VR Game

The following day, Salem got the same message he got every time he got a full night's sleep. He couldn't help but think about how long it would take if the only thing he did was sleep and wake up.

Shortly after Salem woke up, Jet woke up as well and the boys got dressed. Since it was a Saturday, neither of them decided to get dressed in the school uniform.

This was the first time Salem saw Jet in something other the what the school required. Jet wore a pair of baggy jean shorts, a black shirt with a blue bagel on it, and a pair of steel toe boots.

Salem couldn't help but stare at the odd clothes Jet decided to wear. "What are you staring at?" Jet questioned when he noticed that Salem was staring at him.

"You look odd with the clothes you chose to wear that's all." Salem replied. "Hey what about you. You look like you're trying to be an idol." Jet said, trying to make fun of Salem.

Salem was wearing a black shirt with gold splotches on it and a zipper pocket and a pair of black jeans with a gold zipper on the left side pocket, and a pair of black steel toe boots.

"Thanks, I try." Salem replied and both the boys laughed, and they left although Jet did change into an all-black shirt. 

As the day progressed not much happened until noon which the students went to the canteen to wait for the Sergeants. Once all the Sergeants showed up, they stood in front of the students.

"Listen of students." One of them spoke with a booming voice that cut through all of the students who were chatting amongst themselves. With the students quieting down, the Sergeant started to speak again.

"As you know, you are currently at military base 3, and if you've noticed that there isn't much around us. That is because currently we are on top of a hill that overlooks a city right below. I'm sure some of you have gotten curious about that so today we are going to take a trip down to the city. We have a special event planned for today and after that you will all have the rest of the day off."

Once the sergeant was done with his speech, he spoke into his coat pocket in a whisper, but with Salem's hearing he was able to hear what he had said. "The presentation is complete you can remove the smoke."

'There was smoke surrounding is, well I guess that makes sense since we did travel through a fog.' Salem inwardly thought.

One of the Sergeant stepped in front of the crowd. "For all those are in Sergeant Barnes class please step forward." Salem started to walk up when he noticed that not only Darrel started to go but Jet, Celina, and Ruby all started to go up as well.

"Are you guys in Sergeant Barnes class as well?" Salem asked everyone except Darrel.

"From the looks of it we all have him as a teacher." Ruby replied to Salem as she walked over to him.

'Looks like today will be an interesting day with these two.' Ruby thought to herself.

"Looks like we are going to be spending the day together, anyways." Jet said smiling. Once all 150 or so students were gathered around Sergeant Barnes, they started down the hill towards the city entrance.

On reaching the gateway, the Sergeant showed the kids how to use their emblems to enter the city. Once in the city the group went down to the game store.

"Alright students these are the VR pods. With these you will be able to practice using your abilities. For you students you'll only be able to fight against other students from the other military bases."

Sergeant Barnes said as he led the students to the counter. After a while of conversating with the shops clerk, Sergeant Barnes turned around to face the students.

"She will give you all your student pass for you to be able to use the VR pods. You will be able to use the pods for 1 hour with your pass daily, after that regular rate will apply."

Once the Sergeant was done speaking, he started walking around his group of students and started passing out the daily passes for the students. After everyone received their cards, the students each went to an open pod.

Once Salem got into one of the pods and the door shut behind him. Salem wasn't able to see anything until a bright white light shined in his view.

He also saw something that he was confused about as he saw what looked to be an avatar that vaguely looked like him.

Although he noticed that there was a way to customize the avatar, and that's exactly what Salem started to do. It didn't take Salem long to finish customizing his character as there weren't many options to choose from.

His avatar wore all black with short black hair, it looked like an emo kid, but Salem liked it, so he confirmed it. Once he had confirmed it, he noticed that the avatar had disappeared, a voice was heard coming around him which sounded slightly robotic.

<Please create your username.>

Thinking about it, this was the first time Salem had ever thought about a username for something.

He didn't know what he wanted his name to be so ultimately, he chose to pick something that he thought was cool and something to do with the scale he had.

Once he had chosen his username, he started to look around to see what he could but all he could see was white space all around him.

Seeing this he started to walk around, at that moment he saw a little envelope pop up in front of him. It was an invitation from someone from the game.

Looking at it he wasn't sure who he sent it, or who he got it from. When he touched it, a letter appeared out of it. 

<The user Whirlybird has sent you a game invite, do wish to accept? Yes? No?> 

'What type of name is Whirlybird?' Salem thought to himself as he accepted to invite. Seconds later Salem felt like his whole body was spinning and his vision was blurred for a moment.

As the spinning feeling went away Salem saw a boy standing in front of him with his arms crossed.

Looking at the boy he was wearing what looked like Salem ninja attire. He had black slacks and a skintight shirt and what looked like a scarf covering the lower parts of his mouth. When the boy spoke it was obvious to Salem who it was.

"Yo Salem, what's up?" Jet said without really moving from his position, but when Jet turned and looked at Salem's username, he couldn't help but laugh.

"What kind of name is DragonKid?" Salem got kind of embarrassed when Jet said this, but it quickly turned into annoyance.

"Oh, you're one to talk, What kind of name if Whirlybird? It sounds like you're a drunken bird or something." Both Salem and Jet started to laugh.

A moment later Salem started to think about something, just how did Jet know how to find him. The thought was bugging Salem until finally.

"Hey, Jet, how did you know how to find me to send an invite?" "Oh, that's easy." Jet said. "I saw what pod number you got in and I just sent the invite there. Now down to other things so you remember when we came down here, a few days ago?"

"Yeah, I do." Salem said. "Is this what you wanted to show me though?"

"Not quite." Jet replied and Salem could see that Jet had pulled up what appeared to be a menu screen.

"Is that a-." "Shhhh." Jet interrupted Salem. All Salem could do was watch as Jet pressed some buttons on the menu in front of him. Seconds later the white room changed into a traditional dojo.

<Now searching for a match> 

"The rules are simple just win the match however you can." Jet said. "You can use weapons and armor to fight with as well, but since you ain't registered any don't worry about it. Oh, and you're not gonna fight first."

Jet had given a lot of information, but Salem didn't quite understand a few things about the whole VR game. "So, what are we doing now?" Salem asked as he looked at the timer that was going up above Jets head.

At the moment it has only been 30 seconds. "Oh yeah, so right now we're playing randomized fights, so I could get paired up with someone with a higher or lower mastery than me. I only play this mode cause it's quicker to get a fight."

<Match found. Match starting in 3…2…1…>