Sitting behind his keyboard, minding his own business, and harmlessly working on his blog, Nick was suddenly stopped in mid sentence as his computer froze.

"Damn," he proclaimed, tapping irritably on the mouse. He sat back a moment and put his hands on either side of the keyboard. Then the screen moved. This was a step up from being frozen, but the way in which it moved caused Nick to frown. The computer was loading something new. Had he clicked a wrong key?

He waited impatiently, drumming his fingers on the desk, and carefully restraining himself from launching an attack on the keyboard. The little circle continued to rotate on the screen as a white window covered every other application. Then, as it loaded, a sidebar popped up from the taskbar. It said: Your computer is slow.

Nick's jaw dropped ever so slightly.

The pop-up had vanished just as quickly as it'd come, but Nick could still see it clearly in his mind's eye. A frowny-face had sat beside the simple text, and the message had come in a plain blue rectangle.

Despite his confusion and exasperation, he continued to wait. What else could he do? He soon found his eyes going out of focus as he stared at the immovable screen. Then, in a sudden explosion of light and sound, the screen came to life in a brilliant display unlike anything Nick had ever seen on the face of his old relic of a computer.

He jumped back with a flurry of blinking eyelids and nearly pushed his roller chair clear from the desk. But he grabbed hold and pulled himself close, leaning his head towards the screen in amazement.

The taskbar and mouse had vanished completely, and the entire screen was flying through a series of images as if set free from its chains. Anyone would think his computer was the fastest available.

Finally, the whirling images settled down, and the view sunk beneath the surface of a lake. Then some words appeared. Nick could only think that this was some kind of an incredible pop-up advertisement. Except, the words said otherwise.

Hello Nick. Sorry for the interruption.

Nick stared. The company could easily have tracked some of his personal information. That's how they knew his name. Except, what product was being advertised? Nick inspected the screen carefully, looking for an emblem, a trademark, a signature, anything. All he could see was water...and a flashing cursor. He was supposed to reply.

He furrowed his brow with skepticism and then tapped a key. The letter 'h' appeared on the screen.

hi?  he asked.

The response was immediate. Good day.

Nick licked his lips. What is this?

Good question, came the reply. Let me introduce you to my Engineered Reality.

And from there, the screen shot from the lake and into the sky so fast that Nick almost felt a sense of movement from his office chair. Then he found himself soaring through the clouds. The sound of an airplane soon came into range, grew closer, and then side-swiped the camera view. The camera calmly slid through the wall of the plane and into a cluttered room within. Instantly, a book flew from a shelf and planted itself against the screen.

Chapter One: A Temporal Fractal Paradox In The Depth Of Time Freed From Physical Space In Creation Of A Virtual Reality Without Bounds To Physical Memory.

Nick stared.

A blue marker appeared and began to scribble things out and add some doodles to the page. By the end of it, the chapter title read:

Chapter One: A Temporal ^(Blast)Fractal Paradox ^(Through) In The Depth Of ^(Fun)Time Freed From Physical Space In Creation Of A Virtual Reality ^(That Rocks)Without Bounds To Physical Memory.

Or tidied up: A Blast Through the Depth of Fun. A Virtual Reality That Rocks.

Of course, came a side note, what would be the point of a Virtual Reality within the Dimension of the Internet without a purpose in the real world? And that's where you come in to this.

Nick was speechless.

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