Prologue: Dream

I never knew I'd be offered to test the new device or whatever it is that uses "Full-Dive" technology.

Don't get me wrong. I'm all kinds of excited about this. The concept of being in another world has always been beyond me.

Ever since the "NerveGear" was released in May 2022, a whole new door to gaming had been unlocked.

I was bummed out that the NerveGear was made Japan-exclusive a year after it came out, but it had me continue following the crowd of media on the progress of Full-Dive tech.

Although the lousy rep Full-Dive tech has kept ever since the Death game incident with the official release of Sword Art Online, Full-Dive tech is still popular today.

Anyway, the new machine is called the "Medicuboid," a 3rd generation Full-Dive hardware intended for medical purposes, which has just been implemented into hospitals in western countries at the end of 2023.

Today is January 14th, 2024, and I cannot contain my excitement.

-I'm finally given a chance to experience the VR world!

I mean, who could blame me? Exploring the virtual world has been a long awaited dream of mine.

I didn't sleep at all the night I was selected for to test the Medicuboid, later that morning, I was being guided by nurses, doctors, and neurologists to a sterile room. The appearance of the Medicuboid was... underwhelming, I'll say.

In my mind, I pictured a vast metallic contraption with a NerveGear-shaped helmet connected to multiple thick, black, rubber wires filled with carbon-steel cables welded together by hyper-magnets with a substantial electromagnetic output to stabilize the patient's conscience.

Alas... having my unrealistic expectations crushed, mixed and thrown into a fruit salad; calling the cuisine "sweet, salty and bitter," a long, heavy, disappointed sigh left my lungs to be disrupted by a gentle thundering voice, "Alright Damian, just hop on the bed and you'll be wired up to this virtual reality machine thing."

Looking up, my eyes met the appearance of a large man supposedly in his mid-50s. Possibly 6 feet tall, wearing slight wrinkles paired on his tanned light brown skin and stylish black hair curved around the top of his forehead to hide any possible evidence of him being elderly.

That was Cambell, my physiotherapist who's been walking up, down, left, right and center with me most of the time I've spent in a hospital bed with mediocre comfiness.

I took another glance at the Medicuboid, it seemed like an everyday CT scanner, but instead of the disc your head goes in, a large cuboid VR headset was in its stead, hovering above the bed held by the ceiling; with multiple monitors at the left and right sides of the machine as well.

I clumsily toppled onto the bed surface of the Medicuboid, and shuffled my body into a position where my neck was in place for the VR headset to lower down onto the top half of my face, "You all snug and cozy there?" a radio-like voice mimicking Cambell came through the speakers of my sterile room.

I gave the "OK" signal by raising my left thumb upward to say, "I'm ready to go."

Seconds after the making gesture, the Medicuboid began to descend, giving me the reality that I've wished and waited for my entire life.