Shin took off the Zero VR device, his hair was ruffled and his body ached.

“How long was I in the game for?” He thought to himself.

Although it wasn’t his longest game session, he felt like it was an eternity. Shin blankly stared into the computer screen, spinning his mouse cursor in circles. A sudden message notification interrupted his daydreaming. Shortly after, a second message notification followed.

Shin opened the messages from Fuyumi and Nightingale. They attached some silver and gold to the messages.

“Hey Shin. I hope you’re not feeling too bad after your first death. I definitely felt pretty awful after my first death. Eat something good, maybe take a shower, and relax out of the game for a while. It’s not like we’re going to be go back in Urumel immediately. I wish we had some time to hang out but we’re usually so busy. Can’t really just explore Mythos Online without thinking about progression, huh? It’s like we always have to be doing something to keep up with the highest level players… Anyway, I’ll talk to you later. Here’s some of the money from the tenth floor boss.”

“Shin! Don’t feel so bad about dying. We’ve been through it all in other games so don’t worry about it! I talked with Geoff and the others, they said it would be nice if we could all meet up again tomorrow around nine in the morning or so. In the meantime, I’m gonna try to do some digging to figure out what’s next in Urumel. I had a lead earlier but I had to hold off cause of the expedition into the labyrinth. It’s pretty time consuming so it’s nice to finally take a look into it now that we don’t necessarily have any immediate plans. I attached some of the money from my cut of the tenth floor boss. I coordinated with Fuyumi to split it with you so you better thank us later!”

Shin replied, thanking them for their message and for the silver.

Since the world’s economy ran on silver and gold from Mythos Online, currency exchanges have been shut down and cryptocurrencies were made worthless. If someone wasn’t a player of the game, they were hardly a person. Their only worth was the value of their assets that still mattered. Vehicles were mostly obsolete, housing prices slightly fell, while the value of electronics and entertainment skyrocketed. It was a situation that was foreign to everyone.

Shin got up from his desk, rubbing his face in exhaustion. He felt gross.

“Fuyumi was right about taking a shower…”

His voice was rough and raspy.

Normally, he wouldn’t feel so tired from just playing the game. This led him to wonder what happened to his body when he was respawning. Could it be what he experienced in the void influenced his body in some way? Shin leaned against his desk with his arms crossed, thinking about different possibilities. He slumped his shoulders as he could think of a solid answer.

Shin heard a loud thud followed by a scraping sound coming from the ceiling but he didn’t pay it much mind. The walls of the apartment complex were thin and people often complained about their neighbors making a ruckus anyway.

He paid his bills on his computer before putting it to hibernate as he left the room. The living room was pitch black. Shin kept the lights off to preserve power and save money. Eventually, he got used to the moody atmosphere. Being in Dragonfall accelerated his adaptation to the darkness but the lack of sunlight was starting to get to him. Permanently experiencing the world in darkness was taxing on his mental state.

After satiating his hunger and thirst and taking a shower, Shin heard a chime followed by a knock on the door. He checked the camera mounted right outside his apartment. A tall man in a hazmat suit walked away wheeling a stack of boxes on a dolly. Shin put on gloves and a mask before opening the door to pull the box into the apartment.

Inside the box was a brand new Zero VR device and a letter.

“Valued customer and citizen, we are providing you with a complementary brand new Zero VR device. Use this new device to connect to Mythos Online and conduct your business. The old device will be made obsolete at the end of May. We thank you for your continued support of Pentrafil and Mythos Online.”

Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

Shin echoed the opened words of the letter.

“Valued customer and citizen…”

“This is the most dystopian thing I have ever read.”

He sighed, crumpled up the letter, and tossed it into the trash.

Shin took the box to his room to install the new hardware. There seemed to be a couple new wires and plugs that weren’t on his old device but it didn’t seem all too different from the old headset.

Shin stood with his hands at his waist, staring down at the mess of cables, wires, and packaging plastic on his desk. In the reflection of his darkened monitor was the balcony window behind him. A series of lights flying through the sky got his attention as he walked over to the window. He placed his hand on the glass as he gazed into the sky.

“I wonder if the wealthy still get to fly first class.”

The plane disappeared into the clouds. Shin turned his attention down to the city streets below him. They were still empty. Due to the lack of pedistrians and cars, the city began shutting down the lights outside. This led the ultra-population dense city to look like it was constantly in a power outage.

He cleaned off his desk, tying up loose cables and throwing away the leftover plastic before putting his old Zero VR device in the box that once held the new device. He got in his bed and closed his eyes. It was far more comfortable than anything else he slept in recently. Most of the time, he slept in Mythos Online since he was paranoid about bounty hunters claiming their reward as he slept outside of the game.

+++++++++++++

[08:54 | May 05, 2035]

Shin walked down the stairs and out of the inn. He heard loud noises coming from outside. As he opened the door, he was bombarded by a sea of people and vibrant imagery. The streets of Dragonfall were filled with parade floats and adventurers in colorful festive clothing. The makeshift floats rode atop of repurposed horse carriages tugged along by players. Some of the adventurers at the streetside stared in awe while the others voiced their confusion.

“What the hell is this?”

“What’s going on?”

“Is there a holiday or something?”

A tall and bulky man dressed in a suit tipped his festive hat up as he approached a group of confused adventurers.

“It’s Cinco de Mayo baby!” He continued to repeat it like a chant as he danced and moved his way through the crowd.

Shin didn’t expect to see holidays celebrated in game.

“There wasn’t an event announcement or anything from the developers but I suppose there’s nothing stopping players from hosting their own celebrations.” He thought.

Colorful ripped up shreds of paper were thrown from the floats like confetti. He was stuck in the middle of the crowd as they pushed and shoved to get closer to the floats until they slowly followed behind the last float in the parade.

As the crowd thinned out, he was able to cross the street and into the guild hall. Inside, the players and NPCs behaved like nothing was going on. The festive sounds of the parade faded and were replaced by player gossip.

A series of waving hands from the far side of the tavern greeted Shin as he glanced in their direction. He waved back as he dodged the tables filled with rowdy adventurers to get to his party mates. At the table were Geoff, Malady, Nightingale, and Fuyumi.

Geoff was the first to speak.

“Welcome! Our hero!” He said as he raised his cup of ale.

Shin put up his hands in rejection as he sat down at the table.

“No, no, no, it was a combined effort!”

Geoff raised his hand, signaling for the waitress.

“Bring this man a drink!”

He turned his attention back to Shin.

“Oh, if you’re wondering about the other two, don’t worry about Prezzo and Scottie, they said they would be a little late. They wanted to check out the parade with Ghast.”

Shin took a look at his friends. To his right, Nightingale playfully swished the juice in his mug but smiled as he made eye contact with Shin. Further down was Fuyumi; she sat in between Nightingale and Geoff, gazing vacantly into her empty mug. Shin raised one eyebrow in confusion but figured now wasn’t a good time to ask.

“Should we wait for them before we start?”

Malady’s timid voice was barely loud enough to overcome the loud gossips of the adventurers sitting around her.

“Let’s give them a few minutes. In the meantime, we can celebrate Shin and our successes!”

Geoff raised his cup, prompting everyone else to do the same.