"-The weather today will be 40° with clear skies." David woke up to the news. He checked the time to see it was 3pm. "Heh, waking up late on the first day of the year. Perfect start." David got up to go to the restroom, on his way there he passes his calendar. He flips to the next page and crosses off the day, January 1st, 2045. After comepleting his morning routine, despite the time, he sat down to watch TV. David graduated high school last year and has no plans for college. After he explained to his parents that he did not want to go to college and planned on finding a job, they gave him the money they saved to pay for him to go to college. He then moved out and bought a home not too far away, about an hour walk away from his parent's home. Because his parents saved a large amount of money for David to go to college, he still had enough money to last another year without working, so David just spent most days hanging out with his friends. *Briiiing briiiing briiiing* David checked his phone to see it was his best friend, John, calling. John and David had been friends since middle school. David would frequently get into fights and one time when David was fighting 4 kids from a higher grade, John jumped in to help him and together they managed to beat down the 4 older kids. They have been best friends ever since and gained the nickname "Demon Duo", due to how much they would get into fights. "What's up man?", David answered the phone. "Nothing much, I was checking to see if you decided to get the game or not, you've got nothing but free time and a load of cash, what's stopping you?" John loved to play VR games, David on the other hand never wanted to burden his parents with the purchase of the VR device, the GX8, which cost $1,500 for even the cheapest model. "You know that I don't care much for VR games. I just don't understand what's so great about them.", David replied to his friend. "That's because you never played one for yourself, look just get 'Unrivaled' man, please? Me and you together would be unstoppable!", John said trying to coerce David. "You know what, your right. I'll head out right now to get the game, it releases in a few days right?" David responded, he no longer had to ask his parents to buy the system since he had money of his own, and it seems like John really wants him to play this game. "Dude, the servers go live tomorrow! Hurry and get the system so you don't get left behind!", John says, excited that David has finally decided to join him in gaming. "Alright, I'll head to the GX Gaming shop now." GX Gaming is the leading VR gaming company right now, producing the best systems and games around the world. David walked out of his home and headed to the nearest GX Gaming shop which was only 5 minutes away. He arrives at the shop and walks directly up to the register. "Hello, how may I help you?", the woman at the register says to David with a bright smile. "Um, I wanted to purchase a GX8 and 'Unrivaled'", David says awkwardly, feeling a bit uncomfortable from the smile of the cashier. "Oh, is this your 1st time playing a VR game? If you would like, you can set up your account here to do the calibration and combat test. Depending on how well you do, you can get a discount on better models of the GX8." David didn't really care much for what model of the GX8 he got, but if can get something at a discounted price, why not? "Okay, I'll do that then.", David replied to the cashier. "Great, if you would just follow me, I shall take you to the test area.", The cashier walked from around the counter and led David down a staircase. "Whoa", was all David could muster as he saw the size of the room downstairs. It was much larger, at least double the size of the area upstairs and was filled with GX8 devices lined up next to eachother. "Alright let's get this started up.", the cashier says as she walks toward a computer and begins typing. "Ok, I need you to go to system 7.", she says, pointing at one of the GX8 machines. "Alright", David responds and walks over to the machine. The Top of it opens and he gets in and lays down. "Whenever your ready, say "System Launch" and you will lose consciousness, starting up the game.",the cashier says before closing the top of the machine from the computer. "Got it.",David responds. He sits inside the machine for a bit, then says "System Launch." *System Booting... registering new user.* David hears a robotic voice in his ears. He then sees a blue light that scans him from top to bottom. *Registration complete...system launching* David is then surrounded by white light. He looks around and then realizes that he is staring at himself. A light-skinned male about 6'4 with a muscular build, his eyes and hair are oddly red. No one knows why his eyes and hair are like that, neither of his parents have odd colored hair or eyes. He usually puts contacts over his eyes to hide the color but he can't do the same for his hair, dye never last longer than 2 hours. After looking at the reflection of himself for a short time, he then hears a voice. "Hello hello, can you hear me?", it was the voice of the cashier. "Loud and clear.", David responds. Great, now, for the calibration all you have to do is some stretches and get a feel for the movement in the game and we can move on to the test." Says the cashier. "Alright." David then proceeds to stretch and get used to his virtual body. After doing this for about 3 minutes, he once again hears the cashier's voice. "Everything okay?" She asks. "I believe so." David says back. "Great! Now let's start the test."