15 Out-of-the-blue Invitation

"And the winner is— "

Everything went by in a flash as Yuuta was summoned to the middle of the ring, shook hands with the former world champion Nakamura Ryota, and received one of his prized belts although the fight wasn't really official. It may be a dreamy moment for Yuuta to be standing there, showered in praises, but right now, all that's in his mind was the fact that he was able to momentarily see everything. Had it not been for that brief moment where he gained the gift of sight, he may have enjoyed standing in that ring.

"You're a good fighter. Are you planning on playing in the Lucid Dream Server?" Nakamura Ryota asked as the two of them headed out of the ring. Well, he more or less shouted it at him since the cheers around the place were too loud.

"Lucid Dream Server?" Yuuta asked. He was still out of sorts that he didn't realize Nakamura Ryota was referring to THE Lucid Dream Server VRMMORPG.

"Yeah, the game's a craze these recent days and I was lucky enough to be chosen as one of the beta players. Once they release the game to the public, I'll be looking forward to playing with you." Nakamura Ryota said as he extended his hands once again. "It was a good fight. That combo of yours at the end? I don't know how you did it but that might've been too hard to pull off. With the speed of matches in boxing, no one could pull off calculated attacks like that and at such a fast pace. It is a bit underhanded but it wasn't illegal."

"It'll be easy to find me in the game if you ever happen to play it. With the amount of prize money you have, I bet you can already afford a house, let alone a Virtual Reality Headgear."

Yuuta nodded. Since he was keeping his identity a secret, he didn't want to tell Ryota that he was one of the million people who were chosen as beta testers for Lucid Dream Server. The occurrence during the fight still weighed heavily on his mind and as such, he didn't really pay attention to everything that Nakamura Ryota told him.

As soon as he got back into one of the waiting rooms, Daichi-san quickly rejoined with him with a glass of wine in his hands.

"Here, this is for you, in celebration of your win," Daichi-san said, handing the glass to Yuuta. "Who would've thought that the weakling I took under my wing a year or so ago would actually help me become one of the richest managers in the underground. And for that, I have you to thank."

"Don't mention it, at least you could already buy that Gundam model your six-year-old kid wanted for so long." Yuuta smiled. "How much did you receive anyway, Daichi-san."

"Well, compared to yours, I only received some chump change. A little less than five million yen." Daichi-san said. "But well, compare that to the yearly salary of every manager here in the underground, hah, you can't really compare it. And also, I know for a fact that karma's a real bastard, you know, so I never thought of earning money in a dishonest way."

"What you mean to tell me is that my money is in good hands, right? You should stop that habit of beating around the bush, Daichi-san." Yuuta said as he took a sip out of his celebratory wine. Of course, although he trusted Daichi-san after all this time, he still smelled the wine to see if he put some sleeping powder in it. After all, no one knows when a person would change.

"Do I drop it on your bank account? Or you'll do it yourself?" Daichi-san asked. "Or do you take it home first just as usual?"

"Just drop it straight on my bank account. How much exactly did I get?"

"Around 10.9 million yen. It's a hell of a lot of money if you ask me." Daichi-san said.

"Right, just drop it on my account. I figured you'd also visit the bank tonight after receiving that amount of money."

"Sure, just leave it to me. I'll be looking forward to your future fights, Daredevil." Daichi-san smirked.

"Stop calling me that, and no more big money fights a few weeks from now. I want to lay low." Yuuta said. "If you want a fight with big money, then make sure it's not a broadcasted fight."

"Roger!"

.....

"Big bro! You're home!" Yui cheerfully greeted, lightly stepping on top of the sofa as she aimed a nerf gun towards her brother.

"I'm home," Yuuta responded, picking up the nerf gun on the wrong side of the doorstep. In a flash, he carefully shot the nerf dart coming straight at him. After that, he fired off two nerf darts which planted themselves squarely on his sister's forehead.

"uuuu~ "

"There there, don't cry," Yuuta said while patting his younger sister's head. "You were the one who shot me first."

"Son, take a look at this," Rin called out as he came out of the shower. Unbeknownst to Yuuta, he was holding a few reference books, all of which were all related to the Lucid Dream Server VRMMORPG.

Yuta sighed. "Dad, you do know I can't see, right?"

"AHH! Sorry about that! I mean, I... " Rin stopped short. After seeing Lucid Dream Server magazines in a convenience store on his way home from work, he got too excited that he bought every reference book he could find with the subject of Lucid Dream Server. At that moment, he forgot that his son is actually blind and would not be able to make use of the reference books he bought.

"I'll just read it for you!" Yui offered, getting the reference books from his dad. "It's not like I got something to do tonight so I might as well help you with your game!"

Yuuta nodded. "Sure, it's not like I got something to do tonight as well so I might as well listen hehe."

For the next few minutes, Yui read the reference books towards Yuuta and there, he learned a lot of the mechanics of the game.

As it turned out, the creative mode could only be accessed by the player alone, and there, one is free to lucid dream. In the Lucid Dream Server, however, one is limited to the skills one gained from playing the game. Since this is in a Lucid Dream, any skill granted by the System is something that one desires the most.

"So that's the reason why I could see in the game. It was probably granted because of my desire." Yuuta said to himself as he continued listening. "How about the gameplay? Is it progressive? Like leveling up?"

"Hold on," Yui said as she skimmed through the pages of the books. "Yes, it is! It's just like any other MMORPG game, the only difference is that it's all happening in the mind. That was one of the main reasons why they refer to players in the Lucid Dream Server as Dreamers. And also, getting more level up allows you more access to a lot of skills. So if you maxed out your level, all your desired superpower might even be unlocked. Wow! This is actually nice. No wonder a lot of the players are trying so hard to level up."

"As for me, I'm already more than happy with the skill that was given to me. Being able to see is nice." Yuuta smiled. "Of course, I'd like some superpower as well like the power of flight or being able to teleport anywhere or be able to control time. But then again, a lot of MMORPGs already have that function so it's not something new for me. However, Lucid Dream Server was probably the first video game that enabled any blind person to see."

"Come on, big bro, you're still in the second test of the game. You should hurry up! All of the beta testers are already well past level 20 while you're still at level zero. How could you enjoy the game like that?" Yui nudged at her brother. "Don't worry, I'll tell you everything there is to know about the game so once you get to the limelight, you'll level up way faster than them in no time!"

"I'm currently enjoying the pace I'm in now, so there's no need to worry about that. If it comes to skill, I might as well be one of the best in the game." Yuuta joked. He knew that all of the beta testers were all famous stars, and a majority of them were even athletes.

"Eh, big bro, big bro, listen to this. Apparently, the top player of Lucid Dream Server right now is the top swimmer of the world, Vaughn Aleksandrov! He just reached level 30! And guess what his special ability is!"

"Let me guess, he turns into a shark and eats everyone in sight?" Yuuta sarcastically said after finding out that his sister wasn't listening to him.

"Close! He turns into a merman and he holds a trident! Kyaaa! He looks so cool! His title is 'Poseidon' and 'Most Handsome Merman In The World'!"

"Kind of lame, don't you think? What sane person would call himself handsome? He's not even that good-looking."

"Well, think of it this way, it's like someone's blind is calling himself the DareDevil. He's the number one swimmer in the world so it checks out!" Yui continued. "Still, I guess that is pretty lame. I mean, at the very least, he's the only merman in Lucid Dream Server, so even if he's the ugliest, he'll still be the most handsome merman. As for you big brother, you're like the DareDevil in real life as well so you're title checks out more than him."

Yuuta blushed. Although he gets tons of compliments from his younger sister, being told that his title fits him made him more elated than ever. After all, there's no one else he looks up to aside from the DareDevil, in the world of fiction, of course.

"I guess I should hurry along then," Yuuta said to himself as he stood up. "Thanks for reading it to me, Yui." After patting Yui's head, he headed towards his room.

"Are you going back to your room, big bro?"

"Yes, hearing about it made me want to play it a bit earlier than usual," Yuuta responded with a grin.