the trio was still searching, but after 4 hours, they realized how deep, the video game hole they fell in was, there were too many games, but the kind of realism they thought would attract Daniel was nowhere to be found, after all, a game was supposed to be entertaining and not educational, so the games with a scientific background still had no real science in it, so they continued their research and compromised for a realistic environment
phoebe said "this S.L.B game sounds good, here says that it's used by real pilots to train their skills piloting real small to medium size ship, the big ones needed too many people, and they couldn't make it realistic but this is the best one I could find, how are you two doing?"
Joseph was sad, the games he found, all sounded cool but were nowhere near realistic, one was so absurd that the player could make a spaceship out of normal wood, such nonsense was too much "nothing good here, one more absurd than the other, what does S.L.B stand for?"
phoebe answered "here the comments say it's some sort of a secret, to find out, you have to defeat the corrupted overseer and his fleet at the center of the galaxy"
Joseph said "sounds fun"
Phoebe replied "it does" the idea of fighting an evil overlord to save the galaxy, even if a fake one had turned on their battle lust, they turned to Vincent and saw he was lost looking at a video
in it, a pilot and copilot were driving a pyramid-shaped heavy fighter that was black and orange and making all kinds of strange maneuvers in space, to avoid enemy fire, the copilot a blue-skinned woman said "reroute power to the shields or we won't survive for long"
another blue-skinned woman said "it's all or nothing, hold tight"
the ship maneuvers became sharper and after an abrupt burst from the tail, the ship went up, and following a ring was now behind their suitors, the pilot immediately fired the phasers making the enemy explode "let's retrieve the cargo and jump out of here before their reinforcements arrive" afterward the copilot used a tractor beam to grab the cargo the video ended with the ship jumping in hyperdrive and three white letters on a black screen S.L.B
Vincent said "that was cool" and continued "I found a good game, if he tries it I'm sure he will get hooked"
Phoebe and Joseph looked at each other and laughed, Vincent had too much time and the one who got hooked was obviously him, then Phoebe said "ok then we just have to find a way to make him interested in trying it"
Joseph said "leave it to me, I already know how, hehe"
the next morning Joseph's plan was ready, like every morning Daniel came down for breakfast, but today he saw the trio looking at the same video they saw yesterday on a big holographic screen, while sitting on the couch, when he arrived the screen immediately caught its attention, no glowing formation could be seen, and those weapons no matter how one looks at it, this wasn't a cultivator ship, he was excited and asked "what is this?"
Joseph replied "oh, good morning Daniel, it's just a game that became famous recently"
Joseph's cunning methods to coax a child into playing video games were just starting, Daniel heard the word 'game' and completely lost interest, but Joseph was prepared and said while looking at the screen like he was talking with the other two "the controls are really similar to the real ones I saw in the past"
Vincent right on cue said "yes it's uncanny how much they look like the real thing"
Phoebe nodded and said "I almost want to give it a try looks fun, maybe we can do it as a family activity?"
Daniel's interest was reignited, he wouldn't learn the science behind the ship but learning how to drive it, was already something the university did not teach, so he said "maybe we can try it if this doesn't diminish my school time" he had to graduate to have access to the technology in the vault
Joseph said "ok let's do it, you can use the coffin more, but only to play not to stay in school more, I'll buy four accesses to the game" swiftly joseph went to the page he saved yesterday bought four accounts, and sent three to the others, while also giving authorization to Daniel to use it since the minor protection was still there, then said "alright here says that the tutorial it's solitary, we can regroup later, after completing the tutorial"
everyone nodded but after turning back to go have breakfast, Daniel fought about something and said "where are your eggs?" he saw their bedrooms, how could they enter virtual reality without an egg?
the trio laughed and Phoebe said "maybe we should have the chat, we postponed this many times already"
while phoebe was talking Daniel butted in and said "if it's the fact that I can't cultivate and have some sort of mutation, I already know, it was in a biology lesson, but what does it have to do with that?"
the trio was stunned and Joseph said "that's a wild ride, how did you get there? and, you are ok with it?"
Daniel responded "that's the only thing that came to mind while thinking about what we didn't talk about, on the other side I don't really care, science looks fun, and these things really like it too, plus this seal makes me unaging, so I have all the time I can possibly want to play with it, why should I mind"
the trio laughed and Vincent said "if that's how you feel it's good, we were worried over nothing"
phoebe and Joseph always acted carefully around Daniel, they were careful not to show their abilities, because they didn't want to make him jealous and bitter at his own destiny, but now they felt at ease like a weight had been lifted
and with that figured out, Joseph explained "the personal devices for cultivators grant access to virtual reality, we don't need a coffin because our bodies don't need either sleep or food and consequently no monitoring while we are inside"
Daniel said "I understand" and went to the kitchen to have breakfast, while thinking "it's sad they don't do it, sleeping feels good"
later after breakfast, he entered virtual reality and had his lesson then after lunch he said "I'm going to try the game now"
the trio had already played in the morning, and Vincent was the one having the most fun and said "hehe pay attention to what type of starting point you choose, it will follow you for the rest of the game so the more difficult it is the better" while laughing, but didn't explain anything specific
soon after Daniel was in his room and cracked the egg, but this time instead of going into the virtual academy he entered S.L.B
connecting to S.L.B . . .
new account detected, do you wish to create a new avatar or continue with the one already in use?
Daniel said "I'll continue to use this one"
affirmative, entering S.L.B . . .
soon his vision went black when he opened his eyes he found himself in a black room that had the shape of a box with no doors or windows, the only source of light were three portals that were obviously technological in nature
they were made with a silver metal that had a red rim and had part's that even not knowing what they did, made the portal look like it was put together from many components, on top of them was a neon sign with an arrow
on the first one was written [during a fight with the forces of the corrupted overseer your ship suffered extensive damage and crashed on an unknown planet, the groundwalker unit followed you fix the ship or find another way off the planet while fighting (difficulty high, start with a broken random ship, damaged space suit and damaged random tools and weapon, devised for veteran players)]
on the second was written [after winning a fight, your ship was in bad shape and received damage to the hyperdrive and impulse engine, you landed on a near planet to find the necessary resources to repair your ship (difficulty medium, start with a random damaged ship, basic spacesuit, and basic tools devised for those who like a challenge)]
on the third was written [you are fresh out of the academy and the universe awaits, complete the last test and jump on your new ship to the sea of stars (difficulty none, start with a basic ship, spacesuit, and tools devised for total rookies who wish for an easy start)]
Daniel didn't know which one he should choose and looked around, suddenly he noticed a strange bump on the base of the first portal, that the other two did not have, so it grabbed his attention, he went to look and found a hidden compartment, inside there was a book with a strange white metal cover, daniel took it and when he opened it the pages looked like blue holograms, without any word in them but a notification jumped up
you have found the hidden diary, do you wish to start the anomaly trial?
Daniel was confused, so he searched the web and found out what it was, apparently, the anomaly trial was a hidden hell difficulty tutorial, but the rewards were awesome, sadly no one passed the trial and they knew the rewards only because, when given the mission the system said the rewards too, he thought about it and decided to go for it, in the worst case he would have to restart and choose one of the three, but before that he spent some time looking through the forum to learn more about it
after 30 minutes Daniel said "yes"
In the next second the portals lifted off the ground like rockets and disappeared bringing with them the roof, beautiful stars were up in the sky, and the walls started to crumble showing a frightening scene, to the north was an infinite land of ice, to the south, the ground was so hot it was glowing red, to the west there was a lot of purple fog, making it difficult to see what's inside, and finally in the east everything was glowing green and in creepy shapes
in the cold and hot zone, some things could be seen wandering around, while the diary flashed with silver light and turned into some sort of simple crown on daniel's head, it was a simple silver slip of metal around the forehead with a blue gem in front and a blue holographic eye sprouted from the gem
a cold voice came out of it "another challenger, do you weaklings never learn, bah I'm speechless this one it's not just a weakling it's just a kid, hahaha well see how much you can survive before you start screaming for mommy"
Daniel totally unfazed said "who are you?"
and the voice replied "you will know if you can survive hahaha"
soon the wall finished to crumble and was substituted by a light blue forcefield, and a different voice was now coming out of the crown
temperature stable, oxygen levels normal, no radiation or poisons detected, initiating scan . . .
error, missing scanner, analyzing space suit system . . .
error, missing spacesuit, analyzing tools . . .
error, missing tools, searching route for survival . . .
route for survival found, emergency communication system online, sending a distress signal . . .
error, distress signal unable to breakthrough the atmosphere, tuning in the emergency channel . . .
two emergency signals found . . .
found a signal coming from the east, unable to triangulate precise position, a message has been found do you wish to listen? y/n
Daniel said "yes"