"How could I resist?"

"Just get to the street, please. I'm waiting."

Sebeck hit the Up arrow to get himself moving. He eventually discovered the keyboard stroke to open doors, and soon he was walking through the halls of his villa. Servants scurried this way and that on apparent errands. They all bowed their heads as he passed. It was pretty impressive, but Sebeck wondered what the point of it all was. It's not like he could really enjoy the comforts of the place. It was just computer graphics.

He made it to the main hall, and from there Sebeck could see double doors with four men on guard. As he moved toward the front door, two men in rich-looking robes with fur collars and necklaces approached him from the wings.

"My lord, a word, please. I hope you've considered our proposal. The price is fair. What say you, my lord?"

Sebeck was confused. If this was his house, who the hell were these guys? "Jon, I've got a couple of shysters accosting me in my own foyer."

"Might be a deal the previous owner of the character had going."

"Are you serious? This game remembers what you do?"

"Do they look important?"

"Sort of." Sebeck right-clicked on the man. A selection of responses appeared:

I'll sell for 500

Offer more money

No, I'll never sell

I'll think about it

Sebeck's mouse accidentally hovered over the guard in the background, and the menu listing went away. Sebeck right-clicked on the guard out of curiosity. Another list appeared:

Attack…

Guard me

Guard this place

Leave me

Sebeck selected Attack…When he did so, the mouse cursor started trailing a red line from it, with a fixed point leading from the guard. The game was apparently asking him to select the target. Sebeck clicked smack dab in the expectant face of the bearded merchant.

An echoing shout went up in the room as not just one but all the guards pulled swords and came screaming toward the merchant.

The man's face actually registered fear. "No! To me! To me!"

Sebeck's warriors converged on the men and started hacking them with swords. Animated blood spattered the floor as the merchants tried to flee. Sebeck's warriors hemmed them in. The merchants shrieked pitiably. That's when Sebeck heard pounding on the front doors. A couple of his guards peeled off just in time to meet a dozen swordsmen in what looked to be chain mail. They burst into the foyer screaming like banshees and rushed to the merchants' defense.

A general alarm bell went up in the house. Shouts were heard all around. "We're under attack!"

Sebeck muttered into the phone. "Oh shit…"

"Why are those swordsmen running into the villa?"

"Okay, I may have fucked up here."

"Damnit, Pete, you couldn't get out your front door without causing a brawl?"

"It's under control." Sebeck was trying to remember the command to get a sword into his hand. This character was incredibly confusing. There was so much to choose from-too much. Suddenly a wild-haired swordsman was on him, screaming and swinging like a maniac. "Uh-oh."

More of Sebeck's men were coming in from the wings, but not enough. Already some of his men lay dead. The merchants had good bodyguards, and they were moving out the door under close protection now.

The bearded one looked back and pointed to Sebeck. "I will have vengeance upon you!"

Sebeck muttered into his headset. "Yeah, yeah…"

Suddenly the merchant jerked and dropped to the ground with a black arrow in his back. His two bodyguards scanned the terrain outside, and one of them suddenly dropped dead as well. The remaining guard ran for the road.

A horn sounded, and the merchant's men-at-arms retreated, bringing the surviving younger merchant along with them. As they made their way through the doorway, another black arrow appeared in the younger merchant's forehead, and he, too, pitched forward, dead. The remaining men-at-arms scattered, running through the gardens and over the low hedgerows. Sebeck's four or five remaining guards gave chase. One of them turned back in the doorway and shouted to a servant. "Summon the town watch!" Then he was gone. The servant ran off through the villa shouting, "The watch! The watch!"

In a moment Sebeck stood alone among the dead. On closer inspection, some were groaning and twitching, obviously injured. This was frighteningly detailed. Sebeck scanned the room, hitting the arrow keys to move about.

He almost jumped out of his digital skin when he turned to see a fearsome-looking hooded assassin appear out of thin air a foot from his face.

Ross's voice came over the phone. "Boo."

"Stop screwing around." Sebeck noticed that this avatar was different from the ones he'd seen so far-a glowing call-out box hovered over its head. The box was labeled " Entro-P" and a series of green bars were stacked up to the left of it, like a graph. It was a ninja with a floating name tag. "Who are you supposed to be?"

"You really screwed things up, you know that?"

"I don't remember you teaching me how to play this game."

"I plead guilty. I just didn't think your first instinct would be to attack an unarmed old man."

"He was annoying me."

"Okay, a little tip: everything has consequences in this world-as in the real one. See the dead merchant on the floor? That's the patriarch of the House of Peduin and a leading merchant. He had many friends, and he provided the local nobility with much of their liquidity-i.e., cash. This is an agrarian society, so cold hard cash is hard to come by. Even my character has used his services."

" You're the one who killed him."

"But I wasn't seen trying to kill him. See how that works? Just like the real world. Once you ordered your men to kill him, it was important to slay all the witnesses. Even then, you might have spies in your household."

"Enough. So what? Some digital graphics are upset at me. Who gives a shit?"

"I bought your character because he was useful. He had title, lands, and income from his holdings. These things would have come in handy where we're going-particularly your following of men-at-arms and any alliances you might have had with regional nobility. But now you'll be branded outlaw and your lands and title will be forfeit."

"All right. I owe you a character. Should we buy another one?"

Ross chuckled. "Now you're getting the hang of it." He sighed. "No, let's see if we can get out of town alive."

"Town? We're in a town?"

"Yes. This is your autumn villa. The one used during market season. It's in downtown Gedan."

"As in the taverns of Gedan?"

"That's right. Although, thanks to you, we won't be visiting any taverns. C'mon."

Ross's assassin led the way, waiting impatiently as Sebeck tried in vain to navigate his character through the doorway and out to the road.

"You're like a retarded Sir Lancelot."

"Look, unlike you, I have a life, and I don't have hundreds of extra hours to spend learning to play this game."

They made it out to the road, and Sebeck finally got a good look around. This was a surprisingly complex-looking world. They stood on a narrow cobblestone street in a picturesque medieval town. A bell tower stood above what looked to be a square, and the bell was ringing. Birds even flew past in the morning sky. "Holy Moses. This is really something."

"Incoming…"

A mob of armed men headed down the otherwise deserted street in their direction. They didn't look friendly.

"Goddamnit, I didn't want to use this, but we've got places to go." Ross's character made some animated, generic hand gestures.

"What are you up to? You casting a spell or something?"

"No, I'm using a magical device."

Suddenly a shimmering portal opened in midair in the middle of the street. It revealed a tunnel that appeared to enter some extra-dimensional space.