Just Another Day in Reality.

{Morning}

Peropo woke up from the rising sun earlier than what he set his alarm clock for, getting himself out of the bed and open up the curtains to view the soothing and busy morning streets of London. He takes a whiff of fresh air to taste the start of a new day as a college freshmen at Mystic Peak University. Surely, he hopes that with the new life as a young adult going to the university will help him break out of his mental fear of being social around others. The time is 07:00, but his class starts at 09:15 am. There is plenty of time for him to enjoy the morning as it is until he heads out. Peropo prepares himself by heading over to the restroom facility to refresh and awaken himself under the shower and all other personal hygiene necessaries. After thirty minutes of cleansing himself and spiking up his hair, he heads downstairs to the kitchen and goes into the fridge. The young adult grabs some balanced breakfast essentials: Eggs, bacon, hash browns, milk, sausage, and a few minor ingredients. His father comes downstairs yawning while fixing up his work attire. He spoke to his son in their native tongue, Greek, when the family is around unless guess is visible.

"Καλημέρα, Peropo. Κάνοντας μια γιορτή για την πρώτη μέρα σας στο κολλέγιο?"
(Good morning, Peropo. Making a feast for your first day in college?)

"Ναι, πατέρα. Δεν μπορώ να πάω σε με άδειο στομάχι. Πού είναι η μαμά μου?"
(Yes, father. I Can't go on an empty stomach. Where is my mum?)

Εκείνη εξακολουθεί να κοιμάται, Peropo. Ήταν μέχρι χρονοτριβεί για να δει μεγάλο αγόρι της αφήνοντας έξω από το σπίτι, όπως ένα νέο άνθρωπο.
(She is still asleep, Peropo. She was up procrastinating about seeing her big boy leaving out of the house as a new man.)

His father opens up the fridge and pulls out a jug filled with orange juice, grabbing himself a glass and filling it up. He place it back in the fridge and sits down on the kitchen table. Peropo's father wasn't really a morning person honestly, but with those years of fishing early before the rising sun he was able to manage. Peropo lets the omelette, sausage, and bacon cook for a brief moment until flipping them and placing the breakfast on the table. The two of them ate and talk about anything new at the shop and their main goals. His father is planning to set up a small internet cafe area within the shop for those who wish to use the internet for gaming or casual surfing. It should help promote the local shop very nicely. A hour and a half later, after finishing the breakfast, Peropo wash the dishes before grabbing his backpack and leaving out the house. He gets in the car and his father drives him to the Mystic Peak University. Once arrived, he hugged his father and told him "Good Luck!" for his project. The father wished him the same thing and told him:

"Speak to others beside your family for once. You'll need to create a connectivity with someone if you're going for marriage."

He laughed and drove off to work. Peropo shrugged lightly at the comment and began walking towards the entrance way. The time is 09:00 and he's 15 minutes early, but it was a safety precaution of his to be early and on time. He heads into his first class on the second floor of the university, Calculus 201, and sits down on the second row to get a good view of the class board. Five minutes before class starts, the rest of the fellow students come in and took their seats as the professor comes in and begin his session. Peropo began to take notes since this professor got down to the lesson and waited to introduce one another near the end.

{Afternoon 13:30}

After two back-to-back classes from Calculus to Humanities 205, Peropo took the toll of four hour sessions and decided to head over to the cafeteria section of the university. The newly enlisted freshmen orders himself a grilled cheese sandwich with some fish and chips, paying the cashier and chef a total of €8.75. A bit pricey, but from the eavesdropping of hearing others talk about the food being worth the money he might as well give it a shot. He took his meal over to an empty table and sat down, slowly consumes his food bit by bit since he wasn't that hungry, but needed something to help him during the time. During the time, he overhears about some other MMOs from another table. The group was talking about Mabinogi at the moment, conversing about their character total levels and their builds within the game. Peropo swallows his first half of the grilled cheese and continue to eavesdrop himself. In his mind, he was conversing on his own.

"A level 925 with Rank 1 Windmill and Archer Build. Interesting choice, but it does lack the amount of being viable in soloing and training any other abilities due to the strange calculations in the total combat level. Maybe I could join in and ask them about it."

He slowly gets up from the seat and took a few steps towards their table. However, he stops after the fourth step and the fear begins to kick in Peropo. In his mind, he had a visual theory of himself asking them about his own build and they would laugh at him. Granted, there was no right or wrong way into making yourself unique in the MMO world. Yet, at the same time, if one didn't follow the typical meta, then one would be judged instantly as a "n00b" or a "troll". Peropo gulps down his determination and went back to his seat, finishing up the rest of his meal due to his confidence quickly going down the drain. This included the rest of the day as well. Once done, he picks up his backpack and heads out to work at the Tech 'N' Game shop. He's currently done for the day class wise.

{Afternoon 16:30}

At the Tech 'N' Game shop, Peropo is taking the cashier shift for the week since his father is working on setting up the internet cafe section. The section was a bit loud, but nothing too shocking to disrupt the customers. Today is a slow day for the shop anyway since the new AO game has launched and not many people has come to buy any gaming consoles or other PC games. Oh well, Peropo didn't mind it at all. Gave him more time to relax and sort out the shelves. A few moments later, three customers comes in the shop and looked around. He turns around and greet them with their trademark quote. He let out a light smile for them.

"Welcome to Tech 'N' Game! Where we create new technology and bring awesome games! How may I help you?"

One of the customers walk up to the counter and spoke to him upon a request.

"Hello. Would you happen to have a copy Ardermina Online available with the new VR Gear?"

"AO Starter Kit? No problem! We still have about five left on us so consider yourself lucky."

He goes under the cabinet and pulls out the AO Starter Kit bundle box for the customer, placing it on the desk counter and scanning the barcode to reveal the price. The total came up to €60.00.

"The reason why it's €60 is because with the starter pack, you'll start off with a 100% XP and Gold boost for the whole week, the VR Gear included, and you also start off with starter gear for your first character. You're getting much profit for what you're paying for."

"Really? That sounds pretty good. I was very skeptical about buying the game since I rarely play any video games, but a friend of mine suggested it to me."

"Is that so? Well you don't have to worry too much as long as you have some good co-operation with a friend. It makes playing online games much more enjoyable than going solo most of the time."

The customer handed him the Euro to pay for the kit and he placed it in the cash register, adding member points for the payment. He prints the receipt and highlights his name and the survey code.

"Thank you very much! Enjoy your game and if you have the time, then please take a brief survey online to tell us how we did for your shopping experience. When completed you're granted 3000 bonus points that you can use for your next purchase."

He hands the receipt over and bows to the customer, thanking them for their service and asked them to come back again soon. The other two customers left out after conversing about AO is dominating the MMO categories. It is quite surprising that the recently released game is even tackling down League of Legends. And that is free-to-play. Oh well. The rest of the hours were slow until closing time.

{Evening 20:00}

Back at the apartment home, Peropo and the family sat down eating a home cooked dinner. The mother made oven roasted potatoes, zucchini alfredo, and tortilla moo shu pork. She made plenty for the whole week to withstand since she recently became busy with her newfound work at the bakery shop. The family ate their food quietly on the table until his mother broke the silence by asking a question to Peropo.

"Πώς ήταν η πρώτη σου μέρα, Peropo;"
(How was your first day, Peropo?)

"Θα ήταν καλό. Τίποτα δεν είναι πολύ συναρπαστικό."
(It was good. Nothing too exciting.)

"Μήπως κάνετε φίλους;"
(Did you make any friends?)

His father said with a slight smirk on his face, knowing the answer to his question. Peropo shook his head quietly before speaking once more.

"Όχι, δεν έχω. Ίσως μια άλλη φορά."
(No, I haven't. Perhaps another time.)

His mother sighs and put down her fork on the plate, looking at her son with much concern.

"Peropo, τουλάχιστον θα πρέπει να προσπαθήσετε να κάνετε ένα φίλο ή δύο. Ή, ενδεχομένως, μια φίλη;"
(Peropo, at least you should try to make a friend or two. Or possibly a girlfriend?)

"Τώρα, την αγάπη. Δεν υπάρχει καμία ανάγκη να φέρει ότι μέχρι και πάλι."
(Now, love. There is no need to bring that up again.)

"Ζητώ συγγνώμη, αλλά νομίζω ότι ο γιος μας θα πρέπει τουλάχιστον να έχουν μια σχέση με κάποιον. Ακόμη και αν είναι μια απλή γνωριμία."
(I apologize, but I feel that our son should at least have a connection with someone. Even if it is just an acquaintance.)

Peropo gets out of the chair and sighs. His facial expression shows discomfort every single time he is asked this question by his mother or father.

"Μπορώ να φύγω;"
(May I be excused?)

He bows to both of them and leaves out of the kitchen table, heading into his room and closing the door. The door makes a click noise meaning that the room is locked. Peropo cuts on his custom built PC and let the POST Boot do it job. He flops on the bed with his back and looks up. The Windows xDark Custom OS jingle boots up and a AI voice speaks out once loaded. The power of the custom built PC allows it to load many things quite fast and handle many applications smoothly without any slowdowns.

OS AI: "Welcome to xDark, Peropo."

"Start Winamp Shuffle"

He spoke calmly while looking up at the ceiling in his room. The computer starts up the Winamp program and it began to play Eisenfunk - Pong as the first song. His walls were slightly covered with posters from music groups, anime series, and video game maps. There were a few childhood drawings he hung up himself. Mostly noted during his years of growing up on how he wish for friends. He had a UK king sized bed near the doorway, computer system and desk right on the window wall, a 32-inch flatscreen TV with the modern consoles set up on the other corner in his room, and his small collection of model kits posed and shown inside a storage case. Everything would seem nice for an average person, but Peropo didn't feel good at all with materials. He just wish that he could try to make friends in real life. Online it is easy because no one actually knows who you are. A knock comes from the door and it was his father. He lets his father in and the two had a brief conversation about what happened during the table.

After the conversation for about a good five minutes, his father asked if they would like to give AO a shot. He did tell Peropo to try to show him the ropes since he isn't great with the latest games and online play, but he try to manage. He nod to him and told his father to set everything up on his side and we can begin. Gave out a light smile while saying it as well. The father leaves out of his room with the door open. Peropo begins setting up his side and let the system install AO. It took some time because of the updates that the game has to run first before being complete. His mother came in his room by surprise and hugs him from behind, apologizing to him if she did offended him. He smile and shook his head, telling her that nothing went wrong at all.