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Words from the Author:

My first real approach at publishing to others. I have tried my hand at writing a lot, most horror and comedy. But I lose interest as I have no one to suggest it's growth. I hope I get a lot of criticism for my work to learn and grow and I will try to keep it as original as possible. I hope to bring in a lot of my real life instances to the story and hope everyone enjoys it as much as I enjoy writing it.

Thank you and Enjoy!!!

PS: It's kinda like there is two VR systems in the game. I will explain more with... more chapter. And the Prologue doesn't contain anything related to the VR. Sorry.!!

PSS: I haven't done a PR on it. But have read it multiple times and corrected it a few times. Let me know if it requires more corrections.

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Prologue

Consider a situation where you have everything. Well not everything in the world, but everything you need. Then what more is there to strive for. I was born to a loving family : of course, I wouldn't say it was all peachy and dramatically a perfect family. Every family has it's short comings, fights, misfortune, ego, independence and most importantly the ways of showing love. I wouldn't say my family doesn't love me, what I want to know is, do I? I don't know what love is, I have always remembered myself being lazy with emotions, they baffle me. I had a few proposals in high school from girls, but I never understood how they could love someone they don't even know when I don't know if I love people I know. Well enough about love; let's go back to having everything : Currently, I have a decent earning, I don't spend money to tell the truth. I believe too much is waste and something extra I buy is equal to stealing from someone who doesn't have the things I have. I stay at a hostel cause' I moved out of my home due to work as my work location being in a different city. So I barely use 50% of salary for my rent and expenses. My expenses mostly being food, but I eat only when I'm hungry, so it either 2 times a day or once. I never take an extra bite after I am satisfied, but I never compromise with my food. Well enough about me, shall we talk about how this affects my story. I will explain my reality with how I live my alternate.

The world's first VR technology, CAPSULE is released today, well to be more accurate - the world's first VRMMORPG, Hundred Worlds is also released. We had VR for over less than a decade now. It was nothing big if you compare it to the latest VR which is full immersion. The previous generations of VR were mostly head gear and movement recognition technology, which were all Single player or Instance related gaming, but you couldn't do more than just 4 hours of gaming in those devices because it lead to insomnia and depression since people preferred spending more time having adventures in these games than facing a boring reality, But with more time spent in the game, the less outside and this caused health issues. Later a brilliant innovation was brought about with wearable devices called, MiRRoR. It was a different approach to Virtual reality cause' it didn't create a separate reality but augmented with current reality.

The approach was simple, it was aimed at people's yearning to know how much they progressed in life with their actions. So what MiRRoR made possible was an unique change to humanity in revolutionising life with gaming. The approach was simple but it took over 4 years for it to reach the corners of the world. MiRRoR is a simple eye gear which looks like sport goggles which creates 3D images over the real world when viewed through them. So an apartment basement or parking would look like a dungeon, a skyscraper could look like a Wizards tower or a mountain and your neighbour could be witches.

MiRRoR worked on a different band of signals hence a tower needed to be set up every 20 miles in a hexagonal structure go get maximum coverage. The AI was so advanced that when doing some action would generate a skill, but in order to gain them you need to show competence by doing various stage breakers, an easy example for this would be my favourite skill, cooking - To learn cooking skill you only need to boil water 5 times and transfer to a container or Jug. To level up this skill, you would need to cook various items, but for beginner making instant noodles, omelette and even some 'Just Fry' foods is enough. So levelling these skills took real effort which progressed though your real life cooking skills.

To know where you stand in your skills was through different grades namely 0 -5. So beginner is 0 and for every 5 levels and to switch grades one would be required to go to the MiRRoR institute and apply for skill setting test. Which is a simple test if you really do have the skill, as for cooking you are just required to ... well cook and a group of judges will taste it and rate it out of 5. If average is 3 or above you set your skill at that stage, so that you won't forget them if you don't cook over 2 weeks. As you switch through each grade, a person of master level meaning a person who has been Grade 5 for over 5 years would judge your skills and you would be required to book a slot to be tested, so especially during vacation seasons the MiRRoR Institute is packed with people.

Initially MiRRoR was just for fun, but it became a way of life when you could gain skills related to your job. As a Civil Engineer would get the Brick work and Planning skill, a Doctor would get the... well not the Heal skill, but rather Pharmacist skill and Bedside manners (PASSIVE) skill. Even martial artists would get skills related to their trade. The amount of skills a person could learn is limitless, but learning every skill required time and just learning tailoring skills but if you never use them for over two weeks you would lose those skills. The reason MiRRoR became popular was because it became easier for people to understand themselves, their own growth and of their peers. Even jobs were hired with requirements like, Grade 3+ Mechanic required, Grade 4+ IT Developer looking for a job. Competitions were split based on Grades, it was never with age, but with competence later on.

The most important thing that changed the world were Quests. Anyone and everyone could create quests; they too had related Grading. It became an easy way to get the work done as shopkeepers would create a quest for delivering a package, a manager would create a quest for this employees (for incentives and raise), a teacher can assign quests with students on other activities which resulted in easy scoring. The questing system was integrated into all administrative system as a way of grading and maintenance. This questing system revolutionised the world, everything were done through quests. But since MiRRoR started, life became a little more interesting that people had no need to escape to a fantasy world to become what they wanted. MiRRoR became a reality which required their own escape later on.

People were shunned because of difference in Grade and Skill, like every technology which was made to bring order to life caused the largest mechanization of life. People were given worth by grades, though people were brought back to reality, the additional details just made it harder for people. As for me, I didn't care. My work which I can't explain in detail due to security violations can be easily explained as : a fixer, well not a hit man or assassin. I fix applications for people, for example, a person has an application which was supposed to do a set function, but achieving it is hard, that is where I come in to split it into sections and blocks and reassemble them to make sure they perform as required and more. It's analytical and it kept me occupied for two years, but later I just got bored.

Today, I would get the CAPSULE delivered as I already bought it during the pre-book last month. I happened to buy it before it sold out in 5 minutes which was surprising. I think it could be because it is damn costly which almost took up 50% of my savings to just buy the immersion gear and an year long subscription that took another 10%. I had a few tasks to complete today at office, but I can't wait to reach my room.

*RING*RING*RING*

"Hello?"

"Hey Alex, It's Salim"

"Hey dude, what happened?"

"Nothing, just called to let you know that a delivery arrived for you and I have placed it my cupboard. You know where I place the key rite?"

"Yup, Thanks."

"mm...Is it the VR equipment you have been talking about all week?"

" I hope it is, also I got a message about the delivery an hour back, so it's probably the same. "

" Cool, can I try it on when I come in after work?"

"I don't think you can, unless you register for an account. I think you should, we can share the gear and since you work night shifts and always around when I am off at work you can play then. What do you think?"

"Cool, I will let you continue your work then. We'll talk tomorrow."

"Sure, dude. Thanks. Bye."

"Bye."

It has been a long time since I have felt motivated toward something and the frustration on not having completed my task and not being able to log out for the day for another 2 hours was leaving my mind to waver about new adventure. I silence my curiosity with great effort and concentrate on finishing my tasks at hand so that I can to start my long missed Adventure soon...