Some people may look at this story and say "Hey, you lost a lot of followers. No one must be interested."

The way I see it, I had 199 followers at chapter 16 of the first version. Right now, I have 126. This small thing just proves my growth and the loyalty of my readers

Enjoy

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Plat sighed as he pushed the visor up and rubbed his eyes. "Geez, what a boring end to the tutorial." He muttered as he got up and walked over to his bed. Plopping down onto it, he sighed and looked up at the ceiling, holding his straight up as he looked at it.

"I can still feel it." He murmured as he slowly clenched and unclenched his fist, "The weight of the spear and shield, the blow to that goblin. So that is what Everlife is going to be like."

He lowered his arm and draped it over the bedside. "I can't wait for tomorrow." He smiled and closed his eyes.

A loud beep startled him off his bed. Groaning in annoyance, Plat picked himself up off the floor and picked up the large wristband that had been sitting at the desk. He pressed his thumb down onto it and waited as it lit up and displayed it's holographic opening logo. The logo blinked out and was replaced by Henry's smiling face, which grew happier at the sight of Plat.

"Hey buddy, you finally finish that tutorial?"

Plat nodded with a smirk, "Yeah. What did you think?"

Henry chuckled and shook his head, "Kinda cheap in my opinion, what with all the data on the servers and all. Still, I enjoyed using the weapons and armor. I used the huge double-handed sword, how about you?"

"Spear and shield for me," Plat declared proudly, "I looked like a cool centurian."

Henry guffawed in laughter, "Did you try to be a "shield hero" again? Laugh out Loud my friend, as the elders say, I kept telling you using nothing but shields would be a ridiculous idea. Did the tutorial program tell you it wasn't possible?"

Plat frowned, "What, you mean the A.I.? No way was she a mere program."

Henry rolled his eyes at him, "Bro, both Reva and I had the same monotonous voice direct and guide us through the tutorial. It told us the A.I.'s were preparing for the real release tomorrow and were not available. What, did you get something different?"

Plat shook his head slowly, "No, I guess you're right about that. Too slow to be an A.I right?"

'I wonder why she didn't reveal herself to them." Plat thought to himself, "Was it something I said maybe?"

Henry continued, not picking up on Plat's thoughtfulness, "Yeah, true that. Anyway, hurry up and answer my question; did you ask about the shields?"

Plat blushed and looked down, "Yeah, I did."

"And what did it say?"

"The game physics wouldn't allow it." He mumbled quietly.

Henry lifted hid hand to his ear in a mocking fashion, "What was that, you need to speak up Plat."

Plat grunted and said, "The program said two tower shields on a horse would mess with the game physics."

Henry held out a hand, and another person's hand appeared. It slapped down a PP card and disappeared. Plat raised an eyebrow. "Oy Henry, what the hell man, who's there with you?"

"Just Reva and Dia bro, no worries." Henry's face disappeared to show both Reva and Dia's face and waving hands as it turned back into Henry, "Anyway, I'm guessing you were so down you didn't ask about using two smaller shields right?"

"Yeah, so what?"

"Well, you can equip two medium shields if you wanted to, but the game won't allow your attack to rise above 0 even if you have spikes on the shields. It's funny because in our grandparents time the developers could say that kind of thing was not possible because of programming limits, but now they have to go with 'game physics'." Henry joked.

"Why were you guys asking about shields anyway?" Plat asked curiously.

Henry's face disappeared to be replaced by Dia, "We all knew about your shield obsession, so we all asked for you because you're our friend."

Dia's face disappeared under a flurry of holographic punches as Reva took the stage now, "Ignore the moron who forgot to ask and is trying to share the credit. Hurry up and come join us in the common room Plat, we're going to a party soon and you need to come with us."

Plat licked his suddenly dry lips, "Uh, well I am feeling a bot tired Reva and . . . "

"Forget it Plat, you're ignored this for far too long." Reva interrupted him, "It's important that you try to make more connections besides us. We are seniors now you know, and this is our last real summer before our senior year with the wide world waiting for us afterwards."

Plat bit his lip and folded his arms, "I've made plenty of social connections for work Reva, and I don't need to go to a party to be picked on or pushed around the day before summer starts.'

"Fine then," Reva said coyly, "But what if I told you Sarah was going to be there?"

"You serious?" Plat whispered, a little color coming to his cheeks.

"Of course I am." Reva declared, "I'm one of her good friends after all, so if I say she'll be there she will be there. This is a good chance for you to get close to her you know, especially since you've blown all the other chances so far this year."

Plat frowned, "Those incidents weren't my fault Reva; you know that."

"Yeah, so I made sure those bullies from the Body and Mind classes think that you were going somewhere else tonight, like waiting in the massive camping line outside the Game Center. With any luck, they'll be prowling around looking for you there instead of having fun at the party."

Plat thought hard about his decision. Sarah, or Brighteyes as she was nicknamed, was a very pretty girl in the same grade as Plat and his friends. She had a high ranking in the Mind and Soul classes, making her one of the most desirable girls in the entire school. Plat had had (it's weird, but this works in English

After all, Plat was what many in the school would call "unimportant". Ignoring his short stature and average looks, Plat had never excelled in any of the three main subjects: Body, Mind, and Soul. His strength was average and he had a hard time in sports, whether ball or martial. In terms of intelligence, his grades were okay, but nothing extraordinary. Finally, he couldn't concentrate well enough in meditation and had a hard time following the philosophy and ethics lectures held by the sensei's and rabbi's. At the academy, one's specialty determined one's friends and social hierarchy so Plat, who was average in everything, was part of the lowest class of student and often bullied. The Body kids beat him in sports classes, the Mind kids used him as the guinea pig for their experiments, and the Soul kids . . . talked to him. Normally, that would not be such a bad thing, but Soul kids could talk about their personal philosophy for hours without end and only stopped for authority they recognized, of which Plat had none.

"Fine," Plat relented, "I'll go to this party since it's my first as a real senior, but I'm leaving at the first sign of trouble."

Reva brightened and turned around, "Dia, stop beating up Henry; Plat said he's coming with us!"

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The party was being held on the school grounds in the park, complete with a virtual bon fire that produced real heat, a drink bar, and an A.I. DJ who specialized in sound harmonics. The four friends strolled out of the woods and each picked up a different colored drink.

"It's nice the administration gives us free sodas and pop." Plat commented as he downed his Caco Calo.

Dia burped loudly and raised his plastic cup to the cheers that followed, "It was that or we'd bring our own drinks, and some of the Mind chumps figured out how to make booze."

Reva punched him good naturedly, "It was that or figure out how to give you Body guys brains, so we went with the easier challenge."

Henry chuckled and threw his cup into the recycler nearby, which spat out a clean cup soon after, "If you guys don't mind, I'll be off trying my luck with the fashionable ladies." With that, he disappeared into the dancing crowd of bodies.

"I'm off too, but for football." Dia was eyeing a couple of guys and girls throwing and tackling and ran to join them.

Suddenly nervous without his friends, Plat felt Reva placing her hand on his shoulder. "Will you be alright without me?" She asked, a slightly worried look in her eye.

Plat laughed, "I'll be fine Reva. I'm going to drink a few more caces under that tree with the chair, then join you guys on the dance floor."

Reva relented and gave him a smile before hurrying off to join the flash mob, who was dancing to a line-dance groove. Plat refilled his cup and walked over to the stump. Sighing, he sat down and watched the other teens having fun. Henry had already found a girl to talk to, and he could see Dia being tackled by one of the muscular Body girls. He took another swig of his soda.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Plat turned to look behind him at the sound. A girl was holding a drink and staring at the stump Plat was on. She was blonde haired with eyes that glowed in the darkness and a smile that lit Plat up from the inside out. "I thought this seat was open."

Plat coughed and got up at once, "It is, I was just borrowing it until I felt like dancing."

"No, it's alright. Don't get up for me." The girl furrowed her eyes as she stared at his face, "Do I know you? It's hard to tell in the dark."

"Nope, sorry. I'll be going now." Plat quickly made his exit and walked back to the drink table. How could he tell the girl he had crushed on for years that she knew him very well. They hand't shared a class since the last year of middle school, so it was not surprising that she didn't recognize him after everyone's growth spurt.

As he was getting a drink, a large hand clapped down onto his head. "Well, well, if it isn't the little shrimp of the academy. Here I thought you were slumming it in the line waiting for that new game." Plat's spirits fell as he recognized the voice speaking to him.

Raim was one of the best rising seniors in the Body class and a long time bully of Plat. To make matters worth, his Mind scores were decent as well, which meant Plat couldn't evade him as easily as his fellows.

"Hey Raim, hope you're enjoying the party." Plat said nervously as he clutched his drink tightly.

Raim grinned down at him and tightened his grip, "Oh I am, believe me. In fact, I'd say you just made this party even better."

"Raim, what are doing?" They both turned at Sarah's voice, who had approached them from the tree stump. Raim let his grip on Plat's head relax into a soft pat.

"Oh hey Sarah," He smiled at her, "I was just greeting my old friend Splat here. I thought you weren't feeling well enough to come."

Sarah nodded, "Yeah, but Reva insisted on me coming to, as she put it, break in the final year. I was just watching the dancing." She gazed at Plat again, her eyes squinting, "Are you sure we've never met, er, Splat was it?"

Feeling the twitching of the hand on his head, Plat quickly shook his head, "Sorry ma'am, I can't say we have. I'm Plat by the way."

From the way the hand was tightening, Plat figured he had said the wrong thing.

"Plat . . . . .Plat . . . !!" Sarah gasped and put her hands over her mouth, "My goodness it has been ages! I didn't even recognize you!"

Plat laughed dryly as Raim slowly removed his hand from Plat's head. Raim's eyes were narrowed, but he couldn't risk getting violent in front of Sarah, who now had an interest in Plat.

"Sarah," He said smoothly, "I heard that the DJ is going to be one of the professors next year. I can introduce you if you'd like between songs."

Sarah lit up at the prospect, Plat remembering her slight obsession with music. "Okay then. We should meet up and talk later Plat to catch up." She said as she took Raim's offered arm.

"Sure, why not." Plat said as he watched Raim make some very unsubtle gestures with his finger across his throat, "I hope you two enjoy yourselves." He watched quietly as the two disappeared into the crowd, than sent a quick message to his three friends informing them of his departure and left the party.

He returned to his room and lay on his bed, exhausted. Setting his alarm on his wrist communicator, he closed his eyes and went to bed.

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Finally, we begin the real reason for this story next chapter.