Lyndsay curled her toes, enjoying the sensation of the fuzz of the blankets against her skin, smiling at the warmth of the bed, and the prospect of having three weeks set aside to focus on her new character. The popularity and potential of e-sports had sky-rocketed since their initial introduction, scholarships now being a standard at most universities for those able to perform well in the most popular and competitive games. Entire curriculums had been built around the study and design of the engines on which they ran, the industries that surrounded them, or in some rare cases the games themselves. Quaintise in particular was perhaps the most influential company in the integration of digital technology into everyday life. The far-reaching impact of their technologies, and the intricacies of both their educational and recreational software as well as the status of being considered the default platform for running virtual or augmented reality had led to academia taking them on both as a teaching aid and a subject of study. Lyndsay’s course in particular was focused on the psychological effects of human integration and engagement with the machines. She had chosen to write her doctoral thesis on the experiences of long-term immersion within a game and how RPGs influence behaviours and emotions through the development of the player avatar and the progression of levels. In short, discounting the hours and hours of study and lectures, she had every justification needed to play her favourite games. And now, theories crafted, hypotheses posited, she was ready to focus on gathering the information needed to either support or disprove them. Quaintise itself had agreed to share data of a randomly selected cohort from their beta testing, and even to allow her to review some of their own training and safety standards and past research, in exchange for the rights of her dissertation, something the university had not been happy with, but she had chosen to accept.

  She stretched out her spine, leaning her shoulders back as she yawned, mouth opening wide enough for her jaw to click. As a beta tester, she believed she’d fully explored the available areas of the game, and had tried various approaches of play, from the more standard fighter builds and scholars, to cooking, thievery, and even enlisting in the guard. Over the past two months she had created and recreated her character over a dozen times, trying each path and build for a week or so before moving on to try a different approach.

  Regardless of whether you wanted to be a farmer, a fighter, a crafter or even a clerk, the practice missions had taken the form of a boot camp - each character went through the same basic training, ensuring familiarity with how the ProTN and neuro-reality gaming functioned. Narratively, every player would take on the role of part of an invading force, landing on Camorra, an as yet unexplored continent. Completing the camp meant your character would then be sent on arrival at the landing point of the military forces. Happily this process became skippable once the account had completed it once.

  On arrival, even within the framework of the missions and tasks - basic fighting manoeuvres with sword and shield, spear and bow, how to cook food, heal simple wounds - it was possible to skew your character in a favourable direction for what lay ahead. Investing time reading in the library would unlock a few new skill paths. Helping out in any of the kitchens or farms and gardens, spending more time in combat and training drills, visiting the blacksmith, there were myriad ways to improve yourself outside of the generic missions given. This fact had been leaked by the original beta testers invited to the press release where Lucy had vanished from the world. The testers had enjoyed just under two months of private access to explore the release and realise their best build strategies, and now those who had pre-ordered the game were being allowed access in the open beta, and any character made from this point on would be allowed to be used in the game once it went live. Some of the more magnanimous players had shared their information; the majority opting to hoard the knowledge. Lyndsay herself had discovered and flagged a few exploits and generative issues, and earned enough bounty points for doing so that she had been placed seventh on the leaderboard tracking the rewards earned the last time that she had checked.

  Rubbing her hands across her upper arms quickly to ensure she stayed warm, Lyndsay dashed from her bed to the shower, enjoying the clarity the water brought. She knew it would take three days to complete her current desired starting character. The content available even in the tutorial aspect of the game was enough to warrant at least a couple of weeks of dedicated exploration to a new or casual player. Something from her current playthrough had given her a thought however. In her prior attempts at stealing, being caught led to heavy restrictions and even her avatar being jailed, happily the time spent logged off counting towards the overnight punishment. Her most recent exploration of the starting area had made her realise that she could not return to the interstitial area after the onboarding bootcamp and before where characters were registered. This was an area where there was significantly less chance of her being caught. As skills were unlocked by performing actions that related to them, as long as the initial attempt was successful, she was confident that she’d be able to unlock a few skills even before her character was registered. The time up to now spent learning the basics of each class made it likely she could get a head-start before the creation time of her character was set, something which appealed to both her ego and her curiosity. Clean, dry, and dressed in casual workout clothes she headed downstairs to the kitchen to get some breakfast, walking in to find her two friends already awake after having spent the night to talk about the upcoming open beta release today, and commiserate over not having secured a copy. They were sat together at a table watching a recording of the now infamous final speech from the founder of Quaintise, Lucy Durant, Lyndsay arriving just in time to see Lucy pull her hand inside of her own head.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  "That is always going to be freaky." Lyndsay sat down across from the couple and reached out to take a slice of toast from the plate in front of a young man.

  "That is marketing, it can't be real." Charlie slapped at her hand as she pulled some food back and took a bite. "It's just a gimmick to boost the coverage of the release. She's been hiding out in a lab or one of her mansions somewhere for the last eight weeks. It's launch day next month. She'll be back for that. And we'll have the entire summer break to spend playing it." He clapped his hands excitedly.

  "Like they need the extra hype?" Zoe scowled at him as Lyndsay jumped at the sudden noise. "There have already been hundreds of proposals as to how she did it."

  "Each failing to actually replicate it. You cannot digitise consciousness and independent thought. Lyndsay, back me up here."

  The woman shrugged. "I don't know. I've spoken to a few chatbots before out of curiosity, and that was years ago. Even then, most managed to be realistic enough that I could pretend for a while."

  "Because people are stupid. You're stupid enough not to notice, and people are stupid enough that you'd not be able to tell the difference from a stupid program."

  Zoe pulled a face. "You know that doesn't even make sense."

  "And someone being replaced with a hologram of themself for hours without anyone noticing does? There've been documentaries made. She was in that building, on that stage, for eleven hours from start to finish." Charlie was leaning forward now, sliding towards the edge of his seat, pressing against the table as his arms shook in a series of emphatic gestures.

  "They've also made documentaries about the Earth being flat and alien abductions", Zoe snorted.

  "Hey hey hey," Charlie chided, "don't even try to lump aliens in with this fraud. Someone being untouched on that stage for half a day is a lot less likely than there being other sentient life somewhere in the world. It’s a crime you’ve never let me take you two to any of my conventions. And you must have heard the rumours about her use of the homeless and disadvantaged to staff her new game. She does keep saying she isn't a philanthropist, so there must be something odd there."

  "I've not looked into it, but from what I know she's feeding and housing people, and giving them a job and a purpose, a chance at a new life, even if it is a virtual one." Zoe took a sip of orange juice. "And what's the difference there? You're saying aliens are here but contact can't be made and that she was there because contact can’t have not been made? You see how hypocritical that is right Lyndsay?" She turned to the other, now empty, side of the breakfast table. "Lyndsay?"

  In her room, door locked. Lyndsay was settling back down in her bed, hooking herself up in a now well-practiced routine. They would see themselves out. They knew better than to be there when her mother was due home, and were no strangers to Lyndsay's non-verbal withdrawals.

  Although there was still a month until the general release of the game, and it formally going live, the option to create characters and test out some of the skills and abilities of the game was a long-running feature of the in-house MMO game releases from Quaintise. Whilst she felt bad for keeping it from her friends who she knew were both looking forward to getting to play the game ... it had been a nice change to have something positive which was just hers.

  The light of the sun against her eyelids faded as the headset calibrated itself against her face, a handful of logos and loading screens forming in her mind before a title came into focus, floating above a sprawling countryside.

  Camorra: Conquest

  The rolling lands of Camorra spread out before her, Lyndsay focused on the Create New Character option.

  Are you contracted to Quaintise?

  Yes / No

  This will cause your current save file to be overwritten. Would you like to proceed?

  Yes / No

  Would you like to design your character or utilise your own physique?

  Design / Own body

  Would you like to use your saved body calibration records?

  Yes / No

  Welcome to the world of Camorra.

  Would you like to begin?