Prologue

Sitting cross-legged on my bed, I look wearily at the VR equipment laying innocently in front of me. As a game reviewer, it's my job to test out new games as soon as they hit the market, but right now I wish I had a different job. I've seen way too many accidents occur with programming processes and the few anime shows I've watched, cause my normal level of excitement to morph into a gut-wrenching feeling of anxiety. Taking a deep breath, I brush the feeling aside as I start getting the equipment set up. The instructions are pretty basic, showing diagrams of where each piece is supposed to go and how to attach them to my body.

Stripping out of my clothes, I slip on the silver mesh bodysuit and place the slippers over my feet before strapping on the velcro knee pads. Next is the belly band, followed by the collar. The material is flexible and doesn't chafe as I move around to connect the wires hanging from each piece of fabric. Once I'm done with my main body, I put on the elbow guards and gloves. Feeling like a cyborg, I place the headband on my head and make sure that it's comfortably snug. As the instructions suggest, I stand from my bed and do a couple of little hops to make sure everything is going to stay attached and to be sure that I didn't miss any cords. Laying back down, I click in the wires from the collar to the headband. A low level buzz fills my ears and I can feel my breath quicken with anxiety even though it is something that the directions said to expect. Before I can go into a panic attack or talk myself out of it, I lower the visor over my eyes and start the program with the phrase, "Nofell, start!"