Rays of sunlight found its way through gaps in the curtains, illuminating the face of a certain youth. The boy, age of 18 years, groaned as he slowly rose out of slumber from the discomfort of the sun. He had jet black hair, complementing his pair of black pupils, with fairly tanned skin and somewhat fit body. He was as normal as one can get.

He had just finished his major exams and would be waiting for his results, which would hopefully be good enough to enroll him in University of Westmoon, one of the better universities of the country. Heading to the washroom with half closed eyes, he began his usual morning routine consisting of showering, brushing teeth and other necessary daily needs.

Finally coming to his senses from his mini "workout", his heart started to race with excitement. Today was the first day of delivery for the first ever virtual reality gear ZenG, along with its virtual reality game Second Dream,  a pioneer of virtual reality gaming. He was fortunate enough to be one of the first 10000 to preorder this gear through constantly staring at his computer screen, competing against millions worldwide, refreshing the companies webpage to order their sets.

The set had cost him $300, with the game having a monthly subscription fee of $300, it was a heavy blow to his savings which came from various part time jobs in the past 2 years as well as cutting down on daily expenses to keep the extra pocket money from his parents. He was from an average family and knowing his parents, there was no way they would  pay for his gaming needs as they believed it to be a waste of time and money, the latter especially in this case. Although the savings were originally for his expenses in university, he deemed it worth since Second Dream was going to be the epitome of games for years.

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Second Dream is a massively multiplayer virtual reality fantasy game, involving magic and swordplay, revolving around a world called Astus with countless mountains, continents and oceans, all of which housing various beasts and kingdoms for players to explore. Along with various races ranging from humans, elves, dwarves and orcs to vampires and other locked races. The company Kotrax had also announced that the world of Astus was completely managed by their A.I [Artificial Intelligence] to keep the game as natural as possible.

As the clock ticked to 12:00pm, the doorbell rang giving the extra jolt to his already anxious heart. "Zedd go answer..". Before his mother even finished telling him to go answer the door, he had already sprung out of his room, heading to the door. Swinging the door open, he can see a middle-aged man wearing a uniform with the word Kotrax on it, undoubtedly it is the company's delivery man, he hurriedly signed the relevant documents, bid the man farewell and brought the headgear into his room. The release of the headgear had started hours ago at 8:00am and so he was already lacking behind his peers, there was no more time to spare if he didn't want to lose out.

Plugging it to the wall, he fitted the headgear on and switched on the power, the headgear immediately released a sleep-inducing sweet scent making him drowsy and he closed his eyes, slowly entering the game as if the game truly was a second dream.

"Welcome adventurer, I am your guide to start you off in the world of Astus, may I know what your name is?"

"Ripple."