How Do You Play?

Lucus began leading her towards a standing pc desk where two free computers were facing each other with screens in between. Lucus then began explaining to her the game they were gonna play.

"We'll be playing 'Rox's Games', where we will be facing each other in the arena in a one versus one match. We'll use the same characters and the same loadout to prevent any cheating. Any questions?"

"No, I got it." Said Iris as she made her way towards her chosen computer.

There, the game was already loaded in and on the menu screen, but she had no idea what to click. Lucus was nonchalantly setting up the game on his side while clearly noting that she was panicking.

Little did she know that one player had to set up the room and invite the other person before they could play in the arena. Lucus just smirked as he realize just how easy it was to trick her. Something about abusing noobs just seemed to bring one unrelenting joy.

"Here." He said as he took over her computer and began inputting the code to the private arena.

Before she could complain, the game had already loaded with a giant "Read?" sign on the screen.

"Press the spacebar when you're ready so we can begin the match," Lucus said.

Without hesitation, Iris began pressing buttons on the keyboard slowly spelling out, 's p a c e b a r'

"Why isn't working?" She asked extremely anxious.

As Lucus simply stared at her with amusement and utter shock...

[Lucus.exe is not responding]

He ended up bringing himself back to his senses after slapping himself across his face. For good measure, he went ahead and poked his right eye to ensure it was seeing things correctly.

Since he didn't get double vision he understood... this was below the level of a noob.

"Have you never used a keyboard before?" He asked extremely worried.

"Oh is that what this is? How about this thingy?" She asked as she lifted the mouse up for him to see.

...

"That's the mouse," Lucus responded with a flat face.

"Mouse? Doesn't really look like one... oh wait now I see it!" She responded very quickly before somehow managing to press the biggest key on the keyboard.

"Yay! It's starting!" She said very excitingly.

As per instinct, Lucus quickly switched to gamer mode before simply annihilating her within the first five seconds.

"Hey! That's not fair! I'm still learning!" She screamed.

"Look kid, do you even know how to play? You don't even know what a mouse and keyboard are!" Yelled Lucus with his arms on his side in a triangular position.

"No..." she meekly responded, " how do you play?" She asked with puppy eyes looking straight into his soul.

With a facepalm, there was little Lucus could do except show her the basics.

"Look, you use your left hand to control your character by pressing these four keys here." Said Lucus before very skillfully exiting the arena and into the playground area with the same character.

There he took it upon himself to show her the buttons required to move and attack with the character.

"You can also use the mouse like this..." he instructed before he continue to explain to her the basics of combat.

"Any questions?" he asked as though he had explained it well enough for a five-year-old to understand.

"No." She responded before shaking her head.

"Show me." He demanded as he moved away from the desk.

There she slowly but surely began moving her character with her left hand on the keyboard and right hand on the mouse.

"This is hard." She said.

"What's hard about it?" he asked.

"I can't move my left hand as fast as you did, and it's very difficult with this bag on my hand." She responded.

"Here you can enable auto-cam and use these buttons instead." He said as he began to show her how to use the arrow and number pads for one-handed play.

Seeing this method, Iris could be seen jumping up and down in the excitement.

"That looks so much easier! Why didn't you show me that first?"

Lucus just shook his head as he allowed her to continue playing.

Still, to his disappointment, her Actions per minute (APM) were still quite low compared to his. Still, he let her continue roaming around blasting the weak level one minions to smithereens.

"Care to explain why you don't know how to use a keyboard?" He began to question. "You aren't poor, are you? Seeing as how you asked how much it cost to play here. If you are then as long as you tell the people who work here my name they'll let you..."

Before he could finish his sentence, a deep frown appear on Iris's face as he rejected, "I'm not poor!"

"Oh? Then why did you..."

"I've been using nerve gear as far as I remember! Not these pieces of junk... hey!" She screamed as she was hit by an enemy. "That's bastard gonna die!" She yelled as she continued to shoot his already dead corpse with a face full of glee.

"Nerve gear! Aren't those things super expensive?"

"Tch... What's your bank account? I'll transfer the money over after I deal with these suckers. Hehehe!" She asked while the grin on her face grew darker with utmost joy.

"You're still on about that? I thought you were joking."

"I don't joke about money!" She retorted, before continuing her killing spree.

That was until a grenade landed beside her ending the game.

"Fudge Monkeys!" She screamed, before turning around to face Lucus.

She reached into her pants right pocket and took out a rectangular prism. She then stabbed his exposed right arm before speaking, "Jack, transfer 100 credits into this person's account."

"Hey! That hurt..."

"Beeb. Transaction complete." Spoke the item.

Still rubbing his arm, Lucus asked, "What is that? I haven't seen a Promo Pal that thin before."

"It's the latest version. My father got it for me for my birthday."

"Latest? I haven't heard about them releasing one."

"Duh... obviously it's a limited edition only available for their business partners. Don't you know anything about business?" She asked with a smirk face.

With a frown, Lucus just turned around and began to walk away.

"Hey! Where are you going?! Aren't we gonna have a rematch!"

"Talk to me after you killed the final boss." He said waving her off.

With that, Iris clicked respawn and began working. Little did show know that in playground mode, no boss would be spawning as Lucus had set it fixed to level one, and the weakest boss was level two.

After about two hours of endless grinding. Iris began to get hungry and annoyed at the fact that no boss had spawned. She looked to the teenager beside her and saw him fighting a level 62 boss.

"Where's my boss at?" She asked with a pitiful expression.

Seeing as she was getting nowhere, Iris decided to head to the front desk.

"Hey mister, I'm hungry. Is there anything to eat here?"

"Oh? Why didn't you order at your desk? There's a somewhat hidden tablet with a food icon where you can order food and have it delivered to you." The man asked with a somewhat puzzled and worried face.

"Didn't Lucus show you how things work around here?"

"Lucus? No, he didn't." Responded Iris realizing that she didn't even know the boy's name.

'Father would have killed me if he learned about this small mistake of mind.' Iris thought to herself.

"Can I order here?" She asked.

"Yep, get on the stool and you can choose what you want from the menu there."

As she sat on the stool, she noticed a medium-sized screen. With a pull-over cover next to it. On it was a menu consisting of various food items. Each making her tummy rumble with passion.

She took out her Promo Pal and had it scan the code to log into her public account. There she ended up choosing a double cheeseburger with extra fries and a strawberry milkshake.

"You're planning on eating with that hand of yours?" The man asked while pointing to her left hand which had a sagging bag wrapped around it.

"Oh, I forgot," Iris said embarrassed.

"They all do." The man responded with a smile.

"Want me to switch it out with a wrist guard?" The man asked taking out a glove-like contraption that looked to be her size.

"Yes please." She responded while holding out her hand. Still somewhat worried that she might lose her hand if she didn't guard it properly.

As the man began to clean and change her arm into the wrist guard, he began talking with her.

"Iris was it? Tell me, how long do you plan on staying here?" He asked while smiling.

"I'm I not allowed to?" She asked somewhat worried.

"Of course you are! It's just that it's my first time seeing someone play level one on playground mode in Rox's Game for two hours straight nonetheless."

"Wait what?" Iris asked as it dawned on her that she didn't even know what she was doing in the game.

The man couldn't help but laugh as he finished wrapping her arm.

"Don't tell me you didn't even know the settings in which you were playing. No wonder you didn't seem to be getting bored."

"Was I really stuck in level one because of the settings?" She asked with a tearful expression.

"Yep. And apart from that, you also stuck yourself with the basic weapons and gear. It pays to mention that in playground mode you could literally choose any character with any gear or skills of your choosing. You can't do that in campaign mode, but the playground is there to just have fun. It's a good way to get better at the game without worrying about losing your progress."

With extreme shock, Iris's mouth swung wide open as she said.

"Then tell me how do I play?! I need to kill the final boss so I can have a rematch against Lucus again!"

Seeing the determined look on her face, the man couldn't help but smile.

"Here, this is a book describing all the best ways to beat the game in record time." Said the man as he took out a medium-sized guidebook titled, 'The Ultimate Guide To Breaking Rox's Game'.

"Give me!" She said as she reached out with her little hands. Only to be faced with the man moving it away from her grasp.

"It ain't free little missy."

"What the? What do you mean?"

"It's 50 credits." Said the man.

"50?! For a book! That's a ripoff!"

"Ripoff? I'll have you know that these here books are painstakingly made and are more than worth 50 credits."

"Screw you, I'll just find the free digital version!" Screamed Iris as she took out her Promo Pal and took out the rollable screen. "Hey Jack, find me a digital copy of The Ultimate Guide To Breaking Rox's Game."

"Beeb. No search results found."

"Did you check the archives?"

"Beeb. No record has been found on The Ultimate Guide To Breaking Rox's Game ever existing."

"What the?! Are you trying to scam me?"

"Hmph." Said the man with his arms crossed. "Why don't you ask it about the game first?"

"Jack, find me everything you can about Rox's Game."

"Beeb. No results were found. Did you mean to search for Roxy's Game?"

"Search"

"Beeb. Roxy's Game is a VRMMO developed by Spark Inc..."

"No! Cancel!" Screamed Iris as she looked up to the man waiting for answers.

"What you expect little girl? This here is an arcade. The first floor is filled with games released as early as 2012 with Rox's Game coming out in 2022. You ain't gonna find any information about them ever since WikiFree experienced a massive takedown by a group of unknown assailants."

"What...?" Said Iris, with a face that screamed meathead.

"Yep, that game you were playing is as old as your grandmother. If you were looking to play the latest games, those would be upstairs. And of course, you would have to pay before entering."

With a face full of defeat, she hung her head and said, "take my money." Before passing her Promo Pal over to be used on the cashier.

"Pleasure doing business with you." Said the man as he handed her the items.

"Question, if the games are so old, then why do keyboard and mouses work on them?"

"Pff!" Coughed the man as he was faced with the greatest question of the century.

"Those things aren't old. It just took us that long for us to consider those things as retro. Blame standardization of technology as the source of this massive limiter to innovation. If the governments weren't so keen on standardizing technology for the massive, we would have advanced into Nerve Gear long ago. Not to mention Quantum chips. I bet you my life would have been a heck of a lot easier had they been made available to the public back when I was a kid. Still, better late than never I guess."

Wow, just wow. The sudden influx of information made Iris's head spin. It was no wonder why the common folks had so much technology that she had never seen. It explained so much. They simply were not allowed access to the stuff she used.

"Beeb."

Iris almost jumped as she saw a rectangular frame glow in front of her. In the next few moments, it slid open to reveal a rising elevator bringing up the food she had ordered.

"What are you surprised to see a food elevator? If you had ordered back at your desk that little robot behind you would have taken you the food."

Iris turned to see a white bot about her size with a clear stomach holding food move to the kid who was playing beside her. Opening it, it revealed a massive head-size burger that the kid seemed ecstatic to have.

"It's here!" He yelled and jump in glee as he continued to wolf it down.

"That kid right there is Jack. He usually spends his time in VR games as a professional player. That's how he makes a living. But you can usually see him scarfing down food bigger than one's head. If you get to know him he can definitely teach you a trick or two. Though you might want to bribe him with some food to get him to talk to you first."

"Thanks for the tip," Iris said as she began eating her food which was plenty hot. Well except for the milkshake, it was perfectly cool and sweet.

"Question, doesn't one get fat for playing VR games?"

"Not if you play it in AR mode."

"What's that?"

"It's basically when instead of having a headset over your head. You enter a room where you can do almost anything you can in the game. You're strapped to an anti-gravity suit and can play as you will."

"That sounds like fun."

"It is. Except that it costs an arm and a leg a hundred times over to even get it install."

"Ouch. Does it even make a profit?"

"It does if you charge per session. Anyways speaking of profit, any ideas as to why my little brother was able to afford the mountain shake on the menu item when he doesn't even have any money?"

On that cue, Iris scrolled to the desert section and saw the mountain shake as a milkshake Sunday filled with endless goodies of various desserts. It cost a whopping 100 credits.

"So cheap?" She asked. Wondering how low quality the ingredients were to allow such a facade.

"Cheap? Well, it pays to only sell food produced by a single entity. Anyways care to comment? I'm pretty sure I heard something about a bet and a rematch if I do remember correctly."

With a nervous grin, Iris responded, "Is it wrong? I was just keeping my word."

"Technically speaking you two are still underage to even be allowed to gamble like this. But I'll let you in a little secret."

The man leaned in close to almost whisper into her ear, "In this Arcade, one is allowed to gamble on simple matches when they reach the age of 12."

"So young! How!"

"Turns out that if you have them register with their contact information and provide a copy of any and all transactions to their guardians. You can pretty much do anything as long as you don't go against their wishes. Meaning that if your parents deny you access then you can't bet."

"Dang..."

"Anyways, I'll you alone for now."

With that, Iris continued eating her food with one hand, while slowly reading with the other.

It was around this time that her Promo Pal called out to her, "Beeb. Your father is requesting you to arrive back home."

"Beeb. Your location has been sent to your mother."

"Beeb. Your account balanced has been locked by your father."

"Beeb. Sir Rene has sent you a message, it reads, "My lady, I do hope you will make it back home quick. Your father has gotten angry at your long disappearance. Meanwhile, your mother has sent me to pick you up if you don't arrive within the next two minutes."

Two minutes? How in the world would she make it that far in two minutes. Let alone without any money.

"Tch. Gruel bastard." Muttered Iris to herself.