As Abel busied himself with various chores around the house, the sun rose higher over the horizon until it started to dip and time passed by quickly and peacefully. The house was silent throughout the day, without Frankie’s chattering or Melly’s humming but it wasn’t something unusual either as Abel generally had a different schedule from them on most days.

He replaced the water in the tub several times and cleaned up his courtyard and the chicken coop outside. Abel had chopped up the rabbits into manageable pieces and generously seasoned them with salt and pepper early on. As the sun started to set, he got out the marinated rabbit pieces and vegetables and got ready to make dinner. He poured some olive oil into a pot then sautéed the vegetables; chopped onions, minced garlic, baby carrots, some celery and mushrooms. When the vegetables softened, he added the rabbit pieces. He sprinkled a bit of flour to help thicken the stew and started stirring to make sure everything was coated well.

He reached the tall cabinet for some crimson verdelique, Sylvanholme’s specialty red wine, and poured some into the pot to add a bit of flavor and deglaze it. Abel was also looking to scrape out any brown bits from the bottom and then let it cook for a couple of minutes. After making sure he got all the brown bits out, he added some water, a cube of refrigerated chicken broth and the sliced tomato’s he had on the side. Once that was done, he covered the lid, lowered the heat and brought to a simmer. He would have to leave it for the next hour and a half at least so he figured he could go take a nice hot bath to scrub away all the grime and sweat from a day of hard work.

After a long and relaxing hot bath, Abel went to check on the stew and have a taste to see if the seasoning needed any adjustment.

sluuuuurrp

‘Ahhh… It’s perfect but just needs a little more time for the rabbit meat to turn tender.’ He added a couple of bay leaves and some dried thyme for the last stretch and then went to the living room and turned on the television.

Although he hardly watched anything on TV, ever since he decided to invest in Faeron he had been following their dedicated channel for any news or updates within the virtual world. After seeing an informercial instead of the usual gaming broadcast, he lowered the volume and went to change the water in the tub one last time. He would let the pelt soak until the morning and then place it on a drying stretcher before giving it a trim and taking its measurements. He’d have to order a customized rug pad to underlay the pelt before it could actually be used for its intended purpose.

‘The stew should be done by now, I should go check’ After changing out the slightly milky water, Abel made his way back to the kitchen and sure enough, the aroma was taunting his nose and irritating his stomach. He scooped out the dry bay leaves and sprinkled a bit of chopped parsley as a finishing touch before ladling a big bowl of rabbit stew for himself.

As he ate his dinner and watched for any new happenings within Faeron, he felt his anticipation rising alongside his anxiousness. Although he had a couple months-worth of savings left in his account, he really couldn’t afford to not make any money. Beyond the normal utility bills and need for food, there was the annual tax as well as the medical insurance he still had to cover. The coalition’s medical assurances and insurance services worked like a retirement fund but for your health. While you’d get charged if you called the Medical Nexus and have the MediTech Responders come to your home, you’d also get coverage on essential medicine if further treatment was deemed necessary. That’s also why Abel refused Frankie’s offer, his burns would heal up in a couple of weeks to a month at most so the MediTech Responders would charge him an arm and a leg when he couldn’t make use of his insurance. If he had a heart attack or a stroke then it would’ve been a different situation. Although they would still charge him greatly for the initial call, the follow-up medical requirements would be billed at a steep discount due to the insurance payments he’d been covering. 

Such policies were put in place for several reasons, but it was mostly to stop liars and scammers from wasting the Medical Nexus’s resources as well as the MediTech Responder’s time. It was also a way for the medical industry to make a profit without it coming at the cost of those truly in need of their help.

Thankfully, he didn’t have to cover rent considering the house was owned by all three of them and since there was at least one owner officially employed then they didn’t have to cover the property tax. Just the usual local town registration fees was needed, but that was a paltry sum in comparison.

Abel quickly gobbled up his dinner, washed his bowl and placed the pot in a warmer stove to keep it hot for the lovebirds when they got back. He left a note on the table telling them where they could find the stew and made his way back to his room.

He took a deep breath and placed his palm on the outer control interface to open up the pod for use. Although he had used a NeuroNex pod a couple of times in the past, that was merely in a Virtual Lounge and just to watch a movie. Those types of pods were singular in use, just for streaming movies and were quite one-dimensional but they were much cheaper as a result.

A different type of feeling welled up within him as he got into his own pod and lay down. Since the machine wasn’t voice calibrated yet, he pressed the power button on the side and closed his eyes. It took him a few seconds to still his mind and feel the humming of the pod, establishing a Neuro-Link.

The darkness he ‘saw’ started making way for a cascade of shimmering and flowing colors until he suddenly found himself in a room with a desk, a computer and a door on the other side. There was nothing else, but Abel knew this was the standard user home that everyone would have once they logged into the virtual world. They could spend some credits to expand it and upgrade it but this was definitely something Abel wouldn’t waste his hard-earned money on!

It was surreal how one moment he felt himself lying down within the pod and the next, his body had ‘weight’ in the virtual world. He walked up to the computer, sat at the desk and took a look at his interface screen.

User: Abel Hawthorn

PNC-ID # 102255999100

Date-Time: 22/04/1036 Pax Novus New Calender (PNNC) – 7:53 pm

Current Balance – Savings : 385.29 CC – 0 CC

Device: NeuroNex- VirtualScape Innovations VRX1000

Location: Luminara Island, Emerald Isles, Orienta, Pax Novus Coalition

SockPort Level: 99.98 % (est. 366.7 days till expiry)

There was a simple desktop screen with his information in the upper left corner. When Abel saw the information for the Socket Portal, he couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief as though a worry had been cleared-up.

The icon for browsing the internet was obvious; a blue E with a white spider web in the background. There were also several other icons depicting public information and services, government e-facilities, movie streaming apps and a bunch of other normal applications like calling services and such. He could make a call to any device whether it was a normal voice call to a phone, a video call on a messenger app or even to a Holosphere device.

Abel saw a few swirling portals rotating clockwise in a semi-circle into and out of the right side of his screen, these were the access sites to the various virtual worlds and they were all in black except for one glowing in gold, signifying his subscription and ability to enter that one. Of course, it was none other than the world of Faeron under Realm Quest, he just had to click it and then step through the door behind him.

‘Alright, lets get my character started, this shouldn’t take too long…’ Abel took a deep breath and clicked on the portal, it turned green instantly meaning he could now proceed and he did just that. Once he stepped through the door, the world turned bright white and a calm feminine voice reached him as though it was speaking right next to his ears.

“It is detected that you are a new user. Do you wish to create an account?”

Abel looked around to see who had spoken to him but all he could see was bright whiteness, then he realized he was in the middle of the initiation process for creating a new account.

“Yes” He replied straight away.

“Please select the name of your avatar.”

Abel had thought long and hard about this. He had shortlisted a few names prior to Xiang Xiaowen merging with him but in the spur of the moment he decided on a new name.

“Red Sky”

Xiaowen... will be a part of Abel Hawthorn forever from now on so he might as well embrace the name.

“Please select your gender. Male, Female or Neutral.”

“Male!” Although Abel felt bad for those who felt like they were stuck in the wrong gendered body, that didn’t mean he wanted to experience it himself. He was a pure male in both lives and he wished to be a male even in a virtual setting!

“The world of Faeron has 53 races. You may select from twe-“

“Human” Abel cut off the voice before it could finish. He had read that many people that started off with a different race took a couple of weeks to adjust and accustom themselves to their new dimensions. Abel didn’t have the time to waste and neither was he interested in trying out a different race. The human race was the most balanced character within the game and that’s just how Abel liked it.

“You may alter your appearance from the reflected avatar.”

A carbon copy of Abel’s own body appeared before his eyes. There was a panel to the side that could control different functions such as hair color, eye color, height and weight. There were also numerous different eye brow styles, noses, chins, cheek bones and foreheads. Abel didn’t change a single parameter within his body, all he did was change his hair color to a dark fiery red.

“Proceed”

“Your avatar had been created. Please select the Kingdom and City you wish to start in.”

“The Kingdom of Veridia, the City of Velskryn”

“– Welcome to the World of Faeron –“