Have you ever wanted to live in a game? To become a God in another world? To lose yourself to a place so real, that you never want to leave?

That's how all of this started; with that advertisement, that hook …. It all began the day I bought Mass Effect Three Online.

Lying down on my bed, I closed my eyes and activated the headset, hoping it would recognize my voice from the endless prompts and speech recognition tests. When the merry little jingle played, I knew it at least understood me, even if it didn't like me. Not many things technological did. I had a problem with blowing them up, but that's something I won't go into right now.

Sound rushed in my ears, and light flashed behind my closed lids. I felt weightless for a second, and then I slammed back into my body, my stomach rolling and knotting as if I'd just gone over a hill at speed. Holding my breath for a second, I waited for the nausea to pass, before opening my eyes. I cursed at the bright lights surrounding me. Shit. Bright. Ow. Slamming my lids closed, I began preparing myself for the skull shattering brightness, peering out in slow increments. Once I was no longer being stabbed in the retinas, I sat up and looked around.

The bare room, with its cold, clinical walls stared right back at me, giving nothing away. Well that's … different. I didn't know what to expect, but this seemed a little anticlimactic? I mean, shouldn't there be someone … or something to greet me? My bare feet got acquainted with the floor, and I stood up.

"Welcome to Mass Effect Three Online. I am MIA, Machine Intelligence Accelerated Interface. I will be your guide throughout your virtual experience. Please state your name."

"What the shit is that?" I gasped, the voice so unexpected I nearly embarrassed myself. When nothing slapped me upside the head, I realized it had asked me a question. "Uh … A-Amiee Lee," I stammered, looking around at the white paneled walls with a frown on my face. "Where are you?" I asked.

God, I stupid. Why did I let them talk me into this?

"To view the visual interface, please activate your omni-tool, and select visual in the settings menu."

"Omni-tool?" I asked the walls again, looking around for whatever an 'omni-tool' was. I bit my lip to prevent a giggle from escaping me; for some reason, the image of a strange hybrid screwdriver came into my head. Mass Effect Sonic Screwdrivers …. So much win.

"Located on your right wrist is your omni-device. This device will be one of the most important items within the game. It's function is to aid you in completing the game. Each item you collect, mission you complete, and achievement you unlock will be recorded within it. This function will allow you to follow your progress."

The monotone pre-recorded voice droned on a bit, and I mentally switched off, only half listening as I lifted my wrist, noticing the blue band locked to my skin.. How the hell did that get there? Strange, opalescent blue, shimmering with an almost ethereal glow that radiated over my arm, it looked pretty cool in my opinion. Touching it, I stared as it solidified. A menu appeared in front of me. So it's like an IPhone, but not dumb. MIA must be Mass Effects version of Siri.

"So, um, settings?" I fumbled around with the holo interface, pressing the menus randomly in the hope of picking the right one. Error messages flashed, and I knew that I was doomed to suffer with another bit of tech that despised me.

"The options for the settings are located at the top of the screen."

Staring at the interface in front of me, I raised my left hand and attempted to touch the little gear wheel in the corner. My fingers penetrated the blue glowy stuff, making me frown. My tongue caught between my lips, I tried again. "How do I … oh … like that." I grinned as the little menu appeared. Selecting the visual AI option, I looked up, just in time to see the robot appear.

"MIA?" I asked, stepping forward. "You're …. Wait, why aren't you all glowy and see through?"

Taller than I was by a few inches, she had a slim, almost curvy figure, wrapped in a latex jumpsuit in a deep gray color. Her heart-shaped face, with glowing green eyes, stared back at me as she smiled. She waved one hand in a creepy, human-like gesture. "Once activated the visual setting allows me to become fully integrated into your mind. You will be able to interact with me and the other characters within the game. I will be with you throughout play, appearing in this form or as a drone, depending on circumstance," she said, tipping her head.

Creepy Siri wannabe is creepy.

"Is there anything else I need to do?" I queried, shrugging off my shivers. I'd never played a virtual game before, so I had no idea what the hell I was doing. I don't even know why I'd bothered buying the thing to be honest. I mean, yeah, it was cool but still, I was way in over my head. This is what I get for listening to my gamer friends. Why didn't I read the damn manual? I feel like a fucking noob.

"Before entering the game, you must select your class, and visual appearance. Once done, you will be free to enter the game," MIA answered, indicating to my omni-tool.

Lifting my omni-tool and noticed several new menus and all the different function names with their sub-lists. "So … class list?" I enquired, looking up to see her nod. Stroking the interface, I read the list curiously.

Along the screen came names and lists, each one—from Soldier to Engineer—with subclasses and skill sets. I read them all, weighing up and deliberating for a while. I didn't like the sound of biotics, and Infiltrator scared me. Sneaky I am not.

"Soldier sounds .… good? I think," I mused, scrolling down the list a second time. "Okay, I choose soldier."

"Soldier class selected," MIA confirmed. "Please use the decisions menu on your omni-device to create the backstory for your game."

Opening my device again, I clicked the decision menu and read the list. Options flashed, giving me choices on the past games.

Okay …. I have no idea what any of those actually mean, so I guess … uh … crap. I'm not very good at this. I worried my lip and after some hesitation, began to press the buttons that would record my choices.

"Okay, let's do this. Let's save the Rachni Queen, she sounds important. Save Wrex, dunno who he is, but he's got a cool name. Um, Kaiden? Is he any good?," I asked, before shrugging. "Meh, I'll take him. Oh! Save the council, they sound useful," I rattled off, not really listening to MIA, who repeated everything I said like a vaguely annoying parrot.

"Anderson? Who the hell is he? I'll have him anyway, he might be a ninja or something …. Save the data, I think … and destroy the base thingy. I dunno, 'Collector base' doesn't sound like anythin' I wanna be playin with," I mumbled, clicking my choices.

"Choices set. Thank you."

"So what now?" I asked MIA, closing down the menu.

"Please select visual appearance."

Clicking the interface, I gasped as a huge mirror appeared in front of me on the wall. "Uh, so … how does this work? Do I just … say what I want? Or … click something?" I asked, uncertainty taking away the bravado in my voice.

"Your thoughts will control the image you create. Think of shorter hair, and it will be reflected in the mirror. This image will be the one that is seen by the characters of the game and other players during pvp, but to you your appearance will remain unchanged," she explained, stepping aside and allowing me to approach the mirror.

"So … I'll still be me," I murmured, biting my lip. I'd always wanted to be shorter ….

Why not? I might as well.

Frowning, I almost wished I had a sonic screwdriver, or some kind of magic word, you know? Like Harry Potter or something.

How frickin' cool would that be?

Thinking about my height, I pictured myself shorter. I didn't feel anything, but the image in front of me changed, becoming a miniature version of myself. I gaped at myself, and the tiny being in the mirror did the same, almost mocking me.

"No! Not that short! I dunno, maybe … five foot five?" I asked, hoping the words made my brain picture it worked and I was essentially a cute little mini me. Resisting the urge to do the pinky to the mouth thing, I grinned.

"Fuck, yeah!" I said, laughing. I started to get really starting to get excited by the possibilities. I could make myself look like anything I wanted. "Okay, make my hair longer," I said, sticking with the whole 'Make it so' thing.

As soon as I'd spoken, my hair grew from chin length to waist length in thick, black waves. It looked exactly as it had before I'd made the stupid decision to cut it all off on a whim. I missed the weight of it, and kind of regretted the fact that it wasn't real.

My eyes and face, I didn't I want to change but … "Um, maybe a little off the hips?" I suggested, watching my rather curvy hips slim down into a more flattering line. "Oh, that's so cool!"

Having now gotten the hang of the whole thing, I twitched and tweaked my image until I had a smoother looking me. I didn't really change much else, just removed a few freckles here and there and made my eyes a more vivid green—because you know, why not?

"Okay, I think I'm done," I said, a smile on my now slightly redder lips.

I'd experimented with several things—from clothing, to accessories—until I settled on something called Hahne-Kedar armour. I had no idea what it was meant to do really; I chose it because it looked good. I changed the color, making it black with red highlights. Once done, I turned back to MIA.

"So, what now?" I asked curiously.

"Now, you enter the player interface. You will begin your mission on the planet Mars. You will be automatically set into a position to become part of Commander Shepard's team and no matter what happens, the game is coded to make sure you're on the Normandy. Weapons will be provided upon arrival," she explained, shrinking down into a weird, glowing orb thing. It floated over, coming to hover beside me.

Totally gonna call that thing Twitch.

"Welcome to Mass Effect Three Online, Amiee."

Tutorial, here we come?

Stepping through the door that opened in front of me, I left the room with the mirror, and entered hell on earth.

Welcome, to my SI. I hope you enjoyed this little intro to what I hope will be a good story. Please, read and review, I love reading them and would love idea's, suggestions, and crit. If y'all have missions you wanna see that we don't in the game, then put it in a review, 'n' I'll see what I can do. Please be patient with me, I'm going back and editing all of the chapters as my writing gets better.

(I've gone back and done a little editing, cutting out some of the repetition and stupid mistakes. I'll be doing this for all chapters bit by bit, so hopefully people will want to read further.)