A delivery van slowly packed into the yard and parked in front of a two-story white-painted house with well maintained grass.
The deliveryman walked out of the van with a clipboard in hand and saw the door open with a young man in his early twenties walking out of the house.
"Adam Palestar?" The deliveryman asked.
"That's me." Adam said and wrote his name on the papers.
The deliveryman then unloaded the package and rolled it into the house. It took both of them to carry it to the second floor, and once the package was put down in Adam's room, the deliveryman bid farewell with sweat visible on his brows and left to do other deliveries.
After closing the front door after the deliveryman left, Adam rushed into his room and unpacked his purchase. Soon, his Bronze VR Pod was set up and ready to use in the corner of the room.
It was getting quite packed in the room because of the wardrobe, desk, bed, and now the VR Pod.
"Whew." Adam wiped off his sweat and read some of the VR Pod's instructions. But, after a short while, he tossed them away, as he had ten years worth of experience of fixing and using VR Pod.
He even knew how to repair the VR Pod if it was malfunctioning.
'Now that John and Serah are still at work and Alice hasn't returned from school, I could do this interrupted.'
Adam crossed his arms and smiled at the VR Pod. His tutorial would start in a few hours, but he planned to enter the waiting room a little earlier and get used to moving with the Bronze VR Pod.
He had used to play with the Diamond VR Pod, which was miles better than Bronze, but also more expensive. It had better reflexes, the feeling of touch was identical to real life, and it had a more realistic sense of immersion.
At that moment, Adam realized something and went to rummage through the packages. Soon, he found what he was looking for.
There were a bunch of blank cards with blank spaces for pictures and some information about the player.
***
[Name:]
[Age:]
[Location:]
***
It was a VR card.
With that, he could log into his account, and if it went missing, the person's account would as well. Therefore, it was an absolute must to not lose it.
That's why Adam had always kept his card inside the VR Pod at all times, so whenever he went to play, he only needed to press the button and his consciousness would transfer to the other world.
After taking out one of the blank cards, Adam opened the glass lid and climbed inside the VR Pod.
He then lied down, put his head on the padded rest, and inserted the card inside a small card hole that was on the side.
Below the hole, there were several buttons: one to close the glass lid, and one to transfer his consciousness to the virtual game.
"It's a little uncomfortable." Adam thought out loud as he tried to get into a more comfortable position. He didn't want to leave the game with massive neck pain.
During this time, he wished he still had his Diamond VR Pod, which felt like laying on clouds.
Adam then looked towards the button and reached out to it.
As his finger gently pressed on it, Adam saw the glass lid covering the Pod glow. He then saw flashes of light go past his vision, and then, without realizing it, he was standing in the middle of an empty white room.
"Interface..." Adam whispered, and only a countdown appeared in his vision.
***
[Game: Mortal Online]
[Countdown: 1:47.56]
[Do you want to enter the waiting room?]
[Yes/No]
***
'1 hours and 47 minutes.' Adam looked at the option and pressed yes.
He was covered by floating pixels, and then he saw the scenery around him change as if he were on a fast-moving train.
At last, he appeared in a new location—it looked like a cottage with a fireplace, two couches that could fit five people each, a table in the center of them, and a large window with a beautiful view of the surrounding landscape.
He walked over to the window and looked outside towards the winter wonderland with towering mountains, snowy forests, and a crystal-clear sky as if it were made of ice.
"It's still as breathtaking as before." Adam laughed and went to sit on one of the couches.
He then saw that there was a small book open on the table.
He picked it up and saw that it was a help manual for the newer players.
However, Adam had read it countless times, so he placed it down and instead enjoyed the warmth coming from the nearby fireplace, with logs crackling and popping in the background.
"Ah, right..." Adam wryly smiled and stood up. "I forgot that I needed to get used to the Bronze VR Pod. I got swept up by the cozy atmosphere."
He tried throwing punches, running, and moving all his fingers individually to see how different it was from the Diamond VR Pod.
"Ugh, so slow and sluggish..." Adam grimaced as he felt like he was being held back by an invisible force.
When he tried to touch the wall, he didn't feel that it was really real, as he felt like the tips of his fingers were numb.
His thoughts also felt sluggish, and when he wanted to move somewhere, it felt like he did that just a beat too slow.
It was as if his body was in a state of disconnection from his mind.
"This needs to get used to." Adam went back to the couch and sat down.
He added another thing to the shopping list—the Diamond VR Pod.
However, he was currently too poor to be thinking about purchasing such things—Bronze VR Pod alone emptied his bank account.
'It would be quite embarrassing to get a worse result than before.' Adam thought as he started to feel a little bit more nervous as the time for the tutorial neared.
'Well, now that I think about it, the reason for my somewhat poor score might've been Liam and Lisa. They were in danger of not becoming mercenaries, but I spent the last remaining days helping them kill enough Chaosbeings.
'I could've reached a B-ranked score now that I think about it...'
Adam sighed, and the more he thought about his old friends, the more frustrated he began feeling. Their friendship was over ten years old; they were at the bottom of the hierarchy at the same time, but they helped each other through the toughest times.
'It seems like I was the sacrifice for them to rise to even bigger heights.' Adam scoffed.
'Nikholas always had money problems because of his gambling addiction. Liam and Lisa didn't simply have the talent to become mercenaries.
'In this life, I suppose they might not even become ones.
'And then, Amelia...' Adam scoffed and felt sick just thinking about her.
He remembered Amelia in school, who was the most beautiful girl, and that attracted the attention of fellow male students and the wrath of female students.
She was harassed and bullied by her female classmates.
Adam helped her get out of that situation, and he even spent some holidays with her family. Her family was very nice, and at one point, he also wished for them to have been his government-appointed caretakers.
Unfortunately, he wasn't lucky enough.
However, Adam always had the feeling that Amelia was simply using him. She always seemed to be wearing a fake smile, and he couldn't shake off the feeling that she was only pretending to care about him.
"Whatever, just thinking about her makes me mad." Adam leaned on the couch and let out a deep sigh.
At that moment, more lights appeared around the cottage.
From those lights, figures started to appear.
'Oh, more players.' Adam's expression turned serious. 'Let's see who are my opponents this time.'