Even close to a week later, Lucian still wondered about the parting words Iona had whispered in his ear just before he left.
He tried asking her about them over direct messages and holocalls after the fact, but she either pretended not to know what he was talking about or intentionally deflected before purposely changing the subject.
While he was curious about where she had gotten such a piece of information, he didn’t doubt the voracity of her advice.
At the back of his mind, he had always understood that Iona came from a background far above his own. Under typical, normal circumstances, he absolutely didn’t believe that his path in life and hers would have intersected – if not for the bullying shitheads that had picked on her when they were children.
Whether it be for her snowy-white hair or her expressionless, doll-like demeanour, children had always picked on her and mocked her about one thing or another.
To be fair, it wasn’t as if he had intervened because he was a naturally heroic person or some crap like that. He had just imagined his younger sister put in a similar position before jumping in instinctively – especially after noticing the beginning of tears brimming in her pale blue orbs.
And that, as they say, had been history.
Lucian activated the screen of his holopad with a featherlight tap, checking the time for the umpteenth time.
18:58.
Friday, 12th of Verdant Blades.
A displeased furrow formed between his brows. The delivery people were late.
From the notification he had gotten from the United Government, the neuro gear was supposed to have been in his hands by now. Unfortunately, it looked like they had severely miscalculated.
Huffing out a breath—and temporarily dispersing all his current agitation—Lucian dropped back down on his couch. With the wall-mounted holoscreen turned on and providing background noise, he pulled out his holopad and started surfing through various forums and media outlets.
Ever since the UG’s worldwide broadcast, speculation had run rampant about what lay in store within the New Age of Champions. While implicit, it was clear that they wanted as many people as possible to enter the VRMMORPG, considering they were shelling out insane amounts of credits to provide neuro gears to everyone of age; free of charge.
Admittedly, he hadn’t thought such a fact in and of itself was odd – too consumed by getting the piece of hardware for free. After Iona’s piece of advice, however… it made him wonder.
Seeing an interesting headline and familiar thumbnail prompted Lucian to tap it; hologram function activated a moment after.
A beam of scintillating light instantly shot out, expanding until a couple of lifelike, if miniaturised figures hovered just above the device’s surface. Clear sounds erupted from the holopad as they started to move, treating the translucent crystal plane like a stage.
“Afternoon, dear viewers~! I’m Mattie-“
“and I’m Maddie.”
“”And we’re M&M~.””
“So, Maddie…”
“Yes, Matty?”
“You know it, I know it, and I’m sure even the viewers know it. But on today’s episode, we’ll be talking about the New Age of Champions~!”
Animated fireworks exploded above the two miniature hosts, causing Lucian to flinch. While he was familiar with the kinds of gimmicks Matthieu and Madeleine frequently used in their holovids, their abrupt nature still caught him off guard occasionally.
Settling back down, he listened interestedly as the two bantered back and forth. Unfortunately, by the time the holovid reached its midway mark, he grew bored and shut it off. It was clear that the two had nothing new to add.
Though not the most well-informed holonet personalities, he always liked listening in to their episodes. Somehow, they kept managing to find an interesting titbit or two; comprising hard to find facts or obscure, unexpected rumours.
It was clear they had no such luck, this time.
Lucian had just restarted surfing the holonet when a series of chimes sounded off from the front door. An instant later, in-built speakers in the apartment crackled to life; disgorging a teeny, staticky voice.
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Hello hello~ Delivery for a Mr. Lucian Noxlear~”
He was already striding towards the door before the clearly feminine voice had even said her first word.
Unlocking the door with more force than strictly necessary, he ripped it open before glaring out; an expression that faltered briefly once he saw the person at his doorstep.
He wasn’t sure what he had been expecting, but it most certainly hadn’t been a young, pink-hared girl bouncing on the balls of her feet, one that looked far too young to be working as a delivery person, of all things.
“Hello hello~ Are you Mr. Lucian Noxlear~?”
“Yes I am.” He confirmed. “Are you here to deliver the neuro gear?”
“Indeed indeed~.” She smiled brightly and finally stopped bouncing. “Before I hand over the package, can I see some proof of your identity please~!”
Lucian was surprised by the unusual procedure but did as requested, considering that the young delivery girl donned the United Government’s official female uniform; comprising a pressed lilac blouse and sharp white skirt.
Once he had shown proof of who he was, the young rosette clapped cheerfully before abruptly letting out a piercing whistle, causing him to take a step back in surprise.
“Please wait for a moment~”
Moments later, he heard soft whirring come from the side. Looking over, he saw nothing of note but Goldstar’s skyline – even if only for a moment, before a flying drone rose above the ninth floor’s safety railings, orange and purple rays from the setting Sun cast in all directions by rapidly whirling rotors.
The drone zoomed over in the proverbial blink of an eye, coming to a hovering stop at the young rosette’s shoulder. Stably hanging from under its shiny chrome chassis was a three-finger claw, gripping onto a package with the UG’s logo stamped on its side.
While uncommon, it wasn’t as if he hadn’t seen drones being used as couriers before. He was just confused about the need for a human delivery person if the package was getting delivered à la drone.
The rosette snapped her fingers, immediately causing the drone’s claws to loosen and drop the package. Before it could fall and crash on the floor, she sidestepped and caught it deftly before shoving it his way with a cheery “Tada~!”
Lucian couldn’t help but grin at her exuberance even as he offered her a word of thanks while taking the package. Before she skipped off, the rosette let him know of two things to keep in mind before using the neuro gear.
While it might look identical to other similar devices used for past VRMMORPGs, it really wasn’t. Unlike its predecessors, personalised calibration was a necessity before making use of it – something the United Government recommended for people to do at least three days before NAoC’s launch, lest any complications arise on the day itself.
Furthermore, though the United Government was willing to shell out for the hardware, it didn’t mean that they were willing to do so for a second time. If the hardware broke, the user would have to pay out of their own pocket; to the tune of 10,000 credits.
Hearing that number from the rosette had nearly caused Lucian to stumble. With the amount he had on hand currently, he could barely afford two replacement neuro gears – and that was on the premise he didn’t spend on utilities, food, and the like.
Lucian locked the door behind him as he strode back into his apartment. Inane noise from the holoscreen greeted him as he crossed the living room, something that cut out once he barked a curt command at it to turn off.
Entering his small, bare bedroom, he flopped down on the edge of his bed while settling the package in his lap; questing, searching fingers sliding over its surface as he tried to figure out how to open it.
Soon enough, he found a small, almost unnoticeable depression in the square-shaped package’s side, one on the exact opposite side of the UG’s lilac logo, incidentally enough. Pressing it firmly, he was forced to jerk his hands back as it unfolded like a flower in rapid, unnatural bloom.
While the package had been coloured to resemble an old school cardboard box, touching its cool, metallic surface had revealed the lie. As it unfolded, such a falsehood became all the more evident, seeing how circuit-like traceries adorned its metal interior.
No matter how familiar the contraption that lay at its centre was, he always found it to be an off-putting sight.
With circular pads that clamp down on his temples, thin, gossamer-like arms that arched over his ears and converged at the base of his skull, as well as a base, one both detachable and as thick as his spinal column—almost like an archaic neck race he had seen in historical accounts—the device would look right at home as an implement of torture, truth be told.
Instead of retrieving the neuro gear immediately, he took out a paperbound booklet—of all things—included in the package. He marvelled at the novelty of such a thing for several moments before leafing through the pages.
Minutes passed as he read what turned out to be an instruction manual of sorts. Like the rosette delivery girl had claimed, calibration was necessary before the neuro gear could exhibit its fullest capabilities.
More specifically, a person would have to don the neuro gear before being led through a specific warmup routine while touching different parts of their bodies as commanded. Although he didn’t really see the point in all that crap, it wasn’t like he had easy access to someone that might know more.
Or was there… hmm… perhaps?
Lucian carelessly tossed the instruction manual behind him as he slipped out his holopad, paperbound pages bouncing off his threadbare covers before resting next to his pillow. Fiddling with his device, he tapped into his contacts before going straight for Iona’s; information popping up on the screen an instant thereafter.
Just as his finger was about to come down on the call button, he hesitated. Did he really want to bother Iona with something so… trivial? It was clear, from the way she had been avoiding the topic, that she knew things that she wasn’t supposed to share.
Perhaps the reasons for such calibration being necessary was one such thing, or perhaps it was not. Nonetheless, did he really want to put her in a difficult spot by asking her about it and risking it?
Lucian’s finger shifted away from above the button in question before he powered down his holopad; refusing to do anything of the sort.
“I suppose there’s no better time than now to calibrate the thing.”
Setting his holopad to the side, he pulled out the neuro gear and started putting it on – unwilling to procrastinate since he had free time right now.
----------------------------------------
Almost an hour had passed by the time Lucian was done with calibrations.
Sweat poured down his brow in rivulets as he panted for breath, the warmup routine the neuro gear got him to do being far more tiring than initially expected.
At least it was over and done with now.
His stomach growled angrily before he could wipe himself down, loudly reminding him that he hadn’t eaten for a few hours. Throwing a longing glance at his holopad, he shook his head, oh so very tempted to order some takeout but knowing that he shouldn’t splurge in such a way when he had perfectly usable—and more importantly, perishable—foodstuffs.
Before leaving his bedroom, he snagged a small towel, wiping himself down while heading to the kitchen; intending on whipping up something small to satiate his hunger, before his stomach complained any further.
He tore off his t-shirt on the way, carelessly dropping it on the low table placed between his holoscreen and couch while leaving the sweat-drenched towel to rest about his neck. A sigh of comfort escaped his mouth as cool night air caressed heated skin, something he knew he would especially appreciate when he started cooking.
Unfortunately, man proposes, Champions disposes.
Just as Lucian stepped a single foot into the kitchen, he heard his holopad loudly go off; the sound of an incoming call entering his ears.
His eyes twitched. “Seriously…?”
Stomping back over to his room, he swiped up the holopad from his bed and answered the call; not bothering to see who it was.
“What?” He asked sharply, but didn’t get a reply even after several seconds.
Pulling the holopad away from his ear before looking at its translucent crystal surface, he came eye to eye with a furiously blushing Iona; the pink in her cheeks having spread up to the tips of her ears and disappeared out of sight down her neck.
With an uncharacteristic, embarrassed squeak, the blushing flutist’s face disappeared from his holopad’s screen, the immediately recognisable tone of a disconnected call ringing from his device a moment thereafter.
It was only then, when Lucian finally reacted.
“Well… fuck me sideways.”