Digital Reality

You've saved. You've scraped. Maybe you've even begged, borrowed, or stolen. It doesn't matter. What matters is this moment. Doing something for yourself. To splurge. Perhaps you tell yourself you've earned it.

But be warned: Past this point, it's the Digital World all the way. Once you make this decision, you will become immersed in an entire parallel universe, existing like a skin around the apple of the Earth. You will witness myriad wonders, terrors, and mysteries beyond our species' reckoning.

Here is where heroes are made.

You've purchased a Metavenation virtual reality unit (VRU). Now you'll get to finally feel what the fuss is all about. Maybe you've had the opportunity to sample from a friend's VRU, but it was barely a taste. The experience would have only whetted what for many has become an addiction. Now you too can own this adventure.

But what you're not told is that it's a different adventure from what everyone else has. Only purchasers of a genuine Metavenation VRU will dive into this world, a fireball targeting the biggest dream-come-reality in history. And history is in the making. You'll encounter inhuman creatures as intelligent as you or I, big or small, ferocious or cunning. Their world is not peaceful. It is as chaotic as the waves of digital information criss-crossing the Earth.

You don your VRU goggles and switch on. The old world, "reality" as we term it, feels as though it's being yanked away from the edges of your vision. You don't even feel the heavy rig upon your body as you sail high over the landscape, a melange of biomes, each eager to accept you. You begin to wonder if you'll ever land. Then, you enter a thick cloud, and your vision fills up with white.

You're standing on something, but you don't know what. Faint hexagons texture the floor, and you are surrounded by a choice. You turn left and right, but are unable to step away. You see table after table after table, and upon each is a large egg, about the size of your head. The eggs come in all sorts of colors and patterns. There are white ones, black ones, striped ones, polka-dotted ones. Each one bears a mark of some sort, which mysterious floating captions transcribe as meaning "Courage" or "Knowledge" or "Solidarity". "Hope". "Friendship". "Love". Value after value is laid bare in egg form, waiting for you to select and nurture it. "Desire". "Dream". "Kindness". "Empathy". You think you may never scan through the entire variety laid out before you, but you only get one choice.

Words, like subtitles, echo from all around you. "Now, be honest."