2 Nirvana

It confused Emile; why did Lucifer interrupt his training routine? Even though he felt confused, he still listened to Lucifer's words.

"What happened, do you need help with something," he said as he approached Lucifer who was stroking his gray beard.

"Do you know what Virtual Reality is?" Asked Lucifer as he ignored Emile's comment.

"Yeah, why?" Emile replied.

"I ordered a gaming cabin for you," Lucifer said.

"You know how in VR games, people fight sword to sword and magic to magic and well etc." He continued.

"Yeah," said Emile feeling even more confused than before.

"Well, virtual reality will be a practical tool to fight opponents who could be stronger than you, and you will fight to the death since you can respawn in the game," said Lucifer.

"Don't gaming cabins cost, like a lot of money?" Emile asked.

"I saw this game a few years ago, and they set it to be out this year. So I have been saving up money for the game. They call the game Nirvana. I'm sure you've heard of it." Said Lucifer.

"Nirvana!?! Isn't that the game they set to redefine the VR experience." Said Emile in a shocked tone.

Emile knew governments around the world worked together to create the game. This made the game have high quality and almost lifelike.

"It's the popular one, I've sent your gaming cabin to your apartment. It should have arrived by now," said Lucifer.

"Also one last thing, I better not hear you've been chickening out of fights or..." Lucifer cut off his words and gave a menacing look towards Emile.

Emile felt shivers run up his spine.

"Yup, I will never cower out" replied Emile in a fast tone.

"Well, that's my boy, I expect big things, so don't disappoint me. Now leave and get your set up ready." Said Lucifer as he walked away to prepare for his class.

Emile left the dojo at a fast pace, not forgetting to give a farewell. He left at a time that was much earlier than he would leave since he had no classes today. He took the bus home. Buses have all transferred to using solar-powered energy which helped the atmosphere.

The citizens of the world have damaged the atmosphere for a long time and it grew worse as time moved forward. This caused many problems on Earth.

Scientists and Governments throughout the world have worked together to remove many things that were harming the atmosphere.

These included factories that release greenhouse gases, cars that used oil and other commodities.

The atmosphere has been recovering. There were many more technologic advancements throughout the world. Phones must be solar powered. This made people's lives a lot easier since the phone can charge during the day and it stores that charge for usage in the night.

Emile didn't have one of these phones since he couldn't afford it. People were spare in the buses since they come at three-minute intervals. The buses were common due to the population of his city.

As he went into the elevator to go up to his floor, he noticed his neighbor running towards the elevator. She was beautiful young-adult with a pale white face. She had black hair that went down her shoulder.

"Hold the door," Lily yelled at him as her boobs bounced up and down.

He could see her charging at the elevator door while holding a purse in her left hand. Emile pressed the button to keep the door open and waited.

She entered the elevator.

Thanks... I owe you... something," Lily said as she was gasping for air.

"You owe me a lot of things but you give nothing back." Said Emile with a hint of annoyance.

After the polite talk, he pressed the button to go to the 4th floor. The elevator moved up. The doors opened and Emile and Lily both walked out.

Emile used fingerprint scanning to enter his home and gave a farewell towards Lily. She entered her home using the same method and didn't forget to respond to his farewell.

When Emile stepped in, he noticed the gaming cabin which took about a quarter of the room's total space.

Ever since people discovered teleportation, delivering anything was easy and efficient.

Teleporting humans cost a lot of money since they needed to create a stable wormhole.

Most normal people could never teleport anywhere, only the rich had access to teleportation.

The average person would only experience teleportation when something was delivered to them.

Emile asked Azure to set up the wire since doing it himself would be time-consuming. Azure took 15 minutes for her to set it up.

To enter the virtual world, he would have to lie down on the inside of the cabin. He said "start." He thought nothing happened, but it took time for the cabin to respond.

[Voice recognition activated]

[Please say your name]

"Uh... E-Emile" he stuttered with some shock as he realized that it sounds like an actual person. It wasn't normal for an object to have a voice; most of the time it was a robotic voice, not a human one.

[Emily? Will you confirm this name?]

"No... it's not Emily, its e-me-el, Emile," He corrected the common mistake.

[Emile? Will you confirm this name?]

"Yes," he responded.

[Welcome, Emile, they have not connected the game server. It will reconnect for the first time in 12 hours, 12 minutes and 14 seconds. Please wait]

It was 7:48 am when he heard this announcement meaning that the game would go online at 8:00 pm sharp.

At this moment, Azure his robot said with a robotic tone, "There is someone standing in front of your door."

Robots were in wide circulation as they could do anything with ease. Emile was 20 years old, with Azure living with him for more than half his life. Azure was a gift for his 7th birthday and it stayed with him ever since then. Robots didn't cost much but Azure was a robot with voice recognition which cost a lot of money.

Emile walks to his door and checked the peephole to see who it was. It turned out to be his neighbor Lily.

He opened the door and asked, "What do you need?"

"Can't I come over, do I need something to come to you?" said Lily as she pushed him out of the door's way and entered his room. She noticed the gaming cabin.

"You play games? I never knew about this," said Lily with a hint of shock.

"Not much, my dad wanted me to gain fighting experience in the game and wanted me to defeat strong opponents," said Emile.

"That sounds like him," said Lily while nodding her head.

"I have one as well so don't forget to add me as a friend," continued Lily.

"Since when did you play games?" Emile said realizing that they didn't know each other that well.

"I've been playing games for a long time, I'm also kinda famous for being good at games, so I bought the Nirvana gaming cabin," she said.

"Hey you want to help me write an essay," asked Emile as he ignored her remarks of being famous.

She sighed knowing he only thought of her as a helper in class related subjects.

"Fine" she replied.

_________________

A few hours later...

Lily left Emile's home after helping him write an essay for an English class. Emile wasn't great at writing. It was the complete different for his math knowledge since they know him as a math genius.

He went out to have a meal for lunch and returned with some lunch to give to Lily. He knocked on her door until she opened it and gave her the lunch.

"You still have a heart, thank you," she said in a happy tone.

"Your welcome," Emile replied and left as soon as he arrived.

Emile entered his home after that exchange. He wanted to try out the gaming cabin. He said open, in which the thick glass moved out the way leaving an entrance to enter the cabin.

Emile entered, and the cabin closed on him.

[There is 6 hours 23 minutes and 16 seconds before they reconnect the server. Please wait]

It said the same thing as the first time so he left the cabin as there was nothing left to do.

He went on his computer to go research the game known as Nirvana. The Google searches showed the hype surrounding the game and had no other information.

He found a website for the game which showed the countdown timer and how it would be a free roam game. This would be the first true free-roam virtual reality game.

All previous VR games had set story-lines with PVP arenas being the only multiplayer feature.

Creating a game where everyone attempted the same story was preposterous but Nirvana had done it.

The website also mentioned how all players could create their own unique skills.

All these claims were unheard of in previous games since it would take an enormous computer to compute new skills.

Over 2 billion people bought the gaming cabin meaning that there will be a lot of competition.

All this research took a few hours to find, and it was almost time for it to reconnect the server. He entered the gaming cabin with a hint of excitement.

[There is 0 hours 14 minutes and 31 seconds before it reconnects the server. Please wait]