The Arcade Series

Terance P.O.V.

I looked unimpressed at the old black man infront of me, though he didn't really seem to care all that much. He lowered his hands all the same though. “I will be your guide for this little artificial world, how about we get started on some explanations?” He told me then waited expectantly for my answer, which came as a quick nod. “Yes. What exactly is going on?” I asked, letting a little of my internal turmoil out into my words. This boxy white room didn't seem to have any way out, and it was starting to become increasingly concerning.

“How much did Leonard tell you?” David asked me in return, causing me to put the pieces together and realize something important about what was happening instantly. That old shop owner must have helped kidnap me! He must have put some kind of poison on the mask that made me fall asleep and brought me here! Wherever here was…

Something of my thoughts must have slipped out into my expression however and David gave a sigh. “Clearly he didn't tell you anything of importance… Well, I suppose that is alright.” He said, seeming mildly disappointed in the old shop owner. “I suppose I should give you a basic explanation.” He said, then snapping his fingers and… causing a window to open in the wall? It was the only way I could describe what it was, but it was odd. It seemed to almost glow, and show a view of…

“What the hell?!” I exclaimed and jumped back from the window, looking at the sight before me. Through the window, there was a view of the Arcade. Specifically in front of the black chair that I had sat in before I was here. My unconscious body was sitting in it, with the mask still on its face and the old man watching intently.

I was entirely focused on the screen, watching my sleeping figure breathe for a second, before I felt a hand on my shoulder. The old man had walked around while I was distracted and put his hand on his shoulder, and was looking at me in understanding. “That is what is happening in the real world. What you are currently experiencing is a virtual reality, where your consciousness was taken too when you activated the Virtual Reality Chair. This is all a game.” He said seriously, then backing off for a moment and letting me absorb his words.

“But… H-How?!” I stuttered in absolute shock at his words, and not really understanding or even completely believing them. This felt real enough to me. The sort of magic that something like that would even use would be astronomical… then the memories of Isabela pouring over the arcade games started playing in my mind. ‘How do these things even work?!’ I heard in my mind, ‘This should be impossible! This is incredible!’ I recalled the words Isabella had said over even the less impressive arcade games. This is beyond even that. Beyond anything anyone had ever dared to dream could be possible…

Yet I believed that it was. I could see the truth of it with my own eyes, and I could even feel… something in my mind. A faint connection from my mind to my body, letting me know that this was all in my head and I could head back to reality when I wanted to.

The old guy, David, just let my panic fade away as I slowly came to terms with what was happening. Was he real? Or maybe he was just some kind of thing that this chair made? Anything was possible at this point… Anything.

The old man just smiled at my look of wonder and he started to approach me once again. “This room, the entire reality that you are experiencing, is part of the Hub.” He told me, now that I was able to listen and somewhat understand his words. “You are in your personal Spawn Point right now, and whenever you enter the Hub you will appear here.” he told me, gesturing around to the bare white room with a look of something bordering on reverence.

“Almost like a dungeon…” I muttered, thinking about how the dungeons' denizens and bosses always reappeared a while after they were killed.

David just gave a fractional nod and continued his speech. “Outside your Spawn Point, you can find the main part of the Hub. It is called the Lobby. How about we go and take a look?” The old man invited, which I nodded to in some confusion. Maybe there was a secret door? Maybe we would just teleport out?

David raised his fingers and gave a crisp snap that reverberated in the small room for a second before a section of the wall slid away to reveal a bright wooden door behind it. As the door revealed itself, David seemed to remember something and he stopped himself from walking to the door with a sigh. “I am sorry, I forgot to show you how to modify your Spawn Point. We should do that first, before we check out the sights. We wouldn't want you to be forced to have such a blank Spawn Point…” He told me, looking mildly annoyed at himself for a moment and gesturing to the room around us.

“It is important to know first that the Hub works around a system. Not the system that you know about from the real world, though I believe that you can access it just fine as well, but the Hub system.” He said, making me grow disbelieving once again. Another system? Only gods could…

My thoughts ground to a halt, at that train of thought. God, how could I be so stupid? It was so obvious! That old shop was clearly not normal, incredible feats of magic lined the walls for god's sake. That old man was a god in disguise… he must be! It is the only thing that makes sense. The Artifacts, the Arcade games, then this whole other reality…

But he seemed so human… almost like how my grandfather was before he got killed…

I gave a sigh at my thoughts. The possibility of Leonard being a god aside, nothing much changed even if I did believe it. He seemed more than ok to be treated like a normal man, so there is no point in doing anything else.

Then the words of David broke me out of my thoughts, as he said to me “The system of the Hub is for several different things, from customizing your Spawn Point, to recording the score of the Lobby Games that you play.”

I nodded along dully, taking in his words without comment and suddenly feeling rather small.

“To call up the system menu, you just need to say the word menu. You can just open it up now, and I can show you how it looks.” He instructed simply and caused me to do as he asked and I watched as an odd system screen opened in the air before my eyes. It was very similar to the actual system screen, with the blue rectangle and white words inside, but it seemed oddly substantial and it had a box of a black material around the border and I suspected that it went all the way around the back as well.

Inside the screen, there were several different tabs with clear labeling.

Main Menu

Spawn Point

Score Sheet

Avatar

Game Maker

Exit Hub

Fast Travel

On the system screen, there was no indication to what these tabs did, but I looked to David who was walking around to look at the system screen with me. “Good.” He said, looking the system screen up and down with a critical eye, pointing to the first tab ‘Spawn Point’. “In that screen,” David started to explain, “You will get the option to customize your Spawn Point. I will show you how to use it in a minute.”

David pointed at the next tab, labeled Score Sheet “This tab is akin to your status from the real world, just this one has some details that you enter and records the score of a game that you play in the Hub.” he explained, shifting his finger to the third tab that reads Avatar after he explained it.

“This tab… It's a bit special. Basically, because while you are mentally here, but not physically here, the system gives you an Avatar that is exactly the same as your physical body. But with this tab, you can change some aspects of your Avatar, though it is extremely limited in that way for your own sake, and you can get some wearable items from the game that you can equip to your avatar.” David tried to explain, but I was confused on that one on a few different points. I stayed silent though, so David moved onto the next tab, Game Maker.

“This tab is another rather special one, though for mostly different reasons.” David started, gesturing to the Game Maker tab. “In this tab, you have access to a simple simulator design program. The simulator could in theory let the User create any function or storyline as they want, but they need to learn how to use this system to an advanced level before they can. There are several basic and advanced classes to learn how to make a game using this programming method, but they are not free unlike the rest of the Hub. The games that are made are automatically made entrances in the Lobby for other Users to play.” He finished his vague, yet somehow specific, explanation.

That was quite the system… ‘I wonder how exactly the simulator works…’ I thought to myself before just mentally shrugging at myself. ‘I am not going to be paying for classes on how to make games, and it is probably boring as hell anyway…’ I told myself, though I was still curious at what could be made.

“As for the last two tabs,” David said, bringing my attention back to the odd system screen, “They are simple. Exit Hub wakes the User back up, and Fast Travel is a tab with a map that allows the User to instantly travel to a selected location within the Lobby.” He said, more casual than with the other four tabs and gave a nod, then turned to me as if inviting me to ask any questions.

“Ok.” I say, my mind not supplying any questions that I could ask… Though my mind is still buzzing with all too many. Just asking things like ‘Is Leonard a god’ or ‘Are you a god’ would be… Well uncomfortable.

David just gave a quick nod and then gestured to the Spawn Point tab. “Then I can show you how the Spawn Point tab works.” He said and I proceeded to press the tab, getting ready for learning how this new world's system works.

A full hour later, my body moved and I pushed off the VR headset with a deeply troubled, yet wondering and impressed look on my face and my head full of buzzing information and excitement. This was… I don't even know what this was… Important is an understatement.

I looked around the Arcade quickly, looking for my two friends quickly. It wasn't hard, with the incredible Arcade so empty, but it still took a second. Gary and Isabela were close together, Gary playing an axe throwing game, and Isabela playing an Arcade game called ‘Space Invaders’ whatever that was. I got up quickly, though unsteadily from the amount of time I spent sitting in the VR chair, and I walked over to Gary and Isabela. Then I stopped as I realized that I forgot to collect my tickets from the Lobby games and I spun around and collected them from the rectangular hole that I could see the string of tickets from.

Then I turned around and went over to Gary and Isabela, who just happened to be finishing their own games as I approached.

“How many tickets did you two get?” I asked, holding up my own rather large amount from the Lobby games in the Hub and looking down at their own piles close to them. If I were to guess, I would put their tickets combined at around… fifty? Maybe over fifty if we were lucky, but it's hard to tell while they are a pile on the ground. Add that on top of my own eighty… we have a lot of tickets.

Gary and Isabela turned around to me, both looking like they had fun with huge grins on my face as they did. “I got around fifty, and Isabela got thirty.” Gary supplied, with a slight grin to Isabela as she looked embarrassed at her low score, but she looked excited still. “Great!” I exclaimed as I mentally added up our tickets. “So we got a total of one hundred and forty tickets with mine.” I say with a grin, but causing Isabela to turn to me in shock and yelp out “You got eighty tickets?!” and then turn to Gary with a clear ‘HA! He did better than you!’ face.

I just rolled my eyes at her antics and I started talking once more, my sense of anxiousness growing as my brain kept firing off thoughts. “Ok, this is good news. If I remember correctly… then the tier two artifacts are two hundred tickets, so with a forty percent discount… We can get one. Or two tier ones…” I say, doing the mental math quickly and looking at my two party members. “I think that two tier ones would be best.” I say quickly, “I have an artifact, and you two don't yet, so it's only fair.” I conclude my thoughts with a nod.

Gary and Isabela seemed a little cautious though, and looked between each other. “I think we should go cash in now, I think we should talk to the Guild Master as soon as we can.” I assert with a look of impatience. “The Guild Master?” Gary said, looking shocked at my proclamation and for good reason. While he was definitely not a bad guy, he was definitely not someone that talks to anyone without good reason. I could see their confusion, but I just nodded. This store is more than what it seemed, and we could use every advantage that we could get.

“Yes, now we need to hurry.” I say, a little nervous and rushing my words a little. Gary and Isabela didn't comment about that, and they seemed to have an idea of how important this could be, Isabela in particular as she mentioned multiple times that Artifacts are hard to come by.

“I think that we could get the two tier ones, if you think so too.” Gary hedged, and looked to Isabela for the deciding vote, despite us not really voting. “Um…” Isabela said, thinking hard. “A Tier two Artifact could be a major power increase… but I think that you are right. Let's just get two.” She said eventually, and she leaned down, gathering up her tickets.

We all headed to the counter, and I looked for the old man to get us some Artifacts…