Zach saw two familiar faces waving at him from the crowd. They were Kayden and Shay.
After seeing them, Zach immediately rushed to them and hugged them both at once with a smile on his face.
“When did you guys arrive here? You should have told me,” Zach uttered with a grin.
“We ascended last night in the town nearly 5 hours from here. Then we immediately made our way here at the capital as you have asked us to,” Kayden replied.
Zach stayed in touch with Shay and Kayden even after he ascended. He had told them to meet him at the capital, and that’s the first thing they did after ascending.
Kayden and Shay were reported to the town, which was obliterated by the Overload.
Fortunately, they left before the Overload annihilated it. Had they been ten minutes late, they would have died without Zach ever knowing the cause of their death.
“Have you guys booked a room yet?” Zach asked and said, “It’s hard to get an empty room here. We were lucky that we got one.”
“Wait a minute…” Shay raised his brows and asked with a curious look on his face: “What do you mean by ‘we’?”
“Of course, it’s the healer girl,” Kayden replied to Shay. “What was her name again…”
“Aurora,” Zach answered.
“Wait… so are you guys staying in the same room?!” Shay asked with a more curious look on his face.
“Yeah?”
“Wow. Tell me everything in detail,” Shay insisted.
“What do you mean? We are just staying in the same room to save money. Nothing is going on between us,” Zach asserted.
Shay clicked his tongue and said, “I expected more from you, Zach. Grow some balls and woo her.”
Zach furrowed his brows and uttered, “Mind your language, Shay. How many times do I have to remind you and you and I, we both have different mentalities.”
“Relax. Chill bro. Why do you always get upset whenever it’s something related to relationships?” Shay asked with a puzzled look on his face.
“Anyway.” Zach turned to Kayden and asked, “Have you guys eaten breakfast yet?”
“Nope. We have been standing in the line for like 20 minutes now, but the tables are getting booked. And they are prioritizing the guests at the inn,” Kayden replied.
“I have an empty table booked. Come.” Zach pointed his finger at the table and said, “It’s enough for four people.”
Zach, Kayden, and Shay went to the table and ordered the food. Zach had already ordered for himself and Aurora, so his order was in the queue. Now, they all were waiting for the order to arrive.
In the meantime, Zach messaged Aurora to come downstairs when she woke up.
Shay broke the silence and said, “We even checked on the other nearby inns, and they all are booked.”
“I guess we will be sleeping on the streets for some days,” Kayden scoffed.
“Actually… we are checking out tonight, so you can get our room. I will talk to the receptionist and sort things out,” Zach reassured.
“Wait… you are already ascending to the upper realm?!” Shay and Kayden asked with surprised looks on their faces.
“I wish.” Zach shrugged his shoulders and said, “Aurora has bought a house, so I am moving in with her.”
Kayden raised his brows and asked, “Are you sure nothing is going on between you two? Because it looks like something is definitely up. I mean, the Zach I knew would never live together with a girl.”
Zach sighed and uttered, “What, are you two switching roles now?”
“Say, in this game, the smallest house has the capacity of four players to live in at the same time.” Shay placed his hand on Kayden’s shoulder and said, “How about Kayden and I also join you two?”
After thinking for a while, Zach shrugged his shoulders and replied, “It’s honestly not my say to answer that. She owns the house, so you have got to ask her.”
“Shay…” Kayden nudged his elbow to Shay and shook his head at him.
“I know, I know.” Shay looked at Zach and said, “I was kidding about that. We have no intention to invade your lovenest.”
After some minutes of talking, Zach asked, “So, what level are you guys on now?”
“I am 13,” Kayden replied.
“I am 13 too,” Shay replied.
“What are you guys planning to do today?”
“Nothing, to be honest. I want to look around the capital and enjoy this beautiful world,” Kayden replied.
“I am thinking of going to the brothel,” Shay replied.
Zach knitted his brows with a confused look on his face and asked, “There are brothels in this game?”
“Not just this. Almost all popular VR games have brothels; of course, the age restriction is also a thing, so minors are not allowed to use them,” Shay explained.
“Do you want to come?” Shay asked Zach.
“Nope.”
Shay then turned to Kayden and asked, “What about you, Kayden?”
“You already know I have a fiance now,” Kayden replied.
“But it’s a game. So technically, it’s not cheating, you know? And you are not going to have sex with a real girl or player; it’s an NPC AI.”
“Still, my answer is no.”
“NPC AI?” Zach’s interest piqued, not in the brothels, but in the term.
“Basically, the brothels in the game have features to create and fully customize an avatar of the girl you want to have sex with. You can choose the color of their eyes, hair. You can choose their body features. You can even select what type of personality and voice you want from that avatar,” Shay explained.
“Now, here is a question for you, Zach. What do you think will happen if a player can create a sex doll as per his choice?”
“They will probably model it after someone they know or have a crush on,” Zach replied.
“Exactly! And that’s why, all the VR games started adding this feature. However, they soon made it a pay-to-use feature and started charging real-world money.”
“That’s… I don’t know what to say…” Zach sighed.
“That’s not it. Now comes the most interesting part,” Shay asserted.
‘What can be more interesting than that?’ Zach thought to himself.
“You see, there is one tech company which has signed an exclusive deal with all the games. So this is how it works: A player creates an avatar to have sex, but of course, the player needs to pay to create the avatar. So after creating the avatar and having sex with it once, the player gets an option to order a premium class sex doll in the real world. That tech company creates them and delivers them to the players. Of course, they need to pay for it too.”
“That’s…” Zach was speechless.
“And can you guess what the name of the tech company is?” Shay asked Zach.
“How would I know?” Zach scoffed.
“It’s a co-brand of Russel industries,” Shay answered.
“Wait…” Zach turned his gaze to Kayden and said, “Your family runs it?”
Kayden shrugged his shoulders and uttered, “I had the same reaction as you when I found out about it.”
“Now, here the misuse of the brothels,” Shay continued, “First is, of course, cheating couples. The second is… well, creating an avatar based on real-life models. And the third is— which is not a problem anymore— creating an avatar based on the celebrities.”
“Right… many players would do that…” Zach uttered while stuttering.
“But the games introduced a tracking system where whenever a player-created an avatar based on the celebrities, they would be banned from all the VR games for three months and penalized 250000$.”
“I can see a major backlash,” Zach scoffed.
“That’s the surprising part. No one did anything,” Shay chuckled.
“What do you mean?” Zach asked with a puzzled look on his face.
“The players found a loop. Since they weren’t allowed to create exact replicas of the celebrities, they simply changed a few things; like eyes or hair color, size of breasts, and such.”
“Wow!” Zach face-palmed himself and muttered, “What a world I live in.”
“You know…” Shay lowered his voice and whispered, “I once created an avatar based on my sister. It was the best virtual sex of my life. I wanted to order a real sex doll, but if my parents or sister had caught me, I would be homeless by now.”
“You probably deserve to be kicked out from your house, dude,” Kayden commented.
“Oh?” Shay smirked at Kayden and said, “So it’s okay when you are dating your sister?”
“Step! She is my step-sister!” Kayden whispered violently.
“Did you know that whenever Zach and I came over to your house for our school projects or to play games, Misha— your step-sister, always flirted with Zach.”
Kayden immediately glared at Zach and said, “Zach, what is this about?”
“Oh, come on, Kayden. You know I treat Misha as my sister.” Zach stated. “And you know how touchy Misha gets sometimes.”
“Right…” Kayden glanced at Shay and found him laughing.
Kayden then smirked and said, “Did you know that your sister Siesta always flirts with Zach whenever he is around?”
“Heh!” Shay chuckled and said, “You can’t use my own trick on me.”
“I am not. I am telling the truth. In fact, I have seen Zach and Siesta together outside a couple of times.”
Shay glanced at Zach from the corner of his and uttered, “Zach? Is Kayden telling the truth?”
Zach raised his hands in the air as though he was trying to surrender, and said, “He is telling the truth, but nothing is going on between us. You know I never lie.”
Shay sighed and said, “I believe you. But it’s not like I care even if something is going on between you two. We are not that close anyway, and we rarely talk.”
After a few minutes, Aurora came downstairs and sat beside Zach.
Aurora talked with Kayden and Zach but ignored Shay.
After a few minutes, their order arrived, and they ate breakfast together.
****
Total players in the game 411322.
0 new players logged in.
369 players died.
====
[Weekly Quest.]
«300 power stones or 100 Golden tickets – 1 chapter.»
«500 power stones or 200 Golden tickets – 2 chapters.»
===
Author’s Note- This was a long chapter, and it was focused on the characters’ backgrounds. I wanted to explain some things in the way, so I explained them via character interactions.
I am considering writing and posting two chapters a day for Gods’ Impact, but it’s going to take a toll on me. However, I will give my best and try hard, so I hope you can give your best support too.
Also, the character you were all (probably) waiting for will be introduced in a couple of chapters. Any guesses who?