《How I Play Solo in an VRMMORPG》 Chapter 1 - Mid-life Crisis A man sat in a small waiting room minding his own business. Occasionally he would wonder if the young receptionist, who sat just a few feet away from him, ever took a public relations training seminar on how to handle clientele. He could ignore the occasional sneak peeks of the other people in the waiting room, but seeing the early twenty-something year old girl stare fixatedly into his eyes while her entire face was a deep shade of red made him comfortable. Though of course, it was completely understandable. After all, how many clients came in shortly after lunch time without a shred of clothing? Only a single magazine taken from the waiting room¡¯s coffee table hid his manliness from her prying eyes. It was just his luck that the magazine in question was a fitness magazine with a very attractive woman wearing a bikini on the front cover. Just when he was starting to wonder if he should leave, the door leading to a series of offices opened up. A slightly older woman than the receptionist, but still probably about half his age, stood there in a sexy outfit as if just to mock him. She wore a white blouse, with a dark grey ankle length skirt that was slit almost up to the thigh. He didn¡¯t know why she actually wore it, but he imagined it was so her leg could be free to tantalize and torture her male clientele. Her hair was tied up in a ponytail and a pair of thick glasses gave her all the seductive powers of a hot, sexy librarian. ¡°Markus¡­¡± She started to call out to him with a smile, but when her eyes fell upon his current state she was at a loss for words. ¡°I¡¯ll see you now¡­ why don¡¯t you come in?¡± ¡°Ah, thank you Dr. Preece.¡± ¡°Markus, if you insist on addressing me by my last name and position, then I will insist on addressing you by your last name and position. And please, keep the magazine with you.¡± She calmly added when he looked unsure if it would be okay or not. ¡°Thanks, uh, Olivia.¡± ¡°There. Isn¡¯t that better?¡± ¡°Not really.¡± It always made Markus uncomfortable how a woman roughly half his age would smile at him like that. And while he didn¡¯t like her calling him by the numerous certifications that added prefixes before his name, he found it awkward to not call her doctor. She was, after all, his therapist. ¡°Let me just put something down on the sofa for you¡­¡± She fluttered around the small office for a minute before coming back with today¡¯s newspaper and unfolding a few sheets over her leather sofa. She had spent months trying to get it in through the small doors and after all the self-effort of taking it apart and reassembling it piece by piece, she made sure to take good care of it. The paper crinkled loudly as he sat down. He was tempted to eat some of the mints that Dr. Preece kept in a bowl in front of the sofa, but he was worried that reaching for them would end up with him exposing his ¡®little marker¡¯. After everyone was finally sitting down she got started with the usual session spiel. ¡°So. What brings you by today? You haven¡¯t been by for a session in a couple of months and from the phone call it sounded like it was very important that we meet today?¡± He gestured his current outfit of the one magazine. ¡°I would say that when I showed up to your office completely in the nude, something significant probably had happened to me.¡± ¡°Yes. I had, noticed, that.¡± She emphasized it in such a way that made him wish he was in better shape. Hmm, and twenty years younger. ¡°So what did happen?¡± He drifted off into memory lane as he tried to think about where to start. ¡°Well, there was a fire¡­ I quit my job¡­ started a revolution-¡° ¡°WAIT!¡± Dr. Preece had to stop him because it looked like he would have kept going on for a while if she didn¡¯t and he had already revealed some heavy topics. ¡°That¡¯s a lot. Why don¡¯t you start off at the beginning and we¡¯ll see if we need more time. Does that sound alright with you?¡± ¡°Sure.¡± He should probably limit shrugging his shoulders. Every time he shrugged the newspaper made noise and the magazine had to be readjusted under Dr. Preece¡¯s watchful eye. ¡°Well, you already know that my wife and daughter hate me.¡± She was scribbling notes down as she replied, ¡°yes. Yes.¡± ¡°And it¡¯s not a figment of my imagination.¡± ¡°Yes. Yes. I remember the dinner with your family. I saw the way they looked at you and treated you when they thought their ¡®guest¡¯ wasn¡¯t looking. I still can¡¯t believe she spat in your glass.¡± ¡°You never told me she spat in my glass?¡± ¡°Hmm? I¡¯m sure I did.¡± ¡°Well, anyway. It¡¯s been getting worse at the house recently.¡± ¡°Worse?¡± ¡°Yeah. She complains about everything I do straight to my face and then she tells me to leave her alone whenever I say anything to her. And she¡¯s been taking a lot of phone calls lately, but she refuses to tell me who she¡¯s talking to.¡± Dr. Preece scribbled so furiously that Markus wondered if he should pause to give her time to catch up with her note taking. If it wasn¡¯t for her gesturing for him to continue he would have stopped several times already. ¡°And my daughter just wants money or some new line of crazy-expensive makeup.¡± ¡°Okay. So things have been getting worse at home. How about at work?¡± ¡°Well, it was the same old story with work. That jackass of a manager keeps throwing his workload onto me and taking the credit for everything I do. And I can¡¯t complain because ever since I was put onto his ¡®special projects team¡¯ he¡¯s had the power to fire me the instant I do something he doesn¡¯t like. Even worse, he keeps giving me bad reviews and passing me over for promotion. I just saw a guy who had only been working there for two weeks get promoted over me! And I¡¯ve been there for over ten years!¡± Did she really already fill three pages? Her hands were a blur across the paper ever since he started talking, so maybe she was just writing down everything he said and her own notes. He could teacher her a trick to writing in short hand if she had a couple of hours. ¡°So how did that make you feel?¡± ¡°How do you think it made me feel? ANGRY! I was angry!¡± ¡°You know that¡¯s not what I meant. Rather than emotionally feeling, what did you want to do to express that feeling?¡± ¡°I wanted to throw things. To break one of his precious commemorative plates, or maybe punch him in the face. But really, I just wanted to quit so badly.¡± ¡°But you didn¡¯t.¡± ¡°No. No matter how many times I dreamed of it I never did.¡± ¡°Why not?¡± ¡°Because it¡¯s like my dad always said. ¡®If life gives you lemons, then you¡¯re the one who screwed up. Not life. So if you¡¯re not happy then you¡¯re the reason you¡¯re not happy.¡¯¡± ¡°If I remember correctly we spent a good deal of time talking about your childhood raising. I thought we both agreed that your father was wrong in nearly every matter and you shouldn¡¯t be taking his advice.¡± ¡°I remember and I¡¯m trying to live without recalling something my dad once said or did.¡± ¡°Good! So then why didn¡¯t you quit a job you clearly hated?¡± ¡°Because I needed the job!¡± He yelled out in exacerbation. ¡°I needed to make money in order to pay for the house, the car, taxes, saving up for my daughter¡¯s future tuition, food and clothing. I also needed to put money away for my retirement¡­ and if I lost that job I just knew that asshole would do everything in his power to blacklist me. I¡¯d never be able to find a job in the same field again.¡± ¡°So what changed? Why did you quit your job now?¡± ¡°Well the fire for one.¡± ¡°The fire?¡± ¡°Yeah. I was either going to quit or I was going to be fired after that little incident.¡± ¡°Fire, no matter how you spin it, a fire doesn¡¯t sound very ¡®little¡¯ to me. You mean to say that you caused a small fire that created a big incident, right?¡± Markus chuckled madly. ¡°Oh, no. Kukuku. It was definitely both a big fire and a big incident. It caused a revolution in the company after all, but no. It was a pretty big fire too.¡± ¡°What? You started a revolution?¡± ¡°Yep!¡± He was way too proud about that. But fuck that company! ¡°It was wonderful. You should have been there. People were throwing stacks of paper at each other, toner was being used as a mace and someone had got his hands on a bunch of lightbulbs. He looked like a fluorescent light samurai! Kukuku. ¡°Back up. What started the fire?¡± ¡°Oh, that was me!¡± ¡°Why did you start a fire?¡± ¡°I was pretty pissed when my manager was bragging on the phone that he was already finished his work. When in reality he pushed it off to me and forced me to work through my lunch break to finish it. So when he held out his hand for the work I did, I decided to give it to him with one small additional change.¡± ¡°The fire?¡± ¡°FIRE!¡± He cheerfully repeated the word while raising his fists into the air like he had just accomplished something. When he stopped Markus noticed that Dr. Preece was silently writing something with an intense focus. Leaning over he attempted to read the words upside down. ¡°¡­tendencies¡­creative¡­ pyromaniac¡­candle wax¡­ what?¡± Her notes were all over the place and only served to confuse him further as he tried to make sense of what his therapist jotted down. She pulled her notes closer to her chest, reminding him of kid trying to stop a cheater from looking at her work. ¡°So you started a fire for revenge. Is that how you lost your clothes? Did they catch fire?¡± ¡°What? No, I didn¡¯t lose my clothes.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± ¡°No, I used them to tie my boss to his chair.¡± Dr. Preece didn¡¯t respond immediately. She waited for him to say ¡®it was a joke¡¯ or that it was meant in a different way. She couldn¡¯t mentally process that the kind man, who may have been unhappy with his life but never showed even a glimpse of violent tendencies before, would have ever done something like that. ¡°You assaulted your boss?¡± ¡°That¡¯s what the police told me. They wanted to call it kidnapping though, but my lawyer says he¡¯s going to try to argue that down since I only gagged him to keep him from calling for security and I left him in his office.¡± ¡°Which was still on fire?¡± ¡°Well not the office. That was very much not on fire.¡± ¡°Oh good.¡± ¡°The desk was though¡­¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°But I¡¯m sure he¡¯s fine. As I was leaving the sprinklers were going full power.¡± ¡°So you started a fire, assaulted and tied up your ex-boss and told him you were quitting?¡± ¡°I think that pretty much sums up what happened.¡± ¡°And so you contacted your lawyer, avoided the police, then proceeded to contact me and involve me as an accessory of hiding a wanted criminal?¡± Dr. Preece looked at him incredulously. Her sexy appearance slowly became unkempt and exhausted as she subconsciously scratched her head and lost her calm demeanor. Whether she couldn¡¯t mentally or emotionally handle becoming an accessory to a criminal, she pushed that out of her mind and focused on the patient. Maybe she could argue that he had some kind of nervous breakdown. They needed to get to the root of his problems otherwise a similar incident might happen again.Stolen story; please report. ¡°Markus. You¡¯ve been pretty upset since before you stopped coming to our sessions. I refuse to believe that it was a simple phone call that threw you over the edge, caused you to tie your boss to his desk and set his office on fire!¡± ¡°Just the table-¡° ¡°I DON¡¯T CARE!¡± Her hands were up, menacingly hanging in front of her. Clearly her body was subconsciously about to strangle him. Fortunately she caught herself, briefly adjusted her appearance before continuing in a much calmer, more collective manner. ¡°What I meant to say, was that it didn¡¯t matter what was on fire and what was not on fire. I¡¯m more concerned with what triggered your, how should I say, destructive outburst. What stopped you from coming to our sessions?¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± Markus honestly had to think about that for a minute. It was so many months ago that he couldn¡¯t really remember when he started losing control. ¡°Probably¡­¡± ¡°Yes?¡± ¡°Probably, what caused me to snap was the final result of my divorce.¡± ¡°¡­you got divorced?¡± ¡°I received a summons from some jerkoff at work.¡± ¡°You were served your divorce papers while at work?¡± That definitely would be an attributing factor to why he snapped at work and assaulted his boss. She made a note of it at the bottom of a page before circling it and drawing arrows from other points on the page towards it. ¡°Yeah, and you know how he gave me the papers? He pretended to be a new hire, just out of college, and said he needed help with a particularly bad mistake he made in the books! I should have known something was off when he had paper in his hand instead of a flash drive.¡± When he saw the confusion on Dr. Preece¡¯s face he clarified. ¡°If you printed out all the books you¡¯d have a literal ton of paper. He wouldn¡¯t have been able to fit anything of significance on a few sheets of paper.¡± ¡°Ah.¡± He could just make out the sentence she was writing. ¡®Betrayed by what he thought of as a junior/prot¨¦g¨¦. Markus always took betrayal badly.¡¯ ¡°So how did the divorce go?¡± ¡°Not well.¡± He said it with a kind of deathly acceptance. Like he suffered through the most painful experience, but now that it was over he can look back at it just be glad it¡¯s over with. ¡°Are you able to talk about it?¡± ¡°Sure. That¡¯s partly one of the reasons why I¡¯m here today.¡± Dr. Preece perked up a little as she was finally getting to the root of what brought him in today. He was wanted by the police because he burned down his office and assaulted his boss. He did that because the guy was a jerk, but also because he was emotionally stressed by the outcome of his divorce. Which he received the news of, not from his wife, but from a process server. Who betrayed his trust in order to serve him divorce papers at work. ¡°Take it slow, and just know that I¡¯m here for you.¡± ¡°Thanks doc-er, Olivia.¡± ¡°You¡¯re welcome, Markus!¡± ¡°Right. Well, as I said, one day at work I received a summons to appear before a court judge. When I showed up the first thing that happened was that there was an ¡®anonymous¡¯ tip stating that I brought a weapon in order to kill a court judge.¡± ¡°Ouch. Security must have been rough.¡± ¡°They were not gentle, no. So despite being more than an hour early, I spent the next three hours locked in a room with two very large handed men. For the sake of this story let¡¯s call them Rick and Richard.¡± ¡°Rick and Richard indeed. Interesting choice of names.¡± ¡°Quite. Well, after they had finished their business, I explained to them the purpose of my visit. They sympathized with me, and they even apologized for the whole situation.¡± ¡°Well that¡¯s good-¡° ¡°Unfortunately the Judge didn¡¯t believe my reason for being over an hour late.¡± ¡°Oh.¡± ¡°And that immediately set the stage for my downfall! The Judge asked if there was anything that the court should know before the lawyers brought forth the list of assets. Which apparently my wife hired a private investigator to find out everything I own! My wife said she had some to share.¡± Markus stuttered a little. She couldn¡¯t determine if it was due to overwhelming anger, depression, pain or a combination of all three. ¡°My wife, of almost 20 years, declared in the court of law. That I had beaten her, repeatedly, during our marriage.¡± ¡°What? But you would never hurt anyone!¡± Olivia had to admit to herself, judging by her immediate outburst to defend his character that she might be getting too close to her patient. ¡°And I never have! Even in terms of self-defense I have never hurt anyone. It¡¯s just not something I¡¯ve ever done. But of course, already being in the Judge¡¯s bad graces, and my wife putting on a superb bit of acting, who did he believe?¡± He could barely swallow the bile of anger in his throat. ¡°That¡¯s right. He believed her.¡± ¡°So what happened?¡± ¡°Well, with the judge believing her, and my lawyer banging her-¡° ¡°Wait what?¡± ¡°He was banging her. My wife was sleeping with her lawyer and my lawyer at the same time. I hired a PI with some cash I stored in my car¡¯s rear-view mirror. The one place her stupid PI didn¡¯t look! She was getting double teamed by the pair of them.¡± ¡°I am so sorry Markus! That sort of evidence could get them into some serious trouble though.¡± ¡°Yep! That¡¯s one of the few good things that came out of my divorce. I now have a prosecutor and a defense lawyer by the short and curlies! Well, having those two at my beck and call along with no longer being married to my ex-wife.¡± ¡°I¡¯m just going to pretend that I didn¡¯t hear about potential blackmail.¡± She struck-through a portion of her notes as well. He agreed whole heartedly. ¡°That¡¯s probably for the best.¡± ¡°So what happened? In court I might add.¡± ¡°Well after the waterworks ended, the Judge decided that my soon-to-be ex-wife would get full custody of my daughter-¡° ¡°The one that hates you? Isn¡¯t she 18?¡± Markus had a confused smirk on his face. ¡°I only have the one, but she¡¯s turning 18 in a couple of months so she still falls under needing a custody hearing. And after giving custody to my wife, he then gave almost all of my assets over to her as well.¡± ¡°But I thought this was a no-fault state? Shouldn¡¯t the assets be split down the middle, 50-50?¡± ¡°Normally yes, but it¡¯s no longer a normal case when someone claims domestic violence. Apparently, all that she needed to do was convince the Judge, even a little bit, that her claim was real. If he believes her, AT ALL, then it¡¯s up to his discretion to give up to 100% of the assets to the injured party.¡± ¡°No way!¡± ¡°I thought the same thing.¡± ¡°But that would just give a lot of angry divorcee¡¯s the motive to falsely accuse their spouse of a crime!¡± ¡°I agree!¡± ¡°Wow, you learn something new every day. So the Judge gave her most of your assets. I assume that means the house, the cars¡­¡± ¡°All of those. Including the bank accounts, small items, some personal items¡­ everything except for my retirement account. He also filed a restraining order against me. I¡¯m not allowed with 500 yards of my old house or my ex-wife and daughter.¡± ¡°A restraining order? For how long?¡± ¡°Until I¡¯m deemed safe to be around them without wanting to beat them.¡± ¡°Wow. That would definitely be what triggered your outburst; which isn¡¯t going to help the restraining order.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t even care at this point. I was unhappy for years with my wife. And either she raised my daughter to hate me or I screwed up somewhere along the way and now she hates me just like her mother.¡± ¡°So you¡¯re¡­ not happy,¡± she tried to find a way to help him explain how he was feeling ¡°but¡­ accepting of how things ended?¡± ¡°I guess I am. Though, for a moment I thought it was almost worth going through all this shit.¡± ¡°Why?¡± ¡°Well after the restraining order, and the asset division, the Judge almost made me pay alimony. Clearly this was HER doing as well since I was going to have to pay about half my wages.¡± ¡°You said ¡®was¡¯. Did you not end up having to pay alimony?¡± ¡°No alimony what so ever! At first alimony was required, but after my phone call to my lawyer today the Judge rescinded it. I thought it was because I lost my job, but as it turns out a lot of people have tried to quit in order to avoid paying alimony to their ex¡¯s. But when the Judge heard the circumstances of my unemployment, including a more than likely pending arrest warrant, he determined that it was unlikely that I would fine a similar paying job in the future. So if I can¡¯t support myself then I can¡¯t afford alimony and I¡¯d just be in and out of the jail system for the rest of my life. So, no alimony. And the look on HER face¡­ EEEE! Priceless. Almost worth the rest of the bullshit.¡± There was a small lull in the conversation at that point. It would have been a good break for a snack and drinks, but neither of them had touched the bowl of mints or water bottles on the coffee table in the room. For Dr. Preece it was because she tended to focus completely on the patient, but for Markus it was because, when he realized that he fully accepted how the divorce turned out, he had failed to remember the magazine in his lap. A slight shift had let it drop to the floor before his lightning fast movements brought it back up as a shield from curious gazes. ¡°Nice. Ah, g-good! I think this is good. You¡¯re treating this like what it potentially could be. A fresh, new start.¡± ¡°A new start? What should I do?¡± This was where it would normally help if she had a few more decades to experience life. She would have been able to recommend new and exciting activities or suggested spending more time with friends. Luckily Dr. Preece was an expert student and had been working as a therapist for several years already. For a man like Markus who had already spent most of his life working for others she had the perfect idea. ¡°Do you remember a dream you had before you took the job under that jackass? Before you got married?¡± ¡°What? You mean in my sleep?¡± She went deadpan at his out of character, idiotic reply. ¡°No. Did you ever dream of what you wanted to do with your life? Like become an astronaut or a fire fighter?¡± ¡°Sure, but it was a stupid dream.¡± ¡°It can¡¯t be any stupider than wanting to be a unicorn. When I was 4 I wanted to be a pink horse with a horn on its head.¡± Markus had to admit it, his dream really wasn¡¯t as stupid as hers. ¡°I wanted to be an artist.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± That was a pleasant surprise. One especially out of the character she had developed in her mind about him. Dr. Preece was excited to find out more. ¡°What kind?¡± ¡°Everything really. Music, painting, drawing, carpentry scrap booking¡­ but what I really wanted to do was write fantasy stories.¡± ¡°The kind where a princess is in need of rescue and a valiant knight comes in to rescue her?¡± Markus could look at the bookshelf behind her to see that she was a fan of such romantic novels. The bookshelf was overstuffed with them. ¡°That, and stories about monsters and beasts. Other worlds and unexplored lands. Adventures and travels. I wanted to write all kinds of stories and spread them around the world for people to read. I wanted to travel the world and get inspiration from the places I visited and the people I met. That way I could write stories that people could relate to and they¡¯d enjoy them even more.¡± ¡°Sounds like a wonderful dream. Why not fulfill it?¡± ¡°Eh?¡± ¡°Is there a problem? From the sounds of it there¡¯s nothing to stop you? You are no longer married, your daughter is being taken care of by her mother and you no longer have a professional responsibility to any particular company. You¡¯re free!¡± She was getting more excited than him as she listed off what he didn¡¯t need to take care of. Internally, Dr. Preece was becoming jealous of the nude man in front of her. ¡°Yeah, why not?¡± Her excitement was a storm and sweeping Markus up in its wake. ¡°I won¡¯t let anyone tell me what I can and cannot do. I won¡¯t take orders and I¡¯ll work for myself. I¡¯ll travel the world, see the sites! Paint, sculpt, and write about my experiences. I¡¯ll make works of art that everyone will want to read and then I¡¯ll distribute it for free over the internet!¡± In his excitement, Markus could feel the blood pumping through his veins. Blood cells were pumping adrenaline to every pore of his being, something he hadn¡¯t felt in a long time. He wanted to scream and shout. He wanted to let out his feelings and every emotion at the same time. He wanted to let it all out, and he couldn¡¯t do that sitting still. Without thinking about it he stood up. ¡°Eh? That last part might be a little too much.¡± Dr. Preece was keeping a level gaze straight forward. She had made her decision and didn¡¯t bother to follow his eyes. ¡°Get a good long look Olivia! This is the new me!¡± As he strode out of the office with confidence he could just make out ¡°Oh, I¡¯m looking¡± from behind him.
Though he was all hyped up to fulfill his teenage dream, Markus came across a slight problem. Other than the fact that it was still illegal to walk around public without any clothes on, and that the police had been looking for him while he was in session with Dr. Preece, Markus had no money. Having lost it all in the divorce, and then subsequently losing his job, he was without cash or credit. And trips around the world cost a lot of money. Too much money for Markus to even think about in fact. Hell, when you¡¯re broke, a trip to the next state costs too much money. At least for the public nudity charge he had a lawyer, who was possibly corrupt, work it out to a misdemeanor. Luckily for Markus the lawyer was better at his job than he had thought. He stated to the judge that his actions were out of character due to the stress of getting divorced, losing custody of his only child and losing his job. Even though he properly did his job; if Markus had any money he wouldn¡¯t have called the irate, stuck-up man. Anyone who had material that could be used to blackmail himself couldn¡¯t possibly be an upstanding member of society. Still, this particular lawyer had his perks. Like the free cell phone service during their only client-attorney privilege moment. With that one cell-phone he was able to get in touch with the legal department of the company that he no longer worked for. He then gave them a file location on his work desktop computer along with the necessary password to open it. Within ten minutes he had been passed up to the CEO¡¯s secretary. The woman played at being a secretary though. Anyone who worked long enough in the company would know that she was really giving the orders and the actual CEO was an underqualified man who was paid a large yearly figure just to take the fall in the eventuality that the company needed a scape goat. Luckily he must have caught her in a good mood because she sounded like her normally cold-calculated, succinct self. ¡°What would you like in return for the contents of that file disappearing for good?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve been paying attention to my circumstances, especially since I burnt down a poor defenseless desk several floors below you.¡± ¡°And set off the sprinkler system, which managed to soak several thousand dollars¡¯ worth of equipment and several tons of paper.¡± ¡°I would say that I¡¯m sorry but I¡¯m not. Everything is the fault of that asshole.¡± ¡°Please get to the point. I¡¯m in a meeting.¡± ¡°So, you must know that I need a few things from the company that only you can help me with. It¡¯s a short list so I¡¯m sure you won¡¯t need to write this down. First, get rid of the assault charge against me.¡± ¡°Done.¡± ¡°Second, I need a little money. Not much, just something to help me get back on my feet.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll see what we have in petty cash.¡± And boom. Just like that his assault charge, which his court appointed lawyer said was going to stick no matter what, slid right out of his record. And he was going to be getting some money that he would use to replace the dreary clothes gifted to him from out of the lost and found of the police station. Markus would also need to use some of it for daily necessities, but he hoped that it would be enough for his short-term living arrangements. He could have just given her a large number and she¡¯d probably have gotten it, but he didn¡¯t want to push his luck. The one thing he couldn¡¯t do was be too greedy and force them to take countermeasures instead of just dropping the charges and paying him off. Until the money came through and the official papers to drop the charges were stamped in triplicate, Markus was stuck in a jail cell. With nothing but time and cheap television to keep him company. ¡°¡­stuck in a dead end job? Want to explore untouched wilderness? See never before, other worldly landscapes...¡± Some kind of commercial was playing on the TV right at about the time that Markus got tired of listening to a guard yell at him to stop hitting his head against the cell bars. Of course, that was after he got tired of counting the dots on the ceiling in French. ¡°¡­take part in huge epic battles¡­ gigantic monsters¡­ massive reward systems¡­¡± He stopped listening to the announcer. The scenery in the commercial was beautiful. Sprawling mountains, deep ravines, ravenous monsters, quests, endless forests, big baddies¡­ Universe Online. It was something called a virtual reality massive multiplayer online role playing game. Years had passed since he last played a game, but he was coming up with an ingenious idea. ¡®I don¡¯t have the money to travel the world. At best the company will pay me enough for a couple of plane tickets. If this virtual reality bit is as good as the commercial is hyping it up to be, maybe I could use the game as a substitute for traveling around the world? There are foreign lands that no one has ever seen before. Monsters to fight and there has to be some kind of princess quest that I could do. I don¡¯t have to get inspiration from real experiences. And, even if it is from a game, I still really experienced it! Plus, it has to be cheaper to buy a game than to buy food and lodging as well as transportation! This could work¡­¡¯ Chapter 2 - Dawn of a Developing Gamer Chapter 2 Dawn of a Developing Gamer Several days after the charges were dropped, Markus was impatiently waiting for the installation men to hook up a ¡®pod¡¯ for him in his bedroom. Of course, it¡¯s not in his old home, the house that he had been living in for years, but an apartment complex bedroom. So outside of a queen bed, a night stand, a humongous contraption, and 3 sweaty technicians, the room was barren. ¡°Hey guys, how much longer is this going to take?¡± Giving each other that same ¡®annoyed but can¡¯t say anything to the client¡¯ look, they inwardly compartmentalized their irritation. Instead, the one who lost the rock-paper-scissors match beforehand spoke to him for the fourth time. ¡°Sir? I understand that you¡¯re impatient, but please understand that this is a complicated piece of equipment and-¡° ¡°Yeah-yeah I know the spiel. But I also know that you get paid by the hour so¡­¡± ¡°Sir, let me make this as perfectly clear as I can. This Virtual Reality Personality Obfuscation Device, or VR POD, is a very delicate piece of equipment. If we set up this device wrongly, or in any way damage it or make a mistake, you won¡¯t know about it because you¡¯ll have fried your brain.¡± That made him question his purchase. ¡°Is it that dangerous?¡± Having seen that look before, the installation man realized his mistake and quickly corrected Markus¡¯s misapprehension. ¡°No sir. The VR POD is perfectly safe once it is installed properly. Afterwards we monitor the system daily so that should any dangerous situation arise we can safely pull you out of the VR POD without any risk to your health and safety.¡± ¡°Good-¡° ¡°But please sir, let us install it properly?¡± ¡°Sorry.¡± Unsure of what to do, and positive he didn¡¯t have anything of value to steal, Markus left them alone in the apartment to finish the installation. They had been going at it for two hours already and would probably be a little while longer so he just wandered the apartment complex to ease his boredom. Unfortunately the hallways were long and boring. Everyone had their doors locked, but since it was the middle of the day he figured it was more because they were off at work rather than just trying to keep out nosy neighbors. ¡°I¡¯m calling the police!¡± ¡°What?¡± A young girl was leaning out her door, just two apartments down from him, number five-o-six. She couldn¡¯t have been more than ten years old. ¡°Why?¡± ¡°What else are you supposed to do when you see a creepy old guy walking from door to door? Knocking on everyone¡¯s apartment when they¡¯re off at work.¡± ¡°Well I¡¯m new here. I live right here in five-o-four. So please don¡¯t call the police.¡± She gave him that ¡®uh duh¡¯ look that was only cute on kids around her age. If he tried doing it people would look at him like he was hit in the head too many times as a child. ¡°I know you live there! I¡¯ve seen you around a few times. Plus, the delivery men made a lot of noise so I was watching when you let them in.¡± ¡°You¡¯re very smart for your age. So you¡¯re not going to call the police?¡± ¡°Noooo¡­¡± Why did she have to sound so disappointed? Breathing out in relief he said, ¡°Oh good, cause I¡¯m not sure how much trouble I can get in with the police-!¡± The words came out of his mouth before he could help it. ¡°Oooh! You¡¯re a criminal? Bad man, bad man.¡± She chanted the words to a terrible song in a sing-song voice. ¡°¡­just like Uzbekistan!¡± ¡°I¡¯m not a criminal, I just don¡¯t want to get in trouble for something I didn¡¯t do.¡± Markus crouched down so that he¡¯d be less intimidating to the small child. ¡°Tell you what, my name is Markus. What¡¯s yours?¡± She shyly replied, ¡°Sadie.¡± ¡°Sadie? That¡¯s a lovely name.¡± ¡°Thank you.¡± She stretched the words out embarrassingly cute. ¡°Are your parents¡¯ home?¡± ¡°Uh-un. Mommy¡¯s at work.¡± ¡°And what about your dad?¡± ¡°Mommy says daddy is a bad man.¡± ¡°Oh, well I don¡¯t want you getting in trouble with your mother so go back inside.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± When she closed the door he added one more bit. ¡°And no more talking to strangers!¡± A muffled ¡°okay¡± came from the door. ¡°Sir?¡± ¡°WAA!?¡± The voice from behind him took him by complete surprise. His heart tried to leap out of his throat! The installation men were packing up their stuff and getting ready to leave. ¡°Sorry to disturb your conversation with an empty hallway?¡± Installation man #1 wanted to leave this crazy man as soon as possible. Constantly bugging them, interrupting their explanations, asking how long they were going to take every five minutes. Now they found him talking to himself in the hallway. ¡°No, there was a little girl just there.¡± ¡°Sure there was. If I could just get you to sign here?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not crazy.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sure you think you¡¯re not. Sign here please?¡± ¡°Why are you acting like that?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t touch me.¡± *** Because the installation men ran away as soon as he signed, Markus was forced to read the large tome they called a manual in order to operate the VR POD. Turned out to be pretty simple, just find the one button that looks like you¡¯re not supposed to touch it and touch it. A couple days later, when the beta tests were over, Markus was ready to play on the official launch day. Hitting the big red button to his side, the pod closed. Whirring noises could be heard from all around as he relaxed and watched the pretty lights as the VR POD uploaded his consciousness into the game.
Welcome to Universe Online This is your first time logging in. Do you wish to create a new character? Yes | No
A defined feminine voice read the text out loud. If it was a human he was listening to he would have assumed that the voice came from a very attractive woman. Unfortunately the manual had noted several times that there were interactive AI filling in all the voices and controlling the games normal operations. If he ever had a question he could simply address them and find out anything that was freely available to all players. However, while the prompt appeared in front of him and the woman read it aloud, he was too busy adjusting to the full integration with the virtual reality around him to care. He raised his hand, marveling at the sensation of it actually feeling like his own real hand. For several minutes his attention was on the feeling of his own body and astonishment of the game technology now-a-days.
YES? | NO?
The same prompt appeared but larger and in all caps as if the AI program was irritated with his child-like curiosity. Rolling his eyes he said ¡°Obviously the answer is yes.¡± Such an expensive machine and a monthly subscription, who would say no to their first character? If he didn¡¯t have the hush money from the secretary of the CEO from his previous employment he wouldn¡¯t have even gotten the POD. The message prompts disappeared and instead a visual of himself appeared with dozens of small selection windows appearing all around it. Each one had a slide bar, a panel of different colors and even some makeup tools. Some of it was pretty simple to understand; eyes, mouth, hair, skin complexion, but ¡°Race?¡± He asked perplexed. Dozens of humanoid races appeared, with descriptions, statistics, bonuses and recommendations for each. More than half of the races were locked to him. A note of pay to unlock appeared on a few but most were apparently story locked. When he clicked for more info it said:
Characters locked behind story events cannot be chosen until a specific event occurs or until players in the game unlock those races through unspecified requirements that vary depending upon the race.
¡°When in doubt, leave it out!¡± A good piece of advice from a mentor of his in college. It helped him keep his job on multiple occasions, at least until he set his boss¡¯s desk on fire. Choosing to ignore what he didn¡¯t fully understand he closed the message prompt before looking at the different races. After quickly scrolling through a few he couldn¡¯t help but notice most of the races had either a pro he didn¡¯t care about or a con that he didn¡¯t like. ¡°Isn¡¯t there a neutral race? No real bonuses and no real negatives?¡± The computer quickly scrolled almost all the way to the end. Race: Human appeared, showing a relatively bland set of stats, no bonuses and no weaknesses. However, below it, there was a foot note he noticed at the bottom of the list of races. ¡°May change based on gameplay interactions? What does that even mean?¡± The view in front of him started to change, but he was already annoyed with how much time he was wasting on developing his character. ¡°You know what? No, don¡¯t even answer that. I select human.¡± Once he selected his race that window was minimized to the top of his view. Next he gathered all the windows related to his appearance and selected the ¡°Mirror¡± option. His character looked like him and he didn¡¯t feel it was necessary to change that. He heard that some games even have options inside that allow you to change the character¡¯s features so he reasoned that he would probably be able to change it later if he wanted to. Roughly two dozen more windows minimized to the top of his view. Next came his character stats. He had the option of adjusting his base stats to a certain degree, but since he didn¡¯t read up on what each stat did before he came to the character creation he thought it was best if he left them as they were.
Please select your character name. For security and privacy it is recommended that you do not use your own name.
¡°Naturally it would be a bad idea to use your own personal information. Is there a restriction that I must adhere to regarding the character name?¡±
Character Names must have at least one character and no more than 99 characters. There is no restriction on numbers or symbols. Names do not have to be actual names. You are not allowed to use names of company employees. Special Names are reserved for certain Individuals. Please select a name for your character.
The disembodied voice had a clear irritation when she read the name restrictions as if every game or service in the world consisted of the same list. He chose to ignore it even though he was also passing through irritation to agitation. This was the first game Markus had played in years and the last one was a board game. How would he know what the restrictions were? ¡°Flying Sword.¡± It was the name of a character he read about once. A legendary warrior that once fought an army that had kidnapped his beloved-
Name TakenThis story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Before he could even finish his inner monologue an incorrect tone, ber-nern, sound echoed around him as the woman read aloud the prompt rejecting his choice. Apparently someone else had also read that story. He went through a half dozen other names of famous characters but he kept getting the same message. Ber-nern.
Name Taken
¡°Fine. Use Emperor.¡± If he can¡¯t use his favorite characters he might as well use a strong title. Ber-nern.
Name Taken
¡°That¡¯s taken too? Geez.¡± He went through a couple more variations of strong positions, but he had the same luck as with his favorite characters. So he just started to go through anything that came to mind. CEO. Ber-nern. Taken. Lord. Ber-nern. Taken. King. Reserved. Clown. Ber-nern. Taken. Explorer. Ber-nern. Taken. Wanderer. Ber-nern. Taken. Traveler. Ber-nern. Taken. Adventurer. Ber-nern. Taken. Writer. Ber-nern. Taken Quitter. Ber-nern. Taken. Father. Reserved. Righteous. Ber-nern. Taken. Man. Ber-nern. Taken. Penis. Ber-nern. Not Allowed. Woman. Ber-nern. Taken. Solo Player. Ber-nern. Taken. Name. Ber-nern. Taken. Character. Ber-nern. Taken. Is Every Name Taken? Ber-nern. Taken.
  1. Ber-nern. Taken.
  2. Ber-nern. Taken.
  3. Ber-nern. Taken.
Now he was starting to get rather frustrated. Just how many people were already playing this game that just officially came out? How¡¯d they select every character name that he could think of? And did it have to do that same, stupid sound every single time? Markus continued to list out over 60 names through gritted teeth but the same denial tone and prompt appeared every time. Just when he was about to quit creating a character entirely and give up on the game, his old nickname from college was accepted. A very pleasant DING soothed his tired ears.
Please review your character. Once your character is finalized it can only be changed by items or actions within the game.
Character Name Dev Dev Alignment Neutral
Race Human Affiliation None
Level 1 Type Basic
Class None
Title None
Fame 0
Strength Dexterity Spirit Vitality
10 10 10 10
Health 100 Armor
Stamina 100 Damage
Are you sure that this is the character you wish to create? Yes | No
¡°YES!¡± He yelled. Already fed up with the whole process. But it seemed he wasn¡¯t done yet.
Please adjust the following game options for your personal preference. Select either Realistic, Advanced, Normal or Safe for each-
Before he could even fully read the prompt he angrily strolled his finger over realistic for all the options.
Thank You. Please take this time to register your POD device. Registrants also need to fill out a brief 100 question survey.
¡°AAARRRRRGGGGHHHH!¡± He roared at the prompt in front of him. It wasn¡¯t satisfying to repeatedly punch the prompt since his digital fist went right through the digital window but that didn¡¯t stop him! After that the prompts disappeared, but he didn¡¯t expect to hear a couple girls giggling at him. ¡°Just kidding!¡± One of them said. ¡°Enjoy Universe Online!¡± Wait that sounded pretty advanced for an AI. Too advanced! Was there actually an employee messing with him? *** While Markus was still reeling, believing the giggling young-female voice wasn¡¯t an AI but actually an employee who was messing with him, he was launched into the game proper. His vision blackened.
Welcome To Universe Online
The large number of prompts and windows during his character creation irritated him, but somehow the short and simple prompt once in the game irritated him just as much. He didn¡¯t want to admit it, but the short prompt might have actually irritated him even more than the prior ones. Quickly he squinted his eyes as his vision came back to him, but not in the same well-lit area from before. He was locked in a darkened pod similar to the one that he was using to play the game, but a bit more durable looking. Less bright colors and more metal. Lights flashed inside and outside of the pod. The hissing noise made from the release of blocked gasses filled his ears before the pod cracked open and the restraints holding him in place released him. Gravity took over, pulling Dev to the metal-grate catwalk several feet below him. Pain. ¡°Ow.¡± A red -10 HP floated up from his legs. He was astonished at how real it felt to hit the catwalk. ¡°Where am I? This place is huge!¡± Dev couldn¡¯t believe his eyes as he looked around the large chasm-like room. The ceiling stretched hundreds of feet up while the bottom disappeared in the distant darkness. All around him were pods similar to the one he came out of. Some were already opened, the lights dark, and others were closed while more than a few were releasing their occupants at an alarming rate. So many different player Avatars. He skipped through the customization part but there must have been a lot of options to choose from. Some users had green scaly skin with bright pink hair. Others were walking around with hooves while wearing a thong. Obviously this game could be R-rated. Dev was already lamenting hitting the reality option for all the game settings, but that initial process was just taking too long. Dev followed other people, leaving the pod-room through a pair of giant double doors. As he passed through he noticed a word in golden letters above the door. Salus They opened into a very large room with hundreds of people in it. The noise from people calling to others deafened him. Some were calling for people to join their party, others were merchant criers calling out to passersby¡¯s about their store¡¯s wonderful product or slandering their competitions wares. Even giant mechanical robots with the words SECURITY written on them were blaring at the people below them, the rules of the common areas. There were so many people all over the place it gave him a sense of claustrophobia. But when Dev looked closer he noticed that some of them had the letters N, P, and C stitched into their clothing or etched into their mechanical power armor. Sometimes they would be together in order, but most of the time the letters were in different locations. Like an N would be on the right shoulder, the P would be over the chest and the C would be on the left shoulder. The different combinations made each one of those people seem more unique despite wearing the same letters. From his limited gaming experience and interactions with people who played games Dev knew that the letters NPC stood for Non-Player Characters. Meaning that they were in fact programs that were simulating the normal actions of real people. After listening to a conversation between a random passerby and a shop crier, both had NPC¡¯s on their clothing, Dev wondered how in-depth the programing had to be in order simulate that sort of realistic interaction. There was even an argument between a horned red skinned woman and a tall pale-blue skinned stout man as a humanoid robot tried to intermediate between the two. If it wasn¡¯t for the face bursting open to reveal a small shriveled brown creature he wouldn¡¯t have been able to tell that it was a robot. Before he knew it, Dev was watching a walking, rotting corpse direct security mechs to the scene and all three were being fined for disturbing the peace. The demon looking woman responded by slapping the fine into the mechs camera and berating the officer who controlled it. To which, the mech responded by shooting a mesh-web, effectively capturing her before it took her away. ¡°Note to self, don¡¯t make a scene¡­¡± Dev didn¡¯t let that scene ruin his mood though. He gazed around in awe at the new sights around him. At first he was worried that there would be too many NPC¡¯s walking around, but after a few more minutes¡¯ people were leaving the starting room and joining the rest outside the double doors. Even though there were a lot of NPC¡¯s around him, the sudden flood of player avatars quickly hid the majority from view. Everything around him pumped adrenaline through his blood. Other than looking for letters on people¡¯s bodies the easiest way to tell who was a player and who was not was by looking at the quality of worn items. Every player was wearing a basic set of clothing including pants, shirt, and boots if you were a man, or a dress, a blouse and shoes if you were a woman. There were of course exceptions, but Dev found the NPC¡¯s outfits far more interesting. All of them had a strong fantasy air about them. ¡°Let¡¯s go explore the world.¡± He spoke to no one in particular. Taking a deep breath he moved forward two steps before a prompt appeared.
You have entered the Commons of the Salus. Security measures are in effect.
¡°Please don¡¯t tell me that these things are going to haunt me throughout the game¡­¡± He sighed tiredly as hit closed the prompt. BEEP-BEEP! ¡°Watch it, ¡®cuse me, coming thoo, make vay!¡± Dev saw what looked like a bulky tire moving his way, cutting through the crowds at alarming speeds, causing more than a few people to dive out of its way. Right before he was about to dodge it, the tire turned on its side, angling the way it came from. Screeching brake sounds could be heard as it came to a halt, wobbling slightly before falling flat on the ground. More than a little confused, Dev figured he might as well call out to it. ¡°Hello?¡± As if waiting for him to make the first interaction, the tire¡¯s internal parts sprang up vertically, creating a type of wire-like tower. It finished in a millisecond with a pair of large square eyes on top of the odd structure. ¡°HELLO!¡± It seemed beyond giddy to see him. It spoke in a cute computer modded voice. ¡°I am the Informative Drone Introductory Operations Trainer. My designation is 44007813-CR41G, but everyone else seems to call me PEEPERS!¡± The drone¡¯s body/tower was heavily leaning towards him, causing him to partially bend his upper body backwards. Oddly enough its eye¡¯s blinked rapidly. ¡°Peepers?¡± The eyes nodded. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m not exactly sure why, and some people laugh a little when they say it, but for some reason after the first person I talked to said it, everyone else began saying it.¡± Peepers in his excitement was unable to pause for proper punctuation. His eyes blinked rapidly for a few seconds before some internal mechanism pushed them out of his head as if to zoom in on Dev. He took that to mean it was waiting for a response. ¡°So how can I help you 44007813-CR41G?¡± It was a long designation and a mouthful, but luckily in the real world Dev had trained himself to have nearly a perfect eidetic memory. It was one of his strongest skills, allowing him to completely memorize a nearly 100 by 100 column spreadsheet. PEEPERS on the other hand was completely taken aback that he had answered it using his designation in full. He even started to make crying sounds and his eyes were leaking some kind of opaque yellow liquid that pulsed with light every few seconds. ¡°You remembered my name?¡± Peepers squealed in delight in his little robot voice. The tower structure shrank back into the tire before launching back out. ¡°WOOHOO!¡± It yelled as it went several feet off the ground. Unsure of what else to do, Dev answered back. ¡°Of course I do. Why wouldn¡¯t I?¡± ¡°No one else has! Right! I¡¯ll take you to the Introductory Training Plaza. There you can practice moving around and getting use to the gravity of this new world! Follow me!¡± It snapped back into itself just as the tire spun around and did the same process of how he arrived but in reverse. Peepers speed would have left him in the dust, but luckily for Dev he was able to keep up because it kept having to stop in order to get through the crowd. The other players that witnessed his interaction with the little bot were all surprised. When other replicas of Peepers showed up for them they tried to remember their designations, but they all failed miserably. *** Following along, Peepers taught Dev all about the different Training Plazas by yelling behind him as he sped through the crowds. His large eyes were split; one watching the trailing Dev while the other watched where he was going. The multiple directional view or just the split field of view caused Peepers problems though and he would repeatedly crash into something, or someone, by accident. ¡°Whoops! Sorry!¡± His cute voice would cry out. His standard method of escape would be to reverse backwards at high speeds before turning and burning rubber. The Introductory Training Plaza was open to any user for as long as he/she pleased. It was recommended by the game managers for all users to visit it in order to get use to the VR system and to also test out new skills or stat changes. While it might not be very noticeable, stat changes could have massive effects on the way one moves or fights in Universe Online. In particular, it was recommended to visit the Training Plazas often in order to adjust reaction times and compatibility with a user¡¯s gear. The massive plaza had all kinds of equipment setup for players to test themselves. Jungle gyms, ropes, walls, tracks, mazes, target ranges, dummies; the list went on. Peepers sat in the middle of the plaza gesturing with his eyes for Dev to come closer. He figured he¡¯d have plenty of time to run around later so he obligingly walked over. ¡°Whatssss thissss?¡± When he was only a few feet away from Peepers a lisping voice called out from behind him. ¡°The tuuutorial bot actuuually brouuught ssssomeone? I asssssuuume youuu just woke up from youuur ssssluuumber?¡± A nearly skeletal figure had followed Dev without his noticing. His clothing and equipment looked like terrible rags or rusted junk but a silver disc badge with the word ¡®INSTRUCTOR¡¯ shined on his chest. ¡°Hello. I¡¯m Mark-uh, I mean Dev. I guess, I just arrived here.¡± ¡°Good. Youuu may uuusssse any of the training equipment from along the wallssss, buuut make ssssuuure to put it BACK!¡± The undead instructor glared at Dev. ¡°Thouuugh I ssssuuuggesssst youuu make douuubly ssssuuure to try ouuut every couuursssse. They will be uuussssefuuul when youuu have to confront monssssterssss. And youuu never know what might come in handy.¡± He spoke in a very lisping, rasping voice that started to give Dev a headache, but since Dev was afraid of causing a scene and summoning the massive security mechs he calmly nodded with a smile towards the instructor. Dev made sure to show absolute politeness to the NPC. ¡°Thank you, sir. May I ask for your name and any additional guidance you might have?¡± ¡°Youuu are right. I have not introduuucced mysssself. I am insssstruuuctor, Huun¡¯reh. One of the very firsssst uuuundead to reawaken duuuring the Alliancce¡¯ssss troublessss and itssss mosssst loyal member.¡± Dev had intended to use the game to explore and take in the sites in order be inspired to create his novels. So he didn¡¯t take the time to read about the game¡¯s storyline or setting. He had no idea what the Alliance was or what troubles it had suffered through, but he had to admit that he was intrigued about the undead claiming it was the alliance¡¯s most loyal member. He made a mental note to check it out later. ¡°Of course, Instructor Huun¡¯reh. You are indeed a cherished member of the Alliance. I would be honored for any teachings you might bestow upon my unworthy self.¡± A little bit of flattery didn¡¯t harm anyone and after so many years of working for narcissistic bosses in real life he had gotten pretty good at sneaking in some to any conversation. Modesty and humility came even easier due to his early upbringing. ¡°For now youuu have not completed any of the training couuurssssessss. Buuut I do believe that thissss little droid hassss ssssomething for youuu?¡± Dev saw that the little droid was going to explode from an electronic ulcer if he didn¡¯t get a chance to speak soon. ¡°Do you have something for me, 44007813-CR41G?¡± ¡°YYYYYYYEEEESSSSS!¡± Peepers popped off the ground excitedly again. ¡°What I have for you is a Managerial Acquisitions Transmissions Entity. Or M, A, T, E for short. This little device has all you¡¯ll ever need! And YOU CAN¡¯T live without it! ¡°Whether you want to be an adventurer, a producer, a miner, a gatherer, a researcher or an explorer-.¡± ¡°EXPLORER!¡± Dev interrupted him, hoping he would shut up soon. Or at least take a breath. ¡°Well then! You need M.A.T.E. to help you out! With it you can see a readout of your current physical condition where ever you are and a complete view of your entire inventory. It¡¯s also useful for remembering any skills you¡¯ve learned or any quests you¡¯ve taken on. And! As a special bonus it is fully upgradeable so if you get the parts you can increase the M.A.T.E.¡¯s abilities. As an explorer I¡¯m sure you¡¯d be interested in the ability to create your own maps right?¡± ¡°Yeah, that sounds very useful.¡± ¡°Then make sure to visit the Bibliotheca and talk to the head Librarian. If he thinks you¡¯ll survive he may just lend you a Maps Upgrade for the M.A.T.E.¡± ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll make sure to do that.¡± ¡°Then, my job is done!¡± And Peepers cheerfully raced out of the plaza. Even the Instructor had disappeared from Dev¡¯s side before he knew it. Though he quickly found him talking to other players who were starting to file in. Dev chose the closest obstacle to start.