It was early in the morning. Adler came out of the bathroom having washed up. He had changed into the clothes he had bought yesterday. Mikaela was in the living room watching the TV. It wasn't really a TV. The kids called it a 'Holovision'. Since it was using holographic technology, the images floated in the air instead of on a screen.
He walked up to Mikaela and tapped the ground by her twice. A chair came up from the ground and he sat on it.
"What are you watching?" He asked.
"Oh." She jumped a little. " Good morning uncle. You surprised me. Please don't suddenly talk from behind, I got scared." She said as she looked back to the Holovision.
Adler laughed a little. 'I think I should start having my footsteps make noises.' He thought to himself. In the dungeon, he had to be as silent as possible, so as to not let monsters know of his location. But now, that was no longer necessary. He could be as loud as he wanted to. Of course, without being an annoyance to someone. You know what? He would be loud even if others found him annoying. So what? Those people could go to hell for all he cared.
"Good morning. I asked what are you watching?" Adler repeated the question.
"It's a promo for the new expansion of 'Path of Glory'." She replied absentmindedly still paying much of her attention to the video.
Adler watched the hologram video as well. It showed a bunch of people fighting monsters in a medieval European setting. He could make out multiple people with swords, dagger, bows, staffs, etc. fighting off the hoard of goblins, orcs, trolls, and other monsters.
Suddenly, two clouds started converging on to the fighters, one white, one yellow. They were a bunch of ice particles and sand storms getting near, which soon collided with each other. The 'screen' was a bunch of white and yellow specs for a while.
When the sand and ice settled, a title appeared on the Holovision, [Path of Glory: Ice and Sand expansion. Starting Wednesday, June 15, 2123].
"Is this a new movie coming out or what?" Adler asked while thinking to himself. 'Guess awakeners have started to go into the movie business. Poor guys probably have nothing to do since the guilds and DA manages most of the dungeons.'
Mikaela looked at him and said, and said, "No, uncle. It's a promo for the game, Path of Glory."
"They get awakeners to act for the commercial these days? or has CGI just gotten this good," Adler asked assuming it was one or the other. But, the response he got was not what he had been expecting.
Mikaela said as if it couldn't be more obvious, " Of course not, it's a gameplay from inside the game."
"Gameplay? You mean that was from inside a game?? But the graphics are so good. I thought it was real life." He exclaimed.
Mikaela, seeing Adler get flabbergasted by the game, herself got excited as well, " Isn't it, uncle? It came out 2 months ago and has been the best thing to come out in decades. Inside the game, it feels like you are living a different life in a different world. There are times when you can't even tell that it's a game anymore."
"It was made so that the people who weren't awakened or rich enough to buy themselves a skill stone could get the feel of what it was to have powers. The game has documented over 6 thousand different skills from all the different awakeners, and made their own 4 thousand more, for a total of 10 thousand different skills to choose from or get. There are also so many different monsters, classes, Wild BOSSES, and -" she stopped talking and started getting embarrassed. "Sorry, uncle. I started talking about the game and couldn't stop. "
Adler smiled a little, "It's alright, you seem to really like this game. Is this the same game you were playing yesterday that your mother said you earn money from?"
"Yes, uncle. The game got so popular within the first week of release that people started using real-life money to trade for in-game items. Seeing this, ASAGE, the company behind the game opened a legal site where you could turn in-game gold into real-life money. Or use real money to buy in-game items. You are however not allowed to trade real-life money for in-game gold. You should play it too uncle. Oh, but you don't have a V-Dive Capsule. Let me order you one." Mikaela said excitedly as she started tapping her wrist bracelet to order the thing she just said.
"Wait, wait, wait. What's a V-Dine Capsule? Don't order willy-nilly." Adler said as he stopped Mikaela from ordering the stuff.
"Not V-Dine, uncle, V-Dive. V-Dive Capsule is the best capsule on the market right now. It boasts a 100% Sync rate and allows up to 5 times in-game time acceleration. Although they don't allow you to go more than 70% sync rate." Mikaela replied.
'Capsule? Sync rate? Time acceleration?? ' He couldn't understand anything. "Explain more thoroughly. I don't understand half the words you just said." He demanded.
"You need a Capsule to play the game uncle. It's what allows you to get your virtual avatar in the game. And the better the sync rate, the better your senses become in the game. You start moving and reacting better as a result. Well, it also hurts quite a bit at a higher level, so I guess that's why they tell you to stay below 70%. " Mikaela replied.
"And what about the time acceleration thing?" Adler asked.
"Oh, it just means that the time passes 5 times faster in-game than in real life. You can play for 5 hours of real-time and it would be over a day in the game."
Adler got quite curious after hearing the explanation. 'A virtual game huh? Targeted for people that didn't awaken no less. I guess I can play that. Not to mention it's a virtual game. Those were just starting to pop up even during my time. They didn't look as good though.' He thought to himself.
"Don't order one. Let's go buy one ourselves. I need some clothes and other stuff too. I also want to see how different the world has become. Let's just go shopping, why don't we?" Adler told her as he looked forward to the day.
Mikaela got excited too. "Ok, I will tell mom about it." She ran off to talk to her mother.
Michael came downstairs at around 10 o'clock for lunch. The family sat around the table to eat. Agnes didn't cook anything this time. That was disappointing.
But, the food the droids cooked weren't that bad either. He didn't know where the droids hid in the house, as he hadn't seen a single one in the kitchen. He assumed it had to be a similar technology as the chairs. He would learn about them someday too.
It seemed Michael played 'Path of Glory' too. Learning this, Now he really wanted to play the game.
After lunch, Agnes left the house saying some work came up in the guild and that they urgently needed her help. Michael showed no sign of willingness to go out with him on the shopping trip either. So, in the end, Only he and Mikaela went to the town for shopping.