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nRashid Li liked talking about the things he loved.

nHe'd gotten hooked into the VR world early in life, his older brother Anand being part of the team that developed Halfworld.

nAfter a tour of the company Anand worked in, he realized his interests were different from his programmer brother, being more attracted to the hum of a perfectly put-together machine than the flow of elegantly-written code on a monitor.

nHe pursued VR engineering with enthusiasm and joy.

nThe job market for VR-tech engineers was competitive; even multiple degrees would not help that much, and he didn't want to depend on the strings his brother pulled.

nHe needed an edge, something he could show to his name. He started designing a VR rig for extra-terrestrial mining.

nAnand told him it was too ambitious in the same breath that he offered his programming assistance. Space mining had been one of the most dangerous jobs in the solar system before people interfaced VR to control precision robotics.

nThe care needed to mine the delicate material that was so useful in processor cubes and the solar panels that powered half the Earth and most of the nearer colonies in the solar system was immense.

nAnd yet, it had been years since the mining interface was updated.

nIt was to be an undertaking of years.

nIn the meantime, his love of talking about his favorite things transitioned into teaching about his favorite things. He joined a VR awareness group to lecture on the subject to schools, businesses, and more.

nTeaching was calming in ways he didn't expect, as he designed his VR mining rig.

nIt was Anand who brought Redlands Craftmasters to his attention.

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"I already work with my hands,

" he protested.

"How could this be interesting?

"

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"It's VR. You like VR!

" His brother insisted.

"You should see their programming!

"

nHe didn't expect to fall in love.

nRedlands Craftmasters was exquisite. It was truly another world, an artisan's dreamworld.

nEverything from pottery, to sculpting, woodworking, blacksmithing, weaving, baking, glassmaking and more – ancient crafts that were in the current era entirely done with machines.

nIt wasn't a popular game, but playing Craftmasters became his favorite was to recharge.

nOver the years, the crafting systems got better and better. Fantasy crafting was introduced and attracted more players. Rashid had many friends in the game. The world became even more detailed as new monsters and materials entered the lives of the craftmasters.

nThen RSI bought the game.

nThere was unrest among the players for a while.

nRSI started as a security company, then branched out into AI research and medical technologies. What would they want with Craftmasters?

nBut then the NPCs changed, became more dynamic, more meaningful in their interactions.

nThe world changed.

nRashid didn't know what to think. It was a better game, of course, but was it ethical? He watched as his game friends turned off the indicators that differentiated player from NPC, as players integrated more into the virtual world of Craftmasters, as his friends started introducing NPCs to him as if they were real people when they never had before, spending more and more time in the unreal world of VR.

nIt was disquieting.

nThis world of Craftmasters was exquisite, but it wasn't reality.

nTo act as if it were, as if the NPC AIs were living beings…he couldn't help but be apprehensive.

nOne year after RSI bought Craftmasters, Rashid finished a working prototype of his design, five years after he started and several hundred thousand ecru spend from the money his grandparents left him.

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"It's not yet ready,

" he stated to Anand, who'd become just as invested in the project.

"

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"Little brother, it doesn't have to be perfect.

"

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"I'm not looking for perfect. It doesn't feel ready.

"

nAnand shrugged.

"I have to check the code again, anyway. The reaction times are off.

"

nRashid resigned from the VR awareness tour to concentrate on the prototype. It was only part-time, but he was reluctant. His hours in Craftmasters fell from eight to four per day. As a full-fledged high master in the game, he didn't need a lot of time to conduct the business of his workshop.

nSix months later, a friend from the tour concernedly brought up the dark circles under his eyes and the gauntness of his frame.

nThe co-worker messaged him an offer to do a series of tutorial videos on Craftmasters.

nHe couldn't refuse.

nThat's when he learned that they weren't tutorials for Craftmasters, but a new expansion. Masters of War.

nHe was dazed. The expansion was against all he knew of the maker of Craftmasters. Surely Orven Norge wouldn't allow it?

nBut he did.

nWhen news of the expansion trickled out, and craftmasters exploded in outrage, he even made a speech. Progress, building on what came before, a leap into a greater future.

nRashid had reservations, but he'd already signed the contract.

nHe made the tutorials, testing out the new system.

nIt was a great game, he felt. It just wasn't Craftmasters.

nRSI announced the expansion three months before its release, a surprise to many.

nRashid finished his prototype to satisfaction.

nHe had it tested immediately.

nThe R&D tech he'd contacted from Hareon Interplanetary instantly forwarded a recommendation to the company's R&D director.

nThere were demonstrations, meetings, contract negotiations, and finally a job offer.

nIt was exhausting. It was exhilarating.

nEntering HI was a dream come true for any engineer. Their VR department was second to none. This was what he was meant to do, he felt. This was what he had studied for years to do. It felt like flying.

nHe met Arcazy Ventre after their interview, tasked with showing new hires around R&D.

nThey were of similar age, hired into the company at nearly the same time. It wasn't bad to have friends who understood when he talked about VR.

nArcazy had immediately challenged his views on portable reality tech the first day they met, able to converse for hours upon hours.

nThis was better.

nHe made new friends.

nHe worked.

nHe kept busy.

nCraftmasters had fallen to the wayside, so he was a bit surprised when RSI contacted him to say that instead of the remaining videos he still had to do, they wanted him to conduct introductory lectures on a VR tourist feature for the game that was still in beta development.

nIt was a sudden jolt of unpleasantness.

nHe wanted nothing more than to break the contract. But he preferred to go above and beyond, to end his contracts on the perfect note.

nVR tourism?

nIn a game as exquisite as Craftmasters, he could see why it could be marketed. But it was another mark against the game company.

nSerious players would rail against the feature, seeing it as a sellout move.

nThe hardware for most VR tourism was **.

nThe headgear only needed to render excellent visuals. It didn't have the aggressive processing power that VR battles required, because it must be cheap enough for the average person to buy.

nAnd what then of him, who had to play tour guide to people who would not know, and likely preferred not to know, what it was like to truly immerse oneself into another world.

nWith his worries, he'd honestly never thought twice of Eli Crewan until they met in a dark alley when on his way to Arcazy's apartment.

nEven if his prediction of a crafting resurgence came about, Craftmasters was already too different from the world of before.

nEvolution.

nRashid was intelligent. In the upper percentiles of recorded intelligence on Earth, even. His work had already changed the world of extra-terrestrial mining. But that was a quantifiable change - he'd seen it happen. He'd worked for it.

nThe VR world was too malleable.

nMeeting Eli Crewan for a third time gave him something of a cognitive dissonance. Certain of Zee's friends had ranted of sullen silences, brooding resentments, of unwarranted arrogance.

nThe man now leading a group of elderly tourists through the virtual resort was laughing with his aunt, keeping them entertained with stories about the moons, the lands of the game, the architecture of different races.

nRashid could appreciate someone who did quality research.

nHe watched as with a comment here and there tied to various things in the resort, the group immersed into the world of Craftmasters more quickly than anticipated or expected.

nCenree, beside him, was staring too.

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"I guess he's getting over his mother's death?

" she mumbled with a curious grin.

nRashid considered.

nIt was the last seminar on his contract, and he'd noted how fast each test group assimilated in previous sessions.

nThat a group of elderly people who had gone through most of their lives without VR tech had one of the fastest immersion times of all was significant.

nThat Eli Crewan appeared at the end of his contract was almost like fate.

nThis was the end of his contract, he decided. This was the note that was above and beyond.

nThe director of the VR tourism department had made noises about extending his contract. If he gave him Eli Crewan, the man would probably concede to Rashid terminating his contract peaceably.

nHe approached the man after the seminar was over.

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"Eli, right? Would you like a job?

"

nRashid liked teaching about his favorite things.. But he loved making them more.

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