Preparation

Alexander woke up in the Pod. His body was sore after laying down for almost five days.

His body was sweaty, and his bowels were excited.

He got out of the contraption and ran to his bathroom.

He felt liberated as he left the bathroom, since his body had been holding it in for days.

The next order of things was to eat a solid meal. He wasn't hungry that much, being on IV fluids whilst in the pod, but his body still needed some proper food.

As Alexander ate a bowl of cereal, he scrolled through the game forums with his cell phone, trying to find anything of interest.

He read a post about a function someone had found in their pod—phone linking.

The person found out by fiddling in their pod options they could link their phone to it and receive messages in-game from the phone.

It could even receive calls, although time dilatation issues were making the calls awkward for the person on the outside.

Alexander finished eating and went back to his pod, trying to find that option.

It didn't take him much time, as the post author had explained the setting location clearly.

Once he found it and linked it to his phone, he grinned. That would save him from being unreachable for days.

He wasn't able to test it because he was almost out of IV bags. There were only two left.

Alexander opened up the pharmacy's online platform on his phone, going to the medical portion.

He scrolled till he found the IV bags and gasped. The price increased from the last time.

The bags were now marked at two hundred and fifty dollars apiece. He bit his lip and ordered eight of them.

He tapped the delivery option and looked at the estimated delivery time. It would be six hours before he got them, so he filled his time up.

He looked online for Gamer Guilds, as the community called them. They were companies that had formed around in-game guilds.

If you wanted a sponsorship, they would be the ones to join. The companies paid players to push their brand into new games.

Most of them needed you to interview, and they all had strict hiring standards.

Alexander hated being under a microscope.

He still applied to all the ones in his current vicinity and decided he would bite the bullet if the need arose.

Alexander then went to take a shower to cleanse his sweaty body. He felt sore, like he had run a marathon, but he couldn't understand why.

Had he not been laying down for five days? He attributed it to being immobile for so long and discarded it as simply numbness.

He took a long hot shower, letting the heat relax his muscles and soothe his aches.

Once he was out and dry, he sat down in front of his television, watching the news a little, waiting for his delivery.

The news displayed was quite grim. People were fighting for pod supplies. The rich were trying to monopolize them.

The poorer, who couldn't afford even the cheapest pod, were still staying dangerously long inside the game with the helmet.

Some players had even died, because of health issues, caused by dehydration and injury.

Alexander felt like things were getting out of hand. If players started dying, the game would have to shut down, for safety reasons.

But the next bit of news threw him off even more.

While he was inside the game, 'Evo-Gaming' had opened up new shares on the market, on which many businessmen and women had jumped, to gain a piece of the pie.

The pricing on the pods enticed them so much. If more and more gamers bought them, then the return on investment would be monstrous!

The company had also given a press conference, announcing something else that would be a game changer.

They were introducing a currency exchange! Now players could trade their hard-earned money for in-game gold!

This would force a major power shift in the player community. The poorer players, even if good, would now have to compete with money to get better gear from merchants and auction houses!

He was lucky to be out of that struggle for now, as there probably weren't many players in the Ash Elf zone, anyway.

But that wouldn't last very long, as he would eventually have to venture out of that zone, to explore the wider game world.

Most of the higher-level zones were out of any countries if he believed what he could read online.

It was a matter for other people to wrack their brains with, since he didn't have any money left to spare, anyway. For now, he was mainly concerned that he wouldn't be able to make adequate preparations for the tournament.

He didn't have access to merchants at all in his starter village. But he most likely had an easier time leveling up.

The monsters here were a gold mine for low-level players, after all.

But that was beside the point. He needed to see if he could find gear for the tournament.

And skills, or spells, to bolster his arsenal. Finding a trainer that suits his needs would be tough too, unless he stuck with Kloud and Aberon.

He was almost certain that the only thing he would have time to do was the coming-of-age ceremony Aberon had mentioned.

As he watched the news and contemplated his options, time flew by. His doorbell eventually rang.

He rose from his couch and walked to the intercom. On the screen was a man in a delivery uniform, tagged with the pharmacy's logo.

He pressed the button to talk to the man.

"Hello."

"Hi. Is this Alexander Leduc's residence?" The man asked, looking at the camera.

"That would be correct." Alexander replied.

"I have a delivery from the pharmacy to your name. Can I come in?" The man said, showing his D/O.

Alexander buzzed him in and waited at the door for his order.

Once he had received it and signed off on it, he closed his door and went to set the bags in place.

He would return inside the game soon, to make as many preps as he could for the upcoming tournament.

He cleaned a little around his apartment and then got ready to dive again.

As he lay down in his pod, he heard the electronic voice welcoming him.

"Welcome back, Player Astaroth."

"Log in" Alexander simply replied, closing the lid on the pod.

*Launching 'New Eden'*

*Logging in*

*Welcome back player Astaroth*