Maru finally made her way to her apartment. Eviction notice flyers were attached to her front door again. A sigh escaped her lips as she opened the door and went in. She stripped her wet clothes and then fell back onto the bed. Rolling to her side, she rolled into the fetal position. She then sat scrolling on her phone. A text notification popped up. It was from the VR cafe guy. What was his name again? She just had him in her phone as VR. Maru opened the text to see a picture of an older model VR headset set up. She texted him back, asking why he sent it to her. Instead of a text, her phone started to ring.
"Hello?" Maru spoke into the phone. There was some background noise from the cafe, and she could hear the guy taking care of a customer.
"Hey Maru! It's Matt." he began. Matt!! That was his name, duh. She should have known that. "Did you look at what I sent you???"
"Yeah, I wasn't quite sure why you were sending it to me.." Maru began, but Matt excitedly cut her off.
"Remember you had asked me to keep an eye out for a setup?" Matt asked. Nooowww, it was coming back to her. She remembered asking him a while back but had never heard anything more about it.
"Oh yeah... well, I can't," Maru began, but Matt cut her off again.
"I heard that Alice left ya. And I'm sorry. So I know you're gonna say you can't afford it. But it's free!!" Matt said. Maru sat in a bit of shock. Free? Even though it was an older gen, it still looked pretty expensive to just be free. "Maru?? Did you hear me?"
"Yeah. Free, how come it's free?" Maru felt an uneasiness waiting for there to be a catch or something.
"Just because it's old, I think. I'm not sure. But the cafe was just going to throw it out, so I figured I'd offer it to you. It works and everything I fired it up myself." Matt reassured her. Maru thought about it for a bit.
"Yeah, I'll take it." Maru answered. Even if she had to give up being a professional gamer, at least she could finally enjoy gaming at home instead of having to pay at the cafe.
"Great, if you want, I can drop it off to you?" Matt said. Maru was confused. How did Matt know where she lived?
"Um, how do you..." Maru began to say, but Matt cut her off again.
"Maru... we're neighbors." Matt answered. Maru face palmed herself. How could she forget that he lived next door? She knew she was all over the place right now with losing her manager, but jeez.
"Yeah, I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking clearly." she answered, feeling guilty. A sigh escaped her lips as she sat up. "So when will you be dropping it off?"
" I close tonight, so around 9:30?" Matt answered. Maru looked at her phone to see it was only a half hour from now.
"Yeah, that sounds fine. See you then." Maru said. Then they said their goodbyes, and Maru hung up the phone. She could feel and hear her stomach start to growl. Energy drinks and donuts apparently were not enough today. Moving into the kitchen, Maru opened the cupboards to see what there was to make for food. Ramen...ramen... and more Ramen. Well, it looked like Ramen was for dinner. While waiting for the Ramen to be done, she began digging through her games. The first one she wanted to be lost in was an MMORPG where you would choose your character, whether woodland elf, dark elf, mage, orc, or a human warrior. You could team up to do quests or dungeons. Or you could do pvp raids or duels. The real main storyline was to find the woodland elf princess who had been missing for decades and bring peace to the realms. That is unless you were an orc who wished to use the powers that she possessed to take over the realms. Or the dark elves who believed her death was needed to bring peace over the realms. In the meantime, you would do raids or dungeons and other quests to raise the levels of your character. The game had been out for 3 years already, and no one had yet to find the princess. Even though the main plot line had yet to move forward, the game in itself was still fun.
Maru's timer for her ramen went off. She sat down and ate her ramen as she scrolled through her phone. She started to go down memory lane in her photo gallery. Every other picture was a competition where, of course, she had taken second place to Takeshi. She found herself becoming more mad with every picture she scrolled through. His stupid arrogant face! Did this guy ever even smi...??? Maru's thought stopped as she landed on a very old picture. She did not know how it was even on her phone. It was a picture of her and Takeshi holding trophies up for their elementary school spelling bee. That's right! The one and only time Maru had won against him! And look, the arrogant punk is smiling! "I'll be damned.." Maru whispered, "He does smile." There was a knock at her door. Maru jumped up to her feet.
"Coming!!" she yelled. When she opened the door, there was no one there, just the box. Maru looked both ways down the hall but saw no one. Man, that guy moves fast, she thought. There was a note on the box that just said, 'Enjoy! -Matt'. Maru brought the box into the house. It seemed heavier than she thought. She sat it down in her living room for now. Then she went back to eating her ramen. Picking up her phone, she saw the picture again and shook her head. Whatever happened to that guy? He used to be so sweet and caring. Now, he just treats everyone like they're beneath him.
Maru had a brilliant plan. Since she now had the VR set up. She would challenge him to a pvp duel! Maru began to unpack the box. Wait? This was not just a VR headset. It had full body capability. Maru paused for a minute, rethinking her plan. Could she beat him this way? She was trained in martial arts, but how well would that transfer to in-game? Maru tapped her foot thinking. Oh, well. She would set it up vs. a friend or two to see. Then, contact the prick through dm and kick his ass. Maru clapped her hands and then began setting up the equipment. Finally, she had it all ready! It took a moment to get used to the system. She more or less played more headset and keyboard. So, trying to figure out if there was any lag between handheld remotes and movement took a bit. Finally, she called an in-game friend, Tulla, by using a voice chat service that they all used. Tulla was awake and up for helping her out. Maru and Tulla's characters were at level 120. She had decided it would be the best way for Maru to decide if she could do it full body or if her reaction time would be too slow. She figured if not, maybe she could find a way to just use the headset otherwise.
"Alright, Tulla, you ready?" Maru asked. Tulla's character did an emote to show she was ready. "Let's do this!" Maru said as they began. At first, there seemed to be a lag between her commands and movements. Then it was almost as if the game had learned her movements, and they were in sync. Maru won both duels.
"Dang Maru, where'd you say you got that set up?" asked Tulla. Maru sat down on the floor, a bit out of breath. It was definitely a workout to play this way. Even with using spells in between to break up the physical aspects of the duel.
"Matt... I got it for free. Phew, I think I understand why. You'd have to be in immaculate shape to be able to fight in dungeons or to do raids." Maru answered, wiping the sweat off her brow. "I'm sure it's a nice setup for less physical type games..."
"Who's Matt?" asked Tulla. Maru forgot that Tulla lived miles away for a minute.
"Matt...he works at the VR cafe I usually play at." Maru answered. She took the headset and equipment off, leaving her cordless earbuds in as she moved to the kitchen to get a bottle of water.
"Mmm... I know of the cafe you've talked about that a lot. But I don't remember you bringing up a Matt. Is he your boyfriend???" Tulla said in a teasing voice. Maru spat water out of her mouth. Tulla began to laugh, "Did you just spit out your drink??? Must be a yes then!"
"Nooo, no, it is not. Matt and I are just acquaintances, that's it." Maru was quick to deny any attachment. Tulla laughed harder at this. "Whaaatttt???"
"Sorry I forgot, your heart belongs to Takeshi!!! Ooooo!! Maru and Takeshi perfect power couple." Tulla said, knowing it would get Maru going.
"Tulla... I know you're just saying that to get me going. I'm not going to let it get to me. We both know he is the enemy. And speaking of time to challenge that prick." she said calmly. Tulla pouted a bit and called her no fun. Meanwhile, Maru put the headset back on and searched to see if Takeshi was on. Sure enough. In the menu of online players, it read in recent players challenged, Takeshi: Online.