*Dogeza* I humbly beg your forgiveness. My current circumstances have kept me off of my originally promised time hack. That being said, I will, from this chapter forward, refrain from making promises that i cannot keep. I only wish that my job would appreciate FF's as much as you all do. But I also wish i never had to pay taxes, but we all know THAT won't happen.
All that aside, I hope you all enjoy this chapter! The lengthy intro to the setting is complete(for now)! Please rate and/or review!
Shoutout to Raiko for being the first ever to comment on my FF! It might seem dumb, but it made my day to read my first ever comment. You da man!
Hyde began going about his normal routine. Nothing particularly interesting, he just prefered to keep things orderly and clean, and the beginning of every weekend was when he set aside time to make everything just that.
After a few hours of scrubbing, mopping, and placing things back where they belonged, he looked over his finished product with a satisfied grin. After mopping, he had turned on the ceiling fan and opened the patio door, so there was a pleasant breeze to compliment the neat and tidy living space he was currently taking pleasure in looking over.
After all, every man had three things he should take pride in. His home, his job, and his body. As for Hyde, being a student, he really only had two things he actually had to put any effort into at the present.
Making his way to the bathroom, Hyde stole a look at the clock hanging on the wall in his living room. 1100 was pretty late to be just starting on hygiene. 'Guess it's back to regular time.' Even if the past few hours were spent being productive, it was almost the afternoon. Complacency was setting in, and if the army taught him anything, it was that "complacency kills." A bit overboard for being a civilian, but the concept of the saying still held true.
Hyde went about washing up, finishing up aptly as he still had other things to finish today, and he didn't intend to waste time needlessly. Besides, he couldn't let his anxiety keep him from opening Cris' surprise forever. Finished with hygiene, Hyde replaced all his items back in the cabinet behind his mirror.
His eyes fell on the bottle of pills tucked in a corner, collecting dust from having obviously not been touched in quite some time. They were prescribed to deal with his "PTSD." The Army was all about treating vets who displayed the slightest symptoms of what Hyde considered a bullshit "disorder." The concept was sound, but the idea that every vet needed these pills in order to be a functional person in society was something he couldn't agree with.
Wasn't to say it was all a scam or some big conspiracy. After all, a few of his close buddies had sorely needed help after seeing and doing some things that most people would never run across their whole life. But Hyde's indifferent disposition left him unsurprised at what he had experienced. Not unaffected. Just unsurprised. The world is a beautiful place, after all. It's humans that are disgusting and pitiable.
Ever since getting out, he stopped taking his medication, and had yet experienced anything to prompt him to continue. Why he still had them, he couldn't even say.
Closing the mirror that hid the cabinet in the wall above the sink, he took a moment to observe himself as he ran through a mental checklist to make sure he had covered everything he needed to so far. His appearance was definitely one that would make most women stop in their tracks and admire. Usually going outside with baggy clothes and a cap on, though, not enough showed that anyone could really tell.
Hyde was about 5'8", with the physique of someone who obviously had spent years training their body. Having mastered several martial arts for self-defense, and after four years of an intense military career, he was at the height of physical conditioning. Coupled with his impressive mental prowess, Hyde's genes were indeed those of an alpha male.
Of course, he himself didn't care. His thoughts on the matter were that there is always someone who's better. And on deployment, his enemies were training everyday to take his life. So he had to train harder. He was in no way vain, he just wanted to survive. It was basic human instinct.
Combing back his smooth, jet black hair that went down to his kneck, he finished up. The length of his hair was something he used to control, but it was too much of a hassle to spend money on now.
Noticing that it was now 1200, he went back to the kitchen counter where he had left the package. 'Better get it out of the way.' Hyde picked up the package and proceeded to the long couch in his living room and set the package down on the low-rise table directly in front of his favorite spot on the couch.
Cutting the tape, Hyde noticed that meticulous care had been put into the package. As he opened it, he noticed there was quite a bit of styrofoam.
"I wouldn't be surprised if the bastard was just playing a joke on me and all he sent was styrofoam." But it didn't make any sense for Cris to go through all that effort just to send a stupid prank like that.
Located in the middle of the package was a 4x4x4 black box with a contrasting snow white headset that had a large bulk in the front. It was more like 3 bands the obviously were meant to hold the bulk on a person's head, with the bulk looking like it was meant to go in front of a person's eyes. Tucked to the side was a pair of comfortable looking ear muffs that obviously attached to either the box or headset somehow.
"The hell..." Hyde didn't even know where to start. Every person in the past half-century should be familiar with video games, and Hyde was no exception. But not once had he ever took interest in them. On occasion he had watched a few close aquaintances play them, but they just had never piqued his curiosity. His insatiable appetite for knowing things had caused him to learn quite a bit on electronics and how they worked. Growing up, he had even witnessed his father playing them every once and a while. But, in a sense, Hyde had found it to be a waste of time. There were other things that interested him more.
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Cris had even attempted to get Hyde to try a game with him once. Something called Dunge**s and Drag**s. But he had never tried again when Hyde had promptly bombarded him with questions that took all the fun out it.
The question, then, was why would Cris send him something that was obviously a console for games? Why suffer the wrath of his wife to send Hyde something he had given up on trying to convince him to try.
It took him a moment to realize what he was looking at, but Hyde was sure it was the new rage in home entertainment. A new device that implemented the idea of "Virtual Reality." It was a concept that at one point, a few years back, had heavily drawn Hyde's attention. The idea of a device that made an impossible notion plausible. It would enable the user to see an entirely computer constructed world and everything within as if that person were actually in said world.
There were even some who took it one step further. They proposed the idea of actually launching a person's conscience into a virtual world, integrating not only the sense of sight, but all 4 other senses as well. But as noone had even succeeded in the perfection of visual simulation, such a proposal was easily discarded.
Hyde removed all the contents of the package and placed them on the table. After setting aside the trash and empty package, he looked at everything on the table. Hyde had a mix of emotions flowing through him at the moment. To his knowledge, all the big corporations attempting to perfect VR were all pretty much at the same point, with only slow and steady progress being made, but no major breakthroughs. But what was sitting in front of him was, without a doubt, a full VR set-up. Apparently, tucked neatly at the bottom of the package, was a letter from Cris, sent through whatever company had designed this system.
"Beloved Hyde," Cris didn't even wait until the actual message to start showing his sarcastic humor.
"I know what you're probably thinking. But stop. I'm begging you. DON'T GET RID OF MY GIFT. My entire life savings went into this gift for you. But it was worth it. Because that's how much you mean to me. I hope you seeing this will make you realize just how much you mean to me.
Bahahaha that last bit made me gag a bit writing. I'm sorry, that was too far even for me. But it was quite difficult to get my hands on this. I had tried put in two seperate orders, hoping to be able to join you, but I was lucky just to get this one. I know you like to pride yourself on your knowledge on things, though I have no idea why. But I'm willing to bet, since it has to do with video games, and with how busy you've been settling in over the past few months, that you don't know much if anything about what I've sent you. So here's a little history lesson for you, buddy.
Basically, some mystery company just released a few hundred thousand of these systems. Until the beginning of 2015, the progress on VR had been minimal and around mid-2014, the big names like V*lve and Ocul*s R*ft reached a point that they were satisfied with. All they really succeeded in doing was the basics, like being able to see 360 degree, 3D high quality graphics. And most people, myself included, were satisfied and awaiting new games compatible with their systems to come out. But noone expected what happened the day after New Years. An enigma company calling themselves 'Mihole' appeared, claiming to have something at least a century ahead of it's time. They took the idea of VR, but advertised that by using some unknown technology, a person could do a 'full dive.' Imagine that! They claimed that they could replicate not just visual and audio simulation, but touch, smell, and taste, too! There was tons of backlash and skepticism surrounding this company that came from the shadows and their claims, but, long story short, none of them held. They held a sort of Will* Wonk* event on a larger scale, and the reviews were unbelievable! Better yet, the whole system was dirt cheap!
Sorry about the lengthy explanation. But that was pretty much the history of how Mihole came out of nowhere with this miraculous technology. After a few weeks, i managed to be one of the lucky few who got their hands on one of these bad boys. Hyde, buddy, do me a favor. I know you don't hold any interest towards video games. But try this for me. I couldn't think of a better gift for a bastard with a thirst for knowing how things tick than what you've got in your hands right now.
Best of luck as a civilian, brother. And careful with this thing. There are a lot of crazy bastards out there right now who would literally commit murder to get their dirty hands on one of these. World's a crazy place."
Hyde was stunned. His brain was still trying to process everything that Cris had written him. How could he have not known about something as big as this? Had he been so busy that he really didn't notice? Had his indifferent attitude towards what others were talking about actually backfired? Surely, with something this big, there had to have been people talking about it all over the world for these past few months.
Hyde was experiencing a multitude of emotions at the moment, trying to understand the situation. Within those emotions, though, was one in particular that was growing ever so slowly stronger, devouring everything else on his mind. Hyde's curiosity was growing, and with it, a nostalgic feeling he hadn't felt in a long time.
...
Lemme know what yall would like to see from here. I personally would love ideas on what you think his class/race/intro to VR should be like. GET AT ME, YO. xD