Survival (Beginning)

By the time he arrived at his hostel, it was almost thirty minutes before the first period. Luckily his department was not too far from his room. When he wanted to enter his room, he realized it was locked from inside. "What the hell", Alec mumbled as he knocked gently.

"Who?" A voice came from inside. "Come on man, open the door", Alec said flatly. Brief noises were coming from inside until his roommate opened the door.

Alec entered and noticed that he was not alone. There was a girl in his roommate's bed covered in a bedsheet. "Hey nerd", she greeted with curled lips. Alec could only wave casually as he ignored her and minded his business.

Taking out of the items in the plastic bag, he placed them all on his study table. Then, his eye fell on the retro VR package the old man gave him earlier. He sighed and shoved them aside. Then he prepared his books and placed them in his bag, before turning on his laptop.

Although Alec deemed the retro headset useless, his curiosity was somehow piqued at how it worked. At least let me experience how it functioned in the early days of virtual reality technology, it might even be a good idea for my report, Alec thought inwardly.

Opening the box, he took out the headset and examined it. The design was pretty old for its time. It had a red body and black base, with a "VIRTUAL BOY" text printed on the right eye of the headset.

That was it? Alec peered into the box, but he couldn't find the controller. How would this thing even work without the control? If Alec had bought this headset, he would have been scammed.

With a sigh, he turned it around and looked for the switch, but he could not find one. Alec felt like crying. He wondered how people in the 90s use this thing without a controller, a power cord, and a switch.

He slapped it multiple times, but nothing happened. This is an interesting piece of junk, Alec said in a wry smile. Finally, he placed the headset in his face, and strapped it properly, so that it firmly stays in his face.

Then, something surprising happened. The headset automatically turned on. He could not help but raise his brow in amazement. Maybe this thing could only work when the user wears it. What an interesting technology.

A popup appeared on the screen. "What's your name?" Low-quality audio sounded in his ears. Alec was at loss at how he was going to input his name. There was not an option to even type it. What kind of game was this?

He stared at the blinking cursor for a while and did not know what to do. "Use your voice to type your name", the audio sounded again. Oh, so that's how it works. Alec said his name, and the name automatically filled in the empty spaces in the pop-up menu.

"Your name is Alec Norman, and your ID is 34152. Your game would begin shortly. Please wait…" Then a loading text appeared. Alec wondered what game he was playing, but he patiently waited for it to load finish.

Maybe it would be a Super Mario World, who knows. That seemed to be the only game that would work on a headset at that time.

While the game was taking a while to load, Alec wanted to check the time in his wristwatch. He could not afford to be late for class, again.

His physics teacher had given him a strike two, and three strikes, he would not attend his class anymore. This made Alec shiver because physics was a subject e could not afford to fail.

Alec attempted to pull out the headset, but it didn't budge. Weird, he touched the strap on the back of his head and tried unwrapping it, but it appeared it was glued to his skull.

It was then that Alec's vision began to blur slowly. "Loading successful, initiating new game instance", a new popup appeared in his eyes, but Alec did not care anymore. He frantically tried to remove the headset that was strapped in his head.

Something was amiss. At first, he could not feel his legs, then the numbness spread to his chest. Alec has usually had a calm demeanor at default, but this time, he was panicking.

What was this thing that this damned old man gave to him? Alec gritted his teeth and hit the VR on his face with his clenched knuckles. The numbness spread to his arms, and then to his head.

I cannot believe that I was going to die a stupid death inside the hostel. His mind began to make memory flashes of his parents.

"I'm sorry mom, and dad that I couldn't make it to graduation. If I knew things would end up like this, I would have stayed home", Alec mumbled weakly as his body slumped to the chair he was sitting on until finally, he became unconscious.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Initiated Game Instance Successful

First game detected: true

User ID: 34152.

Title: Tears of the Mafia.

Info: Santiago was accused of tipping the police of one of the members of the mafia, and consequently, there were killed in a gunfight. As a result, he was being hunted by the mafia.

Mission: Clear your name and kill the leader.

Time Limit: 120 days.

Alias: Alec Norman

Game ID: 34152

SKILLS:

Graphics Design (Level 0)

Languages:

Spanish Language (Level 0)

English (Level 0)

ABILITIES:

none

POSSESSION:

none.

COLLECTED POINTS:

0

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Alec woke up inside a small room. The old fan was squeaking noisily as there was thumping music on the down floor. The temperature in the room felt so humid, and the air smells bad.

Alarmed, he immediately stood up and surveyed his surroundings. "Where am I?" Alec asked, but did not receive a reply. How did he end up in here? Was it the VR that teleported him here?

Alec scanned the surroundings, and his eye fell on some items in a small drawer. They were a packet of cigarettes, a small gun, and some bullets strewed across the drawer, and a few Mexican peso notes.

As he opened the door, he noticed that he was no longer in his hostel anymore. He was in what appeared to be the slums of Mexico. He knew it because he had seen these types of houses on the internet. There were poorly maintained houses with different color paints which was neatly aligned straight on the street. There were passing motorcycles and sometimes cars on the road going on on their daily routines.

Alec's panic began to rise slowly, but he quelled it down. If this was a game made by the headset he wore, then maybe if he completes it, he would be booted back home. He subconsciously touched his face, but he could not feel the headset on his face. It was like he was really here.

Looking at the game information again, his mind pondered deeply. The information stated that he was on the run against a mafia organization after he was accused of reporting their members to the police. To complete the mission, he has to not only clear his name, but kill the mafia leader. What kind of mission was this?