Julio Macia was not the most rambunctious person. In fact, quiet was a fairly accurate word to describe him. He never caused issues, never raised his voice, and was generally happy to just sit at home and draw in his sketchbook.

Even on his birthday, he didn't ask for a big party or for anything extravagant. He had told his dad that a simple gift would be more than enough.

And it seemed that his father had listened.

"Ah, there he is! Come on chamaco, I got your gift here."

Putting down his sketchbook, Julio followed his father into the kitchen. And it was there that he saw a big box covered in red wrapping paper.

"Well don't just stare at it mijo. Open it up."

Smiling, Julio started to tear the paper off of the box. Once he was done, his eyes widened at what he saw.

"No way."

This was the PlayStation XV. The newest version of the console to be released. Julio wasn't the biggest gamer, but he knew that the production had been going on this machine for years, and they had just finished building it for the market. There were currently less than a hundred in the world right now.

Which begged the question.

"How did you get one papa? I thought they cost more than twenty grand each."

Even as an architect, Hector Macia's wallet wasn't bottomless.

"That's what is so good about a sweepstake. If you get lucky enough to win, don't have to pay a cent. And it means I can give my boy the kind of gift I wish I got as a kid."

Julio didn't doubt that anyone would want a console like this. It had a sleek and clean design, and it was compact enough to be able to go anywhere. It was about the size of five dinner plates stacked together, and it could fit under a tv, on a desk, even in luggage.

And just from reading the description on the side, the console could keep someone entertained for hours or days on end. It had a 50 TB memory, highest-quality graphics, and it was backwards compatible with every game going back to the PS4. Suffice to say, Julio was very happy to have the machine in his hands.

Hector could obviously tell, given how he clapped his son's shoulder as he grabbed his keys.

"I have to go to work. You have fun mijo."

"I will. Thanks papa."

Once the older man had left, Julio went into his room and started to set up the machine. He started by setting up the cables and HDMI port to his TV. Once everything was plugged in within a minute, Julio booted up the device.

He was concerned at first when the start-up sounded like a roaring jet engine, but he calmed down when the sound went down to a more manageable volume. And once the console wasn't heating up and working, Julio could get to work setting up the console.

He had a PlayStation account, so all Julio had to do was connect it. The password was forgotten after years, but a quick change fixed the problem. And once his account had been set up, Julio realized another cool perk.

This console was able to transfer all the data from the games he had played all the way back to the PS4. Because of how many he had played since his first console, it took a while for the machine to download all the games and playthrough data he had accumulated since his younger years. But once everything had been set up on the console's silver launch screen, Julio was ready to go.

Or so he thought.

He soon realized that something as bad as having too few options was having too many options. And Julio had a lot to look through. He hadn't touched a Resident Evil game in years, so that was something he could jump back into. Especially with the remakes. The Spider-Man games were a lot of fun, so swinging around a realistic New York with enhanced graphics could be fun. Of course, he could ignore all of that and enjoy killing a bunch of mythological beings in the God of War norse duology.

In the end, Julio stopped scrolling and just landed on a random game. As it turned out, he ended up choosing the remastered Mass Effect trilogy. Games he had not played in around two years. But he did remember the fact that he enjoyed them. A lot. Even if he didn't remember everything at the moment.

Shrugging, Julio decided that these games were as good a place as any to try out the new console. So he selected the trilogy and waited for the games to load up.

Or at least, that's what he thought would happen.

Instead, he was given another prompt once the game had been selected.

One prompt read "Play Game", which Julio had thought would be the only option.

His second one read "Enter IR Level".

There was extra information available when Julio swiped to that option. Apparently, because Julio had already played the games before, he had an exclusive PSXV level available to him regarding the games.

There was nothing on the box about what the level could be though. And when Julio looked on his phone to try and look up info on it, he came up short. There was nothing on what IR could be, so he had no idea what it stood for. The only way to figure it out was by trying it.

Which Julio decided he would. If he didn't like the option, he could always return to the main menu and pick the regular option. So he selected the IR option.

When he did, he was given another prompt. This time, he was asked to pick a character from the games. But there seemed to be a discrimination policy going on, because the only options given to him were the female characters.

He hadn't played the games in a while, but he remembered these characters. There was Tali'Zorah, Female Shepard, Ashley Williams, Liara T'Soni, Samara, Kasumi Goto, and Miranda Lawson.

It didn't say why Julio would pick a character. Or what for. It just wanted him to make a choice. Which was not an easy one.

Assuming this was for a special fighting level, Julio tried to think about who the best one would be. Shepard had combat, Tali was great with tech, Ashley was a soldier, and Liara, Samara, and Miranda all had good biotics. Kasumi was a thief, so she might be so helpful. And as cool as Tali was, her and Ashley went down after a few hits if he remembered correctly. Liara and Samara were both powerful from what he recalled, but their usefulness as squadmates…

In the end, Julio chose Miranda. His memories of Mass Effect 2 always had her and Grunt in it, so she might be useful and fun to have around for whatever kind of level he was about to play. So he selected her.

The screen began to go through multicolor loading screens, likely taking a moment to load the unique level. But it seemed to be taking a while.

That was when the screen asked him to sit in front of the screen. Preferably with his face in the middle of the frame.

That was a weird request. One that Julio wasn't sure of the purpose for. He knew that the machine had a camera, but he had never intended to use it. He had avatars, he didn't need his face on his profile. But it seemed that the game wouldn't continue unless Julio did what it asked. So he relented.

Once his face was centered with the TV screen, Julio saw the load begin to go faster. It started at 23%. It went up to 39%. Then 54%. It stopped for a moment at 69%, before jumping up to 81%. Once the screen got to 98%, Julio felt excited to see what kind of extra level he was about to play.

That was when the flash of light hit his eyes. And he saw darkness.

When Julio's eyes opened again, he wasn't in his room anymore. He was on his back on a surface that did not feel familiar. It was hard, but he wasn't sure if it was rock or metal he was laying on.

"What the hell?"

The sky above was pitch black, like a starless night. And there was nothing around him for Miles. At least, that was what he saw when he stood up. His head hurt, but he also couldn't make anything out in the darkness.

"Welcome Julio Macia."

Julio was already freaked out by the voice. The fact that light also suddenly appeared made his apprehension compound. There were cracks in the ground that began to glow in every shade of rainbow, neon bright and constantly changing. The sky still remained dark however.

Julio had just gotten used to the floor when a holographic screen appeared right in front of his face.

"Please Fill Out Data."

The screen almost looked like a user agreement, but it only had Julio's personal info. His height, weight, hair and eye color, stuff like that. But it was now asking him for more personal questions. Things like his favorite color, his personal fears, and favorite types of games to play.

"What is this? What's the point of these questions? Why am I here?"

The voice didn't answer him. It remained silent, as if waiting for Julio to fill out the sheet before it did anything at all.

Seeing no other choice, Julio started to fill it out.

"Red, 5'7, 130 lbs, black and brown, and now…"

Julio froze when he saw the last question. It was one of the last things he expected to have asked of him, especially from a game. But it was right in front of him.

Sexual Experience

Julio didn't even want to look at the question, let alone answer it. But it was the last thing being asked of him, and it had three possible answers chosen for him. Expert, intermediate, and virgin.

"If this is a prank, can I leave? It's not funny."

This honestly felt like something Julio's mean cousin Fernando would do. Julio would not put it past the wannabe gangbanger to try and drug Julio to make him say some embarrassing stuff. But Fernando wasn't good with computers, so there was no way he could mess with a console to do this.

And the voice from before did not answer Julio, which was the same as telling him to hurry up and finish the questionnaire to get to the important stuff.

Groaning, Julio picked the lowest and truest option. Then he clicked finish.

"Data Acquired. Enjoy."

The world began to change around Julio. What was once an empty void with space to stand was becoming an actual place. One with crates and cranes. The endless void became a cold ceiling with windows showing a starry night sky. The cracked multi-colored floor became sleek and concrete, with Julio recognizing the basic shape of the place.

It looked like he was in a warehouse. But it wasn't like any warehouse he had ever seen. Everything was shinier, and there was a blue tint to the lighting instead of yellow like the ones he had seen. And the machines looked… different. More advanced. Like Elon Musk had paid scientists to build a warehouse ebay hand. Everything had buttons and levers, and there were holographics displays for some of the tools.

This place was vaguely familiar, but Julio had never been in a place like it. And he had no idea why he was here or how he had gotten here.

It was so out of the ordinary and distracting that Julio had to take a moment before he heard the loud bangs coming from behind him.

"Get down!"

Julio suddenly found himself pushed to the floor. He was barely able to process that event before his body was dragged behind a crate. From there he heard the sound of bangs on metal and small explosions.

He also heard a feminine voice with an accent.

"What are you doing here? It's too dangerous!"

Opening his eyes, Julio faced the woman who had spoken to him. But he found himself tongue-tied out of shock.

Part of it was because of the woman's beauty. She had dark hair, blue eyes, and ivory flawless skin with impeccable makeup.

He also knew that face. It was a face he had picked from a screen just minutes ago. It was a face that wasn't supposed to belong to a real person.

He was looking at the face of Miranda Lawson.

"What the fuck?"

This idea has been in my head for a while, so I decided to finally try to write it down. I don't know how far I'll get, but I intend to have fun on the way.

I have the first few characters figured out, you can see in the tags. But if you guys want to suggest any, I'm open to hearing them.

In the meantime, go ahead and leave me some reviews. I always enjoy reading them.

Later!