Steve had a hard time believing this was real but John looked like John. He didn't look like a pixelized version of John. The image was even better quality than a photo. Plus John moved around like a real being, not a video game character. So Steve started to believe that this really was John. Then again, how could John wind up inside his laptop.
John was on a window that Steve could reduce the size of and around the edge of the window, there were some buttons he could click on. The laptop had touch screen capability but Steve had turned it off and was glad that there were still some programs out there that didn't require touch screen. Steve minimized John's window and asked, "Is that okay."
John said, "It only shrinks the window I can see through. I'm still floating in nothing."
Steve said, "I wonder what these buttons do?" The buttons were hard to figure out because they had symbols. Steve recognized some symbols but not others. Steve figured out a way to download stuff into John's program. John was no longer floating in space. He was sitting in a lounger by the side of a pool in some tropic resort. He had a swimsuit and everything he needed.
For a while, John enjoyed his vacation. The pool was more luxuriously decorated than any place he'd been to before. Unfortunately he got lonely. The only characters he had to interact with were automatons like the bar tender he could order drinks from. The bar tender could not say anything except "What would you like?" or other bar tending phrases. The food and drinks had no flavor and digitally disappeared the moment he ate so that eating was just a motion to go through. But at least the water in the pool felt real and so did the heat from the sun. Maybe it was a limit of this particular program and John wondered if food in other programs would have flavor.
John could talk to Steve when Steve turned on his laptop but Steve was getting bored just watching John lounge around.
Steve suggested, "I got a new dungeon game. Want to try it out?"
John asked, "A game? How safe is it?"
Steve said, "I found a little about how your program works. I can download you into nearly any game I choose and you won't be permanently hurt. It said something like you'd experience injuries but as soon as I pull you out of the game, you'll be reset and healed."
John said, "Alright, I'll give it a try."
Steve used the mouse to click on John and drag him to the dungeon game. Steve was so quick he didn't realized how John reacted until John was dumped in the dungeon game. To John, it felt like something had stuck to his chest and picked him up. All his weight was hanging from the point on his chest where the clicker had him. Then John moved through space at a dizzying speed and dropped. He tumbled onto hot desert sand and he was naked again.
John asked, "What happened to my clothes?"
Steve said, "I guess that downloading you into a program doesn't bring anything with you. It's just you and whatever you can scrounge up."
John complained, "Scrounge up in a desert."
There was nothing but sand as far as the eye could see except for one small village in an oasis. So John made his way to the oasis. The characters in the village were automatons but in this program, they seemed more sophisticated. Some even pointed at John and laughed "What are you doing running around the desert with no clothes on?"
John made his way to a store to buy some clothes. The store did have plenty of clothes and armor to choose from but the store keeper asked, "And just how are you going to pay for any of this? Come back when you have money."
John looked around for clues on how to play and found out there was a dungeon nearby where he could get treasures but it was dangerous to go inside without a weapon, especially since some of the bosses had magical powers to change John. However, there were also magical treasures in the dungeon that could give John powers.
Then John met a character in the game that helped him out.