My day started like any other, I had just woken up at dawn and laid in bed for about 30 minutes before I finally got up.
Finally rising, I brushed my teeth and then got dressed for my meeting.
All was well and I grabbed a coffee in a to-go cup as well as a granola bar to eat on my way out.
I was halfway to walking down the hallway of my apartment complex when I heard a familiar voice calling from behind me.
I turned around and saw my neighbor and friend, John.
"Hey, Dan," he said with one of his trademark smiles. "Where are you going?"
"I am getting ready for a job interview, why are you doing?" I said
John, still smiling, replied "I was just heading out for a walk, mind if I tag along?"
I nodded my head and we were off. It took about 20 minutes of walking before we reached the bus stop, and we waited until it showed. We rode for an hour before we got to our destination. We made our way to the front doors, then entered the small office building.
I was here to attempt to get an IT job, as I had with countless other places. While the wait for my turn for the interview was long, the actual interview itself was quite short, they asked my name and the standard questions one would expect, then said they would keep in touch. Unfortunately I heard this same spiel many times, often it was not true, A certain someone made it impossible to get a job.
2 years ago I worked at a company, Null-Mind Labs, it was a VR company that made the most cutting edge VR technology. I worked IT as a network technician, making sure the company servers were always online. Usually a position like this meant I had a great resume, but I angered one of the sons of the company founder in a silly argument.
The idiot decided his great invention, that would put him on par with his dad and older brother, was a "bagel printer". He made it available in the VR world to "revolutionize breakfast in the meta verse". I aptly pointed out that people can already just pop things into existence in VR, and mentioned how his last great project nearly broke the servers. He was not a fan of my…anti-bagel work environment.
My feud with a higher up at my last job ended with him threatening that I would never get a job in this city, and 2 1/2 months of unemployment later I am beginning to think he was not exaggerating.
I thanked the interviewer for their time and left, finding John waiting in the lobby.
"How did it go?" He asked.
"It went fine, lets get out of here." I replied.
He could tell from my glum look that I was not any closer to getting a job than I had been for months.
"Hey before you go home let's grab a bite."
We had a nice lunch, and he paid of course considering I was not exactly made of money at the moment, but he was a kind guy like that.
Finally after leaving the place we ate at John said "So you wanna hit up the arcade or something?"
"No thanks, I will just take a bus home, I am kind of depressed after the interview."
I trudged off and waited at a bus stop for 20 minutes before getting on.
On the ride home I took out my phone and readied myself for the ride home. An hour later I was home and ready
I was ready to check out my favorite VR visual novel "Tales of the final lightbringer".
It was a long running novel with over 900 chapters, and I followed it all the way. Some dropped it in the first few chapters due to the weak willed simp MC.
So the author overcompensated and made him extremely cruel, and so many more dropped it. This book bounced from change to change while it bled readers all the way.
It was honestly a dumpster fire of a story, but a very entertaining one at that. You could never quite know what the author would pull. Especially with you in the front seat every bit of drama, and every fight felt much more engaging than if it were a standard novel.
Today, however, was the release of the final chapter meant as an epilogue and final wrap up of the story. I climbed into my VR pod, one given to any IT worker of Null-Mind Labs for free if they worked there for at least two years.
I began to immerse into the story and was surprised to see that everything was actually well wrapped up considering how crazy and character filled the story was. While the chapters were a little longer than usual, it felt strangely well written.
In the end I checked the comments to see I was the sole person to actually make it to the end, the last other reader not having checked in to finish the final chapter. I decided to leave a review after having not done so until now.
[HeroicFlame2055]: I have to admit, despite all that this series did wrong, it was a fun ride and it had a decent end. I don't have much in the way of critique, but this was a series full of soul and the author tried their best. 5/5 stars!
[Unterwelt420]: Thank you HeroicFlame for reading the entire series and giving a review, I am happy so see that someone finished it. I made this for people to enjoy, even if only one made it to the end I am happy.
I felt this was oddly kind for the author, he had often gotten into fights pretending he didn't care about criticism before he inevitably changed the story yet again over a comment or review. I had always wondered what caused him to have such a low self-esteem, but I decided to try and be friendly as a final interaction.
[HeroicFlame2055]: Nice to hear, thank you for your hard work and the interesting world you have written, what will you do now? Will you write another series or will you take a break from writing?
[Unterwelt420]: I got something awesome I have been working on but I am afraid you will call me crazy.
I was curious now, he had to know what the author was talking about.
[HeroicFlame2055]: I promise I won't call you crazy (smile emoji), please share what you are working on brother.
[Unterwelt420]: I found out how to create pocket meta-worlds, or rather, use my work as a conduit to trap someone.
Wow he wasn't lying when he said I would think he was crazy. But considering I had nothing better to do I decided to humor him.
[HeroicFlame2055]: Really? What will you do with it, I hope you won't curse you greatest fan with being sent to another world.
[Unterwelt420]: Of course not, I plan to test it on some jerk that bullied me in highschool and force him into a character destined to die lol (devil emoji).
Wow this guy was actually nuts, I had to know more.
[HeroicFlame2055]: So who is this guy you wanna curse, what did he do to you.
[Unterwelt420]: Oh it was some jerk who used to use me as a bread shuttle, his name was Daniel.
Uh oh….this wasn't looking good. Yeah the dude was crazy but this vaguely started to match up with my own actions in highschool. I was definitely a jerk but I honestly regretted it, I am a way better person now!
[HeroicFlame2055]: Brother it is unhealthy to hold grudges like that, even if you could somehow magically curse someone, you have to think about the big picture. If it is current they are just a kid, if it was long ago they are a whole new person.
[Unterwelt420]: First of all I am not crazy, I am already in the middle of the process, that jerk will start seeing lights outside his home world in the meta verse any minute now. Second, who cares about the big picture, he didn't care about my own situation either!
I squinted as bright beams of light began shining through my virtual window, this was not looking good. Is this guy for real? I quickly checked his menu, only to find the logout button missing, and settings greyed out.
[HeroicFlame2055]: Honestly if we are being candid, is it really equal to kill someone over a whirly or two.
Unterwelt took a while to reply, and I almost thought he would never respond.
[Unterwelt420]: They are called swirly whirlies by most, some shorten them to swirlies, but only one person I know ever called them whirlies.
The light outside my room was so bright it hurt to look at, the papers and items in my room flew around like a wind was picking up. I finally remembered the physical failsafe, the door. I ran to it to attempt logout that method but it was shut tight.
[Unterwelt420]: I caught you jerk, but its better this way. I wonder how long you will last Daniel. (smiley emoji).
The light turned everything white, then it was all dark.