Everything was going too fast.

Sarah tried to adjust her eyes to focus on something. Anything. But it was all a blur. Smudges of color danced frantically in her field of vision. Nothing was clear, nothing was quiet. For a second, she felt nauseous. Then things started to slow down.

It’s kicking in, Sarah told herself.

She knew what this was, even when she hadn’t experienced it during her job as a tester. It was time dilation — in the game, things happened much faster than in the real world, but her mind couldn’t adapt to it instantly: it had to be eased into it.

Clearly, this is unfinished. There should be a splash screen here, some simple animation that I would have to watch as time dilation happens, Sarah thought. Players shouldn’t be forced to enter the gameworld directly.

What else was still rogh and unpolished? So many testers worked at Digidream that any of them could only check out a small part of it. Sarah had been working on most scenarios, but only as an ambient tester — she knew nothing about main menus, character selection screens, weapons, armor, or the intricate details of leveling up.

She found herself in a small cornerless room with an ornate window through which part of the Enchanted Forest could be seen. The soft pink of the walls contrasted with the green foliage of the trees. The room was standing high, near the top of the trees; maybe it was floating in the air, Sarah thought. Beneath her bare feet there was a fluffy carpet. It was shaped like a curved triangle; the same shape as the room, she realized as she looked around.

The only thing in the room besides her and the small carpet was the window. For a moment, nothing happened. Then a voice came out of nowhere. It was a female voice, robotic, but kind of sweet.

“Hello, Sajya. Welcome to Anderworld. You can create your character now.”

Sajya? What was that? She had never been assigned a name. When testing the different scenarios in her day to day job, she had just been a placeholder, a nameless character. Now she was suddenly someone, and had a name that seemed to be Spanish, Thai, Japanese, Arab and Celtic at the same time.

“But I don’t want that name,” she objected. “I want to be Sarah.”

“The character naming option is not implemented yet,” the voice said. “You are Sajya. It’s a noble name. Please select your traits. Choose wisely.”

As the selection menu materialized on the window’s surface, which got just a tad darker to let her read comfortably, Sarah thought this was bad news. How will I find Mike if I don’t know what his name is in the game? I thought maybe he would have chosen to keep his own name, but now I guess he’s been assigned some fantasy name that I don’t know.

“And what is your name anyway?” she asked out loud.

“I’m Alteria,” the voice replied.

“Nice to meet you, Alteria. Please, tell me something. Is it possible to know the character name of another player?”

“What do you mean?” Sarah could almost hear the voice frowning.

“I mean, if I know someone’s real name, is it possible to determine which name they are using in the game?”

“I’m afraid not,” Alteria replied, but there was no trace of emotion in her robotic voice. “I’m not a guide anyway. I’m just here to welcome you and let you choose your traits. Choose wisely.”

Sarah frowned. “But how can I choose wisely if I don’t know what kind of scenarios I will be put in?”

Alteria’s answer was immediate.

“Oh, but you do know. You are familiar with most of them.”

A chill ran down Sarah’s spine, both ingame and in her real body lying inside the tank. They know me. They know who I am and they know that I’ve just logged in.

But who were “They” anyway? Victor Anderen was lying in a coma or perhaps dead already. Who else was running the simulation and why would they want her to play?

“I-I don’t think this is fair,” she protested. “I should be able to conceal my identitiy from the game. How can I be stealth if—”

“Choose wisely,” Alteria repeated, and fell silent.

Sarah focused on the window/screen. The legend was pretty simple.

TRAIT SELECTION

Available points: 0100

STRENGTH : 000 AGILITY : 000

ENDURANCE : 000 INTELLIGENCE : 000

PERCEPTION : 000 CHARISMA : 000

She pondered for a while. She decided to be conservative.

“Ten to each,” she instructed.

The screen changed in an instant:

TRAIT SELECTION

Available points: 0040

STRENGTH : 010 AGILITY : 010

ENDURANCE : 010 INTELLIGENCE : 010

PERCEPTION : 010 CHARISMA : 010

“OK, now...” Now what? The pink room was in the Enchanted Forest, so the quest would being here, among talking animals, fairies, monsters, and the occasional reclusive witch. Which traits would be most useful in such a place?

She would need to be sneaky.

“Ten to Agility.”

And able to make her way through a thick forest for who knows how long.

“Ten to Endurance.”

But the biggest threat and the biggest opportunity were the magical beings. They would be able to help her or kill her in this magical forest. Be it to procure the first thing or to avoid the second, she would need to find those beings, to see and hear them. That could be hard. So:

“Twenty to Perception.”

Her final score was now showing on the screen. The letters glowed faintly against the slightly darkened trees beyond the window.

TRAIT SELECTION

Available points: 0000

STRENGTH : 010 AGILITY : 020

ENDURANCE : 020 INTELLIGENCE : 010

PERCEPTION : 030 CHARISMA : 010

“That’s it,” Sarah said to confirm her choices.

“Thank you,” Alteria said, springing up to life again. “Please choose your appearance.”

The legend on the window disappeared and in its place Sarah could now see herself like in a mirror. Only she was changed: her face was a result of the game design. There also small arrows at each side of her head, torso, and legs for her to change her attire and accessories, and two big arrows to rotate between whole characters. The default appearance was the fairy, with the tiny dress and the pointy ears and the wings behind her back. On the top of the display there was a name: “SAJYA”. On the bottom, below her reflection, a legend said:

Bonus to: Flight, Healing, Charm, 8 others

“Alteria,” she said, “I want to look like myself. Is it possible?”

“That feature is unimplemented at the moment,” Alteria replied.

Fuck.

She used the big arrows and her reflection kept changing as she did so. She experimented with variations on a warrior girl (which apparently had to be scantily clad whatever was the combination), which came with a bonus to the basic traits of Strength and Endurance, but almost no benefit to acquired skills beyond Attack. There was also a sorceress with bonuses to Charm, Healing, and the Perception trait.

“Alteria, can I be a man?”

“Of course you can,” was the reply. “Just keep scrolling. The game put the female characters first for you because you identify as a cisgendered woman, but you can choose any personality you wish.”

The game did wh— oh, fine, Sarah tought to herself. There was no point in arguing. Evidently, everything was stacked against her: the game knew everything there was to know about her, and she didn’t even know what Mike would be called ingame or what he would look like.

She was unsure about what to choose. The fairy had an advantage to Flight but more importantly, to Heal, which she would surely need a lot of at the early stages of the game. But the warrior would give her more Strength and Endurance in exchange for not having a lot of Heal. The sorceress was a good option too, with increased Perception and the ability to Heal as well, but it was pretty much useless for the basic fights that would surely take place in this early phase.

She kept reviewing her options. Every time she scrolled to change the character, she felt a tickling all over her body, and something like a breeze pushing her from the side; her reflection gave her back her changed image, with new attire and a new face. Using the small arrows to change her headwear, boots, main clothes, or any accessories generated a localized tickling and a low buzz.

She ended up choosing the warrior. In time I will get some armor and I’ll no longer look like a swimsuit model from Narnia, she told herself. For now, though, it was weird to feel her chest dramatically increasing in size and her clothes getting as tiny as possible. She was pleasantly surprised by her limbs, though. Her arms and legs looked biger and more ripped without losing their feminine, harmonic quality, but more important, she could feel the strength and resistance in herself. She felt strong, stronger than ever before. Was that just a psychological effect caused by the uberrealistic looks of the game, or was this Anderworld actually giving her the sensory feedback of someone who is actually strong and ripped?

“This is it,” Sarah said, to confirm.

The screen changed again. Now the title at the top was “SELECT YOUR WEAPON”. There were three options: a small, cheap looking sword; a small, cheap looking axe; and a small, cheap looking flail with a spiked ball.

She raised her right arm, pointing at the sword. She was surprised at the energy with which the arm moved. I will have to get used to being this strong. The sword rose from the screen and floated in a straight line toward her hand. She grabbed the handle. It felt awesome.

“This is it,” she said out loud, but mainly to herself. She swung the sword a couple of times. It was small and it looked cheap, but it was a sword.

“OK,” she said in a resolute tone, and realized her voice had changed too. “Alteria, what’s next?”

“Next,” Alteria said as the room started to move down suddenly, freefalling for a few seconds until it hit the ground in the middle of the Enchanted Forest and the walls dissolved in a fine mist of a pinkish hue, “you enter the game.”