4 Logging in...

'That's impossible... the game was just announced today, right?! And the VR headgears aren't released yet. How come my son already got one?' Rin said to himself as his jaws dropped to the ground in shock.

"Hey, Yuuta... are you sure that the headgear you have is the VR Headgear for the new game, Lucid Dream Server?" Rin asked his son. "As far as I know, the release of the game was just announced today, and there are only pre-orders for the VR Headgears."

"That I'm not sure... a stranger only came up to me and told me weird things about this Lucid Dream Server. He said that this Server is a new invention and that their experiments involved making a game out of it. Hence they released the game Lucid Dream Server. But now, it's still in the testing phase so they're recruiting people who could test out the platform first before their upcoming worldwide release of the game."

Yuuta could be considered well-versed when it comes to video games, and he knew that he had just been recruited as a beta tester for the game/ server. But as for why he was chosen, he didn't know why. Still, the reason why he agreed to try it out was that the man who recruited him was becoming rather annoying, and the only way out of their conversation was to agree to his terms and get away from him as fast as he can.

Besides, he didn't need to sign any contract or waivers, so there's nothing holding him back. Even if he sold off the Headgear to someone else, nothing will come bite him in the butt.

"So... what you're telling me is... they've actually hired you as a beta-tester for Lucid Dream Server? That sounds a bit sketchy to me." Rin continued. "Are you sure the person wasn't trying to scam you?"

No matter what Yuuta relayed to his dad and his younger sister, they wouldn't buy it. That's why, instead of further explaining everything, he decided to grab the VR Headgear from his bag and show it to his sister and dad. Of course, he was especially careful not to reveal the rest of the contents in his bag.

"Wait.. this is actually the VR Headgear... but how? How could that person just hand you a hundred-thousand-dollar-worth Headgear? Or is this an imitation? No, it looks too sophisticated to be an imitation." Rin muttered to himself as he opened the box that contained the VR Headgear.

"Yeah dad, this is the one. It even has a tracking number. And also, the box looks so sophisticated to just be an imitation." Yui continued as she quickly browsed through her phone. Unbeknownst to Yuuta, she was trying to check if the tracking number was legitimate or not.

"DAD! TAKE A LOOK!" Yui suddenly exclaimed as she pressed her phone in front of her dad. It was too close that Rin had to push his daughter a little bit just so the phone won't be pressed against his face.

"So it's the millionth Headgear made. I can't believe it." Rin was pale from shock. "But why, why did they hire you as a beta tester?"

"Dad, doesn't that prove that even blind people can play it? Maybe they saw brother walking around the town and decided to recruit him because of that." Yui continued.

"I didn't know it was that expensive. Had I known, I wouldn't have thrown my bag so mindlessly like that." Yuuta scratched his head. When he was approached with the recruitment offer, he didn't realize that such an expensive item would be handed to him.

"One way or another, they probably saw something in you that made them chose you as one of the recruits." Rin pressed his thumb against his chin as he tried to ponder what they saw in his son. Since he couldn't think of anything, he decided to drop the subject and moved on to more important things.

"In any case, you can try it out later, Yuuta." Rin continued as he headed towards the table. "For now, let's eat dinner first."

Yuuta nodded, clicked his tongue once again, and headed towards the chair where he was supposed to sit down. He didn't need any help locating where his plate was as well as his utensils. Through his hearing alone, he could clearly see where everything is, even to the smallest grain of rice on his plate.

"Well, then, let's eat," Rin announced.

"Let's eat." Yuuta and Yui repeated.

.....

"Sigh, it feels normal to me.... but then again, it did say in the television news that this headgear costs a hundred thousand yen." Yuuta mumbled to himself, feeling a little bit conflicted. "I wonder what that person saw in me that made him choose me. I still remember him telling me that I was the last recruit for all beta testers."

"I guess there's no need to think about anything. My dad and younger sister both made up their minds about this game. The least I could do for them is emerge to the top and own everyone in this game. Well, in terms of combat, no one should be able to beat me." Yuuta smacked his lips in excitement. There was some sort of elation welling up inside his body, urging him to try the game as soon as possible.

"Well, I have all the time tonight. It's not like we have finals coming up in school."

After much contemplation. Yuuta conceded to his urges and decided to try out the game. Since it uses the newest technology of accessing the hippocampus and forcing one to lucid dream, he wasn't expecting the game to be that well-made. After all, every new generation game didn't really become a hit on their time frame. Lucid Dream Server might very well be the game that will lay the foundation for more futuristic games.

Before putting it on his head, Yuuta continued examining the VR Headgear. "So just like any other recent headgears, this one doesn't have any cords, but it has a jack for charging it. Although it accesses the brain directly, it doesn't look risky since there won't be any stray electric currents flowing through it while playing the game. Also, it doesn't look like there are needles of some sort inside it... this is really a high-end VR Headgear although it looks normal on the exterior. Wait, why am I saying it looks like this and that when I'm just feeling it? Sigh~"

"Well, it wouldn't hurt to try it out now, right?"

Without further ado, Yuuta placed the headgear on his head and suddenly his surroundings began to change.

"Wha~?!"

There was a momentary pause before Yuuta's eyes teared up. He was utterly speechless. "I- I see a dot! It's flickering! Whaaaa!"

Although he sounded a bit over-the-top happy, nothing can describe the feeling that Yuuta felt when he saw the dot flickering in front of him. It was just a simple gray dot that appears and disappears on the lower side of his sight. But that alone was enough for Yuuta to lose himself. Before he knew it, his teary eyes took a turn for the worse. The dams on his eyes were broken and then, tears steadily flowed through his cheeks, down to his chin, and soaking the white t-shirt he wore that night.

Unbeknownst to him, his dad and younger sister were quietly peering through the gap on the door that led to his room. When they saw that Yuuta was crying, they couldn't help but shed tears as well.

"It's been so long since big brother smiled like that," Yui said to herself as she received a pat on her shoulder.

"Yeah, I hope he likes the game." Rin continued. "And I hope this time, he gets to enjoy himself."

The reason why Yuuta's dad and younger sister didn't hear him screaming was that Yuuta was already in the game, he just didn't know it. Although he could only see the grey dot flickering in front of him, Yuuta failed to realize that he was already in a lucid dream, which was forced onto him by the VR Headgear.

"Curse this, why am I crying," Yuuta said to himself.

But before he could recover, words flashed in front of him, making him more surprised than ever. For a moment, Yuuta thought that being blind was just a nightmare and that he just woke up from it.

<Loading. >

<Welcome, Beta Tester.>

<... >

"Terms and Conditions? Who reads the terms and conditions nowadays?" Yuuta said to himself but he was too happy about what was happening that he decided to read it.

After scrolling through the terms and conditions, multiple stray tears escaped his eyes once again. Who would've thought that reading the terms and conditions of a game would be an emotional experience for someone like him.

"Oh, so this is more complicated than I thought," Yuuta said to himself as he continued reading. "From what I could glean from these terms and conditions, the Lucid Dream Server is a server that connects all of the people accessing it. And Lucid Dream Server is also the name of the game derived from that server. I see... I see. It sounds a bit disturbing that a lot of my fellow beta testers are technically in my mind right now but if I were to go by this logic... that means all our brains are connected to one server at the moment, right? It sounds a bit weird so I shouldn't probably think too much about it."

Next chapter