Chapter 10 Experience share

Alex was feeling everything around him. It was as if he was living in another world. He often had to remind himself that this wasn't his world, it was so realistic. Beom gestures Alex to sit beside him on the other seater sofa to which Alex gladly complied. After Alex sat down , Beom played a small video clip containing his favourite places that he had visited all over the world. It was a fully immersive video , where everything was shown in the view of the person who took the video. It looked as if you are experiencing the things right now.

Alex had quite a lot of fun as they both went through the immersive video. Alex found out that Beom had a girlfriend too and his family was totally cool about it, he showed pictures of dinner they had together with Beom's family, everyone looked so happy. Alex loved the video and asked if he had more videos like this. Unfortunately Beom didn't have any immersive videos as this video was also something that he created out of photos that he took out at different places and added AI to make it into a video. It took a lot of time to compile this amount of photos into a video, it even had childhood photos of Beom , this video was not a mere video , it was the entire history of Beom , the memory of Beom. The VR world allowed him to access it anytime he wanted it.

Beom knew Alex was curious and wanted more, he knew how to strike the iron when it was hot, so he opened the video of Pandora's trailer and showed it to Alex. It was also a immersive video and it engulfed everyone into the game world as it showed through every aspect of the game. Alex felt as if he was the character in the game when he watched the video and he felt the game's world around him pretty real, it was to the point that he couldn't differentiate between the game world and the real world , it was that much same.

At the end of the immersive video there was a small tab that appeared in front of them , that allowed them to experience the game world for five minutes. The game world was restricted , but it still allowed the user to feel how the world really felt like and it was really surreal , they could feel the world and even smell it , it was a treat for the five senses in the body. Alex ran as fast as he could and climbed the trees and jumped from its top and landed on his feet.

He felt the tingling feeling under his feet, he loved it he loved every part of the game. Beom taught him how to open the inventory and eat and apple that they had placed inside it ,in order to make people understand that the can feel whatever they are in there. "Open inventory",Beom said and Alex repeated after him . It showed a small virtual tab in front of them, and two icons representing a sword and an apple appeared in front of them. Beom placed his hand inside the tab and the apple magically appeared in his hand and Alex repeated the same and he also took out the sword. They both felt very real, Alex was admiring the smell of the apple and the skill of the blacksmith who made the sword in his hand. The sword was well made, it was a steel sword and a small green C appeared on the corner of it's information tab , making it know that it was a common sword.

Alex wanted to try something. He tossed the apple in his hands high up the air and used the sword to cut the apple skillfully into pieces and caught them all. The texture of the apple was so good and it tasted as if it was the picked out from the best of all apples. Even the seeds inside the apple was perfectly mimiced . Alex wanted to do more but sadly the time in the world came to an end and they had to return to the private space.

Beom was watching Alex the whole time , it felt as if he was watching a kid find something fun to play with for the first time. Alex was really excited that he started talking about the game to Beom, he was explaining how good the sword was made and the balance of the blade was perfect. "Alex , why don't you play the game with me , it's getting released this Monday", suggested Beom , he had baited Alex just like he wanted to. He believed in Alex seeing him playing the game for even five minutes made sure that Alex would surely ace the game.

"But I should get the VR capsule for playing it right, how much does it cost?",asked Alex ready to play the game . Beom said a number which started ringing in his ears , it was an amount that would be the tuition fee of Alex for college for an year. Beom saw Alex's reaction and didn't know what to do, "You can earn money using the game too Alex ,and I am pretty sure that you can earn what you put in less than half a year , I believe in you", sid Beom determined to bring Alex into the gaming world.

Alex was confused and a bit sad , but he wanted to talk to his grandpa about this and wanted to get his view on this matter. It was almost time for Alex to return home . Alex and Beom's house were pretty far from each other. Alex got in Beom's family car and a driver was ready to drive him home. Beom also got on the car and said " let's eat some ice cream before you go home". Beom didn't know how to convince Alex to buy the console and had really given up on it.

But while they were moving in the car towards the icecream shop and advertisement board was showing an add for the VR capsule , and on the other board a teaser of game Pandora was showing up. Everywhere they went there were posters and advertisements of VR capsules. Even Beom was suprised as he hadn't seen this much of advertisements regarding the VR mindgear capsules ever. It felt as if the whole universe was planning to make Alex play the game.

They had good ice cream from Doomerang , a famous franchise of ice cream in town and the made their way to Alex's home. Alex's home was pretty far and was a lonely path, but for some reason the path seemed a bit used that day , huge tire marks were visible . Alex found it a bit strange , Beom could see Alex was worried , so he told his driver to rush a bit fast to Alex's home.

A huge truck was standing in front of Alex's house. And a huge name was written on it,"ApexGen Studios". It was the name of the VR mindgear capsules company. And once they entered the house. A lot of people were moving here and there, and amidst all the people he found his grandpa laughing and talking with Beom's father.

Beom's father , Lee Beom Seok knew about John McGregor from a long time ago, he didn't think that he would meet him in his old age. John had actually visited South korea for some arms dealing. John had gotten into a fight with a local gang and had to look for a place to stay in and that is when Lee's father took him in , Lee was a little kid at that time , but he still remembered the name McGregor as the next day the whole lot of the local gang causing trouble in the town were no where to be found. John also provided monetary support to many families who were oppressed by the local gang, because the local gang used the guns made by the McGregors to oppress the people.

Lee had only become a doctor because of the deed done by John , so he was indebted to him and he was suprised to treat John at his old age. So he wanted to repay his debt. After checking John thoroughly it was found the brain of John was deteriorating slowly, so proper stimulation was needed to stop it from losing its function. Physically John was good there was no problem in his body , except for the functioning of his brain. So Lee had suggested John to get a VR mind capsule and excercise his brain to stimulate it , so that it may return to normal. John was a bit relieved to hear it but once he heard the price of the capsule he was ready to back out. That is when Lee's father took an initiative, he bought an VR mind capsule for John in order to repay his debt. John couldn't refuse Lee's offer.

And that is how Alex ended up with a VR mind capsule without asking for it directly and it was totally fine to him, the plot of the universe to meet Alex's wish had manifested itself.