The day of moving out finally happened. They had loaded up all of their belongings into a moving truck and sent it to Uthor's address. The truck would meet them there in roughly five hours. Uthor was nice enough to let them use his garage as a temporary storage unit until they found a new place.

Uthor waited to receive them at the train station. It had been a while since they had seen him, in person or in general. He was a long-time friend that the sisters had met playing online games.

As they stepped off the train, he gave Blare a welcome hug before shaking hands with Megan.

"Nice to see you two. It has been too long."

Blare was quick to reply, "Thanks for having us. We just couldn't stay in that apartment after what we learned. I hope our sudden request doesn't cause any issues."

"No problem. I have plenty of space at my place," Uthor made sure to assuage the concerns. "But how about we go into town and grab a bite to eat?"

They did so; they needed to walk up a hill to reach the town market. But the small cafe was worth it. It had exotic tea blends and handmade cakes. Both tasted great. Blair had a sandwich instead, not feeling like eating sweets at that moment.

As they told each other about what they were doing in their life, a certain topic came up.

"We are looking forward to playing Crossroad of Galactic Conquest. Too bad you can't join us. It would be fun to play together again."

Megan hadn't thought about that game in years. It was a mess that crashed and died within one and a half years of its release due to some issues in the core engine of the game. Wait, she was so busy with life that she didn't think about ––

"I am actually playing Blood of Fate –"

**Pffft**

"– at the moment," Uthor continued before looking over to Megan.

"Sorry, Tea went down the wrong pipe."

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

She was so preoccupied with escaping her future that Blood of Fate had slipped her mind. At the moment, it was nothing more than another game, but over time, it would grow to become a phenomenon indispensable to people's lives, like phones.

"I thought you couldn't play IR games. And I thought it released next week.", Blare asked Uthor, interested by the reason.

"I was actually part of a medical trial. The game was developed alongside a new kind of MMI interface. I don't know the technical details, but it works differently than the traditional interfaces, something about inducing a state of meditation and that allowing them to interface through different pathways than the traditional design. It is great, you can play while sleeping and wake up refreshed in the morning."

And that wasn't the half of it. One aspect that wasn't tested in the open clinical trial was the time dilation aspect. The actual game ran at three times the real speed in the overworld, meaning one day in reality equaled three games in the game. And that was the immediate benefit. There were also long term befits to spending so much time meditating with was effectively a highly advanced visitation exercise.

Turns out there is some truth to the old saying, mind over matter. People who played the game regularly found that skills acquired in game carried over to reality to a certain extent. People who had never held a sword gained a familiarity with the weapon that could only be earned through years of practice. Others became master painters with no training in the real world. The list goes on. The wild aspect was that people didn't just get the theoretical side; they actually developed muscle memory. This effect was officially recognized three years after the game's launch.

The second effect took much longer to notice simply because its benefits are not as easy to demonstrate. It took ten years for it to be postulated and another ten to be proven. Turns out that playing the game slows down aging after puberty. That baffled the scientific community quite a bit. Once the news came out about that, there was no longer any replacement for the game.

"Does either of you know how to buy stocks?"

---

Megan was able to convince Blair to change their game plans by leveraging the fact that they would be able to play with Uthor again, something they hadn't done in a while. The thing that pushed her over the edge of indecision was that Blood of Fate had a one-month refund period, where you could get a full refund even if you played the game all the time. Meaning if she didn't like it they could just return it in time for Crossroad of Galactic Conquest, effectively bridging the gap until release with a free game.

So they ordered their copies before leaving for Uthor's place. He lived on the outskirts of town in an old farmhouse. Hie had taken over the family farm from his grandmother a few years ago, but his dad and uncle did not want anything to do with it. His grandmother now lived on the other side of town in a building better suited for her advanced age. She still came to visit from time to time.

On the way into the house, Uthor introduced them to his two farmhands, Josh and Mary, a brother-sister pair.