Chapter 5: A morning in the city
"Phew... Seems like I finally made it..." Soren cried out with a fatigued expression, as he was constantly on edge throughout the entire way of walking own the path that was shown from the hooded man. Although he had no combat encounters, he had his fair share of encounters with the natural wildlife, such as having squirrels, equal to the size of rabbits, hunting birds and even actual rabbits, black boars which were constantly smacking their heads on trees and even different animals crossbreeding with each other, specifically a white rabbit mating with a possum, even though the possums predate on the rabbits. If it wasn't of that, he would have completely forgotten he was playing a game.
"Let's hope I don't get f*cked over this time..." With that statement and hope in his heart, Soren confidently walked towards the settlement and was met with no resistance whatsoever, before another panel appeared, nearly giving him a scare.
You have discovered a human settlement in the Forest of Gervana. This settlement has been set as your respawn point, until the player enters a city. You are now able to safely log off in this settlement.
"Oh... Oh, thank the living gods... Log off immediately! Log off!" Soren yelled out desperately, as he swiftly opened his menu and pressed on the new "Log Off" button that appeared below the "Settings" button and the settlement slowly melded into the darkness, as the ceiling of his own apartment materialized and the feeling of the helmet slowly enveloped his head once more.
"Oh, thank the f*cking f*ck for making it alive." As he cried out in relief, he threw the helmet at the corner of his couch and let out a long breath of relief, as he could feel the sweat forming on both his forehead and back. After having a moment to calm himself down, he decided to examine the helmet first, in hope of finding some hidden dial or switch of some kind, but even after a thorough examination of the helmet, he was unable to find anything. After finishing the examination, he quickly put it away and used his phone to book a meeting with AionTech. Thankfully for him, the process was fairly simple, since he only needed his own personal information, as well as a day and time for the meeting and luckily enough, he could book one for eight in the morning of the next day.
With the meeting booked, Soren could rest a bit more easily, but thoughts of the game's bugs and anomalies were still enveloping his mind and although he was tempted to go back into the game and examine them himself, his self-control over his urges was more than enough to suppress his curiosity and decided to let the experts handle it. With that thought in his mind, Soren decided to plan his route for tomorrow, before resting earlier than his usual sleeping time, since he felt he would need all the energy he could muster.
...
*vrrr* *screech* *beep* *beep* "Watch where you're going you dim-witted tw*t!"
"Kiss my hairy *ss you drunkard. *beep* Didn't you know I had the right of way in the first place!?"
"Don't make me come there, you punk. You don't want to face me first thing in the morning!"
As a couple of car drivers were loudly arguing on a nearby corner, Soren couldn't help but rub his temples, as he was currently waiting for one of the buses that would take him towards AionTech's main building. 'I f*cking hate early morning traffic shenanigans... Can't say if I should be glad or not for the fact that I don't have a driving license.' Soren commented inwardly, as he could see one of the buses he need to drive in the distance.
Once he entered inside it, he used his phone on one of the ticket scanners and managed to get himself a solitary window seat, before checking the route once more towards AionTech. As he waited for the bus to arrive at its destination, Soren spent most of his time staring at the cloudy sky and passing buildings absentmindedly and occasionally, an argument would catch his attention, but those never lasted longer than a couple sentences. Aside from those, his eyes would occasionally dart towards the pedestrians and the cars, as everyone was making their way towards their own work.
Slowly, the bus eventually arrived near AionTech and Soren got off the bus, but he still had nearly thirty minutes before his meeting, so he spent it buying something to eat for breakfast and a cup of cappuccino coffee from a nearby cafe, as it was his favorite kind of coffee. While sitting on a nearby bench, a nearby electronic billboard started playing the usual BCO commercial and while doing so, he couldn't help but wonder what everyone's first experience with the game was, but could imagine it being an absolute mess of exploring, killing enemies, messing around and generally having some kind of fun.
Once Soren finished his own breakfast and cup of coffee, he swiftly made his way towards the AionTech building, only after performing a final check on himself for the necessary items he would need for the meeting, those being his identity card, a digital copy of the appointment and his game helmet. Once he did so, he took a deep breath to steel his nerves and made his way towards it, with the hope that he'd be able to get to the bottom of this mess.
"Do you have a scheduled appointment for today sir?" A deep voice suddenly grabbed Soren's attention, as he was about to step past the entrance gate and quickly turned his head towards a somewhat muscular man with a black suit and sunglasses.
"Oh... Yeah- Ahem... I mean yes, I do. It should be under the last name of Pascianno at 7 in the morning sir." Soren explained, as he took out his ID and pulled up his digital copy of his appointment on his phone, before showing it to the guard.
"Hmm... Open the box quickly." The guard ordered stoically, as Soren followed suit and opened the box, getting a good look on the helmet and after a thorough check, he immediately responded, while giving back his belongings. "All clear! Proceed towards the main hall, grab a numbered ticket and await for your turn."
"Phew..." 'For a moment I thought I was screwed there. Let's hope the line isn't too bad...'
After entering through the front door, he was met with a large gray hall, with rows of chairs in front of him and multiple electronic ticket machines near the door and corners of the hall, as well as people behind glass booths, who were currently in conversation with a single person each. Just above the central booth, a massive electronic display was displaying the number 513 and while it changed to 514, Soren took a ticket from the nearest machine and sat down towards the nearest available chair, while waiting for the number on the display to change to 521, the same number on his own ticket.
"Let's hope this doesn't take too long..." Soren commented nervously, as his eyes were glued to the number display.