Stephan stepped back from the gaming desks with barely contained excitement. It was finally time! After over 2 years since the announcement went live, the newest expansion to World of Ancient Heroes, the most popular MMO, was finally launching. He had just finished installing the dive gear addons to the PCs for his wife and him, a new addition to the game as it made the leap to VR.

"Finally got the kids down, really fighting nap time today." Marie declared as she walked into the gaming room. "How's the install going?"

"Just finished. I could've helped with nap time love…." 

"Its fine, I wanted you to get this done so we can actually play! The update finishes at 1 they said?" 

"Yep! And…." Stephan checked his watch, "we have a few minutes…"

Marie giggled as her husband pulled her into a close embrace and kissed her deeply, their breasts rubbing together in the close space. With some hesitance she broke the kiss off and pushed him away, someone needed to be responsible after all.

"Just to be clear before we go in, I'm playing Frostina?"

"If you want."

"And you're playing Zetsumei?"

"Of course! I'm Zet till the game is shut down!" Stephan had played Zet for nearly 18 years and had zero intention of changing that. Even in the expansions, when she was a bottom ranked class, Stephan had stood with his beloved character and pushed her beyond her limits. "Ready to load in and make sure it's all connected right for the launch?"

"Yeah." Marie furrowed her brow and twisted her lips in concerned hesitation. "The kids are ok? Like, what if we cant hear them and they need us?"

"It's ok hun. I set up both of our systems to alert us in game to noise in their room. Besides, your moms home and isn't heading out today.  She'll grab them for us if we don't hear."

Marie shook her head, her dirty blond hair falling over her face in the process. "I know, I just worry. Let's load in."

Stephan nodded and handed the helmet to his wife so she can load in. It was pretty basic, like a baseball helmet with an opaque visor. Essentially it engaged with the brain and interpreted brain signals to send to the game body and sent input back. Stephan noted with some uneasiness it evoked thoughts of 'brain in a jar' mixed with Sword Art Online, but kept these concerns to himself, Just some irrational paranoia ...After a brief explanation on how to engage the helmet, Stephan bent down and gave his wife one last, lingering kiss. "See you in game, hun. I love you."

"I love you more..."

Preparations complete, Stephan sat down and fitted his helmet. With the push of a button he found himself staring at a familiar desktop and with just a thought sent the command to launch the game. His vision changed and large block letters dominated his vision "Welcome to WHOA."