The AR Training Room

I hadn't kept up with the latest developments in technology (even in the original timeline), so unfortunately, I stood there in the control room while Alan waited for an appropriate reaction from me.

It didn't happen, and he frowned.

"What does that even mean?" I asked dumbly.

Alan was completely taken aback by my ignorance, "o-oh! I thought you— Not to worry, I'll explain!" he stuttered.

"What you see before you," Alan started as he pointed to the massive space with the square tiles, "Is a heavy-duty training room. Those tiles are made of a special polymer that is really good at absorbing force and energy. It's so tough that any Player, even S-ranked ones, can go in there and theoretically go all-out when they spar. All the force and energy exerted will be absorbed into the polymer and turned into electricity for the whole building!"

I was surprised that Alan understood any of what he just said because I didn't.

"I don't really get it," He chuckled. Okay, that sounded a bit more like the man I knew, "But it works, and it's cool!"

"So, what's the AR part?" I asked him.

He grinned, "That's the cool thing for you."

He stepped past me into the station to the right of the main console. He gestured to the full-body suit and head gear, "The body suit and headpiece allows anyone who wears them to be able to spar with any opponent that we have data of! This could be a certain type of monster or even other Players!"

I stepped into the station and took a closer look at the gear. I realised that the headpiece seemed to be a tight-fitting headset that sported a wide, curved, clear screen that covered the eyes of the wearer.

"The screen on the headset is the latest-gen augmented reality screen. It's almost as good as virtual reality, but according to Edward, we didn't have to fork out extra money to get the virtual reality version when we're only going to use it to train new guild members," Alan explained, "When you put the headset on and the program starts, it will show you whoever or whatever you're sparring against and the AI will start the sparring session to the difficulty level that you set the program to."

I stepped aside and felt the material that the body suit was made of. It was thick and coarse on the outside, and as I leant closer to look, it seemed like there was some sort of metal meshing that lined the whole suit.

"The suit has a thin metalloid meshing that is extremely reactive in all sorts of ways," Alan continued his explanations, "It's synchronised to the AR program and allows the wearer to feel sensations like real-life sparring with someone or something. If you're clipped by a punch or any kind of attack from the sparring AI, the suit will react in accordance to the AR partner's attack. If you get kicked in the stomach, the meshing will compress and tighten around the stomach area. If you're fighting against the AR Pot-Bellier and it uses its scream attack, then the suit around your ears will tighten and play a noise to simulate being deafened by the scream attack."

"That's actually really cool!" I mumbled as I let go of the suit.

"Yeah, I know right?" Alan beamed, "The point of the program is to give users the ability to experience battle against a variety of foes without the visceral danger of actually fighting them."

"So, why did you decide to show me this?" I turned to look up to Alan.

"This is the end goal for your weight loss," Alan simply said.

I didn't fully understand him, and my head tilted to the side a bit, like a confused puppy.

"As you can see, you're still too large to fit in the full-body suit," he started, "Once you lose some weight and get to a weight range more fitting for a Dungeon Clearer and are able to fit into the full-body suit, I will give you the permissions needed to use the sparring program whenever you want."

"Wait, what?" I mumbled, "Surely, there's a waiting list to use something as awesome as this."

"There is. A huge one. But if you manage to do it, I'll use my authority to let you bypass the waitlist whenever you want to use it," Alan smiled at me, this time it wasn't the childlike excitable grin, but it was a more wholesome, kind smile.

"That's— I don't know Alan, that seems too much," I stuttered softly.

"Well, it's the least I could do for you since I promised Greg I'd look after you and your mom," Alan said.

Gregory Stoller, my father. Ranked 2563rd in the World Player Rankings, he was once a solid B-tier Tank Player and one of the original guild creators of those in the first generation of Players.

The door to the sparring room beeped loudly and started to unlock. When it opened, a tall, thin man with platinum-blonde hair stepped into the room. He wore a tight-fitting white three-piece suit. Thin, straight gold lines lined the suit jacket and pants to create a crisp, professional pattern on the suit.

The man's slightly-sunken bright-blue eyes looked down at me and for a moment it looked like he scowled at me, but he quickly switched his full attention to Alan.

"What are you doing in here, Alan?" Edward Pitcher's nasally voice questioned his peer with incredible distaste, "The board meeting started ten minutes ago."

"Shit! That was today?" Alan exclaimed, "I completely lost track of what day it was. I was too excited when I found out that Eric was thinking of training to become a Dungeon Clearer. Edward, this is Eric. Greg's son."

Alan turned to me, "Eric, this is Edward Pitcher. He, me and your Dad actually made the first guild when we were trapped in Tutorial World!"

I already knew who Edward was, and I knew that I should be polite when being introduced to someone in public, even if there was something about Edward's demeanour that really rubbed me the wrong way. I held out my hand to the thin man.

"Eric Stoller. It's great to meet you," I said politely.

Edward Pitcher glanced down his nose at me with a look of irritation. He slowly raised a hand and limply shook my hand.

"I see…" Edward drawled disinterestedly. He flicked his gaze back to his giant peer, "…This meeting is of the utmost importance. You know how unprofessional you're making us seem to the international committee right now?"

"I'm sorry," Alan chuckled awkwardly. He turned to me, "Eric, I gotta go quickly to this meeting. I hope what I've shown you is motivation enough to help in your journey. I'll catch up with you soon."

I thanked Alan for showing me the sparring room. I excused myself from Alan and Edward and left the room first as the two co-leaders of the guild continued to discuss amongst themselves.

As I waited for an elevator to arrive to bring me back to the ground floor, I breathed out a sigh of relief.

I had only seen Edward Pritcher from a distance. The last time I saw the man it was during Dad's wake that was held at the guild building. He had the same disinterested look on his face then that he had when he looked at me in the sparring room. It seemed like the man assumed he was better than everyone else, and that never sat right with me. There was something about him that caused my throat to clamp up a little bit and I was never able to stick around close to him.

I was looking down at the ground when I heard a ding and the elevator doors open. Without looking up I stepped forward but jumped when another person's feet appeared in my vision. I nearly ran into someone who was exiting the elevator.

"Sorry, excuse me!" I quickly apologised. As I looked up, I realised that I nearly walked into a woman, and I lowered my gaze to the ground again.

"Wait, Eric?" she said, "Eric Stoller?"

I always felt uncomfortable when somebody recognised me. I had kept to myself for so much of my life, I kind of wished that I would just be invisible to everyone. At first, I was nervous when the woman seemed to know who I was, but then I realised that her voice sounded familiar, but I struggled to put a name to the voice. I cautiously looked up and was surprised when I realised I actually knew who was talking to me.

"Penelope?"