Dante heard a hitch cry weep coming from under the sofa. He opened his eyes, wiping away the sleepiness, and found a black and white spotted kitten crying out to him. It began scratching at his legs. “You’ll hurt your claws if you do that to me, little bud.” He picked it up, rubbing its nose against his. It reached forward with its arms, scratching at his face. It licked and nibbled on his cheeks. “You hungry again bud? You hungry? Want some shawarma?”

He let the kitten rest on the forearm as he got up. The sun hadn't shown its face yet but he had more than enough work to do for today. He went to the fridge, looking for the jug of goat milk he found yesterday when Carl dropped him off. He was grateful that someone was kind enough to fill the fridge for him, though it was most definitely not Carl—he knew how much he hated non-chocolated milk. It came in handy today, though. He took the jug out and poured a bit for the little one.

“Kittens drink milk, right?” Dante said, setting it on the counter. It began drinking it again, but he wasn’t entirely sure whether it was healthy. He patted it on the head, scratching its black ears. “Good boy...good boy?” he said, pausing. He lifted it into the air a bit, prodding it to complain with a few lovely meows. “Good girl, I think,” he mumbled, setting her back.

Just what type of evil bastard would abandon her like that? She wasn’t even in a box. She was tossed out there with some old toy for it to scratch at.

Dante’s own stomach began to rumble. “I guess I am too,” he said out loud, and then caught himself. What a bad habit. He had been in the isolation room so much that he still talked out loud. At least the kitten was there, but still.

There were frozen meals in the freezer and a couple of cooked hamburgers in the fridge, but Dante had missed his most favorite food: eggs, ramen, any vegetable insight, and whatever leftovers from the previous night. As this was the first morning he had to make the first chain. He was sure to make more than he could eat so he could put it for tomorrow. 

Ten minutes later, Dante sat on the counter, gently poking the kitten with one finger. It was sleeping, purring every few breaths. He chewed his meal quietly, staring at the middle of the room as the sun brightened it up.

The capsule was smack in the middle. The apartment had one large living room, a kitchen with a window to the living room, and a bathroom. A wardrobe with Dante's old clothes was on the side. Besides the sofa and the table in front of it there was little put in place for furniture. No paintings, no extra miscellaneous objects that he never used. It fit his minimalist style very much, but just the capsule by itself made the room stuffy. It looked more like an oversized coffin than anything else. Three, to be precise. There was a large rod in the middle of three different capsules laying horizontal.  

When Jarckal said he had a game for him, Dante didn’t think he spoke in the literal sense. This was not the direction he was expecting. Take this school. Take over this district. Fix this problem. Those were the atrocious challenges that Jarckal forced on him one way or the other. Hell, he even had Dante work in a couple’s consolidation business for some godforsaken reason. Giving love advice when Dante himself needed some took a toll on his confidence. 

Win The First Guild Wars in Broken Realms was a first.

 The hell was Broken Realms, what did Jarckal even mean by best? How would you even measure how awesome a guild was? Customer surveys? 

Dante got up, laying the dishes in the sink as quietly as possible. There was no point in fretting about it. This was way out of his expertise, He had just the right Kristina in mind for this madness, but unless he was going to trouble Sai with it, she wasn’t an option he could get in contact with. Such a shame--Dante was pretty virtual reality was her side-hustle.

As for Jarckal, he had planned it perfectly. Broken Realms was going live at 8 AM, just a little bit over an hour away. As limited as his knowledge was in RPGS, Dante knew how important a good start was. He was just had enough time to get a good run in and fetch some food for the kitten. There was no fooling around in this challenge. 

After changing into some shorts and a shirt, Dante bowed towards the line of shoes near the front door. He was going to have to treat whoever prepared the apartment for something good. There were a good dozen pairs of them. His sports shoes, such as climbing, skating, hiking, and football shoes were all organized alphabetically. He took his sneakers and left towards the nearest market he could find on his phone.

The air was cool and the familiar smell of cut grass began to calm down his nerves. The neighborhood didn’t have the tiny streets and noisy residents of cities, but it wasn’t too far out from civilization. He could see the skyscrapers in the distance and there were enough convenience shops around.

Time quickly passed as Dante ran, lost in his mind. There was so much to think about that he thought none of it, and rather immersed himself in the rhythm of his shoes hitting the concrete. Few cars went by, giving him solace until he reached his destination half an hour later. He went in, bought his and the kitten’s snacks, and then jogged back.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

It was a pain to run with the bags in his hands, but the effort was well worth it. The moment he opened the little kitten charged at him. He picked her up and was rewarded with a few scratches and bites.

“Feisty, aren’t you?” Dante said, rubbing his nose against her. “What should we call you? How about...Scratchy? No? Then...Feisty! Let’s go with Feisty, alright?”

Feisty leaned in, taking an extra chump on Dante’s sweaty cheeks. “We’ll go with that.” He set her down, looking at the clock.

7:46 AM. Just enough time to research a bit before jumping in. Dante found the laptop Carl had prepared for him with a report regarding the world he was supposed to conquer.

Broken realms is a strictly competitive VR world--a limited number of invites were sent to notable figures. Pro gamers, Streams, material artists, and famous people with a loose screw are the common denominator. The number currently resides 4 thousand players in total. This is not to say Broken Realms is a minor cog in the virtual reality world.  In terms of community anticipation, profit, and notable figures, Broken Realms is a pearless project. The main attraction is a mechanic called Guild Wars. Every 4 night established guilds will face off against other guilds in various scenarios. The 10 guilds will win a prize of 5 million dollars.

This, young boss, is where you will shine best.

Gore is set to realistic, and the pain feedback is set to 50%. I would say beware of the vicious experience, but I am certain this will to your advantage. This world possesses an authenticity I am sure you will find worthwhile.

There was a part regarding the capsule’s influence on mental health, especially PTSD, Mind reading, and its addictiveness that Dante skipped. He’ll put more time into it if he decided to involve his friends.

The most important and final part was the gameplay, and sadly that was the sparsest. All that was available was that combat would not be system assisted, and it would be bare-bones RPG style. Dante tried to find out what “bare-bones RPG” to no avail. There were too many answers and theories.

The part regarding the Guild Wars answered his question. As for everything else? Well, only one way to find out. Dante went towards the kitchen to fetch the jug of chocolate milk he’d just bought. He poured a glass for himself, and poured some kitten snacks on a plate for Feisty.

“Cheers, little one,” Dante said, chugging the glass in a single gulp. He stood in front one of the coffins, stretching his fingers. “Let’s get started,” he said, and just stood there for a while. He walked around, checking every nook and cranny for the on button. “Huh. How do I actually start this?”

You are able to start the Trio-Deep Dive Capsules by voice command. Would you like to open the nearest capsule?

"Oh," Dante said, pleasantly surprised. The voice that came out of the central rod was androgynous. It was neither male nor female. "Talking to myself was a good idea after all! Awesome. I'm Dante. What's your name?"

Hello, Dante. My name is BIN34298.

"Uh, is it alright if I call you Bin?"

Of course.

"Awesome. Can you open up the coffi--I mean the capsule in front of me?" As Bin promised the capsule opened on his command. A cool loud of blue fog escaped, revealing a soft bed instead of the hard iron he'd expect. There was a headrest with some high-quality cushioning.  

"Cool. Say, Bin, you're not recording any of what I'm saying or doing, and relaying it to a certain Jarckal, are you?" 

Rest assured, Dante, I am unable to send any information as it is not possible to connect me to the internet.

"And nobody can hack you and get all your precious data?"

It is highly unlikely that a hacking program is able to do so.

“Nice,” Dante said, stepping in. He'd have to look for cameras later, but he should be good for now. After a pause the capsule returned to its resting position. The glass door closed slowly. When gas began to fill it Dante's instincts had nearly caused him to kick, but fortunately he thought better of it.

Jarckal set this whole thing up. If he wanted Dante dead then Carl's drink would have done it.

Show me what you got, Dante thought, doing his best to stay fight against the drug and to stay conscious. There wasn't any real purpose behind slowing it down, really. He just wasn't going to go down without putting a good fight.