Giving his mother one last quick hug, Eric grabbed the box with the game connector and bolted upstairs to his room. Closing the door behind him, he put the box on the bed, slowly preparing himself for the prospect of opening his newly gained most prized possession.

As his hands approached the box with a slight tremble, the watch on his wrist began to vibrate. With a frown, Eric turned the watch towards himself so he could see who the caller was.

Mark (902) XXX-XXXX the display read. Swiping his finger across the screen, Eric quickly answered the call, putting the watch on speaker mode rather than grabbing his earphones.

“Hey dude, any luck on getting your game connector yet?” Mark’s voice came through from the other side.

“They’re sold out everywhere, even Sackville’s sold out," Eric replied, naming the next town over.

“Duuuuuude. Everyone else has theirs, you need to hurry up. If you get left behind, we can’t afford to drop back and powerlevel you.”

Eric grinned at this, “They’re all sold out. Buuuuuuut. It turns out my parents are fu**ing awesome. They got me the special edition as a combined grad and birthday present.”

There was a brief moment of silence over the line after this revelation. Just as Eric was about to speak up and see if Mark was still there, his voice came back through.

“Woah legit? Holy shit that’s incredible. So you’re good for day one?”

“You know it, even got a deal where if I get all the stuff done around the house for the day before I log on, they won’t bother me in game.”

“Sick. Alright I’ll let the other guys know. Set up your game connector and meet us in the chat room tonight. Make sure you synchronize your movements properly, that shit takes time.”

“Will do," Eric responded, cutting the line as he did so.

Once again, he prepared to open the box only to once again be interrupted by a vibration from his wrist. Annoyed, he swiped without even looking at the name this time.

“Hello?”

“You’re still a biiiitch.”

“Jun I swear to god I will PK you.”

“Biiiiiiiiitch”

*Beeeep*

Eric supposed he should take Jun’s constant antagonizing of his gaming skills as a compliment, but he’d be damned if the man didn’t get under his skin sometimes. Third time’s the charm, right? he thought to himself as he reached for the box and quickly started to unwrap the protective cellophane covering.

As he slowly unhinged the lid, the gleaming surface of a white helmet could be seen beneath a blurry layer of bubble wrap. With slightly trembling hands, Eric reached down, prying the helmet from its resting place; he then carefully unwrapped the bubble wrap before placing it on the bed.

The helmet gleamed, the narrow beam of sunlight that made it through the gap in his curtains doing its best to show off the helmets pale luster in the afternoon haze. The Hurricane logo could be seen imprinted brightly on the back of the helmet. Turning it over in his hands, Eric noticed the Fate logo emblazoned on the front of the helmet, just above the visor. The helmet itself wasn’t too large an affair, only covering the eyes and part of the forehead. There were small sensor pads placed along the length of the headband, and what must be a small charging port could be spied hidden just beneath the Hurricane logo on the back.

Looking back at the discarded box, Eric sighted what he was looking for: a manual sitting prettily just beneath where the helmet had lain. Snatching it up, he quickly perused the quick setup options, noting with interest that the helmet had no charging port, but instead used a modular battery system that could last up to three years and also regained small amounts of charge by absorbing the ambient light. The future really is amazing, he thought as he looked for how to setup the helmet and synchronize his biometrics. Fate came pre-installed on the helmets software so he had no need to download that.

Grabbing his VirtuNet connector, Eric yanked it from the back of his laptop and plugged it directly into the back of the helmet. Placing the helmet over his eyes, he laid down on the bed, crossing his arms over his chest like the manual instructed.

“Link start!” he shouted.

Nothing happened, Eric gave a small laugh from beneath the helmet. It was worth a shot he figured as he reached up to press the Fate logo on the front of the headpiece. As he did so, the helmet instantly blazed to life, the visor extending outwards to cover his eyes as the Fate logo took on a rainbow hue, various colours dancing through the runes engraved upon the ring.

Eric’s vision instantly turned black before a white light slowly grew to fill in the darkness. The first thing he noticed was that he was still lying on a bed, though it was a bit smaller than the one in his room. The familiar ceiling of his room had also been replaced by a gentle ceiling comprised of wooden planks. Turning his head, he saw a pair of large bay windows overlooking an incredible ocean view. Looking the other way, he could see an enormous screen covering three quarters of the entire wall in front of him. As he took in the sights, a new being began to materialize in front of him, the white light coalescing into the form of a rather charming looking woman, about twenty-four years old with shoulder length chestnut brown hair, and a bright smile.

“Hello!” She greeted him cheerily. “My name is Eleanor and I will be your guide fairy for your new VirtuNet game connector. Before we begin, is the scenery to your liking?”

Eric stared back out towards the beautiful scene below. It was like staring at a painting as he watched the ocean’s surf pound the rocks, the tide foaming up the beach before flowing back out to meet the next wave. Halfway towards the house, the beach met with long yellowed grass, swaying slightly in the ocean breeze. He smiled, “This is perfect yeah, how do you guys choose the scene to display? Do you know our preferences beforehand?”

Eleanor smiled at this, “We took several surveys involving millions of people on their favourite scenery to stare out at. In Maritime and Coastal regions, scenes like this dominated. Based on your location, we created a unique scene just for you.”

Eric was startled by this revelation. According to Eleanor, this meant that each and every single person probably had their own unique scenery to gaze out at. Even if they only differed slightly, that was seriously impressive with how realistic it all looked. He could practically taste the salty sea air it was so close.

As if she read his mind, Eleanor continued, “Not everyone has their own unique scene. We do have a large bank of scenic locations to choose from for your VirtuNet lobby, but only owners of special edition game connectors get personalized scenes," she explained.

Eric nodded. That made sense. It increased the value of the special edition while not being something that normal users would feel they’d missed out on. It seemed the marketing team at Hurricane was on the ball with this release.

Eleanor looked at him, “Would you like to begin the synchronization between your biometrics and the helmet now? Or would you prefer to take your time observing the view?”

Eric snapped back to reality, or rather, virtual reality at least. Was virtual reality truly reality? He pondered for a moment before shaking his head to clear his thoughts. “Yeah that’d be great," he responded.

Eleanor waved her hand at the screen, causing a door to materialize in the middle.

“If you enter through there, we may begin. Do be warned that the process can take up to an hour and you cannot remove the helmet during this time. If you wish to leave during the process, we will be forced to restart. Before we may begin, please choose a phrase which will automatically disengage the helmet. If you shout this phrase, even mentally then you will be forcefully disconnected from the VirtuNet and return to reality.”

Eric looked downwards at this, clearly he needed to choose a phrase which he would not risk saying by accident and causing himself to disconnect during an important moment, but also one that he would be able to use to quickly escape should the need arise.

“My phrase will be: Elegant Procrastination,” he told her.

Eleanor nodded. “Just a moment please,” she responded.

After a few brief seconds of waiting, the screens on either side of the door both lit up.

“Special Escape phrase activated! Elegant Procrastination. Please avoid saying this phrase from now on if you do not wish to exit the VirtuNet lobby or any games you may be playing. You may always speak to your guide fairy if you would like to change your phrase.”

With this, Eleanor directed Eric through the door into what he assumed must be the synchronization chamber. The room was fairly sparsely decorated, closely resembling a small school gymnasium, with white walls and dim lights providing the room with a cozy feel. Closing the door, she directed him over to the left wall, where a small rack of weights could be seen.

“For synchronization, we’ve found the easiest method is simply to work out in VirtuNet until your body can no longer distinguish between the two. This allows your body to ignore the feeling of disassociation that badly implemented virtual reality can give. As when the synchronization is not close to 100%, then you will subconsciously realize something is wrong,” Eleanor explained as she handed Eric a weight.

“Please perform 20 curls with that weight using each arm. Afterwards, we will switch the weight out for a larger one and repeat the process.” Eleanor demonstrated with a weight in her own hand, letting it fall to her side then curling it back up towards her chest.

Eric stared at her incredulously. The weight in his hand must weigh at least 20 pounds and she wanted him to do 20 repetitions before switching it for a larger weight?

Seeing his hesitation Eleanor smiled gently, “Don’t worry. Your body won’t feel as tired in this world as it would in your own. You can do this if you try!”

Gritting his teeth, Eric lifted his arm. If Jun had managed to do this then he could too! After five repetitions, Eric started to see that Eleanor had indeed been correct. He could definitely feel a slow burn starting up, but his arm was doing much better than it would have in reality. Finishing the twenty curls, he switched the weight to his left arm and repeated the process.

“Very good. Now if you could please take these new weights and lift them above your head ten times with each arm, and then ten times with both arms at the same time,” Eleanor directed him as she took the old weight and passed him a new pair of weights, which felt like they must weigh at least half again what the others had.

Having already experienced the process once, Eric gritted his teeth and got to work straight away, lifting first his right arm, then his left arm above his head before dropping them both and starting over again. This exercise proved much more strenuous than the last, but even so, Eric’s shoulders only left him feeling the dull ache of a good workout once he finally handed the weights back to Eleanor.

Afterwards, Eleanor began to run Eric’s poor body ragged, handing him various weights and commanding him to perform different exercises with each. Once done with the weights, they moved on to stretches, jogging, sprinting, and jumping; vaulting over a pommel horse which appeared in the middle of the room; swimming in a pool which magically appeared beneath Eric’s feet, dunking him and causing him to come up spluttering, a scene he swore Eleanor had giggled at; more running, throwing various discs, and finally a shot put exercise.

As the iron balls he had used for the shot put shattered into multi coloured shards before fading into nothingness, Eric bent down, placing his hands on his knees as he gasped for air. Eleanor observed him with the same gentle smile she always had.

“There’s only one test left, this one’s for hand-eye coordination. I think you’ll enjoy it," she said as a target materialized at the far end of the room.

Looking up, Eric saw Eleanor holding a bow and a small quiver of arrows out towards him. Straightening up, Eric took the bow and set the quiver beside him as he stared at the target which had appeared roughly ten meters away.

“You want me to shoot at the target?” he surmised, looking at the bow in his hands and back to Eleanor.

She nodded, “You’ll fire until you’ve hit the target twenty times. The quiver will automatically replace any arrows you fire so simply keep shooting until you’re done," she encouraged him, stepping back to allow him to prepare.

Breathing out slowly, Eric took the first arrow and placed it on the bow. Sighting down the shaft at the target, he exhaled slowly and narrowed his focus at the target before loosing the arrow from the string.

Thwock! The arrow made a satisfying thudding sound as it slammed deeply into the upper part of the quadrant. Reassured, Eric began to loose the arrows one at a time towards the target, each one rewarding him with the satisfying sound of an arrow hitting the target. As he reached the twentieth arrow, he stared at the target. Nineteen arrows stuck out of the target like an oversized porcupine, but none rested in the bullseye at the centre of the target. Nocking the arrow, Eric once again made the now familiar motions of sighting down the shaft and exhaling, only this time he didn’t release the arrow. Continuing to exhale, he found his focus drawn to the arrowhead, shifting intermittently between the arrowhead and the centre of the target. As his breath ran out, he released the string, the arrow shooting from his bow like a greyhound from its leash. Watching the arrow soar through the air, Eric found his breath caught in his throat as the arrow quickly found its way to the target.

Thwock! Eric clenched his fist as he saw the arrow embedded slightly above the centre of the bullseye.

“F*** yeah!” he shouted, pumping his fist.

Eleanor looked at him with a bemused smile upon her face. The target, bow, and arrows all began to dematerialize, shattering into those familiar rainbow coloured shards before dispersing into nothingness.

“Well done," she congratulated him. “You have now finished the synchronization. Your results are pretty good: you’ve managed a 99.994% synchro rate. The average is only 99.981%, while the top 0.01% have a 99.996% rate. It’s an accomplishment you can be proud of," she stated, leading him towards the door back to the scenic room.

Eric grinned, feeling pretty good about his results. Even if his body was a little sore, that final test had been a lot of fun. As he stepped through the door into the scenic room, the door closed, melding back into the wall which now had a giant digital clock plastered across it.

Staring at the time, Eric realized with a jolt that he’d been in here for almost two hours. Supper was in less than twenty minutes and he did not want to give his parents reason to doubt his commitment to their deal so soon after receiving his new gift.

“Eleanor, is there anything else I need to do for the synchronization process? Or am I free to go now?” He asked quickly, not wanting to go back through that entire process again.

“You have finished synchronizing, you may now come and go as you please. There are a variety of functions within the lobby that you can make use of if you have no games to play.

Nodding quickly in acknowledgement, Eric raised his hand above his head, “Elegant Procrastination!” He shouted out, watching with interest as his body shattered into those rainbow coloured shards.