The Day Of The Launch

The few days Arthur had till the launch of Morpheus Online passed very quickly. He had mostly spent his time staying in his room and gathering his memories.

There was simply too much information that he needed to organize. While he had noted down the immediate things he needed to do on the first day, that was just the starting things.

There was a lot of minor and broad information that he needed to note down, too. Arthur didn't trust his memory to retain it forever. It would be a big loss for him if he forgot something really important.

After all, this was the biggest advantage he had in this life and it could not be lost at all.

His memories were refreshed at the time of his death, thus he remembered almost everything clearly. But the more time passed, the fainter those memories got. Even if the loss in his memories was just 2-3 percent, that was still massive, considering the long scheme of things.

For a massive game as Morpheus Online, even a small tidbit of information could be the difference between dying and living.

Four days was what it took for Arthur to note down all the information he knew about the game as well as the players.

He noted down the quests, the events, the equipment, the bosses, the mob enemies, the items, the NPC's and a lot more. Just writing this all down filled up four notebooks, and Arthur reckoned he'd need more later.

In the last two days before the launch of the game, he started writing down the information he knew about the real world. After all, there were a lot of important events that happened in real life too that he needed to know.

The biggest ones were none other than the natural disasters that kept on happening. The earthquakes were common while storms appeared from time to time too in the province that Arthur lived in.

Thankfully, he was away from the sea or he'd have to worry about floods and tsunamis as well. There were a few significant ones that would be coming in a year or two that would be causing major damage to infrastructure.

In this time, Arthur basically sustained himself with instant noodles. He barely had 10 union credits left that he had to accommodate for the entire week's food. The remaining amount was something he would use for the Skytrain ticket and the bus ticket.

This wasn't a hardship that Arthur was unused to and was able to get through effortlessly.

And after all the waiting, the day of the launch finally arrived.

"Do I have everything?" Arthur took one last look around his tiny apartment.

He had few belongings in the first place and other than some clothes, there wasn't much left. Arthur stuffed a change of clothes and one of the notebooks in his backpack before taking his leave.

It was about 7 AM and the launch was going to be at 12 PM.

'It should be plenty of time to reach there.' Arthur thought to himself as he left his apartment building.

He lightly jogged to the nearest bus stop and hopped on towards the Skytrain station. From there, it was just two hours of travel in the train.

In the train though, Arthur could see more people than usual.

'There shouldn't be these many people at this time…' Arthur was a bit surprised.

It wasn't until he noticed the badges hanging from their necks did he realize why there were more people.

'It's the staff from Hypnotek… seems like they are going there for the event too…' Arthur understood.

After all, the Hypnotek Gallery that he was going to would be one of the many venues for the launch event. There were tens of other shops that were having them too, just on a smaller scale.

And with most of the blue-collar workers living in the satellite cities, it wasn't unusual to see extra staff being called in for a big event like that.

Letting out a breath, Arthur closed his eyes deciding to take a short nap. He had woken up early, and could catch up on some sleep now.

~DING~

He felt like he had only closed his eyes for five minutes before the announcement was heard.

"We're already here?" Arthur checked the time, realizing over an hour had passed.

The current time was 10.30 am, and Arthur had plenty of time till the launch. Getting off the Skytrain, he made his way to the Hypnotek Gallery, taking a slow stroll. No matter how many times he saw the central business district, it felt novel to him.

'The fresh air only makes me wanna spend more time here…' Arthur thought to himself.

And when he reached the Gallery, he found several people to be waiting there already. Several tents had been set up, with most of them being people from the news agencies. The street didn't allow any vehicles on it, so there wasn't an issue for them to do so.

Arthur could also see several workers rushing around, getting things in order. It was clear that they seemed to be quite stressed as well.

But when he approached the entrance of the gallery, several people noticed it.

"Look! Who's that?"

"Is it anyone from our list?"

"His face doesn't match any of the VIPs."

The people from the news agencies were quite interested in Arthur. After all, the entrance to the gallery was limited to those who had registered. Normally, only the more influential people should have been able to get the access, and Arthur certainly did not fit the description.

"Welcome sir, may I have your invitation please?" The Guard standing at the entrance asked.

He had clearly recognized Arthur from his tone, which was a lot better than before. To him, Arthur seemed like a rich kid that liked to pretend he was poor. There were a few eccentrics that liked to do this and some even considered it the new trend.

"Here it is." Arthur showed his phone and was allowed inside.

A store clerk noticed him and approached him.

"Welcome, sir." The clerk greeted before continuing. "You are a bit early sir, the launch still has an hour before it starts."

"I know. I'd like to use my Dream pod till then." Arthur replied.

"I'm sorry sir, but all the Dream pods are currently being calibrated. You will have to wait a little while longer." The clerk apologized.

Arthur furrowed his brows upon hearing this. 'I wanted to get acclimatized before the start… my body hasn't used it before, so will take time to get used to it.'

This was one of the reasons why Arthur had arrived early.

"Though you can wait in our lounge upstairs. We have an assortment of snacks and beverages available for you." The Clerk said after seeing the displeasure on Arthur's face.

His words were quite effective on him as a smile appeared on Arthur's face.

"Ah! That sounds good." He replied.

"Please come with me, sir." The clerk took Arthur to the lounge, located upstairs.

He hadn't even noticed this area before, but was impressed by how good it looked. There were tables set for one to sit and eat, while several screens were playing the news.

"Here's our menu sir, you can order whatever you desire. It is all complimentary for today's event." The clerk handed him the tablet.

Arthur quickly ordered several items, intending to stuff himself.

'Finally something better than instant noodles….' Arthur wouldn't lose this opportunity to enjoy himself.

In less than five minutes, several dishes were brought to him, most of them being breakfast items that Arthur scarfed down in ten minutes.

And just as he finished eating, he saw the clerk approaching again.

"The Dream Pods have been calibrated sir, you can now use them if you wish to." The Clerk informed.

This was all Arthur needed before he almost sprinted to his Dream Pod.