Hello everyone, this is my first Fan Fiction, and pretty much the first thing I've ever tried seriously writing. English is not my native language, and there will be spelling errors and some incorrect grammar.

I wrote the first chapters I'll post now over a period of 2,5 weeks, and I went back over them again and again changing things. I finally decided to just post it so I can stop myself from changing it even more.

Therefore I might've missed some things that doesn't make sense, if so please tell me and I'll correct it.

As always all criticism is welcome and appreciated.

Thanks to anyone that managed to read this rant. ~borgen92

PS

You might recognize the names of some of the characters, if you do it's because I'm pretty terrible at inventing names, and I wanted to pay homage to some of my favorite authors.

[p=center]The Winged Knight[/p]

[p=center]Volume 1 - Prologue[/p]

"What do we have?" the Doctor shouted to the EMTs over all the deafening noise of the ER.

"Male, 18 years old, got hit by a car while trying to save a little girl!" screamed the EMT in response.

"Alright, bring him to OR #3! Dr. Harrington is already preparing himself for the surgery."

[p=center]***[/p]

"Mr and Mrs Haines, I'm Doctor Alfred Harrington, I'm the man in charge of your son, and this is my wife Doctor Allison Harrington." The doctor gestured to the beautiful woman standing next to him, she was small, probably shorter than 1,60m(5'2) with long black hair, dark chocolate eyes and Asian looking features. The man however was almost the antithesis of her, being tall. Very tall. Probably over 1,95m(6'4) and had blond short hair and green eyes.

Why the hell is he introducing his wife to us at a time like this?! thought Mrs Haines resentfully.

"The reason I introduced her will become clear shortly," I guess I'll wait until then. "but first I'll give you a short description of how your son is."

Mr Haines tightened his grip on his wife's hands.

"How bad is it? Will he live?" he blurted out before he could stop himself.

Dammit what was wrong with him? The doctor was just about to explain how his son was, couldn't he hold himself in check for 10 seconds?

My son did just have an accident though, so i guess i'll cut myself some slack.

The doctor didn't look irritated at all though, he just calmly looked him in the eyes and said:

"Your son has extensive damage. He has three broken ribs, a broken arm and a broken leg. But i'm sorry to say that's not the worst of it."

They immediately tensed up hearing of their son's damage.

Oh god, why is he always doing stuff like this?! Mrs Haines thought resentfully. He always dives in headfirst trying to save whomever he lays his eyes on. God! Can't he take care of himself first?! She immediately felt ashamed. I guess he wouldn't be the son I loved if he didn't do these things, but I wish with all my heart he would be more careful. But they do say little Alyssa will be alright because of him.

She shuddered thinking what the car would have done to her neighbors little girl if it hadn't been for Marcus.

Doctor Alfred calmly continued;

"Basically, your son damaged his main nerve cluster that is located just below the neck. This damage wasn't enough to make him a complete quadriplegic, but it was enough that he won't be able to use any of his limbs. The cluster is damaged, not destroyed so his brain can send commands to move body parts, but when they reach the cluster they're stopped."

"Oh my god, he's never going to be able to move anything below the neck ever again?!" Mrs Haines shouted, horrified.

"That's how it looks right now, there are however some good news. First of all, there are several Doctors working on how to fix nerves, they might not be ready right now, but in 5-10 years there might be a cure, also since his nerve cluster was not destroyed, only damaged, it might slowly but steadily fix itself. There's much that is currently unknown about how exactly, nerves work."

"So he might be able to return to normal in the future? And can we speak with him?" Mr Haines interrupted.

"That's what I was coming to Mr Haines." Dr. Alfred still looked calm and not irritated in the least for the interruption.

These people have been through enough without me getting irritated for small things like that, at least Allie will probably be able to help their son.

"He's currently in an artificial coma. Being awake will undoubtedly result in him sending commands to his body, which will result in them passing through the nerve cluster. And that's not good right now, his nerve cluster needs time to try to repair itself, waking him up will only result in doing more damage to it and maybe destroying it permanently. But don't despair, this is why I brought my wife here. Let me reintroduce her, this is Dr. Allison Harrington, head of the medical research branch of Unicorn Corp."

Their eyes moved to the petite woman next to him. Unicorn Corp? Isn't that the company with the so-called revolutionary virtual reality technology? But what has that to do with our son? Thought Mr Haines angrily.

Nowadays, with the technological advances, the ultimate goal of every game-company was to equip itself with the virtual reality system. A truly great game named Royal Road, was referred to as the standard for virtual reality. It was created by Unicorn Corp which invented the Virtual Reality technology.

Beginning with a fully implemented world, the game contained tens of thousands of races and users. Over tens of thousands of jobs, and hundreds of thousands of skills. You could enjoy adventure as you desire, hunt monsters, try to slay dragons. Not interested in things like that? You can even go fishing in unknown waters trying to catch new species of fish. The massive scale of freedom was amazing, and it was reputed to be one of the most enjoyable experiences you could ever have.

The current number of players of Royal Road was somewhere in the vicinity of 400 million. And, the game was named Royal Road after the ultimate goal of the game. Uniting the entire continent of Versailles and becoming the Emperor. If you succeeded in becoming the emperor, you would get 10% of Unicorn Corp's proceeds for a month. Which, would be a truly massive amount of money.

"Hi, as my husband just introduced me, I'm Dr. Allison Harrington, but you can call me Allie." she said with a kind smile.

"I'm going to be conducting an experiment using virtual reality for coma patients with intact brain capacity. And your son would be perfect for that. Basically what I want to do is move your son to my medical facilities, and connect him to Virtual Reality. Using a modified capsule that will connect into his brain-stem instead of the normal connection which occurs in the nerve cluster your son has damaged."

"What this means is that if this works, he will be able to move normally, talk normally exactly as if his body was fine. We will create a virtual house for him to live in when he's not inside Royal Road. And this means that you can visit him as well. This experiment is important for Unicorn Corp, and we're prepared to give your whole family modified capsules that will allow you to connect to his house as well as Royal Road, so you will be able to visit him anytime you want."

This is simply too much information to take in at the same time. They want to connect our son to a Virtual Reality? But if it works, instead of just laying there in a coma for countless years until, maybe, a solution has been invented or his nerves has somehow fixed themselves enough for him to use his body. This way, if it works we will be able to speak to him even though he's still in the coma. Mrs Haines thought.

"This is not without risks. But I'm confident we have about a 70% chance of succeeding. By the way we will, of course, monitor him at all times. We will monitor his virtual house, and his playing of Royal Road to make sure nothing bad happens, but i'm honest enough to tell you this is also for our research."

"Also, the contract for this has a specific clause that says we will never disconnect your son from Royal Road or any other Virtual Reality game Unicorn Corp makes. Basically we guarantee we won't just disconnect him after our experiment is done and you won't be able to meet him again. If our experiment is done, either he will still be kept there under observation, or you can take him home with his special capsule so he can continue there."

"Hmm, it sounds good. Well, maybe not good but certainly the best out of our options." Mr Haines said. He had clearly calmed down some during the explanations.

"And with the capsules we can visit him anytime we want?"

"Well, not anytime no. Because when he plays Royal Road he will leave his house and join the game, he will obviously not be there. So the best would be for you to decide a time to meet so he can log out from Royal Road and wait at his house. But even if he isn't in his house, you can still chat with him inside the game. The game have a chat function which you can either write or speak to him directly. So don't worry, even if he's not in the house you can easily speak to him inside the game, although you might not be able to meet him as easily."

"What do you mean? Why couldn't we meet our son in the game?" Mrs Haines said angrily.

"It's not that you can't meet him, it's simply that the game is massive. It's huge. So you might be too far away from each other. You have to realize that you will be working or busy with other things, but your son will be logged inside either the game or his house the whole time. Which means that with the 4x time speed inside the virtual reality, he will have much, much more time than you inside to do things."

"Alright, I've heard about that. And I suppose now that you do mention it, if we play the game for let's say 2 hours a day. That's 8 hours of game time, but since he'll be logged inside 24 hours a day, he will spend much more time than us inside it." Mr Haines said thoughtfully.

"Yes that's correct Mr Haines, your son will have much more time to do things. And he can't of course stay in the same place all the time, so he'll probably travel around the continent when he has this much time. That's why i said you probably won't be able to meet him in-game, but you can still decide a time to meet up back at his virtual house, also you can still chat with him inside the game. Regardless of the distance." Dr. Allison said seriously.

"Can we have some time to think about this?" Mrs Haines said worriedly.

"The faster you can decide, the better it'll be. As I've said, right now he's in an artificial coma. Without using Royal Road it's not really ethical to keep him there. After all who are we to decide whether he'd rather live as a quadriplegic than stay in a coma for 10 years? But if you agree to this treatment, he can live in Royal Road while his body recovers." Dr. Alfred said seriously.

"Please give us some time to discuss this." Mr Haines said in a grave voice.

After an intense discussion that lasted for well over two hours they finally decided.

"Alright, where do we sign?" Mrs Haines said in an exhausted voice.

[p=center]***[/p]

When I opened my eyes, all I could see was darkness. Nothing else, but darkness.

Where the hell am I? This can't be space can it? No, there's no stars and could I breath in space? Does that mean I'm dead? Is this hell? Or, god forbid, heaven? If this is heaven that would suck. Last thing I remember was getting hit by the car then this. Is Alyssa alright? I hope so, it would be horrible if I died for nothing.

Suddenly a bright light appeared and blinded me, when I opened my eyes I found myself inside the most luxurious house I've ever seen.

House? This is more like a Palace.

I was standing in something that looked like a living room, except the sheer size of it... you could easily play football here. The living room was richly decorated with a huge Persian rug that took up most of the floor. There was a huge sofa that could easily seat 30 people, dozens of chair surrounded the sofa. And a magnificent coffee table was in front of it, facing the wall. I could see outside the windows at the end of the room, a pool bigger than my old house with a huge water statue in the middle of it, and the ocean was behind the pool.

"What the hell? What's this? Heaven or hell? It looks more like heaven, but looks can be deceiving. Also if this is heaven, where's all the beautiful women?" I unconsciously spoke aloud.

"Seriously, this must be hell. A giant luxurious mansion that's completely devoid of people. This cannot be heaven."

Suddenly he heard a sound, it came from his right and sounded suspiciously like a giggle. He instantly turned towards the sound.

"And what are you giggling about?" He asked the startled, beautiful woman. She was petite with warm chocolate eyes and dark long hair.

"And who are you?" I asked before she had a chance to speak.

"An angel? Or a demon? A succubus here to tempt me into hell? But if you are, why are you dressed like that with a lab coat? Shouldn't you be in revealing, sexy clothing? At least that's how I've always seen them in games and the like. Wait?! Does this mean I have a fetish for lab coats? Is my subconscious telling me that lab coats are my thing?"

He'd seen the woman's face go steadily redder and redder and now she turned her head away trying to hide her face. He could also hear something that sounded suspiciously like laughter in the background. He realized there were actually more people standing a way behind her, three women and two men in matching lab coats. He also realized that what he was looking at was actually a huge TV. It was the size of an entire wall, and it was showing a lab of some sort with the people in it.

"Ahem." the woman said, fake coughing into her hand after regaining her composure.

"I'm Dr. Allison Harrington..." Before she could finish, she was, interrupted.

"Yes, that would make sense if this was my fantasy wouldn't it? A sexy doctor to take care of all of my "needs". And another three female doctors to help her take "care" of me. Yes, I'm getting excited just thinking about it." I said with a smile.

"But if that's the case, what are the two men doing here? Do I have such tendencies? I certainly never thought I did, but if they're here now it means my subconscious is telling me I do isn't it? And who am I to argue with my own subconscious?"

This time most of the people were blushing. Some, however, looked more composed. A short blond man looked mostly amused while the other man was blushing and looking away.

"No! Let me finish before you interrupt!" Dr. Allison shouted.

"No need to shout Allie, just talk and I'll try not to interrupt you again."

"As I was about to tell you," she gave me a glare. "This is not your fantasy but a..." before she could finish she was, again, interrupted.

"If this is not my fantasy, then why am I naked?" Marcus asked as a matter-of-factly.

"That's because this virtual house was just created, and we didn't realize you'd need clothes when you arrived!" she, again, shouted at him.

"Virtual house? Anyway, so what? I just have to stand here naked speaking with you? I can't have any clothes? Is this how you get your kicks Allie? Forcing patients to appear naked before you? Well, I for one am not embarrassed by my own body so your tactic is meaningless against me." The other people in the room started laughing while Allie looked angry.

"Shut up! And go to your wardrobe in the master bedroom for some clothes!"

Her dignity completely crumbled under my barrage. I suppose I should stop teasing her. I don't even know where I am, so maybe I shouldn't harass one of the only people that knows what's happened to me.

"Alright Allie, I'm sorry. Please calm down, I'll go to the bedroom and change."

The master bedroom was huge. Easily the size of the living room in my old house. It was lavishly decorated with a huge bed, that looked like a dozen people could sleep in it.

In the wardrobe I found a grey t-shirt, some underwear and a pair of jeans. I dressed myself then went down to the huge TV/wall again.

"Okay Allie, so if this isn't heaven or hell. And you said something about virtual reality. Does that mean I'm dead or in a coma or something from the car crash?"

This time Allie looked very surprised.

"Yes actually. You were hit by the car, broke several bones but worst of all your main nerve cluster took considerable damage. To the amount that would you be awake, you wouldn't be able to do anything except talk." she said sadly.

Wow, worse than I thought. Well, at least I'm not dead. And this place doesn't seem so bad. And, here I can move just like I used to be able to.

"But don't despair, I'm in charge of the medical research branch of Unicorn Corp. And this is my team." she said waving to the group of people behind her.

Unicorn Corp? Isn't that the company that created Royal Road?

"Basically your nerve cluster is damaged, but not destroyed. It might fix itself, or new treatments might become available later. However, your nerve cluster needs to rest. To be able to repair itself. That means we have to keep you in an artificial coma meanwhile. And even if it does miraculously fix itself, it might take years possibly even decades."

"That's where we come in." she said, obviously proud over her team and their work.

"We've directly connected the capsule to your brain-stem, bypassing the nerve-cluster enabling you to enter virtual reality while still in a coma. This is what we're researching, using VR to enable people who are in a coma but with a healthy enough brain to enter VR without further damaging their brain. It might even help them by stimulating it."

Wow. That sounds pretty cool. So instead of lying in a coma, I can be here and inside Royal Road? That sounds good, I've never played Royal Road but I've heard great things about it.

"And don't worry, we've notified your family that it was a success and you'll be able to meet and talk to them shortly."

That's good. It'll be nice to see mom, dad and Jenny. What they must have gone through when they heard I'd been in a car accident. I can already hear mom's lecture. "Be more careful! You need to take better care of yourself!" Although, to be fair, this time she's certainly right.

"So just sit down in the sofa, and wait for a short while. They'll be here soon enough. In the meanwhile, we'll leave you alone to think some. As you've already seen this screen allows you to see our lab at all times, and it's got a microphone so you can speak to us any time, and we can speak to you. We have a big screen on the wall beneath the camera you see through, so we can see you at all times. So it's a sort of give and take. You can see us at all times, and we can see you at all times."

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"By the way, if you haven't realized it yet. That capsule over there" she pointed at a big coffin-like thing. "is where your body is at."

"Alright, this is kind of a lot to take in right now. So I'll do as you say Allie and sit down here and think on it some. Please send in my parents as soon as they arrive." Marcus said with a small smile.

"Sure I'll do that."

[p=center]***[/p]

"Marcus!" I turned around as I heard my mom shout. She, dad and Jenny came running to me. I got up from the huge sofa and ran over to them with tears in my eyes. I could see I wasn't the only one with tears though. We formed a big group hug while we cried some.

"It's good to see you son." my father said in a voice that was suspiciously husky.

"How long has it been? For me it feels like I saw you only an hour ago before I went out. But I guess it's been a couple of days at least, right?" I asked.

"It's been over two weeks Marcus." my mom said in a wavering voice.

"Okay, are you all at home now?" I asked, trying to move on to a less emotional subject.

"Yes Marc, the Unicorn guys delivered three capsules for us to use." my little sister Jenny told me.

She was 15, three years younger than me and I had always spoiled her immensely. She was beautiful, around 1,75m(5'8) tall and had wavy blond hair and looked very much like my mother. I however inherited my fathers light brown hair, amber eyes and height. I'm around 1,88m(6'2) tall, my father is around 1,85m(6') so I've outgrown him a little. Most of my other features however, are from my mother.

We broke off our intense hug.

"Please, come with me and sit down. Also, I suppose I should welcome you all to my Palace." I said with a small smile.

We walked to and sat down on the huge couch.

"Yes, this house is certainly... large." my father said smiling wryly.

"I suppose they realized what an august personage they were going to house here, so they thought it only fitting." I said with a smug, superior smile. Before breaking out in laughter with the rest of my family.

This feels good. To be able to laugh together like this, despite what's happened.

"Well, i don't know about that Marcus, but it really is more like a palace than a house." my mother said with a warm smile.

Ah, even though it doesn't feel like it's been that long, but still it feels great to see my mother smiling like that. A lot better than what I imagine she must have looked like when she heard the news. I thought darkly.

"How's Alyssa? She okay? I was kinda worried about her but forgot about it when Allie told me all about what happened to me." I said in a slightly worried voice.

"Yes, she's fine Marcus. A few bruises but nothing more. Her parents told me to thank you for them. Also you've kind of had a lot going on. And, by the way, what the hell were you thinking throwing yourself in front of a car?! I know you were trying to save Alyssa, but still."

And there it came. As expected.

I sighed and told her in a heavy voice: "I know mother, it was pretty stupid of me. But honestly, I didn't really think. I just reacted when I saw what was happening."

"Well, I can believe that. Also, even though you almost scared me to death, know that I'm proud over you for saving her."

"I just did what anybody would." I said in a slightly uncomfortable voice.

"You did what everyone should do" my father said in a stern voice. "but not what everyone would do. I seriously doubt there's more than a few people in this world who would do the same as you. I think most would just stand there staring, hoping for someone else to intervene or that it would simply solve itself."

Well, that's probably true. People these days are way too selfish. But I guess in this situation where you had to potentially risk your life for someone else they can be forgiven. Now that i think about it, would I do it for some random person and not someone I know? I hope so, I'd like to believe I would.

"Anyway, it's good to see you Marc. Everyone's missed you terribly. People have been calling and asking about you around the clock. Also they've put down massive amount of flowers at the spot you got hit. It feels like there's enough flowers to build a 1:1 scale replica of the Chinese wall! Also, there's been news people camping outside our house. There was a news report on the TV about what happened, and after that you kind of became a celebrity overnight." my sister said with a slight smile.

"Your sister's right Marcus. Some people have even created a fund to donate money for your hospital fees or other expenses. Last I heard the fund had something along the lines of 1,2 million dollars in it." my mother said with the same slight smile my sister had.

Well, that's uncomfortable. Hero? Haha don't make me laugh, I'm no hero. Just a regular guy, and dare I say it? Handsome young man.

"Well, I'm no hero. If anything, I'm the charismatic Emperor, with just a little drop of tyranny in the mix. Just look at my Palace, surely this proves it?" I asked, with eyes so innocent you wouldn't believe it.

We all laughed together.

"Yes, well Marcus believe whatever you want" my father said with a grin. "but I'm afraid we're going to have to leave now. I promise we'll see you again soon. And, we'll try to squeeze in some Royal Road so we can chat there with you as well. I don't really want to leave you right now, but I'm still awfully busy with work. Jenny needs to study for school, and your mother will have to start calling all of our relatives and friends to tell them we've seen you now and that you're okay." he said with a sad smile.

"Don't worry about it dad, I know how busy you are and I can only imagine the carnage our relatives and friends are wreaking on the phone company." I said with a big smile that I hoped hid my sadness at their early departure.

Saying something would only make them even more stressed, they must feel a huge relief now that they've seen and spoken to me and know that I'm relatively okay.

We all hugged some more, I kissed my whole family goodbye then they logged out, and the Palace suddenly seemed very quiet.

I was startled to realize I was crying.

It's not everyday you find out you're almost dead, are probably gonna remain a semi-quadriplegic for the rest of your life. It feels like a lot to take in at such a short time. Bah! I shouldn't feel so sorry for myself, at least I'm alive. And so is Alyssa my cute little neighbor. I hope she doesn't feel too guilty about me getting hurt protecting her. It wasn't her fault after all, if it was anybody's fault, it was that driver's. Was that guy drunk or what? Zigg-zagging like that in the middle of the street, he probably was. I forgot to ask what happened to him. Did he get away? Is he under arrest? Maybe I should ask Allie.

"Hey Allie, now that you've finished spying on me during my shameful episode. Mind if I ask you a question?" I asked turning towards the giant screen-wall. Yes, screen-wall. That's what I'll call it from now on.

She looked startled that I had caught her staring.

It was kinda easy to figure out what you were doing Allie, you were just sitting in that chair glancing at the wall under the camera from which I can see the lab, suspiciously close to the place you said you had the monitor for watching me. Haha, she probably thought she was being "discreet".

"W-what are you talking about Marcus? I wasn't spying. And I suppose that depends on the question." the first half sounded very suspicious with her stuttering and all, but she composed herself enough for the second half.

I noticed that she was the only one in the lab at the moment, that was rare. Previously when I checked the screen there were always a couple of them at least.

Maybe they've gone home? What's the time in the "real" world anyway? Maybe she has the first shift, or they were trying to be tactful and shuffling out the people so I could have some alone time with my family.

"I'll just ignore your spying for now. Anyway, do you know what happened to the driver that hit me?" I asked very seriously.

She looked surprised I could be that serious. Well I do treasure my laid back attitude, but there's a time for everything.

"Yes I do. He was driving under the influence, and after hitting you he crashed into a tree. He apparently wasn't wearing a seat belt, so he was killed instantly in the crash. It seems like after he hit you he got scared realizing he'd hit someone. So, panicking he accelerated and lost control. Ended up driving straight into a tree." she said with equal seriousness.

"Alright, I don't know what to feel right now. Relief that he got what he deserved? Would that make me a terrible person? At the same time do I feel relief? To me it feels like it happened just a couple of hours ago, and I haven't really had any time to sort out my feelings on the subject."

"It wouldn't make you a terrible person if you felt relief. If someone harms you, isn't it natural to want justice? To want that person to be punished for what he did to you? I think so, and most would probably agree with me. And you will have time to come to terms with what's happened. Everything has been like a whirlwind for you." she said with a sad smile.

"Yes, thank you for your advice. I do think I need more time to think it through. But I guess time is one thing I'm going to have now." I said with a slightly bitter smile.

"Yes you will. But I promise you it won't be all bad. I might be biased, no scratch that I'm definitely biased, but I think Royal Road is great. It's incredibly fun, and you will have all the time in the world to play it. Sure you'll miss out on things. But most of what you can do in real life you can do there as well. For example, your body doesn't feel strange now, right?"

"No... not really. I hadn't thought about that at all." I said with a slightly surprised expression.

"Yes, I thought not. As you can see, it feels completely real. It's hard, nay scratch that. It's almost impossible to tell the difference from real life. The easiest way to check is to bring up the menu by saying "Palace menu", try it."

"I will in a second, but Allie, how is it that we can talk normally like this?" she raised an eyebrow.

"I mean, isn't time supposed to go 4X faster in VR or something? Shouldn't that mess up our talking like this?" I said in a curious tone.

"Well, you're right about that. But to combat that problem, we made your "Palace" on a 1:1 time scale so it's the same as the real world, exactly for combating that problem. Also, this makes it so that you won't have to wait 4 days before you can play again. Like this you only have to wait a day the same as for everyone else." she said with a smile.

A very nice smile, oh my, I know she's married because of the ring...but well, I've always had a thing for older women. I thought with a smile.

"Alright let's give this Virtual Reality-thingy a test. Palace menu!"

Palace Menu

Royal Road

Spawning

Whoa! Freaky, a hovering box right in front of me...Hmm "Spawning"? What's that? Let's press it and see what happens.

[quart=Food & Drink,Electronics]Furniture,Games[/quart]

Spawning

"Hey Allie, what the hell is Spawning? Is it what I think it is? Can I spawn food etc out of thin air?!" I asked excitedly.

"Haha, yeah it's exactly what you think it is. You might not get hungry, but just like Royal Road in this place you can eat as much as you want without gaining any weight. So we added that feature so you could spawn food and other stuff to do. Basically, if you die in RR you will get locked out from the game for 24 hours, that time you will spend here. So this is for when you do die, or you have guests, so you can do something. There is, of course, the pool outside but with this menu you can spawn whatever you want. Lobster risotto? Sure! Peach sundae? Go for it! And you can use the spawning menu to for example, create a tennis court outside if you feel like it. Or a basketball court. Great isn't it?" she said with a huge smile on her face.

Ah, this is bad. This could get addicting. Getting almost anything you want at anytime at an instant?! Gotta make sure I don't abuse this... too much. For now, let's try creating some ice cream.

"Food & Drink, Desserts, Ice Cream, Chocolate!"

*TING

Spawned: Chocolate Ice Cream

The coffee table was empty, then a white light appeared on it, and suddenly a bowl of chocolate ice cream was there. It even had a spoon laying next to the bowl!

Yummy! This tastes great, just like how I remember it. Actually I'm pretty sure this tastes better. Is it some kind of luxury ice cream? Who cares?! It's free and delicious!

"God, I'm gonna have to make sure I don't abuse this. It's way to luxurious..." I said with a sigh of pleasure as the chocolate ice cream melted in my mouth.

"Well, if you want I can always disable some features..." she didn't have time to finish her sentence before my roar of displeasure was unleashed.

"Don't you dare! This is heaven on earth! Or, well, I suppose it's heaven in virtual reality? Hmm... wait why are you looking at me like that? I'm sorry okay! I'm a foodie, and don't you dare threaten my food." I said with a mock glare.

"Haha, no worries I was just teasing you. And it would actually be very complicated to disable just some features, so I'd rather not anyway." she turned when she heard a sound coming from somewhere off-screen.

"Finally! Where were you all for so long? His family left almost half an hour ago. So, what's your excuse for being away this long?" her words made it seem like she was angry, but her tone of voice sounded almost disappointed for the interruption.

"Ehm... Allie we were actually waiting outside, but you looked like you were enjoying yourself so much that we didn't really want to interrupt..." a man's voice told her awkwardly off-screen.

"Haha, Allie you falling for me?" I said teasingly.

"I thought I saw a wedding ring on your finger, but I guess it's not really cheating if you're in Virtual Reality is it?" I said with a seductive smile.

Now there was an awkward silence as Allie blushed and the rest of the group that had entered the room again, tried to hold back their laughter.

A short bulky blond man looked like he was having a serious problem with it, while one of the women, the oldest one I think. She was probably in her middle thirties (This was Unicorn Corp after all, most of their employees are members of the younger generation.) also seemed highly amused with a smile on her face.

I just realized it now, but does this mean I'm going to loose my virginity in virtual reality? That's kind of sad.

"Ahem..." Allie coughed into her hand.

Oh, so Allie's finally composed herself huh? I thought with a small smile.

"Anyway, get back to work people, don't just stand there!" she half screamed still having a slightly red face. The group quickly scattered and got back to their work duties.

Oh Allie, I don't think you look all that authoritative when you're still faintly blushing. I thought with a smile.

"Anyway Marcus, shouldn't you try Royal Road now? We have work to do, but most of our work can't start until you begin playing RR. That virtual "Palace" you're in right now works to some degree, but what we really need is to start RR and see how it works for you." Allie said with a serious face.

"You're right, of course. I guess I do need to start playing now. Oh, don't misunderstand me, I really am looking forward to it. It's just so much fun to tease you that I can't seem to get enough..." I trailed off with a heartbroken smile.

"Oh stop it now! You've had your fun. Go on, it's time to finally log on." she said tartly.

"Yes mistress." I said in a quiet voice. She gave me a very sharp look indeed.

Looks like I can always squeeze just a little bit more out of her. I thought with a smile.

"Palace Menu!"

Palace Menu

Royal Road

Spawning

"Royal Road!"

Connect to Royal Road?

Yes

No

Here we go... "Yes!"

A bright light enveloped me.

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