk across his skin, taste the sweet tang of the air. He could pick out every blade of grass, count every leaf on the chestnut tree across the clearing.

"I'm alive." He whispered.

'Code: 'I'm Alive' is an unknown source code. Continue?'

"No. System Administrator Wolfe signing off."

'Thank-you.'

The woman beeped, and went silent. Mhykol exhaled in wonder, raising one hand in front of his face. He rotated it slowly, watching the sunlight flash across his pale skin. So this was what it was like to be alive. Truly alive. He closed his hand, as if he was gripping a stick, and summoned his starting weapon. He didn't know how he knew what to do instinctively; it was obviously something programmed into the Netgear, but whatever he did worked. When he closed his fingers together, they wrapped solidly around the handle of a short, metal sword.

The metal was a dark grey, and seemed to drink in the sunlight. The handle was a black leather, braided and soft, and felt light and even in his hand. Mhykol swung the blade, watching sunlight dance across the translucent black surface, and flash along the silver engraving on the crossguard.

It was too bad he couldn't risk increasing his stats more, but he didn't want to risk it. Technically, he was already invading the games sensitive information network. If the 'security guards' for the games inner code sensed his play stats increasing that dramatically so quickly, they would put out a red alert so strong even he couldn't escape him. He was a good hacker, possibly the best, but he hadn't created the game. In fact, in terms of the technology power-chain, he still stood quite low. Still, he had better skills than a person who had been playing the game for months.

"Let the games - begin."