"H-honey, are you home?!" My cry was like a warning shot to check whether she had come home earlier than usual or not but she hadn't. I sighed internally and was about to enter my home when a silhouette appeared behind me like a ghost.
"Are you looking for me?!"
"Ywarghhh!! Jesus—" mother-fucking christ!!!
Turning back, I saw my wife entering the house with a bright smile on her face. From her attire and the plastic-boxes wrapped in bio-polythene, I guess she returned just when I was entering the house. Talk about bad luck!
"H-how did your party go, dear?" I ask in amiable tone with a bright smile on my face.
"It was just so-so." she sighed but then her gaze fell on the bat in my left hand, "What's up with that bat? Did you join a gang or what?!"
"Me! Gang! Psst! No way, its just a tool to teach that bloody bastard Eric a lesson. He was the one who actually forced me to go to the Centaur shop and buy that frickin' game, ya know." Taking the opportunity, I completely shift the blame onto Eric's shoulders. Score, ya baby!!
But fortunately or unfortunately, I don't know, she simply rolled her eyes and replies, "Whatever! Now, help me with these packets. The vice-president forced three plates of chicken pops onto my hand. They are still hot though."
"The vice-president did? Does he know you or something?!" I ask as I take the packets off her hand—Ow! Hot!
Indu, on the other hand, simply rolls her eyes and only mutters, "Pesky." But after saying that, she headed straightway to our bedroom to change.
"…"
'Don't leave in the blind, baby…' I sigh internally.
Feeling confused, I head straightway to the kitchen. I place the pops on plates when it suddenly hits me.
"DAMMIT! I DIDN'T PREPARE THE SAUCE!! URGHHHHH!!!"
…
The next day, I woke earlier than usual all thanks to my wife.
"Get up already, you swine! Those workers from Centaur are here to set up your new game." She said as she fastened her bra. I woke up in a blissful mood, the events of last night still fresh in my mind. For some reason, though, last night my wife was quite a beast. Not that I mind it, heck! I liked it, baby! But it still makes me wonder, what was so weird about yesterday. Anyway, I just hope that last night's action doesn't become the 3rd mistake of my life.
After wearing the only pant that I had, I went downstairs in calm and cool steps and found the guys who are supposed to set my game, sitting quite lazily in my couch while writing something in their digital pads. I frowned a little. Something about them sitting so casually on my couch in my house irritated me. By the way, these two guys were the same two mechanics guys who were tampering with the gaming pods in the fourth floor yesterday.
"Good morn, guys!" I beckoned at them and only one of them looked up and beamed a smile at me. "Good morning, Mr. Ave."
"Quite early, aren'cha?" I ask to which he simply shrugs his shoulders. "We like to do our jobs early so that we can get the rest of the day off." 'Is this guy boasting about his profession or what?!'
"Well, then why don't you get to it already."
"We would've if we knew which room to go." He retorted with a smile.
Tsk! Is this guy trying to pick a fight with me? But like every gentleman of the federation, I hid my anger and said politely, "Oh! You wanted to know that, eh! It's the second room to the right on the second floor." I reply coolly.
"Oh! Please show us around, sir." He says as beckons to his partner but I smirk evilly inside.
"Eh! But didn't I already tell you where to go? Go on, it's the second room to the right on second floor." I repeat the room.
"Huh…" the guy was momentarily shocked but then he reverted back to his cheeky smile. "Sir, you wouldn't want us to mess up which room, right? It would be best if you show us around otherwise it would take longer to set it up."
To that, I simply shrug my shoulders and reply, "Bro, I'm a househusband. I got no shortage of time on me, ya' know. If you mess it up, you will just dismantle the entire thing and do it again. In the correct room." For a moment I swear I saw the veins of the mechanic guy twitch but who cares.
"You would at least give us a hand to take it up, right?" asked the other, silent guy but I wasn't doing any job for them. I shook my head and replied cheekily, "Nope!"
"Let's go, Dibya! This guy's a jerk!" retorts the first guy as he configures an unmanned spider-bot to bring all the different components of the gaming pod to the second-floor. I glance at the dorky eight-legged bot carrying all the sensitive components and couldn't help but utter a word of advice to them.
"Hey guys, remember if there is even a single scratch, I'm going to have Miss Shreya recompensate me the whole amount!!"
"Fuck off!"
"Language, dude!" I scream back with a slight satisfaction in my heart.
My wife who just came down from brushing her teeth couldn't help but frown at me, "Are you really alright with having them deal with a million creds hardware like that?"
To which, I simply shrug my shoulders and reply, "Don't worry, those guys are professionals. But if they do make a mistake, it would be entirely on their company, not me. And let me tell you but I'm pretty good at detecting faulty connections and bad configuration." I say proudly, recalling all the modification and jury-rigging I did to play games in my college year.
My wife rolls her eyes at my shameless boasting before heading towards the bathroom to have her shower. I, on the other hand, head to brush my teeth and prepare breakfast for the girls.
Though, today at breakfast, the girls were giving me quite some stares. I wonder why?
Anyway, today is Friday and a half-day for all the girls. That meant all of them would be home before 12 but with their mom home, I won't be too troubled.
…
"Have fun at school!"
"Don't work too hard, okay hon!"
"See you guys later!" I wave goodbye to them and no sooner did they leave, the two guys finally came down. It took them two whole hours to set up the gaming pod.
"Sniff! Sniff! Is that pav bhaji I smell?!!" cried the second guy, excitedly.
"Stop sniffing like a dog, Dibya!" cried the first guy with an angry expression. He, too, of course smelled the delicious aroma of curry and pav bhaji and his face was a little flustered but he wasn't moved easily. He shook his head to destroy all thoughts about breakfast and turns to me and said in a slightly puffed up tone, "We have set the gaming pod. We will be leaving now." he said as he was going for the door but the second guy was standing in his place with doggy eyes. "Bro, can't we have breakfast here…"
"What! No! A-ah c'mon! fine, I will treat you to breakfast outside!" said the first guy angrily but by now, I was feeling a little pity on them. It was perhaps not good of me to destroy their day right in the morning. I can at least make it up to them by offering them a little breakfast. But most importantly, the second guy's doggy eyes skill were much more potent than any I've seen. I bet, not even Anya could beat him in doggy eyes contest.
"C'mon, assholes! I made extras."
…
After sending off the guys, the first thing I did was take a shower. Why? Because I was reeking of sweat and my wife's perfume from last night. It was gross but erotic too in some way but gross mostly. After taking a quick shower, I do a little exercise before heading to the room where they set up the gaming pod and as it happens to be, the room was nothing other than my previous gaming room.
'At least, these guys have some sense of direction.' I thought as I stepped closer to the gaming pod.
From up close, the gaming pod does give a certain sense of magnanimity and technology. The hexagonal box was nearly a 2½ meters tall and was made from an exotic metal from the asteroid belt which is not only soft and plastic-y to touch but incredibly strong and flexible. And to top it off, it only took 3 sq. meters of area in my gaming room. Taking the help of the guidebook, I turn the power and all other peripherals of the device on and immediately a soft hum resounded from the pod for a few moments as the golden outer lining glow up. There was a slight vibration before everything went back to normal while the only led-screen outside the pod lit up with the logo of the Unicorn Corporation.
"Please standby for biometric verification." Said a mechanical voice as a scanner comes out from one of the ports of the screen and takes a holographic scan of my body before retreating back into its hiddy-hole.
"Initial Verification complete. Identity: Subject 1985 confirmed. Please enter the pod whenever you are ready."
'What's subject 1985?' I thought but then just shrugged it off. After stretching for a bit, I entered the gaming pod with slight excitement.
The inside of the pod was surprisingly spacious for such a small hexagonal box. The miniaturization of most of the components was done to such a level that it baffled my mind but most of them were so small or insignificant that common people would never be able to understand what each things did and neither would I have known if I hadn't taken a small course of hardware when I was serving in the corporate sector.
Anyway, the inside of the pod was fairly simple with a large monitor for any offline work or diagnostic work along with a keyboard which was only being supported by a single support extension, it was pretty much floating, I guess. There were other ports and terminals but it was all closed off for now.
But the most notable of all things was the human-sized carbon-fiber human frame which was situated right in the middle of the space.
"Please attach yourself to the exoskeleton frame." Said the same mechanical voice. I turned around and saw a smiley emoji face on the led-screen. I frowned a little before pointing at the carbon-fiber human frame and ask, "Is this the one you're talking about?"
"Yes." Comes a crisp reply.
"O-okay…" I mutter as I start to attach the frame to my body. Most of it was automated with me just aligning my body with the frame while the frame would automatically attach the leather straps around my body. At the end of it, a big, white helmet descended from atop and rested lightly on my head.
The helmet was immensely heavy and I could feel it but it was supported mostly by auxiliary supports so the actual pressure on my neck no greater than normal. After setting everything up, the smiling emoji again speaks in its mechanical voice.
"User, please give a name to your official Premium Gold Account."
"Ummm… how about… Ave Anderson?" I ask. There was a slight pause before a beep sounded, "Name authorized. Mr. Ave, your account has been successfully updated. Please check your following credentials.
Account name: Ave Anderson.
Model name: Aries 991x Ultima-G
Model number:13
Subject Code:1985
I look at my credentials and was again a little confused about this 'Subject Code.'
"Hey gaming pod, what the hell is this 'Subject Pod'?" I ask the interface and there was a slight pause from it before the smiley face turned into an expressionless emoji face.
"First and foremost, my name is not gaming pod. It's Aries13. And as for 'subject code,' its a number assigned to every gold rank and above accounts by the UN data division. Every offline and online transaction done through this pod will have this subject code and its purpose is to protect you, Mr. Ave, from shady businessmen and companies."
"What if I want to do shady business?" I ask a perfectly normal question to which the AI's expressionless face turns into a face-without-mouth emoji expression.
"Well… since you're asking… there is an option to turn off this protection feature… but it would—"
"Turn it off!" I say without hesitation.
"A-are you sure?"
"Yep!"
"…fine." There was a slight silence before an option called 'real-time protection' was turned off.
"Now, moving on sir. Would you please do a few movements to let me calibrate the flexibility and sensitivity of the fiber frame."
"You want me to move here?" I ask a little doubtfully to which the expressionless-face nods. I shrug internally and do a few basic calisthenic exercise, intentionally taking the moves which required little movement like spot-jogging, thigh-slapping, hip-twisting and simple sit-ups.
"Thank you for your cooperation. All preliminary calibrations have been completed. Further calibrations would require virtual world movement data. Would you like to enter the virtual world?"
"Yes, please."
"Would you like to inject high-grade nutrient supply for long gaming hours?"
"Does three hours is considered long?"
"No sir, only 12 or more hours is considered long."
"Then no need."
"No personnel except hose detected in the house. Do you want to initiate AI Home Security Protocols?"
"Ah! Goddammit! Yes, please."
"Starting AI Home Security Protocols."
"Now, can you please start the game."
"Very well, sir. Initiating virtual world Nova Terra."
Bzzttt!!!
…