Nothing but stars amid a sea of black satin, both above and below.

Alan opened his eyes to find himself floating in nothing.

Surface found his feet and he stumbled to keep himself upright.

He stared around himself.

Where was he? The last he remembered, he’d been listening to a presentation, and…

The memory of putting on the Total-VR headset came flooding back.

“A few teething problems on your initiation protocol, I fear,” he said to the void, “A slightly less startling splash screen might be in order.“

He looked around again. “Very impressive basic tech though,” he observed. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen graphics this impressive. He looked down at his hands, illuminated by a light that seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at once.

“Very impressive,” he mumbled. His voice picked up again. “But I hope you’ve more for me than an empty sandbox?”

He waited.

Nothing happened.

Alan scowled. “In that case, let me out, right now!” he called out. “I’ve seen everything I need. I’m a busy man.”

Still nothing.

He stood there for what felt like an aeon. He tried exploring the void, but thought the sensation of walking felt totally natural, there were no landmarks to indicate any change of position. The stars all around him certainly didn’t change.

Eventually, he started to get worried. Shouldn’t something have happened by now? Had the program crashed? Was he in some kind of perpetual loading zone? He knew there was no way they couldn’t get him out if they wanted.

Despite the ubiquity of cartoons, books, and films featuring players trapped in game worlds, such things had never actually happened in real life. The technology simply didn’t allow for it. Even ripping a headset clean off a player wouldn’t cause more than a mild headache in the worse cases, despite the deluded conspiracy theories that had circulated when the tech was first introduced.

So, what the hell was going on?

He was about to get his answer.

From out in the darkness, someone coughed.

Alan immediately tried to pinpoint the direction the noise had come from, but it was all but impossible.

“Who’s there?” he called out. “If you’re going to show me something, you’d better make it quick. I’m starting to get annoyed.”

The voice laughed, which is not what he expected. Then, a form materialised out of mist. It was a man — older than him, but not massively so — and his suit…

Alan raised an eyebrow. The man’s suit was very well tailored—as good, if not better, than his own, which had, counter to all expectations, also been reproduced in this virtual world, right down to the errant strand on the left cuff that he’d made a mental note to deal with the moment he got a moment to himself.

The suited man smiled. “I dare sare you will see many interesting things before I’m done with you. The opportunities before you will be legion. That’s if you don’t get yourself deleted before our deal is done.”

Alan scowled. He always hated vague, mysterious as bullshit dialogue that didn’t actually tell you what was going on. “Are you an NPC?” he demanded. “If you are, then please shut up. If not, then quit the dramatic crap and either show me some gameplay or get me out of this thing.”

The man laughed again, cementing Alan’s suspicion that this was an NPC. There was simply no way that any of those clowns presenting with him would have the guts to laugh in his face like this.

“I do apologise,” the man eventually said, still chuckling. “I should have known better. We are both businessmen and neither of us like our time being wasted. I can respect that. I shall, therefore, cut to the chase.

He then pulled out something from his inside jacket.

Alan had just enough time to register that it was a handgun before the man had pointed it at him, an ear-splitting bang rung out through the star-filled darkness, and a searing pain exploded through his right knee.

Alan screamed. He collapsed to the non-existent ground, cradling the wound site. Blood was already soaking the expensive cotton suit pants.

He’d just been shot!

As he rolled back and forth, trying to come to terms with what had just happened, the man returned the gun to his jacket. “Hopefully that got your attention,” he said.

“What the hell!” Alan screamed, more to the darkness than to the man in front of him. “Let me out, right now!”

“No,” the man said simply. “Here’s the low down, mister Roller. You are currently in-between realities. The Earth that you come from is just one of many, and the different worlds of the Divine Playground are beyond countless. My master has a project in the works. For this project, he needs qualified people of a certain mentality. You are but one of many that have been chosen for this task. You are not in a game, Mister Roller. Hopefully, a gunshot to the knee will have convinced you of that. Or at least, planted a seed of doubt as to your own self-assuredness.”

Through the blinding agony, Alan couldn’t help but nod. Pain like that was never supposed to be part of Total-VR games. It was highly illegal. And everything about this guy — his mannerisms. his dress, the quality of the interaction — It all screamed that this was real. Even if it wasn’t, there was no way he wanted to get shot again.

“No doubt it will take some time to come to terms with your new situation,” the man continued. “Unfortunately for you, I’m a busy man, ahahaha, so consider this your project briefing. You are about to enter the world of The Rotton Gods.

“Get all those thoughts of ‘hero travels to another world’ stories out of your head. There is no demon king to vanquish, although there are lots of other nasties running around.

“You won’t find an adventurer’s guild. Nor will you find dungeons with conveniently spawning treasure chests.

“There is magic. And it does run on a system similar to what you are familiar with from your Total-VR games, but don’t for one minute think that it will be as easy.

“If it were as easy to amass the power to defeat a dragon in real life as it is in a computer game, the world would be nothing but an empty hellscape.” The man paused, looking thoughtful. “Though, there are quite a few worlds like that, so I guess that doesn’t actually make it impossible.”

“Your task is to do what you always do. Make deals. Create profitable enterprises. Weave value out of nothing. You, and those like you—there will be hundreds—are to prepare the world for my Master’s project. As it is right now, that would simply not be possible.”

Alan held up a hand, interrupting the man in mid-flow. This was all too much, too quickly. In the back of his mind, he couldn’t help notice how strange it was that he was willing to believe all this, but he was. “What project is this?” he asked.

“I can’t tell you.”

“Then what’s in it for me?” Alan asked.

“The opportunity to build an empire.”

That caused a surge of annoyance large enough to break through the pain still stabbing from his leg. “I was building an empire in the world I just left!”

The man shrugged. “You sighed the contract.”

“If you’re talking about those contracts I signed before I put the headset on, I read them! There wasn’t anything in there about any of this!”

“Invisible ink.”

“Oh, come on! There’s no way that would hold up in any court.”

“Not any court on your Earth, that is true. But that’s not where your case would be heard. Now, are you ready for this? I’ve got other people to see.”

“Wait, wait!” Alan tried to get to his feet, but the pain stabbed through him like a dagger, bringing him back to one knee.

The man carelessly waved his hand. A ring of rainbow light surrounded Alan’s knee and the pain faded.

“Oh, god, thank you,” Alan gasped out.

“You’re welcome. You were saying?”

Alan took a deep breath. “Am I at least going to get some kind of special power or something? That’s normal for those kinds of stories, right?”

The man looked surprised before chuckling to himself again. “Did I forget to mention that? I guess I did. Yes, you will be getting a power. You will be granted level one of the enchanter craft. It is one not seen in the world of The Rotton Gods for five thousand years. Nurture this craft well, and you could become a great power to be reckoned with.”

Well, at least that was something.

“I advise you be selective about who you tell, though,” the man continued. Few are likely to believe your claim, and those few who do may well seek to exploit your power to your detriment. The world of The Rotton Gods is not forgiving to the weak.”

Alan nodded. He could see the wisdom in that advice.

The suited man waved his arm and a black portal, ringed in white, opened beside him. He looked thoughtful. “Oh, and since all deals have a cost, in exchange for your enchanter craft, all your combat spells, abilities, talents, skills, and levels are locked.”

Wait, what?

“Good luck, Mister Roller!”

Alan threw up a hand. “Wait!”

But it was too late. The portal sped towards him, darkness filled his vision, once more, and once more, as before, his world went black.