Thanks for clicking on my fic!

As an updated precaution (5/01/2020), I am adding notice that this fic is rated T for mild language and violence. Later chapters will have depictions of death, but I have gone over my chapters, and added warnings for my readers for the more intense scenes at the beginning of the chapters as needed.

I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 1: NewGameLaunch.(exe)

Every now and again the silence of the office would be overtaken by ringing phones. The casual, yet intimidating sound of my coworker's voice would answer after three rings, but as soon as the conversation ended with a client, the room fell back into a deep and utterly deprived silence. When work was slow, it could be like this for hours without anything to do. To waste time I'd just sit there and watch the computer scan, or play with my phone, but completely trying to escape the madness of isolation was inevitable.

I was just like a majority of everyone else. I lived the daily routine of waking up at 6:30 AM on the dot, and fought my way through traffic to end up at a job that left me more empty than it gave me a sense of accomplishment. What little work I did have was typing up projects onto the computer for the engineers, but the process was incredibly repetitive and I found myself daydreaming all the time. I started shutting myself off from the world, only answering to people who spoke to me.

Although outwardly I'd think of myself as just an Intern, a college student and a typical twenty-two year old, whose only intention in life was to hook a decent job, make good money and live the American Dream, inwardly I was quite the opposite. When I retreated into my fantasies I could be whatever I wanted. A traveler, a Jedi Knight, a Pokemon Trainer, and whatever else my mind threw at me at my moments of boredom. I found myself expressing these things on paper, whether it be in the form of poetry or stories...even video games. However, no matter how long I stayed, no matter how long I held onto those last few moments of midnight dreaming, the dawn always came. See, the thing about imagination is that you have to leave it; you can't stay forever. After that it was back to studies, work and whatever obligation I had now that I was considered an 'adult'. That's the real world for you, I guess.

An hour and a half of this mindlessness whizzed by without my knowing when my own phone began to ring. Looking down, as if desperate to find something to put my mind on, I quickly noticed that it was my younger brother on incoming. It struck me odd that he'd be calling me in the middle of the day like this. In comparison to myself, he had far more friends and interests, and had even proven to be more involved than I ever was with college and the many clubs and meetings that were available on campus. Last I had heard, as a-matter-of-fact, he had joined some sort of robotics club; they were doing something about programming a robot to throw stuff, I'm not really sure. Although it had been a long time since I've last heard from him and the process of the club, I did hear that they had been exploring other forms of technology in their academic research.

"Hello?" I didn't even realize I had lifted the phone to my ear when I spoke. Being mindless all day can lead to consequences like that.

"Kailey, oh my God!" my brother called. By the high pitched sound of his voice I could tell he was exited. "You're not going to believe this! You need to meet me ASAP. You know how I joined that robotics club, right? Remember when I said I was getting involved in some of the engineering and programming research, and all that?"

"You mean the one that builds robots that throw crap?" I bluntly responded.

"Yeah! Well, that's one of them. But since I last talked to you we haven't just been focusing on robots. We've actually built a way to place ourselves into a virtual reality!"

"Slow down, you mean as in gaming wise?" I perked up immediately. I could imagine playing iconic games over again like Metroid and Mario Kart, only this time I was the one behind the helmet; I could be the one driving the go-karts on Rainbow Road.

"You have no idea. We came across some old files from some guy in the 80's who came up with the concept. His name was Flynn or something. Anyway! We tried replicating it and now are in the process of testing it. I want you to be there."

"You want me to be there?" I couldn't help but place a hand on my chest. I could feel the excitement growing, then suddenly just as it came, I frowned. "Wait bro, am I really supposed to believe you were involved in recreating a serious leap in gaming technology? You're lying to me."

"Am not!" he cried, "I'm for real, just meet me at this location. I'll send you the address through text. The team rented out an arcade called Litwak's. The guy was nice enough to lend it to us after hours."

I found myself rolling my eyes. As breathtaking as it sounded I learned never to get my hopes up. "Whatever you say, bro," I responded. I then pulled the cell from my ear and stared down at it.

The clock struck 2:00 PM.

Staring up at the flashy sign of the arcade, I didn't even notice my brother's truck driving up beside me. Below on the dash of my car, the clock struck 4:00 PM. Although the drive had been a long one I didn't even remember getting here. My mind had been elsewhere again, dreaming and imagining what was to come. Virtual reality, at least in the terms my brother was considering, sounded so farfetched that I didn't even believe it was happening. I was so used to experiencing normal things to understand or grasp a concept like this. It was one thing just to imagine something, but to feel it for yourself was on an incredibly different level. I tried tearing myself away from thinking about it and to at least get my feet out of the car. My brother was already at the side of my door by the time the car unlocked.

"Come, hurry! Follow me!" He rushed as he tried grabbing my arm.

"Get off of me, yo!" I cried out of irritability. "I'm still trying to get myself to accept what's going on. I mean, do you realize what kind of difference this is going to make? Not only are you bringing gaming to a whole new scale, but you're also going to change lives!"

"No talk, follow now!" My brother interrupted me before I could continue my awe struck sentence. Because he was probably ten times stronger than me, my brother yanked my arm and I flew out of the car and to a standing position. "Ow!" I gasped aloud, but it didn't seem to matter. At that point all I had time for was to press the lock button on my keys, and follow him.

Taking in my surroundings as I proceeded towards the building was all a blur due to the rush, but I could plainly see the sign on the arcades door. "And why are we here so early?" I thought you said we rented the arcade after it was closed?" I spat out as a way to attempt to get my brother to slow down.

"You need to see the place in action," my brother responded. "I wanted to check out and show you all the games. That way if there was something you wanted to play, I could put you in the game."

My brother proceeded to push the door open, and quickly the silent sound of the parking lot was filled with different kinds of sounds and voices from all kinds of genres of video games. As the colors of the screens brought a soft light to my body, I began to become nostalgic. I wasn't born in the 80's, a precious decade of big hair, rock-and-roll, and arcade games like this, but I always imagined it was a good time to live. I asked my parents often how it was like, and usually they responded simply yet happily that they were 'good times'. Thinking about it, as I was basking in the moment, I hadn't even set foot in an arcade since my brother was only a kid in high school. That had to have been at least four or five years ago, but it still felt just as real, and became even more real as I stood there.

"Games have come a long way in arcades," my brother said. "They have a cool new first person shooter called Hero's Duty now, but that's not all. Just the other day the guy that owns this place put Xbox 360s and Play Station 3s in here... Nintendo's, you name it. He got a good deal on the older systems or something, so now you can play arcade versions of pretty much anything."

"Well, come on! What else is there?" I exclaimed rather joyfully. I could feel the weight of work, and any homework I needed to do, slip off of my consciousness like snow melting off a hot rooftop. I was beginning to know why my brother had been so happy about this initially.

Scanning the arcade, I tried to pinpoint interesting titles that I was familiar with. There were the classic games, like Pac Man and Frogger, and some newer games that had made their appearance due to the updated software that had been added to the arcade itself, like Portal 2 and Halo. However, there were also games that I had never heard of before. There was a racing title called Sugar Rush whose game-play reminded me a lot of Mario Kart, and another called Fix-It Felix Jr. whose formula seemed familiar on its own.

"This guy sure has a collection, doesn't he?" I mustered.

"Excuse me, can I help you two?" An older man approached us as he adjusted his glasses that set lightly on the top of his nose.

My brother was the first to turn towards him, extending a hand professionally as he introduced himself. "Hello! I'm Dannen, part of the robotics club and research team that's renting out your arcade," said my brother. "And this is my sister, Kailey. She's here to check things out. She's an...advisor of the team, if you will."

"Ah, it's nice to finally meet you in person! I'm Mr. Litwak, the owner of this place," Litwak exclaimed giddily. "Please feel free to look around at your leisure and play whatever you want. I'm very excited to hear how your testing goes tonight. Virtual reality will surely bring in more customers. Although I've kept this business up until now, kids don't seem to like arcades like they used to."

"I completely understand," Dannen responded, "and thank you! we'll be sticking around for a while to play some of the games, and after the arcade closes, we'll get to work."

"Terrific!" Mr. Litwak responded cheerfully. "Please let me know if there is anything I can do for you."

"Will do," Dannen responded with a nod. Mr. Litwak smiled back and proceeded down the aisles of games.

After a few hours of playing around and getting to know the consoles, the arcade finally came to a close. The customers departed, but despite the lack of people around, the arcade felt just as alive as it did during the day. Lights continued to flicker, music continued to play, and characters continued to do what they did.

"All right, the place is all yours!" Mr. Litwak called, his voice quite strange in comparison to the games around us. "The keys are on the desk, so if you leave please lock up. I'll be back tomorrow."

"See you later, Mr. Litwak," my brother responded, and with a chime of the door the old man disappeared into the parking lot.

This was it. I took a look around at the walls and at the front desk just below the ceiling. The clock hanging had just turned 8:30 PM.

"Okay, follow me," said Dannen, and began towards the back. I followed him to a black door at the far right-hand corner of the arcade. Upon arriving to it I watched him mess with the lock and then open it. It was dark until he switched on the lights, and that's when I could see a short staircase leading to some sort of basement. We walked down its steps and came to the bottom, and that's where I saw it. The machine was huge, and covered in controls. At its center was some sort of camera that reminded me of a wacky form of security interface.

"Okay, Kailey, I need you to stand right in front of the gun," my brother said as he scurried over to the controls in front of a new and fancy computer, taking a seat in front of it as confident as a was pilot at his cockpit.

I looked over at the camera that I had spotted initially, but this time a bit more nervous. "A gun? What the hell are you going to do, shoot me?" I asked nervously.

"Well I have to transfer you into the system," Dannen responded, as he clicked in a couple codes which caused the gun to move. "It won't hurt, I promise." A smile seemed to consume his expression as he said that, which didn't help.

I became flustered as I stomped a foot on the floor. "I thought you were going to put a helmet on my head or something! You didn't mention that you were literally going to teleport me into the games! That's like like Matrix shit!"

"I told you this was amazing! At this point I'd thought you'd understand why I was so excited about all of this!" Dannen called out. "I'm going to transfer your entire being into the system that connects you to all the games in the arcade. However, I don't know where the portal will open, so that's why I spent the last two-and-a-half hours letting you get to know the games."

"The hell?!" I shouted. "I'm not sure about this."

"Just do it!" Dannen yelled again. His excitement was getting the best of him. At that point I didn't know if I could back down. He had taken all the time to get me here, so refusing an offer like this would have been considered mad. After all, if I was going to be a part of this I was probably going to get some of the credit. Not just credit even, I would be the first person to ever enter a game physically. I could be in history books! Or heck, have schools named after me!

"Okay, fine." I sighed and walked over to the front of the gun. Its gaze stared down at me like an ever watchful eye. Among its obvious sight it locked onto me, this accompanied by the sound of the powerful grinding of the machine itself.

"Okay, in 3...2...1." Dannen's countdown was a little too quick for me, but before I knew it my world turned into a blinding white light. I felt myself lifted off the floor—weightless as each of my senses began to regain themselves. The warm room of the basement changed to that of an icy winter wind, and the light that had surrounded me left, forming into a wide and open sky filled with mountains at its base. I was in the middle of a field, surrounded by hills and rocks.

"Dannen?!" I cried as I wrapped my arms around my chest. I shook uncontrollably due to the sudden climate change. Snow began to fall and settle on my brown hair, as another wave of cold air swept over my body. This place looked so utterly familiar, yet I couldn't quite put my tongue on it. "Dannen, where are you? Can you hear me?" I yelled again, but like before received no answer. This game world was very silent, yet tranquil, so every time I yelled I felt out of place.

The idea of walking around came to mind, so I started moving my feet through the crusty and frosty grass. Every moment being in the game felt incredible. The scenery was breathtaking, and at certain moments, when the clouds parted just enough away from the game worlds sun, the mountains became different shades of blue. The blinding rays of the star above and beyond the clouds made the snow glow with a pure white light.

"This place…" I mustered again, "I know I've played this game before."

The serenity of the landscape, then, was broken. In the distance, but coming quickly like rolling thunder, I heard a strong roar. Its sound caused my eyes to widen, and I could feel the cold on my skin dissipate as my face grew hot with a fluster. My heart raced as the chills on my arms grew tighter. That roar had such a trademark sound to it that any gamer would recognize it.

It was a dragon, and this was Skyrim.