My eyes opened to a multitude of colors, vibrant and sharp. I could smell fresh bread baking and skewers of meat being roasted with vegetables. The scent of the ocean was in the background and the cry of seabirds filled the air. This was an amazing experience I was overwhelmed by a feeling of simply being alive, of being in a place where the air smelt good and no piles of garbage were to be seen.

I looked around noting that I was sitting on a pagoda in what could only be described as a park. There were four large tents set up on the far side, with their guild pennants blowing in the breeze. At the end of the field two other tents were side by side, as I looked at the people clustered nearby and going in and out I guessed that they were the City Guard and the Kings Guard recruitment tents. Dotted all along the many paths were small booths and shops that were selling everything from scrolls to potions to armor.

Looking at the path meandering from stall to stall with the plants and flowers, I noticed the red color of the crush rock. I observed all the people walking and laughing, going singularly or in small groups from place to place. This was so real, I looked at my hand and bent down and gripped the arm of the bench. I could feel the texture of the stone that the bench was made from.

This was a far cry from the few other full immersion games I had played at the orphanage. Those were free to play games, full of crap advertising and weak story lines. This game had been made for those that had money and it showed. It was a world within a world, it might be a game but I could feel my body and the environment. It felt pretty damn good, no wonder some people preferred to spend all their time in the game environment.

I stood up and slowly walked towards the door of the open air pagoda while trying to observe all the many details of the crowd and the park. It might be a new and beautiful place but I still did not like crowds of strangers surrounding me. As I stepped down from the opening a small blur raced towards me and then wrapped around my neck. I stopped, not sure what was happening when suddenly I heard a voice within my head “Poppa,” What the heck. I glanced down at my neck and there was a small reddish gold lizard with wings folded tight against its back.

Is this my AI I thought when I heard again “Poppa.” Shrugging I agreed I was Poppa. With that the mental communications link seemed to be established and suddenly I could see that this little dragon was my AI but she was also a self aware sentient being within the game. I marveled at the ability of the Game designers and the AI to be so complete and self aware and self learning.

I strolled around the park looking at the many different sights that were to be seen. I heard my dragon say hungry and then fly off; I could feel that our link was steady and that we would be able to communicate no matter the distance. I would have to test that out at some point to know the limitations that we had.

I noticed that many of the new players were standing in front of mailboxes and that the simple level one gear they had on would disappear only to be replaced with bind on equip gear that would level with the player. Donators, nice to be rich I thought. Suddenly I saw two donators in front of me pushing and shoving at each other as teens often do.

One of them suddenly looked at me and with a shout yelled “now” suddenly I felt a blow to my back driving me forward and looked up to see the kid who had yelled now being pushed back towards me. The little prick swung out his arm and his gauntleted fist caught my lips full on. What an ass.

My dragon skin may be tough enough to stop some blade attacks but lips were lips and when a heavy metal glove hits one it will split open. My lip began to bleed profusely; I sucked in the blood hoping it would not burst into flame. “Oh, Sorry chum” the kid who hit me declared "accident, did not mean to."

The three others all dressed in their Donator gear laughed, I quickly noted the names and levels and added them to a kill on sight list I made. Then I spit the blood in my mouth at the one who had hit me and said “no problem chump” I did not bother to hide the p at the end of chum. I then turned around and walked away listening to them cursing me for spitting on the kids amour.

Suddenly I heard a yell. “Hey, my armor is on fire” then the kid began to yell at his friends “take it off, this is burning, take it off.” I made my way around a curve in the path and then darted forward through a couple of trees to see what was happening. A crowd was gathering around and more players were coming to see what the yelling was about.

The little punk and his buddies were struggling to remove the leg armor but apparently the metal was starting to melt and the kid was screaming wildly. I wondered, if his leg burnt off would a healer be able to restore it. He might have to suicide to return to his spawn point to get his leg back. I felt no sympathy for the little prick. Guys like that enraged me, they are bullies and always look for anyone weaker then themselfs to attack. I had known that I would have to deal with these idiots but had hoped that I would have time to get a few levels first…