Benjamin carefully stepped out of the capsule, trying to ignore the pain in his arm that he felt when he used it to support his body as he did so, before swiftly getting himself ready for the 'guests' that would be coming by taking a shower, dressing up, and helping Benjamin and Sophia get their rooms ready for the capsules.
'Getting their rooms ready' really just meant cleaning up a bit and clearing up space against the wall so that the capsule could be installed there. After this was done, Benjamin chose to eat a bit of lunch with his family, which Benji and Sophia promised to prepare.
"So what are you two making?" Benjamin asked as he sat down at the kitchen counter, watching the two teenagers work. "Hm? Oh, we're just making some pasta." Benji answered swiftly, moving to the side so that Benjamin could see the ball of dough that he was currently kneading, before the old man smiled lightly, looking over at Sophia who was standing in front of a pot.
"And I'm guessing you're making the sauce, then?" He asked, and Sophia nodded her head as she smiled at her grandfather. "Yup! Just a simple Bolognese, thoughâŠ" She explained as she scratched the back of her head, before turning back to the pot where she was browning ground beef at the moment, at least judging from the smell and sound of it.
"That's fine for lunch, right?" Benji asked with a laugh, and Benjamin chuckled back as he nodded his head. "Of course it is, don't worry." He answered his grandson before he noticed his phone giving off a light ringing sound, more specifically the ringtone that Benjamin set for Samuel's calls or texts.
Slowly, Benjamin stood up and made his way over to his phone that he laid down on the small table next to his armchair, taking that chance to sit before reading the text. Once he perused the content of the message, he began to chuckle lightly and looked over to his grandchildren working in the kitchen. "Better hurry it up, you two! The capsules will be here in an hour!" He told them, before both of them paused doing anything at all for a second, and then continued working faster than before as if in a rush.
With a soft laugh, Benjamin then leaned back in his armchair and turned on the TV, where he immediately saw a small message in the corner recommending a new channel, titled 'World of Magic.' Surprised at the advertisement, Benjamin of course quickly switched the channel, seeing a quite familiar face currently being interviewed by a reporter.
"You mentioned before that Prime Industries had quite a few large-scale plans for the game that would even interact with the real world, is that correct? Could you give us a few examples?" The reporter asked, and Samuel immediately nodded his head.
"Yes, that is correct. I think the first big thing would be the Money-Exchange system. In every in-game town, there is a 'Finance Guild' that lets people store large amounts of their money safely." He explained, surprising Benjamin with something that he didn't know about, which was quite weird to him now that he thought about it before Samuel continued. "And that's where the Money-Exchange system comes in. Once you make an account at the 'Finance Guild,' you will be opening an account with a digital bank. But that account isn't only accessible from within the game, but also from outside, directly through your browser. You can transfer any amount of real money into that account, and it will be changed to the currency that you can use within the game. You can also transfer the coin in your game account into your actual bank account as real money." Samuel explained to the reporter, who already knew about this judging from her reaction, or instead horribly faked response to the news. It made sense though, this was all most likely supposed to be a teaser for the game, and this was probably also a Prime Industries â run TV Channel, so hyping it up would be the most logical decision to make.
"That means you could turn the game into your actual job? Isn't that amazing?" The reporter asked with fake surprise, and Samuel nodded his head with a laugh. "Technically yes, I guess so. But with every type of currency, especially crypto-currency like this is, fluctuation in exchange rates is a major issue to be aware of. Current exchange rates are not fixed and constantly fluctuate, and due to this being the case, we will be setting a small limiter to the maximum amount of money that can be exchanged for coins and vice-versa for a while. That limiter is slowly going to increase over time until there isn't one anymore; this is to ensure that the game currency can gain stability." Samuel explained, giving the viewers as much information as possible, before the reporter moved on to the next topic.
"That is quite interesting, thank you for telling us about that, Samuel. Now, a lot of people viewed the Trailer to the game, so much that it instantly became one of the most-viewed internet videos in the world currently. So obviously, a lot of people began speculating about a few things. And one of the biggest speculations would be who the five people that the Trailer focused on are. Can you tell us a bit about that as well?" The reporter inquired before Samuel nodded his head quite thoughtfully.
"Yes, I'm glad you brought that up. The five people, known as the 'Originals' that were introduced in the trailer are not NPCs or Non-Players Characters for the non-gaming audience. They are real people. Some of you may recognize one of them, it's Nataly Klein. Yes, yes, the "Nataly Klein." But just like anyone else, she wants to play and enjoy the game like anyone else does, so it would be appreciated if people didn't swarm her if they happen to see her.
On top of that, Nataly gave me specific permission to disclose the fact that she plays the game and also her character's identity. I want everyone to respect the fact that not everyone else is like that, so all of the other 'Originals' will stay anonymous in who they are outside of the game, but I can assure you that they are immensely talented people in their fields of specialization. That's all I can say about them at the moment." Samuel answered, which seemed to bring the interview to a close.
The camera faded to black, and then something else that Benjamin knew about started playing on the TV, the trailer to the game. And just before it hit off, it announced a few schedules up by the side, giving information on some of the programs that would start by next Wednesday concerning content from inside the game.
Since the people that would enter the game in the next phase were all supposed to be entertainers, it did make sense. They probably placed someone in-game and told them to film everything somehow, so that they could work on the program in there.
From then on, Benjamin skipped through the channels after watching the trailer once more, only for the fun of it, and ended up watching an episode of a show he probably watched 100 times already, only because it always ran on the TV whenever he turned it on.
And about half an hour after Benjamin sat down, Benji called his father as well as his siblings and sat down on the living room couch with a plate of Spaghetti Bolognese, handing another one to his grandfather and placing another two down on the table for Sean and Katy, while Sophia had her and Tony's plates.
"Bon Appetit," Benji said in a horrible impression of an Italian accent before everyone thanked him and Sophia for cooking and then began to eat.
Shortly after they finished, with perfect timing, the doorbell rang. Immediately, Benji jumped up and looked out the window to see a truck from Prime Industries standing outside. "It's here!" He yelled out excitedly, sprinting to the door. Although in the time it took for Benji to look out the window, Benjamin already made his way there and opened it before Benji could.
When the door opened, a deliveryman smiled at Benjamin. "Hello sir, are you Benjamin Theodore Joyce?" He asked, and Benjamin nodded his head and took his ID out of his wallet so that he could confirm his identity on the small card-reader terminal the delivery man was holding. "Alright, everything checks out. We have a delivery for two Prime Industrie Digital Immersion Capsules for you, is that right?" He asked, and Benjamin nodded his head once more.
"Yes, that's right. Here, I'll show you where the capsules should be installed." Benjamin explained before stepping to the side so that the Deliveryman could come in, as the old man made his way to Benji's room first since it was closer. "One of them here in that cleared-out corner." He said, before continuing his sentence a few rooms further into the house, "And the other one here in that cleared-out corner." He explained, and the Deliveryman quickly checked a few things like what kind of power access was available, before nodding his head.
"Alright, thank you, Sir. We will set everything up for you then. It's going to take an hour or two though." He warned, and Benjamin nodded his head understandingly. "Of course, take your time, young man." Benjamin chuckled as he ran his fingers through his beard before the Deliveryman smiled back at him and made his way outside to collect his colleagues, who had already started getting everything out of their truck.
For a little while, it was quite a bit busier in the house once more, since the workers had to coordinate everything with each other across rooms, but since they were professionals. They managed to finish their work quickly without leaving much of a trace behind, and you could barely tell that they were ever there, besides of course the capsule itself.
While the workers were loading their tools and such back into the truck, the Deliveryman that Benjamin was talking to before explained how the capsules worked to both Sophia and Benji in a similar speech as the old man received when the DICAP was explained to him, except with another addition.
"Since there a multiple, three as I'm aware, capsules connected to this building's router, it is possible to create a 'Lobby' of sorts, similar to the Desktop, except that you can interact with the others currently in a capsule in the local system." The Deliveryman explained, before he turned over to the old man.
"And now I only need some signatures, Sir." He told Benjamin, who swiftly complied and signed the different documents confirming that the capsules arrived there, that they were correctly set up, and that no damage was done to the house in the process.
"Thank you! Have a nice day, and of course, a good time playing!" With a smile, the Deliveryman turned around and waved at them as he made his way back to the truck, where he hopped in and soon drove off.
"Alright guys, everything's set up, so go ahead and try it out." Benjamin tried to tell his grandchildren, but who were already in the process of lying down in the capsules to start them up. With a loud sigh, the old man turned to his son, who nodded his head back at him, confirming that he was alright with Benjamin joining them in that 'Local Lobby' thing and that he would take care of the dishes.
"Thanks, Tony." He said with a smile and made his way to his room, where he soon sat down inside of his capsule, starting up the new 'Lobby' option that appeared in the display. And so, Benjamin soon found himself inside of a pure white virtual space, where he could already see the figures of his grandchildren walking around.
