3 Chapter 03

Once finished, the door could be folded up vertically and secured to the ceiling of the room by a carefully folded loop of tape secured between two bent nails that stuck out from the step the makeshift door had been hung from. The leftover cardboard was then neatly tucked beneath his worn out mattress in order to make his bed a little bit more comfortable and the cords beneath it a little less noticeable.

Next, he cut the blanket into thirds; one third of which he cut up further to make the rags his aunt intended to turn the blanket into. Another third of the blanket was carefully spread out over his bed so that he wouldn't have to ask for new covers from his aunt; something that he would have gotten in trouble for doing. The final third was carefully hung over the inside of his cupboard door with duct tape in such a way that it would block the seams of the door and prevent any light from escaping out of his closet. The blanket could easily be hidden by rolling it up and securing it in place above the door with a small strip of cloth and the nails that poked out of the wall.

After hanging up the blanket over his door, Harry left his closet one last time to return the scissors and tape from where he'd gotten them from so they wouldn't be missed and to put the newly made rags away where they belonged so that his aunt wouldn't go searching for the missing blanket. On his way back to his room, he grabbed several alcohol wipes from the first aide kit so he could clean the equipment before he used it. When he returned to his room, he dropped the blanket down into place over his door and began taking care of his purloined gaming system.

Once he'd cleaned everything, paying close attention to the Nerve Gear out of necessity, Harry placed the spare Nerve Direct Linkage Environment System (NERDLES) that Uncle Vernon had purchased (in case the one that had been implanted in Dudley malfunctioned at some point) on the back of his neck where it met the base of his skull (as shown in the diagram of the package) completely unaware that the device was supposed to be surgically implanted. He winced as he felt the needles of the device pierce his skin but soon forgot about the pain as he slipped on the helmet unit of the Nerve Gear and powered on the device.

The device ran through a complete diagnosis of his current physical, mental, and emotional state before he launched the basic tutorial on how to use the equipment when the option was provided. Next he ran through a step that the system called calibration; the system requesting that he physically touch various parts of his body in order to allow the gear to learn how much he had to move his hands to reach each part; which would allow the system to accurately and smoothly portray the sensation of movement while he was within the games.

During this period, he never noticed his magic integrating the NERDLES device completely into his body and enhancing the effectiveness of the technology at the same time instead of shorting it out like it should have the moment his magic had come in contact with the active technology – not surprising since the device hadn't actually been properly activated by a surgical technician upon proper implantation.

It only took about twenty minutes for Harry to learn the basics before he was testing the system using one of the many educational games that the Dursleys had purchased in the hopes that Dudley would learn from them. He quickly grew bored with that simple game though and sat up to hunt through the pile of games to find the game that Dudley had been bragging about during the meal. It didn't take him long to find the disc and just seconds later he inserted the beta release of Ken no Sekai (a game for which Uncle Vernon had shelled out nearly two thousand quid in order to purchase a copy from a Japanese client through work because Dudley had demanded a copy of the game) into the console.

He wasted no time in activating the link once the Nerve Gear informed him that the software had been loaded. Over the course of the next hour, Harry slowly muddled his way through the game's tutorial to build himself a cool looking Avatar that looked like an older and taller version of himself using the step by step instructions that had been provided by the man that his uncle had purchased the software from (due to an English version of the game being unavailable).

Next he was required to fill out a short questionnaire that would determine what Skills he could learn during the course of his game play and what his chosen profession would be (once again relying on the provided instructions). Lastly, he selected his middle name as his penname (to keep anyone from recognizing him), leaving the rest of his profile blank for the same reason why he'd not used his first or last name.

The game then activated and he appeared in a cathedral like room that was called Fukkatsu no Heya. Harry would eventually learn that this was the room in which a Player's character would respawn if they 'died' during the game after he'd began teaching himself to read and write Japanese at the local library in order to play the game more effectively. Harry spent several minutes checking out the magnificent room before he dashed across the open floor and hurried out through the only door.

A grin bloomed across Harry's face and his eyes lit up with wonder as he stared out at the rambling streets of what looked like a medieval city that he would soon discover was called Hajimari no Machi. It looked nothing like the cookie-cutter rows of houses that filled the street his aunt and uncle lived on and that alone made it remarkable.

It was love at first sight.

....

Saturday, November 02, 2019 9:15 AM

Harry focused intently on washing the breakfast pans while he kept one ear open for the sound of the post being pushed through the mail slot. It had been over a month since the Beta Test of Sword Art Online (SAO) had ended and the official version of the game was due to go live in four days. Uncle Vernon had pre-ordered the full version of the game (through the online link located within the beta version) shortly after he purchased the beta software and several days before he'd trashed the entire system because Dudley had used the word 'magic' even though there were actually no Magical Skills offered in the game (Harry had looked because he wanted to see what the forbidden magic looked like).