Is this thing on?

Nathan and Zach complete their physical examinations with no issues. Much to Zach's dissatisfaction, there were no hot nurses, and it was not a full body checkup.

The two of them headed to their room to get a lay of the land. In the room are two FIVR machines and a locker for each of them to store their belongings.

The staff isn't present yet as it is still too early to start the dive.

"Have you heard from James yet?" Nathan asks as he checks his phone for any calls or text messages.

"Nothing" Zach shakes his head in response.

"It's still a bit early for lunch and I'm full from your mom's breakfast, want to walk around for a bit before lunch? We might be able to meet some of the other players." Nathan asks.

"Yeah, we might as well since there's nothing else to do except waiting. Wish we could start earlier since we're already here." Zach says as he rubs his hand over one of the FIVR machines.

"By the way, I call this one," he says to Nathan.

"That's fine with me. Sucks Kevin didn't get in. I suppose having three of the Emblemstar gang getting in is already ridiculous enough. We should have played the lottery too. The odds of us getting in was crazy low." Nathan puts his shoes back on to get ready to head out of the room.

"Kevin will be all right, someone had to watch and promote our streams. As long as the OG members got in, that's all that matters." Zach says while fist-bumping Nathan.

"Let's get out of here and find us some Dive waifus!"

The two of them leave their room and leave the Annihilation building. They decide to walk the grounds as a garden behind the buildings connects all of them.

As they walk around, they run into a few of the other players and strike up a conversation with them. Most of the players it seems are in their rooms or have not checked in yet because of the low number of players they encountered while walking around.

"I bet most of the players are doing what you did Zach. Gathering as much information before the Dive starts as possible so they can get a jump start to grind out levels." Nathan says as he kicks a stone off the path they're on.

Zach sighs to himself, "I'm a trendsetter without people even realizing I'm a trendsetter. Tell me Nathan my boy, how does it feel to be surrounded by greatness every day? Or are you so used to it; you have become numb to my greatness."

Nathan laughs at Zach's antics and says deadpan, "I must be numb to your greatness."

Nathan and Zach's phones go off at the same time. Pulling their phones out they look at them and see they have a message from James.

"Do you want to head over to the Alpha Major building now? James is on his way to get lunch." Zach says to Nathan.

"Yeah, I'm not that hungry, but I can get a drink and a snack while we go over the starting plan again so we're all on the same page in case we get separated at the start of the Dive." Nathan nods as they turn around to head down a different path that will lead them to Alpha Major.

Zach and Nathan make their way to the Alpha Major building and then enter through the back since they are coming from the garden entrance. Once inside they make their way to the cafeteria.

Once they arrive, they come across two people surrounded by a group. One of the people happens to be James.

"Listen you lanky fuck, I told you to stay out of my way. Do you even know who I am?" A medium-built guy with a blue hooded sweatshirt and black jeans is yelling at James who looks confused at why he is getting yelled at.

"Dude, I don't know who you are or why you're even yelling at me. All I did was fill my drink at the machine next to you and you started popping off at the mouth." James said as his ears turn bright red from being in the spotlight.

"You don't know me? What a joke" The guy motions to the crowd as he continues to ridicule James. "People like you try to use me to get popular all the time. We haven't even started diving yet and nobody is watching, this isn't content. I'll tell you again, stay out of my way."

One of the people in the crowd mumbles to himself "I think that's HypeSlash22…"

Nathan and Zach happen to hear what he says and look at each other and nod.

"Hey FuckSlash69, who do you think you're yelling at while in my presence?" Zach starts to loudly berate the guy in the hoodie.

James and HypeSlash22 both look over to see Zach pushing his way through the crowd.

"Who is this fat piece of shit? Another guy who is trying to ride my coattails."

Another person in the crowd yells out in recognition, "He's Kyle Edgar aka HypeSlash22. He was a streamer in the last FIVR game Blue Stone came out with. I didn't recognize him right away."

Nathan walks up to James and stands next to Zach as they stare down Kyle.

"I'm not into dudes my guy, so no way am I riding your anything. I'm here to say you need to leave my buddy here out of your daydreams because he's not into guys either, so I suggest you kindly fuck off to where you came from." Zach says with a dismissive wave towards Kyle.

Kyle laughs at the three of them while shaking his head in disgust. "I get asked to personally stream this game and this is the type of trash that ends up making it in? This is ridiculous. I'm not going to sit here and entertain you three losers. I'll see you in the game and we can settle anything you have to say then."

Kyle starts to walk away and ignores the three guys and the crowd that is present.

"Oh, I promise you I'll see you in the game too," Zach mutters darkly with a dangerous glint in his eye.

"Come on James, let's grab a table and eat before the Dive starts. There is only an hour left before it starts." Nathan puts his arm around James's shoulder and guides him to a nearby vacant table.

As the three of them walk away the crowd naturally disperses and calm settles in the cafeteria.

"So, what happened with this streamer guy James?" Nathan asks as he sips on his soda.

"Dude, I have no idea what happened with that guy, he must be on something. I grabbed my tray of food and walked over to the soda machine and happened to get my drink next to him. He went to walk away saw me and started spouting off about how I needed to stay away from him and not try to bask in his limelight.

No offense Zach, but he was like you times 100 with the cocky bullshit." James says with a shrug and a nod to Zach.

"I appreciate you coming in when you guys did because any more of his mouth and I was liable to throw hands. They said no violence before the Dive starts and I'm not trying to get kicked out of the game because of some delusional streamer."

"Ha-ha, you don't have to apologize. That guy is on my list though. Nobody calls me a fat piece of shit and gets away with it and to top it off he messed with Emblemstar. I'll make sure to do some stuff to him in the game, making him lose popularity." Zach says while looking at the door Kyle left through.

"That guy is a self-entitled asshole, don't even waste your time on him. Do you all remember the plan once the Dive starts? We get in and quickly get three rooms at the Four Horse Inn. With 25,000 people entering the town, the Inns are going to fill up quickly." Nathan tries to get the group back on track.

"Yes, we meet at the Inn, get our rooms, and then we head to the blacksmiths to get starter gear before leaving town to start grinding levels." James nods and explains the plan to let Nathan know he remembers.

"Good, once we get to the blacksmith, that is when we will set our stats and pick our weapon specialization.

Since I researched the plan, and everything I touch turns to gold, we'll be slaying demons in no time and leading the pack in levels." Zach says with a big grin on his face.

The three of them finish their food and drink and once they see people starting to leave the cafeteria, they head back to their rooms to get ready for the Dive.

When they come back to the room, they have two attendants stationed to help them get set up for the Dive.

"Welcome players. We'll be the attendants to help you get set up properly to start the Dive." One of the attendants introduces themselves.

"Are either of you afraid of needles? We have to set up an IV drip."

Nathan and Zach shake their heads to let them know they'll be fine.

"Very good, here are your outfits to change into, you can change in the bathroom."

The two of them quickly change into the outfits they were provided.

The outfit is a solid black adult onesie pajama with their name embroidered in gold acting as a name badge and above their name is embroidered Sanctuary Annihilation Online.

"Looking good in your jammies." Nathan jokes with Zach and gives him a thumbs up.

"You too brother, probably been a while since you've been in a pajama onesie." Zach jokes back.

"When you are ready you can go ahead and select your machine and we'll start to hook you up." The attendant says to the two of them.

"Don't forget I claimed this one," Zach says as he runs to the machine he claimed earlier.

"This must be me then." Nathan walks over to the other.

The attendants open the machines and tell them to climb inside and lie down.

Once the two of them are settled, the attendants hook them up to the life support system and explain the process to them to keep them calm.

After they're all hooked up it is just about time for the Dive to start.

Zach looks over at Nathan and says to him, "I'll see you on the other side brother."

Nathan laughs and replies, "Always the theatrics. See you soon."

The attendants look at their watches. nod to each other and close the lids to the machines.

A mechanical voice begins to count down from ten.

"Three, two, one, full-immersion virtual reality dive commence."

As Nathan's vision turns colorful and starts to swirl, eventually everything turns black.

"Bzzzt, brewuh, bzzzt." Microphone feedback is heard followed by a "Poof, poof, poof"

"Ahem, can you all hear me? Is this thing on?"

A voice is heard in the darkness.