Chapter 2 Late start

2050 August 24

I know it sounds a bit too much but yeah after three years of waiting finally I get to play Eternal code. Of course, I am a bit nervous, it has been a really long road. The game got released during the sophomore year of my high school, and all I did around that time was goof around eating my favorite junk foods and playing with my friends, well that is what I had left to do after my hardcore schooling days.

I have finally bought the game that I have been dreaming about. I, Tamil Arasu, was sitting anxiously on the corner of my bed staring at the device which had rid me of all my savings that I had saved and worked about.

I know a lot of my friends started playing the game, but I never listened to their stories until my neighbor Subash at the junior year of my high school started saying things about the game whenever I used to hang out with him, which was a lot on the weekends, but it got reduced to little time when he started getting engrossed in the game.

But even then I didn't mind it much about the game until he started explaining to me recently how he earned some great money through the game. Of course, then I was all ears. You may be wondering that I may be a bit bizarre to not worry about the biggest game of the century, well I had my reasons.

Even though I wanted to enjoy some time I couldn't do it because I had to worry about my grades or that is how my parents put it to me, all work and no play until I did my schooling. That was the motto of my parent's parenting style.

It worked pretty well with my sister and my brother, but didn't quite work out with me. I turned out to be an excellent student, but I didn't meet their expectations, let alone exceed them. So they let me free with a condition of no games, so I never got into gaming nor thought of games until the end of my schooling days. Of course, I had my fair share of them when I was little though, but I got easily bored by them.

I had no need to worry about money until I finished my schooling because my parents will take care of it. But after school learning in college I was on my own, that was one of my house rules. After you finish schooling, you should learn to stand on your own legs.

I knew about crypto, NFTs, p2e games and finance from my parents because my father was a bitcoin millionaire and my mother a NFT enthusiast. Well, I also knew about esports and how to earn money through games. But I didn't know earning money from games had been at this level until my neighbor told me about how he found something weird in the game and was making a huge amount of money from it, huge, I mean pretty huge.

Now I needed this game the most because I finished high school, I am out on my own, got into a good university and had to look after myself with no help from others. That means I need to spend my free time effectively and also do some jobs to earn my keep and study and have fun in the process. But these things can get pretty boring after a time. So I required something that can give me fun and all these along with it, that is my reason for playing Eternal Code, and of course not because my big brother wanted me to play it, just because I wanted to have fun.

I successfully moved towards the city where my college is located. I rented a room, filled it up with my things and my parents helped me and went on their way. The ban has been lifted, I can play games whenever I want. I headed to the game store this morning as soon as it opened and purchased a copy of Eternal Code.

For about half a year after its release, it had apparently been difficult to get a hold of a copy, but nearly two and a half years later, I was able to buy it without any trouble, of course it cost me all my savings.

My elder brother was one of the pioneers of the game and bought it on the release day. He was extremely lucky to have been in the first year of college when the game got released, but I am pretty sure he would have broken all rules to get the game because he was a game freak. The minute he knew that I had gotten out of my parent's grasp, he had been calling me saying, "Hurry up and let's play code together." I hadn't been sure if this made me feel bitter or simply jealous. But all those feelings end today!

"… Let's do this!" I readied myself and opened the box. Inside, there was the console, the nerve gear which was a helmet-type game system and there was also a manual.

According to the manual, in order to enter the game world, all you needed to do was put on the helmet and turn on the switch. There were other explanations regarding visuals, safety, and time as well, but "amazing" would be the only way I could describe the console and the game.

Really, just how in the world did they make this game? I wondered. The game seemed really futuristic and had an incredibly eerie vibe surrounding it, I mean if you look into factors closely, but it was no time to be scared. I quickly read the recommendations in the manual and I put on the helmet and lay on my bed facing the ceiling. I then quickly turned on the game. Instantly, my vision went black.