––––––––

The checkup was a joke. I received the once-over from a doctor and had to fill in a few questionnaires. Then I was taken to a gym where I was fitted up with sensors and instructed to lift weights, run and do sit-ups. I even managed to do six pull-ups. Zoriana watched my exploits closely, marking something down on a clipboard.

Finally they released me. It took them another hour to calculate the results.

Dmitry entered the office, beaming from ear to ear. What was he celebrating? Then again, he was probably just happy for his brother.

“You got twenty-five points! Not bad at all. I've seen fitter people never make twenty. That’s what I call letting your head do the work!”

“Why, does it matter?”

“Well, for one, had you failed to make fifteen points, you'd have been disqualified.”

“Wow. Why didn't you tell me so?”

“I couldn't. We have very strict rules about that. The fine print. Spontaneous testing. But it doesn't matter. Everything's fine. I was sure you'd make it.”

“Me too, sort of. And secondly?”

“Secondly, the developers have a rule. The test points are a bonus added to the players' main characteristics. Now when you log in, apart from the standard initiation package, you'll also have these twenty-fine points. It's up to you how you're going to distribute them.”

I shrugged. What did he expect me to say? I didn't have the slightest idea what I was getting into. Sveta had told me she'd seen their ads on TV. The thing looked legit. Then again, gone were the days when you could actually believe what they said on TV. Or should I say, you could never believe it.

“Once you get to the Glasshouse, you'll wish you'd earned more points. Everyone does. They even joke about it. One thing I can tell you, you can never have too many bonus points.”

Again I shrugged.

“Very well,” he said, “let's get on with it. Your account is halfway complete. All you need to do now is confirm your settings, and off you go. Next thing. The actual hiring, the signing of the contract and the distribution of tools take place in Mirror World. Here we can't influence your decision. One word of advice. Keep an eye on the in-game news. Try to deal only with established players. Find a way to join a strong clan or guild. The first day is crucial. Today you'll be logging in from here. Next time you'll already be using your employer's module. Your objective is to land a work contract in Mirror World. The longer its term, the bigger loan they'll offer you. And one last thing. Don't overexert yourself. The human mind is an unpredictable and poorly studied piece of gear. Everything you do in the game affects your body. That’s just the way it works. Remember the other thing Dad used to say?”

“A sound mind in a sound body?”

“Exactly. Only here it's the other way round, sort of. As long as your mind is sound, so is your body. You'll see what I mean. Good luck.”

The GT class module resembled a horizontal sunbed. I faltered. I had this funny feeling... it looked too much like a coffin.

“Are you okay?”

I startled. A young guy of about twenty-five looked at me sympathetically. I lowered my eyes at his name tag, squinting.

Andrew

Module unit controller

“I'm fine, thanks,” I said. “Just a bit dizzy.”

He smiled. “It's all right. It happens. People do get last-moment jitters. And then you just can't pull them out by their ears. Please remove your clothes and take your place.”

I did as he asked of me. The warm gelatinous bed enfolded over my body. It felt like lying in plum jelly.

“Please don't move.”

I froze. Andrei crowned my head with a complex-looking device. “Close your eyes.”

I did as I was told.

“I'm going to count to ten. One. Two. Three. Four. Five...”

His voice began to distance.

“Six...”

Now I had to strain my ears to hear him.

“Seven. Eig-”

Silence fell, boundless and perfect. Had I just died? I was enveloped in pitch darkness. No, I couldn't have been. My thinking was perfectly clear. I tried to speak but I couldn't. I tried to turn my head after a fashion. It felt as if my body was gone.

My glance chanced on a tiny white spot. I focused. It kept growing. Now it was the size of a tennis ball... a saucer... looming ever closer until it had grown to the size of a window.

Closer.

Light consumed me.

The sound of falling water assaulted my eardrums. A fresh breeze touched my face, mixed with a veil of moisture. My body convulsed. I sensed a few pebbles under my open hand. All of a sudden I could feel them throughout my entire body.

I pushed away from the ground and sat up.

Jesus Christ almighty!

Somehow they had magically transported me from their labs to this beautiful waterfall. The rocks felt warm to touch. I brushed my hand over some shrubs growing in a crevice in the cliff. This was a hundred percent real. Impossible!

I took in a deep breath. The air was sweet. Trees rustled in the wind. I could hear birds chirruping. The waterfall rumbled away.

I must be going mad!

Confounding me even more, a 3D sign appeared before my eyes. I startled. The letters faded, then filled again with color.

Welcome to Mirror World, Olgerd!

In order to enjoy the world in its entirety, please complete your account registration.

Would you like to complete your account registration now?

Yes/No

I focused on Yes.

Congratulations! Registration complete!

You have 15 points available!

You have 25 bonus points available!

This would have to wait. I wasn't in a hurry. I tried to get up and failed.

You cannot move.

Strength: 0

Speed: 0

Ah, so that's how it worked, then. I invested one point into each. My body began to obey me albeit reluctantly, as if in slow motion.

I added another point to speed. Much better, but still too slow.

Two more. Excellent. It wasn’t as if I needed to run around here. I tried to walk about for a bit. It felt okay.

Now Strength. I picked up a rock small enough to close my hand around it. Good.

How about this one the size of my head? As if! But my trade as mine digger called for some serious weight lifting.

I added one point to Strength. I still couldn't lift the bigger rock. Another one. Yes! Perfect.

From what I'd read the day before, I had to go easy on points. If I wanted to bring a characteristic back to zero, I was going to lose half the points I'd invested in it. So I had to give it a good think. Just imagine how many points I'd have had to invest in Cave Horrud, with his bulk? And here I'd gotten away with only a few.

So, what did we have here?

Strength: 3 pt.

Speed: 4 pt.

I had 33 points left. Not bad.

I walked over to the water and peered at my reflection. An Ennan stared back at me. He had my face and body build by default—I made sure not to change the settings. So there we were! As large as life and twice as ugly!

I touched the water. It was cool to touch, the kind you'd expect water to be in the mountains. How did they do it? Was it my mind with its knowledge of what water should be like, affecting my perception? Or was it some different mechanism entirely?

I had a good eyeful of the new me. Then I checked the map. It offered a helpful view of all the nearby settlements. The largest of them, Leuton City, was about two miles away. So that’s where I decided to go.

I marched away: first along a trail winding around cliffs, and then through a forest, turning my head this way and that like a five-year-old boy on his first trip out of town. The area was admittedly impressive. Giant ancient trees loomed overhead, threatening to squash me with their bulk. The numerous meadows were crowded with flowers of every color of the rainbow. This riot of color was astounding. And even more amazing was the world’s authenticity.

After some ten minutes, I began to feel fatigued. My breathing became labored. My legs grew heavy. I had a splitting headache. It felt as if I’d just single-handedly unloaded a truckful of bricks. Something was going wrong.

Aha! I saw it:

Energy: 5/40

Basically, a ten-minute walk had just consumed almost all of my energy. Not good.

I perched on a large fallen tree covered in thick moss. Time to look into this. Where was it now... aha!

Stamina

Effect: each point gives +20 to Energy

Let’s do some math. Ten minutes of brisk walking equaled 35 Energy. So! Apparently, walking was a luxury in this world.

I splurged three points on Stamina. Which gave me:

Stamina, 3

Energy, 12/100

Wow! Twelve already? I’d had five only a moment ago!

I could breathe easier now, even though my legs were still heavy. Which meant that sitting still restored your Energy. Finally some good news!

Never mind, I’d apparently have to travel in stops and starts. Yes, it would take me some time. But I couldn’t help it.

And that’s how I continued on my way: the moment I started feeling tired, I immediately found myself a nice comfortable spot to rehabilitate.

When I was crossing a large field, a colorful cavalcade of riders in shiny armor caught up with me. I’d just sat down to recuperate. No idea what prompted them to stop. Could be either my unkempt looks or the silent amazement in my stare. Whatever.

The enormous head of a black horse hovered over me, glaring at me with its evil eye and quite prepared to trample me. The smiling face of a perfectly beautiful young girl beamed at me from behind the horse’s back. Emerald eyes, golden locks, a full bosom, a rod-straight back and a perfectly shaped body.

“Greetings, O wanderer!” she had a musical voice, strong and cheerful.

“You shaggy dog! You should bow when you see a lady!”

Another horse soared over me. Its rider looked utterly awesome in his head-to-toe armor.

“Please don’t, Lord Melwas,” the girl’s voice chimed again. “Can’t you see he’s a newbie? Aren’t you, my good man?”

She seemed to be addressing me. “I am. You’re absolutely right.”

“I am, my lady!” the man snapped at me. “Then bow as low as you can, peasant!”

The bully’s horse seemed about to crush me like a walnut. “Young man,” I addressed the rider, “how dare you talk to me like that!”

His black eyes turned into slits. “Oh, I dare!” his steel-clad hand reached for his sword.

“Melwas! Please don’t!” the musical voice assaulted my eardrums.

“Only for you, Lady Isa,” the bully lost all interest in me and nudged his horse forward, covering me with a thick cloud of dust. I burst out coughing.

“Thank you, my lady,” I said, trying out new forms of speech. “It’s my first day today.”

“We’ve all had our first day here,” she flashed me a winning smile. “I can see you’re all empty. Hey, Aragorn!”

Another rider approached. His armor was different from a knight’s traditional suit. Navy blue, it was covered in some fancy script. Beautiful.

“Yes, my lady,” Aragorn lowered his head.

“Please help this poor soul,” Lady Isa made a cute face.

The dark knight smiled. Silently he reached his hand out to me.

The entire cavalcade raced off, leaving me to choke in the filthy dust.

I began cleaning myself up. It took me some time to notice a system message that had apparently been there for some time,

You’ve received a blessing: Dark Hand.

Effect: +10 to Energy every 30 seconds.

Duration: 2 hrs.

I stood there blinking like an idiot, watching my Energy bar approach the 100% mark.

“So, noob, are you sufficiently impressed?” someone growled behind my back.

I swung round. A Cave Horrud in the flesh stood not five paces away from me. He was at least ten foot tall. Powerful muscles rippled under his thick grey hide. I’d seen a rhino in a Madrid zoo once: that’s the kind of hide he had.

Most of all he resembled a large chunk of rockfall.

The Horrud grinned, exposing his crooked fangs, “Enjoying the view?”

I gulped. Looking at computer pictures while wearing that stupid bucket on my head was one thing. Encountering this monster in the flesh was quite another.

“Cat got your tongue?”

“Eh, sor-sorry,” I mumbled.

“Look at this noob,” he growled, baring his teeth. “Never seen a Horrud before?”

“Only in pictures in the test module,” I admitted.

“Is this your first day in the Glasshouse, then?”

“My first hour, more like.”

“Aha, that’s what it is! I see. A Daily Grinder. A fellow mine digger! Er... an Ennan? What the hell is that?”

“How d’you know all this?” I asked him.

“Jesus,” the Horrud rolled his eyes. “You are a noob, aren’t you? Focus on the space just over my head.”

Name: Grryrsch

Race: Cave Horrud

Account type: Daily Grind

Level: 0

Profession: Mine Digger

Skill level: 9

“How interesting,” I said pensively.

“Nice to meet you, Olgerd,” he roared.

“Nice to meet you too, Gr... Grrych...”

“It’s Greg actually,” he waved his bucket-sized hand in the air.

“I’m Olgerd,” I proffered mine.

“Not a good idea,” Greg grinned. “You risk losing your mitt. The Horrud race is quite strong.”

I snatched my hand away.

“That’s right. So where are you heading, Olgerd?”

“I’m off to Leuton. Looking for work.”

“So! Same here! We can go together if you want. We could chat about the game.”

I nodded eagerly, grinning. How great was that? How was I supposed to know that Mirror World was this authentic?

“I can see you’ve no idea what a cool goodie you’ve just got,” Greg boomed, thumping along.

“I’ve no idea of lots of things.”

“You’re dead right there. The Dark Hand is an expensive buff. About fifty gold normally. It’s rare. Perfect for working underground. Can keep you going for two hours without grub. And that’s an extra slot in your bag any way you look at it. Talking about grub...”

He reached into his bag and threw something into his mouth. I focused on the item.

A Rosy-Cheeked Apple

Effect: restores 100 pt. Energy

“Wow,” I enthused.

“My point entirely,” Greg grinned. “You’re a noob if ever I’ve seen one.”

“Mind telling me what noob means?”

He stared at me. “Have you ever played before?”

Having heard my explanation about “tank games”, he shook his head. “Hopeless case, you. Go to the info portal and look it up. There’s lots of stuff there. It’s the icon with the mirror.”

“Does the game have Internet access?”

“Not into the real world, no. But it has its own network.”

It didn’t take me long to locate the icon with the mirror. “This is crazy,” was all I could say when a browser window opened up right before my eyes.

Local news, translators, weather, maps and apps – tons of useful tools, perfectly downloadable and usable. Provided you had money, that is.

“So?” my new friend grinned. “Have you looked up noob?”

Okay. I opened the dictionary. Oh, well. I couldn’t agree more.

“Greg, you’ve no idea how right you are,” I said.

“How old are you in real life?”

“Almost forty-one.”

“I see. Now everything becomes clear. Then again, they say that Romulus is fifty-plus but he’s one of the top players.”

“The one with the Steel Shirts?”

“Ha! You’re full of surprises. Not all’s lost, then.”

“And how old are you?”

“Almost twenty. The best age, as they say, LOL.”

I didn’t ask him any further questions. He didn’t look too eager to open up either. I got the impression that people here weren’t too willing to exchange personal data. I, for one, didn’t want everyone and their grandma to know who I was.

“Have you already decided on an employer?” Greg asked.

“Not yet. Why? Did I have this option?”

“You’re too much, you. Are you sure you know how to use the Internet?”

Yes, I’d admittedly been slow on the uptake, as today’s youngsters say. The thought of looking it all up and checking a few forums hadn’t even occurred to me. It must have had something to do with my being so preoccupied with my daughter’s condition. Also, to be brutally honest, I hadn’t taken any of this seriously. I hadn’t expected it to be so... so incredibly awesome. Never mind. I was sure I’d sort it all out somehow. I had to.

“Any advice for me?” I asked.

“Leuton isn’t much of a city even though it’s the capital of the cluster. Not much choice there. You either try the dwarves’ guild or go cap in hand to the father of that idiot who very nearly gave you a taste of his Lash of Fury.”

“I was told that Daily Grinders can’t kill anyone and can’t be killed.”

“They can’t, no, but he could have whacked you with it and very hard, too,” seeing the incomprehension in my stare, Greg began to explain. “He could give you an injury debuff – in other words, cripple you for a limited period of time. He’s level 130 so his lash is quite a bitch. One blow would have been enough to finish you off. These kinds of weapons increase Fury – and we here try not to annoy any characters who might happen to level it. He can give you a Class 9 injury and that’s the end of you. They normally last over twenty-four hours. You’ll spend all your money on quacks and healing spells. Actually, the highest-level healer I know in Leuton is the Mayor himself. He heals all the injuries up to Class 7.”

“These injuries, what do they do?”

“Normally, it’s minus to Life, Energy, Speed and such. Works the same as your blessing.”

“My what?”

“The blessing, I mean the buff you’ve received.”

“I see. Sorry. It’s all a bit confusing.”

“Never mind. You’ll work it all out in the end. It’s your first day, after all. You’re a big guy. You’ll make it.”

“That’s settled, then. Off to the dwarves we go. Somehow I’m not so keen on having to constantly watch my back.”

“Can’t say I blame you. He’s sixteen in real life, by the way. His dad is a bank manager. But strangely enough, his mines are a better workplace. I work for him and I’m still alive and in one piece. Money just keeps falling into my account.”

“What’s so good about it?”

“First, we all work for a set wage. The money’s very good. You just keep picking at the rock without a worry in the world. They have all sorts of bonuses too. Clothing and tools on the house. And the food.”

“Sounds good. How about the dwarves?”

“At the dwarves, it’s exactly the opposite. You get paid for what you produce. Gear, tools, you pay for everything yourself.”

“Now I see why your Strength is so high.”

“Ah, so you noticed,” he grinned with pleasure. “What would I need Speed for? At the dwarves you do need to move it, but here... I get paid for hacking at the rock and keeping an eye on the clock. After a week, I installed this little piece of software my bosses suggested, the Merry Digger. Once you activate it, your char can work on his own. The program keeps an eye on him, restoring his Energy, sitting him down to rest or taking him out for a pee. And I can browse the Net to my heart’s content while I wait for my wage to drop into my account.”

He leaned close to me and whispered conspiratorially, “I’m saving up to buy myself a Bronze account. The moment I pay off my Daily Grind plan, I’ll start putting the money aside for it. That’s a totally different ball game! That’s why I do my research and visit all those sites and forums. I need to come up with a strategy. From what I’ve heard, even Romulus himself started off as a Daily Grinder—he played a Horrud too. Maybe they’re just rumors but I read about these things in some quite reliable sources.

Aha. So that’s why this race was so popular. Romulus, of course! How childish. The rich characters benefited from cheap labor. Mindless cheap labor even, considering they’d built all these stupid programs. I wouldn’t have been surprised if they’d advised Greg to invest most of his points into Strength. One more argument for my joining the dwarves. Finally, the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle began falling into place.

“Hey,” I said, “Mind if I add you as a friend?”

“Not a problem.”

I entered his name. Access denied. And again. Denied again. How weird. “Why do you keep rejecting my friend request?”

He smiled. “Which name did you enter?”

I slapped my forehead. “I am a noob, really!”

“You said it.”

Right. I entered Grryrsch.

Friend request accepted.

Greg didn’t send me his. Apparently, he wasn’t interested in the likes of useless first-timers like myself. That was only fair.

An hour later we walked out into a large river valley. Leuton City stood on a river bank, looking utterly beautiful. The game designers had done a fine job. Neat towers topped city walls built of perfectly smooth slabs of stone. The houses’ colored domes peeked out from behind the wall, most of them flying bright flags. This was a nice and neat version of the Middle Ages.

“That’s it, Olgerd,” Greg said. “Good luck! From here you’re on your own. I still have quite a hike to get to Lord Shantar’s estate.”

“Thanks, Greg. I really appreciate your help,” I gingerly touched his broad forearm.

I meant it. I’d met him in the right place at the right time.

“Ah, one more thing,” he growled from afar. “Go directly to the Mine Diggers’ Guild. They’ll give you your first profession quest. From then on, you’ll be fine.”

“Thanks!” I waved my hand to him. “Good luck!”