A/N Well, this is embarrassing. I don’t think I ever really gave a proper description of Adam. Oops.

I’ll have to go fix that in one of the earlier chapters and remember to add all relevant character and world info to my notes before I forget them. Anyways, Adam should be making an appearance in this chapter early on so he’ll get his description there for all my lovely up to date readers. Future readers shall have a proper MC description in the early chapters… when I get around to it.

Enjoy the chapter.

Now entering: Waiting Room

As the little glitters and sparkles from the transfer fade away, a simple scene opens up before Drake’s eyes. The lobby was quite large, perhaps the size of a large mall eatery with tables, chairs, couches, and refreshments throughout, not that refreshments would ultimately be necessary in virtual reality.

Spread throughout the large room, there were approximately 1,000 people sitting, relaxing, or simply talking to others around them. The fact that they were all wearing coarse brown drawstring pants and a light grey smock created the feeling that this was the gathering of an odd cult or religion.

Putting that disturbing thought aside, Drake figured that there’s no harm in eating and drinking and so, made his way towards one of the refreshments table fifteen feet away. Taking two apples from the table, he pockets one and begins chomping into the other.

*Crunch-crunch

“Tastes like an actual apple, right?” a young girl around his age asks from across the table.

Standing at 5’4’’ tall, her slender body and dirty-blonde twintails paired with a lighthearted smile, it was like an angel had descended from the heavens above. And, considering that Drake had very few favorable interactions with the opposite gender, the feeling was only more pronounced.

“Uuh, yeah.” (Drake)

“You know, it took them over a year to get taste and smell to transfer properly in virtual reality. Oh, where are my manners. My name is Alexandra, but you can call me Lexy for short.” (Lexy)

Shaking her proffered hand dumbly, Drake only manages to eek out a minimalistic response.

“M-my name’s Drake.”

*giggle* “Nice to meet you Drake. Look’s like it’s about time to enter Eden now. I’ll see you on the other side.” (Lexy)

At that, Lexy skips off into the crowd.

Who was that girl? She seems to know quite a bit about Eden’s development. Is she related to one of the developers? I wonder if she has a boyfriend yet. No! What am I thinking?!? Now’s not the time for chasing a cute girl’s skirt! I’ve got a game to play. This is the biggest development in virtual reality and it’d be a waste if I were to only use it to pick up cute girls. Then again...

While Drake was busy dealing with his inner conflict, a soft chime rang out across the lobby, immediately turning everybody’s attention towards several notification screens.

Attention players. Servers will open in 10 seconds. Please note that the mandatory 3 day isolation in the starting city has been removed for the alpha test, but it is recommended that you do not venture outside of the city walls until you have some offensive power and/or experience in combat.

As the countdown began, several people can be seen animatedly jumping for joy and others promising to group up on the other side.

Once the timer reached zero, the players would rapidly dematerialize into a cloud of glitter.

One by one, the players reappeared in the center of a medieval looking city around an ornate fountain. Made of stone, lions reared their heads and shot spouts of water towards a central bowl, 2 meters in diameter, held aloft by 8 gorgeous mermaids.

Drake himself arrived with the first half and began looking around curiously. As some players rematerialized, some would stand steady, others would stumble before regaining balance, and others would outright fall into a heap and struggle to right themselves.

Heh, n00bs. Guess it’s easy to tell who’s new to virtual reality. I’ll need to keep an eye out for more experienced people to party with later. I wonder if I’ll get to see Lexy again.

After another minute, the flow of incoming players began to slow and they started milling about the square only to have their attention drawn back towards a snoring figure at the center of the fountain by how out of place he appeared and the volume of his snores.

Sitting at the center of the bowl above the water was a youthful man. Wearing a simple green tunic and brown pants cinched by a leather belt, his face was youthful in appearance and jaw firmly set. Above his sandy blond hair sat a green felt cap with a single feather. Slowly waking up, he is startled at the players’ appearance around the square. Turning his attention towards them, he coughs twice to regain his composure.

“Umm. Hello. Is everyone here now? Good.” (???)

Glancing around, the man confirms that everybody in the waiting room had, indeed, arrived before turning his attention to a script within his hands, then promptly threw it into the wind.

“Ahem. Welcome players, to the world of Eden and thank you for participating in the alpha test. I regret to inform you that you are now trapped in my world and must complete the 7 ordeals in order to return to your-glub-spurt” a water spout interrupted his speech by shooting him in the face while some of the player began showing worried expressions.

What is this guy supposed to be? This isn’t some fantasy novel from the early 2000s. If he’s trying to reenact that one anime, he’s only making a fool of himself.

Looking up and addressing the sky, the blonde haired man begins shouting.

“Hey, can’t a guy have a little fun? I’ve spent quite some time without messing with people. Can’t you take a joke?” Still dripping water, he continues to focus on the sky in silence as if reading a notification box.

“Fine. I’ll stick to the script.” Turning his attention back towards the players, he begins his speech anew. “

*cough* Sorry folks. That was a joke. You can calm down now. Ahem, now where was I?”

“Something about welcome to Eden!” some helpful person in the crowd shouts in reply.

“Right. Welcome to Eden. Blah blah blah. I am your main administrator, Adam. You can come to me if you have any issues with feedback, glitches, or any other problems. Additionally, you may send any feedback through the “System Menu” and receive help or assistance through the “System Assist”.

If you wish to log out at any time, all you need to do is say “System Command: Logout”. You can also do so by concentrating hard enough on it, much like silent casting for magic. For those of you that haven’t completed the tutorial yet, good luck with that.

Umm… I think that’s it. Feel free to explore Eden as you wish and if you have any questions, the System Assist should be more than enough. See ya.”

With Adam’s speech now over, players began to wander about and explore the city. Drake, on the other hand, was trying to situate his standing and figure out what he sort of combat role he wanted.

Okay. First things first. What do we have in our inventory. “Inventory: Open”

x1 Coin purse (0G 5S 15C)

x1 shortsword

x1 body shield

x1 sturdy wand

x1 n00b [email protected] (E)

x5 n00b [email protected]

x1 apple

Cool, the equipment must be from the tutorial. I wonder where the apple came from though… Is this the same apple from the waiting room?

Curious, Drake decided it was best to question Adam who was talking with some other players about system commands.

“Excuse me, sir. But I have a question about something in my inventory. I’m Drake by the way.” (Drake)

“You can drop the sir. Just call me Adam. So, what’s up?” (Adam)

“Well, I pocketed an apple from the waiting room and it somehow got into my inventory. Is that supposed to happen?” (Drake)

“Ah, that? Don’t worry about it. The entire system is interconnected so just consider it a free snack. I’ll mention it to my co-worker though and see if it will cause any problems later.” (Adam)

“Okay. That’s good to know. Thanks Adam.” (Drake)

“No problem Drake. Enjoy the alpha test and be sure to give us feedback if there are any issues.” (Adam)

As they went their separate ways, Drake studied his stats and Adam continued to be pelted by an unending stream of questions from curious idiots players.

/Adam POV/

Aww man. Why couldn’t they get one of the other guys to do PR? I wanted to play the role of a god or something! Zeus is off doing something in the clouds with his lightning bolts and Vishnu is off making some mob event for the end of the alpha test. Why am I stuck dealing with these guys. I know I said that it would be nice to interact with other people again, but this is too much! Ugh. Here comes another idiot.

Crawling on all fours is spiky crimson haired fellow whose hairdo rivals that of the most outrageous of animes and sputtering obscenities as he makes his way towards Adam. Above his head, the nametag “mthr_fkr” is displayed.

“Hey! Hey you! Why the fuck can’t I walk or control my body properly? I demand compensation for this crap! If I don’t I’m gonna post that this game is shit on every forum and site I can!”

Sigh. One of these idiots.

“Question: Did you perform the tutorial?” (Adam)

“What! Of course I didn’t do that shit! Tutorials are crap and don’t help anyone do nothing!”

Yep. A complete idiot. *sigh* “To clarify some things, the tutorial helps acclimate you to your digital body. The more you changed your body in the character creation room, the longer that will take. Now unless you are going to act like a civilized person with manners and proper action, you can take your sorry ass hairdo and get out of my sight. Did you forget that I’m an administrator?” (Adam)

“Fuck You! Fuck this shit! Once I get control of my body, I’m going to kick your sorry ass into next week!” Gaining control of his body bit by bit, he starts staggering to his feet and acting violent.

Guess it’s time to put some of my military training to good use. I just can’t believe I’ll be using it in a game. Administrative powers will be useful too...

“Hey buddy, if you don’t stop, can’t say that I didn’t warn you.” (Adam)

At this point, a small crowd has gathered, attracted to the mthr_fckr’s obscenities.

“FUCK YOU! I don’t give a shi-” *Crack* “ARgh!”

A heavy silence fills the air as Adam twists the guy’s arm behind his back.

“Okay pal. Last chance. You can either do this peacefully, or there can be repercussions for you later. Your choice.” (Adam)

Still sputtering on the ground, the guy manages to eek out two more words. “F-fu-Fuck y-you.”

Some idiots really don’t know when to quit. Time to break out the administrator powers. Glancing up at the sky again, Adam shouts out “Hey Eve! I know you’re there. You know what to do. As for you mister, remember how you said you’ll be kicking my ass into next week? Hope you’ve got your pain set to zero cuz I won’t be seeing you ‘til then.” (Adam)

Lifting the guy by the seat of his pants, a short drop and a quick boot to the rear sends the guy flying into the air over the buildings, some of which are three stories high. At his apex, he explodes into a dazzling array of lights and fireworks spelling out one message.

BANNED

Dusting off his clothes, Adam nonchalantly looks around him as if he had just taken out the trash.

“Welp, now that that’s taken care of, any questions?” (Adam)

“uuh, nope.”

“Party’s over huh.”

“I’m outta here.”

“Damn, that was funny. You get that on video?”

With nothing left to see and slightly cowed at Adam’s liberal display of power, the crowd slowly disperses to find their own adventure in the world of Eden. One person, though, runs towards Adam and jumps into a tackle.

“Brother!”

oof “Nice to see you too Lexy. Do you mind if I get up or are you going to sit on top of my chest all day?” (Adam)

Blushing shyly, Lexy gets off of Adam and helps him to his feet.

“It’s your fault for not contacting us for over a week. Mom’s been worried about you!” (Lexy)

“Sorry. I’ve been too busy working out all the little details with Eve and training the new guys on our team. I’ll introduce you to them some time later. Some of them might even make an appearance before the testing is over. Enough about me, wanna talk over a bite to eat?” (Adam)

“Sure! Lead the way bro!” (Lexy)

Haha, as energetic as ever. She never fails to bring a smile to her big brother’s face.

Walking over towards a small stand, Adam orders a couple barbecued kabobs and leads Lexy to one of the many benches lining the streets.

“So, how have you and mom been lately?” (Adam)

“We’re doing fine. *bite* School will be *bite* shtarting shoon so I’ve been *bite* ‘etting supplies with mom. *gulp* Hey, this meat is tasty. What’s it made of?” (Lexy)

“It’s good to know that you’re doing fine at home, as for the meat, it comes from something akin to a boar. It took Eve and I a long time to perfect taste by the way. Oh yeah, will mom be joining us once the game is released? I want to spend some time together as a family again. Perhaps go on a picnic or go dungeon diving together.” (Adam)

“So far, this world has been great! Also, Realtek was so nice as to provide a custom immersion pod for mom so she’ll be joining us shortly after Eden’s official release. She misses your cooking by the way.” (Lexy)

“Hehe, wait until you guys taste my cooking in here. I’ve been cooking up new recipes with the exotic ingredients here.”

*ding*

Oh come on, now of all times? There had better be a good reason.

Adam, I need your help at the mountain fortress. Come quick. ~Zeus~

“Sorry honey. Work calls. If you need anything, just give a holler, you hear? And tell mom I said hi!” (Adam)

“Okay, bye Adam. Good luck with work!” (Lexy)

A/N I'm really just writing what comes to mind during my free time, so if for any reason the story feels lacking, please comment on it. I seek to improve if at all possible.

Thanks for reading.