The live feed to the medical room faded as Oracle turned towards Thomas.
"So what do I do now?" Thomas inquired
"Well, are you ready to be downloaded into virtual reality? The process should be painless."
"Should be painless?" Thomas eyed Oracle intensely, "wait if I don't have a body how could I..." a bright flash of light appeared and Thomas was standing in a massive room.
"Welcome to the Home Base. This is the central core for the Life After program."
Everything was an ivory white. A completely blank slate of space. The room was easily a hundred feet in each direction or was it two hundred. It was almost impossible to tell almost as if it was a limitless cube.
"In here you have freedom to create whatever you want to your consciousness limit. Consider this your new permanent home. Whenever you are done with a game or finished socializing with others you may return here."
"Wait there are other here already?" Thomas quickly asked with enthusiasm.
"Yes, you are currently the third person to successfully undergo the consciousness transfer."
Hesitantly Thomas voiced, "Successfully? How many people have attempted the transfer?"
"One moment." After a short pause, "that information is restricted and unavailable for normal users."
Sarcastically Thomas replied, "Ok, that's not sketchy at all." He proceeded, "Will I be able to meet these people?"
"If they have a desire to meet with you then certainly. However you cannot meet them the way you are."
"What do you..." Thomas looked down at his body. It was a silhouette of blue ethereal particles like Oracle. "Oh, that's what you mean."
"First, you must pick an avatar. This is how others will perceive you in this world."
"I know what an avatar is."
"Then proceed. I will use your old base template as a starting point." Oracle faced Thomas directly transforming into Thomas' old body.
Originally Thomas was a twenty-five years old Caucasian male, with a short trimmed beard and and short messy brown hair. His biggest feature was is blue eyes. It's was definitely what he got complemented on the most. He stood at 6'3" and was overweight. By no means was he an unattractive man but his weight did take away some of his appeal. This was his chance to be whatever he wanted.
Pulling up a window by tapping on it there were a bunch of options to choose from. He quickly played around with the screen and found body fat percentage. Scrolling from high to low he watched his body change. Being an already strong person he didn't want to go too lean and look like a body builder the rest of his life. Instead he chose 12% body fat. Chiseled but not overly ripped.
If Thomas was honest with himself he was always a wild man on the inside and he desired to show that more in this life. Thomas changed his hair to shoulder length and his beard to a thick medium volume. Also he adjusted the color of his hair to dirty-blonde. Adjusting his height to 6'5" made him look like a modern day Norse Viking, the ideal look in his eyes.
Looking at the adjustments Thomas felt a little ashamed because he didn't actually earn this body. Now he never could but here he could be whoever he wants to be.
For clothing Thomas picked typical blue jeans, slightly faded, with a dark red long sleeve that hung to his figure well. Belt and simply black shoes to complete the outfit. Nothing too fancy.
He clicked the accept button and immediately Oracles form changed back to normal and the avatar was in place. Thomas began feeling his arm. Amazingly he felt it. As if it were a real body. Slightly brushing his hand across the arm he felt the tickle of hairs.
"Oracle, do all of my five senses work?"
"In a way yes. The program is simulating these senses on your consciousness tricking your mind into believing it's real."
"This is fascinating." Thomas mused
"Have you never interacted with a fully submersible virtual reality simulator before? From what I understand they are rather popular for majority of the gaming community."
"Well those cost a fortune to buy and I had student loans and medical school. I could never afford one nor did I have the time." Thomas was in full amazement. "You said I could building anything in here correct?"
"This is correct" Oracle answered, "In the future this will cost in world currency to building up your Home Base. Research shows people are happier when given an objective and pride in their homestead. This tactic will include both. However, due to you being one of the first few successful transfers this is an unlimited sandbox for you temporarily."
After a little bit of thought Thomas commented, "As cool as that sounds I want to meet the other people in here first."
"Please then follow me the to the Social Hall."
With a chuckle Thomas stated, "You guys really went all out for these names didn't you." As he spoke a door appeared in the middle of the room.
Thomas walked around it once completely. "Interesting, you are not the first person to do this." Remarked Oracle.
Thomas turned the door handle and walked through the empty white void. His eyes quickly adjusted to the new light. In all simplicity he was in a train station. The walls lead up to a glass dome that let "natural" light in. There were multiple shops, benches, picnic tables, small gardens. It looked as if this would be a great place to spend time with people. However, there wasn't a soul to be seen.
"Oracle where are they?"
"Who?"
"What do you mean who, the only other people in this virtual world of yours."
After a quick moment of pause, "They are not in the Social Hall at the moment."
"I can see that" Thomas replied stretching his hand to the empty train station. "Where are they currently?"
"One is in there Home Base, the other is currently in a game."
Thomas had completely forgotten about the gaming aspect of this new life. The realization excited him. "What games can I play?"
"Here is a list of games. At the moment all games currently under the ATLAS corporation are available to play."
"Which game is the other person currently in?"
"Ig'Dracil"
Thomas's eyes immediately lit up. Ig'Dracil was a brand new game that was only released a couple days ago. It was blowing in the gaming community and from all the talk it was turning out to be a revolutionary game. It was a VRMMORPG where you became fully immersed in becoming a legendary hero or villain. The game was one hundred percent intractable and combat was completely based on skill. The more practice you had the better you could play. It was a true grinding game. It was a world four times larger then Earth with breath-taking scenery around every corner. People were dubing it was the Virtual Earth.
The only way you could play was using the fully submersible virtual reality simulator.
"Oracle, how do I get to that game."
"Simple, get in the train."
With a confused looked Thomas approached the train then it clicked. "Oracle, this is a fun and immersive idea but this will become very complicated when you have more people here."
"I will make a note of that."
Thomas got on board the train and a whistle sounded. The train began to roll out of station.