The headset was sitting on Mickey’s bed along with the USB wire. Mickey was pacing up and down across the bed’s length, his chin in his palm.

What the heck’s going on here? I actually got the headset? How’d the delivery people get it here so quickly? Mickey looked at the gear one more time to make sure it wasn’t some stress-induced hallucination. Seriously—it’s here? It even looks like a VR headset.

Mickey compared the gear on his bed with the most recent virtual reality sets. It looked just as solid as them, boasting sizable goggles, a sleek design, and a nice-to-touch matte finish. The only thing that he could tell was missing were the controllers—and that was just a guess.

This is actually happening? What is this game’s angle?! I don’t get it! It’s for real? Did I actually luck out? Hold on, what if this is some elaborate scam to hijack my computer?

Mickey was well-read; he had spent many hours reading articles of the tricks scammers would use to con kindly seniors out of their retirement funds. Mickey wasn’t the most savvy, but he knew to not blindly accept without at least doing some due diligence.

Is it worth the risk?

He narrowed his eyes at the device. He was still curious. He only had time to read through one of the guides proper, but everything he read excited him.

I want to see what that game’s like.

The thought of potentially making a few hundred dollars was also extremely appealing.

Mickey reaffirmed himself and pulled an old external hard drive off of his shelf. He hooked it into his computer and began typing furiously, looking for a particular program.

“Okay. This might still be a scam. I don’t want it to be, but I can’t figure out what Tralas is playing at. So, you’re going to give me gear? You want me to hook it into my computer? Fine. But I’m not going to let you have it easy. If you do break into my computer, you’ll find a whole lot of nothing.”

Wary of some inexplicable exploit, Mickey decided he would wipe his computer of all sensitive information. If the worry was that someone could hijack his computer and steal his financial information or passwords, then the answer was to have none of it there in the first place. He used a specialty program and cloned his computer’s contents onto the external hard drive, essentially creating a backup.

Next, Mickey fully reset his computer and after doing so, re-downloaded the Tralas Browser and logged back into the nodesite. After an hour or so of getting everything prepared, Mickey was once again looking at the “Play” button at the top of the page.

“So, how’s this going to work? I just need to connect the headset to the computer and the game will just recognize it? Or I guess the browser will recognize it…”

Mickey had the headset sitting in front of him on his desk and was inspecting the USB end of the cord connected to the headset.

“Worst case scenario, my computer blows up. All of this for one elaborate prank… Best case, this is real, and I get to play a really strange game… I hope it’s real.”

With desperate hope in his heart, Mickey connected the headset and heard the jingle confirming his computer recognized the headset. He was immediately relieved—his computer wasn’t blowing up. Mickey released an anxious breath and clicked on the “Play” button.

This time, the pop-up telling him to connect the device didn’t appear. Instead, he got a pop-up telling him that the game was loading on the headset.

“Seriously? So, is this going to be a keyboard and mouse game somehow? Or is… Is this game actually super, cutting-edge high-tech?”

Mickey picked up the headset, still confused as to the lack of controllers, and placed it on his head.

Whoa.

The interior of the goggles was working. His field of vision was completely taken up by the animation of a blue, swirling portal with a few message windows in front of him.

It really does look like an actual login screen… Dang it, I’m excited!

In the center of the portal was an “Enter” button. At the top right corner was a small window with “NOTICE” at the top. Mickey read that window first.

***

Please make sure you are in a comfortable position before entering the Hidden World. We recommend lying down on a bed or a reclining chair. DO NOT PLAY STANDING UP.

Use the touchpad built into the exterior of the right speaker. (The speaker is on the right side of the Tralas Headset, covering your right ear.)

***

So the controls are on the headset? I’m not sure whether to be impressed or concerned about this experience.

Mickey found the touchpad and fiddled with it—a cursor immediately appeared. Surprised, Mickey pulled the headset off, deciding to heed the device’s advice. He looked at the USB cord, noting that it was in fact much longer than standard. With its length, he could lie on his bed without stretching the cord.

Mickey landed on his bead and placed the headset back on his head, a slight smile forming.

I’m still skeptical about this control scheme, but let’s log in. Please be legit.

Mickey navigated to the “Enter” button and with one final breath, pressed on the touchpad, and in turn, clicked on the button.

Immediately, a jingle went off in his ears—it sounded like the strings of a harp. A message popped out.

***

Thank you for ordering the Tralas Headset and entering the Hidden World!

To ensure that you can enjoy your first month to the fullest, your Tralas Headset complimentary Shelter starts now. Please remember to resolve your debt before the Shelter’s thirty days of effect are over.

***

Oh, they would give me a Shelter? That’s so kind. The guide was really hammering home that I should get one—Oh! That might be why the guide mentioned getting back to zero within “one month.” It must have known about this grace period… Okay, that gets me more excited.

White light flashed—it blinded Mickey so profoundly, he felt disoriented and in the next instant felt as he was in free fall. He closed his eyes instinctively.

When he opened them again, everything felt different.