“Ugh...”

Coming out of the VR capsule, I couldn’t help but hold my head. It was aching a lot for some reason. As if someone had tied ropes around my forehead and was squeezing my head tight.

Stumbling after hitting my leg on the mini table placed in the small room, I almost fell to the ground. One of my hands gripping my forehead, I walked into the small yet clean bathroom.

Walking in, the first thing I saw was my own reflection in the mirror that was placed right in front of the bathroom door. After all, there wasn’t much room to spare in this small bathroom.

Watching the guy in the reflection, pathetically gripping his head and looking so utterly hopeless, I couldn’t help but chuckle cynically at myself even during the pain. For a second, I thought I saw some kind of blue mark on one of my eyes, too confused to make out which one, but just after a glance, the marks seemed to have disappeared.

‘So even my eyes are playing tricks on me now, huh.’

I turned on the tap that was attached just below the mirror, as I took a handful of water in my hands and slashed it on my face. The cold and wet sensation of water finally brings some solace to my otherwise chaotic brain. The feeling of water hitting my skin was so calming that I couldn’t help but put my head directly under the tap, cold water gushing all over me and making a mess of my black hair.

I was so engrossed in the feeling that I forgot about how I lived in a rented apartment where even the water was billed on a monthly basis. Using the water without a care in the world, I finally calmed down after a minute or two. Trying to bring my head up, all that greeted me was a decent slap from the tap just at the back of my head, sending waves of pain in my already aching brain.

‘Fuck!’

I cursed inwardly but wasn’t sure if I was cursing the tap or my luck. Rubbing the back of my head which I had just hurt with my hand, I looked at my reflection again.

Wet black hair messily swaying around as they pleased. A somewhat oval face with a decent jawline, two hazy pairs of Tahitian pearl-like eyes staring directly at me. A small nose and mouth. An unkempt stubble and a slim yet somewhat buffed body.

I had a face and body that could garner the envy of many if kept well, but what I didn’t have was the slightest bit of privilege. Horrific and bloody scenes from the past flashed in front of my eyes as I shook my head and decided not to think about it.

Since I was already half soaked, I just took a whole shower, while worrying about the water bill this month since clarity had finally returned to my mind.

Coming out while rubbing my hair with a towel, I turned on the television, a habit I had painstakingly cultivated so that I always stay up to date with the current world events.

Wearing nothing but shorts, with a towel wrapped around my shoulder, I put corn flakes in milk as I watched the television.

[With the progression of current technology, the government has again decided to up the taxes on most jobs. The current American president, Perry McLarry stated in his most recent interview–

– As the number of robots working in various industries keeps on increasing dramatically, the government needs enough funds to keep up with their maintenance cost. The United Countries organization had decided to take some drastic measures on bot stealers and people who are doing bot piracy. Things are also looking up for America’s current economy due to [Mayhem] originating from America, and becoming one of the biggest sources of income in the world.

Some of the big countries are looking to form peaceful alliances with America and organize something like an Annual competition in [Mayhem]. It's a good opportunity for the citizens of America to show their gaming talents. If the Annual competition’s process goes smoothly, all the gamers that win can rest assured that not only will they win a hefty amount of money, but also a free supply of water and gas for a year–

After the declaration of the president, came a huge wave of public reactions. What was this competition he was talking about? And how did it become so important that the president declared free water and gas supply for a year to the winners?

There are lots of unanswered questions, but one thing that is clearly certain is that [Mayhem] is going to be one of the biggest elements in the future of this world.]

Again, they were talking about [Mayhem]. Ever since its release, the media, normal or gaming, has barely talked about anything else other than that. It wasn’t their fault either, viewers like me liked to watch this news, hence increasing their TRP, and making them bring more of such news.

But the major side effects that it had were that the media barely talked about the current crime situation in the world or the state of the world’s current economy. Although it was much better than it was a decade ago, it didn’t mean that crime had totally vanished or the world’s economy wasn’t fluctuating, they just paid no heed to it.

The poor were barely surviving (like me) and the rich were getting richer. Unless someone from a poor background showed talent in [Mayhem Online], there was almost no job that could make someone rise otherwise, credit to the ‘bots’ for stealing most of the jobs that humans were capable of doing a few decades ago. Only creative and innovative jobs could earn you some money these days.

‘Sigh.’

At this point, I didn’t even know why I still ranted about the situation. After finishing my breakfast and having watched enough television, I decided to go out for a walk. Although the capsule maintained maximum comfort, in no way did it guarantee ‘maximum health’ for its user. The users had to do the necessary moving around if they didn’t want their bodies to rot.

Walking out of the apartment, what greeted me was the small hallway that led to the stairs. Even in this advanced age, if a building only had stairs to go up and down then one could guess what type of people lived in them. The ‘lowest’ type.

As I walked out of the building, the morning rays of the sun hit my face, blinding my eyes, which took some time to adjust to the current brightness. Looking around, I can see my old building, which was way out of the city, on the outskirts. And just half a mile away, you could see the futuristic city of Delta.

Cloud piercing skyscrapers lined one after the another, a huge transparent blue-ish circle, the electromagnetic barrier, surrounding the city. Flying vehicles roamed around the city, and sometimes some of them passed by from where I was standing too, not bothering to stop here. After all, there was nothing worth watching here.

From the stories I know, Delta was nothing like the huge city it is now, a century ago. Since the ‘evolution’ program of the UC (United Countries) came into existence, even small-time cities like Delta became a huge playground for the sharks of the USA.

(A/N - Shark is a term used for business giants.)

As I decided to walk to the nearest park, wearing a hoodie and trousers, a luxurious white and red-colored sports car passed from the road beside me, making my eyes burn in envy.

“A fucking Desert Scorpian Red Edition!”

I couldn’t help but let out a curse of admiration.

‘Who the fuck is so rich in the city to be driving this.’

It was my dream car, and I would love to have it one day. Watching someone actually driving it in Delta was already a miracle. Although Delta was developed, it was nowhere enough to compare with cities like New York, Los Angeles, and such. And it was still treated as a downtown for the low and middle-class people.

Watching someone drive a car worth at least $25 million was already boiling the poor blood inside me.

But since the car had passed away, I could only continue with what I was doing. After successfully jogging for a while and buying some essentials from the nearby grocery store from the small sum of money that I had at my disposal, I came back home.

It was Sunday and I had a day off from my work today. I worked in a company as a server moderator and the pay wasn’t enough to leave much savings after the bills and groceries. In this day and age, a server moderator was only required to check the moderations that the bots performed, which were absolutely flawless 90 out of 100 times.

Since I had slept in the game, I was full of energy, and since I didn’t have anything else to do, I decided to log in to [Mayhem]. After all, I still needed answers to the questions that I have been avoiding.

Who was the old man after all?

Well, that was a pretty simple question with an obvious answer. He was clearly a hidden NPC, and from the looks of things, a major one at that. The only regret I had was that I didn’t leave a good enough impression.

If I knew he was some big shot in-game, I would have sucked up to him till he gave me a super valuable item, or taught me some hidden skills. But alas! What was done was done, and now I had an obligation to figure out who the NPC was and what exactly was his role in the game. Of course, that was only possible if information about him was available on the internet.

[Welcome, Flynn Grey]

[22nd March 2107, 9:03 am]

[Face recognition complete :)]

"Login to Mayhem"

As soon as I entered the capsule, I logged in directly. The familiar fanfare and theme song of [Mayhem] playing in the background.