"Y'know, game. For a VR experience, you got quite the variety, I must say." I said, currently in a game called 'Archery in The Forest', having tested it for 5 minutes straight.

  This is my third game, and I'm surprisingly disappointed. For a game in the world of futuristic fantasy, this is ugly. It's not bad, it's ugly, like incredibly ugly, which translates to bad design and ugly gameplay. That's how I phrase it. The three game I've tried has not much gameplay value inside them nor do they have lore. I understand that they don't have lore inside them, focusing on the gameplay value. What I don't understand is just how ridiculously bad their gameplay is. In the last two games, I was told how to swing a sword and cast a 'Fireball'. Here, I was taught by the game about how to shoot arrows using my curvy wooden bow. It was fun for the early minutes of my gameplay in each of the games. Even more so when there were moving objects and hidden ones around the map. Sometimes it's a medallion hidden under a car trunk, another time it was a pendang above the tree. But there was only so much you can do. These games served one purpose: To be a place for people to train, practice. And just that, no entertainment whatsoever. It gets stale real quick once I get the hang of my weapons and swiftly takes down all the targets the games served for me. Other than that, nothing interesting.

  I leave the current game and back to my lobby, sitting on the floor, exhausted. Disappointment colors my features. Amazement, no longer stick to my heart. The graphics and other tidbits of realistic details existed, and I was appreciating every single one of it since my first game. By the time I entered the third game, I no longer agape at the sight of my own hands tugging at the hem of my avatar's coat responding to my touches.

  Swiping through the game catalogue, I noted the amount of games available here is decent for a virtual world. Their titles are... Well, not the most creative output of naming sense I've seen. They're straightforward, the names, and, frankly, very blunt towards what they're about. A child could easily guess which game is doing which without looking at the tags on the genre section. I wouldn't make this a matter if it weren't for literally almost every single one of these games to have the same naming sense. I know this world is a fantasy world, because of the mana presence, but seriously, what the f*ck? These names are ridiculously blunt. 'Sword Training in The Dark', 'Mana Concentration', 'Spear Techniques'. The longer I scroll down, the more of these 'games' I found, being less popular with pages rising more in numbers.

  Softly speaking, these are like the most basic of the basic-est VR experience I could get in my homeworld's VR. Genuinely? It's a f*cking dojo of the fantasy world. If the denizens of this world takes mana as a highly praised thing, then I have an offensive joke about it, made just very f*cking recent. I will shout this if someone piss me off in a game design debate. Not would, but will. Not if, but when.

  I really hope these... 'Games', have something more than what they seem to have.

  I went to the beginning of the game catalogue, choosing the most popular... 'Games', out of 60 pages worth of... 'Games'. For a moment, I stare at the title 40 centimeters away from my face.

  'Combat Training by GonkerBadonkers'.

  Simple name, short, and I think it's about combat training. I've seen some games with names similar to this. Seems like they're copying from here. Well then, this should be a good gem, especially considering the creator's username. Funny, yes.

  I press the green 'Play' button, transforming the environment into an open yard inside of a large castle, made of the medieval era. The skies being a broad daylight, causing me to look down momentarily, adjusting my eyes to the bright light of the sun. Once adjusted, I sweep my gaze around, spotting several points of interests and noting down plenty of the castle's architecture details. A renaissance-like design followed by Anglican principles. Walls made of stones, arches and column finely detailed, a large dark-blue dome completed with a cross on the pointy tip of it, windows built vertical like those seen in churches, torchlights, and crosses on several easy-to-see locations. The place screams 'christianity', a loud one. Symbolism is evident, it's carved everywhere in this castle. Quite the architecture, an interesting and amazingly made building, its exterior emitting an aura of gothicness, inviting me to awe at its grandeurism. The four spires on the outer walls symmetrical, created as if to greet humble guests and nobles from the outside and to fend off any hostility instilled towards the castle.

  There's nothing more that beats this castle other than the renowned church of Edensor. Because of a novel, I love that Anglican church.

  I looked at the points of interests. A workshop filled with various kinds of tools for craftmanship, a small hut that seems to look like an armory, several idle dummies standing on one end of the yard, and a wide wooden area that I assume to be an arena, housing a mechanical dummy that's also idle in the middle of it. I walk to the Armory, taking in the sight of various kinds of weapons, ranging from the medieval era weapons like a shortsword, to the recent addition of the newest gun of the future. Holy crap, is that a volatile Epi-Pen?!

  I grab hold onto the Epi-Pen-like gun. Its weight nonexistent, almost at the level of a toy gun. It only has a barrel fit for one injection, I think. Where is the mag release? I need to see the inside, game. Tracing along the handgrip, I sense a small button on the left side, small enough for me to dismiss it as a bolt. This is wonderfully small, convincing me that there is no way in hell that this thing is real in this world. How can you even make a bolt that small but feels as sturdy as a regular bolt? I don't know, and I'm not gonna question it.

  I took the Epi-Gun with me and bring it to the range. A blue translucent line appeared before me as I try to get closer to the dummies.

  'The minimum safe range of the gun is this line. Trespassing it will result in character being damaged. Are you sure you want to feel the pain? Proceed with caution.'

  Pardon me, but what the france? I am 70 meters away from the dummies and you're telling me that this, is the minimum safe range to not get self-damage? The f*ck? And what's with me being able to feel the character's pain? Who designed this mechanism, a masochist? Oh wait, the three games earlier also has this mechanism. Are the developers of those games also masochists? Makes sense. Hence the downgrading quality of their games, because of their brain being lobotomized upon being masochists.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  A few steps back, and I fold a knee to the ground while my other leg supports my stance, crouching. The index finger of mine pressing the mag release, letting me know that the barrel of the gun opens up, revealing a large orange caliber with a label 'Caution! Explosive!' donning in black. Quite a nice detail to notify me what kind of caliber I'm working with. I close the barrel and raise the barrel to a specific degree, putting pieces of where an arc for the most-definitely explosive bullet would land on the dummies. After a certain amount of calculation, I fired.

  *Thrung!*

  A grenade-launcher kind of noise wailed, a smoke trail following the caliber, making an arc on the sky.

  *Boom!*

  And it landed right in front of the middle dummy, hitting the other two dummies not far from the explosion with shrapnels and knocking them to the floor. The burst wind flew by me, hitting me also, full force, like a fan on level six power.

  That was the work of an Epi-Launcher, whom I renamed from Epi-Gun. I would say, this is very f*cking outlandish. A f*cking shot of it could match the power of two damn C4. Holy f*ck. This is terrifying. But also, this is addictively fun.

  For the next 40 minutes, I was busy testing various kinds of weapons I could get my hands on within the time I have left. An Assault Rifle, a Marksman, Handguns, even a dang RPG, I have tried firing. So, this is the reason why many people like guns. I'm down if this is what it feels like to shoot guns.

  Eventually, a pop-up materialise right on my face, notifying me that my time is almost up, 2 minutes left in the clock. I drop the Katashnivok down and... Freeze. How do I get out, again?

  As if answering my question, another pop-up appears, telling me to cut off my mana from the device. How the hell did the game knew this? Interesting. Quickly, I close my eyes, trying to find that line I connected to the device earlier. Once I found it, I cut the line with my inner self. How'd I do that? I don't know, not entirely. I just imagined a line coming out of my right hand and neared it to the sphere device that magically connected with it. Now, I did the opposite, cutting the line off and pulling it back into my hand. It felt weird, but new. I like it.

  Slowly, the dark void fades away, replaced with the aesthetic lights emitting on the room. I'm back to the real world. I got up and found myself dropping the futon off my body. The warmness of the futon now leaving my embrace. This entire experience has been... A road trip. A good one, that is.

  Glancing at the corner of the CP, I saw the current time, before the screen turned white and shut down. It's 11 in the night. Time to go home.

  Opening the door, a smile booms into my visage. Never have I felt this satisfied in my life after playing a game. I'm giving that game a five star soon.

  --------------------

  Dosh was feeling alright, most of the time. A laid-back boss like him wouldn't really be busy with work in nighttime like this. But somehow, for a particular reason, Jauren, his dad-jokes trash bin, wasn't up for the night shift, forcing him, the boss of Rollin' Cafe, to be the cashier for the night. He doesn't want to bother the morning shift employee of his, Leila, knowing really well that his call on the night would be a fatal mistake instead, if he were to call her. He doesn't know what caused Leila to be such temperamental young girl, but he better not be curious or else, she'd lash out the meanest insult the workers have ever seen in their work days. He was not too fazed by the insult, if not for the fact that the insult was skimmed around his body shape. And he can't even be mad towards her, because he teased her while she's in a bad mood.

  He was in the wrong there. But that was three weeks ago. Currently, the thirty one years old round man is stargazing, counting stars and throwing gazes to the crossing passersby. Boredom expressed across his face. Games don't seem to drive him joyful, unlike usual. Nowadays, games, to him, are just a waste of time. He'd much rather spending his time reading books or watch a movie, unlike his little past. If only he can find a century-age game that still has interesting mechanics, he'd play the hell of it. Because games in this era is... Just about training. Not much fun, lots of sweats. Multiplayers were here and there, but not much presented the word 'fun' in them. No matter if it's a mobile game, a CP game, web games, or even VR, nothing caught his attention. He did heard some reviews from his customer, about a certain WorldVirtual game named 'Combat Training', which they praised to be the most fun game they had ever played out of all the other games existed. He'll try that one for sure, but maybe after finding a partner. Not his workers, but a partner. A folk who loves games and just as passionate as he is when discussing about it.

  Which he happens to meet just an hour ago.

  A lean, rather pale man walked into his cafe, suited with a green leather coat and a casual attire beneath it, asking for a room to play. Looks pretty young. He was a fresh bird here. So, the boss personally introduced him his products and gave him a 10% first-buy discount. A rather generous discount, one could say. Hicks aren't easy to gather, and people often doesn't want to show their own Hicks. Which became a surprise to him when the man abruptly put 20 Hicks onto the counter. He took eight of them, and pushed the rest back to the owner. He could've just take all the money, even if the man only paid for an hour of gameplay on a Platinum cabin. But, professionalism gets the better of him. Resulting him to tell the man that an hour of platinum only cost eight Hicks with the discount accounted in. The excitement on the man's eyes when

  And now, the man is back, about to leave his cafe.

  "Aye, bro. How's the game?" Dosh asked, raising a high-five which the man accepted with his high-five.

  "Sexcellent."

  "See? Told you you'll like the room."

  "Yeah, yeah. I know. Appreciated the discount."

  "No problem, my guy."

  "Alright then, I'll take my leave. See ya sometime soon, cashier guy." The man said, waving a hand lightly while stepping away from the reception area.

  "Wait!" Dosh shouted, prompting the man to halt. "Can we switch numbers?"

  For a moment, the man looked confused. "Uhh... Yeah, sure." Dosh's hand reached out to him over the counter, giving what seems to be a business card.

  "Cool. Here's my number. I have a game that I want to try out, but there's no one I can ask to join me. Care to play with me?"

  "Eh, sure. I don't think I can for now, but I'll dial you when I can. Sounds cool?"

  "Of course!"

  With that, the man continued his strode, exiting the cafe.

  "Take care!" was the last word the pale man heard from him, disappearing out of his view after turning on a turn. Dosh doesn't know why or what had gotten him to ask the man to play with him. He doesn't need to answer his thoughts, however. But, he do noticed that the man seems fairly friendly, someone who'd actually accept a stranger offer, even if said stranger has ill intents. Nevertheless, Dosh have found someone to play a game with.

  Staring at the sky, he hoped. Hopefully, the man would come here and play with him. Maybe he can ask for a duel and fight him.

  A smug fades into his lips.

  The moon feels nice to look at tonight, huh?