7 “weeks” earlier:

Melissa looked down at her hands.

When she had been a Teenager, she had been a huge videogame freak. She had first gotten obsessed with the colors in her dads 10-year anniversary Reboot of some cyberpunk game. She must have been like 8 or 7 years old at the time. Later he liked to hand her controllers that weren’t plugged in and then during her Highschool days she got obsessed with conventions and MMORPGs and shoot ‘em ups every other week.

She had meet Christian at a small-town convention, he was visiting his cousin, they were the only two werewolves in a game of werewolf and there was something in his eyes.

It was an on and off long-distance relationship at first, he joined her World of Warcraft guild, where they married a few weeks in, and they decided to go to the same university. And as she was busy studying, he focused more on his gaming. She stopped and he started streaming. Not too long after she had finished university and he gotten the job offer from Avalon.

They both were happy. The new job for him, meant that she would most likely never have to use her boring ass business degree and could turn into this outdates stay at home mum. She had always wanted to provide. And they married, not only in WoW but also real life.

Melissa turned the virtual hands; these fingers wear slightly longer and there was no chipped nail polish. She had always wanted to try real immersive VR, but had somehow not gotten a chance.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Well time really wasn’t an issue anymore now, was it?

She looked up, past the mess of people at the System notification.

“Welcome to Avalon Adventurer. This is a world of new beginnings and growth. You can Switch between verbal commands, mental commands or finger forms for the access of your interface. Warning, not all verbal commands might work for all players. Would you like to change the setting? Current setting: Verbal commands.

Change? Yes – NO”

Melissa choose No. She booked a one-time only 7-week vacation in game – 7 days in real life. So, there was no use in learning how to use the game silently.

“Verbal commands it is. You are in the starting area. Your starting Race and Class is Human Adventurer, but you can find trainers to help you prepare for a class change and rebirth temple if you want to change races.

Would you like a tour from the first-time player guidance system?

Yes – No”

Again, Melissa choose No. she did not plan to level her character, she just wanted to see, what the world that ended her marriage was like, before it was discontinued.

“Okay. If you ever want to restart the introduction, use the command “Avalon Guidance” or inform customer service once out of game.

Enjoy the world in front of you. Adventure awaits.”

The System window vanished, and Melissa found herself noticing the mass of people around her. And the noise, all that talking and yelling as long-awaited new characters were called to their guilds. There were 3 different Ironman costumed people she could see, and she could only barely make out the class trainers.

Oh, hell no, this was not the relaxed experience she had wanted. So, she turned to her left and started walking. First order of business was to move away and find a place to sit.

And possibly to be angry at herself on spending so much money on this stupid stupid trip of hers.