"Hey dad, dad! What are you making?" Reo said walking into his father's private study.

"Ah, Reo you're back from school? How was it?"

"It was fine dad, but why are you trying to dodge my question?" He said with a little pout.

"Hahahaha, you're quite sharp for your age you know". His father said laughing.

"So what was it dad, it looks interesting!" Reo said trying to take a peek on his father's large work table which always seemed too high for him

"Well, this...." His father paused. "Let's just say I'm building a path..."

"Aww come on dad that makes no sense, tell me seriously."

"Hahahaha, don't worry about it Reo, just go clean up and eat your lunch, I'll come down and join you soon."

"UGH!! GOOD LORD!" Reo woke up startled to a searing pain in his stomach. "Why do you insist on jumping on me to wake me up, Hina?!"

"Mom said you should get up! You'll get late for school!"

Reo opened his eyes to meet his sister's mischievous green eyes, just like his. She had a huge grin plastered on her dark-skinned face which looked strangely demonic with her long curly raven black hair, again just like his. Sigh, sometimes the similarities get to him.

"Get off me, fatso!" She jumped off.

"I'm not fat! I'm your slender cute little teenage sister!"

"Shut up!" he replied with a yawn as he sat upon his bed.

"How can you treat your sister that way?! That's heartless!"

"Whatever you say" '...weirdo!'

"I have a feeling you just called me weird in your mind right now" she said slitting her eyes.

"W-why would you think something like that". He said with a fake smile. 'She's definitely weird'.

"You definitely called me weird didn't you?"

"Stop reading my mind!!!"

'Women's intuition is really scary!'

"Anyway....." She said walking to the door.

"Better get ready quickly and come eat your breakfast before it gets cold…...". She said stepping out.

"... Weirdo!" She said quickly before shutting the door and running off.

"Damn her! Why couldn't I get a normal nice little sister? Did I sin in my past life?"

He sat up and stretched 'Well, might as well get ready for another torture filled day in school.'

He took his bath and dressed up. Then looked at himself in the mirror.

'Can't still remember what I was dreaming about again today' He thought to himself as he combed his hair.

'Anyway, I have to go down before mum gets angry.'

He picked up his bag and went downstairs where his mum was washing the dishes.

"Morning mum" he said as he sat down for his breakfast.

"You took your time didn't you Reo?" She said with a stern look "Hina already left because she would have been late if she waited for you. What's your excuse this time?"

Reo's mom was a woman in her late thirties. Her soft brown eyes complemented her dark skin and long curly hair very well. She was still very beautiful even at her age and you could tell that she was definitely a killer beauty when she was younger just looking at her now. Reo and his sister got their complexion and hair from her.

"Err..." He stopped reaching for the toast he was about to carry.

"You see I was hooked up on this stuff I was making yesterday and ended up sleeping late so...."

"How many times have I told you to not work late into the night? Seriously you're acting too much like your father!" She frowned slightly.

"Err... Ha-ha... Sorry mum" Reo said scratching the back of his head.

"Just hurry up and eat your breakfast, I don't want you to be late to school." She said with a sigh.

"Alright mum" he said grabbing five pieces of toast, two pieces of fried egg, three sausages, and a large cup of tea for himself.

"Breakfast is a very important meal after all, can't play it with, Hehehe!" He said as he rushed the food.

His mother looked at him warily "Ah, his eyes are glowing, that's the only thing his mind can concentrate on".

A few minutes later, Reo ran out of the house waving off his mum.

"Shit! shit!! shit!!! I'm going to be late again today" he quickly dodged the group of people walking down the road while looking at his wristwatch.

"Won't make it on time at this pace, I have to take my secret short-cut". He quickly took a turn on a small side road and jumped over a worn-down fence that was situated at the bottom of a hill.

He quickly scaled up the hill and looked out. All he had to do was go down the hill and jump over two more fences and he would make it on time.

"Okay! Let's test out the new upgrades". He brought out a retractable board from his bag and extended it to its full length then dropped it on the ground where it seemed to hover above the surface.

Then he took out another device that looked like a radio with two exhausts at the bottom and attached it below the board.

"Time to put this hoverboard to good use".

A rod was attached to the radio looking device that extended up to his hand. He climbed the board and held the rod, then leaned forward to put the hoverboard in motion.

As soon as the board started moving he pushed the rod forward like a lever then pulled it back strongly. Strong propulsions of air came out of the exhausts and he started a terrifyingly fast descent down the hill.

"Hmm...it seems to be working well but the lever is still a bit stiff, did I oil it last night? But it seems I might be able to get it to work faster if I can attach a better piston..."

He kept on mumbling as he moved while periodically pumping the machine to get it working. When he reached the first fence he used a deft lifting movement to raise himself and the board easily above the fence.

He landed softly with the hover board's ability preventing him from crashing into the ground. The second fence was a little higher and he quickly looked for something to give him leverage.

Where is it? Where? He needed something quickly or else he would crash!

Ah there it was, an old abandoned car was kept near the wall by his left. He quickly turned and executed a small jump that lifted him onto the car, then a high front flip jump took him over the fence and he landed safely on the grass on the other side.

He saw the school gate ahead of him. A teacher was there admitting the last few students in before he shut the gates.

"Fuck I need to go faster!". He started pumping the lever faster in a last desperate effort to reach the gate on time.

"Shit! Shit! Shit! Come on please won't that teacher wait a little longer before trying to close the gate!?"

He crossed the main road in front of their school thanking the heavens it was sparsely populated this morning.

"Wait!" The teacher looked up. It was mister Kanagi!

'Of all the days!' He cursed in his mind. The man stood by the gate and looked at Reo as he arrived at the gate.

"So you're late again today Mr. Minami, you need to change that disgusting habit of yours. Seems like with all your self-proclaimed intelligence you lack the common sense to be able to manage your time and.....".

Reo zoned him out. He really hated this man. Mr. Kanagi was the IT teacher, which means he was in the position of teaching things Reo knew more of than him.

Because of Reo's lack of interest in Mr. Kanagi's teachings, the man developed the habit of picking on him in classes with questions and such. Although Reo answered him correctly each time, he had refused to give up.

'I might end up being late this time, I hope Natsu won't wait too long, he said he wanted to tell me something about age of ma....'.

"Are you listening to me, Mr. Minami!" Mr. Kanagi was glaring down at him. "Get rid of that contraption and get to your class quickly!".

Reo walked into the school after folding up his hoverboard, putting it and the device into his bag. He entered the class in the middle of roll call. Their homeroom teacher, Mrs. Miu looked up at him.

She was a woman in her late twenties, young and beautiful, and the crush of many boys and teachers in school. She herself doesn't seem to pay any concern to the attention she receives though and does her work diligently.

"Oh, you arrived late today again Reo". She sighed." I'll let it slide today since you came before the end of roll call, take your seat".

Reo thanked her and moved to his seat acknowledging a grin and a wave from his best friend, Natsu. He grinned back as he took his seat. After roll call, before the first teacher came in, Natsu came over.

"Bro! I thought you were going to sleep the day off again!" He said as he sat on Reo's desk.

"I wish I did, school's really boring"

Natsu laughed.

"You need to build your social life Reo, you don't understand the romance of high school. Parties, girlfriends, going for karaoke and hamburgers, and lighting fireworks under the moonlight. That's what high school is all about!" He said gesturing his hands dramatically.

Natsu was a tall, lightly tanned guy with short dark brown hair and deep brown eyes. He always had a sense of charisma around him and was a typical popular high school kid. Having a friend like Reo who was introverted was actually quite weird but the two were best friends since they were seven.

"Shut up idiot, you're getting annoying".

"Hahaha, anyway I wanted to ask, how's your hunt for money going?".

"It's going nowhere in more ways than one. Aaaaaah! I want to play age of magic so bad!" Reo said sulking.

"Full Dive Function Virtual reality! I never thought I would get to see it in my lifetime. CORIM tech is really amazing to make something like the SWEVEN".

"Yeah bro, it feels amazing. My character just hit LVL 30!" Natsu said tauntingly.

"Gah! Stop torturing me because you have one.".

" The SWEVEN and Age of magic have been around for about a year now. You have a whole lot of catching up to do". Natsu said.

"I know, but getting 10,000 credits to buy a SWEVEN and the game is harder than I thought".

"Don't worry, I got you. We'll get the money for a SWEVEN somehow".

Credits were the leading currency in the world. It was created after a close call to what would have been a disastrous World War 3 between the world's leading powers about 50 years ago.

It was one of the measures created in hope of further unifying the world's economy and relations by creating a centralized currency after the establishment of the world government which included over 90 percent of the world's countries and powers.

"I think I got an idea!" Reo said suddenly getting up.

"What is it?"

"I could work as a stripper!". He said with a playful tone.

"Sure, the ladies would love to see you wave your titties about" Natsu chuckled mockingly.

"You mean my rock hard abs?".

"I mean maybe you'll be popular with queers?" Natsu continued with his joke.

"Aaaah Just... Fuck you" Reo laughed self mockingly.

The teacher entered the class.

"I'll be going. After school, we'll think of a way to raise money to get you an SVN".

"Alright then, I'll be thinking of something" Reo replied as Natsu went off to his seat.

As the teacher started teaching, Reo zoned out again. He wondered how been in virtual reality would feel like. And which type of race would he choose? A human? Or maybe a dwarf, dwarfs are not common. No! it'll be a muan. It definitely has to be a muan.

After class that day, Reo met Natsu by the gate.

"So, you thought of anything yet?" Reo asked hopefully.

"Nah, I'm sure you can't get that kind of money easily".

"Yeah I guess" he sighed. "So you wanna go to the arcade or something, I'm bored".

"Maybe you can try working at a cafe or something, it'll be slow but you'll get the money eventually" Natsu said as they started moving.

"Are you kidding me? That'll take months!!"

"Better than sitting here without a clue on how to go about things"

"You know me bro, I'm too lazy to do stuff like that" Reo said looking dejected.

"Yeah, I guess you are a useless piece of shit" Natsu said thoughtfully.

"What does that mean you fucking retard!". Reo narrowed his eyes

"Oh you know, that you're basically a useless pile of donkey crap" Natsu said smugly.

"Well, I always knew that I'll kill you one day but I never thought it'll be today". Reo said as he delivered a stunning blow to Natsu's stomach that made him double over.

"GASP!! I was GASP! Just joking you useless piece of shit!" Natsu said clutching his stomach.

"Yeah so was I" Reo replied with a satisfied smile.

"Fuck it that doesn't matter, you owe me one now" Natsu said as he stood up straight.

"You started it, you dumb retard" Reo said suddenly picking up his pace.

"Come back here, you useless pile of crap!" Natsu said as he took off after him.

They finally stopped after chasing each other for a while with Natsu catching up to Reo and landing a hard one on his stomach also, he was the more athletic of the two and won basically all of their fights. A few minutes later, they arrived outside the cafe and went inside.