1 Worldwide Sensation

"Blake, you're fired"

"What...?"

Standing inside an office room, right in front of a man that seems to be the manager were four people. Amongst the four, two of them are keeping their heads down, one of them tries to hide her smirk, while the last one, Blake was at a loss for words.

Inside the room was filled with tension as the manager grimaced at the one called Blake.

"Sir, with all due respect, how can you believe her baseless accusation?" Blake asked.

But the manager simply scoffed before he grabs a report from the cabinet behind him and threw it at the table, "How can you say Tiffany's accusation is baseless when I have the proof right here? I was wrong to trust you for this project"

Upon hearing this, Blake quickly takes the report before a frown appeared on his face.

"Wait, sir, this is not the report I submitted. How can I submit this messy report knowing full well this is for one of our biggest clients?" Clenching the report in his hand, Blake then glanced at Tiffany with slight anger. "It's definitely her attempt to frame me"

As opposed to defending herself, Tifanny kept silent and let the situation unfold.

"Nevertheless, even though it might be true that Tiffany tries to frame you which I highly doubt, you are still responsible for this as the project leader. It's you that needs to take responsibility, the client ditched us because of this" the manager harshly replied.

Sitting back down on his chair with a cold gaze, he then repeated, "You're fired"

Like a death knell ringing inside his ear, the two words that came from the manager's mouth were akin to a blade stabbing his chest, making Blake's breaths short and rigid. Glancing at his other co-workers for help, he finds that they were unwilling and their lips are muted.

But even at the edge of the cliff, Blake wanted to keep his job, this is his dream job.

And yet, there's no way out of this. Not after he lost the client at least. 'She was the one that submitted the report to the client, I should've known better...' Blake thought in deep regret, he should've been more careful about who to trust.

"I'll give you a couple of days to pack your stuff, Veronica will he-"

Just before the manager can finish what he was about to say, Blake takes a deep breath and cuts his sentence short, "No need for that, Sir. I'll be finished at the end of the day" he said with a dejected tone, there's no bargaining in this situation.

The only thing he can do is preserve his dignity as opposed to begging to stay.

As he turns around to leave, he gives one last look to Tiffany which caused all of this before he stepped out of the room. In about half an hour, Blake was already carrying a box while he heads to the first floor.

Upon walking out of the building, he went straight to his bike in the parking lot.

Since his apartment was only about a mile from here, he always biked to work. But as he was strapping the box to the bike, he heard high-pitched clanking sounds of high heels approaching from the side.

Blake glanced to his right before his expression soured, it was Tiffany.

"Well, well, that turns out badly for you, team leader. I feel sorry for you, you should've done a better job" Tifanny said with a mocking tone, she was now free to expose her smirk without anyone watching around them.

Deciding to ignore her, Blake stays composed despite his building anger.

Stepping closer to Blake, she then taps his back lightly before she added, "It was your fault anyway, you should've obeyed me. But then again, you were never supposed to be sitting in a higher position. So your time here is destined to be short-lived"

After saying that, Tiffany deliberately nudge the bike and caused it to fall over.

"Oops..." She mused before walking away, leaving the stunned Blake.

Looking at the back of the one who framed him, Blake clenched his hands into a fist tightly. Refusing to cause a scene, he quickly lifted his bike back up and also tidied the spilled stuff from the box.

As he was tidying up his stuff, another person approached him.

It was Gibran, he's Blake's friend, and he was inside the office room earlier when he got fired. "B-Blake, I'm sorry that I can't back you up in there. But you have to know, that Tiffany turns out to be the Chairman's daughter!"

"You know my situation, I can't get on her bad side and risk losing my job" he added.

Blake didn't react, he finished putting back his stuff into the box in silence. Grabbing the handlebars, he stopped beside Gibran for a moment. "Good for you, man," he said before he walks away, heading to the exit.

If he stayed any longer, his anger would undoubtedly burst out.

While he was on his way back to his apartment, Blake take time to stop at an empty alley.

Despite being stoic at what had happened to him, hiding away his emotion, he suddenly lets it all out, venting his anger at the poor trash bag that has done nothing but lies beside the garbage all day.

As opposed to going straight home, he stopped by the park to take some fresh air.

Only the light breeze of nature can soothe his anger that was caused by the unfair treatment he got. Sitting on a bench, Blake could only sigh lightly, 'I really tried my best, Dad. But I can't keep going for now, forgive me for taking a break'

Half an hour later, he met with a friend from the same apartment complex as him.

His name is Victor, a 30 years old well-off man, living three floors above him.

Saying nothing to Victor about his situation and conversing normally, Blake then left the park when the sky started to turn golden. 'I'll take a week off from these shenanigans, let's stop by the mall. What better way to relax than playing games?'

Blake decided that he would buy a game to play for a week on his way home.

Since he lived in a quite developed area of the city, it only takes him another ten minutes of riding his bike to reach the mall. Entering the mall, he quickly makes his way to the game shop at the back of the third floor.

After taking a left on a junction, Blake stopped abruptly as he gasped in shock.

"What in the world...?"

In front of him was his destination, the game shop that he planned on buying the game from. But to his surprise, the place is packed with people, the queue was so long that a crowd can be seen lining outside of the shop.

Roughly counting the crowd, there should be about a hundred of them.

Upon seeing this, Blake can't help but let out a light sigh while putting both of his hands on his waist. At this rate, it'll be a miracle for him to be able to get inside before the game shop close up.

Knowing this, he shakes his head and decides to try his luck again tomorrow.

When he was about to turn around and leave, he caught sight of a banner in front of the game shop. It seems to be the featured game, a newly launched game. 'Lunaris...? Is it the game that these people are here for?'

As he questioned that, two people with huge smiles walked past him.

Blake looks at the shopping bag they are carrying, there's quite a big box inside, and briefly, he can somewhat hear the excited conversations the two are having while they walked past him.

"It's costly alright, but a full-dive VR helmet? I can't miss out on that"

"Yeah, the game is also breathtaking. I saw the launching trailer this morning about the introduction of the helmet and the world, there's just no way that I'm not having it. Even if it cost me a kidney, I'll still buy it"

Looking at their backs, Blake wondered, 'Is it really that good?'

Making a mental note to check this 'Lunaris' game, he went back to his apartment for now as today is quite a tiresome day. Reaching back to his apartment, he was greeted by a small room that contains a small kitchen, a living room, and one bedroom.

Right beside the door is a balcony that faces another apartment building, nothing too fancy.

But it's not that bad either, at least it's neat and clean.

Blake takes a quick shower before he sat in front of his PC while rubbing his wet hair with a towel. Reaching out to the keyboard, he types in 'Lunaris' to see what the hype is all about.

Upon clicking enter, numerous news appeared on his monitor.

Scrolling through the page, Blake was taken aback as he can't believe that he missed such a big thing in the gaming community. "Huh... the sensation is worldwide, it just launched today yet the entire world is talking about it"

From the article he reads, he also finds the company that was responsible for this.

It was supposed to be a video game developer and publisher company called Mayhem Corporation. Blake did a quick research and finds that there was no information about the company, which is quite weird.

Moving on from that, he then watches through the entire trailer of the Lunaris game.

Blake takes the link from a forum, inside he finds there are two trailers for the game. One is the introduction of the advanced full-dive VR helmet while the other is the game itself, and he was curious to see both.

From the first trailer, he finds the VR helmet uses an indirect neural interface connected to the brain.

It was an animated trailer, and there was no person giving the presentation.

Essentially, the user will be put in a stasis state, almost exactly the same as sleeping while their mind was linked to the Lunrais world. 'Sounds dangerous though, is it really safe...?' Blake commented inside his head.

Not minding about that further, he then watches the second trailer.

At the end of the trailer, Blake leaned back in his chair as he seems to be stupefied. No game can match the graphics quality of the Lunaris game. Despite the trailer only containing the view of specific in-game places for three minutes straight, each one left a deep impression on him.

"So this is the hype, it's definitely a breakthrough of the century in the gaming world"

Just like any other gamer that catch a whiff of this, he was also interested to buy himself this VR helmet. But he quickly dissuades from that decision seeing the cost of the VR helmet is $4,998.

It was way out of his budget, and he smile wryly in response.

For Blake to purchase this VR helmet, he would be using most of his life savings.

Since he can't buy it, he didn't continue his research lest he got swayed even more and eventually did something he would definitely regret. "Yeah, let's stick to a normal game. I don't need that thing"

Blake quickly jumped to his bed to sleep as it was already night, and he was exhausted.

During his sleep, he dreamt of buying the VR helmet and playing the Lunaris game. It was so fun that he smiled in his sleep while hugging his pillow, drooling like a dumbass due to the fascination he has in the dream world.

Just as he was immersing in fantasy, he was jolted awake when he heard a crashing sound.