Chapter 3

VR is somewhat different to the traditional monitor based computer. When someone wanted to log into a game or go to a website in the old CPU, all you have to do is open the program with a click or type in the web address into a browser. Now in VR, you actually have to travel to the game through a portal gate and they weren’t cheap.

The government department in charge of scamming the people’s hard earned cash was the VR improvement institute. When they named it ‘improvement’, what it meant was improve it for the corrupted politicians, not for the people’s interest.

How’s that for naming sense?

Spending my ever dwindling allowance since my dad no longer had an income and now living off his EI. I paid the robot guardian cyborg that acted both as a map guide and security gaurd. You never know if someone would tail you from behind just to PK you on a danger red world, looting all your hard earned gears and VR credit coins that could be traded for real money. Some people even made a career out of this and if they get lucky, they can make more than most people.

Within seconds, me and George was flying through the digital tunnel towards the VR planet Noah. The game was set in a fantasy magic and martial arts setting, but here’s the weird part. Unlike most traditional magic and fighting games, Noah included a certain levels of scientific technology into the game, this means guns and bullets.

Well, even if there was modern day weaponry in the game, it wasn’t common for someone to be using one because a lot of hindering factors that came with it. I won’t get into this now but if I ever do encounter such a problem, it was common knowledge in how to counter them.

Now with a flashy pop, I was standing with my avatar in the last saved point I reserved in Noah. I did say I was good at video games but when it came to Noah… my avatar was a noob. No gear and no level, all because I was goofing off the entire time with my friends when we joined the game since release.

When Cerebro ‘fixed’ Noah, what it really did was use existing data in just about every game in history to create a completely chaotic game. The general genre of a MMO or a shooting game could not be used to describe it.

Looking around, I was standing in one of the beginner’s village that every new player has to get through in order to leave the safe zone. Why I never got past this point was something I wanted to curse myself for.

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The entire starting region was a island dedicated to servicing new players, fully stocked with every kind of cute and funny looking monsters and free items to use. Many casual players like me had no reason to leave this place because once you leave, there was no returning and the danger zones were not known to be merciful.

First things first, waving my hand in the air, I opened the character option. On the ranking ladder board, my in game name (BcatQQ) had a big fat zero beside it. That was not very motivating; in fact, it was simply demoralizing as the current leading name had a thousand points beside theirs.

Letting out a sigh, I opened a private call to George to see where he spawned.

“Hey, where are you right now?”

It didn’t take long for George’s image to appear in front of me, indicating he received my call.

“I’m at the bunny village on the northern part of the island, where are you?”

I smirked because I knew why he was at the god forsaken chick hangout spot. When you put one of the cutest animals into a certain game, you can expect girls to flock toward that location.

“I’m at the southern village where the Jello monsters spawn, come meet up with me when you can. I’m going to level as fast as I can to get out of the safe zone.”

For the entire day, I wasted my limited battery life in my capsule grinding the hell out of the soft transparent balls. In the end, I was finally able to leave the place with George beside me. I felt somewhat wrong to force my friend to leave the safe zone. Once we head out to the actual Noah game, it was every man for themselves as predatory man and women feast on the innocent noobs.

I turned my head and looked my friend in the eyes. I didn’t say anything as a imaginary lump lodged itself into my throat. Luckily I didn’t need to; George just nodded his head and gave me his signature wink with his left eye, indicating he’s all good with it.

Opening up the special message box that appears whenever someone was eligible to leave the safe zone, both of us placed our hands at the same time on the ‘YES’ holographic icon.

Then with a flash, both our bodies popped out of existence.