After school Kaden's mother was there to pick him up, just like she had told him she would be. Unfortunately she interrogated him the entire way home, forcing him to tell her everything about his day.
For the most part his first day at the academy was just boring. They were only taught traditional subjects and fed a bunch of information. Still, Avery was very interested to hear about it, she had a strong interest in her child's life.
When they arrived home, she finally relented and let him go. Something Kaden was happy about, grabbing the chance to go up to his room so that he could enter the virtual world.
After all, he had an agreement with Chet and Damien to meet them. While he loved his mother, playing games in the virtual world was way more enticing.
Just like he had done every time he entered the virtual world, he lay on his bed and pressed a button on his com.
Immediately a suction feeling arrived out of nowhere, pulling on his consciousness and dragging him straight into the virtual world.
There was a slight feeling of disorientation as the scenery around him changed completely. He had just been alone in his dark bedroom, but now he was standing in the middle of a crowded grand square.
Flashes of light kept lighting up his surroundings. Whenever a light faded away, a person would take it's place.
The square where he was standing was a location within the virtual world's Aldera City. To prevent congestion, each of the Federation's planets had their own city where people would connect to.
As it's name implied, Aldera City was the default place where those who connected to the virtual world from Aldera would appear.
The virtual world was enormous, connecting all the planets within the Federation's territory. To travel to other cities it was necessary to go to a Teleportation Hub and pay a fee.
Kaden took in the sights for a short moment, watching the streams of people pass him by. He had been to the virtual world a few times, but it was still impressive whenever he saw it.
Having enough of the crowd watching, he left the square and walked onto a less busy street.
Now that he had some space, he opened his contact list and a white transparent screen appeared before him. The screen was mostly empty, only having a few names on it. He quickly found Damien who was already online.
"Hey, you want to meet up now?" Kaden sent him a quick message.
It only took a few seconds for Damien to send a message back, "Sure. Chet and I are at the Central Plaza, I'll ping you the location. Let me know if you get it."
Kaden recieved a ping request and tapped to accept it, "Yeah I got it." He sent a reply and began heading towards the Central Plaza.
The Central Plaza was close by so he arrived at the pinged location after a few minutes. He quickly spotted Damien and Chet sitting at a table outside a café, each sipping away at a yellow beverage.
The Central Plaza was mostly filled with bars, café's and restaurants. Despite the fact that virtual consumables wouldn't affect your real body, most still enjoyed them.
Greeting Chet and Damien, Kaden took a seat at the table.
The waiter was quick to notice a new guest and came over to take Kaden's order, "What can I get you?"
"I'll just have the same as them." Kaden gestured to what Damien and Chet were drinking. He hadn't had a chance to try any of the drinks in the virtual world yet, he was curious what they were like.
"Of course sir, I will bring it right over." The waiter left and soon came back with a glass full of that fizzy yellow liquid. He set the drink down in front of Kaden and charged him 5 Federation Units.
Since Kaden turned seven he was getting 2000 Federation Units in pocket money per week. A substantial amount of money that he had no idea how to spend. Paying for this drink didn't even make a dent in his savings.
"Let's hurry and finish our drinks so we can go play." Chet said, taking another sip from his glass.
Kaden nodded and had a taste of his drink, he was still oblivious as to what it tasted like. As the liquid entered his mouth he was pleased at the sweet taste. It was a bit like the mango sodas he had tried in real life, but a lot better.
Enjoying the drink, he wasn't far behind Damien and Chet in emptying his glass.
"You done Kaden?" Damien noticed his glass was empty.
"Yeah." Kaden set his glass down, getting up from his chair.
"Let's go then." Damien and Chet stood up too.
They left their glasses behind and walked to the game street together.
To make it possible for people to play their games, game companies needed to rent a location in the virtual world. The game street was named so because many game companies rented buildings there.
At the game street most of the ones walking around were young children, relaxing after a long day of school. Both sides of the street were littered with advertisements for virtual games, trying to convince these people to give their games a try.
Walking down the street they quickly came to a building dedicated to the game Mecha Battle. It was somewhat barren, most people ignored the building and didn't go inside. It was just like what Kaden had done when he walked past it.
In the capital, most kids didn't have a favorable impression of mecha. Many of them had good talents and were expected to awaken, they had no interest in playing mecha games.
Sometimes they would play it for fun, but they wouldn't get addicted to it like Damien did.
On the other side of the street, Kaden saw the game Combat Arena which he had tried before. In stark contrast to Mecha Battle, it was very popular with the kids in the capital.
The virtual world was incredibly accurate in it's simulation, so kids would use Combat Arena as a training tool to perfect their skills.
Seeing everyone crowding around the building to the point a line had to be formed, Kaden got the urge to play it too. Unfortunately he had promised that he would give Mecha Battle a try first.