Side Chapter: The Emporium Assembly

Michael, the owner of the Computer Emporium store, stepped into the meeting room with a gleam in his eye, clutching a presentation pamphlet. His four employees had to hear his exciting proposition and joined him in this endeavor.

As he strode inside a room with sleek, modern furnishings and a sizable conference table, his four employees were already seated and waited for him with confused faces. “Good morning, everyone,” he greeted with an opportunistic smile, putting the pamphlet on the stand. “I have brought you all here because I have recently made an amazing new discovery.”

Silence filled the room as the four employees looked at each other, obviously not expecting something good to come from this. It was until one of the male employees, Adam, opened his mouth and broke the peace.

“What is it, Michael?” he asked.

“Thank you, Adam. Um, as I mentioned earlier, I’ve come across something truly extraordinary.”

“It’s not another one of your unconventional findings, is it? Like that one time you discovered that girls play MMORPG and about the campaign to make more women play video games, right?” questioned the only female employee here.

“No, no! I can assure you it’s nothing like that, Lisa.” Michael cleared his throat and continued, “Well, brace yourselves to be surprised. Recently, I have been engrossed in this incredible game that will blow your mind. The thing is, it’s a fully immersive virtual reality game. I mean, pow!” He punctuated his statement with an exaggerated, surprised hand gesture.

However, none of his employees appeared convinced or impressed. Well, who would believe it when someone claimed that a fully immersive VR game was right in front of their eyes? Even Michael himself wouldn’t have believed it a week ago, which he had to admit.

“Oh, really? Tell me that it’s from the capsule that you called ‘console’ at that time,” quipped one of his employees, Mark.

“You mean the package from a week ago?” John, the last of the three male employees, questioned.

“What package?” Lisa inquired.

“Right, you’re not on shift that day, so you wouldn’t know.” Adam explained, “You see, there was this package that appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the store. When we opened it, there’s a sleek black capsule similar to the VR capsule you see in a lot of novels and comic books, if you’ve ever heard of them.”

“Guys, guys. Just hear me out first. This game is totally real, and I can vouch for it. Imagine a world where you can be anything you want and experience things beyond your wildest dreams — all from the comfort of your own home.”

As he spoke, Michael could see a mix of intrigue and skepticism on their faces. Despite coming from different walks of life, his employees were all gamers and tech wizards to some degree. They knew more than most about what it took for a game to be fully immersive. It wasn’t just a matter of labeling a random VR game with the “fully immersive” tag.

“Telling you guys without a single proof is like convincing a blind person that the Mona Lisa is a great piece of art, so let’s jump into it then. Shall we?” He turned the presentation pamphlet around and revealed the content of the first page to them.

On it was a screenshot of him in his virtual body, diligently digging a ground full of clay. He’d asked someone to take a photo of him and printed this out on a pamphlet for this purpose. At first, it didn’t look like it came from a game due to how realistic the surroundings were, appearing more like a photograph taken in real life.

“This is a photo I took inside the game. Now, I know what you might be thinking,” Michael said with a grin, “Isn’t this a random photo taken randomly somewhere? I’m gonna be honest with you: This was taken inside the game. That young, handsome teenager over there? That’s me.”

He paused for a moment to let the fact sink in before continuing, “The game that I want to introduce you to is called ‘Magus Academy Online.’ It’s a game about magic and adventure, where you start as an acolyte in an ancient and nearly-forgotten Magus academy. And it’s our task to restore the former glory of the academy. Setting aside the lore for a moment, the reason I bring this up is to invite you guys to play this game with me. Whoa!”

“So, you set up this meeting just to convince us to play a game? Michael, this is a bit…”

“Yeah, we all have busy lives; we can’t afford to waste our precious free time on just any game without any purpose, even if what you said is real.”

“Uhh, can’t say I have a different opinion here.”

“Agreed.”

All of his employees appeared to share the same sentiment. Indeed, wasting time to play a game wouldn’t be a wise idea, and it wasn’t like they could earn much or at all by playing it. To address this concern, Michael turned to the second page — it displayed a picture of the gaming capsule with an equation mark to the word “sleep.”

Hmph. They’ll be impressed by what I’ll tell them next, he thought.

“Fine. I get it that my words might not have convinced you yet. But worry not, I can prove to you guys in real-time that this game is the real deal. And, you won’t have to worry about wasting your time playing it because using the gaming capsule will be the same as sleeping. Boom!” As Michael revealed that exaggeratedly, he was filled with pride, almost as if he had personally designed the game.

Hearing that, his employees exchanged surprised glances at this bold claim, clearly unable to believe it. However, their initial skepticism gave way to a sense of adventure — they were gamers at heart too, after all. This was precisely why Michael had invited them in the first place. Luckily, his excitement was infectious.

“Seriously?!” John couldn’t hide his excitement.

“All right. Since you have put it this way… It’s not that I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt.” Even Adam, who was still skeptical, nodded his head. “But let’s give it a shot at least.”

“I’m in on this, too. I don’t have any game I’m committed to right now, so I can give this one a try,” Mark added.

“I mean, sleeping while gaming in a fully immersive world sounds like gaining extra hours of life, right?” Lisa joined in, nodding.

“Great! Since we’re on the same page, I’ll send you the link to where you can register for a qualification.” Michael flipped to the third page, revealing a QR code leading to the official website. “The game is currently in closed alpha, but don’t worry, your progress won’t be lost even when it’s fully released. As for the microtransactions or a marketplace system, the game developer has said that they’re actively working on it so that players can earn some pocket money through in-game transactions. But that’s still in development and there’s no certain guarantee for now.”

Of course, there was no way that his employees completely believed what he said. Nevertheless, the prospect of such a game being real seemed to excite them to no end; it was like something out of the sci-fi films and novels they had all enjoyed over the years!

“If you still don’t believe me, feel free to check out the official website of the game. I’ll even invite you to the Discord server I frequent, which is where this game originally took off.” With that, Michael turned to the last page of the presentation pamphlet, displaying a “Happy Cat” meme that read, “Happy gaming!”

After all of them had registered on the official website, Michael playfully said, “Aight, get back to work, you lazy bums,” and ushered them out of the room with a smile.

As his employees left the meeting room, they showed some level of newfound curiosity and anticipation. Michael had successfully piqued their interest in this intriguing game. But as for the timeline for when or whether they would get the qualification or not…

Only time would tell.

Note:

This happens between chapter 42 and 43.