Prologue:
'A world full of mysteries, where dwellers were barely scratching the massive, ancient, and sacred history buried inside it.
The Cryptic Realms, known for its wide range of gameplay and free-will given to players were in order to create new skills and crafts, appealed the masses.
Now the official opening for gamepad has been announced. Many people have lined to buy a capsule exclusive only for the game, although the first release is limited to only 100,000 estimated copies.'
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A hovering motorbike, that has an airborne wheel shaped like a bowling ball, could be seen making its way in over two spherical cars. The wheel spun until it touched the ground.
A slight beeping noise was heard then the rider dismounted the vehicle and headed out of the parking lot. Suddenly an enthusiastic yelling can be heard all over the immediate area.
“HANZ! Have you seen the news? The most awaited Legendary Cryptic Realms is out! This is awesome, you know!”
The now named Hanz answered in a sleepy tone, “No, I haven’t, why are you here?”
Hanz regretted the day he let Chloe have access to his bike's system, now he can't even escape her sight since she has access to its GPS. He's been putting off changing the code for it but seems like he needs to do it soon.
"Oh, I was trying to find you to share the good news because I just know you wouldn't watch it because you'll say something like 'so what? I don't have money for that'. "
“Well I rather use that time to sleep and I don’t have the money to buy a capsule.”
"See! I knew you would say that!" she pointed out petulantly.
Walking past her, he made his way to the grocery store in hurried steps. Looking down his watch, he arched a brow then increased his speed, not minding the voice calling for him. He wants to eat some food and go to sleep as soon as he can. He can’t afford to spend his sleeping hours’ willy-nilly chatting with Chloe.
“Brrr its quite cold… Let’s hurry with the grocery.” Saying so, Hanz took out a list of his things to buy. Since it’s in the late November, he is stocking food for the winter. Winter break starts next week so he plans on hoarding food as much as possible to not go out so often and since its Sunday, it’s a sale day.
Entering the lobby, he headed for the corridor where the elevators are lined up. The beautiful woman caught up with Hanz and punched him on his shoulder. “Oww, Chloe!? That hurt.” Chloe was looking at Hanz with a large grin on her face. “Oh sorry, it’s just that, I’m soo hyped for the game! It looks like dirt when it first came out but then turned out epic!”
“Not interested.” Came the annoyed reply.
Walking up to an empty elevator and clicking the second floor, Chloe waited until the door closed before turning to face Hanz and was about to say something when it suddenly blacked out. “Ah, I can’t see… HANZ! Darling, where are yooou?!”
“Ugh! My ears, can you tone it down, and I’m right in front of you… idiot.”
Chloe reared back with a hand on her chest, her face adopting a perfect imitation of hurt. Of course, Hanz can’t see this action of hers nor does he care, as there was no light and even if there is.
“Ouch! so cold, can you be more swe-.”
*Bzzt*
*Thud*
*Bzzt*
“What was that?” Chloe panicked.
Hanz did not answer, he pondered for a before concluding that it was probably just a system failure. It doesn't happen often but just to be on the safe side...
Hanz: You calmed down?
Chloe: Huh? Ah... Oh, yeah.
Hanz: Good, can you send an emergency message to whoever it is that deals with this kind of thing?
It's strange that a system failure happens in a place that demands high levels of safety
Chloe: Yeah. I could, but why me?~
Although she's complaining, she's already firing messages.
Hanz instead took out what looked like a flat circular object. Clicking the center, either side of the object immediately sprang apart and a hologram that brightened the place spread on top of the circular gadget.
Pointing his gadget towards the spherical elevator's door, he tried to locate the panel where the emergency dial is.
Reaching for the emergency red button and pressing it. Hanz leaned against the wall, seeing as they aren't going to get out soon, pressed on an icon. Suddenly a 3D transparent image sprang a few inches outward.
Few seconds passed and Chloe could hear tapping noises coming from Hanz.
“What's that?” Chloe asked interestedly looking towards her friend who intentionally moved as far away from her as possible.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Not even looking up, he answered, “I remember that I haven’t tilled the soil in my farm and I have to fence it up a little bit ‘cause animals outside my house have been trespassing and eating my crops.” An exasperated tone could be heard at the end of his statement.
Raising a delicate brow, she moved forward and peeked, her eyes lighting up and a slight twitch of her lips was the only indication that she was suppressing her mirth. “Is that ‘My Home’?” she asked incredulously.
Looking up, Hanz can see that Chloe is certainly amused by the fact that he is currently playing a cheesy game.
‘My Home’ was a popular fantasy game with cute characters and setting. It was an online game that can be played on the last 3 generations of holo-mobile including the latest. Its gameplay focuses on each players cooperation in a team, meaning if your class is a healer you can only heal and nothing more. The same could be said on battle type classes, they can deal thousands of damage and have multiple attack skills but they don’t have a single healing spell for even a minor cut, moreover, you can only recover your health in your own home.
Despite this setbacks, it became popular within a year. It maybe is because of the starting house where your level increases the size of your home or maybe it’s because of the stories that can be found on ruins or hidden area by the adventurous classes or maybe it was the system’s gameplay, that has flashy attacks and cute designs. It became a trend among girls.
Moreover, it already has its own visual play where you use glasses that projects the game in your own point of view.
“Yup, it came with this holo-mobile Adam gifted me for my 17th birthday two months ago.” It was one of the latest released holo-mobile, k019 J-tech, it must have cost more than a thousand. Hanz tried to reason with his friend that this was too much but then Adam just pouts saying that if he didn’t want it then all that work he’s done was for nothing.
He started playing with it after seeing the gameplay on the net and after Adam’s persistent request. Turns out if you invited a friend you are given a bonus gift, which was Adam’s true motive.
He chooses a class which can be played freely online/offline, the crafting class. It’s basically a class that mainly stays at their home to craft items, they only go outside to buy items from other players and NPCs. They also have the bonus garden where they plant ingredients for crafting, besides he liked staying inside his own house and not being carped of leeching on others.
“So you accepted his gift but not mine?” a sulky pout formed on her lips while glaring accusingly at the item in Hanz's hand.
“Yours’ was ridiculous, where the heck do you think can we park a level 4 Lancelac?!” His disbelief can be heard clearly. Why wouldn’t he, although a Lancelac is one of the smallest of the eight types of hover car, it has an elongated-sphere shape. A level 1 Lancelac can only contain a single person and it doesn’t have a booster and has a size of 3ft long and 4ft wide, while a level 2 provides a booster and the size doesn’t change. A level 4 provides a wider space and has a 3-person seat with twin boosters with a size of 5ft long and 6ft wide.
Despite that, Hanz living space doesn’t provide a parking slot for free, Chloe suggested fitting in in his room but his apartment is too small that you only have to take four wide steps to reach the kitchen that was connected to the living room, that is only separated by a counter.
And the idea was ludicrous.
“Well… you didn’t allow me to buy you a parking slot so of course, we don’t know where to put it.” Chloe tried to reason while looking sideways. Knowing that she won’t win since she knew that Hanz rarely accepts charity, especially if it costs too much.
“Anyway, shouldn’t we be panicking? I mean that’s what normal people tend to do.”
Clearly noticing her trying to change the subject failed when she saw him look at her in the eye.
A sigh escapes his lips, he opted on just answering.
“Nah. No use panicking when-” he was cut off by the sudden movement of the elevator as it proceeds to descend, the lights coming back. A few seconds later and they were on the ground floor, looking like nothing happened. No guards or officers came to check on them. It seems suspicious but not surprising since there has been no power interruption after the use of solar-powered electricity for 50 yrs.
These past months, there has been a report of power shortages and random machine bugs happening here and there. At first, it was just a problem with software programs where glitching happens then power shortage occurring at home appliances, thankfully, there hasn’t been a reported incident where mortal safety is concerned but the EBC, who is responsible for the electricity maintenance, started acting on this cases. Malls, Hotels, Factories and other places which required a large capacity of electricity had been required to install emergency safety measurements to avoid accidents, even homes are required to have these emergency requirements as nowadays, almost all appliances use solar power as the source of energy.
Seeing as nothing is happening and there’s no panic, he shrugged it off as something the maintenance system must have been tinkering with the wires. Hanz went to get a cart, startling Chloe who was deeply thinking to jolt.
Taking out his list of groceries he went down the aisle where vegetables could be found.
“Hey, aren’t you curious?”
“I am but then it must have been maintenance since there don’t seem to be people panicking about.” He reasoned while grabbing a broccoli, Chloe grimaced at the sight of it.
She hates vegetables, but it always got Hanz questioning how she can stay fit with all the meat she eats.
“That –” she points at the closing elevator “isn’t a normal maintenance project, they would have placed a sign on it stating ‘under maintenance’ and a cone-bot to make sure people won’t enter to their demise.” She tried explaining but looking at him not even caring about it, she gave up by throwing her hands in the air.
“Why don’t you report it then since I’m still busy with shopping needed for this month.” Well, some of the vegetables will only last for about 2 weeks so he’s planning on buying persevered foods.
“Besides I didn’t acquire any injury or anything so this has nothing to do with me. Sloth is my partner today.”
“Fine,” she conceded with a sigh. “You’ve been dull and apathetic since I saw you earlier, meaning yesterday you overworked.” She stated as if it was a fact. Well, it is but he hoped that she didn’t know.
“I’m low on cash so I have to.” Hanz could hear a sigh coming from her.
Hanz immediately finished with his grocery and after some talk about this and that, he separated from Chloe and headed home.
His place is not much but at least it has an anti-theft proofing and its cheap. He headed for the elevator, it’s a building with 10 floors and although it lacked the modern technologies' expensive decorations. It looks good as new because of the clean, natural coloring of the building and the tangible flowers and trees, the owner likes to the owner loves to garden it seems.
The elevator stopped when he reached floor 8. There are only four rooms on this floor, he was the one nearest to the edge.
Pressing his palm on the door, Hanz waited until he heard a click then pushed his way inside.
He immediately arranged his grocery on where they are supposed to be placed.
To curb his hunger, he immediately set out to boil some noodles.
“The most convenient invention.” He wryly commented.
He set up the old electronic stove on low heat and went to take a shower. That took him about 5 minutes, just enough time for the water to boil. Getting out of the bathroom to pour enough water on the noodle and then he went to get some clothes.
Yawning on the way back, he knew he shouldn’t have stayed up late last night to finish his homework that was supposed to be done on winter break. Well, the benefits of his hard work will shine this way and since he has to work next week, he’ll just use this week for his own benefit.
Quickly finishing his meal to savor a longer rest he headed for the bed to have some nice long sleep.