Chapter 5 - The Dive

I stopped at the game store and remembered the VR headset that I wanted to buy.

“Right. With the $500,000 I have, I can actually afford a helmet now. But wait… Do I want a hovercraft first? ARGH, I hate making life decisions like this! Wait... If I get the helmet, that that means I might not have to work for that shitty company again!” I managed to convince myself.

The popularity of the game would surely replace such a job. It is a gamble though, only the most professional players would be able to profit from such a game. Gameplay videos is an option, but surely there are others, and besides the world is huge. Information of items and dungeons, hidden quest maybe.

I marched into the game store with foolish abandon. I strode up to the counter with the attendant giving me a “damnit, a weirdo” kind of look. The clerk looked at my clothes and I could visibly see his irritation rising a notch higher. While it is true my clothes are dirty, they aren't that bad, right?

“Sir, you realize the games in this store are probably out of your pay grade right?” The clerk informed me with a glare. “This isn't the retro game store. If you're looking for those cheap game stations, go to the store further down the road.”

To his chagrin, I had a foolishly triumphant smile on my face as I took out $300,000 dollars. The clerk’s eyebrows almost hit the roof with surprise.

“My apologies Sir, what would you like to buy?” The clerk fixed his attitude within 3 seconds of seeing the cash. Typical. I leered at him but knew it would get us both nowhere, so I told him that I wanted a VR Headset.

He showed me multiple models but in the end, I decided to take one that was neither overly expensive nor dirt cheap. I might've raised a bit of a racket while complaining about the price to the attendant, so I got a good discount. Hahahaha, he caved in easily enough. I managed to get a headset for $280,000 that was originally $295,000. Now for the other piece-de-resistance, the downloadable software, Aeon itself. The game costed a whopping $150,000 to buy. Sadly, I knew I wouldn't be able to get a cheaper price on that as the price was set.

“Oh well, the game has only been out for a month anyways, so it's still an inflated price.” I sighed.

I bought all of the stuff and walked out the door with a wide grin on my face, only accentuated by the face of the grimacing employee behind me. “Ha! That's what you get for making assumptions!” I thought as I glanced back at him robotically waving me off.

With light steps on my way to work, I fantasized about all the ways I could go to work and tell my boss that I quit. As the factory enters my view, I start running. With a righteous fury, I kicked in the door. Not hard enough to dent it, but enough to make sure that everyone working heard my entrance. I then loudly stomped my way up to the boss’s office. With the door right in front of me, I took a deep breath and yelled, “PERMISSION TO ENTER?” It sounded like my boss, who was probably startled at the volume, fell over in his chair. “Please enter,” he responded after reordering everything on his desk.

The boss looked at me with low-lidded eyes, a no doubt frightening glare if it were in any other situation. I was too happy about finally being able to quit this damned job to even care about how he looked at me. With the door to his office left open, I entered. After walking forward for a few steps, I loudly declared, “I’M DONE WITH ALL OF YOUR SHIT! I QUIT!”

My boss wasn't really expecting that relation out of me and flew into an outrage. “What do you mean ‘I quit’? You'll never find work anywhere else but here! I will make certain that you'll never be hired anywhere!”

“When you come back crawling on your hands and knees, I'll accept you again, except for $4 an hour pay.” My boss boldly stated with a smirk.

I laughed directly in his face to that statement. This obviously wasn't the reaction he was looking for as he immediately backed up and started sweating. “Too bad for you, I've already got my next career.” I showed him the bags. “I'm going to make my fortune with Aeon! Once I'm one of the top players, I'll come back and buy that fucking chair out from under you, you arrogant prick.”

I about faced and marched right out of that office with my boss making a passable impersonation of a fish. I walked out to the floor to see a couple of my co-workers actually applauding quietly at the show. I took an extravagant bow and left the factory, this time, for good.

I entered my home and started my way into the main room. I had built a small space to remember Grandpa by in the corner. “Hey Grandpa, I used the money you saved up to buy a VR Headset. You know that I always wanted one of those. Well, that and a hovercraft. Grandpa, I quit my job and am going to try my hardest to make money through Aeon now.”

A small knife stabbed my heart. Perhaps because the pain was already there, the knife seemed small. No, it was already gone. My grip on the VR Headset bag tightened.

Grandpa gave up all his savings for this one moment to make me happy. So we could both be happy. No, this is an opportunity.

I can feel my face distorting. Hurriedly, I wiped off my weak emotions. Grandpa wouldn’t wish to see me like this.

After saying my blessings, I made my way to what was now my bedroom…. Although, that didn't really make me feel any better. I preferred the couch for sleeping since it's been the place I've been sleeping in for around 17 years now. Even though this bedroom still belonged to Grandpa in my mind, I felt that it would be more meaningful if I took my first dive in this room. I cleaned the sheets that I noticed still had some blood on them and put fresh ones on. I was unsure of what to do with those bedsheets, so I just tossed them aside for now.

I took out the headset and put it on and lied back on the bed. This VR Headset first is meant to hypnotize a person to sleep and then connect the person’s synapses to the VR world. A rather painless sequence. Just for the info, the cheap headset actually sends a shock into a person’s brain to knock them out. That sounded extremely dangerous and painful so I'm fairly satisfied with the one I bought. The world around me began to fade away as I dove into the Virtual world.

“Aeon, just wait. I'll make sure to become the strongest player ever!”

END

Well then, finally the VR portion begins…

Haze