Simone taps her forefinger and thumb together to open the invite, and an alert begins flashing in the corner of her vision. With a flick of her eyes, it moves front and centre.

*Congratulations! REali-T invites you to our next mission!

You must arrive at the coordinates in 45 minutes. If you do not, you will not be admitted. 

No refunds are available. 

DO NOT SHARE THIS LOCATION WITH ANYONE.

These events only work with your utmost secrecy and discretion. 

Join us and live a truly unique version of REali-T.* 

The location pings into her directions app and a translucent arrow appears. 

*40 mins to destination ETA 12.15am – no available sharepod at this time.*

Simone slings a jacket over her shoulders, scratching at the latest implant site on the back of her neck; her new bio-VR upgrade still healing after its insertion. 

As she walks out into the rain, she selects reality-augmentation options, settling on a panorama of giant pine trees with accompanying bird calls. This superimposes over the walls and sounds of the endless apartment blocks that line the streets, only leaving the arrowed pathway visible.

Forty minutes later, she approaches the door of a disused warehouse. A new message pops up and the augmentation fades away. 

*Enter through the door, turn left and climb into the transport pod. Once inside, put on the boiler suit and hood, swallow the tablet, and place on the mask.*

Three small dots on the door turn green. It is almost pitch black inside but the ovoid pod entrance has dim blue lighting. Simone climbs in, pulls on the black boiler suit then picks up the tablet, rotating it between her thumb and forefinger for a moment, before swallowing.

The blue light turns bright orange and another message appears. 

*Your bio-VR implant is now connected to our system. Sit down and relax. You are about to fall asleep. When you wake, you will start your mission.* 

There is a hiss and sigh as the pod door shuts. Simone is in the sensory deprivation of total darkness. She panics briefly before her eyes close.

She awakes to a red flashing alert message on the inside of her eyelids. 

*Welcome, player. Your codename is Lucky Luciano. Before you begin the mission, we remind you of the following terms and conditions: 

DO NOT switch off your implant during the mission, we are controlling your feed so any unexpected interruption may result in loss of mental acuity.

DO NOT reveal your identity to any of the other players.

ALL ACTIONS are undertaken by your own volition and at your own risk.

PRIZE FUNDS are only received if you complete the mission.

DO enjoy it and remember – with REali-T you’ll never know if it was virtual reality or reality for real…

Do you agree to the terms and conditions? Nod for yes.*

Simone nods.

*Here is your mission:

Nearby, there are three fellow operatives, codenames: Al Capone, John Gotti and Meyer Lanskey. There are also tools and weapons dotted around the vicinity. You are gangsters who are making a name for yourselves in the neighbourhood. You must interrogate the owner of the local convenience store and extract information as to the whereabouts of a drug delivery. They will try to resist, and there may be hidden surprises. You must obtain the information, take the contents of their safe and then return to your pod. You have one hour.*

Simone’s visual display goes blank and the pod door opens. She sees they’ve given her the skin of a middle aged man wearing an old fashioned suit. A timer flashes up in the top left hand corner of her vision and begins to tick down. She scans the nearby area and notices another middle-aged man in a suit climbing out of a pod across the car park. 

‘Hey,’ she calls out. ‘You on the mission?’

‘Yeah,’ replies the other character, walking towards her. ‘This is pretty crazy, right?! My name’s Al Capone – let me guess, John Gotti?’

‘No, Lucky Luciano,’ Simone replies, not being able to hide a smile. ‘Any idea where we need to go?’

‘I’m guessing over there,’ answers Capone, pointing at the bright red and white lights of a tatty old convenience store. ‘But we need to find the others first.’

Simone sets off, staring at the gangster in the black 1940s suit who is walking beside her. 

‘This your first time with REali-T?’ she asks.

‘Second. I’m so over the standard VR implant shit, you know? There’s no jeopardy. Last time I did REali-T, we stole cars and raced around a town at 3am. I didn’t recognise the place, but it could have been anywhere in the outer megacity. Not knowing if I was doing it augmented, or just on a VR sim was such a trip. How about you?’

‘It’s my first time. You reckon this is VR or real?’ she asks, looking around her.

‘It’s got to be VR, right? I mean, we’re picking up weapons to go and shake down a drug dealer. I guess… it could be real? Shit – I dunno! But that’s the reason we’re here, right?! Hey look – there’s a shotgun and a crowbar.’

Simone jogs over and grabs the crowbar, Capone the shotgun.

‘Over there,’ points Capone. ‘There’s the other two.’

They walk over to John Gotti and Meyer Lanskey, and all stand still staring at each other.

‘Well, shit!’ says John Gotti, laughing. ‘Ain’t we a right set of gangster motherfuckers! What did you guys pick up?’

Simone holds up her crowbar and looks across to see Gotti brandishing a machete, and Lanskey a wrench.

‘Anyone recognise where we are meant to be?’ asks Simone.

The three gangsters all shake their heads.

‘Nope, not a clue,’ replies Lanskey. ‘If this place is real – which it probably isn’t – we could be in one of the outer districts? Who cares?! In a city of a hundred million people with this crime rate – it doesn’t matter. Okay,’ Lanskey continues with a smirk on his face. ‘We ready? I say we just rush ‘em! It’s probably VR anyway – look at the state of us! I’ve never heard of this mission with REali-T before – so let’s go in hard and get it over with. Slice ‘em and dice ‘em! You with me?’

‘For sure!’ shouts Gotti, swinging his machete. ‘Let’s do this!’

The gangsters turn and walk towards the convenience store before Simone can say anything. 

Gotti is the first to enter, crashing the door open hard.

‘Alright you motherfuckers, everyone on the floor – now!’ he shouts.

Strip lights hang from the ceilings and illuminate everything in stark detail. There are three rows of shelves, a cold storage unit, and a counter behind which two men stand.

‘Did you not hear me?’ continues Gotti waving his machete and moving towards the counter.

The two men put their hands in the air as Gotti moves his machete to within an inch of their faces.

‘Alright,’ he barks. ‘Which one of you motherfuckers is gonna tell me where the drugs are, and which one is going to take my pals to the safe?’

The man nearest Gotti, who has a bald head and glasses, frowns. 

‘Who the fuck are you?’ he asks back.

‘We are your worst fucking nightmare!’ yells Lanskey, gripping his wrench. ‘Or, just a delightful dream! You can decide that depending on whether you cooperate. Capiche?’

Simone stands frozen, her heart racing.

‘Our worst nightmare, huh? Well that is troubling,’ replies the other man from behind the counter. He has hairy arms and a thick beard. ‘I am most troubled. Are you troubled, Oskar?’ he says, turning to the other man.

‘Oh yes, very troubled, Maniche. Only, it seems as though these motherfuckers haven’t got a clue what they got themselves in for.’ 

As he says this last sentence, in the split second that Gotti turns to look at Lanskey, Oskar and Maniche pull pulse rifles out from under the counter. 

‘Now, let me guess. Did they give you gangster names? Or is it famous assassins this time? The last group who arrived here were named after serial killers for Christ’s sake!’

Gotti glances at Capone and Lanskey with confusion etched on his face. 

‘How do you? What is…?’ he says.

‘Oh, not so fucking tough now? You want to take off those masks and show us your faces? Huh?’ 

Maniche raises his rifle and points it straight at Gotti. 

‘Now you listen to me,’ he continues. ‘You leave and tell whoever those fuckers are who sent you here, that we’re not gonna give them shit no matter how many people they send. And if they want to take it, they’re gonna have to try and get it themselves.’

Capone cocks his shotgun and steps forward. 

‘We’ve got a mission to complete and I need that prize money – so show me where the fucking safe is. Now!’ 

Capone gestures at Maniche and Oskar with his gun. They both look at each other. 

‘You honestly think you stand a chance with that old thing against our pulse rifles? I’ll have your lungs out your chest before you can even pull the trigger. Be smart, shithead, and get out of here before someone gets hurt.’

Capone turns to the others. ‘Come on, you guys! It’s just a fucking game, right? It’s VR! Let’s get on with this – we don’t have loads of time left. I want that money!’

Simone remains still. Gotti and Lanskey look unsure. 

Capone raises his eyebrows and groans.

‘Fine,’ he says, turning back to face the counter. ‘I guess I’ll have to do it myse…’

Before he can finish his sentence, the unmistakable sharp clap and burst of energy that only a pulse rifle can create rips his head off his shoulders. Simone screams as Capone’s decapitated body drops to the floor. 

‘I warned you!’ shouts Maniche over the whine and whirr of a recharging pulse rifle. ‘I’m done fucking around with you people. Whoever sent you, they’re using you – now get out of here! This ain’t no game!’

Lanskey roars and charges at Maniche, managing to strike him round the face with his wrench before Oskar fires. Lanskey’s lungs are boxed out of his back and his body crumples into a bloody mess.

Simone throws herself behind a row of shelves, her breathing fast. Capone must have grabbed the shotgun because she hears the crack of gun fire followed by the clap of a pulse rifle once more.

Looking around her frantically, she spies an entrance to a room at the back of the shop. Amidst the shouting and gun fire, Simone crawls towards the door and tumbles through.

The room is a small office with a standard holo-desk interface in one corner and a shelving unit in the other. As she desperately looks for a window or any other means of escape, she spots an old-fashioned metal locked box on a shelf. Grabbing it, she places her crowbar between the box and the lock, applies leverage, and the top flies open. Inside, she finds nothing but a thick, sealed envelope. 

She pockets this and then carefully peers out the door. It is quiet now, barring some moans and whimpers. Simone realises she has a straight line to the exit. 

As fast as she can, she bolts out of the office and heads for the open door. In the corner of her eye, she sees the remains of Gotti and Lanskey’s bodies reconfigured in a mush of sinew and bone.

Bursting out the store, she hears a yell, but doesn’t look back. Gasping for breath, she throws herself into the pod just as another clap sounds out and the bins beside her crumple. The door seals and a message appears.

*Take the pill on the seat and then the pod will depart.*

‘You’ve got to get out of here- now! Go – just fucking go!’

*Take the pill on the seat and then the pod will depart*

‘For Christ’s sake,’ yells Simone as she swallows the pill and hears another clap and crash.

‘Go, go, go!’

*You will now fall asleep. When you wake up your pod will have returned to your destination.*

‘Just get me the fuck out of he…’

Simone’s eyes close and she falls into the blackness of sleep.

When she stirs, a message awaits on the insides of her eyelids. 

*Congratulations! You survived the mission! And you completed one of the mission priorities.*

Simone looks down to her hands and sees that the envelope is gone.

*This means you are entitled to half the prize fund! As the last surviving player, you can take this prize now or we can offer you the full cost of another mission. Nod if you would like to take half the prize fund now, shake your head if you would like to instead claim a free mission.*

Simone sits paralyzed, her head perfectly still.

‘Before I make a decision, I want to know – was that real? What were those guys talking about in the shop? Did those players just… die?’

*Remember, the message replies, with REali-T you’ll never know if it was virtual reality or reality for real. Please make a decision.*

Simone closes her eyes, and slowly shakes her head.