October 9th, 2045 Just like any other day of the week the sun reaches its evening point. Life seamlessly passing for the 18 year old Rin Abe. He has black hair but near the tips of his hair they were brown and his normally cinnamon brown eyes appeared dull. He always enjoyed a calming walk home from a particularly tiring day at school. The city of Evelyn couldn't have been anymore stunning for the evening, the jumbled speech of other pedestrians inconsequential to him acts as a sort of calming ambiance to him, the golden honey autumn leaves bristle gently as they brush along with the tempo of the fresh blowing breeze. Hybrid cars soar across the tangy orange sky and drive below on the metallic roads leaving the air with light hints of lavender. The sky above begins to infuse with the night sky taking rest upon the tall city skyline. He doesn't have much energy left to spend outside or to even acknowledge much of his surroundings, instead opting to go home to play a VR MMORPG video game known as 'Battle Frontier' despite the gorgeous weather which is normal for the people of this city.

7:00 pm

Rin's house.

He peers far into the distance and can see his peachy tan home approaching out of anticipation of getting home. The mosses and greenery protruding from the walls blanket intricately around the house with its soft caress of nature. The front gate welcomes him as it opens up to allow him entry into the surrounding front yard that a few drones work effortlessly on to keep the greenery lush and trim. Though still pacing himself as normal he reaches the front door of his home causing a ball-like sensor to detach from it once he comes into range, it slowly floats over to him even though it's aware of who it is, but the sensor looks at him further for security means. After a very quick thorough face scan the sensor emits a transparent blue beam of none blinding light that begins to scan his eye in not even a second, another routine check done, but god he wished it to be instant for how far technology has come. The metallic door dematerializes into a seemingly digital dust for him to walk inside as usual.

"Mom… are you here?"

Unable to get a response from his mother anywhere in the house he walks around for any trace of her in the near spotless contemporary interior. Not certain where else to look he checks one last area which happens to be a pillar wall that rests a rectangular black screen with an envelope symbol blipping rhythmically in the middle of it. It was one of many ways to discover her whereabouts, but he couldn't be bothered to find her exact location if she doesn't state where she is. After a few screen taps a full size colorless transparent figure of a mature woman in yoke flounce projects onto the ground and talks.

"Hello my darling child! If you're seeing this I wanted to tell you that I'll be out tonight clubbing with some gals. I left at around 6:30ish but before I did I made sure to cook your favorite pot of beef stew. I did it knowing you will be practicing for that new game you've been talking about earlier, I left it on your desktop already for you to enjoy, have a wonderful night darling."

A soft parted smile races across her face just as her figure begins to dissipate slowly from existence; the hologram sinks back beneath the surface of the screen thus returning it back to black. Overwhelmed in a bit of joy his face lights up with the thought of food on his mind as he begins to make his way towards his room thinking to himself along the way.

"After all these years I'm lucky to have a mom who doesn't care too much about my gaming habit despite college being a year away. I do what I need to do in school though, but I still don't know why she party's so much. Did he do this? My father, where is he? I have so many questions to ask him, why did he leave us on our own? What happened..."

A bit of repressed anger forces his eyes to close as he walks forward a blacked out view at first transforms into black clouds that furiously cry to the ground, the high pitch of police sirens blare uneasily loud somewhere close through the low visibility of the wet blanketed sky. His mother's screams and cries echoes through his head like chalkboard being scraped, and there a young boy barely a few years old being carried in his mother's arm unable to comprehend what has transpired. Rin snaps out of his trance state returning to his true reality wiping away the uncertain frustration off of his moist forehead.

"This question has haunted me for so long, but I can never seem to open up and ask her about it. Honestly, I shouldn't linger on the thought, I should be happy I have the comfort of my friends online until then."

Passing through the many rooms of his house before heading upstairs, at the wave of his hand in a downwards motion he dims the lights turning them off as he passes by. He takes a flight of stairs to his room when a monotonous female voice comes from seemingly nowhere once he reaches his door.

"Password."

"Jinko it's me, can you open my door."

"I am afraid your discontentment will not be solved with impoliteness, ask me again please."

"Jinko, I've had to leave the comfort of my bed, I've been touched by the sun's rays, I've had to talk with others, and I have a few exams tomorrow. I want to relax tonight with some video games, we can play deny human commands some other time."

"I shall grant your command but only because your face seems to be growing more agitated. It has been quite a while since I have seen such a state."

"I'm just tired. Please open my door and raise my setup, thanks."

"Hmm. I shall grant your command only at the expense that my sole existential purpose is that of quality of life support and not that of the empathic level as if I could feel anything but cold, anyway, Your mother has also left you food behind that I wish I could have a byte of, have a good night."

" ….Jeez she's becoming more of a handful nowadays, but finally."

The darkness of his room fills with led lights that radiate hues of fuchsia onto the walls, multiple led panels and posters line up neatly against some of the walls, multiple shelves tower above to the ceiling that house residents of figurines and games alike. Arguably his favorite thing he looks forward to seeing in his room the most is his soft galaxy animated carpet that commands the center of the floor which would make anyone lose their balance when walking on it for the first time. In front of his view a standard studying desk begins to sink beneath the glossy floor and in return slowly arises his PC setup.

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On the desk of the setup a few figurines stand overwatch on the desk, two shelves on the ends of both sides of the desk sit filled with games and more collectables. A white circular button on the desk appears and with a press the sleek black monitor's screen brightly comes to life, a voice speaks from the PC welcoming him back once he falls back into the comfort of his racer chair. Now getting relaxed he opens a gaming messaging app called 'Gamecord' to dm a friend.

[ Rinscape: Hey, are you on right now?

Tokidoki: Uh huh, I've been waiting for you for the last few minutes 😋

Rinscape: Oh sorry, I kinda was held out by Jinko a bit before this. I have a video someone showed me earlier btw 🐒

Tokidoki: She's not like that for me lol. Don't be sorry you're here now most importantly and oh lemme see the vid pls I'm curious now ☺️

Rinscape: https://youtu.be/A6a8Lq4QMlM

Tokidoki: Lool that song used to be so good but now it's so obnoxious but idk why the frog is still so interesting to me.

Rinscape: Oh and have you heard about the Codename Fnl rumors?

Tokidoki: Mhm. Just hop on I haven't seen you all day ☺️

Rinscape: Just a sec]

Scooting backwards a couple of inches from his desk he lays back in his chair to extend his reach to a bottom drawer of the desk, he manages to pull out a white glossy finish headset named '250mil-2x4x' which he recently purchased for a replacement and firmly with two hands he puts it on causing the headset to circle around his head. He's quite unsure whether he'll be sleeping in his bed tonight though if the rumors aren't true he gets into a comfortable position in his chair just in case, and with his view now dark for a moment a pure white screen that surrounds him comes on. On this interface he selects his account which unlocks the screen from its sleep mode showing that the game had been previously left on idle.

After selecting start a blinding flash engulfs him in what seems to be a tubular portal he is zooming through leading to everything going black. His sleepy eyes slowly blink open, the transition into the game has always been a bit on the slow side, but his eyes hazy begin to adjust to the new reality to focus on what's in front of him. Down deep below from his vantage lush treetops group up creating a vast open green field, unorthodox flying beasts soar across the setting sky of red orange and orange in the distance, white feathery clouds sit in the middle of the yellow orange of the sky. Mountains far in the distance vy for attention as they gush beautiful clear waterfalls near their peaks.

"Over here silly!"

Looking over to where the joyous voice came from a girl about average height stands before the sun which casts a radiant glow onto her skin. Her long silk blonde hair gathers the attention of the wind that the ends of her hair start to flow slowly in it. A forehead jewelry headpiece sits around her hair, right parted bangs rest on the front of face above teal eyes that teem with tons of sparkling reflections from the sunset. She wears an armor chest plated velvet dragon skin dress with a split at the bottom, black leg armor caress her legs to her thighs and around her neck swings a necklace of a fat cat.

"Hey, sorry I couldn't see you today after school. Exams are kinda killing my soul as of late and I have multiple projects due in not even a two weeks, I just want to die-"

He's certain that he didn't hold any truth in dying for the most part, but in the blink of an eye his breath leaves jolting out of him; unsure of what happened he finds himself backside on the soft grassy terrain. More confused than anything he can feel a constriction of tightening arms begin to wrap around the sides of his chest restricting his breathing. After quickly realizing it was Toki he struggles to speak with no breath in his voice.

"At this rate...I'll die by your arms instead! Can't breathe…"

She rest unphased by this remark continuing to her suffocating squeeze, but she eventually loosens some of her hold after noticing that his hp has fallen from 600 to 100hp. She quickly reaches into her inventory while she still lay on him and gives him a glass tube of glowing blue elixir which raises it back to 600.

"Oops. Please don't say things like that, Rin. No one's dying. Why did you choose to take so many hard classes to begin with?"

"I have to get noticed by good schools, I want to make my mom proud of me, I want to support her in the future and spend more time talking to her unlike... I just want a good future for us, but I'm not really sure what I want to do, and I know the pressure of the entrance exams will be rough."

Toki gets off of Rin and walks a few feet before kneeling onto both knees onto the grassy terrain, a smile runs across her face as she signals for Rin to come over to her. He slowly makes his way over to her new position on the soft grass. Unsure of what this means he slowly caves downward onto his side placing his head off the edge in front of her knees. She laughs at him in disbelief as her helping hands guide his head to lay rest on her thighs. A soothing hand strokes away the stressful thoughts jumbled in his mind.

"We'll all feel the pressure eventually at some point, I want to do all I can for my family too, but please just for me, take the free time you spend with us as a way to relieve and to re-live the memories we've made together over the years, don't take them for granted."

"...You're right. I dedicated tonight to relax and that's what I should focus on for now, sorry, I didn't mean to bring spirits down. I'm happy you're my friend."

" Aww, I just hope they aren't abusing your brain too hard. Also sorry for tackling you earlier I couldn't really control myself, I just feel really happy whenever I see you."

"My ribs scream otherwise! You could have actually killed me! Not that I was asking for it or anything."

"It's all in your head silly, this isn't entirely real. How will you be ready for the next game if you can't handle a bit of simulated pain?"

"I don't know it just feels weird. Just warn me next time, please?! Oh, yeah I almost forgot, I wanted to say a leak went viral apparently saying a direct revealing the game would happen tonight. The leak was from an anonymous source who said he had inside access. It went viral because the post was actually taken down kinda fast."

"Silly, at this point we have a better chance at getting struck by lightning than getting a new direct from Square, we have not gotten a direct in 10 months and not a bit of DLC in 7 years. Every leak has been fake up to this point and the new game has been delayed for an entire lifetime.

"Uh, I wouldn't say lifetime, but crazy that it was announced 13 years ago and scheduled for winter the following year, but delayed for reasons unknown to us. Crazy how the direct 10 months ago was to update us that the game was gonna be delayed again. It's crazy to think this game came out 25 years ago with an active player base still, 88 million concurrent despite that.

"The fans are about as passionate as that dislike to like ratio on that direct but I wonder how they will topple this game. A huge world full of dangerous creatures and beings, top guilds, and the VR feeling so real that it almost gives you a reason to not go to class. Remember how it took us 2-3 years to beat this?"

"It feels exhausting thinking about it and scarring about how scary this game can get even though it's virtual."

"And it's in your head, silly."

The sunset fades into the darkness of the sparkling night sky, the breeze from the mountains speaks in a calming tone causing the grass to sway back and forth gently.

"This on its own can be a reason for why this game has the longest life of any other game, a sense of what true reality escape could be like, even though I cant smell this air or feel the grass or taste the air this feeling and moment between us is therapeutic, Rin?

"Huh?? I'm awake. If they achieve full sensory in the next game it'll topple this one for sure, uh not a fan of pain but I just hope the rumors are true, its been 2 hours already."

"Don't worry these pins and needles will be worth it either way."

"Wait are you kneeling in person?"

"Um, nevermind! Don't worry, It was a silly thought, heh."

Sleep begins hitting him in the face, but he tries to fight it back desperately trying to widen his eyes, but with each blink they grow heavier until he starts to doze off. A sudden vibration coming from his in game wrist watch wakes him, he brings his arm to his face and reads a bit of the news but wipes his eyes and begins to reread from the beginning. He juts his head out of her lap to sit up, now in complete disbelief over what he's reading his breathing starts to become irregular after reading the brief message. Eyes widened like golf balls he takes in what he saw now with his cuffed hands sitting under his nose.

"Rin? What is it? What's wrong?"

"Codename Fnl. Announcement in 30 minutes. We have to go, now!!"

The excitement is enough to propel him up onto his feet in one motion. Lost in his excitement he unknowingly grabs her hand which causes her to blush, as he begins to run trailing her behind he takes a powerful leap into the air and they burst through the air.