Chapter 1 Darrell Winthrop

Darrell Winthrop laid in his comfy bed staring at the white ceiling.  The fan ceiling spinning in medium speed counter clockwise.  The motion caused his eyelids to feel heavy.  

Soo boring! When is my VR headset coming? It should be soon.  The servers have been up for three months now.  I’m pretty far behind.  I should have known the backorder would take this long.  WoW use to be a juggernaut back in the day.  I should have followed my little brother and pre-ordered it a year in advance.  Asshole can’t stop bragging.  Just wait till I’m able to log on I’ll crush his little head.

*Knock* *Knock*

Five feet three inches wearing white standard scrubs, the female asian nurse walked in with a bright smile on her face.

“Hello Darrell.  How are you feeling today?” she said.

“Time for my sponge bath already?” Darrell joked.

Her facial features slowly changed into grumpy mode.  

“Well I was going to bring in a certain package but know I think it might have been lost in the mail,” she bantered.

Darrell’s ears perked.  

“I’m sorry! Oh my lovley! Most generous nurse! I apologize for my rude behavior!” Darrell turned into his salesman voice while rubbing his hands together.  

The nurse shrugged and waved off his flattery.  Her name was Isabella.  She has been Darrell’s registered nurse for two years since he was admitted to the retirement home.  

A male attendant came in with a package in his hands.  Darrell’s eyes locked on it like a Christmas present.  The attendant placed the package on Darrell’s desk.  Darrell took his walker and slowly but surely placed his hand on the box.  His hand was shaking.  Excitement? No, it had been almost three weeks since he had alcohol.  He was still feeling the withdrawal symptoms.  

Damn hands!

“Boy! Do grandpa here a favor and set this up for me!” he yelled.

The only person Darrell was nice to was Isabella.  Everyone was garbage in his eyes except for his family members.  Darrell had been single since 50 when he married his now deceased wife.  The “accident” had cause his downward spiral into alcoholism.  

“Have you read the manual?” Isabella asked.

“Yes! Yes!” Darrell replied eagerly.  “I finished the pre screening tests a month ago and aced the basic interphase test.  I also read all the tips and tricks since then.  World of Warcraft here I come!”

“Since it is your first time logging in I’ll ask the attendant to set the game time for only two hours.  Then I’ll come back to check up on you,” Isabella said.

“Yes! Mother!” replied Darrell.

“In the meantime take these pills so you can play your little game.  You are what now? 63?  And you’re still playing games!  Act your age and read a book!”

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“Are you serious!? Most of the players on WoW are my age.  Even older!  Back in my generation we would play this game for hours and hours.  I remember skipping class just to pvp, missing parties to do raids, oh the good ol’days!”

“Okay. Okay. Be nice!” scolded Isabella as she turned around and left the room.

The male attendant was assembling the VR headset clicking knick knacks here and there.  It was the newest version of the Oracle headset.  Darrell made sure to get the latest and lightest one.  He had plenty of money left in the bank and was freely splurging.  It looked like a motorcycle helmet but much thinner and sleaker.  

“Man this is the newest Oracle headset!” said the attendant.  “Too bad it’s wasted on this old man” he whispered.

“I’m not deaf yet boy!  Maybe if you get a job better than minimum wage you might be able to buy something nice! Haha!” rebuked Darrell.

“The others told me you had a viper of a tongue they weren't kidding.”

“I haven’t even started cursing yet!  Let me guess.  You are still living with your parents. You look like the smart type and probably have a degree.  Hmmm.  Liberal Arts!?  In this economy you are not able to get jack shit so you switch over to the nursing industry since everyone ends up getting old and dying so business is always doing well.  Don’t be too down.  You’re what 20? 30? Still plenty of time to fuck up your life!”

The attendant slumped moving slowly with his head down.  Something Darrell said must have struck his cords.  

“Aw don’t be like that.  You’re no fun!  Life has hit me with a truck full of grievances and I’m still shaking my fist at death!  When you get this old and all worn out you’d be fucking mental if you’re not angry with the world.  Kid, I’ve seen the end of the “bottle”.  When those you care for line up and tell you how shitty you have been that fucking hurts!  Let’s change the subject this is a happy day for me and your gloomy ass is wrecking it.”

“So you play WoW?” asked Darrell in a sweet voice.

“Yea…” replied the attendant.

“Nice! What's your ingame name? What race? Faction? Class? What’s your sync ratio? Do you like to pvp or are you a karebear?” Darrell bombarded him with question after question.

“Uh I’m a Horde, troll, and my class is rogue.  Been playing since a month ago.  I like to quest and stuff but mostly like to party with friends.  Pvp? Well it's kinda ingrained in the game now.  Everyone is in a pvp server and any enemy faction is dangerous.  A grump old man like you will have a difficult time joining a party.  If your gonna solo play you’re asking to get PKed.”

“That’s the spunk I’m looking for!  You need more bite tho.  What’s your name? Sugartits?”

“Geeze old man.  I know I’m a bit husky.  At least I still have more years than you!”

“Hahah! Never know.  Ya could get hit by a bus as you walk outside.”

“Whatever, my name is Vulazin.  You can’t really make names anymore the AI gives you set randomized names with small background info.  You’ll get it when you log in.  The tutorial is insanely good.  Blizzard has kept it hidden in the net too.  Breaking character could also put you in at least a six month ban!  They don’t mess around.”

“Interesting.  I heard Blizzard’s doing a lot of censoring while ingame.  Things like saying computer and cell phone is completely blocked.  You just say gibberish.  Is that true?”

“Yup.  Anything that does not yet exist ingame is not allowed.  I heard someone with engineering is trying to create a computer or a mech.  It is still in the development and blueprint phase.  So those words have not been spread yet.  It really depends on player creativity!  Sooner or later it's going to look like Earth with freaking magic!”

“I can’t wait! Hurry up kid! Oh yea, whats our name? Don’t want to be called Sugartits all day do ya?”

“Names Joe and if I find out your ingame name I’m going to PK the shit out of you.”

Joe helped put the headset on Darrell.

“Hey set this bad boy for two hours and thirty minutes.  I swear to you I will let you hide in my room to milk hours.  Don’t tell Isabella!”

“Sure thing old man,” replied Joe.  The visor darkened as Joe booted it up.  

Darrells consciousness left heading toward World of Warcraft!