Darien woke to a loud knock on his door. He got up to answer it his head pounding from all the beer he had last night with Travis, who was dead to the world on Darien's couch. He turned the knob and opened the door.
Standing in front of him was a young man in a white uniform with equipment piled on a cart. Darien looked at it all and shook his head.
"Wow you guys are fast," Darien said. Excitement was building up in him. 'It wasn't a dream I really won. Here is the proof,' he thought to himself. He stepped to the side inviting the man in. The man glanced at Travis sprawled out with beer cans around him.
"Looks like you all celebrated," the man said with a smile. "Where is the bedroom it is best to set this up somewhere near your sleeping arrangements." Darien led him to the bedroom, picking up cans as he went.
"Sorry about the mess," Darien apologized. He was embarrassed to have a stranger look at the state of the apartment. The man shrugged not seeming to not be bothered by it. He moved the cart in and walked over to Darien's desk.
"Nice set up. Now how would you like to set up this equipment?" Darien showed the man where he wanted the new computer hooked up. After an hour, all the new equipment was hooked up and the young man was showing Darien how to run the new system. "Now after opening the game client and you have logged on with your WinnTek account, you will be prompted to put on the V-Drive. Make sure you are laying down when playing. The V-Drive intercepts the signals your brain sends to your body and uses those brain signals to allow you to move in the game. This means while playing you won't be able to move your physical body. This is so you don't accidentally harm yourself while playing. Once you log off the game using the V-Drive you will have your motor functions back and once again be able to move your physical body." The young man was going over all the features of the equipment with Darien. "Any questions?"
"What happens if I am unable to log off while wearing the V-Drive?" Darien asked taking in all this information, while looking at the head gear connected to his new computer. It was all exciting but also making him a little nervous.
"Though there have not been any reports of such incidents it is possible to send WinnTek a message within the game if any issue persists. They will fix the issue at no charge to you," the man stated with a smile. He finished putting his tools away and pulled his cart to the door. "If that's all, I have another ten of these to install today."
Darien nodded and helped the man out of his apartment. He rushed over and kicked Travis in the hip.
"What the hell man? Can't you see I'm sleeping it off here?" Travis groaned as he sat up. "What is it? Did Heather call?", he asked as he looked at his phone.
"What? No! Come look. I got all my equipment. It is set up by my bed", Darien almost shouted. He was having a hard time containing his excitement.
"No way!" Travis got up and stepped into Darien's room. His eyes went wide when he looked towards Darien's desk that was next to his bed. "Did they teleport this in here! How is it already here and set up!"
Daruen laughed, "No the guy just left. You slept through him setting it up." Travis's jaw was wide open.
"Why didn't you wake me? I had so many questions." He looked at Darien like he had just committed a horrible betrayal.
"I'm sorry Travis, I was kinda in shock."
"Ok I can understand." They spent a moment looking over the new computer and head gear. "This is amazing!" Travis said holding the head gear. It had a collar with a brace that lead up to the helmet shaped top. Darien was looking over the screen at the different icons. There were four icons. He hovered over them and read them.
"Interstellar Conquest. Legal Terms. WinnTek Assistance. V-Drive Tutorial." Daruen clicked on the Legal Terms and skimmed through it.
Travis was impatient and finally asked, "Well what does it say?"
"Well to sum it up. No tampering with the hardware. No account sharing. The V-Drive can only be used by the registered person. All videos recorded are considered property of the player who recorded it. Also any injuries suffered while playing the game will be covered by WinnTek." Darien got a little nervous at the word 'injuries'.
"Oh man I was hoping to give it a try. Guess that won't happen for another year, dammit." Travis did seem depressed. He had checked his notifications last night and found that he had not won the sweepstakes. Though he got over that bit of depression when Darien reminded him of their bet.
Darien clicked on the 'Interstellar Conquest' icon. A game launcher window popped up with the game's title and a timer. Six days, thirteen hours, and forty-three minutes left until launch. 'I have to wait a week to play, while looking at this amazing machine?' Darien groaned internally.
"Guess we should go get something to eat," he said getting up from his desk. He looked at Travis who was still sitting on his bed fiddling with his headgear. "What do you think? Breakfast burritos?"
Travis nodded and got up from the bed they took turns washing up in the bathroom and getting dressed. When they were ready they went out the door and decided they would walk to the fast food restaurant down the road. They ordered their burritos and waited in the lobby. The restaurant had a t.v. that was broadcasting News as some people had revealed they were winners in the sweepstakes.
"Why don't you call in?" Travis asked when there burritos were ready for pick up. "It would be good for you getting some attention for your gaming channel." Travis was not wrong. Many people would want to see video recordings of Darien playing the most talked about game in years. However, he shrugged off Travis's question and bit into his food.
After swallowing the bit of burrito he was chewing on he spoke. "I don't really want to deal with all the hassle. I just figured I would record a bit of me playing, edit out some of the boring stuff, and upload it. I'm sure I will still get plenty of views."
"The great and modest Darien Kross doesn't want to become an overnight star because of luck huh?" Travis teased him in a low tone. "What, still going by that 'you gotta earn it' mentality?" Travis took the last bite of his burrito while looking at Darien.
"Well kinda, yeah. I mean I want to get a feel for the game and find what I enjoy doing in it, before I start uploading stuff," Darien responded after finishing his burrito. "But that's still at least a week away. How about we focus on fixing your girlfriend problem?"
"Ok fair enough. So what do you suggest? I am sure you have some idea to get me out of the dog house," Travis leaned in to listen to Darien.
"Well I was thinking we can see if we can get her another Cat's Eye Robe, and robes are a girls bestfriend. I have two computers now just got to install the game client on my new one and you can use my old setup." Darien got up to throw out their trash as Travis thought on his proposal.
"It took us two weeks of running Feline Temple to get that to drop. Plus, there were three of us. do you really think we can do it before the launch of Interstellar Conquest?," asked Travis not feeling very hopeful about the situation.
"We can try my luck seems to be pretty good lately," Darien answered. Travis sighed and decided to go with the plan. When they got back to the apartment the set up Darien's old computer and screen in the living room, and Darien installed Soul Warriors on his new system.
They both logged in and moved their avatars toward the dungeon, Feline Temple. The two of them grinded there for two straight days only stopping for food and restroom breaks. They had acquired some good loot, however the Cat's Eye Robe wouldn't drop.
"This is useless," whined Travis. He still hadn't heard from Heather. He had even tried calling a few times.
"One more run man, we can't give up we already started the dungeon," said Darien. He was moving his character dodging attacks from the cat-like enemies. They cleared out the mob of enemies and advanced into the inner chamber.
A statue of a cat god rose from a pedestal across the room. This was the final boss and the creature that would drop the Soul containing the Cat's Eye Robe. The pair of friends rushed the boss blasting it with their skills and hammered it with attacks until the boss fell. This felt like the one hundredth time that they had done this.
"Come on give me the stupid robe!," yelled Travis as he approached the loot Soul on the corpse of the boss. His avatar collected the Soul and Darien heard Travis exclaim loudly, "Hell yeah I got it!"
Travis tried calling Heather right after, though he only got the voicemail. He came into Darien's room looking defeated, and sat at the foot of the bed.
He looked up and spoke, "We may of gotten the robe, but what good does it do when she won't answer my calls?"
"Here I will text her and let her know that I have a surprise for her on Soul Warriors," Darien said as he typed out a message and sent it on his phone. Shortly after, the two friends recieved a notification that "AngelicK1tty" had logged on. Darien sent her an invite to their party. After a moment her name and health bar popped into the party window. Darien had the voice chat feature turned on. "Hello Heather, how are you today?," he asked politely.
A sweet voice responded, "I'm ok Darien. How is Travis online though? His computer is here at the house? And what is this surprise you told me to come see?"
Travis now took the chance to speak, "Well babe, I have been feeling really guilty about what happened. I wanted to make it up to you so how about you come over to Feline Temple?"
Heather sighed, but agreed to meet up with the two guys. Shortly she was there, her avatar standing in front of theirs. "So what, are we gonna run this dungeon until I get the robe back? Is that what you came up with? That takes a lot of time Travis."
"No no," Travis said as he sent a trade request. She accepted the request and saw what Travis was offering.
"Cat's Eye Robe and the Lunar Tiger mount! Are you serious babe?" Heather asked in a surprised tone. Darien himself was surprised. He hadn't expected Travis to give the tiger too.
"Well I may of got the robe, but I felt like that didn't really make up for my mistake love. So I'm giving you my tiger to say I am sorry baby. I love you."
"I love you too! I forgive you and thank you I love it," she said her voice getting emotional. Her avatar had already put on the robe, and summoned the Lunar Tiger mount. "Darien do you think you could bring him home? I want to give him a kiss so bad right now."
"Sure thing Heather, just as soon as he cleans up all his mess we will be right over and I got some news to share myself," said Darien. He had been wanting to tell her about winning the sweepstakes, but waited until Travis had made things right with her.
They all logged off and the two friends went to cleaning. Travis humming happily, ready to go home to his woman.