Paul called Mike over to his house. It was nice to get out of your own sorry flat once in a while, be it that Paul's flat was nicer than Mikes. At least he got it cleaned once a week by someone. Mike's was a mess. He walked with care through the streets. He was careful not to present himself as a target. The streets in this neighbourhood are not save for anyone. Security situation dictated that he had to show his face to the cameras. Anyway Paul pressed the remote door-opener, that allowed Mike to enter. His flat was designed for wheel-chair. All was adapted, but it can't hide the fact that Paul had been mowed down in his prime. That was why Paul as a very active gamer. He could be because he was limited in so many other activities. A paraplegic without work has fewer options.

Two years had passed since Paul was shot down on the campus. Some tried to limit the access to firearms, but ever since the proliferation of 3D printers the law was one thing, and practice was another. Hell! Even Mike had a SMG in my pocket. Down town was unsafe for anyone.
SMG- the Self Made Gun was the bane of security conscious persons. The gun was produced using a 3D printer, the munition was made by using airgun pellets, and the propellant was easy to make with peroxide, and acetone. There had been a multitude of laws passed in various countries to limit the production of guns with a 3D printer, but it was relatively easy to bypass the ROM chip installed for that purpose. Mike, who used to have access to whole professional chemical labs, the production of cartridges was also trivial.

Paul and Mike went a long way back, they met in primary school, subsequently their lives took different paths. Mike remembered him as a bully in school, and a boy keen on wrestling and fighting against other boys in class. Paul was maybe not the best student, but to meet a junky on a Meth high was all required to end up on welfare. Paul got a shot in his spinal column. Now he was paraplegic, without sensations from the waist and down, with consentration problems because of the pain. He had also lost almost everything, including hope. Which made the invitation a bit special, as this time he sounded excited.

Mike used to have a job. He was brilliant as a student hired while doing his Master thesis. got a job from a big chemical company, a career, but then half a year ago he was fired. He had this revolutionary way of producing colour, that was going to revolutionize the dye industry. It turned out the products were unstable. EDTA in the washing-powder would make the colour change erratically , and tensides reacted with the dye and destroyed the synthetic fibres by releasing molecular acids. A brilliant idea turned sour because someone thought they had tested everything. So Mike was fired, for making a useless product, and the company said they had lost millions on starting a production plant.
Mike's job was in the drain, but then he was tempted to make a few illegal substances, but eventually was actually framed for producing illegal alcohol. Got two months. He lost his girl-friend in the process.

Still - Mike had a fully functional body; Paul did not.

"Hi Paul"
"Hi Mike - How are you?"
"Fine - and you?"
"I am all excited. I got a Z-console yesterday delivered, and with my contacts on the Thor network, I have already mod'ed it"
He pointed to the helmets with 3-D goggles, and a gamebox where all the screws had not been put back.
"I read somewhere - maybe slash-dot - that it was dangerous to mod it. There are some guys in Korea that died, and 3 cases of severe dysfunction"
"Not substantiated, and there's this fantastic array of games you get access to - realistic war scenes, I have tried it twice en it was fantastic."
"Oh?"
"When I play, I don't feel the pain. I feel alive. Here's the second helmet."
"I feel a bit honoured that you chose me- I thought you were the leader of the D-town gang"
"Eh! We have a slight disagreement now, and besides I don't have more than one extra."
"How does it work? and what kind of play-engine is behind it?"

"This ChronoChaos game is just amazing!I didn't last long in the two games I tried, and it left me completely exhausted. You get transported into a war and it feels like you are really there!"
"Rules?"
"Dunno! Games from Fortimbras are currently the best, but they have strange ways to calculate who wins. This game is difficult so survival maybe? In the first game I was in a stone-age family group. Got eaten by a big cat before I even understood what it was all about. The rush of adrenalin was like base-jumping"
"So you don't know in what kind of world we end up?", I said while trying to read the two pages of instructions, and disclaimer.
"No! That is part of the challenge"
"Do we know anything about other gamers?"
"No – but there might be a few teams around"

Mike put the helmet on. It was tight, and slightly claustrophobic. He got this feeling he shouldn't have accepted the challenge...