I entered the room and locked the door by pushing a button under the knob, prompting its knob to glow a red line highlight. So that's the use, screaming 'occupied' to the person outside. I land my cheeks to the soft soft very soft futon that I hope is made in Japan. It's disgustingly cushy. I don't mean it in any weird or bad way, but good god, this does not feel like a regular futon. It's way softer and the silk seems kindler when I touched it. What the hell is kindler even means, Fern? Whatever.

  I move my attention away from this heavenly futon and scrambling my eyes to the monitor and below the table, looking for the PC case. None. I found none. Weird. My fingers slides on the edge curve of the monitor, sensing for any indicator or buttons. This might be an all-in-one PC. A computer that is built within the display of the PC. It tends to have underperforming performance, however. So, if this turns out to be that, I'm going to start putting some suspicion.

  My face shines into joy once I found a finger-sized button that seems to be the power button. And nudging it, I did, turning the monitor on. It is an all-in-one PC! I'm starting to regret this.

  Imagine my face when I discover that... Wowie, the all-in-one PC boots up in almost no time, at all! We're talking 2 seconds booting up process here. The BIOS only appearing as a flicker before the loading screen of the OS shows up, saying 'Welcome, JH43UI2'. Damn. I'm starting to like the future now.

  I grab hold onto the mouse and hovers the cursor to what I can assume as the browser of this world, named Surfen. An icon of a black stickman figure standing atop a hoverboard, its background a city colored gray while itself is black. Double-clicking it pops in a window of the app, greeting me with a large 'Surfen' in the middle of the window, residing above the search bar. Quite the nice theme, they have. A normal, dark-themed background. Classic, monochrome. I like it. Feels clean.

  As I'm about to type in a word, a notification fades in from the bottom of my screen. A message? I never shared my number, though.

  Clicking it takes me to another window that pops up, where I see words like 'Users' and 'Staff'. One small red ball plastered on the tab 'Staff', leading me to click on it and showing me a message.

  'Yo, bro. Just a quick question. What're you gonna do on the CP?'

  From the tone, I can tell it's the cashier messaging me. And the f*ck is a CP? Child Predator?! Suddenly, the keyboard clacks soft and satisfyingly, keys being pressed in a quick motion.

  'Heck is that.'

  'Nice old joke. Old enough to get me to bang your mo-'

  'Bro what.'

  I feel like I need to get to the reception area again. Meh, nevermind. Too much movement to do that. Anyways, I continue reading his messages.

  'Nothing. But hey, srsly, what are you doing in that CP?'

  'You mean, the thing I am using now?

  'Yeah? Closed Program. What for?'

  'Heck you mean what for? To watch videos and or something, of course!'

  'You know you can do that in FB, right?'

  FB? Oh wait, he said that earlier. But, what does it means, though?'

  'What's that.'

  'Bro are you serious right now'

  'Think I don't?'

  'FeedBack, FeedBack! It's where you play games! And experience it like it's real life!'

  His words got me to cough. I'm sorry, virtual reality? Then you should've said that first!

  Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  'Should've told me that.'

  'Thought you knew, bro.'

  'Sure sure. Anyways, where's the FB?'

  'On the table near the headset. Okay, hang on a second. How the hell do you not know FB?'

  'It's eh... Complicated.'

  'Just touch it and get your mana flowing to it.'

  Right... I'm in a modernized fantasy world then. Crap. So, time to use the FB. After I'm done asking, of course.

  'Thx man. But uh, how did you know I'm using the CP?'

  'Your room's CP bar turned green on my screen. That enough?'

  'Oh, well nevermind.'

  'I don't peep people's business, mind you.'

  'Huh, shocking.'

  'I've seen enough of what they do in my business. I don't want to remember it.'

  And swiftly, I close the message app. Things gone dark too fast, I do not want to know the continuation of it.

  I put down the mouse and track my eyes to the circle-shaped object. The FB, short-term for FeedBack. A device that could bring people to a virtual space, similar to my world's VR headset. Though, I wonder, what's the difference between this and that? Might as well find out.

  I tried touching the surface of it, fiddling on all its sides. I can't seem to locate its power button, or any activation kind of button. Could it be underneath it? Or am I supposed to put it in my head, like a VR headset?

  Turns out, that was not needed. As I swipe my hands back to the mouse, about to message the cashier guy, the device flares to life without warning, causing me to jump in my place few centimeters high. I hope everyone's too busy to notice that. There were words emerging from transparency on its flat surface. 'Power on. Mana detected. Requiring nerve connection. Please put your finger on the fingerprint scanner.' Out of nowhere, a fingerprint model appeared above the texts. I didn't see it coming, like it somehow materialize before my eyes can caught it. Damn, this is some good crap.

  I stick my thumb onto the scanner, laser-like animation plays in the process, making me feel a little bit giddy. This is the first time I encounter a fingerprint scanner. Not that I never see one, but being the one to do the scanning gives me some unexplainable happiness that words cannot express, like a childhood dream.

  'Scan completed. Nerve connected successfully. Welcome, moveBuster. Please find a comfortable space and lie down in order to enter WorldVirtual.'

  The f*ck? Is this this guy's username? Busting moves? I'd prefer he use this as a username in a black-orange website rather than the virtual world. But eh, guess it's decent. I follow the instruction and have myself under the white blanket whilst enjoying the skin-friendly soft of the pillow. Some kind of sloth power inside of my body kicks in, persuading me to brace the softiness of the futon and doze off. I reject the offer, kindly, obviously. I have a world to explore. What would the starting area looks like? Will there be things to interact with? How well is the ray-tracing there?

  Abruptly, in the middle of my mind-wandering adventure of thinking what the VR experience I will get, my vision goes dark, my surrounding an empty void. Uh oh. Worry creeps into my deep-in-slumber mind. Not long though, as a sparkling orb slowly came into view, its cosmetic effect alluring me to get my forehand close to it. The text 'Start' elevates from its inside and rests besides it. Touching it removes the orb and clears the darkness from my sight, taking me to a place of abstraction. An island, more or less. A piece of land with a half-built two-floor house and several floras in it, the house being designed in a way that felt like it was left like that intentionally. The skybox a splendid view of space, stars and constellations forming all around, alongside solar systems in various sizes. Wonderful. Gives me vibe of serenity. Except when I caught a fine detail of the skybox moving in real-time, now this is just overdone serenity. I can tell, if I'm busy or wants to chill out, I'd be seeing myself stargazing here, counting stars and doing things alike.

  I took a step forward, halting so sudden afterwards. The realistic feeling of wooden floors on my barefoot has strands of my hair tensing. Goodness. In the name of game developing, what in Sinux amazement is this experience?! Hurriedly, I move to the mirror attached to a wall accompanied by several floating shelves decorated with figurines, plants, and other stuff. I see my reflection, a gremlin donning a chef attire. Tracing the mirror with my index finger bring me to a deep conclusion: This isn't just virtual space translating real-life movements into virtual movements, this is a one-to-one real-life body movements. It's like, I'm not controlling a character using my body. I became the character. What the character feels, I sense. What the character sees, I gaze. What the character hears, I listen.

  I drop my body down to a prone, sticking my face to the floor. Smells like fresh wood, feels like it too. This is just the start, and I'm already marveling every single ounce of this experience and the FB. Just what kind of tech did the scientists of today created? I can't wait to see how immersive I'll be when playing games!

  Standing up, I do a flick. A muscle-memory movement that somehow forward me to do so, making me ponder just how many times did this guy used FB. A screen fades out of thin air, hologram style. There were many things to check out. Worlds, settings, friend lists, etc etc. Guess I should spare a few minutes checking everything out then.

  The games can wait. I need to change my avatar first and set some things to my preference.