I found myself in a hangar, tiny people were running all around me and I could hear the sounds of construction like they were building something. I thought about the gun I was connected to on the hull of my orbital station and attempted to disconnect from the camera I was looking through in the same way, only for it to remain. But suddenly I was very aware of hundreds of other cameras that I could see through all at the same time. I flinched back trying to pull away from it and failing to do so caused me to panic, and I began trying harder, even using that disconnect thought again to escape all that information. I did notice all the tiny people in the cameras were running away from what ever they had been doing. The next second I felt a pulse run through my body and my vision was narrowed down to a single camera overseeing what looked like a ramp. And a single man who stood on the ramp looking up at my camera. I also noticed I sort of felt like I was disconnected from my body, like when they numb your gums at the dentist, and you know it's there but can't feel a thing. In his hand was a glass screen, and I noticed he was glaring at the camera.

  “Only Flight Lieutenant Kenna Mackenzie has access to this ship, therefore you must be her…. You are a week early, we have not finished the construction of the drop carrier, so do you mind explaining to me, flight lieutenant, what in the frost bitten fuck are you doing!”

  “I wanted to play the game in the game hall” I stammered as I glanced around trying to see more than what the camera was pointed at.

  I watched his mouth slowly fall open and stare at the camera for a full minute before he snapped out of it and started typing away on the glass screen in his hand. The next second my view changed to a small room and I felt human again for a split second before I realised I still couldn't move. A few moments later, the slicked back black haired man wearing a navy camouflage jumpsuit walked in, still looking down at the glass screen in his hands.

  “Okay, you should be connected to the maintenance droid now. It has vocal speakers allowing you to speak and will be less disorientating while you ease yourself into your first log in. Now tell me, what made you think a void login card would allow you to play the game on a secure connection isolation life pod also known as the upload rig?”

  “Uh, well my cousin had a gold one, and she said it the game pod let her experience an amazing world, and I wanted to play with her, I just figured it was black because I was the guild mistress.”

  He spluttered for a few moments before he let out a loud sigh, then tapped the glass screen in his hand until a holographic microphone appeared above it.

  “Alright, all of you, get back to work, I have found the problem and isolated it.”

  He then tapped away on the screen again before folding it up and sliding into a pocket in his pants, then looked down at my face.

  “I was supposed to explain this to you next week when you logged in for the first time, but what the hell, I’ll do it now, and I’ll throw in some free rig education too, okay?”

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  I tried to nod my head, only to find it wouldn't move an inch, so I had to resort to speaking to the man that was starting to scare me a little.

  “Okay”

  “Alright, let's start with the rig you just uploaded from, there are two ways to upload that is the void subsystem using the mental connection, it can be done from anywhere, but it leaves your body exposed and vulnerable to nefarious individuals. The second is using the upload rig this way isolates your body so no one can get near it without rescue codes.”

  He pulled something out of his other pocket and began fiddling with it as he looked at me and muttered something to himself. I heard a word sounding like ‘synthetic’ and something about mapping proper movements. He then looked back up at my face and continued talking.

  “Rescue codes are system locked into a rescue worker's rescue subsystem, and they can't actually access them, it just does it automatically. This means they can't give those codes to anyone, and the system monitors them like a freaking overprotective helicopter parent that wants everything done exactly. So they can't misuse them even if they wanted to. All this makes the rig the safest place in the universe to upload from.”

  He made a tsk sound and shoved the item back into his pocket.

  “The upload rig's proper name is the secure connection isolation life pod. This is because it is the securest place to connect from. It is completely isolated, only those rescue codes can open it. It is a life pod, so if anything were to happen like the ship or station you are on getting destroyed, it will eject you out into space and activate the life pod systems.”

  He narrowed his eyes for a few seconds as his eyes roved over his hud.

  “This turns it into a cryogenic hibernation pod until you can be rescued. It also sends out a distress call to all nearby ships. Yes, it does ignore the ones shooting at the station or ship you just came from. It also has limited thruster manoeuvrability and warp drives so that it can jump to another solar system where it would be safer for you to be discovered. Still with me?”

  “Uh, yes.”

  “Good, now I'll tell you why… Did you say cousin? Anyway, why they are playing a game with a gold card, and you are here at work. Basically, the rig was invented for a secure and safe way for those with the void subsystems to connect and safely work without endangering their real bodies. However, those that did not get the class void something, started getting upset that they couldn't be a part of it.”

  He suddenly reached forward and pulled something out of the droid I was inhabiting and looked it over before pulling a rag out and wiping it clean before sticking it back in.

  “So the gaming system was invented where you could use those game cards to log in. You have the void subsystem, so your game card turns black and allows you to safely upload to work. Your cousin, by the sounds of it, is not a member of the void.”

  He suddenly poked at something in the droids stomach before frowning and continuing.

  “Therefore, her game card turns gold. She gets to join a randomly appointed carrier ship where she can build a company or join one and invite other people from your guild hall game room to join her. That's usually how companies are formed, the leader finds a carrier and invites the other clan members to it so they can work together. From there, they have fun blowing stuff up and completing tasks and gain some small amount of credits and renown. The ones that are fantastic and do it for a living have a way, that they keep to themselves, of using their companies to bring in large amounts of credits. They then pay everyone in the company a wage with it. Does that make sense?”

  “Sure…”

  “Great, now if you are ready to learn about why you are here locked into the computer of this maintenance droid instead of a flesh clone body, though I do have to admit, you have a pretty cool job. But then there is a lot of information your brain has to process… well, all I can do is tell you about it and hope you can do your job effectively enough to not get resigned to… well, I shudder to think about what that could be.”

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