Monster Containment Online

[Welcome to the Lounge.]

The voice said. Hearing closely, it sounded oddly sanitized: devoid of any emotions. It unsettled Larson, but the others seemed unmoved. He slowly moved his hands away from his head and looked to his side. Lo-and-behold, Tyler was squatting next to him.

The others around him slowly stood up and checked over themselves. He stuck out like a sore thumb. Everyone within his view range was over a decade younger than him. The eerie bit was how far he could see, though.

The surrounding was white, the blinding kind of white that was not exactly a color, but he knew what it was. It was endless and without any decoration.

"Where the hell are we?" Larson panicked. He couldn't think of a single technology that allowed the transportation of large masses like magic. Even if some country was using advanced technology, this type of technological advancement was too far into the future.

If 2022 was not bad, now teleportation existed?

"It said this is The Lounge," the smug bastard commented. Larson glared at his nephew.

"I heard that. But what the hell is going on?" he questioned.

"This is MCO, the game I was telling you about," he told her. He was jumping out of his skin in excitement.

"What does it stand for?" Larson asked. He was good at grilling people for answers, but it was a lost cause when the person being interrogated had no information, to begin with.

"That's the name of the game. They didn't mention an acronym." Tyler shrugged. The nonchalance with which he was speaking was infuriating. "It has monsters, that's all I know."

"What is the name of the company that developed the game?"

Tyler didn't know.

"At least tell me how we got here. Are video games these days advanced enough to do this?"

This made Tyler extremely happy to elaborate. "No, according to the press release, the game has been in development for several years. They are still in the testing phase and we will be the first to experience it. This is the first 100% immersive VRMMORPG in the world." Seeing his uncle's blank expression, he explained what that meant.

"No one calls it that. It's too long of a name. And 100% means that you feel pain like you would in the real world, right?" Larson asked. "But that also means if you die in this game, you die in real life."

Tyler chuckled. "Our world runs on inflated claims. It's a false advertisement at best."

Larson sighed. "How did you graduate school?" he said sarcastically.

The M in MCO definitely stood for Monster. The rest was an enigma for a 42-year-old who had never played a video game in his life. Asking his nephew was a lost cause, too. He looked around and found that the rest of the players were staring into nothingness.

[Thank you for choosing to play Monster Containment Online.]

Larson turned to glare at Tyler. 'See, it was an acronym!' The other was too preoccupied to notice the stink-eye he was receiving.

[You were chosen amongst thousands of applicants to experience this game before it becomes available for public consumption.]

There were hoots and claps after the announcement started.

[You will be waiting at The Lounge until all testers have signed up. To complete your sign-up process, please move the first dial of your Connector.]

Larson looked around and found the others twiddling with their watches. He did as the voice said and turned the first dial on the so-called Connector.

It asked for a username, and password, and had the option to connect to other social media accounts and bank accounts. Larson squinted at all the information and put his name as his username. Good thing it wasn't taken. He put in the same password as his social media but got a warning.

<Your password is not strong enough. Your password needs to have—>

The instruction went on and on.

He turned to Tyler who was already done with the process. Even his clothes had changed into a black uniform.

"How do I do this?" he asked.

"Don't put your Facebook password here!" Tyler groaned. "Add some capitalized letters and an exclamation mark." He did it himself. "I am adding the automatic login option for you because you will forget the password."

Ah, the joys of teaching technology and social media to the previous generation.

"Wait! I can log out after this, right?" he asked.

Tyler looked confused. "Like… log out of the game and not play it?" he asked. Larson nodded. "Oh, no. You don't log out. You either win or you are kicked out of the game because you lose. It's 100% immersion, remember?"

Larson didn't believe his nephew, but he couldn't find a logout option on the screen… or any other option other than to register. Frustrated, he checked his information and then signed up.

<You have successfully signed up to test Monster Containment Online. Please wait for all testers to sign up.>

<Please chose a Skin in which you will play.>

Larson looked through the options and realized why his banking information was required. These clothes or Skins, as they were called, cost a lot of money. He looked down at his plain shirt and jeans and wondered if he could play in it. There was a basic black combat uniform. There was no distinction in the heavy-duty jacket, pants, t-shirt, cover hat, and boots. There was no insignia or mark for rank either. It was also free. He chose this one.

<Are you sure you want to use the Basic Skin?>

<Yes> <No>

Larson pressed 'Yes'.

Straight away, his clothes changed into the ones he saw on the screen.

It seemed Tyler didn't want to spend money on the game either. Actually, Tyler didn't have any money to his name to spend on video games. Why else would he be chasing the grand prize?

It felt like hours before the server dinged.

A hologram appeared in front of his face. The buffering symbol was right there and he tried to touch it, only for his hand to go through. It shimmered and dispersed at his touch but coagulated the moment he pulled his hand away.