I decided to get to the bottom of this in the most direct way; Customer Support. I dialed the number on the box, 1-800-555-2435, and was immediately put on hold. After at least half an hour, in which I distracted myself with self-exploration, an operater spoke. "Hello, how may I help you?" the voice was feminine and definately frustrated. "Uh, yes, I seem to have had an accident while playing the game..." suddenly you realize how idiotic this sounded, but you might as well try. "...I was booted off and found myself in the body of another person!" The person on the other end simply sighed. "I swear, this will be the end of this company and I'll lose my job...Okay, it is quite simple. A devil was toying around with some very sensitive stuff. The area was supposedly sealed off even to the gods, and we have no idea where they found a hole. They messed around in there, likely in a manner they didn't mean to. They set off a bomb, which randomly reassigned thousands of players' conciousnesses' to the wrong headset. It will be some time until we sort this mess, and until then we won't be able to perform the complex task of swapping minds. What's worse is these weren't simple Jack becomes Jill and Jill becomes Jack, more like Jack becomes Jill, Jill becomes Bob, Bob becomes Sandy, Sandy becomes Enrique, Enrique becomes Sun Tzu, and Sun Tzu becomes Jack. Meaning the person who previously inhabited your current body will likely not be the inhabitant of your real body. The wait will be at least a year; at the time all members will be contacted. We hope this answers your questions. Now if you would give me the numbers on the helmet you woke up in, and your real name." In sort of a trance, I could barely mumble the number JX476623L1 and my name. "We advise you to try to return your home. In about six hours we will be resetting the system to allow gameplay again, the whole patched by then. Thank you! Have a nice day!"
I was stunned. I was stuck like this for a year at least!
After settling down, I took the time to find out where I was. Extremely lucky, I was in the same city as my real body, instead of in another country. I flipped on the TV, which was news. The 'Great Switch' was all over the television! Officials were suggesting that victims attempt to return to their previous lives and adapt to the changes.
I grabbed a wad of cash out from a purse, and grabbed a few outfits and other female items from the closet. The news had mentions the company promising a refund of all losses as a result of the switch, but some money and some woman necessities would be little loss to the real owner for the time it would take the company to get around to 'her'. I was finally ready to go home; and I was very lucky to live alone with a home office job.
I called down a taxi and gave them my adress, which ended up on the other side of the city. After half an hour, I was home. The door was unlocked; whoever wound up with my body was long gone, along with most of my clothing. It didn't really matter, though I would have liked to have known where my body was during the year, but the person would likely want their old body back. My body wasn't bad, but it definately wasn't top notch either. At least I thought so, until I saw the note.
"Sorry to whomever this body previously belonged to, but I do not plan to return this to you. The officials say I accidentally set off the switch, but they sure were wrong. I'm glad it is still true that the majority of gamers were men; being a transsexual I had a good chance getting what I wanted. Most likely you are also still male, so no worries. Thanks!"
When I finished reading the note, I was almost in tears. Just when I thought it couldn't get worse, the phone rang. Seeing the Caller ID, I knew it was my girlfriend...Holy Shit! She must have been in the game as well!
