Chapter 2 - A Normal Family

After a very fulfilling bath, and struggling into his next suit of clothing, Zane was almost too exhausted to make his way into the wheelchair.

Thankfully, the device had a mind of its own, lowering itself just enough so Zane wouldn't have to expend that much energy to slide inside.

For a moment, Zane just sat in the wheelchair, staring at where his legs were once upon of time.

And that was all he did – just stared.

Zane didn't think.

He didn't feel.

He didn't blink.

Zane just stared and breathe every so often.

Abruptly, Zane blinked his eyes and felt as if not a second had passed, but he knew better.

This was the third time this happened in the past month, so Zane would be an idiot not to notice the tell-tale signs of severe PTSD.

Shaking the unfortunate thoughts from his mind, Zane rolled his wheelchair out of the bathroom and into the kitchen, causing an intense argument between family members to stop as if the kitchen had always been a peaceful sanctuary.

Zane rolled his wheelchair towards the family table on the left, and Emily, Nasa, and Jimmy hopped out of their respective seats, quickly moving the chairs to their immediate rights slightly outwards.

The message was clear, each of Zane's children wanted to sit next to their father, but of course, the children had failed at their ploy.

Nissa smirked condescendingly, and simply scooted her chair a little to the right as Zane strolled his wheelchair to the available space at her side.

The smugness of Nasa's face screamed 'Don't play this game with your mother, children.

"Idiots… isn't your father already in a chair? Why would you give him another?" Nissa mocked her children with a victorious laugh that no adequate parent should have towards their offspring.

Usually, Jimmy would argue that his chair was more righteous than all the other heathens gathered around the table, but the boy didn't dare argue with his mother now that Zane was present.

Zane smiled wryly, his heart as calm as the morning waves.

At this point, he was accustomed to his family's bouts of comedic displays.

At least, he hoped it was a comedic display.

Zane was sad to think that he was the only normal one in the family even when he suffered from Logicia.

"Is everyone ready for later?" Zane questioned casually, but, as if they were soldiers, everyone at the table straightened up.

"Yes Sir!" they answered in unison.

Of course, Zane was referring to their readiness for the hard-fought place they had somehow secured in the upcoming biggest Virtual Tournament since Humanity's conception.

With a nod of approval that dissipated the tense atmosphere, Zane retrieved his spoon from the table. Taking the first bite of his scrambled egg breakfast.

Emily, Jimmy, Nasa, and Nissa mimicked his actions, not daring to begin eating without Zane doing so first.

It was not a matter of fairness, but a matter of respect.

Breakfast was the normal affair of silence, aside from Nissa who thought it was an appropriate time to run her toes across Zane's legs.

The awkwardness was a way for Nissa to encourage Zane to begin a conversation with the children.

"Are you guys familiarized with the system of VWFGO?" Zane questioned, not having much else to speak about with his children.

After all, for the past sixteen years, Zane had been a convenient sperm donor who gave the children money on request and forced them to take self-defense classes every weekend.

"Yes, Father! This son has righteously studied about everything. I will bring you righteous and glorious victory by 0600." Jimmy replied enthusiastically, striking his usual akimbo pose.

Nasa lowered her head shyly and whispered "I am such a failure father. I still don't know much about the Knowledge section of the game. Maybe, I don't know anything."

Emily, Nissa, and Jimmy groaned subtly, knowing Nasa was the most brilliant out of all of them.

How could she not know the Knowledge System in VWFGO?

The answer was plain and simple for all those who knew Nasa – she wanted to be scolded by Zane since she got off on that type of attention.

But Zane remained blissfully unaware of such a flaw in his youngest daughter.

Zane was concerned that Nasa would feel that she is the only 'slow' person in the family.

"I will explain the VWFGO System one more time so everyone listens up!" Zane commanded, straightening his back to allow for deeper speech. "Okay! The first thing to remember is the fact that VWFGO is not just a game. It is a Network made up of the entirety of the Internet, private Intranet Networks, highly classified servers in Government Offices, and AVARAY particle transitory relay – or as most people know it – an entire cyberspace dimension detached from reality."

"Each battle in the Virtual World uses AVARAY Technology, meaning its transmitting in real-time the radiological outline of your being into the Cyberspace. It is indistinguishable from reality in most cases, exempting actions that are morally forbidden. However, because it is a world and extremely realistic, you can feel certain sensations: wind blowing through your hair, the smell of fresh air, and pain… especially, pain."

"They even found a way to mimic your breathing but they also left safeguards so you will always know the world is a fake. No matter how real it seems, there will always be something off about the world. An easy way to distinguish is to cut yourself, the blood will be pixilated since bleeding is prohibited by the game settings."

"Now, VWFGO is a gun-oriented game so everything is about weapons, specifically guns, but other forms of weaponry are not explicitly prohibited, just frowned upon. Important to note is the fact that all guns from movies, television, and other visualization mediums will be available in the game. Even experimental military guns will be included since they use the public as beta testers. The way to unlock these guns is by earning credits."

"We spent the last year earning a shit ton of credits in preparation for the tournament and almost everyone else has done the same. So, to level the playing feel, the AI – the TRANCE system that governs VWFGO - has limited everyone participating in the tournament to ten thousand credits. A normal gun costs about 500 credits and every reloads is another 100 credits so use your credits sparingly."

"In the end, this competition will come down to a balance of who can summon the most guns without the weapon being too weak to gather a sizeable kill count. So, you want a balance of power and cheapness. Of course, A powerful gun will cost more credits with Sci-fi and fantasy-type weapons costing as much as 5,000 credits and 1000 per reload. This tournament is a game of strategy where you have to save as many credits as possible to keep playing. Once you run out of credits, you will most likely die!"

"Now, Credits aside, VWFGO has a relatively easy system of Gunner Classification. Category One is Guns, further divided into seven sub-categories: Bolt Action Rifles, Lever Action Rifles, Semi-Automatic Rifles, Shotguns, Revolvers, Automatic Rifles, and non-Lethal.

"Next is armor, and armor also consists of a subcategory of five distinguishable aspects: Bullet Proof Vests, Edge Blade Protection, Soft Armor, Hard Armor, and Full Body Protection."

"The next category is non-gun weaponry. This category is kept separate from Guns because VWFGO is a mainly gun game, so other weapons like daggers, swords, knives, bats, and flamethrowers are kept in this category. This category has six sub-categories: Blunt Impact Weapons, Projectile Weapons, Bladed Weapons, Explosives, Flame Throwers, and Artillery."

"The next category is vision. This is whatever goggles you choose to protect your eyes. Everyone gets standard goggles that come with 'Bullet Lines'. Bullet Lines help you aim and shoot but everyone will know where you are aiming so nobody will use this In the tournament. This category consists of six subcategories: Transparent Lenses, Polarized Lenses, Amber Lenses, Blue Lenses, Forensic Lenses, and Combat Lenses."

"The next Category is bullets. Guns are only half the battle and the next half is bullets. There are different types of bullets, divided into five subcategories: Basic Bullets, Curved Bullets, Hollow Bullets, Special Metal Bullets, Explosive Bullets, and Hybrid Bullets."

"The next category is the best one in my option. It is transported, further divided into ten categories: Clear Human Movement, Human Powered Transport, Small Powered Transport, Trains, Land vehicles, heavy Vehicles, Aircraft, Boats and Ships, Animal Powered Transport, and Space."

"The next category is less efficient but incredibly important for drawn-out battles. It is the rations category, further divided into seven categories: Iron Rations, Fresh Rations, Cooked Rations, Nutrition Bars, Pills, Food Packets, and Space Rations."

"Healing is perhaps the most important category, but also the most ignored due to its complexity. Healing is a category that consists of eight subcategories: First Aid, Second Aid, Advanced Healing, Regrow Limbs, Enhance Body, Mind Healing, Distance Healing, and Magnetic Healing."

"The final category is Intelligence, further divided into three subcategories: Strategic Intelligence, Tactical Intelligence, and Operational Intelligence."

"But it is important we also remember that all these categories are governed by an underlying, separate operational system by way of Virtualization called The Knowledge System. It is independent but also a part of the TRANCE systems. The Knowledge Systems adds another layer of difficulty to accessing weapons since it is a system that requires you to know the parameters of the weapons you wish to access."

"For example, I can't say 'Pistol' without knowing what type of pistol I want because nothing will happen. I'd have to say '2mm Kolbri that consists of a centrefire cartridge and weighs 5.3 grams, with a removable safety pin and hollow-point bullets. The Knowledge System hints at what is best in your situation and guides you with stating the parameters. True professionals turn off the Knowledge System since all their weapons are memorized down the composite materials of the guns."

"Aside from these VWFGO System categories, VWFGO also classifies the weapons themselves into varying sections: Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Mapping, and Destruction. Sci-Fi, as the name suggests, refers to guns and weapons that appear in sci-fi series, movies, and books. Fantasy, likewise, refers to guns and weapons that come from anime, comics, and those types of media. Destruction is a special category since it is usually a secondary layer for safeguarding weapons of mass destruction, fantasy, sci-fi, or otherwise normal. Something like a nuke would exist in the Artillery category of guns, but it would further be guarded behind the Destruction section of the VWFGO system. And that section can only be accessed by certain complex codes too expensive for anyone to afford for the tournament. But someone will always find a way to cheat the rules."

By the time Zane was finished with his explanation, everyone was sound asleep on the table, not listening to a word he had been spouting for the past thirty minutes.

Zane tapped the table as gently as possible, barely making a sound but everyone suddenly snapped awake.

Jimmy stood up and saluted on instinct "Very righteous speech father! I heard every single righteous and glorious word you used with fluent English!"

Emily nodded in agreement, half trying to appear awake, and a half trying to shake the strands of her hair back in place.

Nissa was still dizzy from being forced to wake up and Nasa kept her head as low as possible, unwilling to meet Zane's steely gaze.

"It's okay guys." Zane comforted, rolling his wheelchair around the table, patting everyone on the back. "I know that you guys know about the categories and everything. I just don't want to lose this tournament. Do you guys have the nutrition packs?"

Nissa rose from her seat and walked towards the kitchen cabinet, recovering five cubes filled with a golden liquid.

"Premium Grade Nutrition packs. This will keep our minds in a focused state the entire time. I know the tournament will take a week at most but I got the Nutrition Cube that lasts two years."

"Righteous choice mother!" Jimmy cheered., one of the only times he ever complimented his mother since birth.

Even as a child, Jimmy would be reluctant to suckle on Nissa's boobs.

"Hee-hee father touched me… ha… ha… ha… mhmm…ha." Nasa moaned and squealed silently in her seat, mumbling incoherent words as her hands moved to places unknown beneath the table.

Emily was the only person who remained composed but everyone could see her stiff nipples through her braless T-shirt.

Noticing all the strange behaviors around the table, Zane rolled his wheelchair over to Nissa's side to express a concern that had recently formed inside his mind.

"Wife… I – I … I am not too sure but I don't think this family is normal. I don't think my daughters should be this attracted to their father either."

Nissa sighed and placed a hand on Zane's shoulder in reassurance "It is perfectly fine. Everything about this family is fine. It is normal for girls to get stiff nipples while imagining their fathers. I did the same when I was younger."

"But we didn't have parents." Zane retorted, looking at Nissa strangely.

Caught in such a blatant lie, Nissa lapsed into silence for a couple of seconds.

"I imagine, I would have done the same if I had a father," Nissa explained after a while, a pervy smile making its way onto her face. "Besides, I call you daddy in the bed, and during that time my nipples are stiffer than hers so…."

Hah

Hah

Hah

Hah

Heavy breathing resonated inside the kitchen as everyone turned their eyes to Nasa who glanced away shyly "I just wanted to say that I call father 'Daddy' all the time so. What would I call him in bed? God?"

"Yes!" Emily shouted while jumping to her feet as if she had just heard the answer to Life, itself.

Jimmy shook his head in admonishment "You unrighteous hell spawns from the depths of the Netherworld! You bring shame to this household of liberty and justice!"

Nissa watched her children arguing and wondered where she went wrong with their education.

Honestly, she could remember doing all the things a proper mother should:

Reading the stories about their father at the age of one.

Teaching them about the greatness of their father at the age of two.

Making them memorize pictures of their father at the age of three.

Showing them her shrine at the age of four.

Teaching them to spell their father's favorite words at the age of five.

Showing them how to cook their father's favorite dishes at the age of six.

…

Teach them about their father's favorite sex positions at the age of fourteen.

'Where did I go wrong?' Nissa wondered depressingly.

Had this been a normal family, Zane would have realized that his children had been brainwashed by their mother since birth but he was also someone lacking the nuances of raising a child.

"Let's go to the Virtual Chambers," Zane commanded, rolling his wheelchair through the Dining Hall, not willing to address the strangeness of his family merely hours before the largest tournament of his life.

Besides, soon the children would be old enough to go to Boarding School anyway.