Sean stared at the screen.

Identifier Code? Isn’t this just a referral box? He thought to himself. He didn’t remember hearing anything about needing an identifier code. Sean searched around for the skip button. Prompts like these usually had one.

There. On the bottom right of the screen. He had almost missed the button since it was so small. He reached out and pressed it.

A new screen greeted him.

[Are you sure you want to skip? You will not be able to return to this screen if you choose to do so.

Confirm/Back]

Sean observed the new prompt. I won’t be able to go back? That’s strange. Games usually let you enter the referral code even after you sign up. Could this be something entirely different?

This was something important. Sean chose the “Back” option, returning to the first screen.

[Identifier Code: ________ ]

Sean tried entering his name.

[Error: Code not recognized. Please try again.]

He tried Mark Staun for fun, though he had low hopes for this one.

[Error: Code not recognized. Please try again.]

If it’s not a name, then that means this isn’t asking for a referrer. Maybe it’s a special access code . . . Wait a minute! Sean came to a realization. The napkin. Mark had mentioned it was a code of some sort.

“How do I exit the game?” He spoke out loud, hoping the voice would respond.

To his relief, the same female voice that had welcomed him into the game responded.

“Simply envision the words ‘Logout’ in your head and a command box will appear,” came the robotic reply.

He followed the voice’s instructions and sure enough, a new box appeared.

[Logout?

Yes/No]

Sean pressed “Yes”.

The white room faded from his view as he felt himself returning to his body. It was quite a surreal experience, he had never felt anything like it before. Now all he could see was black. Feeling around for the straps, he unlatched the Envision Module and took it off.

Sean blinked a few times against the glaring lights in his room. Surprisingly, he didn’t feel any of the weird side effects that people complained about when using the Envision Module. Some had said they felt headaches after prolonged use, others said they found themselves sweating abnormally when they finished playing.

But Sean felt none of that. Maybe it was because he kept his body fit and healthy through calisthenics. The local gym had been too “expensive”, so he had looked for alternatives. A quick search online had told him that body fitness was a great way to stay in shape. The best part was that it was cheap. All he needed was a pull-up bar and his body.

Speaking of working out, I’m feeling rather hungry now. Shit, I left my dinner in the microwave!

He reheated the cold curry once more, this time patiently waiting for the timer to run down. Sean quickly wolfed down the meal, impatient to get back to the game.

Full bellied and clean, he was ready once more. But he had one more thing to do.

Sean wrinkled his nose as he fished his coffee-stained jeans out. I wish my clothes didn’t smell like coffee all that time, the smell sticks to everything.

Reaching into the back pocket, he dug out the napkin and unfolded it.

S312L9N0S115125T15N.

Sean still couldn’t make sense of the random letters and digits, but he figured all he had to do was enter the code.

Returning to his bed, he grabbed the Envision Module and placed it back on his end. In a familiar flash of white, he was once again greeted by the female voice and back in the same white room.

[Identifier Code: _____ ]

He raised a hand and tapped the system screen. A keypad appeared.

Good thing I majored in physiology back in school. All those countless hours I spent studying for tests and lab practicals did wonders for my memorization.

Sean recalled the string of letters and numbers with perfect accuracy, confidently entering the code into the system box by tapping each individual symbol.

[Identifier Code: S312L9N0S115125T15N.

Code successfully recognized.

Please standby.]

A new window appeared. It seemed to be a Terms of Service agreement page. Sean wasted no time in scrolling to the bottom and check-marking the ‘I accept’ box. No one ever read those things.

The system screen disappeared, leaving Sean to stare into a blank canvas of white.

What now?

As if on cue, the female voice projected through the empty air.

“Player Sean Fox has been recognized as an ‘Entity Account’ and has been successfully registered into the [Climb Competition],” announced the robotic voice.

“Hold up. What did you just call me? Entity Account? Climb Competition?” Sean was intrigued. He was hearing English, but the terminology made no sense to him.

The voice ignored his questions and continued.

“Due to special conditions as an ‘Entity Account’, you will be unable to customize or select your class and continent faction. Instead, a predetermined class based on your questionnaire answers has already been chosen for you.”

This was surprising news to Sean. Inside Online’s massive character customization was one of its best-touted features, allowing for intense detail optimization and faction selection. It was unfortunate he wasn’t going to be able to use it. This only made him more curious as to what he had signed up for.

He was excited to see what he was going to be.

“Please enter your character name.”

[Character Name:______

Confirm]

Aww, man. I always have trouble with these. Let’s just try Sean and see if it works.

[Character Name: Sean

Username Available.

Confirm]

To his surprise, it had worked. But the more he looked at it, the less he liked the username Sean. It seemed too simple. After all, this was supposed to be a virtual world, separate from his real life. He decided to be a little more adventurous and came up with a new name.

[Character Name: Spook

Username Available.

Confirm]

Confirm.

“Player Spook has been successfully created. You will now be put into your respective continent. Please enjoy Inside Online.”

Was that all? What happened to the ‘further instructions’ Mark had talked about? Sean opened his mouth, but no words came out as he suddenly felt his body being teleported. The white room was fading before his eyes. He closed his eyes and let the system do its thing.

Feeling the sensation wear off, he reopened his eyes, only to find himself staring into nothing. It was pitch black.

Wait. Did the game bug out? Why can’t I see anything? I thought I was supposed to be in a town or something.

He knew that new players were placed in their respective continent’s starting zones where tutorials awaited them. Sean was not in a starting zone . . . was he? A thought occurred to him.

Logout!

The same screen popped up, prompting him to choose whether he wanted to logout or not.

So he was still in the game. For a second, he had thought the Envision Module had turned off and he was simply laying in bed with the headgear covering his face. But now he knew he was still playing Inside Online.

He tried moving his head to no effect. Something was holding him in place. He couldn’t even tell what direction he was oriented.

Suddenly, he heard a faint and muffled sound. It seemed to be coming from above him.

Sean strained his ears, trying to identify the strange noise. His senses were much more acute in the darkness. He concentrated on the mysterious noise, hoping to gather some information.

The sound was growing louder and louder, and it seemed to be getting closer to him.

There was a dull thud, followed by a dry crunch.

Then he heard a voice speak, low and raspy.

“It’s bound to be around here Crag. Just keep digging.”