As soon as the trio arrived at the mansion entrance, the cedar door opened autonomously. It required the permission of its owner to designate the persons to whom it may allow inside. Technology had made everything much easier.

The living room was extremely lush. It seemed quite expensive. The neighbours could not help but remove their footwear for fear of soiling the room with the dirt beneath their soles.

"Ah, welcome, come in come in" Bell gestured.

The trio looked at each other suspiciously. Was he coaxing them to get closer so he could commit murder?

The father of the family of three shook his head, and forcefully rid his mind of such thoughts. They entered the living room as his wife, Haley, held a pack of food in her hands.

The appearance of the owner of the mansion was quite contrary to their expectations. He was a middle aged man with an amiable smile. How could they have called such a nice looking person a hermit. No wonder he'd gotten so worked up.

"Hello, my name is John Brown, this is my wife, Haley and my son, Dave."

"Hehe, My name's Edmund Brennan, and that's my son, Perry. We moved all the way here specifically to have others call us 'hermits'. We love being called that." Bell smirked with mischief in his eyes.

"Oh... Yeah, We're extremely sorry about that."

"Oh take a hike John, what are you being so stiff for. I was only cracking a silly joke. Come on in, we were just about to go get dinner. Who knew we had thoughtful neighbours who'd bring us a free meal!" Bell laughed as he caught a glimpse of the pack of food in Haley's hands.

"Hahaha, it's nothing, It's nothing." John quickly waved his hands.

Pain and Dave had been quietly observing each other.

'Come on, this is your chance to make a friend. Invite him to your room or something... Damn, I'm really bad at this.' Pain thought. He was nervous... wait, Pain? Nervous? If Bell had been observing him right now, he would have been shocked to the bone. Pain never got nervous, at least he hadn't seen him get nervous, not once in this life.

"Hi, I'm Perry."

"Dave."

"Uh, wanna check out my room?" Pain offered.

"Oh..is it ok?" Dave looked at his Parents for permission.

"Go on." John quickly nodded.

The doctor invited the husband and wife to the dinning area while Pain took Dave to his room.

"Uh so how old are you Perry?" Dave asked after an unbearable silence spread through the luxurious bedroom

"Seventeen. You?"

"I'm sixteen this year. I barely satisfy the minimum age requirements to play Gaia, so I'm not complaining. Haha." Dave seemed to be an open minded person.

"Well, in advance, I apologise for any awkwardness, I just came back from a long trip in the wilderness. I haven't socialized in a while." Pain explained.

"Uh... That's fine, Perry."

This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

"Wait, did you just mention 'Gaia'? as in the game?"

"Yes, it's the hottest topic in the whole of Vir. Everyone's talking about it."

"I saw the billboard this afternoon; I'm quite interested." Pain said.

"Really? I'm buying the helmet as soon as it releases and that's in two days time."

"Oh? How much is the helmet going for?"

"Actually, there are three packages that comes with the helmet. The basic package is going for 10,000 Zen. It contains the helmet, a basic manual and guide and the normal character creation options. The advanced package costs 40,000 Zen. It comes with a more detailed guide, but it has the same character creation options as the basic package. Then there's the legendary pack. Only a hundred of those were made in total. The guide that comes with it is actually so detailed, the game developers; Frost Entertainment; vowed that any person who acquired it would definitely be amongst the top 1000 players. Then there's also the character creation option. Owners of the legendary pack would be able to choose hidden classes, races and two Purple grade weapons. It's essentially an overkill. It costs 200,000 Zen, it's even more expensive than our house!" Dave rattled enthusiastically, his cheeks had even become beet red.

"Oh... Wow, is a Purple grade weapon so good?" Pain asked.

"What?! You don't even know? Ok listen, so far, five item grades have been released: Copper, Bronze, Gold, Diamond and Purple. Any purple grade item, even if it was dog sh*t, would be able to wreak havoc. Besides, players who pre-order the legendary package would have not just two purple grade weapons, it will be automatically binded to their accounts. No matter how many times they die, they will never drop it!" Dave was livid, this noob dared to question the power of a purple grade item.

"It really does sound amazing... Hey, Dave, how good are you at games? Do you have confidence in playing Gaia?"

"You might not know this, I'm not bragging, but in Frost's previous MMO, 'Control', I was amongst the top five ranked players within the whole Eastern Region!"

"Pretty good."

"Pretty good?! There were over five million players in the eastern region alone! It was an excellent result! Now you're making it sound as if I'm bragging." Dave scratched his head. This guy really knew how to make him tick.

"Okay, I'm making you an offer. I want you to train me, and join my gaming studio. There are gaming studios right?"

"My God, you really are a noob?"

"What's a 'noob'?" Pain asked innocently

"..."

"Forget it, indeed there are gaming studios but, what do I gain from training you?"

"I'll get you a legendary pack." Pain blurted confidently. If it was money, he knew the old fogey had more than enough.

"What?! You're not joking around are you?" Dave glared at him with his eyes wide open.

"Wait here." Pain told him as he walked toward the dining area where th elderly people were chatting.

"...Hahahaha, you're an extremely funny man Mr. Brennan." Haley and John were having a good time. They had really misjudged the owners of the house.

The room became silent as Pain entered the room.

"Hey, uh, Dad can I have your quantum device?"

"My quantum device? Go use yours! Oh wait, I haven't bought one for you yet. What do you need it for?"

"I want to buy games." Pain said straight forwardly.

'What a direct kid. Dave has numerous tactics when he needs money to buy games.' John pondered as he secretly wished his son could be this direct.

"Ok then. Don't buy any dangerous things, or forget about borrowing my device again!"

"Understood."

Bell handed the quantum device to his pseudo son, who quickly rushed back to his room.

The older people were finally free to discuss their matters again.

"I'm back, where do we order the helmets?"

"Uh, you'd have to go on their website, here, let me type it in for you. Hey, are you sure this is ok? I can't take advantage of you like this. I can't repay you, I have only 20,000 Zen in savings." Dave was not used to receiving freebies. Although they were not filthy rich, they were still above average. His dad owned a chain of jewellery stores. They had roughly, just over a million zen, in assets.

"It's fine, just take it as payment for your training and for joining my gaming studio."

"Ok... But, why are willing to spend so much on the game? What's in it for you? I don't mean to be nosy, I'm just curious." He was curious indeed, any normal person would be. Why would a noob who didn't even know what 'noob' meant, want to spend so much on a game? It was absurd.

"Oh? me? I just want to have some fun."

"Fun? although you guys seem extremely wealthy, isn't spending this much on 'fun' a bit too extravagant?" This was the first time poor Dave had experienced such a thing.

"Don't worry about it." Pain shrugged.

It had taken a few minutes, but suddenly two beeps rang out and a messaged popped up on the quantum device.

"Congratulations, you have successfully purchased two of our Legendary pack, please hold on while we connect you to one of our agents."