January 11, 2032
Location: The United States of America
James hands trembled as he lifted the box out of the trunk of their car. He had the console. The most treasured game system out there, even more than the infamous NES and Atari. He HAD to make sure he didn't drop it, it was 3,000 dollars for crying out loud. But he had to get it inside quickly, in case any of his neighbors saw what he had. They would probably bug him all day long.
"Move! Move! Move!" He yelled, pushing past his family to the door.
"Hold up! Remember who bought that for you?" James slowly spoken father said.
"Yah, that's right ain't it. I'll set it up, just let me in." James said as he did a little dance in front on the locked door, flooded with excitement of the object he had in his hands. What seemed like hours later his dad finally got to the door and slowly opened the door to their house. James brushed past his dad and almost fell down the stairs, stumbling to the tv area. He quickly but carefully set the box in the floor and floated upstairs for the scissors. As he made his way back down he realized something: I don't even need a tv, its Artificial Reality. He slit open the heavenly cardboard box and out came the machine of his dreams. He brushed aside the packing peanuts and lifted the cold metal onto the couch beside him. The console was less than he expected. Not quality wise, but quantity. There was a thin but heavy charcoal helmet with an awkwardly shaped vizor that was just the right fit for him. On the side of the helmet was a latch where, by the looks of it, was where a tube could go that fed you. He heard a lot of stuff about this console earlier, just like every other kid, because the adds were everywhere. Wether you research it a lot or just see it in the E-Newspaper a few times, it was every kids dream to get the console.
"James. James! Hey, James!" His older sister yelled, tugging his arm and increasing in volume.
"Wa- oh, sorry." James woke back up from his day dream. His whole family was blankly starring at him. He had to get into the game fast, he wanted to be one of the first ones to log on. On the back of the helmet there seemed to be some sort of spine. It was long and bendable, and had these magnetic rectangles branching off of it.
"What are you waiting for! Put it on!" His sister anxiously said.
"Ya ya, I will. Just remember: when I put this on, you won't be able to see anything, only I will." He reminded them. They slowly walked away, and with their heads down they dragged their feet up the stairs. For an instant James felt bad, but he didn't really mind. They'll forget about it soon enough. He turned to the cold helmet, lifted it up, and slipped it on. The cushions on the helmet made his face tremble. All he had to say was "Power On" and so he did. The metal spine jolted on his back and latched on. It stung a little, but James didn't care, or feel it for long. The world went dark for a second, and James almost feared what was next. Then he saw a bright green glow overcome everything around him. He was laying down on ground like he was a second ago, but this time it was on a green tinted glass floor. He stood up and saw a large screen in from of him. He walked torwards it, and it moved away from him as he tried to near it. It was in perfect sinc with him, keeping a constant distance from him. A booming voice almost knocked him off his feet.
"Hello, and welcome to Vast! To start the game, please choose a name." The low mysterious voice echoed through the room. The room must have been massive, he could still hear the echo. Three bold white words appeared in the center of the screen: Enter Name and Confirm. He didn't know what name we wanted. He never really liked his actual name, so he didn't want to choose that one. He couldn't think, and what was seconds passing felt like minutes. There was a lone bead of sweat that slowly trickled down his entire body. He was never good at high pressure situations, especially if someone was watching him, but nobody was. Then an idea popped up on his head: Isaiah. He'd always liked that name, it was the name of his first goldfish.
