Giving an Invite
Hanno Futaba
Logging out...
His eyes opened, but everything was still dark until he removed his VR Adapter, putting it away on the nightstand. Staring at the ceiling while laying on bed, he took a deep breath and the stared at his hand while closing and opening it. It wasn't the last time he logged out, but he still did that, like it was some kind of ritual.
After confirming that he was in real life, a grin grew on his mouth and he stood up.
"YEAH, THAT WAS AWESOME!"
He shouted, then being scolded by a neighbor with another scream, making he apologize briefly. But he shrugged that off, his neighbor was nothing compared to the challenge he just went through. Suddenly, his stomach growled, whoops!
"Guess it's time for some meal, eh? Haha!"
Brian walked out of this bedroom, going directly to the kitchen, grabbing a few ingredients of the refrigerator and preparing everything to make his dinner. But before he could start, he was interrupted by his phone vibrating, walking to it and opening the phone. It was a message from his best friend, no... It was many unread messages from his best friend, along with a single recent one. 'Oh crap.' He thought before opening the message:
The man smiled. 'For a second I thought I was going to get a huge scold. But she's worried about me instead.' He couldn't help but chuckle at his friend's worry, it wouldn't be bad to invite her to dinner, right? After all, he wanted to talk about that game with someone since he started playing Terrasphere, but since he couldn't talk about it in public, having her in his house would be a good opportunity to tell her about it.
Well, considering how real that game was, Brian didn't discarted the possibility of someone giving up on their real life to play that thing for twenty four hours and seven days a week. This already happened with those archaic games that used screens to be played.
'I swear I will learn how to spell this word someday.' He frowned at the chinese word, that was impossible to be pronounced.
'More time than I need.' He grinned and began cooking. With two years since he joined a gastronomy college, he always took any chance he could to prove that his studies have been worth. And unfortunately due to the fact he like almost anything edible, he had a lot of trouble to do any self-evaluation that included his cooking skills.
After cooking for a while, something popped up in his mind. 'I got a cooking vocation on Terrasphere... I wonder how we cook stuff there, I never really tried it.' After all, everytime he logged in game he got into some kind of action or adventure. From fighting against wolves to battling a World Boss abomination to protect the world. #JustVRMMOThings
This said, he took a mental note to try out some cooking on his next log in. 'She should be here soon...' He thought while finishing the last preparations of the food and then getting the table ready. After finishing placing the last plate on the table, a knock on the door could be heard.
"It's open, come in!"
The door opened, and the woman stepped in.
"Ni hao, Futaba!"
"Hello Lia. Just in time!"
He showed the table, ready for dinner, making his friend open a wide happy smile. 'Normally I am the glutton, but she love this thing more than I love food in general...' Brian chuckled to himself, making Liang close her smile and look at him.
"You are laughing at me?"
'Sharp.' He gave a relaxed smile.
"Nah, don't worry. Let's not waste time, the food will get cold."
He gave a simple excuse to his friend, that nodded and sitted down to eat. His guest loved the food, and it was impossible to not like it, after all someone that loved food so much should be perfect at cooking something that someone else would like, specially if it's their favorite food. While eating, they took their time to chit-chat about a lot of random things: College, works, series, a bit of the past, and finally it came the topic that Brian wanted to get to.
"But you know Futaba, you've been playing a lot of VRMMO. I know you like it a lot, but don't you think you are overdoing it a bit?"
'This is my chance! Be direct and calm.'
"No way, I'm not overdoing it. It's just that I got this illegal VRMMO that I've been playing, that use the VR Adapter's full capacity. You know, that one from the rumors."
He couldn't have been more blunt about it.
"Aaah, it's that. No wonder y-"
The woman frowned, apparently trying to process what Brian just said. 'That's taking some time. Maybe I should grab some te-'
"ILLEGAL GAME?! WHAT THE HELL FUTABA?!"
"Shhhhhhhhhh!!"
He made a sign to she keep it down, not predicting she would react so abruptly. 'I didn't even know she could scream! She's normally so quiet.'
"Calm down Lia, listen to me..."
His friend frowned, but nodded and decided to hear him out. 'She's normally so calm, why I'm feeling like I will die if I say something wrong. Anyway chill dude, it's alright.' Brian thought before starting to talk about the game, how he got an invite to play it, how was his first adventure on it, the many conflicts he went through, the quests, the friendships and even what it looked like to be World Events, everything in a immersive virtual reality that no game could compare in this world.
The woman closed her eyes.
"So it seems it's nothing dangerous or anything. Well, I'm glad you are having fun. As long as you don't forget there's a world outside of that game"
"Don't worry, I won't. Even because my best friend is here, right?"
He gave her his usual relaxed expression, and his answer made she blush and have a shaken smile on her face. Then Brian grabbed his phone, sending a message to his friend, making her phone vibrate. She grabbed and opened her phone, looking at the message.
"What's this?"
"It's an invite for the game, in case you want to try it. Maybe it will be a good chance to you grow more friendships, I think it will be a nice experience for you."
'I had a lot of fun in this game, and I made friends that I probably won't forget about. So I'm pretty sure it's that what Lia needs.' He thought- No, he believed on it. But she still looked insecure about it.
"Don't worry, it is really fun. If you dislike it you can just stop playing it. It doesn't hurt to try-"
'Unless you get hit, scratched, pierced, bited or killed in the game.' He said in his mind, because he didn't want to scare off his friend, that was sighing.
"Maybe I will try it, but I don't promise anything."
Brian smiled, and they moved on with the topic. Then after finishing their dinner, she thanked for the food and left with a timid good night. He walked to the window, looking his friend walk away on the street. 'I hope this works.' A long yawn and a scratch on his head.
"Time to rest a bit, tomorrow should be a long day too."
After cleaning the dishes, he walked back to his bedroom. Finally going to sleep while wondering what kind of adventure he would go through on the next day.
