Dom had already removed his, and he was watching Cedric fight. “Come on Cedric!” Dom yelled, although there was no way Cedric could actually hear him. The VR headsets came with sound-proof audio.

Suddenly, Cedric flinched, and both Gary and Dom could tell it was over. The big guy removed his headset and grimaced.

“Dang. Sorry guys, I need to work on my Endurance!”

Dom yawned. “Yeah, no big. Hey, at least I grew a Strength level in that fight. I take it you guys leveled as well?”

“Yup!” Gary said with a grin. “We’ll get them next time.”

“For sure,” said Cedric. “There’s so much to figure out, though. We need real armour, for starters. It would be nice to use some magic, too. Especially for Dom, because he’s going to be our mage.”

Dom flipped open his phone. “Yeah, I guess we can look up game stuff for 12 hours. That’s going to be a long time. Dangit!” Dom yelled. “Locked out already…”

“Yeah, it will. You know what though? Maybe after we try to figure out some magic details, we can train some real world stats!”

Cedric looked up at Gary, his dark eyes brewing with intense thoughts. “You know what Gary? That’s a fantastic idea!”

A couple hours later, they have found nothing about the magic system, other than that no player had captured any magic on any live stream. Considering that there were over 2 million people streaming the game currently, that probably meant that it was extremely rare, at least at this point in the game.

“Shoot,” Dom moaned. “Is it bugged or something?” he asked.

“Beats me,” said Gary as he sits down. “Maybe you unlock magic with a special quest?”

Cedric impatiently jumped off the couch. “For now, we just don’t know. How about we train some real life skills instead?”

“Sure,” said Dom as he put his phone away.

First, they had to decide what skill to focus on. Intelligence went out the window first, because nobody could really decide what the best way what the best way to train that, and besides, they already had to study at school.

Charisma training was also an enigma. How would they train their social skills? Try to find some girls and practice their best moves? That sounded horrible to Gary.

Take a trip to Walmart and try to barter down the price of food? That wasn’t going to work either, with Walmart having fixed prices and everything.

It came down to between Strength and Endurance. Both would be simple enough to train: either hit the gym or go on a run would solve either problems.

“How about we try both?” Gary suggested. “We still have around ten hours to kill before we hop back in game. Honestly, we could get a good run in about half an hour. A gym session lasts what, an hour?”

Cedric nodded. “Sounds about right. Want to run first?”

Dom moaned. “Bro. Running sucks. I don’t know if I’m down.”

“Come on Dom, running can be fun!” Gary pleaded.

Cedric patted Dom on the shoulder. “Yeah, we’ll run together Dom. Come on, both of us need higher Endurance.”

“Fine,” Dom agreed. “I’m not going to run fast, though.”

Gary laughed. “Yeah, sure Dom. Just run at your own pace.”

The boys then changed into shorts and tennis shoes. Dom and Cedric spent so much time at Gary’s house, that they even kept some old clothes there.

The three took off from the house. Gary ran with Dom and Cedric for the first few minutes, but then took off ahead of them. It wasn’t anything personal, but Gary ran track for their high school, and he wanted to push himself a bit more.

It was a great day for a run, the air bright and crisp, the sun shining down on them with soft light.

Southern Illinois was a nice, if not a bit boring, place to run. Gary was used to streaming past houses for the first mile or so, and then nothing but fields full of wheatgrass afterwards. He liked being out in the middle of nowhere, with only the wind in his ears, and only his own thoughts buzzing in his head.

It wasn’t that he hated being around other people all the time, but it was just tiring. At school, Gary never felt at ease, partly because he was always surrounded by so many people, partly because it was high school and everyone was trying to hard to “fit in” or whatever.

But out in the open fields, Gary always felt at peace. Perhaps that was why he enjoyed running so much. Time slipped by, and soon Gary had been running for well over half an hour.

Shoot! He thought. Dom and Cedric certainly have already turned around. Oh, whatever. They’ll just have to wait, Gary decided as he turned around on a deserted road.

When Gary returned to the house, Dom jokingly complained that he was slowing them down, but Cedric just winked at him and said, “Having too much fun there? Just you wait until we hit the gym!”

“Bro, we just got done running,” Dom chimed in. “Can’t we take a break or something?”

Cedric shrugged. “Err, I suppose.”

The boys took a break, Dom played through the earth temple in Windwaker, a classic Zelda game. They had been introduced to the Legend of Zelda games during Video Game history class, and had been playing through them sequentially. Windwaker was probably Gary’s favorite game, he liked the bright graphics. Of course, practically every Legend of Zelda title was fantastic in its own right, but something about the happy atmosphere of Windwaker particularly spoke to Gary. Even when the bombs blew up, they exploded in a cheerful looking burst of clouds.

After Dom had beat the boss, a goofy-looking ghost, they decided it was time to hit the gym, which was a 2 mile bike ride away.

Gary sometimes wished he had a car, but all he could afford was a mid-tier mountain bike. Thankfully, Litchfield was a small town, and it was easy to get around with just a bike. Dom had one of those old looking road bikes, and Cedric had an old mountain bike that he had rigged up with a small motor. The thing looked hilarious, but could go up the twenty-five miles per hour without pedaling.

Some gyms in bigger cities had advanced, VR type equipment. The gym in Litchfield, however, had very basic weights. A few squat racks, a bunch of free weights, and a line of pull-up bars was really the only equipment available. Cedric always said this simplicity was ideal.

The gyms also played soft electronic music in the background--Gary secretly wished they could pump up the volume, just so they could work out in a more hype environment.

Gary had never loved going to the gym, that was more Cedric’s territory. However, when they went as friends, Gary enjoyed it. Cedric showed him some basic lifts: dumbbell curls, the bench-press, pull-ups. They had a fun time, and even Dom seemed to get into it.

Gary only did bench reps at 95 pounds, 25s on each side, which was fine with him, since Dom could barely do any reps at 80. Cedric was pretty solid at repping 150 pounds--which was pretty much expected since he was the biggest and also he used to play football.

Gary was surprisingly good at pull ups, he could do almost 10 his first rep. After his first two sets, however, he could only do three without falling to pieces.

Squats were Gary’s arch nemesis. Although he was good at distance running, lifting with his legs never made any sense to him. It was just awkward--uncomfortable. He could never seem to get the right form, it just always felt a bit off. Thus, he decided to only do one set at 95. Each rep felt hard, but he got through eight without failing.

After the gym, they went to McDonalds to buy some food. They were not carrying bike locks, so Cedric agreed to wait outside and guard the bikes. Litchfield was not a crime heavy city, but it always paid to be cautious. As soon as Gary walked through the doors, he saw Sally Goldberg waiting in line. Gary tried not to stare.

Sally Goldberg was tall, pretty, and just a little bit popular. Gary never liked the really popular girls, they were usually too cool to hang out with the likes of him. Sally, however, was always nice to Gary. Unfortunately, Gary tended to lose his ability to formulate thoughts or words around her, so they had never really connected.

Dom nudged Gary, and Gary shot him a nasty glance.

Sally saw Gary and Dom, and said, “Hey guys! What’s up. Thought you would be playing ForeverQuest?”

Gary’s stomach started hurting, he was feeling sick again. He tried to say something, but he just couldn’t. Instead, Dom replied, “Yeah, we were, but we died! Totally lame, right?”

Sally laughed. She had a nice laugh, not too forced, but not too soft either. “Really? Same here. I died to some Goblin Welp right outside of the city. That’s just embarrassing!”

Gary tried to think of something to say, but he just couldn’t. There was a moment of awkward silence, and then Dom started again. “Nah, I guess the games pretty hard, if we are all dying and everything.”

“I suppose you are right!” She said brightly. “Hey, my food is here, but I’ll see you guys later! My username is Spartapriest5, if you want to add me.”

“Yeah, see ya’ around!” Dom said cheerfully. Gary awkwardly waved goodbye.

Sally left carrying a burger, and Gary sighed heavily. “Why can’t I speak at all when she’s around! What’s wrong with me?”

Dom shrugged. “There is a lot of things wrong with you, where do I even start.”

Gary hung his head low. “Oh, just shut up already.”

They bought a bag filled to the brim with cheeseburgers. Instead of eating there, they pedaled to their favorite empty parking lot to eat. A Taco Bell had gone out of business years ago, and just the lot remained, unused except for a hang out spot.

Graffiti littered the nearby walls, bright depictions of video game characters, tags from nearby wanna-be gangs, names plastered in neon colors. Litchfield didn’t have any real gang activity, but there were a few poser groups that really wanted to be gangs. They most they ever got around to was relatively harmless stuff like graffiti.

Dom unwrapped a burger and chomped down. He took a few moments to chew.

Cedric started pounding down burgers like a machine.

Gary, however, was looking up at the clear blue sky, lost in thought. “Hey guys…” he said. “Why do girls hate us? Are we losers or something?”

Cedric chewed on his food thoughtfully. “Nah, we definitely aren't losers. Personally, I just don’t understand them, and they don’t understand me. Ya’ know?”

Dom laughed, his mouth full of cheeseburger. “Speak for yourself bro. I spit mad game.”

Gary shoved Dom, almost making him drop his steaming-hot burger. “No you don’t. I don’t think dating a girl for two weeks counts as mad game.”

Dom grimaced. “Not cool, Gary. Not cool.” It was true, Dom had dated a girl, Lindsey, for about two weeks their freshman year in high school. It was overall a terrifying experience for both parties involved, unfortunately. It had been over a year since they broke up, so Gary knew that Dom was generally over it.

“It’s good we got each other,” said Gary. “I don’t know what I would do without you guys.”

Dom shrugged, “You would probably be a total loser.”

Cedric punched Dom in the shoulder.

“I mean, I’m glad I have you guys to hang out with too,” Dom admits. “School is a drag, and even video games get boring if you're playing solo.”

Cedric grinned. “That’s better, Dom. Speaking of school, I have to get back home and do those Chemistry problems. Have you guys finished them yet?”

Dom moaned. “Oh, shoot! I haven’t even started them! Guess I’m going to split as well.”

“Sounds good. How bout we play again after school?”

“Definitely,” said Cedric.

Gary biked home, crammed the Chem problems, and then slipped off to sleep.