It was merely another day of the week for the girl. She had received notice that her delivery was at the door and so she approached and signed without saying a single word to the delivery guy that had taken her very delicate order in her hands.
She was Ryou, 15 Years Old, lives alone and almost never leaves her room unless it is strictly necessary for her to do so. She had just finished Middle School a few days ago and she was 'enjoying' her first few days of summer vacation.
"....Mhm."
Ryou had expected it to be a bit weird in person, but the item she had uncovered from within the medium sized box was more hefty than she imagined. It was a helmet quite similar to that of a motorcycle, strange enough it was packed full with electronics and other similar components.
"It's the real deal...."
The girl had a habit of speaking alone, to keep herself sane or something like that, at this point it was merely to keep the room from getting fully silent. She was a hikikomori, never leaving her safe place was a golden rule she liked to keep, as she wouldn't need to talk to people very often.
"As expected, that won't do huh?"
She was sane and smart enough to know this wasn't healthy, but she was also so deep into this lifestyle that she didn't had much option but to keep going. She lost what little acquaintances she had during her years of school and she was very despised by people too.
Why? Because long time ago she was basically what you would consider a boxing bag for everyone on the student council and her classmates. She was docile, never snitched and was sneaky enough to not get caught with harm done on her. This wasn't like this all of her life though.
It all started the day she overheard her parents arguing on the living room. Divorce was near and it seemed neither of them wanted to take responsibility of the, until then, annoying brat that seemed to actively look out for attention at every possible opportunity.
Ever since that happened, she decided to go quiet and docile. That way her parents would love her right? That way they wouldn't leave her alone right? It somehow worked for a few more years, which just helped for her to build up an incredible amount of stress over time until the incident happened.
She was 14 at the time, she was in the car with her parents waiting for the traffic light to turn green so they could continue their little journey to the lawyer. Yes, the very same day her parents would finally get rid of each other a drunk driver made a very poor maneuver and their car was hit.
Ryou survived with a few open wounds made by the glass and some plastic that was ripped open against her skin at the moment of the crash, but her parents didn't run with the same luck. They had both died in that very instant, so now rather than being abandoned she was left behind instead.
"I should boot it up. First wave is in ten minutes after all..."
Her voice was low and somewhat raspy, she stood up and took out the other implements of the headset and connected it to her internet router and directly to the power outlet. Finally she laid down on her bed, putting on the device over her head and looking over at the small chip that was on her right hand.
"Here I go."
She spoke, introducing the chip into its corresponding slot and booting up the helmet. After a few moments of some light noise, she could feel some sort of sound starting to ring around her in a soft manner, very comforting in fact.
It was part of the device's functions, in order to experience a full-dive into VR the user would need to calm down, close their eyes and fall asleep. Just then would the helmet catch the brain's demeanor and boot up the game, certainly a more dangerous approach if you were to explain it a few years back when the tech wasn't good enough to allow for this sort of thing.
"...Good night."
And as soon as she closed her eyes, Ryou would fall deeply asleep with the same feeling of some sort of comfortable sound vibrating through her head and calming down her usual headaches.
In the span of a few moments, she would open her eyes again in the middle of a green field of tall grass and flowers. This was the game's initial lobby, and since Ryou had read a few articles about the game itself, she walked forward, soon enough entering a clearing with short grass and some patches of dirt.
A window appeared in front of her as the sounds around her started to transform from window breezes and grass moving into gentle and uplifting classical music. Truly a nice and sweet choice for this scenario.
[Welcome, User, to Terra Casus Online!]