Seth Lawrence was stressed. The school library was unusually noisy today, filled with the anxious murmurs and whispers of the countless high school students, all discussing today's major event - Account Creation.
It was a big moment in everyone's lives, and it was all the library staff could do to keep the whispers from devolving to schoolyard shouting. A strict, grey-bearded librarian stood silently near the front desk. His gaze swept across the students, his presence enough to shush any would-be loudmouth.
Despite this, the library was full of people and hushed conversations. It seemed as though the entire year level was here to cram at the last minute, though the excitement that had seemed to spread made it impossible for anyone to get productive.
Seth sat alone at his cubicle desk, staring blankly at his open notebook. He'd struggled to sleep properly for nearly a week now, last night only claiming 3 hours of rest. Every night his mind would go through the same cycle, planning out how he'd go about today, thinking about what would happen if everything went well, what would happen if it didn't. It was the latter that tended to keep him awake at night.
"Are you trying to memorize the entirety of that empty page?" a whispered voice asked behind him.
Seth's delayed reaction betrayed his lack of sleep, as he took a second to turn towards the whisper, and another to recognize the face it belonged to. Seth blinked a couple of times at the figure, who held a skateboard in one hand, the other holding the strap of a backpack against their shoulder.
"Huh?...Oh Vic, hey. I was just going over these notes..." Seth stopped as he looked down, realizing he hadn't even opened to a page with any notes to go over.
"Seth buddy, you alright? You're looking a little..." Vic trailed off, looking at the dark rings under Seth's eyes with concern. He decided to leave the sentence unfinished as he put his things down in the cubicle next to Seth's.
"Yea, sleeping is hard when anxiety decides to say hello" Seth muttered, clearly trying to make light of the issue while Vic sat down in the cubicle next to him. He turned to face Seth.
"Do you think you're going to be alright for today? You know... you can still get a sick note that lets you reschedule your exam" Vic suggested. Seth had already been considering that option, especially with how he was feeling currently. Both the lack of sleep along with the butterflies he was sure were breeding in his stomach were making him nauseous. He sighed.
"I wish. I wouldn't be this nervous if I thought I could just reschedule. But today's the only day that the government will provide us with the DIVE 4S gear and the high bandwidth to match. If I reschedule, they'll make me use my own Dive gear..."
Vic looked sympathetic towards his friend. He knew what this day meant for Seth.
Seth didn't have the most luxurious home life. He had two younger and one older sibling, and his parents struggled to pay the rent and school fees for the four of them, let alone pay for the kind of equipment needed to dive into the VNET smoothly. With an ever-increasing number of job opportunities being created in the VNET, Seth saw today as a chance to prove himself, setting himself on a path towards a stable and rewarding career that would pull him and his family out of poverty.
The VNET was a virtual space that overtook the world when it was first released. Years ago, people used to use the internet to browse various websites, play games, communicate, and share information. VR was on the rise too, and soon Dive technology became the standard. This allowed for people to Dive into VR games and experience it with their 5 senses, to move their avatars as they would their own bodies. Diving quickly became integrated into most websites, allowing you to browse products on a shopping site by Diving into their virtual shop, and were able to virtually try on clothes or taste test food.
People with enough money and internet speed were even able to set the Dive so that time would pass by differently, meaning if they experienced 1 hour in VR, only 30 minutes may have passed IRL.
Seth was not one of these people.
Because of their circumstances, VR had been something his parents weren't interested in investing in. He was grateful to his parents, for working hard and sending him to a good school. If it weren't for that, he may never have even gotten to experience a VR Dive. The school had programs and curriculum that got you to learn various technologies, and with the VNET becoming so integrated with society, it was basically mandatory for any school that could afford it to teach their students how to Dive.
All it took was one Dive.
In his first year at Redwood High, they taught all first-years how to operate an avatar within a simple, baseball-like game. They were to Dive into the game and complete various tasks, like running to catch a ball, hitting it with a bat, that sort of thing.
Seth remembered everything, first the shock of feeling another body as his own, then the elation as he realized he was able to move better in VR than he ever had in real life. His body wasn't clumsy, slow, or limited by basic physics. Instead, it moved how he wanted it to, the burning of his muscles and lungs more of a dull recreation than a physical limitation. He felt like he could do anything.
After that day, Seth vowed he'd save up for his own Dive gear. The school had them around for use in classrooms, as well as a few you could wait in line to use out of class. But The VNET was what he wanted to become a part of, and he would need his own Dive gear to fully do so.
The VNET was the culmination of rises in technology. A team of people worked on creating a new internet service, that was purely accessed by Diving into VR. The newly dubbed VNET, worked similarly to previous VR experiences on the internet, with one big difference. VR websites were self-contained before, existing in their own bubble, accessed by typing in an address. The VNET instead, was its own huge space, where any number of online stores, restaurants, houses, and entertainment zones could exist. Instead of online stores being contained in their own bubble, you could walk down a crowded street and enter stores like you would in real life. Since it was first released, entire cities have been built, and virtual industries boomed.
The problem with the VNET is that anything can happen. It ultimately was just a gigantic virtual sandbox to house everyone and everything, meaning anything could happen. It had its rules and limitations of course, but people were people, and could take any action they wanted that the system allowed. For this reason, the VNET needed each person to have their own account, which would keep track of everything related to their VNET experience. To make an account, you needed to fill out an application, have it confirmed, take an exam. It also required you to be over 18.
Once you were 18, anyone with Dive gear could apply for a VNET account. Another perk of Redwood High was that in the student's final year, some representatives from VNET would come to the school and set up a streamlined version of the account creation application. It would allow everyone in the year to apply without any external fees, approve their applications collectively and quickly, as well as set it so that anyone who hadn't already turned 18, would be allowed to Dive into their VNET account the day they did.
There was one more perk that came from this way of applying, and it was the one Seth was determined to make use of.
"The exams today are going to be used to rank our potential in VR. They are prepared to give out packages and account benefits to anyone who ranks high enough..." Seth trailed off.
"Yea, I know. The packages they offer would be a big upgrade, huh" Vic said knowingly.
Seth nodded, forgetting to respond, instead choosing to return to frowning and staring into space.
Vic smiled. "Don't worry man, you've got this in the bag. You've already topped half the school's leaderboards for the sport and athletic-based games...despite this avatar" he said with a chuckle, slapping his friend lightly on the shoulder.
Seth's frame was quite thin, and along with his freckled nose, round glasses, and curly brown hair, he had been often been targeted by bullies for his appearance alone. When he had gotten into VR however, his natural talent for the system immediately started to garner attention. No one could understand how someone, who couldn't catch a ball to save his life IRL, was able to perform feats in VR that seemed superhuman. The reactions varied from person to person. Most thought it was just odd, some thought he must be a hacker or cheated somehow, and there were the few that got jealous.
For Seth though, it made perfect sense. He was scrawny due to a lack of nutrition during his pubescent years. His family always divided the small amount of food they could afford evenly, meaning most of his family were of similar appearance. No matter what he tried, there was just nothing he could do to get into better shape, to train his body to move the way his mind wanted to.
Until he Dived that is.
When he first realized that he could move his avatar as quickly as mind decided it wanted to go, his addiction started. He quickly began enjoying the thrill of the VR games the school had available to the students. Baseball, tennis, squash, soccer, even bowling. It didn't matter what game it was, Seth found a new love for it as he realized he was able to practice and get better at each one in a way his real body never could.
He had topped the school's high scores at each of his favorite games over time, and there were those who didn't take kindly to having a scrawny kid beat their scores. Bullies had been a problem Seth continued to face throughout his school years, and despite this being his last year left, he still found himself hiding out in the library, where he spent most of his spare time, at least while he wasn't Diving.
Unfortunately for Seth, hiding in the library didn't work as well when the entire year level was also in the library. Just as he was thinking this, he heard a familiar voice from behind:
"Found you".