CHAPTER 2: My name is…
“Ugh, what’s so special about going to a “real” University? I don’t understand why I can’t get a key to the IVW from a virtual one, who thought about such absurd rule as that one?” Mathew cursed while speeding in the motorcycle, “If only I wasn’t being chased I could pay for the aptitude test and I wouldn’t have to attend the University for a stupid second grade key.”
In order to enter the Interactive Virtual World, one needed a key. There was no way to hack the entrance to the IVW, and even if you could, there is a huge probability that you are found the instant you enter by Ashen Green, the AI who created the IVW. There are some big companies inside and outside of the IVW that give keys to their workers and even the family of those workers, but Mathew had no connection with any of those companies and trying to enter in one was time consuming and risky for him.
If a person wanted to enter the IVW without being part of a company, the usual method was to take a test. But Mathew was being chased by the government of his homeland. Even if he was right now in a total different location, there was no guarantee that if he took a test in this country, his fake ID would not be discovered, and even worse, his information was not going to be leaked and tracked back to his homeland.
So, the only method which suited his needs was being member of the student body of a University. Some Universities are allowed to give their students what is called a “second grade key”, virtual keys that only works while you are part of the University, but for government regulations, no virtual Universities, even the most prestigious ones, are allowed to give the students virtual keys. The reason why this virtual keys are called “second grade” is simply because it has a daily time limitation, depending on your grades it could be up to eight hours. Although Mathew didn’t like it, there was no other method for him.
The University he was going to assist was a mix between virtual an in-person. Since he had near perfect grades in his past two virtual semesters, and the only reason that he couldn't get a virtual key was that those two semesters were virtual, he thought that his key should be near the eight hour mark.
“Sigh, here I am, New Liberty University.” He stared at the withe gates of the huge campus, almost covering 15 hectares. He flashed his ID and a guard let him in. He asked where the parking lot was, and after receiving the instructions, he went to park the motorcycle. After pressing a button which retracted his helmet to 1/3 of its size, he stored it in his motorcycle and went to the main building of his campus.
He went to an area where there were 50 terminals for public use. He flashed his ID in a sensor and then put his own pocket computer in front of the terminal, and after just 5 seconds, the terminal loaded the data of the campus and the location of the classrooms which he had to attend classes from now on. After finishing, his view swept the campus from right to left, there were at least 500 students strolling around this building, but he paid no mind at them at all.
What he didn’t noticed was that a lot of people looked at him and then began to laugh, chuckle or gossip, his choice of clothes was really eye-catching. But what was most extravagant was the fact that he was using actual round glasses. The tuition of this University was very expensive, and if you had any vision problem and could afford the tuition but not an eye surgery, nor decent clothes, it was really weird.
After walking for 15 minutes, he was in front of the classroom 304 of the B block, the classroom of his first in-person class in 8 years. He watched the clock in his pocket computer, it was 8:35 a.m., he had almost half an hour before the first class started, since he had nothing to do, he decided to enter the room, picked a seat in the last row, and seated there while viewing the model of a VRD in his pocket computer and taking some notes.
He didn’t notice that the classroom was empty, and the students of the class were outside chatting while waiting for the teacher to arrive, almost everybody familiar with everybody. But then, they began to chat about a weird guy who was inside the classroom wearing a cheap withe T-shirt. Since it was the first day of class, everybody knew that the first good impressions has the major impact, and New Liberty University, being a high class University, the difference between the choice of clothes of Mathew and the rest of the student body was quite noticeable.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
And it was not because Mathew was poor, it was because he, in the past 4 years, never went shopping for clothes. Only Robert bought him occasionally some clothes, but when he was dressing this morning, he picked up whatever was at his reach, without thinking the slightest about his look.
At 9:00, a man dressed in a formal suit, approached the classroom. Everybody, knowing he was the teacher, immediately followed him inside. Everybody, when picking a seat, seemed to evade seating near Mathew, and once again, he didn’t noticed anything at all. Only someone seated near him.
After a short self-introduction, the teacher wanted to know a little about every student, it has being always the costume. Mathew heard some names, but his mind was in another place, he was thinking in something else, thinking in the second grade key. “Hey you, the one wearing glasses.” The teacher yelled but Mathew didn’t answer. Just then, he felt a soft nudge from his right shoulder and a soft voice said in a delicate tone “Hey, hurry up and do your introduction.” Just then, Mathew woke up from the dream in which he was, without looking the source of the voice which awakened him.
Mathew stood up, and everybody was watching him, and for the first time, he felt the pressure of the eyes on him. He cleared his throat, and with a resolute tone, he said “My name is Mathe…” but he suddenly halted. He now remembered, he remembered what he was missing, what he forgot when he was leaving this morning.
3 years ago, Robert told him that he had to change his identity. He could no longer live by the name of Mathew Jacobs, or he was going to raise suspicions and be easily discovered. Mathew told Robert to take care of everything, Robert, after all, had more experience than him, and he trusted him. Robert arranged a new ID for him but he never paid it any mind, since Robert always called him kid, and rarely, Mathew.
When he signed for the virtual course of the New Liberty University, his digital signature was set up by Robert, he didn't do anything. And since he knew that the exams were easy for him, he never bothered seeing the results and thus, he never has seeing his new ID. In other words, he didn't know his new name.
“Your name is?” The teacher frowned while glancing at him. Mathew panicked but he recovered his composure immediately, taking the ID in his pocket in order to see his name. Everybody began to murmur. How it was possible for someone to forget his name? “My name is Will…” But then he halted once again. He was looking dumbfounded at the ID. The name written on it was Will Power Maximus. There was no way he was going to say his name was Will Power.
“Are you alright?” Seeing the complex look and that there was no trace of blood in the face of the glasses guy, the teacher asked, and then, Mathew replied “My name is… My name is Will… William Power.”
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Hello fellow readers, there will be a bigger author note and my introduction when I hit the 8 thousand words mark, I think by the end of chapter 5/6, possibly by Wednesday. Although I want to remark beforehand that my native language it's not English, it's Spanish, and since I wrote most of the plot and the first few chapters in Spanish (but never publicized it), it's being a pain to change the tense of the story and translate some terms.
What do you think about the average length of the chapters being 1000-1500 words? Originally chapters 1/2 were only 1, but decided to split it in order to make it more user-friendly.