As I was just about done debugging the code, Maria Claus, from the Mobile department, ran up to me in a hurry, and had worrying face like the world is about to end.

What have you done this time Kyle...

"Mr. Clay! The MA team is having problems with their inventory system again! Nothing is working! And the deadline is tomorrow!"

Mobile Adventure, or MA for short, is a mobile fantasy game that is about swords & magic. I was once asked to take the lead in that game as their main programmer, but I declined. I basically told them that I'm not really suited for it, since I wouldn't enjoy making a game I have no interest for. And the one who asked me, was of course, Maria. She got pretty sad about it, but she understood why. I'm a bit of a military nerd, or "otaku" as my mother would say. I think she said she is a "mangaka", I think? She, like my father, are both "otakus". Quite hard to imagine how my father even managed to get married in the first place. The world is a big place, and also really weird...

Ah, right, I almost forgot. Can't be all nostalgic now.

As I was contemplating on what to do, I asked Maria a simple question.

"Did Kyle pull the changes I made from revision #5568? I even made the changes easy to understand with my comments."

"N-No... Kyle didn't..."

I guess Kyle didn't read the PM I sent him... Thank god I made a backup plan in case this happened.

As I heaved a sigh, I grabbed the USB stick that was on my desk, and gave it to Maria.

"Maria, here. This contains all the changes I have made. Make sure to give it to Kyle, okay?"

I tried my best to sound reassuring. I mean, Maria did nothing wrong, and It's not her fault. I should probably take the blame, partly anyway. Since I should have sent another PM to Kyle, or maybe spam his god darn inbox.

"T-Thank you Mr.Clay!"

Said Maria, trying her hardest not to blush, and ran quickly as she could back to Kyle to give him the USB that contains all the required data. I could only heave a sigh, and smile of adorable Maria was just then.

Maria always came to me when there was a problem in her department, and I could understand why at times, as I got promoted a few years back because of the success on the game I was leading. And to be honest, I'm not cut out for it, being a team leader and all. But my team put their faith in me, so I did my utmost best to not fail them.

But now that I think about it, Maria has always been there for me. On every break, she would come and talk to me, or at least, tried to. She was really timid back then, she even had a hard time to say good morning. Back then I was worried she was afraid of me, since I looked pretty scary.

Or at least, I think so. I mean, sure I do have a mean looking face that doesn't show much expression. I even remember when Kyle, who interviewed me back then, kept calling me "sir" and got scared of every motion I did. I felt pretty bad about it though, so I gave him some sweets.

Why sweets you ask? Because he is a massive fan of sweets, myself included. Once he got to know me better, he was all smiles, but still gets scared if I pop out from a corner, or when I walk into the break room without anyone even noticing, for some strange reason. I have to say, it was pretty funny.

Ah! The time! It's already 8:00 PM!

As I quickly finished my work, I committed the changes I made and told the rest of my team that we are done for today.

"Thank you as always, Clay!"

"Eh?! already? Wasn't it lunch just an hour ago?"

"Ben, that was 5 hrs ago..."

"Hey, Clay. You busy tonight? Maybe we should go drinking?"

"Heh. You sure like drinking Eleanor. But I have to decline your offer. Going to have some R&R back at home."

Eleanor got a little sad when I turned her offer down, but quickly invited the rest of the team instead. She sure is quick to change moods. Well, time to head home. Since it's finally Friday, that means it's time for some gaming!

Even after 20 years, I'm still playing that old game, heh.

I then clocked out and headed straight to the parking garage to find my old trusty pickup truck (Ford F-150). First created back in 2020, but they don't make these anymore. It's basically an antique. It was re-modelled from using gas to electric, since all gas powered vehicles got banned in the year 2052. I got it pretty cheap too, which was great!

I put my phone in the phone slot, in case someone would call while I was driving, which usually never happened. But you can never say never!

As I drove home, I noticed that my phone was acting weird again, this is the 2nd time it happened too. Well, I did install the latest version of A-Droid on a very old phone.

But it's weird it's happening when I'm on my way home, it did the same last week. But I didn't think of it as much, since I just crashed straight to bed because of all the work.

Fixing all those bugs where a nightmare.

I shuddered when I thought about the debugging nightmare I had to go trough. I never, want to go trough that hell again.

When I finally reached my destination, I parked my car, and headed straight in. The first thing I did was to take a bath, a long, warm, bath.

After my bath, I put on some minimal clothing, as usual. I picked up my phone and noticed it stopped acting weird. Well, I'm not even sure I can fix it anyway. This is one hell of an old model, I was even surprised they even supported this darn thing in the first place.

Eh, whatever, let's just game instead. Well, after I eat of course.

I checked the fridge to see if there was anything left from yesterday, and what I found was-

"Nothing..."

Yes, nothing at all. Quickly closed the fridge and checked the freezer instead. I then noticed I still had some Microwavable Pizza left, which I took at lightning speed , because I was hungry! I couldn't care less if this made me fat, the only thing in my mind at that moment was just "food, food, food, food".

*DING!*

After a few minutes, I heard the old "ding" sound from the microwave. Even after all these years, they still make that dumb sound.

I quickly ate my food, which did not taste that great, I never liked eating microwaved food, and yet I do. When I was done eating, I headed over to my bedroom and picked up my VR headset.

A dumb grin was then plastered on my face, like the child that I was every time I play my favourite game "Unique World". I'm not sure if the game was popular or not, since I just played it alone. It did have a multiplayer component, where you could invite your friends to your world, or even create a dedicated server, but you had to use it's network address. It also had it's own amazing development kit!

I of course spent much of my time in the editor, adding new things, such as military equipment and the like. I added everything from modern to science fiction. But I probably went a little overboard, just a little. Well, it's just a video game anyway.

I took the VR headset, placed on my head, and turned it on. I laid down in my bed and slowly closed my eyes. As the sounds in my room started to fade to nothingness, I opened my eyes.

I was in a white space, with some Augmented Reality windows, or AR for short, floating here and there. I couldn't be bothered to model this area, since I spent all my time playing the game instead of using It's built in entertainment system. I looked at the "mirror", or whatever the floating glass panel is, in front of me, and saw my avatar.

Slick and beautiful silver hair, that is tied back to a pony tail, golden coloured eyes, long pointy ears, a slick yet robust body, with some extra fat hanging on the chest.

Yes, my avatar, was in fact a female of the long eared race. I do believe they where known as Hi-Elves, or High-Elves. Why a female avatar? Well, I didn't like the male options one bit. And for some reason, the female characters had ALL the options! I of course made my "ideal" avatar, nothing more, nothing less. As I moved around as always, to make sure all my senses where working, I began to boot up the game.

But as I clicked on the "Start Game" button, nothing happened. I clicked again, again, and again. Yet nothing happened.

"Eh? This can't be right? The game... Can't possibly be broken..."

As I was about to freak out, I quickly calmed myself.

It's okay... It's just a bug. The headset is working just fine...

I was slowly calming myself, I then tried to click on the button again. This time however, it actually did something, but not as I was expecting. Instead of showing a AR panel in front of me, everything became super bright, even closing my eyes didn't help.

What the hell is going on?!

As I was complaining, the light quickly faded away, and when I could opened my eyes again-

"Eh? A forest?"

There I stood, dumbfounded. I didn't have the capacity to even think, I just stood there, looking at the greenery. But for some reason, it calmed me down.