Ike blinked into the dim blue haze of his apartment, the only light coming from LED strips outlining his monitor, keyboard, and the massive, obelisk-shaped console that sat humming next to his bed like a futuristic shrine.
Dust coated everything, save for the sleek, obsidian surface of the DBCI unit—a rental, of course, acquired on a no-credit-check plan from a gray market broker who barely looked up from his phone during the transaction. Ike had barely touched the delivery box before tearing it open like a kid on Christmas morning.
Weeks of ramen-fueled anticipation had led to this moment.
He sat cross-legged on his mattress, bones creaking from too much chair time, staring at the pulsing interface on the DBCI. It looked like a dream itself—smooth, featureless, with a single silver port that gleamed like an eye. His pulse quickened.
"DBC Interface active. Please initiate biometric sync."
The voice was soft, female, and eerily intimate. It wasn't just heard—it was felt. Ike reached behind his head, fingertips brushing the neural pads already gelled into place.
A faint click, like a whispering thought. Then silence.
Then—
Sync confirmed. Welcome to the Dreamstate. Launching: EREHWON.
At first, there was nothing.
Not darkness, not even silence—just absence. The total disconnection of mind from matter. Ike wasn't lying on his bed anymore. He wasn't anywhere.
Then something cracked through the void like a drop of ink hitting water. A vibration. A taste of ozone. Then warmth. Then—
Light.
It spilled in slowly, in golds and blues, the way sunlight filters through clouds after a storm. Shapes began to coalesce. Trees. Sky. A breeze carried the scent of wet stone and wildflowers. Grass brushed his fingers. His fingers.
Ike gasped.
He was standing—standing—in the middle of a valley of impossible beauty. Mountains curved around the horizon like ancient guardians. A river sang to itself nearby. A deer-like creature, crystalline and glowing faintly, lifted its head from the water and regarded him with deep, intelligent eyes before bounding into the trees.
A UI bloomed softly in his peripheral vision like a HUD from a dream:
Welcome, new user. You are now inside EREHWON.
Initializing Avatar Integration…
Ike looked down at himself. His body was lean, muscular. His skin was smooth. His hands didn't tremble like they did back home. He took a breath—and felt it. He could feel his heartbeat. The taste of the air. The warmth of the sun on his face.
Tears sprang unbidden to his eyes.
"You may now choose your path."
Three figures appeared before him—holographic, translucent, yet brimming with presence:
A cloaked sorcerer, eyes aglow with starlight.
A heavily armored sentinel, blade crackling with static.
A roguish figure with a sly grin and a shadow that moved on its own.
But Ike barely heard the options. He was still breathing. Still crying.
This is it, he thought. This is better than real.
And somewhere, deep in his physical brain, a notification pinged in the background of a body he no longer cared about:
Warning: First-Time Session Exceeded Suggested Immersion Threshold (120 minutes).
Current Duration: 4 hours, 18 minutes.