The first thing I noticed after Meridian vanished in a shower of golden pixels was the grass.
Not that it was particularly remarkable grass. Standard fantasy MMO fare, emerald green with that slightly too-perfect sheen that screamed digital rendering. I had picked that color myself from a swatch palette at eleven o'clock on a Tuesday, arguing with my art director about the difference between "vibrant" and "cartoonish." But as I knelt down and pressed my fingers into it, I felt every individual blade.
That was not supposed to happen.
I had programmed Respawn's sensory feedback to be impressive but filtered. Touch sensations were supposed to run at about sixty percent intensity through the neural interface to prevent overload. Players would feel things, textures and temperatures and the g
