Living in the city has become somewhat of a necessity for Gray. He has to be able to walk to the tram station and can't afford any personal transportation device. The other reason is that the Earth only has 5% of the surface area still inhabitable by humanity from the original amount due to the rising sea level. Gray is sure that Al Gore is probably rolling over in his grave and shouting 'I told you so!' regarding the ice caps melting.
Regardless, most of humanity now resides in enclosed domed cities that can be submerged completely should the sea level rise again. Land is now a precious resource, with the oceans now covering 98.5% of the Earth.
What does this have to do with Gray's tiny living space? Not much, really, but he likes to bring it up to people whenever someone mentions he has a small apartment.
"I guess I should make room for this VR bed," thought Gray. "I'd say this thing will be as important as my fridge and shower and obviously I need those. That only leaves the couch, the entertainment center, and the bed in my room."
Gray thought for a moment, then said, "Well, it looks like I'll get rid of the bed. I mean, it is a VR bed that will replace it so I can just use it as a bed!"
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The following 2 days at work left Gray with no peace to do his job at work. His coworkers constantly bugged him about winning the Diamond Tier competition throughout the day. He wouldn't have minded it so much except that he really didn't know what to say as he didn't have the VR bed yet, and the game wouldn't be accessible until Friday.
The office goddess, Verona Peters, even talked to him. Verona always dressed sharply, wearing business suits with her blonde hair tied neatly in a bun. Her figure was a mystery as the suit hid it well, adding to her charm. Verona's face was soft and beautiful with blue eyes that exuded charm, leaving one in a daze if they stared too long.
Many of the male employees had tried to get with her and fawned over her. Frankly, it was annoying, but Gray is confident he can woo Verona! Why just the other day, she struck up a conversation with him all on her own, asking him to stop staring off into space while blocking the coffee maker. She asked him to get back to work and stop talking about games this time.
"She wants me," Gray convinced himself.
All delusions aside, Gray was annoyed with questioning, so he was glad when his "fame" died down by Wednesday. Gray was barely able to focus. Today was the day it was supposed to arrive! His armlet chimed earlier that it would be set up while he was out. He'd already been sleeping on the couch since he had to make room for the VR bed, so he would be happy to have a bed again.
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Gray decided to stop at GameGo on his way home to ask Spoon if he should get anything to support him during long VR gaming sessions. Upon entering GameGo, Gray saw Spoon doing his usual act of staring at a display while watching videos. At the back, he saw the only other employee at this GameGo location, Carly Moon.
Carly was short and stocky, cute in her own way, and had a huge set of… VR rigs that she frequently bragged about. She was a true gamer girl and might be cute if her personality wasn't so boorish and her voice so loud. She earned the nickname "Bullhorn," which she says was earned by commanding her guild in World of Warcrap with a domineering voice and can use it to rally her guild. Spoon says it's because she actually head-butted someone while wearing a Viking helmet at a party that caused a guy to bleed from being stabbed with the horn.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Gray started walking over to Spoon, hoping Carly wouldn't see him, but luck wasn't on his side as Gray suddenly heard from the other side of the store. "GRAY! You butthead! Good job winning, my dude!" Carly yelled at him while walking toward him, then slapping him on the back hard enough to almost knock the wind out of him.
"T-Thanks Carly! I'm not staying long, just looking for accessories for the VR bed I'm getting!"
Gray could tell Spoon was pretending not to notice him so that he wouldn't attract Carly's attention. You'd think they would hit it off since they're both gamers and even worked at the same place. Familiarity breeds contempt, it seems. Gray had brought it up once with Spoon. He said he was staying away from her. It was something about trying to get her attention by not giving her attention or some other reverse psychology crap. Regardless, Spoon probably liked her and was too much of a wuss to do anything about it.
"Pssshhh, you don't need anything like that, Gray! This isn't like your old garbage where you need to buy extra controllers, sound buffers, sonic muscle massagers or even snacks. Just lay down on your bed, plug yourself in, and you're good to go my man!" said Carly.
"Oh, uh, thanks!" said Gray sheepishly. He probably should've just done even a little bit of research, and he would've come to this same conclusion, but Gray had long realized that it was the little things like this that he would often overlook.
"No problem!" Carly then came closer to Gray and whispered, "If it's your first time, let me know if you need help breaking in your VR bed."
Gray started to blush at the hidden meaning of her words.
Carly then smiled and added, "It needs to be tuned to your brain's frequency so you need either a person or AI to help with that, what did you think I was talking about?"
"Oh! Ahhh… yes, I knew you meant that!"
Spoon was starting to tear up in the back, trying to contain his laughter, or maybe it was rage. Gray couldn't tell because rage and laughter looked the same on Spoon. As soon as Carly started to turn around, Spoon quickly recovered and looked like he hadn't heard a thing causing Gray to admire his ability to adapt to the situation.
"I'll ask the AI that is setting up the VR bed initially to tune it for me."
At the mention of AI, Spoon started to perk up a little. "Gray, you got to talk to an Alterra AI? Pleashe tell me which one!" Spoon's breathing rate increased as Gray forgot that Spoon REALLY seemed to like AIs, especially the highest level ones with almost full sentience. Spoon was not alone with his fetish. Others would create concept art based upon the avatars of the more publicly visible AIs or risqué fan fiction of them having a close intimate encounter with the AI of their fantasy. The world is indeed scary.
Still, Gray humored him. "It's… her name is Nadia."
Spoon started tapping madly at the interface on the display in front of him after linking it to his armlet. Spoon had even created a database of all known AIs. Still, oddly enough, you could say it was only half complete because it only seemed to have AIs with female voices and avatars. He quickly brought up Nadia but was surprised to see that the only information available was that Nadia was the personal assistant AI to Drake Walters of Alterra Corporation. The avatar and capabilities were all unknown. Only when Drake talked to her in public has her voice even been exposed.
"Sh... She ish an unknown! Gray! You musht get her to show you her avatar and shend me a picture! My world dependsh on it!"
Gray just nodded slowly at Spoon as Spoon stared at him full of passion. This was a scary hobby.