Ashes of the Fallen

The ultra-plush memory-foam, adjustable reclining chair that was used in The Cube was to be replaced with a basic memory-foam chair in The Egg, which contributed largely to the discounted price. So in the end, one would have to sacrifice comfort and support in order to save space and money in the long run.

That meant one thing to me, there were about to be a lot of used Cubes on sale.

When fully immersive virtual reality burst onto the scene, most people couldn't afford it and in turn gaming centers saw a sudden resurgence. Much like when gaming computers originally hit the scene in the very early 2000's and people couldn't afford the luxury, LAN centers popped up all over for kids to hang out at and play.

After some time, with kids stabbing and shooting each other over in-game fights, a lot of those places were banned in larger cities, with smaller cities following suit a while later. I never saw anyone get shot, but I saw plenty of knives and attempted stabbings.

It was a put up or shut up age, and if you wanted to run your mouth you had to deal with the consequences.

Those days were long gone though.

Now, trash talking was excessive and disgusting, yet there were little to no repercussions at all. It was a sad state of affairs… but that's progress, in the eyes of some. It wasn't a physical thing anymore, I guess.

Well, now gaming centers were making a comeback, without the fighting.

Recently a new company picked up on the wave and invested in a bunch of VR systems, and opened VR-Lan'ds all over the country. If one couldn't afford a Cube or didn't have the space for one, all they had to do was rent time at a local VR-Lan'd and that was that. They could easily fit four Eggs in the space of a Cube… and that meant more casuals would be coming to a location near me.

That meant, more bad pugs.

Ah.

I didn't like the prospects.

No, not at all.

Getting back into my car I decided to get some fresh air, a quick drive through a deserted windy mountain road to get the adrenaline going. At one point in my life I was driving a hundred and fifty miles a day, then it fell down to around three-hundred a week, now… I rarely drive at all. My muscle car, my truck, my tuner, and my motorcycle all sat collecting dust.

I should probably sell them, I thought.

I would need the money to continue gaming.

My mind wandered as I drove the long way back to my house, it was a nice day out, the kind of day where I would have spent it at the beach if it were a few year back. A part of me wanted to take a detour, to check out the ocean and see if it looked the same. It always did, but it was always a little bit different too.

The sunsets were always random colors, the waves similar but not identical, and the crowds varied from gorgeous to grotesque depending on the day and time.

The nude beach in particular was especially disturbing ninety-nine times out of a hundred… but every once in a while, there was a hidden gem that made your jaw drop.

Hah, I couldn't help but laugh at the thought.

Well, that was the past though.

My legs were reaching their limit of use for the day, anymore and the pain would start to increase, so it was time to head back.

Back into the virtual world, where life was a bit better.

I also needed to plan for the future, a sudden increase in the player base could change the world drastically. There were a lot of guilds still trying to eke out an existence and carve up small pockets of territory, some of those guilds might pose a threat to me if they become overly ambitious.

Yeah, it was about that time to reevaluate where I stood, and where I would be going in the near and distant future. The North was mine and I had no intention of ceding my territory to others who were late to the party. The wasteland that no one wanted months ago, was now starting to get a little bit more popular thanks to Emily and her blatant advertising. She really knew how to screw a guy over.

Fan favorite huh, well… I wasn't a fan.

Chapter 49: An Ox to Grind

(Friday, June 18th Game Day / Friday, February 26th Real Day)

"We all done here for the day?" I asked the party, after we had finished the last trash group on the fifth floor. "I think I'm going to head out to a neighboring town, check it out, kind of need the change in scenery."

"Yeh, I'm good," replied Barik with a shrug.

The others nodded as they collected their loot, content with what we had accomplished. Once everyone had finished gathering their belongings it wasn't more than a few minutes before the party was disbanded, with everyone heading their separate ways. We had been repeating the grind for a few days now and I was already level forty-four, with the others nearing level fifty. Unfortunately, the reality was that the levels didn't mean too much, like we had thought.