Ch 4- Virtual cabin

*Ding-dong* Kelly's terminal ringed out showing showing the group of people standing outside his door. Kelly fumbled up off the ground and ran to open the door, before him stood a short chubby man who had a silly look grin plastered to his face.

"Kelly Glacé, right?".

Kelly nodded his head like a chicken pecking rice "that's me".

The chubby man smiled as he stretched out his hand to Kelly. "I'm Sean Daily, one of the developers for Lichen. I've come to personally explain the virtual pod and game specifics to you. Would you mind showing me where you would like the virtual pod to be placed?".

Kelly nodded and led Sean straight to his gaming and steaming room, he stood still after entering the door. "Ahh, I forgot about my virtual pod!".

The man grinned "please don't worry sir, my men will take it away and I've already been authorized to pay you the market price for your old virtual pod. Does that sound alright to you?".

"Oh, that's perfect!". Kelly exclaimed loudly, he couldn't hide his excitement, he realized he was yelling and sheepishly covered his mouth with his hand and glanced at Sean apologetically.

Sean chuckled "I can understand your excitement". Sean waved his hand to the men outside and they got to work changing out the virtual pods. "Is there a place where we can sit and talk?". Kelly of course nodded and led Sean to sit at his breakfast nook and passed a glass of water to the other.

"Now I'm sure you're probably wondering why a game developer himself came to deliver the virtual pod. You and the other five special virtual pod winners all have a developer handling the delivery for a special reason. You six have received permission to play the game immediately ahead of everyone else. We were also instructed to give you this".

Sean pulled a small box from his jacket and placed it on the table before Kelly. Kelly looked at Sean with a questioning face, Sean just smiled, and in response motioned Kelly to take the box. Kelly slowly reached out to the mysterious box and opened it. Laying inside was a simple silver-blue Aslar steel bracelet that held a beautifully carved white stone.

Kelly's eyes widened seeing the precious material. "This is?…."

"This is a special project our very own CEO designed for you six hardcore gamers. This is meant for those who like a challenge". Sean gave a slight smile, "this bracelet is connected to the virtual pod and the game. When you put it on and enter the game for the first time you'll receive special armor, pets, and gold. However, let me caution you this bracelet has a cost for those rare things. The people who wear this bracelet cannot exit the game by their own will.

Your ability to exit the game will pop up randomly after completing or achieving certain missions and quests. If you decide to take this bracelet the company will constantly be monitoring your character and your physical information through the virtual pod. The bracelet connects to the virtual pod so if your nutrient solution runs low we'll send our people to refill it. So you can rest assured nothing bad could happen to you".

Kelly was quite surprised and was very drawn to the bracelet, it would make for a totally unique and realistic gaming experience. 'I really want to do it'. However, Kelly could help but hesitate.

"I'm a contracted streamer….. am I still able to stream while playing this game?".

"Ah… this… mmm. Let me ask the CEO, the game hasn't been released yet so I'm not sure if he'd approve. But given that your one of the special six he may let it slide by".

Sean stood up and contacted his boss through the communicator and explained the situation the other quite surprisingly agreed. Sean walked back and smiled " the CEO said as long as you choose to wear the bracelet then he'll allow you to stream the game".

Kelly grinned and contacted his agent to explain the situation and also negotiated if he could avoid showing his face so that it wouldn't take from the game at all.

"You lucky dog! You actually received permission to play Lichen early and even stream it! I can imagine how big your stream is gonna be already! Go for it, whatever you want no face or voice? It's all good just let everyone see that game! When can you start playing?".

"According to the developer I'm allowed to play as soon as the virtual cabin is installed".

"Gotcha babes! I'll have the web admin put you at the top of our platform with bold letters stating the first view of Lichen is about to stream live! Ahahaha I can already imagine how much new traffic our platform is gonna pull, I Luv ya cutie. Mwah!".

For once Kelly didn't get snarky or mad at his agent he just lightly smiled and said a matter of factly. "Can your servers even handle much more traffic? You better check them or maybe the platform will crash shortly after I start streaming".

"Eek! You've got a point! I'll bring it up to the boss now!". The holographic projection suddenly disappeared and Kelly stared at his communication device speechlessly 'I was just joking with him…'

Kelly blew it off and went back to Sean and grabbed the bracelet then proceeded to put it on before his eyes. Sean and Kelly leisurely chatted about the game while waiting for the team to finish installing the virtual cabin.

After about an hour the team walked out of the room and headed for the door. Sean also stood up and reached his hand out to Kelly, "I look forward to seeing you play. I'm sure almost all our company knows about your stream and will be watching with rapt attention".

"Thank you, sir". Kelly shook his hand and escorted him to the door, he then raced to the virtual pod room.

'So beautiful' before Kelly's eyes laid a luxurious virtual cabin the door had a very large and gorgeous looking tree covering its entirety. In and under the tree lay various animals and humanoids, Kelly was almost drooling looking at the gorgeous and peaceful scene.

Kelly inhaled a shaking breath and logged into the streaming platform from his communication device. He hit 'start stream' and used his terminal camera to show the scene in the room. The live room filled quickly and Kelly smiled and waved at the screen.

"Hello everyone! Catcher here showing you Gaia Tech's prize virtual cabin for the game Lichen. I didn't plan on showing it and going right to the game, but such a beautiful artwork it's a shame not to share it with you all". Kelly slowly turned his communication device to point at the virtual cabin and slowly walked around it to show the whole picture up close.

After letting the fans admire for a minute, "alright I'm turning this video off and it'll turn back on once I enter the game's Home Screen. See you all there in a moment!". Clearly, Kelly's enthusiasm hadn't calmed at all yet and he showed the most brilliant and true smile he could ever make. His viewers obviously saw it and they were all dying inside in response to the deadly beauty attack.