School year has just finished.

Finally ! Jules waited for it for so long !

Why ?

Not to profit from the sun, that is absolutely too hot for God knows how many years. Heat waves are so powerful for the most part of the planet.

Not to travel abroad, to another country, as it is so hard to travel after the boundaries have been much more closed, due to the big new epidemics, as we call them nowadays.

Not to find a job and earn pocket money. Jules has something much better to do.

For a week, Jules is 15 years-old.

That means he has the minimum age required to join Alter Life, the virtual world in which it’s possible to be projected via the connection to a capsule.

You just need to lie down inside, and the machine does the rest. Hands slide inside the gloves clad with sensors, foot in boots of the same kind, and the mask posed on the whole of the face and beside the head, connected to the neuronal system to send information directly inside the brain.

How Jules is going to get one of those precious capsule?

He can’t.

But his aunt, Priscille, works in the head office of the company which has produced Alter Life, and she found him an internship that consists simply in testing what he considers a game, and to tell her everything that he thinks about it.

Simply put: playing the whole day, for free. A dream come true!

Despite the reluctance from his mother, that thinks that summer is here to change one’s ideas, and not staying in a capsule, Jules achieved to get the approval from his daddy and his mummy, under one condition, to obey at what aunty Priscy says, like she is called at home.

***

“You found a way to play Alter Life during the whole summer? That’s great!”

“Yes, but my aunty told me that she needed me to do something that would take my whole time…”

“As long as you can keep on playing, it’s ok, no?”

“Yes, furthermore, the weekend, I should be free, so I will be able to continue playing without having anything to do for her.”

“Nice! The weekend, it’s when wars between kingdoms take place! As soon as you join an armed group, you can conquer castles and other territories! It’s really a golden opportunity if you want to take the maximum of profit from the game!”

“You will give me your username, so that I would be able to add you on my friend list? I will take Cesar Leroidescoqs, as usual.”

“Oh, you know me, I already play with the username Jean Bondepays. It’s not because I go inside virtual reality that it will change.”

That, it was my last discussion with John, my best friend, forever.

We made together all the fooleries that can exist in the world, and he has already begun to play Alter Life for the past few weeks. We spent hours to discuss together when he was just testing the game and as I talked to him from my bedroom.

The share of view and sound, even in virtual reality, works as in old long streaming systems.

In our classroom, we all connected to his account, to benefit from the game in preview, through him.

Vicariously life, says mummy…

But soon enough, I will be a streaming star!

To become the biggest streamer of Alter Life… it’s my dream!

***

“ You’re here, finally!”

“Yes, aunty, the bus was a little bit late, but I’m here.”

“Never mind, I already knew where you were, as I followed your position in real time. I told my colleagues I would take a break now.”

Coming inside the glass building, I knew I was coming inside the big league.

A 40 floors building, just for the company that developed Alter Life.

Alt F4, the company with the highest growth rate for the last 5 years.

A monster in the world of entertainment.

I greeted kindly the reception staff, and recovered the sesame that would open the world of this company: the badge to open the ground floor portal.

“You can come any when during the day or the night, the weekend, even during days off. If there is anything, you tell me.”

“With this, I have an access for the whole building?”

“No, only the five first levels, and 2 underground levels. It’s there that you will find the capsule I found you.”

“Thanks, aunty, you’re really the best!

“As I told you, it won’t be for free, you work for me.”

“Of course. You received my internship documents for the internship agreement?”

“Everything is ok for the administrative part. Don’t worry about anything.”

“You’re really the best, aunty!”

“Wait a little bit to see the work I have for you before getting so grateful!”

***

Head office of Alt F4, 21st floor

Sat on a sofa, with documents in front of me, I’m taking a hot chocolate that is still burning.

Aunty Priscy is finishing to settle the projector, when a large screen is displayed on the big white wall at the bottom of the conference room, where we are only two people present.

“Here is a map of the principal continent of Alter Life. You will join the ranks of Baron Eginhard. It’s human people, all the most classic, which is the majority race in Alter Life.”

“I can’t join the undead?”

“You can’t during the time you owe me. From 8AM to midday. What you do the rest of the time is none of my concern.”

After a quick head calculation, Jules asked:

“It means that both afternoon and weekends, I can spend time with the undead army? Does that mean I will be perceived as a bad by from humans?”

“All your actions in-game can have an influence, specially if you kill people or monsters. Hopefully, with the métempsukhôsis, you can be a character, and a very different one, that will live very different stories that can be completely independent.”

“Super! But… what is… the meta…”

“Reincarnation, or soul flux, it’s the character you choose to become. The first one is at the beginning of the game, and here are the characteristics I want you to get.”

I take the paper she gives me. Human, warrior, Souabe kingdom, Offenburg village, meet Gandock knight…

***

Head office of Alt F4, 2nd level underground

“So, normally, I told you everything. If you have questions, keep them for midday. I will take lunch together, you will tell me what you think of the whole of this.

“So I just lie on the capsule, and that’s all?”

“Yes, but first, go to the room down the hall, and get scanned. After getting undressed, of course.”

“Undressed?”

Jules turned pale.

“You think I never saw you naked? I can still remember when I gave you your bath 13 years ago! The whole of this doesn’t make me any younger…”

“Hey, mammy Priscy, I am no longer 2 years-old…”

“Yes… and you can keep your underwear, my little baby.”

“Hey!”

“Oh, it’s okay, if I can’t have fun with my adorable little nephew that piss in his bath.”

I knew it was not a good idea to take my aunt as an internship supervisor, but it was my only way to get an access to Alter Life…

After going inside the cabin to… get changed… an integral scan of my body is done in no time. Red lasers go on my body, I don’t sense anything, and soon, in front of me, appears a doppelgänger that turns on himself, motionless on a platform that turns on itself.

I see me...

Soon, the double disappears, and a card goes out of a machine.

Name

Jules

Username

Cesar Leroidescoqs

Date

30/06/xx

Age

15 years-old

« Don’t forget to update your card every year. »

After having heard the voice of the machine, I dress again and come back to a capsule.

Aunty Priscy is already gone. I put my card on a born, the light changes from green to red. I lie down, close my eyes, and soon, a voice is to be heard:

“Welcome to Alter Life. Your new life begins today...”