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Heavy breathing was all Misaki could hear. The sword in her hand shook as cracks started to appear on the blade. Misaki did not want to give up. But her team was already wiped out, leaving just her alone. They had pushed their way through this dungeon for almost a week. Carefully mapping out every hall and room. After many close calls, they had finally reached the boss's room.
Who would have thought that as soon as they entered the boss's room that the door would slam shut locking them in? The whole zone turned into a negative magic zone. The first to be taken out was the tank. After that was the mage, then the healer. Following them was the archer. Leaving only Misaki herself standing in front of a massive skeleton boss that had four arms, each holding a scimitar. It's only clothing was the wildly flowing tattered black cape that was tied to its neck.
Fear showed on Misaki's face as the skeleton boss once again slashed out horizontally with one of its scimitars. If this attack were to hit she would easily be sliced in half at the waist. She quickly used one of her skills taking up the last of her SP allowing her to dodge the incoming strike. Now with no SP and her HP down to one hundred, Misaki could only fall to one knee while stabbing her sword into the ground. She looked up at the huge skeleton boss that was more than a few hundred times the size of her with a grim expression. Its health bar had not moved an inch even with all the last-ditch efforts of throwing all they had at it. There was no change in its HP. Misaki could only laugh bitterly as she watched the incoming scimitar slicing down straight to her head. She had no way of blocking it all she could do was scream out: "Why is this game so fucking hard!?"
Turn back time a bit…
"Hey, have you heard? There will finally be a full dive VRMMO releasing today!"
"I know! I heard! I already have my preorder in!"
"Huh? I never heard of such a thing! What's the name of the VRMMO?"
"Eternal Phantasy"
*Riiing!*
"Alright get back to your seats everyone! Your midterm results have just come out. I am very disappointed in all of you. Most of you were barely able to meet the grade average. Only one of you actually did well and scored in the top ten. Misaki!"
Everyone in the classroom turned to look at the girl who was currently sprawled across her desk sound asleep.
"Kido Sensei are you sure Misaki was in the top ten? She's always sleeping..."
Giving a bitter smile Kido Sensei felt helpless at the scene in front of her. She never understood how this student who always slept in class and never paid attention to the lessons was able to always score in the top ten on tests and her homework was always turned in and complete.
"Misaki! Miiiisaaaakiiii!"
"Huh? Where did my meat buns go..." Misaki's sleepy eyes blinked a few times as she looked around in confusion. A bit of drool dribbled down her chin.
"Are you finally awake?" Kido Sensei held her head in her hand. Was this really a girl who could get into the top ten?
"Kido Sensei?" Misaki finally woke up and realized she was still in class.
*Pfft*
The students in the room burst out laughing.
"Misaki did you have a good meal?"
"Yeah, Misaki what kind of meat buns did you eat?"
Hearing the chiding of her classmates Misaki's cheeks turned pink. Kido Sensi only shook her head and sighed. "Alright enough! Since sleeping beauty is finally awake let's start class."
Misaki brows furrowed. She really wondered why Kido Sensei would wake her up for no reason. She was sleeping so peacefully as she dreamt about her favorite meat buns. Letting out a sigh and rubbing her eyes, Misaki laid her head back down on to her desk and slowly reentered dreamland. She had stayed up all night trying to beat the last boss of the new Fairy Fantasy game. Before she knew it the sun was already up so she was extra tired this morning as she made her way to school.
The school day ended like any other. Misaki put on her shoes and was getting ready to exit the school building. "Mitsu wait!"
Misaki paused her steps as she heard her name being called. She turned to see her childhood friend running up to her. "Chiho what's wrong?"
"Did you preorder Eternal Phantasy?" Chiho asked. She was slightly out of breath because she had to run to catch up to Misaki who always left school as fast as lightning.
"I did. I was about to go to the store to pick it up. What about you?" Misaki had placed her preorder as soon as the Eternal Phantasy had started the preorder sales. The game was very expensive at almost sixty six thousand Yen! But this was because it came with everything needed to play the game. Unlike other games, you did not need a console or PC to play this game. It was all installed on the Full Dive helmet. It could be considered 'the' cutting edge in gaming technology.
"You are? Then I will tag along with you. I need to pick mine up to. I just wish it did not cost so much! I had to spend all the money I saved up from my part time job just to get it!" Chiho complained.
Misaki laughed as the two continued to talk as they headed to the game store. The store was a thirty minute walk from the school but for Misaki, the distance did not matter. She had been waiting for this game to come out now for almost two years!
After reaching the game store and getting their preorders, Misaki said goodbye to Chiho and made her way back home. Her home was only a five minute walk from the school and only twenty five minutes from the game store.
The place Misaki lived was a small 1LDK apartment. Her father was in the military and was stationed overseas. Misaki who was the only child in the family did not want to go since all her friends were here. After much persuasion, Misaki was finally able to get her father to let her live alone. So now she had this spacious 1LDK all to herself. Her father paid the rent and gave her a monthly living allowance. Only if he knew that the money that should be used to buy wholesome meals was actually mostly spent on games and consoles while Misaki feasted on cup ramen and reduced price bentos.
Misaki quickly brought the box in her hands into her bedroom and unpacked it. Luckily today was Saturday and she would not need to go to school again until Monday. "Okay, I should eat first and do my homework. If I do this quickly I should be ready to play in two hours."
Gazing at the new gear laying on her bed Misaki bit her lip and rushed out of the room to do what she needed to do. In order to stay living on her own Misaki's father said she had to keep a certain grade point average. If it ever fell she would need to move overseas with them. Since then she had always made sure she was in the top ten of her school so she could continue living on her own. Luckily she was very smart and only took a few seconds of studying to understand something. In truth, she was a genius but her love for games took priority over gaining first place in the school when it came to exams.
Two hours on the dot, Misaki finished everything she had to do for schoolwork, had a cup ramen and ran back to her room. After reading the directions Misaki set up the charging station next to her bed to keep the helmet continuously charged. It used wireless charging in order to keep the equipment wireless. Misaki then laid on her bed and put the helmet on.
Darkness filled her eyes. She hit the switch on the side and closed her eyes. The full Dive Helmet allowed the user to instantly enter a dream state. A dim light filled her sight with the words "Loading…" in plain view.