Steve checked his surrounding. He had already read the manual before going in, so it felt somehow familiar.
He, and some other users, were spawned at a downtown street which was the starting point of RoVe world. It was night time. Not because it was actually night, but it was always night at the downtown street. Maybe because it was the prettiest at night, with lights on?
There were some cafes, bars, restaurants, and a game center on the street. Users were encouraged to venture the street and its facilities, to meet and approach people they were interested in. When they had a match and wanted to date virtually, they could hop on a bus to go to the beach – where it was always sunset, by the way. They could also stay at the street and enjoy dinner at the restaurants, grab coffee at the cafe, or play games at the arcade.
Bus fares, foods, beverages, and tokens to play arcade games were paid with on app currency. Beta testers were granted with quite a big sum of it, so they could test everything, but after it was launched users would need to purchase the currency.
Steve felt someone's gaze on him, so he turned his head. A woman, good looking and slender build, was staring at him intensely.
Feeling awkward, Steve raised his eyebrows, then remembered to try to smile. At the same time. The result was… not really nice to look.
The woman was startled, then quickly left him.
Steve scratched his head – which felt strange, because in reality it was his glove scratching top of his mask. He pondered for a while, scanning every building in his sight. Almost everything was bustling with customers, except a tiny cafe on his left side.
He carefully moved his feet to walk. The first steps were strange, because he moved his feet but not actually walking. Technically he could walk for real and the boots would capture the movements to translate in game. But it would not be wise to walk around blindly in reality. So VR users needed to learn to walk virtually.
It was not rocket science to grasp, so Steve could soon walk comfortably.
He wandered aimlessly for 5 minutes. No idea what to do. A glimpse of a vintage arcade machine behind the game center's window caught his eyes, so he decided to check it out.
Foreign music blared loudly inside. Kpop started to rule the world a decade ago, and it was still firm on the throne.
Steve winced. Thankfully it was not as loud at the corner where the machine was placed.
He touched the nostalgic machine thoughtlessly.
It felt just as cold, but looked twice bigger than what he remembered. No wonder, because the last time he played it, he was only half of his current height.
"Are you playing?"
Steve turned around. His startled eyes met a girl's, staring at him curiously.
She looked young. Early 20s, Steve guessed. Her jet black hair touched her shoulders slightly.
"Are you playing or not?" she repeated.
"Uh… no." Steve moved to the side. "Go ahead if you want to play."
The girl pouted. "I thought you wanted to play. I was waiting for someone to play with."
"Ah. You want to battle?" asked Steve.
Her eyes rounded in excitement.
"Yes! Would you?"
Steve nodded.
The girl quickly sat on one of the stool in front of the arcade. She pointed at the other one, for Steve to sit on.
Steve approached the stool carefully. Based on what he remembered from the manual, sitting was not complicated. He basically just needed to walk into the seating area – chair, sofa, stool, lounger et cetera – then he would automatically be seated. Getting up was done by moving any of his legs.
As soon as his knee hit the stool, he got seated. Steve reached the controller and they started to play.
He lost the first 3 games badly. He had not played for more than twenty years, so he needed to adapt. They started to be equal on fourth game onward. By the time they finished, Steve could say he had been on par with his opponent.
"Good game," she giggled.
"You're so good," he complimented sincerely.
"Want to play another machines?"
Steve shook his head. "It's so loud here. I need to give my ears a break."
"Yeah, it's loud," she nodded in agreement. "Let's play another time. What's your name?"
"I'm Steve."
The girl reached out and shook his hand. "I'm Erica. Can I add you into my contacts?"
When someone in your contact list went online, you would get notified. Similarly, you would be alerted of all your currently online contacts when you entered RoVe world.
"Sure," Steve agreed.
A pop up floated between them. Steve tapped on yes button, and the confirmation window disappeared.
Erica asked if he wanted to grab a drink. He accepted the invitation. They left the game center together.
As soon as they stepped out of the door, Steve muttered his relief, causing Erica to laugh.
Steve was a little shy.
"I almost never leave home, so I can't stand loud places," he explained.
Erica tilted her head to one side, thinking.
"Do you think it will be better if we can control the environment background music volume?"
"Huh? Yes, I think so…."
Erica signaled him to enter a tiny café, across the street from the game center. Their conversation halted for a while.
A waitress greeted them. Steve noticed that Erica seemed to be very friendly with her.
The café was very quiet with no other customers inside. There were only 2 tables, including where they were seated. All similar with 2 seats each.
The waitress handed a plain, simple looking menu. Consistent with the cafe's minimalist theme.
Without looking, Erica ordered iced americano.
Steve scanned it. Not much was offered. Espresso, americano and latte on the coffee side. Tea, lemon tea and chocolate on the non-coffee side. Some light food items like waffle and pancake were also listed.
"Tea, please."
"Hot or iced? With sugar?"
"Hot iced, no sugar."
"Hot iced?" the waitress grinned.
Erica chimed, "make the tea super hot, then add ice. It will be perfect hot iced tea."
Both girls laughed. Steve felt his face warmed up. He crossed his fingers that the device would not be able to capture his cheek reddening.
"Sorry… hot, please. No sugar."
After the waitress left them to prepare their orders, Steve whispered, "Is she your friend?"
Erica smiled. "Yes, and no. She's NPC, actually."
Ah, right! Now he remembered, somewhere in the manual stated that all employees in RoVe – waiter and waitresses, cashier, bus driver, everyone including the cleaners – were NPCs.
"But she's based on 2 of my friends in real life. So, yes, we're friends," Erica continued gleefully.
Realization struck Steve.
"You're in Ron's team?"
Erica was struck too. "You know Ron?"
Turned out, Erica was a junior programmer under Ron. She was a fresh graduate, but she had been an intern since last year, and officially got hired after graduation.
Their coffee and tea were served mid conversation.
The tea cup was actually warm to touch. Steve could feel his gloves warmed up when he grabbed it.
Steve sipped his tea slowly. He did not taste anything, like he had expected. Just the liquid lessened little by little as he "drank." Maybe in the future they would be able to play with smell and taste… who knows?
After putting his cup down, Steve could not help but feeling curious about Erica's glass.
"Is it cold?" he pointed at the glass she was holding.
Erica laughed. "Touch it." She handed the glass to Steve.
Now he felt glove on his right hand got colder.
"Nice detail."
Steve's positive reaction made Erica happy. She looked like an excited kid in her birthday party, after opening a nice gift. Her joy was infectious, drawing a smile on Steve's face too.
Because they both still had work to do, they finished the beverages and parted ways. Erica insisted to pay. So Steve tipped, twice of the bill. The waitress thanked him profusely and asked for his name.
"I'm Steve," he told sheepishly. It was good to see her happiness, but it was not his money, so he felt quite bad. It's not even real money. Well, she's not a real person anyway… he guessed?
The girl reached out.
"Hi Steve! I'm Alaina."
As if he was hypnotized, Steve shook Alaina's hand.
Her hand felt warm and delicate. He took that time to observe her.
Alaina was cute. Small, tiny even. Curly hair, big round eyes, somehow reminded Steve of his sister's baby doll back in their childhood.
If she was based on Erica's real life friends, most likely they were the same age. But Alaina could pass as a high school student. Her hair were done in pigtails, adding to the impression that she was much younger.
"Come again next time, okay?"
Steve nodded. He reached his face to take the mask off in real life, then the next second he disappeared from RoVe.
2 hours later, Ron called. Steve let him know that he was working.
"For real? On Saturday?"
"Yeah," Steve huffed. "Have you heard about my new boss?"
Ron chuckled. "I'm sure half of world population know about the mega acquisition."
Steve had worked for a giant e-commerce company since graduation. They scouted him because of Alicia. At that time, they already had a popular digital personal assistant, and they were interested to improve it.
He no longer worked for that team though. Main business team snatched him on his second year. Now Steve had his own team that focused on features development.
Problem arose when Mr. Woody, an eccentric billionaire, bought the company. He wreaked havoc among the employees. A quarter got fired. Another quarter resigned because they disagreed with new boss' view. The remaining were tasked to handle double the job now, and more were considering to leave due to the heavy load.
"Just quit. I'm sure you'll get at least 10 offers once news spread that you're free agent."
Steve could not help to smile. Ron was always enthusiastic, and his careless comment just now lifted his spirit a bit.
"Not sure I'll get that many offers," he humbled himself. "For now, I'm still trying to hold on. This is the only job I have ever done in my life. All I know, all I learn, everything has always been for this company. I don't want to leave… yet."
Ron was silent for a while. Then he said softly, "I understand."
After a moment of awkwardness, Steve remembered that he still have work waiting, so he asked Ron's reason to call. Although he could guess it should be related to RoVe.
And it really was.
"Erica told me you were impressed."
"I was…." Steve went on to give honest review from his short visit. Things that he liked, what he thought could be improved, and so on. He ended with, "But you probably have heard it all from Erica."
Ron laughed. "Yeah, most of it. She's a gem. Do you know she's Claire's friend?"
"Oh, really? Claire, your sister? But, if I remember correctly, Claire majored in psychology, not computer science."
"Yes. They went to the same high school. Erica heard from Claire when we were looking for interns, and she applied. She's a great addition so we hired her as soon as she graduated."
"I see."
"Anyway. I'm glad you enjoyed your first visit. But next time please try to talk to others, don't just talk to staff."
Steve rebutted, "I did talk to someone else."
It sparked Ron's enthusiasm.
"Whoa! Name?"
Steve grinned as a mischievous idea sprouted in his mind. Instead of Alaina, he blurted another name out instead. "Aurelia."
Ron gasped.
"Wha… what did you say? You met Aurelia?"
"I'll tell you later. Need to work now," he ended the call quickly, then laughed out loud until his stomach ached.