Return to the game (1)

Chris went to work after buying the game device. At the end of the day, he informed the shop owner that he wouldn't come to work from next month.

The owner just nodded and didn't say anything. It's not like the shop is earning much for him. Paying Chris was an extra for him, but he can't fire him without proper reason. If he does that he could lose more than he had to, so he didn't make any move.

The owner was already looking to sell the shop and when he does, whatever happens next would have nothing to do with him.

Now that the boy was quitting on his own, it would lessen his loss a bit. So he didn't say anything about it and Chris knew about that too. So today he had no respect for the owner, the respect he once showed him.

After all, he was screwed by the owner when the shop was brought by some super company and he was fired as they didn't need him. Sure it made him enter the game at the time but that was after some time.

He was jobless for a time, which was not good for living in a society where money plays a major role in how one would live. It was quite stressful for him at that time.

He couldn't forget that and live now as if nothing happened. Even now when he submitted his resignation, the owner said nothing. If he had spoken kind words then Chris would have inferred that the owner cared or if he was harsh, at least it would have said that the owner had no idea about selling his shop at that time.

Saying nothing now confirmed Chris's thoughts that the owner didn't care whether he had a job or not. Such a man doesn't deserve his respect.

So he did his job and left for home in the evening.

---

After returning from work in the evening, Chris quickly refreshed up a bit before taking his sister out to the zoo, as he promised.

It was her favourite place in the city. Bringing her here brought a smile to her face, a genuine smile, not like she usually acted with him.

Though she was young, she matured faster than others. She lost her parents when she was three. Back then she never understood what was happening but understood one thing that her parents would be with her anymore.

She cried for them, not because they were dead but because she couldn't play with them anymore. She was a child back then and didn't have the same mindset to understand complex things.

Chris tried his best to play their roles but it was exhausting as he was too young to do anything properly.

Most of the time when he was away, she would be in daycare or their neighbor aunty would be taking care of her.

Abigail, quickly understood what was happening around her as she grew up. She stopped being immature and asked for things that her brother couldn't get her but she was still a child and there were some things that she couldn't let go of, especially the Zoo.

It was her favourite because her best memories of her parents are when they used to visit the zoo. She couldn't let that go and as of late, it was the only thing that she ever asked of her brother.

Chris was happy too looking at her sister.

He was not a dimwit to not see that his sister was mentally maturing before she should. He felt a pang in his heart looking at her growing up faster than she should.

The burdens he took were to make sure that she would have a childhood like him but it was not going the way he thought it would go.

He was always frugal in his last life as there was not much to spend as they wanted. His income was meagre and most of everything they were spending came from the insurance money.

He didn't take her to the zoo as much as she liked and she understood it too. So she never made any fuss about it but it also made her lose her childhood.

This time around, he decided that she would enjoy her life as a normal child should.

They spent till late in the evening and returned home.

---

The remaining days before the launch went by. The game device was already installed the same day he brought it. He has nothing much to do before the server opens.

There are a few things that he wanted to do but he could only do them just before launch.

He knew perfectly well that every action has a consequence of its own. The consequence depends on what the action was. It could be a minute or something that could change the course of history.

To get maximum gains Chris had to preserve as much as he could, but also knew that it won't be possible as time went by and he was okay with it. He didn't want everything to be the same but wanted it to be better and he had to make sure that happens, which requires some time.

On the 31st Dec, while everyone was either enjoying the new year or sleeping in their beds, there were others who entered their game capsules, which would be needed to access the new VRMMO, Abyssal Invasion Online: Realms and Chris was one of them.

The setting remained the same as what he heard back then.

Before the launch, there were some buy options for the gamers. They are premium crates and what one could get was never listed. It could be anything, at least that was what the company website said.

The premium crates were divided into five categories: Diamond, Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze.

As the name suggests, Diamond is the costliest and there was only one crate available to buy, while Bronze was the cheapest and there was no limit on them.

Everyone decided it was just a pay-to-win game, where the wealthy could bulldoze other gamers easily without doing anything. Many gamers hated this kind of setting but what can they do? They could only blame themselves as they couldn't afford the cost.

There are many who brought the bronze and silver, but only a few brought the gold crates.

No one wanted to waste their money without knowing what they could get from them. The crates couldn't be opened until the game started and many decided to buy them later. They were right in deciding so. It was a sound decision but there came a twist.

Once the server went online, buying the crates disappeared. Many regretted it back then, as the gold crate buyers bulldozed the game, built various guilds and occupied very important places in the game.

The game has been quite popular since the beginning, but the popularity skyrocketed when the real economy exchange was introduced a month later.

Once it was introduced, everyone entered the game but not always got what they wanted and so many shifted to maintain the outside functions for the guild works.

No matter how much one can earn here, it was still a game at that point. So the guild began their presence in the real world too, recruiting people and giving them the game capsules to work for them.

To maintain the workings of the guild in the real world, someone was required and the ones that filled the positions were someone who weren't good at gaming.

Chris wanted to buy the crates, the top two quality ones but once he does that, everything changes. So he waited till the last few seconds before making the buy.

He entered the capsule to wait for the game.

[Abyssal Invasion Online: Realms will go live in thirty seconds.]

When he saw the prompt, he immediately went to the shop and clicked the available diamond and platinum crates.

[Do you want to buy one diamond crate and five platinum crates?]

[Yes/No]

"Yes", he clicked.

[Congratulations on buying one diamond and five platinum crates. They can be opened once the server goes online.]

[3...2...1]

[Abyssal Invasion Online: Realms is now available to play.]