The connection

In the following three days, all participants underwent different medical examinations, and the different sensors were implanted. It was neither painful nor bothersome after being installed, perhaps a small sting in some areas. Although we were kept isolated from each other in our luxurious rooms in the 10 buildings behind the office building, it was inevitable that I would bump into some of them in the hallways or while moving between buildings.

I saw some well-known faces from the world of video games, no superstars (something normal with the cache they paid), but there were game streamers, and a couple of famous professionals in the sector.

We lived in a kind of medicalized luxury resort; the only bad thing was that the meals were brought to the room, so you couldn't look for other Spanish speakers or share impressions with the rest of the participants; they existed, but as they had told us in the interview, it was necessary for the good of the game that no one knew each other until after the tutorial. They wanted to avoid clans or early alliances, or so they said.

In three days, I only met three women... I already imagined the proportion: 30% women and 70% sweaty freaks.

I was lying on the sofa in the living room of my luxurious quarters when I thought I saw someone climbing down from the upper floor to my balcony. I was about to call security when I noticed that she was a girl...

"Open, I know you understand me and that you speak Spanish; I heard you talking to your mother on the terrace..." and that's how I met Mariela...

She was a Latina in her early twenties; she was tall, pretty to a certain extent, but more striking was her explosive character, she burst in as soon as I opened the door to the terrace and lay down on the sofa. She took two beers out of her sweatshirt pocket.

"I'm Mariela, and you tell me your name and shut your mouth because some bug is going to get in."

"I'm Lion (I told him my name in the game); how the hell did you get off?"

"Going down from the balcony as if I couldn't stand the confinement anymore... Wait... Lion, the cheater? Damn, I'm with one star; you're famous on the forums, man. I once followed one of your guides."

We could say that in the three hours that she was in my room, she spoke 70% of the time. She was Colombian, a freaky of the new generations; she had made a name for herself playing PVP in various games since she was young. I recognized her when she told me her name online, Elsyne.

We exchanged impressions about the whole mystery of this game, although the conversation ended in the desire that Elsyne had to shoot an arrow with her own body... in discovering treasures, or in killing monsters... As a cheater, I did not share her passion for combat.

"You have more experience; you are a senior in the world; what do you recommend?"

"Haha, this is also new for me, but if you want me to recommend something, I will tell you that the differences in the games are marked many times during the tutorial; what you do there will define your character in the future. Be careful and don't treat it alone like a hack and slash game; we don't know what we're facing." Because of her character, I knew that she would not listen for many reasons if I tried to persuade her abruptly.

"Likewise, do not choose a bow as your first weapon. You will be very limited. No matter how good you were, arrows are a finite object, and I don't think it will be easy to recover them from a certain point. A spear or something That gives you distance but that you don't have to replace would be a better option." I calmly suggested

"I'm sorry, but there is no way I wouldn't pick up a bow, especially in a game with real control... I am an Olympic shooter in Colombia. I may never win gold, but I assure you that I am very good. Although I can choose some secondary weapon, I assure you that I will try to get one during the tutorial" She told me with a smile and showing off, while she made the perfect gesture of shooting a bow in slow motion.

No, no matter how much you imagine it, it didn't end in anything romantic or much less spicy; it was entertaining, different, and it helped me relax for a while... I cannot say that I don't remember her smile, but she was much younger than me. No option. No way.

At one point in the night, she left just as she arrived, although this time she needed my help to get up and reach the bars of her balcony to climb...

I looked down from my third-floor terrace, and just thinking about the fall made me dizzy.

I fell asleep straight away, with a deep and restful sleep.

On the mandatory day, they woke us up at 7 in the morning. In groups of 10 people, they took us to the basement of the building, and from there, after going down more than 5 floors, we entered an underground complex. Due to the distance traveled in the corridors, it must have covered the entire width of the exterior lands. This meant that it was a huge installation... The different groups were put into rooms, in which there were a total of 10 cabins. These looked like a mix of a Dragon Fall spaceship and a water tank...

There were no women in my group, so I was grateful that before getting into the tanks we were all dressed in sensor suits more similar to a neoprene... Spending three months with 10 naked guys was not funny either.

There were nerves; some in English exchanged words of encouragement, and others with a smug or arrogant look didn't look at anyone or looked down their nose.

My companion in the capsule on the right was a "typical" German, tall, blonde, and stiff as if a stick had been stuck in his ass... And the one on the left was the example of a nerd, chubby, with glasses, sweaty, a freak through and through who exuded the word gamer from every pore.

In front, there was an oriental man, just like on his left (due to the poor communication between them, I would say that they were a Japanese and a Korean); on his right, however, there was a good-looking Italian, dark-skinned and smiling. The rest of the room was made up of a huge and clumsy-looking Nordic man, an American with the face of a drug addict, and a boy who must have been Indian or similar...

Of all of them, I knew the Italian as a streamer, since he specialized in mobile RPG game videos, and the American one, who had been a promising precursor of "online game sports" until he disappeared a couple of years ago...

We sat inside the cabins, the medical team put the sensors, connectors and respirators on us, the capsules were closed, and the viscous liquid began to flood them. It was cold, and it could be overwhelming, but as they had already explained to us, a sedative supplied by one of the intravenous lines would take effect quickly to avoid possible anxiety attacks and facilitate peaceful synchronization...

I closed my eyes, and in less than 15 seconds, I felt my body fall asleep...

Have you ever been on a free-fall attraction? Well, that's how my conscience felt, as if it were being pulled downwards. At the same time, the voice of the system that, from this moment on, I will call "Data" began the first of a series of countdowns...

"Starting with the physical examination completion rate: 1%... 5%... 19%... 67%... 93%... 100% completed"

"Starting with muscle memory reading 1%...100% completed"

I can affirm that this only felt in my consciousness like a tickling; it was like a dream sensation because at that moment it was like being dreaming but at the same time being aware of not having a physical body...

"Starting actual memory synchronization 1%...100% complete"

This makes you dizzy more than anything else; it's as if your whole life all your memories came up... but it wasn't like living them but like seeing them even though I didn't have eyes...

"Beginning the synchronization of intellectual capacities...100% completed"

The best way to define this is "I'm left with a hangover, my lord" It's as if after a drunken night they made you take an exam, a mixture of pain, disgust and feeling like your brain was burned...

More than fifty synchronizations and various readings were completed one after another in what was an eternity and ultimately a torture of different sensations.

"Total synchronization completed" adaptation percentage: 95% beginning the construction of the "physical" body 1%... 2%...