Arc rested on his bed. In his arms, he held a virtual reality headset. The headset had a frame of white and black.

  He sighed in the narrow room filled with little furniture—a bed which took half of the room and a small table.

  On the table rested few papers, all marked in red.

  Hmmm… He peered at the headset.

  Should I?….. Shouldn’t I?… He glanced towards the papers marked in red. Then, his gaze fell upon his blanket, over which lay books—many jumbled books—including calculus and aerospace books.

  Then his gaze fell upon the calendar hanging above the table—a date marked with a red pen. The deadline for his exams approaching.

  Then his gaze again lingered towards the VR.

  A recently released Virtual Reality Game—《Archdragon MMORPG》

  Currently, the most trending game worldwide.

  Arc would often hear whispers of his classmates whispering about the game. Given his current conditions, affording such a game would be way out of his league. Still, some days ago, a promotion event had occurred in his academy—the administrative provided free VR headsets to over 200 students.

  Arc got extremely lucky.

  He again looked at the books, then the VR, then the book, then the VR.

  The alluring temptation of the VR, the repellent repulsion of the books—in the end, he just could not resist.

  He lied back on his bed as he wore the VR headset.

  His environment faded into blackness,

  Whoa….. He felt like he drifted in the space’s openness. His body—naked—looked transparent yet emitted a certain glow.

  Flesh neither too skinny nor too fat, eyes brown, shart fuzzy black hair —this was Arc, a typical teen.

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  A typical AI-generated female voice greeted him.

  Hello…… He said, then thought, yes, yes, say hello to an AI, programmed to say one thing, again and again, very wise Arc, Very wise.

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  A screen asking for a name, along with an on-screen keyboard, appeared.

  He lifted his hand and typed “Arc.”

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  … ok

  Again, he typed, “Arc1.”

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  ….

  Again, he typed, “Arc123”

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  Again, he typed, “Arc1234567890”

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  Already in use…. come on! Who except me uses an uncool name like Arc1234567890.. have some creativity normal people.

  Ok.. He typed, “Virion Arc Magnus”

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  Holy 700!…. His eyes widened… People spend that much?!.. on a game!

  He peered for a while in disbelief…. Yep, I am sticking with the free ones... He decided.

  Not like there is much to choose from… warrior… ahh a knight in shining armor, a fierce man with a sword, found attractive by all women, perfectly suited for my personality…….. personality…. hmm… personality… yeah, whom am I kidding? Mage it is.

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  Arc scrolled through the less-known destination.

  When he had looked into the most spawned destinations, parts of his memory lingered, the voice of his classmates—this happened at Dragon’s nest—OMG! so cool!—I bought the highest class!—I found this on the frost peak!—I won the tournament in Drifting City—I did this, I did that. Their voice lingered in his mind. Arc’s body slightly quivered. He scrolled through the less spawned location, hoping to find a place where he could avoid meeting anyone of them.

  As he scrolled, the last voice came on to his mind — tell us, Arc, What did you accomplish?

  His body stopped quivering as his finger halted. Arc selected a random location.

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