*Trrrriiinggggg*
The sound of the gong of the electric bell buzzing incessantly broke through the corridors, instantly brightening the gloomy atmosphere of all the classrooms and brought an end to the hectic school day, which was further accentuated by the extreme heat of the summer sun.
Without any delay, the students have already launched themselves into packing their bags while the teachers of several classrooms waved their hands around and raised their voices in an attempt to quiet them down.
It was the same in class 11th where a female teacher was shouting louder than the assembly speakers.
"Tomorrow we are going to have a lab day...read the theory that you shall find in the manuals..."
But alas,
"Nezuko-chan~you are so beautiful~"
"Bro shut up your trap and don't cling to me like that...also wipe that drool off your face. It's disgusting!!"
A girl sitting few benches behind giggled as she said, "Live BL in my classroom... exactly what I needed."
Yes, the teacher's words didn't even reach them.
And they were teenagers.
And they were horny.
Basically...perverts?
The teacher went on with more details even when almost none of them paid any attention to her.
It's not like they didn't care. They had paused their activities when she had started the announcement but then they glanced at their nerdy classmates and suddenly... suddenly they remembered their existence.
Thoughts along the lines of 'ahh, I am blessed with such good friends' , 'their sacrifices are indeed selfless' weren't much uncommon.
Sigh...unlucky nerds!
On top of that, today was the release of the most anticipated game of the decade ... "Zenim: An Unexplored World", the first ever VR game!!!
Many of them looked at the classroom wall clock, noting the time to be 3:15 pm; the game would be released at 4 pm.
Excitement shimmered among the die hard gamers and the casual ones as well, for this was the day many would see the fictitious game of the novels firsthand!
Jurel was also one of them, his excitement ready to burst out.
Even though he tried to maintain a calm composure, the slight trembling of his forelimbs betrayed his feelings.
'Few more minutes and i shall finally be playing it' The black haired boy thought as he cycled through the bustling crowd which at this hour consisted mainly of exhausted students returning to their homes.
His joy was palpable at this point, his wish to play at exactly the releasing time fueled more by his desire to secure his gaming name in the game -- Lone Boy.
The name sounded so childish and simple. But in the gaming name, it was anything but ordinary.
The idol of millions of younger generation gamers...on second thought, he was young as well...
But well, this figure shrouded in mystery was right now cycling towards his home.
Yes,you heard it right! Mystery!
He was someone who had never gone livestream but his name at the top of leaderboards of several games was a testimony to his incredible gaming skills.
And as such his fanbase was huge and crazy theories on him were all over the Internet.
But Jurel never intended to expose his identity.
He played for he loved playing and that was it!
It was in his opinion that his gaming career would have a lot of pressure should his identity be known to all...which he considered an unnecessary burden.
Even while he would appear in gaming competitions, he would always wear a mask and bulky clothes to hide his face and his frame.
*
"Mom I am back!" He shouted and went upstairs to his room, slamming the door shut behind him...poor mother,she couldn't even reply to her only son.
Anyway, the bast--ahem, the boy named Jurel quickly freshened up , sat on his bed and eagerly watched the time and for any news update on the game. His attention then shifted to the polished cylindrical gaming pod, which was carefully kept at one of the corners of his room.
This pod, made after a thorough research, can shift one's consciousness from one plane to another. Though the public weren't informed about its makers neither were any papers published on how consciousness shift could even take place.
Another interesting thing about it is that the person within the pod wouldn't face any backlash and through several wires connected to the interior of the pod, it would keep on providing nutrients to the body for upto 6 hours.
After which,it would need to be recharged again.
Though Jurel had found rumours stating that the top tier products can feed you for an entire day...meaning one could remain in the pods for as long as they liked.
But he didn't want anything to do with such luxurious items.
'Its not like I shall be playing the game the whole day.' He mused inwardly before getting up from his bed, then switched off his television and stood before his gaming pod.
Keeping his growing excitement in check, he put his palm on a Palm Scanner.
With a slight hitch, the two sleek doors slid inwardly into the thick walls of the pod, allowing him entry.
Once inside, the doors closed behind him and the space occupied by Jurel vibrated with a strange power as a robotic feminine voice greeted him.
"Welcome visitor. Please get ready for our first ever VR game: Zenim- An Unexplored World.
The game to be launched in: 3 minutes 15 seconds..."
With that, Jurel found himself looking towards a timer with the said numbers and a green neon light flashing everytime a second went down. Just above the timer he could see a digital clock merged with the calender system.
'This is certainly helpful, I guess small things like these matter a lot'
Jurel's thoughts drifted as he found himself appreciating the space around him that somehow seemed to have...more volume?
He was sure he wasn't imagining it, the volume he found himself in looked a lot more than it should have been.
Out of confusion and curiosity, he extended his palm towards the wall. But he never reached the wall as his palms struck something before that.
"Now wait a minute... don't tell me it's an illusion?! So the one I am touching is the real wall which for some reason I can't see....but I can only see the illusory wall, woah." He muttered, awestruck at this bizarre feature.
He then shook his head pensively, reminding himself that he was about to immerse into a human-made alternate reality.
'I guess technology has advanced so much that I still can't grasp it's vastness'
His lips concorted into a small smile before it vanished and as if a chord had struck within his inner self, he understood the need for the illusionary volume.
'Ah right...it must be for the claustrophobic people... wow they really have all things taken care of haha'
At around the same time, the timer went down to zero and a loud beep accompanied by a red flash of light echoed within the enclosed space of the pod, before eventually dying down.
Jurel suddenly felt himself feeling dizzy,his vision slightly blurring.
Dark stains spread at random points on the walls of the pod like blotches of ink spreading on a paper,which startled him very much so.
His consciousness faded away as he found himself suddenly standing...no, was he levitating in the air?
He slowly opened his eyes and all around him, a blue grid system appeared as if he had been sucked into a matrix.
From the depths of this grid, several bluish fragments rose up,moving at an incredible speed and assembled themselves in front of an astonished Jurel who couldn't at all comprehend what was even happening.
To him, who was used to seeing a mundane reality, this deviation from his daily life left him dazed, as if he had stumbled on a dream from which he couldn't seem to wake up.
Instinctively, he tried balancing himself before he observed that he couldn't feel his body as well.
All he could do was watch as the fragments connected themselves to reveal a greyish screen with a darkish perimeter, slightly rounded at the corners.
"A system! It's a fucking system!!" Jurel could no longer hold his excitement and shouted in awe.
What he had once thought to be just a fiction was now a reality!
A treat to all the gamers and die hard readers!
"Wait a minute, shouldn't there be a protagonist then?" He couldn't help but grin at his own nonsense before adding "There should be an apocalypse as well!!"
He chuckled at his own joke before his eyes widened...a text had appeared on the screen.
[~Ding~]
Then...he heard it...the notification of the Almighty System!