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Downtown Seattle, outside a subway station.
"You beat Volume Two already? Nice!"
"What happens next? Is it hype?"
"Dude, absolutely. You saw the reviews, right? The endgame is insane. I'm planning to grind through all of Volume Two this weekend."
"Man, I'm so jealous you can play on your dad's account. We'll be lucky if we finish it in another week."
A group of middle schoolers were geeking out about Transformers as they poured out of the station.
They weren't adults yet, so their screen time was on lockdown. Even though they could play Transformers, the parental controls meant they couldn't exactly binge it.
"Yeah, Tyler's dad is chill. I wish my dad was that open-minded. Mine never lets me play. I have to sneak in time when he's not home," said a shorter boy, adjusting his backpack. "Actually, he's working late again tonight, so I can finally get some gaming in."
"Wait, your dad doesn't play Infinite Realms himself?" another slightly chubby boy asked.
"Nope. Too busy with work. Says he doesn't have time."
"Ryan, playing Transformers on your setup is a total waste, though. You need a VR pod for this game. Even the best headsets give you a trash experience compared to the pod," said a tall boy rocking expensive Jordans.
"A VR pod? My dad would kill me. These glasses were a birthday gift from my mom before she passed away. If it wasn't for that, Dad would've thrown them in the trash ages ago. I'm lucky to even have them," said the shorter boy, Ryan.
His full name was Ryan Carter, a passing sophomore in middle school.
"Your dad is way too strict. He won't even let you game a little bit?" another student asked.
"Yeah, and your grades are solid, too. Why's he riding you so hard? If I had your grades, my dad would probably throw me a party," the tall boy—Tyler—added.
"Yeah, well... he keeps a tight leash on my allowance, too. I'll probably be stuck watching the premium Transformers content on YouTube. Won't be able to actually play it myself," Ryan said with a bitter smile.
"No worries, man. Come over to my place this weekend. I'll let you hop on the rig," Tyler said, patting Ryan's shoulder, acting all magnanimous.
"Oh, thanks," Ryan forced a smile and nodded.
He knew Tyler Wu's game. The kid was all talk. He did the same thing when the Avengers content dropped.
Whenever it came time to actually hang out, Tyler would flake with some lame excuse. He liked looking like the good guy in front of the crew, but he was fake.
The group chatted until they hit the intersection, where they split up.
Tyler and two others headed toward the new luxury condos across the street, while Ryan banked left toward the older, run-down apartment complex tucked behind an office building.
When he got home, the coast was clear.
Ryan tossed his backpack on the floor, grabbed his VR headset, and logged straight into Infinite Realms.
Like his classmate said, his gear was pretty janky. He was running on the lowest graphics settings. The immersion was weak, and the controls were clunky as hell.
But he didn't care. He was hyped just to be playing.
Yesterday, he'd reached the boss battle between Optimus Prime and Megatron. According to the guides and streamers he watched, Megatron was about to swipe the Allspark and start turning cars and planes into Decepticons—the real climax of Volume One.
He figured he'd hit that plot point today.
Ryan had memorized the walkthroughs, so he was breezing through the level.
But just as he was getting into the zone, right as the plot was peaking, the front door clicked open.
A middle-aged man in a wrinkled business suit walked in. He set down his briefcase, glanced toward Ryan's room, and frowned.
He walked straight into the bedroom and found the boy gaming.
Instant rage. He crossed the room in two strides.
Ryan, totally locked in, didn't even hear him coming.
"Is this all you do? Play games?"
Ryan's father, David , snatched the headset off Ryan's face. "You come home from school and jump straight into this garbage without even doing your homework?"
Ryan flinched. He hadn't expected his dad back this early. "Dad? You said you wouldn't be back until ten."
"What? You upset I'm home early? Did I interrupt your precious game?" David snapped.
"No, no! I just finished dinner and played for a few minutes. I was about to start studying. I finished most of my homework during study hall!"
"You can play games anytime. When you get to college, you can waste all the time you want. If you don't grind now, you're going to regret it when you hit the real world."
David launched into his usual lecture.
"Look at how hard I work every single day—it's because I didn't focus enough back then. When you grow up, the job market is going to be brutal. It's a dog-eat-dog world. Without a top-tier education, you won't even make it as far as I have."
Ryan was sick of the speech, but he knew his dad meant well. "I know, Dad. Just let me play ten more minutes to reach the save point, then I'll hit the books."
"No. Not even one minute. Go study. Now."
His father's tone left zero room for argument. He tucked the headset under his arm and marched out of the room, slamming the door behind him.
Ryan slumped in his chair, totally deflated. He sat there staring at the wall for a long time.
"Whatever... I'll study. I'll sneak in some playtime once he crashes for the night."
David collapsed onto the living room sofa, completely drained.
He was a sales rep. The job wasn't heavy lifting, but it was mentally exhausting. Especially lately—the competition was fierce, and corporate kept jacking up the quotas. The pressure was suffocating.
He should have hit his numbers this month, but he'd visited a key client, Mr. Zhao, half a dozen times. Even though Zhao acted interested, he kept stalling on signing the contract.
Recently, David couldn't even get a meeting with the guy. It was incredibly frustrating.
He'd thought about cutting his losses, but he'd already sunk so much time into the account. Walking away now felt like a waste.
He was fried. Physically and mentally.
Lying halfway off the sofa, David heard a tinny noise coming from the headphones of the VR headset he'd tossed on the coffee table.
He frowned, looking over.
"What is so addictive about this thing?"
As he stared at it, David remembered seeing Mr. Zhao playing inside a VR pod during one of his sales calls.
He knew about Infinite Realms, of course—half the guys at the office played it.
Especially the younger ones. They were obsessed.
One of the junior sales guys got fired last week because he pulled an all-nighter playing some update called Transformers. Kid overslept and ghosted a major client meeting. Management went nuclear.
In David's opinion, kids these days were too impulsive. With the crushing pressure of bills and just trying to survive, who had the time or energy for games?
However...
What kind of magic does this thing have that turns people into zombies?
David's curiosity started to itch.
He picked up the headset.
The sounds leaking from the earcups—explosions, grinding metal, dramatic orchestral music.
"Just... just a quick look," he whispered to himself. "I need to see what Ryan is so obsessed with. That way I can actually explain why it's a waste of time."
David rationalized it.
Then, almost on autopilot, he lifted the glasses to his face.
Curiosity is how it all starts, right?