Where do you start?

Where do you start? Where, does life begin and what is life? All of these were questions that Rowan never asked himself. His day began in the usual way. Waking up and eating breakfast with his mother and little brother in their basement apartment. He was a normal-looking kid of 13 years of age and a role model for his 11-year-old brother Luke. They were both eating pancakes like there was no tomorrow while their mother Maria was packing them their school lunches. Their father abandoned their family while she was pregnant with Luke or you could also say they abandoned him. Between his alcohol, drug and gambling problems all he was capable off was lying around their home and making his mother's life even harder as it already was until she decided if she was theoretically a single parent she might as well become one practically. She kicked him out of the apartment with tears in her eyes. Tears that stemmed from memories of times gone by. Called the locksmith to change the lock and they never heard from the man again.

They say you don't miss things you never experienced so neither Rowan nor Luke had any issues regarding their father being gone except when society brought the issue upon them. Their standard answer was he was a soldier and he died on a mission. It was easier than to say he was a useless bum and their mother kicked him out. Also, people respected soldiers due to strong propaganda.

They usually gave them a look of pity and did not ask too many questions.

For their first ten years, they survived on the money their mother inherited from her deceased parents who died in a car accident. Maria was a smart woman except in choosing a partner and knew the money can't last forever so got herself into night school and became a licensed nurse after they were old enough for kindergarten. She usually worked the night shift and went to sleep while they were at school after making them breakfast. The night shift was paid better and no one really wanted to do it if they had a choice unless they needed extra income. They got by without luxuries, but were well fed, clothed and had a nice place to stay with no complaints.

Maria yawned after she kissed them goodbye and locked the door after them and went to rest. It was a long night behind her, but that was a routine that she long got used to.

School life for Rowan was boring as usual and he was just passing time there until the last school bell rang. The main reason for boredom beside his high IQ was that he had after school plans. With his mother's salary, they had enough to get by but after their mother learned her lesson with their estranged father she preferred to save up money for rainy days and not spend them on luxuries.

Rowan as a 13-year-old did not consider latest computers, phones, tablets and games a luxury but a necessity to kill his boredom but unfortunately, his mother only provided the brothers two run of the mill phones and a laptop that was having trouble running anything besides a word processor.

He was not the worst off from his classmates but looking at the rich kid's new phones and listening to them talking about the games they played always made him grip his five-year-old phone tighter in his pocket. Today was the day he was going to change that. Today was payday again.

Although he could not buy the newest stuff he always kept up with the latest technology news and it was a week before the first-ever fully immersive virtual reality game comes out. He had been delivering newspapers and mowing lawns for six months and nearly had enough money for a good computer and the VR game headset.

He informed his mother about what he wanted to buy. She reluctantly agreed, but before he got too happy opened him a bank account and found him some jobs he could do. He was delivering newspapers, shoveling snow and mowing lawns for six months all for today.

Rowan ordered his computer components in a computer shop and paid them to build his custom computer last week and today he only needed the last paycheck to confirm his reservation of the VR headset. The seller was kind enough to reserve it for him even though he was missing 150 USD but told him to deliver the money as soon as possible.

Rowan knew the reason he had to. The game had a limited 100.000 first edition VR headset run for the whole world and although the merchants could preorder them the company NovaTech decided they won't accept preorders from customers to fuel the hype and get into the media from the coverage of people camping in front of the selected retail stores. To not let someone camp in vain they made big countdown announcing boards with the number of units available for sale in front of the stores. The unit also had to be initially activated inside the store to ensure the calibration went smoothly and the number in front would go down by one after that.

The merchant was afraid of breach of contract with the company but he took pity on Rowan since he judged by his clothes and shoes that the computer he ordered came from his own earnings and it reminded him of himself when he was in a similar situation when he was young. The main problem was the sale started when Rowan had school but the merchant told him that as long as he brought the money he will find a way to get him a headset.

Time ticked away slowly that day. Rowan was feeling like he was watching the water come to a boil for the eight hours he was in school. As soon as the bell rang he packed his bag and rushed to the schoolyard to pick up his bicycle and rushed to the nearest ATM machine. He was preoccupied with his thought on finally getting a computer and a VR headset that he was not paying attention to his surroundings and as soon as he inputted his pin number he felt something cold on his neck.

"Don't turn around unless you want to die!" a hoarse male voice said.

Rowan did not dare to and he started trembling while saying: "O-Ok."

"Withdraw everything you can!"

Rowan did as he was told and when the ATM spit out 400 USD which was his daily limit the voice was heard again.

"Don't turn around. Pass the money behind you!" as Rowan did so the voice sounded again.

"Close your eyes and count to 400 if you want to kiss your mama again!" then he let out a laugh and Rowan heard footsteps walking away from him.

As he was counting he stared at his remaining balance of 60 USD and in his mind, he counted.

"15 stupid, 16 stupid, 17 stupid …"

It was his first time experiencing the ugliness of humanity alone and he was half-mad and half in disbelief such a thing could happen to him. He considered calling the police but what could they do?

He never saw who robbed him. He could only describe the voice. The guy probably hid his appearance from the cameras if he was worried he would turn around. The only thing reporting this incident to the police would bring a hassle and worry for his overworked mother.

He lost count as he was thinking this and turned around anyway since he was sure the guy was long gone. He was right. He got back on his bike and his previous mood did a U-turn.

As he rode his bike home he kept thinking where he could get the 90 missing USD from. He could not ask his mother since she knew he was getting paid today. He remembered since their mother only opened up a bank account for him while Luke had some money in a jar he was saving for his own "luxuries".

He made a plan to "borrow" from Luke and repay him when his next paycheck came. Luke probably won't notice anyway until that happens since his way of saving money was not spending his lunch money or doing favors for other kids for money. He pulled out the jar from below his bed maybe two or three times a month.

He got new strength in his legs when he thought about this and rushed home. Luke was nowhere to be seen so crawled under his bed and took out the jar. He counted the money until he got to 150 USD and returned the rest. Rowan got back on his bike and rushed to the computer store and delivered it to the merchant.

Now all he needed was to wait a week.

The week passed like a slowed down routine for Rowan. School, odd jobs, homework, sleep repeat.

He smirked when he heard his richer classmates cursing NovaTech for releasing the game in the morning during school hours since they were sure it will get sold out before they could get there in person. They all had computers strong enough to play but they would have to wait until the limited headsets would be back in stock.

"I will finally have something to brag about." Rowan thought to himself.

He got the computer delivered in the afternoon so he didn't go to work today and tomorrow he will get the headset. The long-awaited release date will be finally here.

In the morning at school, he saw three of his richer school mates were missing and he knew the reason why. Something like school was no obstacle with doting parents. They probably skipped school to get the headsets but still, Rowan waited until his classes were over.

Mr. Fisher the owner of the shop was eagerly awaiting Rowan too. He only had 100 headsets and he was already down to the last 17 pieces in the two hours since the shop opened. There were more customers outside than there were headsets even though the counter clearly stated 17 left.

The people behind the 17 started bartering with the people in front offering ridiculous sums of money to skip the line. The 17 in front smelled the money and asked for even more ridiculous sums of money in return.

As the counter was single digits Mr. Fisher started to sweat since he knew Rowan still had 3 hours to go before he could come to claim his headset. Left with no other choice he started playing with a paperclip and when the counter reached 1 he stuck it into a power outlet.

The short circuit did exactly as Mr. Fischer expected and killed the power which turned the lights out to his whole shop. The customer who was going to be next started yelling at him and the others behind him were making fun of that customer since he paid 5x the price for the last slot to a guy who left a few minutes ago.

Mr. Fischer said he will check the circuit breaker in the back of his shop and politely asked everyone to step outside. As everyone did so he locked the shop, shook his head and went in the backroom.

He took a bottle of whiskey and poured himself a glass and slowly drank it while checking the time. After an hour he peeped and people who were outside before had already all given up but one. It was the guy who paid for his place in line. Mr. Fischer felt a bit of guilt but he dismissed it soon.

"If the guy had so much money to burn he will surely find a way."

After an hour he checked again and he was right. The guy also left. He waited for another 30 minutes then went through the back entrance for a smoke just in time to see Rowan park his bicycle there.

Rowan was wheezing as Mr. Fischer smiled since he knew the kid must have gone full throttle from school the moment he was allowed to leave. He put his cigarette back in the box and gestured Rowan to follow him.

They went inside and Mr. Fisher flipped the circuit breaker and the lights turned on.

He went with Rowan in the front and sold him the last headset and they calibrated it before Rowan went back the way he came from. Rowan thanked Mr. Fischer again and again and Mr. Fischer just smiled at him and told him to take care.

As Rowan was getting on his bicycle Mr. Fischer was lighting up a cigarette and thinking if his actions influenced his karma as he waved him goodbye.

The drive back home went without incidents until Rowan came to his home and had to avoid construction workers which were using a drill to gouge out the old concrete pavement. As he came inside he could feel trembling of the ground and the noise was still so loud you could hardly think.

He looked into his mother's bedroom and she left. She left a note in the kitchen saying she could not sleep with the noise so she went to a friend's place and where he can find dinner.

He disregarded the dinner part since he didn't even have lunch yet and went directly to his computer to plug the VR headset in. As the computer booted and then the starting software embedded into the headset started to run Rowan was full of anticipation. The lights on the headset turned green and Mr. Fisher told him he could put it on when it turns green. Rowan carefully got on his bed and placed it on his head. He looked in the visor at the silver text that said initializing.

He felt gentle pressure on different spots of his head as the screen said USER 98996 connected.

Please confirm email. Rowan thought of his email details and it magically appeared on the screen.

"Biometrics data and email confirmed."

Initializing

There was a sudden vortex on the screen which made Rowan feel like he was being sucked in and his whole body even though he was lying. He felt as if he was flying as the electrodes on his head were fooling his brain. The only thing bothering him was the noise coming from the street. As he thought how he could stop the noise a menu opened up which said ambient sounds. Rowan smiled from joy and he pushed the ambient volume to 0. All he could hear was the in-game sounds.

He finally flew to a check point.

Race selection.

He looked through them and there was nothing new which was not found in other games or so he read. Human, orc, elf, dwarf there were only these four options. Even the choice of sex was not optional.

Rowan went through all them and read the pros and cons of every race but he liked that humans were the most universal with no bonuses and no deficiencies in anything. So he chose human.

Next checkpoint was appearance. Since it didn't give any bonuses how you looked Rowan just gave himself his own appearance how he remembered it. Then he tried experimenting with different tattoos, scars, hairstyles and he was not really satisfied so he reset the whole to default.

Next was job selection. The choices were fighter, mage, rogue, cleric, archer, bard, and crafter. He started browsing through all the options and he noticed than other than giving a weapon proficiency and a starting skill the choices didn't do much. You had 10 choices and you could put them anywhere. All into one or mix however you liked it.

Fighters branched out into swordsmen, berserkers, and guardians. Mages into summoners and elementalists. Rogues had thieves and assassins as options. Clerics were either a priest or paladin. Archers were rangers or simply archers. Bards were split into dancers and bards. Last option was crafters which had the most options. As he was looking through the list which stated blacksmith, fletcher, tanner, tailor, enchanter, jeweler, tamer, scribe, engineer, and alchemist. As Rowan was browsing through them he suddenly got the worst headache in his short life.

Meanwhile, in his home, Luke had the biggest scare of his life and for the reason for it, we have to go 10 minutes back in time.

As Luke got home and checked the note from their mother he was calling for Rowan with no reply. Since he saw Rowan's bike he knew he was home and when he went to their room he saw Rowan on the bed with a VR helmet. He called out again but still got no reply.

As he was looking at him for a few minutes and was looking at the packaging of the helmet he got an epiphany. Rowan bought a computer so he only needed another helmet so they could both play as the box displayed on the backside 4 players connected on a single computer. He knew their mother would not buy it for him so he scurried under his bed and took out the money jar. As he was about to open it he noticed that his hair strand which he always made sure to stick between the lid and the jar was missing. As he looked at the money he also noticed that most of the bills were gone and all that was left were mostly coins.

"ROWAN," he yelled and he got no reply. He yelled again but with the same result.

"Rowan you bastard. How could you?"

He got up and started walking around the room. He shook Rowan's leg but the whole room was shaking from the construction work outside. He hated being ignored, not getting the answers he desperately needed and thought he was entitled to so he stormed into the kitchen took a glass filled it with water and ran back into their room and splashed Rowan in the face.

He heard electricity making some popping sounds and Rowan made some funny faces which were not funny at all. A bit of smoke rose from the headset as Luke looked at Rowan with a scarred face.

He shook Rowan but as before there was no response. He listened to him breathe but he could not hear it. He put his hand in front of Rowan's nose and he felt the warm air and saw his chest rise and fall.

He shook him with more strength but nothing happened.

He knew he screwed up and he had to get help so he dialed emergency services as he was thought by his mother.

"Hello, my brother won't wake up." He cried into the phone as the dispatcher answered.

When the ambulance came they looked at Rowan and checked his vitals. One of the emergency medical technicians (EMTs) was a gamer and he knew what the helmet was so he stopped them from taking the helmet off.

The vitals were normal for a 13-year-old and the only problem was he didn't respond to any stimulus.

He didn't even react to an EMT pulling a pen across his foot to test his foot reflex or plantar reflex. There was no reaction.

They were worried to unplug him so they called the free support hotline which was stated on the box. Staff on the other side were perplexed as they were since they were not prepared for such an event by the manufacturer and they were immediately transferred up the chain of command.

Dr. James Rickman the main researcher took the call when his colleague who looked pale as a ghost gave him the phone. As Rickman got the information summary he frowned and told the EMTs they can disconnect him from the computer but leave the helmet on him and asked them which hospital they were taking him to. He advised them to let him in bed and not do any tests and he and his research team will be there in 4 hours.

They packed him up and Luke on the ambulance and called their mother on the way to the hospital.

Maria was frantic as she came to the hospital and saw Luke sitting on the ground in front of a room holding his knees and crying. She ran towards him and asked him what happened.

"Rowan won't wake up and I made him so. I am sorry. I am sorry." Luke said as he cried.

"What happened?" Maria asked again.

"I spilled water on him," Luke answered in tears.

"You spilled water on him?", Maria asked perplexed.

"He was wearing a gaming headset and I …" Luke went to cry.

"Why?", Maria asked since they always got along.

"He took money from my jar and I was mad at him. I am not mad anymore. Make him wake up please.", Luke pleaded as he cried.

A doctor came out from Rowan's room and saw Maria talking to Luke.

"Are you Rowan's mother? Mrs. Maria Hendricks?", the doctor asked.

"Yes. How is he?", Maria turned around and asked.

"Physically he is stable but unresponsive and in no immediate danger, but there might be some brain damage we are currently unaware of. We are waiting to conduct further tests on his brain damage when the gaming helmet manufacturers team arrives.", the doctor explained.

"When will that be? Can I see him?", Maria asked.

"Sure go right ahead and they should be arriving within 2-3 hours."

Maria went in and saw Rowan lying in bed with the VR helmet. He looked peaceful. She came to his bed as her knees buckled and she knelt beside it.

Dr. James Rickman gathered a team of medical professionals (neurosurgeons, plastic surgeons), electrical engineers and they were on the way to the airport as they were joined by spin doctors from the PR department together with the head CEO.

As they boarded the plane. Rickman heard the PR head say: "Fuck, we are screwed!"

The head CEO looked at him and he replied: "The EMTs leaked the story. It will be on the news within an hour."

The CEO frowned and said: "Stop the servers. Make a recall for all 100.000 units. Tell the media NovaTech won't let a stone unturned to help the kid and his family and make sure an unfortunate event as this one can't repeat itself. Call our legal team to prepare for a settlement with the family. You know what to do?"

As they seated themselves the CEO looked at Rickman, "Jimmy what happened?"

Rickman was annoyed but didn't show it. "A glass of water was spilled on the helmet and the actuators went into an overdrive probably and put that damn needle design inside the kids head. He looks like Hellraiser under the helmet probably. I told you the design was not safe. Bob. "

The head CEO was named Robert Fraser and he knew he annoyed Rickman when he called him Bob.

"Well, your original design was impractical. You can't expect people to shave their head to play a game. And if you didn't take so damn long for a better one we could have tested Frank's design more thoroughly. "

"Well, now you can test it after you recall it.", Rickman replied.

Both men knew they can't survive without the other so there was no need to be polite.

Bob supplied the money and infrastructure while James was the brains which made most of that money. They were a match made in heaven. They just could not stand each other so they have been keeping out of each other's way most of the time.

You could say a genius need a leach like Bob to make it big. Just look at Nikola Tesla who died almost in poverty and was only hailed again as a real genius and not as a mad hatter by the masses years after his death.

The plane took off as Rowan was feeling weightless inside darkness yelling: "Logout, exit, quit, stop."

Well, at least he tried to.