Sarah looked at the sealed box in her hallway with furious anticipation, it felt like a hundred birthdays and Christmases all rolled into one. Examining the box it bore the company logo for TNR. "True, Nerve, Reality". They specialized in developing games and more importantly in pushing the frontiers of the virtual reality experience, and in that box contained their newest product the "True Nerve Suit". The suit when worn with its accompanying headset let the player not only see the virtual worlds they played in but also smell, touch, and feel every moment. Every feeling was said to be available, apart from pain which was limited for obvious reasons. The product wasn't even available for sale yet, but Sarah was able to get an early version from the son of the companies CEO, who happened to be her classmate in their university.
James Warrington and Sarah were not friends, at least not really, it was just he had been allowed in Sarah's friendship group out of a mixture of pity and in the hopes of getting some free products from his family's company. It wasn't that James was totally unlikable, it was that he just seemed different, he was distant, would laugh at strange things and all the girls in the group could feel him eyeing them up when he believed they weren't looking. Sarah thought he was definitely creepy, but this box made everything worth it, that all the hard work putting him up with him had finally delivered some results.
Sarah wasn't the only one to receive the special gift, he had told the whole group they would be receiving the latest and greatest product he could get his hands on. The only condition he had set was that he wanted them all to play Dungeon Depths 3 together as a group. Dungeons Depths 3, or DD3 for short, was the hot ticket game attached to the True Nerve Suit. DD3 was an RPG similar to Dungeons and Dragons, and with the True Nerve Suit it allowed the user to scan their entire body into the game to be recreated. Not only the physical body either, the True Nerve Suit was able to scan your brain waves to approximate your stats, which would mean your personal intelligence, your strength would be represented in the game world.
Sarah looked at the time, it was almost 6pm, which meant everyone would be all connected and online ready to play. Luckily, she thought, she lived on her own so she would not be disturbed at times like this. Sarah took the box into her bedroom and carefully undid its bindings, taking out all the contents on putting them on the bed. The Nerve headset looked like a large bowling ball but felt light to hold, Sarah hoped it wouldn't feel heavy on her head either. The bodysuit came out next, a grey one piece with lots of sensor dots like a grid pattern covering everything part of the fabric, she wondered if the size would be fine. Sarah stripped down to her underwear and put on the suit; it seemed really snug but wasn't too tight. Next Sarah placed put on the special shoes, they had wheels at the bottom that could allow the user to walk without actually walking in the real world. Lastly there was the headset. The bowling ball felt like a soft pillow cushioning her whole head, everything was certainly more relaxing than Sarah had expected.
All of her body was now covered from head to toe, Sarah reached up to the side of the headset and powered it up. Darkness. Sarah could see nothing at first, until after a few seconds a loading bar appeared in front of her eyes. She patiently waited until it had completed before being sent to the Nerve Suits main menu. Warning signs flashed up immediately telling her it was a beta product, and the features were not yet ready for use, impatient to get playing Sarah dismissed these popups with a wave of her hand. The suit had already got DD3 preinstalled, which she again thanked James for, Sarah waved her virtual (and real life) hand over the game icon to begin.
Sarah's vision went all white as the game began, the bombastic music in the menu made her excitement soar, there was nothing that had ever happened before that was as good as this she thought. James was the host of the game, so using the ID code he had provided to her she joined through the menu. Her body began to tingle, from her toes all the way up to her scalp, she knew the suit was beginning to scan her. Character creation was simple in DD3, her body form was just as it was scanned, and her class was predetermined based on her stats and what the system could scan on her general personality. As the system continued to work Sarah could feel it whirring around her body. Text flashed in her eyes that she would be a wizard due to her high intelligence stats, this was perfect for Sarah who always prided herself on being the most intelligent in the group. Sarah continued through the last of the character menus, and was finally allowed to play the game proper.
The feeling of the sun was unmistakable, the warm sensation was bliss on her skin, it felt so real. Sarah opened her eyes to find herself in an encampment, there was no one else around. After a moment looking around Sarah found an issue, she had no clothes, her bare body was just exposed to the elements. "Well, I did just start the game, I guess it makes sense I wouldn't have anything to wear" she said to herself. Sarah looked around to see if there were any chests or containers from which she could cover herself before her friends saw her naked figure. After looking she spotted some boxes near the big tent by the campfire. Sarah began to move her legs, but she found they were stuck, she couldn't even lift them. Now Sarah began to panic, and her thoughts started to race, maybe this was one of the bugs she was warned about earlier, or maybe there was something wrong with the shoes. Sarah decided she should take off the headset and check the boots but she found she couldn't move her arms either. Apart from her eyes, mouth and neck her entire body was frozen in place.
As Sarah began to panic, she saw someone emerge from the tent, a large muscular figure spotted her and began making his way over. The face was unmistakably that of James, but his body looked like it belonged to a top athlete, the muscles straining against his shirt.
"James! Help me, something is wrong with my suit. I am stuck."
James looked her up and down with a smile, "Oh no Sarah no mistake, see you joined my party. As the host and leader of the party I control you." He stretched out his arm and pointed to a spot nearer to the tent. Without thought or will she began to walk over to the spot he had marked.
Any relief that Sarah had from seeing a familiar face had vanished, "Please stop this James, let me control my body. And where are the others?."
As James followed behind her, he began to speak, "No-one will bother us don't worry." Once Sarah had reached the set destination her body once again became hard and unmovable.
Sarah looked at James with fear in her eyes, "Can you at least get me something to wear? its embarrassing to be naked like this."
