Chapter 7: Reconnecting
Daniel continued to sit around on the front porch waiting for them to finish the installation, he also knew that the capsule will require a two-hour update and synchronization to the Hub network. He was glad he was able to get an installation scheduled before the release of Evotania.
"Hey boss we are finished," Malcolm said as he came walking around the corner, "We got everything all set up and updating even installed the health monitor and nutrient dispenser, we even filled it for you," he said.
"Really thanks," Daniel said getting up from the front porch to meet him.
"Don't mention, but I don't recommend completely replacing eating and drinking with that thing, it can cause side effects ok? Make sure you still at least eat dinner or breakfast, the automatic system will monitor you and inform you when your hungry so just pay attention," Malcolm said.
"Don't worry, I did some research and know the proper methods for safe usage," he replied.
"That's good, in your garage, there are a User Manual and Extra safety guide, we give each customer a paper copy, Here I'll need your signature on here," Malcolm said as he handed Daniel a digital pad.
"Sure," he said as he signed his name on the pad.
"Good, that part is all taken care of, you should come around to take a look," Malcolm said as he gestured Daniel to follow.
Daniel was naturally excited, he was getting closer to finally owning his own capsule. He walked into the garage and could see the large red capsule at the back of the room. It completely reached the roof, and the pod laid on a ninety-degree angle attached to a large base. He could see through the front glass of the pod's door, he walked closer to look at the digital display on the side of the pod.
"The installation should be done in about two to three hours, the latest update that introduced Evotania a new game and it's system settings into the Hub is pretty big," Malcolm said.
"Thanks a lot for starting the update then, I want to be able to log in when Evotania releases," he said.
"No problem, we put our contact numbers in the user manual for you, if anything is wrong with the installation please feel free to call me or Mark, you could also contact Xelco but, please if something is wrong, it'd be great if you went ahead and contact us first so we can try and fix it without our bosses blaming us," Malcolm said.
"Please feel free to contact us first, it really helps us, it allows us to keep our positive reviews and feedback, we get bonuses depending on our quality of service provided," Mark said.
"Thanks, I'll remember for sure to contact you both first if anything is wrong," he said.
"Thanks, there will also be a survey sent to your inbox, please fill it out, things are scored between 1-10 anything less than a nine is considered actually bad," Malcolm said as he rolled his eyes.
"Really, so it has to be near perfect or a perfect score, that seems pretty messed up," he said.
"Xelco doesn't want satisfactory customer service, they want perfect, that being the case we always try our best to satisfy the customer," Malcolm said.
"Haha, well you guys did a pretty good job, most installations are said to take between 2-5 hours, I'll make sure to fill that survey out for you guys leaving a good review," Daniel said.
"Thanks, it really helps, some people like to give us bad reviews because we can't fulfill crazy requests, Well we are gonna get out of here and go grab some lunch, it was a pleasure to work for you, Daniel have a good day," Malcolm said as he shook his hand he turned and walking towards the front of the truck.
"It was nice meeting you man, I'm glad there are people out there that won't try to take advantage of our hard work," Mark said closing up the back of the trailer.
"Thanks for everything, enjoy your guy's early lunch," Daniel waved them off.
Malcolm started the truck and waited for Mark to come back around towards the front passenger seat. They waved goodbye as the left the driveway, "They were pretty cool about everything," Daniel thought as he waved them off.
Closing the garage door, Daniel walked into the main part of the house. Heading towards the kitchen he grabbed a quick glass from the cupboard, filling it plain filtered tap water. He carried his drink while grabbing some fruit from the counter and walked towards the couch in the living room. Turning on the tv, he sat down and killed time waiting for the update to finish. "I hope it gets finished early," he said to himself as he watched the esports channel. There was no tournament going but they were talking about the different players and guilds that will be swapping to Evotania.
Daniel didn't know much about the gaming sports scene or its players, there were so many teams and players that competed against one another in this day and age. The talk host was a pretty young attractive woman, named Teresa her last name was Anderson. Daniel knew she had tons of fans, she also casts at different tournaments. she was currently talking to a professional player named Leo Sturgess, he knew quite a lot about Leo since he was the same Leo from last night he is a pretty new rookie that many people seem to like. He also knew that he had that pretty big fan club of girls that obsessed over him.
Daniel wasn't really interested in what they were talking about, they just kept saying names of guilds and teams he didn't have much knowledge about. He never bothered researching anything about players or teams because it would be like putting the cart before the horse. He needs to first establish himself in Evotania before he worries about anything like that. He continued listening to the tv as he laid on the couch bored, he didn't bother going to his computer and trying to read the forums again. He knew the forums were in chaos due to the update, some people were probably already online creating their characters, though they wouldn't be able to actually travel to Evotania until it officially launches.
Daniel sighed as he laid on his back, he couldn't help but wonder about all the conversations Lisa, Jennifer, and Abby was having as they drove to Jennifer's grandmother's place. he couldn't help get lost in his thoughts as time passed by slowly. He lost track of time when he suddenly heard "Bzzt, Bzzt" a buzzing noise was going off, Daniel got up from the couch where he was lying down, he had set the alarm after growing bored of waiting to tell him when three hours and thirty minutes passed. The game world wouldn't be accessible till around six o'clock and character creation would have already started. He got up and headed back to the capsule to check on it.
Walking up to the display terminal he noticed that the updating was finished. He was excited since it was his first time owning a capsule. He ignored the other options on the terminal, he wasn't planning to record his current session or anything. He pressed the open capsule button, he watched as the display began to shift as the capsule door opened up. Most controls will be accessible from the inside, with an emergency ejection and direct call to the user being what's left accessible on the outside terminal. He stepped up into the capsule, turning his back to face the bed he laid back into the angled bed. He reached up and pulled down the connection headset. Putting it on he could see through the tinted glass covering his eyes, he could see outside into his garage. Touching the capsule wall to his right he closed the capsule door. Immediately once the capsule door closed he heard a beautiful woman's voice.
"Welcome, please wait one moment," the voice called to him.
He knew it was the system's AI voice that helps monitor the capsules.
"Scanning New User," the voice of the system said. 'Welcome back to the Hub, Daniel Smith it's been fifteen hours since you last logged in, do you wish to rescan your avatar," she said.
"Yes," he said, he made sure to be as loud and clear as possible.
"One moment, scanning," she said, Daniel waited patiently for her confirmation. "User's Avatar now updated, checking systems," there was a brief pause again, "do you wish to initialize connection Daniel," she said.
"Yes," he said,
"If this is your first time please close your eyes while the connection is initialized," she said.
He chose to listen to the instructions, he figured it would always be much safer. He heard the system countdown before everything faded completely black.
"Connection Successful, checking current body status, clear, Welcome to Region 1A: the United States of America, Section 38: Colorado Section, Area E," she said.
He felt a slight shift and could feel himself now standing, opening his eyes he looked around to see a large gathering of people. Looking up he saw the name of the fast travel terminal he was at. Around him were a bunch of different businesses and their structures. Every area just looked like Las Vegas, there was no order to peoples designs, you might have a Castle next to a skyscraper. Touching his left forearm he activated his hidden terminal bracer, he was pulling up the system menu.
|~ 2:48 PM 6/19/2083 ~|
|~ Inbox 28 New ~|~ Contacts: 3 Online ~|~ 2 New Requests |
|~ Hub Explorer ~|
|~ Current Body Status: Good |~ Balance: 278.00 U.S.D ~|~ Avatar Options~|
|~ Fast Travel ~Enabled ~|~ System Extensions ~|
|~ Evotania Options ~|~ Evotania Menu ~|~ Evotania Fast Login ~|
|~ System Options ~|~ Support - Help ~|~ Logout ~|
He decided to first go to his contacts and accept the requests. Opening up his contacts page it was pretty depressing looking, he accepted the request from Lisa, and he noticed he received a request from Abby as well. He went ahead and checked his inbox, he noticed Joseph had sent him some messages and he had one from Lisa and the rest were all from his teacher. He read the first message sent by him, his teacher was known as Grandmaster Lui Feng though they don't really have a master and pupil relationship since he could never officially join his school.
The first message was exactly as expected "What the hell was that when exactly did you get so sloppy, stopping by some time wouldn't hurt damn it," Liu Feng sent.
Daniel could only sigh, he quickly sent a response, "Evotania releases today, remember? I'll visit sometime if you are that bored, but why not play the game, if you do decide to play I'll be starting in Sylvantir at the capital Shalee," Daniel replied. Checking through his other messages they were roughly the more of the same complaints from Liu Feng. He decided to look at Joseph's messages, they were just telling him about the character creation he could only sigh when he read that Joseph was gonna actually be an elf. He was thankful Joseph didn't actually bring up last nights fiasco since Joseph knew who he was in the Blood League. Moving on he decided to read Lisa's message real quick.
"So, I told them everything, but Jennifer is truly adamant on you not joining even still, Abby thought you joining us was a great idea, we are gonna try to convince Jennifer but, in the meantime, we should still help each other sometimes and group up," Lisa said in her message.
"That's fine, as long as you don't go spreading rumors or anything, please keep my identity to yourselves for the time being," he quickly replied. There was no response he figured she was creating her character since he noticed she was online.
He finally decided to open up the survey and began filling it out, he just put perfect scores and complemented Malcolm and Mark by name, he rarely bothered doing these but he understood how important they were for employees working in the lower part of the business chain. Midway through completing the survey he already got a notification telling him Lisa responded. He finished the survey pretty quickly and opened up the message sent from her.
"That's great, I'll let Abby and Jennifer know not to go causing trouble. If you haven't started working on your character you will want to do that now," she sent.
"Guess it is time," he said as he closed the message and opened the system menu. He moved towards the Evotania options and selected the Evotania Fast Travel Character Creation.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone