BOOK 1: RETURN OF THE GAMER.

Chapter 1: Reencounter.

“Here are the supplies requested, its 370$, hope you like the quality of the product.” A middle age attendant packs some items in a medium sized plastic bag with a blue and red logo and he puts it in the counter.

“370 dollars? Damn, there goes the rest of my savings…” I receive the bag and emptied my wallet in the counter. Afterwards I pick 37 dollars and give the rest to the middle age attendant, tears flowing down my face.

“Haha, no need to be so tragic Marcus, when you are done with those materials you can hand them back to me, I will give you a fair price as always.” The attendant signs the invoice and slides it towards me while picking the money on the counter. After counting the money he adds while smiling, “You always keep the materials in good shape anyways, you have a bright future kid, a bright one.”

“I appreciate your kindness but this time it will not be possible, this is a long term project.” I shake my head helplessly, “And what’s more, this is only the beginning of the materials, the next week I will need three transistors ARP375, one titanium nano processor of at least the 12th generation, one smart liquid cooling system…” I have a list of at least 20 more materials I will need in the near future, I couldn't help but have a depressed look.

“Oh boy, that at least 8 thousand dollars, I’m already eager for your next visit.” The middle age attendant has a smile that is almost frightening. If I buy those products his profit will be huge.

“Tsk, don’t be so happy yet, I have no idea how I will be able to earn so much money in such a short time. Anyways, thanks for your help.” I pick up the bag from the counter and wave my other hand while walking towards the exit.

“Hmmm, truly a shame, if just his parents would not be so stubborn, well, none of my business, still got things to do.” The middle age attendant murmurs while seeing my departing figure.

My name is Marcus Trevor and this is my story. About me? Well, it's hard to describe oneself but I am tall, slender, my skin is light brown, and I have black eyes. My teacher always says strange things about my eyes. She says that my eyes always has a complex look: friendly but at the same time sorrowful, a sharp gaze but at the same time a gaze lost in the horizon, as if I was thinking in five things at the same time. And well, she is a bit right, my life has not been a fairy tale and I'm always thinking about stuff.

In addition to that special description of my eyes, my overall facial features are soft, except for my jawline that makes quite a contrast with the rest of my face. That's my father heritage. I have a short jet black hair, but if you look closely you can see some gray hairs that lures your eyes to look at them, just like a tiny black dots in a white curtain.

Right now I am wearing a pair of light blue pants, a simple white shirt, and a jacket that is slightly darker than the blue of the pants. The jacket has a logo and beneath the logo there is two rows of words: Tidem University – Virtual Reality Studies Department.

‘Mmm, not much money left but at least I should buy me an ice cream.’ I'm currently strolling in the electronics department of a shopping center. There are a lot of locals with specialized equipment; the shop in which I left is quite small compared to the rest in the area but the quality of the products and the name of the branch are widely known. However, the most important thing is that I know someone inside.

‘Let me see, I’m currently in the left wing, the ice cream I want is in the second floor of the center block, so… this way.’ After pondering for some seconds, I find the hall that will lead me to my favorite ice cream shop and I continue strolling. This shopping center is quite huge and while walking I could see that there are a wide variety of shops: clothes stores, pet stores, perfume shops, book stores, even adult stores. Today almost all of them are crowded.

After walking for around 10 minutes I get to the elevator I need to pick to go to the second floor of the center block of the shopping center. There are few people inside and the elevator first goes to the basement before going upwards. When the elevator finally stops in the second floor, I am going to walk towards a tiny shop that is 15 meters away from the elevator but just as I walk three steps I notice someone.

I suddenly freeze on the spot with my eyes fixed on that someone, there's no way I could forget that face no matter how many years have went by. My mouth couldn't help but open involuntarily remembering that I really made a mistake this time. ‘Crap…’

Right in front of me there is a girl walking casually with a tight black and white dress that remarked a well-developed body. She has a tiny but lovely oval shaped face with a pair of black eyes behind some big and round glasses that covers almost a third of her face. She is wearing some light make up with an alluring scarlet red on her lips that matches perfectly with her scarlet hair that flows freely up to her shoulders.

She has the same young look from three years ago but he body... her body exudes femininity everywhere. Her breast are big, round, and beautiful, I can't think of other words to describe those things. She seems to be quite proud of them because the cleavage of her dress is a lot daring since it shows a lot of white and tender skin.

It makes sense. I remember her being a lot more flat chested so if she really was the one I was thinking there is no way she wouldn't be proud, after all, I bullied her a lot for being flat chested. Don’t judge me, it was my vengeance because she bullied me too!

Anyways, it is quite hard to see her beautiful face when standing in front of her even from the distance I was standing, if her breasts were not distracting enough, her white legs with the contrast of her black skirt and black and white stripped tights could a lot of men drool and dream with them.

She stopped walking and turned to look towards me. Yup, there’s no mistake, it’s definitely her.

“Marcus?” A voice in a soft tone rings in my ears coming from that girl. We are about 8 meters apart.

‘Why is she here?’ Although I’m brown skinned, I am turning pale.

“Marcus? Is it really you?” The soft voice rings again in my ears while she started to approach me with tiny steps.

“Yeah, it’s me Ana.” I exclaim with a dejected voice while forcing a smile. It is really her and I could predict what would happen next, and maybe I deserve it. No, I definitely deserve it.

Suddenly Ana take huge steps towards me closing the remaining distance quickly. Each step she takes makes my face lose its color and forms beads of sweat in my forehead.

When she was close enough to me, she extends her right hand and with all the might that she could exhibit, she slaps me on my face making a thunderous and loud sound, “That was from hiding your ugly face for 3 years!” Ana says with a trembling voice.

We were friends since kids, very close friends, and in the past three years I never tried to contact her. I really deserve that slap.

Everybody turns to look at us flabbergasted.

As if the slap was not enough spectacle in public, she embraces me tightly and starts to cry.

‘This girl…’ I say to myself. “Hey Ana, everybody is looking at us.” I say in a soft tone while patting her head.

“Lucky bastard.”

“She must have fallen for him and he cheated her. Despicable.”

“How shameless making a girl cry in public.”

We turned to be the center of attention of the second floor quickly. I dislike this kind of attention, so I try to persuade Ana once again, “Hey Ana, can you please… ugh.” I was interrupted by a heavy punch in the stomach.

Ana wipes the tears of her delicate face and says loudly while pointing at me, “Don’t you dare to escape, I’m going to put up my make-up again. No, never mind, you are coming with me.”

She grabbed me by my wrist and started to pull me, “What are you talking about? Going with you? I can’t enter the lady’s restroom!” She definitely needs to calm down, taking me with her to the restroom? Is she crazy?

“I don’t care, come with me!” She pulls me even harder and starts walking paying no attention to the crowd that were watching the scene.

We start to walk around the shopping center for two minutes without saying a single word to each other. Although it is huge surprise her sudden appearance, while I follow her I couldn’t help but shoot some glances at the nice round bottom in front of me. ‘Is it really her?’ I ask myself inwardly. Her face is the same, her voice is the same, but this body, can someone change so much in three years?

After reaching the door of the restrooms, Ana turns back and tells me with a happy but menacing tone, “Don’t you dare to escape, I already know where you are studying.”

“Fine, fine, I’ll wait you here.” I say while rolling my eyes and casting a final glance at the exquisite body of Ana. I’m not lecherous, but I can’t stress enough how her body has changed since the last time I saw her.

I wait patiently near the entrance to the restrooms and ten minutes later Ana appears again. Somehow she still has the same light make up but she is even more breathtaking. Her eyelashes, her eyelids, everything is touched up perfectly, as if she underwent a professional make-up. I just stood there silently as if I was waiting for divine punishment.

Ana is wearing a beautiful smile while approaching me once again, and this time she directly hugs me. “I really missed you, you have a lot of things to tell me.”

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“Sigh.” I scratch my head. “Well, let’s go to another place and talk, I really didn't expect to see you here.”

We were neighbors since we were 5 years old. I come from a family of famous physics, biologists, and chemists. My grand-grandfather won a Nobel Prize in the field of physics, and from that point forward the whole family followed his example and became submersed in the study of sciences becoming wealthy and renowned in the process.

Although the background of Ana is not as impressive as mine and her family is not as wealthy as mine, they don't have any economic problems at all. Ana herself is smart, very smart. She had a scholarship in the same prestigious high school which I was attending by her own merits, and since my parents considered her a good influence, they doted her a lot and let us practically do as we pleased as long as we had good grades.

We played for entire days and weekends, even entire nights, without being scolded. Sometimes I heard my mother saying that seeing us was very lovely. Whether we were playing in front of a screen, watching us fighting or trying to do teamwork was very heartwarming.  

We start to talk about those last three years while strolling. She grips tightly my hand, as if she was a kid afraid to lose his mother in a supermarket.

A little more than three years ago, when Marcus turned fifteen and Ana fourteen, Ana’s father prohibited her from seeing me again. By that time Ana had some feelings for Marcus, and she didn't understood what happened, why she was being prohibited suddenly from seeing Marcus? She tried to sneak in his home but she couldn't find any trace of him. No phone calls, no e-mails, no letters, absolutely nothing, as if his existence was a lie.

Ana suffered a heavy depression and had to be interned in a mental hospital for 5 months but even so, she had no idea as to what happened with me. No one told her nothing. The only thing that she found was that Marcus’s parents went to her house and had a big discussion with her own parents, but no one told her the reason of the discussion.

I start telling her about my mishaps this last three years and her eyes turns moist several times but she tries to hold her tears to not ruin her make-up. I tell her that at that time three years ago, I sent a letter to various universities because I was interested in exploring and studying the field of VR sciences and I wanted to surprise my family.

When the letter of acceptance of Tidem University arrived, unfortunately I wasn't the one to read the letter first, it was my father. Infuriated for no apparent reason, my father broke almost all the things in my room related to technology: my phone, my computer, even the Virtual Reality Drive (VRD for short) that was given to me as birthday present when I turned 12 which. At that time, that VRD was around 60 thousand dollars, and on top of that he told me that unless I reflected in what I really would study, I was going to have a hard time while living under his family ceiling.

Everybody in my family turned the back to me, they only said “Go speak with your father.” Absolutely no one wanted to get in trouble for helping me.

After 3 weeks of being isolated in my room, I picked up some valuable things and ran from the house. At that time I didn't know what was going to be of my life so I couldn't even try to contact Ana. Truth be told, even if I enjoyed playing with the lovely Ana, in my memories I only could relate her with me being bitten, scratched, punched, and worst of all, make-up practice dummy, so at that time I didn't feel guilty at all about not telling Ana what I was going to do.

Of course I didn't tell her about feeling annoyed by her and just told her that I had to escape quickly, but now that I have her besides me, I really feel guilty for not contacting her. Not because she is a beauty now, but because she was my closest friend from all my life.

I went to the bus Station and picked the first route to Glassglow city, where Tidem University is located, where we are right now, but I found soon that the life as an ex-spoiled fifteen years old kid was very hard. I couldn't pay the tuition fee the year I arrived so I had to work a lot if I really wanted to study Virtual Reality Studies.

I aimed to apply exactly one year later. With the things I stole from my house, I had enough to live for a couple of months. I came up with the idea of making a chart with the monthly income I needed in order to achieve my goal one year later and I was very strict with that chart.

I went as far as eating garbage in order to save some pennies or to be more precise, in order to not use the money I was saving. It wasn’t exactly garbage, let’s just say that it wasn’t healthy food. I worked 12 hours a day, 16 hours on weekends, sometimes even 18 or even 20 during special holiday sales. The excess of work made me sick several times but I endured.

Ana was especially shocked when I told her that during that first year of living alone I was robbed two times, and during the second occasion, I tried to resist resulting in me being hit with a metal bat in the head and stabbed twice in the stomach. Apparently someone of my family was called and paid the treatment while I was in the hospital but I never knew who, nor did that person tried to talk to me.

After a couple of days, without fully recovering, I underwent my usual work regimen and saved enough to pay the tuition.

“Hey, enough talk for a while, treat me something.” Ana interrupts me and she blinks his beautiful eyelashes while looking at me with a wide smile.

“Uhm… I think I told you that I’m poor right now.” I say while scratching my head. From all the days, precisely today was the day that I had almost no money.

“No way, you were shopping, that bag betrays you *chuckle*” She says while pointing at the bag I was holding, she has a face full of ill intentions and tried to hold a laugh. “You still love rum raisin and pistachio ice cream with blackberry sauce, don’t you?”

“Okay, okay, to be honest before seeing you I was planning to buy one for myself, I’ll treat you one.” I say still scratching my head.

“Great!” Ana happily says and hugs my arm tightly pressing her big chest against it.

“Can I ask you something Ana? But promise me you would not get angry.” I say while resting my free hand above the arm of Ana.

“Sure, speak up dummy.” Ana rested his free hand above mine.

“Is it really you?” I say with a serious tone.

“Uh? What do you mean? Of course it’s me.” Ana turns to look at me a bit confused.

“Well… your breasts and buttocks are like 3-4 times bigger than last time, did you underwent surgery or something?” Before finishing the question I use the hand which was resting on Ana’s arm to swiftly escape the hug and make some distance between us.

“You… you bastard! This ones are 100% natural!” Ana grabs her chest with one hand while trying to catch me with the other.

After walking for another while, we arrive again the shop that was 15 meters near the elevator of the second central floor. After making a small row and without waiting the greeting of the female attendant I order quickly, “Give me a raisin and pistachio cone with blackberry sauce, and… what do you want for you Ana?” But just as I mechanically say this to the attendant, in the instant that I face Ana and see her smile, I immediately regretted it. ‘Crap, I screwed it big this time,’ I say to myself.

“Give me a banana split special with wild berries and chocolate chips, a medium cup of strawberries with cream, and a bottle of mineral water without gas.” After ordering, Ana looks to me with a mischievous smile.

“Ugh.” I scratch my head once again. “How much is it?” I ask to the attendant.

“Let me see… Its 29 dollars plus 3 dollars voluntary tip.” The female attendant says with a coquettish smile.

‘Yeah, right, voluntary my ass.’ I pick up 32 dollars from my pocket and pay to the attendant with tears rolling down my face. Ana was lovingly chuckling at my side.

After the order arrived to their table I continued speaking about my life. After entering Tidem University my life was even harder, although I had a bit of spare money from the year of work it was not enough. I had to work in my free time and study a lot to get a full scholarship or else I would have had to stop studying for another year in order to save money again. I underwent some miscellaneous part time jobs and helped his friends with class-related works, obviously collecting small fees, but even so, it was not enough to maintain a university life by myself.

I tried to catch up the debts of the rent by working harder during the summer break, but it was not enough. Even when the owner was a gentle person and knew how hard I worked and had a lot of patience with me, I still had to pay.  But fortunately for me in the 3rd semester I met a friend who owned an apartment in the south of Glassglow and offered one of the rooms as long as I was able to keep the apartment clean and handle the food. Of course I had no complaints and started living with my friend.

“But each year the materials of the projects cost more and more and I’m pressed with the money; if I want to keep my full scholarship I can’t relax and use second hand materials to make a half assed projects or else it will greatly affect my grades.” I explain Ana who was finishing the cup of strawberries.

“So this bag are the materials for the first part of the project I assume.” Ana replies to me.

“Yeah, that’s right.”  I say.

“I can’t imagine how hard it was for you but there's no excuses, I can’t forgive you for forgetting about me you dummy.” Ana sais while pointing at me with a spoon.

END OF CHAPTER 1