The next day after preparing himself after eating breakfast and taking shower, he received a text message from Dave:
DR_Death - ('Grats on that new game bud, come down here at the building complex where I invited you once to fix a hoverboard. Tell me asap so I can help you. cya.)
MarkuZzo7 - (Got it, better be something good with my great mood from buying the game yesterday.)
DR_Death - (Oh it'll be worth your time. Trust me.)
Markus read his messages and is looking forward later in the evening. But for now, he has to do another work shift down the delivery company for the day.
After the duration of his shift, Markus drove to the location Dave pinged at the GPS application when the sun is going down.
Markus looked both sides of the road for any vehiclr passing by before meeting Dave Infront of the sidewalk.
They welcomed and hugged before telling Markus to follow him behind a worn-down back door in the massive old building infront of them.
Once the doors creaked to open, it is what Markus expected to look like, just any other abandoned place. This gave Markus a curious doubt since last time he got here, everything used to contain normal workshop equipments. Yet, it somehow aged a decade in such a short time.
"Anything that happened? Why does it look different now?" Markus asked Dave as both walked to a specific broken crate that looked like its about to crumble again any minute now.
"Well, I had other plans, you'll see soon enough." Dave said with a grin as he walked near a crate almost covered with a brokem tarpaulin.
Dave then pulled a little lever on the bottom side of the crate, making a abanoned shelve nearby creak. It revealed a dimly-lighted hallway. Dave signaled Markus to go inside, om which he followed soon after to close the entrance.
They walked inside and the corridors slowly revealed a sort of cozy home filled with everything needed to live normally.
Markus was astonished a bit and saw what Dave was talking about earlier . A whole rig, a smaller workshop that has a half-built VR rig being built on it, and a bed and couch not too far near the corridors.
Dave then finally spoke go Markus, "I know you would need to buy a whole expensive second-hand rig that needs tons of cash, but I remember I had a decent one before getting the good one there."
"So, I'm willing to sell it to you by 150 bucks. Trust me, Ill make sure that 150 is well spent by me fixing every problem I can see on this rig with the money." Dave told his friend with a understanding tone rarely seen from his otherwise big-guy attitude.
He knew Markus dealt with poor living since they were childhood friends and wanted to give him a chance to finally break free of that. He recognized Markus's innate ability to calculate decisively in silence and win alot of strategic games back when they were young.
He knew Markus had the potential, just that life gave him an unfortunate situation for now.
As Dave took his cash and gave him the bowl of snacks he prepared for him. He then started gleefully talking about the game,"Glad you took the chance to buy SS Online."
"Didn't tell you earlier but a massive update is coming later in a few hours. Everyone even me is excited about it. It's about to bring alotta good stuff I can't miss obtaining 'cause those things are only gonna be event-exclusive only."
Markus pondered and realized this logic too because of news headline about in-game items bring sold as real cash. Markus then asked Dave the bigger question he cant assume even from watching video online about the game,"Is the game really that hard?"
Dave pondered for awhile then smiled at him, "Thats for you to answer later."
Markus nagged him once again, but Dave gave him the same answer. But Dave eventually gave in.
"You wan't an scenario How long will your ship survive a direct blow on your reactor or engines, maybe seconds? Minutes? Hours? Will you be lucky it doesn't blow up and lose your progress?"
The short answer from Dave gave Markus the cold answer that the game may not be so simple after all, he all assumed is that its purely action and no realism.
Markus then again took some of the snacks off the bowl and nervously inquired his last question while eating ,"How long before I can truly learn the game?"
Dave looked at him and started laughing, "Ah! took you so long asking the real questions, hahahaha! Alright, seriously, from what I've experienced and most too is just a week for just the basic things. Then a few months of constantly playing and learning to "know" the entire game's general idea and function. Just play the game regularly and you'll see."
Now that Marcus got his answer, both talked a little more a about other things like new cars and games for hours until Dave told Markus its only a half a hour until the massive update and event goes live.
"Ah, its 9:30 pm. 30 minutes until everyone decides to explode again the game's servers like last time." Dave uttered with excitement and anticipation.
"Unfortunately, I'm not gonna play with you for now as Im fixing your rig." He expressed with a hint of dissatisfaction. "Don't worry, you can use my rig there and I can guide you if your really stuck. Im going to watch your screen but ill be wuiet until I see something problematic. Okay?"
Markus nodded and reassured Dave that he's ready to take the difficulty of the game if it solves the question of "How fun can it be later on?"
Both shortly heard the chime and robotic voice of the game starting, marking Markus's huge journey is starting ahead.
"I see, then its time." Markus anticipated.
[[HELLO USER, WELCOME TO SS ONLINE. WOULD YOU LIKE TO LOG-IN TO AN EXISTING ACCOUNT OR REGISTER ONE? ACCOUNTS REGISTERED AT OUR WEB PORTAL CAN BE USED ALREADY TO EXISTING ACCOUNT OPTION, THANK YOU!]]
Markus pressed the log-in and entered his credentials. The system took some verification left and right to prove it was Markus for future log-ins and account protection from possible data breaches or hacking incidents.
As he logged in, he was presented to make a character om the character selection.
"I thought earlier was the account thingy already!" Markus said disappointedly as he started registering and thinking of what he might put as his character's username.
Dave uttered, "Oh right about that, it'll be important later on why we got character selections! Imagine having another account for specializing one thing only such as mining and one for doing combat only."
"It just means that you don't even have to bother having to spend alot of time leveling up the account for a specific role. Instead, you can switch anytime to both without having to! Though, im not stopping you to be skilled in many aspects. People love to surprise people with this element of surprise."
Markus nodded, "Selecting skill points, aaaand done. Now what I should name this account, Markuz04 or M04?" Markus said directed to Dave for guidance.
Dave immediately replied,"I'd say M04. You really can't use your real name bro. Your heavily underestimating the danger of stalking and doxxing on real life.And also, M04 sounds safer and kinda more aggresive."
Markus pondered and accepted it his response as valid. He was shortsighted on what consequence using his first name when someone might have a negative keen interest with him on the future.
Markus then entered M04 and a password, Dave obviously would see it but Markus said to note it incase he might need some help on account problems or testing.
And soon as he hit the the enter button the robotic voice powers up again.
[[WELCOME M04, LOADING TUTORIAL SCENARIO....]]