‘Boring.’

Sorp was listening to his friend rave about a new game.

“Anything! Guys! Anything. Imagine all the hot babes. And it’s a game so you can’t be punished.”

Sorp had ample time to get down from his fighters high. He and his friends were lying in his decrepit apartment. It was one huge bed and four sofas. And nothing else.

The bed was luxurious, something only rich people could own. It was out of place in this scene.

The sofa’s were different. Only one looked like it had been made within this decade.

“It’s a game, Kom. What are you going to do with a girl from a game? Have cyber sex?”

“No that’s n-.”

“And, who's going to pay for all of it? You going to ask Sorp to pay?”

‘I have to pay?’

“Of course Sorp has to pay. I don’t have money.”

“I won’t pay for a game, Kom. Games are boring. If you want girls we can just go grab some.”

This was how they did things. You want something? You just take it. The four of the five guys were nodding, as if this was expected.

“Sorp is right. Who cares about girls inside games? We can ride around a bit and grab a pair wherever.”

“Ye.”

“But.”

“Also, can’t you just steal it?”

He had a point. Why didn’t Kom just steal the equipment?

“What do you know? Steal it? Do you know who these guys are?”

“What do you mean? Why do I need to know someone to steal their stuff? Stealing is very simple, Kom.”

“Okay, Jarem, You go steal from the largest corporation in the world. See how that goes. I’m sure Sorp can just break you out of prison.”

“No problem, I’ll get him back, Jarem you can go.”

“What?”

“Good luck, Jarem.”

“Pick one up for me.”

“Oh, I want to try as well.”

“Can you grab some drinks and ciggs?”

Jarem’s face was turning red from anger. He was going to go steal something? Cigs and drinks? Was he an errand boy?

Jarem wanted to scream. He wanted to scream, do you know who I am? Killer shark Jarem? Jarem the defiler!?

But Jarem knew what kind of people he was hanging around with. And none of them were pushovers. He could even be considered a bit soft in comparison.

Left with no choice he let out a grunt and ignored them.

“Anyway, you guys don’t matter. I was talking to Sorp.”

“I don’t want to play games, Kom. Games are boring.”

Sorp was being honest. His eyes gleamed, he stared into his friends eyes. He was a head taller than all of them, except for, Dart. Dart was tall for his age.

“You can fight in it Sorp! It’s like real life, but a game.”

‘Real life?’

Sorp wasn’t educated. He wasn’t at all knowledgeable about technology. He only had a phone. Something stolen, hacked and sold to people like Sorp and his friends.

“Its virtual reality. You were saying that everyone is so weak right? In this game everyone is strong! You can even fight beasts!”

This was the first time Kom managed to gain Sorp’s attention. He did feel the fighting in those dark cellars was getting boring.

Tear one eye and its the same as tearing out a thousand.

The fights were boring because they were less a fight and more a show of cruelty. Sorp slaughtered his enemy like killing chickens. It was vile and atrocious. Many paid to see this.

Any fighter forced to go against Sorp resigned themselves to their death. No one went against him willingly.

“I don’t understand.”

“No problem! We can test it and you can see.”

With that, Sorp rose up. He didn’t hesitate and started leaving the apartment. He had no idea where to go, but still rose to walk out.

His friends knew this but didn’t say anything. Just followed him out and in a nonchalant way talked about where they were going. This was for Sorp’s sake.

“It should take us at least half an hour by car.”

“What the hell? How can it be that far.”

“It’s expensive.”

‘How expensive?’

Sorp couldn’t help but worry in his mind. He knew he was the one who had to pay. He was only one earning any real money. He could be considered wealthy when compared others in the neighbourhood.

This was money from his fighting. He only got a small portion, but that small portion was staggering for a young man like himself.

“It’s expensive, so they wouldn’t build anywhere shabby.”

“Snobby shits. What’s wrong with the ring? The ring is perfectly safe.”

“That’s right!”

They were acting shocked but everyone knew they were joking. There was virtually no respectable store in their neighbourhood. Everything had to be bought through bulletproof two sided windows.

The people here couldn’t be trusted with the grass on the ground.

Once they arrived outside the store they got looks from people all over. This was because they dressed a gaudy way.

Their clothes were not cheap but they were flashy and it was obvious they were some gang affiliated people. Their tattoos and demeanor gave them away.

Sorp didn’t care in the slightest, but his friends did and they glared at every pair of eye they could see. They were young and violent people, nothing scared them.

This pristine white building marked with the words, Perpetual Power, the entire building was in their possession.

The first four floors were dedicated to selling their items. The second was dedicated to their virtual reality machines.

There are two ways to use these machines. One was to own a physical device, install it in your home, and connect it to a stable data connection. This was an extravagant method.

The newer, more economical method was to link your home with a fast enough data connection and play through virtual machines. These machines were housed by Perpetual Power.

Once the data connection was robust enough, it could read and write information fast enough to play it anywhere. It would be in this way that Sorp and his friend would play. Along majority of players.

The physical machines were extravagant, most of them were just fancy stations meant for comfort. But there were expensive version that did more than just provide comfort.

These machines were something that not even Sorp could afford. He’d have to fight half his life just to afford one. Meanwhile, your average joe could afford to link up and pay a subscription.

One of the reason this game was impossible to steal was that it required detailed information about a person brain.

This was not a one time thing. Incessant checkups, bi-monthly in the least was required to continue playing the game.

This was determined to be the safest period between any substantial changes. Without it, players would start losing some senses while in game.

There was more to it than that. But that was the official explanation people would get.

In addition to this invasion of privacy, small devices had to be attached to a person's head. These would connect to certain censors in the brain.

They looked and sounded hightech but were lowtech transmitters, and were used because people felt discomfort at the thought of being directly hooked up to the machines.

It was still an option to directly connect your mind a more powerful transmitter for a more indepth experience. And many fanatics took this opportunity.

Only the paranoid were afraid of this. Afterall what else could they transmit into their minds? What was the limit of the tech? Could their minds be hacked?

Thousands of people stayed away from VR tech, yet Perpetual Power never lacked people. This was in spite of being as inclusive as they were.

Only people with powerful data upload and download capabilities would be able to connect. This was because Perpetual Power wanted a certain standard in quality.

Any less data transfer and there was a risk of a losing the full experience. This meant that people might be made painfully aware that they were playing a game.

Sorp’s friends couldn’t help but be satisfied with the person attending them. She was a beauty. That was one thing, the satisfying part was that she treated them like any other person.

It’s no lie that Sorp and his friends could be considered large in the Ring but outside of it they were feared, avoided and disdained.

Yet this woman with the most calming of voices treated them as if they were still human. It was a breath of fresh air. They didn’t even try to get close to her, despite their usual forwardness.

‘Very clean in here.’

It was only Sorp that had his mind on other things. He is a mess of a person but he has an attention to detail that is uncommon.

This place really is clean. There are measures in place to extract even the loose skin peeling of people every second. No dust is allowed to flow through this place.