What Happened?

"Please sign here, Sir."

Carter nodded as the delivery man handed him a piece of pen and paper. After a week, the helmet that he bought already came.

That was a good thing since later, at 10 pm, the game "Online Bad Levelling" will finally launch its new season.

"Thank you, Sir," the delivery man smiled as he handed the item to Carter.

"No problem," Carter replied enthusiastically.

Walking inside their house, he had to make sure that his father was nowhere to be seen. Knowing Eric, he would ask questions about how he was able to buy these kinds of things.

"Good morning, Mother."

Placing the box down on his bed, Carter went into his mother's room. He saw an old lady lying down, wearing a white dress. The woman's hair was starting to change colors. A sign of aging for people.

"How are you, mother?" Carter asked as he moved towards the woman.

Veronica tried her best to smile at what her son asked. "I-I'm okay."

Carter nodded as he helped his mother sit down on the bed. He placed some pillows on the wall so that the woman would be more comfortable in the position.

"I already bought your medicine, Mother. I will try my best to gather some money again tomorrow. I'm sorry, I couldn't work yesterday and today because of school."

A soft burst of laughter came out from Veronica's thin lips. "I should be the one working, Son. I'm the one who should be sorry. You should have enjoyed your youth instead of this." The corners of the woman's lips slowly drawn down.

"Don't worry, Mother. I will do everything for us to get rich."

Veronica shook her head as she caressed his son's face. "I only want your happiness, Son. I just want you to live your life to the fullest. To have a family and kids"

"I'm already happy, Mother." Carter smiled.

He spent a few more minutes in his mother's room. Feeding the woman with her food and medicine that she should take. He proceeded to his room moments after. His lips quirked up when he saw the box on his bed.

Getting the cutter on the little table beside his bed, Carter opened the box. The VR helmet greeted his eyes. It was a black-colored helmet with a golden-colored visor.

"Woah! This looks cool." Carter held the headset and raised it in midair.

'Is this working, though?' He asked himself after remembering the price.

It was way cheaper compared to other helmets that he saw on the list. He recalled that it was the last piece in the shop Maybe he was just lucky enough to get this in time.

Setting up the headset, Carter watched some videos online on how this thing works. With his research, he managed to make the helmet work completely without any complications.

He looked at the time and saw that there are still 9 hours were left before the launch of the new season of the game takes place.

'I should connect to the game here already. I heard that there will be a countdown later. I should join them and be the first one to enter the game,' Carter said as he looked over at his phone.

Placing the helmet on his head, Carter made sure that he memorized his code. It was sent to him on his email after successfully pre-registering the game.

He opened the [Games] section and clicked "Online Bald Leveling".

[Only Pre-registered people are allowed to enter the game. Do you want to continue?]

Carter clicked the yes button, directing him to the game's login page. He slowly filled in the information, making sure that it was correct without any errors.

[Connecting…]

Carter went into the game's lobby. He was greeted with the timer on the bottom left while an announcement was in the middle.

*Please register your face before the timer runs out

'What a weird announcement,' he thought. Without any choice, he took the helmet out of his head and used his phone to take pictures. He set aside his doubts, thinking that it will be used for the winner's verification. Especially since there were a lot of scams available in the world.

Carter made sure that he looked like a chad after taking the pics. When he was done, he submitted the picture in the link that they sent in his email and exited. Since he still has some time, why not use it in a more productive way?

Just like getting some tissues and watching Por— sad movies. "I mean, who wouldn't want to watch sad movies, right?" He asked himself as he looked at his phone.

With this VR helmet, he can make the videos more realistic, more enjoyable, and uhm… sadder.

****

"Did you eat already, brother?" Sheila asked his brother after coming home. Due to her school and part-time work, she got home late and was not able to go with her brother to the park for the past few days.

Carter nodded his head. He was looking at his phone, gazing at the clock on the screen. 2 hours and the game's server will already open.

The good thing about the helmet was that it automatically charges with the help of an internet connection. Thus, making it impossible to have a low battery that can annoy other consumers.

The only thing that can be the problem was if they lose internet connection or the electricity goes off.

When he saw that, he was amazed. This could save them money on electricity! With this, his family wouldn't find out that he was playing all night.

This was a good thing too because he can just tell his sister that he was studying. That way, she wouldn't come inside his room and disturb him.

"Sheila, I will be studying for the whole night, okay? Don't come into my room. And be active on the Online Bald Levelling's page. Update me tomorrow."

"Yes, Brother, but I might wake up late tomorrow since I need to do something tonight as well." Sheila gave the man two thumbs up, even though she was confused that her brother wants her to be active on a game's page.

Carter waved his hands at his sister before running into his room. He connected his phone first to the socket so that once he was done playing, his phone will be fully charged already.

After that, he finally placed the helmet on his head. He went into the game's lobby and waited for the countdown to turn to zero.

Carter didn't know that he accidentally fell asleep because of the long countdown time. He was woken up when he suddenly felt an electricity-like current in his body.

"What happened?" He asked himself, confused. But his thoughts were disrupted when someone abruptly spoke.

[Welcome to Online Bald Levelling! Please insert your username to get started.]