“I do?” Viren asked, perplexed.

The doctor raised an eyebrow. “Don’t you?” He said as he stood there in silence examining Viren who was now in the body of Erasmus.

Viren was getting nervous. Should I have come in with some sort of information? Like a code to start the objectives? I knew I should have watched the full introduction video! That was when he noticed something about Jorgen; or rather, something above him; something that should not have been there.

Jorgen walked over to the wooden table on which stood a bottle of liquor, a cylindrical container (mostly an ice box) and two inverted glasses. Jorgen turned the glasses over and began pouring the liquor into one of them. Viren began to feel that there was something not quite right about this situation. He did not take his eyes off Jorgen, carefully studying his movements.

“You will have one too, right?” Jorgen asked as he stopped after filling one-fourth of the glass with the reddish-brown liquid.

“Uh, no. Thank you.” Wait a second, could I even taste alcohol while here? The taste calibrations hadn’t been adjusted and drinking at my age (which was 18) was legal in my home state.

“Really?” Jorgen said as picked two squares of ice from the icebox and dropped them into his drink with a clink. “That’s new. So what other bad habits are you cutting back on?”

What are you playing at, Jorgen? Viren thought about the fact that considering it was Erasmus’ body that he was currently in, he probably needed to choose his responses accordingly.

“On second thought, pour a glass for me.”

Jorgen did so with an amused look on his face. Viren took the filled glass from him; the aroma of the liquor was a little too potent for him. The glass was cold: he could feel the chill in literally each finger of his hand. The weight of the glass seemed to shift as the two large ice cubes moved around.

Jorgen sat in the chair opposite Viren and took a sip of the liquor. Above him floated his name, level and health (HP) bar. Viren wondered if Jorgen could see it. That should not have been possible for him.

According to the publicised simulations, people (humans) coming into The Anachron had a distinctive advantage when compared with the denizens: they could not die. The body that they assimilated with could die, however, humans could not be killed as the bodies they were inhabiting were not theirs. In fact, in many cases, the people assimilating (or possessing) the AI denizen bodies made extremely rash and juvenile decisions because the consequences would fall on the AI, which many deemed to be disposable or reconstructible, although with adjusted properties, to wipe out the AI’s history.

Any human who did not assimilate with an AI denizen, but used a model of that displayed a ‘level’ and a ‘health bar’ above them; that could only be seen by other human participants. This was similar to typical Role-Playing Games (RPGs). Having said that, using a custom model was not only a very delicate process, but also a very rare occurrence. The development of such a model was very cheap considering the abundance of open source software and Do-It-Yourself tutorials; but using such a model in The Anachron was limited to the privileged few who had a stake in the company. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been allowed to access the source to upload any assets like the custom models.

Now that Viren could see Jorgen in the light of the setting sun, which was gradually darkening the room, he began to become unsure about whether Jorgen was in fact a human. He had a ‘health bar’ which was neither needed nor used by the AI denizens. The denizens do not ‘take damage’. They can lose limbs, die of infection, be poisoned to death or even die with a single well-placed bullet.

Viren concluded that Jorgen was what the forums revered as an ‘Immortal’: one who cannot die in The Anachron. The ‘Lv. 73’ indicated that Jorgen was quite an experienced player and one who understood The Anachron far better than Viren.

Viren was in a dangerous position. He was not going to trust anything that Jorgen would say, but at the same time he was willing to play along so as to not arouse suspicion. Who knew what Jorgen’s intentions were?

When Jorgen came into the room he gave me his name. Why? Was he expecting me?

“Are you staring at me for any particular reason?” asked Jorgen, putting down his drink and fishing out a pack of cigarettes.

“Yes. About those questions I had.”

“Hmm?” said Jorgen, lighting the cigarette that was between his lips.

If he kills me… Erasmus dies, and I would have destroyed a valuable piece of The Anachron in a matter of minutes. I won’t get another chance in this industry again.

“Why are you here?” Viren asked pretending to be annoyed by Jorgen’s presence; which he was. “And what happened to my leg?” This looked like a bedroom, but Viren was unsure who it belonged to – Erasmus or Jorgen.

Jorgen blew out a puff of smoke in Viren’s direction. “I’m here to take you to your first objective. As for your leg, we just spoke a few hours ago about what happened.. You haven’t taken some sort of medication in since then, have you?”

Jorgen is definitely messing with me.

“Why are you going to escort me to my objective?”

“Because no one else will.” Jorgen emptied his glass in a single large gulp, after which he slammed the glass down on the wooden table. Viren was sure that the action either cracked the glass or damaged the polish of the table.

“What?” Viren yelled in frustration. Erasmus was supposed to be a gangster and this wannabe doctor was treating him like some chump. “Will you stop talking in riddles and just –”

Jorgen walked over to the bedside, pulled open the drawer of the side table there and took out a pistol. Viren froze. Jorgen checked the clip and confirmed that it was fully loaded.

“You’re right,” Jorgen said. “We should really get going. You’ll learn on the way.”

Jorgen put back the clip and offered the pistol to Viren. “Your trusted Colt. You never leave without it.”

Viren accepted it as if he were handling a live snake. Jorgen tossed the remainder of his cigarette into the melting ice in the just-emptied liquor glass, and opened the door to leave the room. A crutch was leaning against the wall just outside the room. Jorgen grabbed it and placed it on the bed next to Viren.

“Oh and don’t put any pressure on that leg, all right?”

“Yeah, obviously.” Viren looked again at his well-plastered leg.

Jorgen was about to say something, but evidently decided against it. He walked out of the room into the empty corridor, leaving the door open for Viren to follow him. Viren grabbed the crutch and with great difficulty stood up.

Using a crutch to walk was another first for Viren who had only seen that in films and videos. He was expecting a lot more of those visual references to come up, based on what awaited him outside his room.