Visionless Reality

Four

        Instead of sleeping, Safina and I spent the whole night at the edge of the hill park, that was kind-of equidistant from our house. The stars, surrounded by the florescent pink breeze, looked appealing. It was the most silent night, with the music of upcoming fortune. I looked into her eyes and she looked into my soul. Her eyes flaunted the reflections of the beauty the nature acquires. I was gone into the depths of her eye. Each shiny reflection, was attracting me, like summoning me to lower her burdens and take her to the land of never ending happiness. Each time I winked, I was falling for her, more than ever. The reflections in her eyes were more clearly visible than before. I was going to dive in the green ocean with the abundance of loneliness. It was like dropping infinitely towards nowhere, surrounded by the mirrors. Mirrors… reflecting my emotions, my pleasures, my past, and the shadow. Mirrors… getting smaller as I approached them. But I followed her words- ‘Breathe in, breathe out, free the brain, omit the doubt.’ I followed her, and ended up squeezing the blanket in my arms, as tight as I can. I struggled to take a look around and… I was awake, in my house.

        8:34… I woke up earlier than usual and I was happy for that. Although I did not have anything important to do, I was feeling relieved. Really, having someone by your side, always feel different. My text phone pinged. It was Safina, reminding me about the gaming session. I always played a few matches before playing with Safina, so that I may have better scores than her. But no matter how patiently I play, she was always able to beat my score and I was jealous of her. So, to get a taste of gaming before the real match, I gathered my senses and all the gadgets, plugged them into my gaming rig and started the program. Someone pinged me on the phone and that was Kanei.

‘Yo buddy, how was the date?’-Kanei.

‘Date? Which one?’

‘Blushing huh! I know… you and Safina… candle light dinner! I know dude.’-Kanei.

‘Then you must be knowing that we are having these so called dates for 2 years. I do not consider this as a date. That was just a get together dinner. Anyways, are you up for a match?’

‘Anytime for a gaming session. Nobody can stop me.’- Kanei.

        We played some of the matches and we discovered a new strategy. Kanei was good at making plans and not only making them, but actually implementing them. He was the one who planned to bunk the school for 3 days… continuously… just to practice for an inter-school gaming competition. I found the honest person in him after this event. We seriously practiced for hours till our eyes start straining. He made some serious strategies for reaching the victorious medal to the gaming competition, and we won that thing. It was our first achievement in the field of gaming. After that, I continued going along with his plans and we continued winning all the matches until we found Mushy. He was extremely noisy while playing games. Not in the means of audio, but in the means of tactics he used. He was curious to c***k every strategy, teams used while gaming. It was the first time we lost a match not only once, but each time he was in our lobby. Kanei tracked him and befriended him, which made us a better team.

10:54… ‘Okay guys, time for some showdown! Safina will be live in a few minutes and we will play your favourite, no, our favourite game… COD.’

‘We will, we will… rock you!’-Kanei.

‘Akashi… there is a parcel for you.’-Mom.

‘Keep it with you mom, I’ll collect it after the match.’

        And we played for hours, lost in time. There was a moment while gaming, when I thought that I was wasting my time, having fun with these people, who actually did not have any future plans. I remember how I used to scribble down all my dreams and the things I wanted to achieve in my life, and then forget about them in a few days. I have never been confident and focused on my path ever. I realised that the gut thing inside me, was missing. I tried to overcome my fear of losing by actually starting a gaming channel but each time I looked at it; I feel like going down. Like no one wants to see me playing. Although I was famous amongst my community and the followers, but still, I always felt inferior when confronting Trisma, the god of gaming community. I envied him sometimes but most of the times, I felt great for him for he survived all that, before me.

        Ending the match, leaving the room, I stumbled upon a wooden box. A box, that was packed like a PUBG crate. I was amazed to see such thing in reality.

‘Mom… Did you keep this box up in front of my room?’

‘Yes dear! The same box is the parcel I received this morning. I thought it would be wise of me to deliver it to your room for you were too busy with your work. Anything else my master?’-Mom.

‘I am sorry mom; the squad was online. Will be there for dinner.’

‘It is grateful of you master… addressing me with such a prestigious tag. Ha ha… you can continue. I was just messing around!’-Mom.

        Mom was acting like I’ve quarantined myself for hours. O shoot… It was 17:12 already and I’ve been playing this whole time. My body was under serious strain and I was feeling numb. I decided to bedrest right after the dinner. But the idea of laying down again, haunted me. Despite of all the terrifying memories, I laid down and started diverting my mind towards the happy memories that happened to me in the past. I gradually fell asleep. This time, I did not encounter any of the dreams that used to flash during my unconsciousness. I enjoyed a long pleasant sleep, and it was relaxing.

        As I woke up, my eyes fell on the wooden crate that was lying beside my bed. It gave me an appealing look, provoking me to open it. I, being attracted towards it, finally decided to open it. The sticker on the box, with my name and the address, was a bit different. The sender’s address was unidentifiable. ‘Spot-199 Block-24, Nation-A’ from ‘Asahi United Corporation’. Neither heard of the company, nor ever seen such a weird address. But overall, the packaging was interesting. I was anxious to know what mystery lies inside. Removing the sticker, I tried hard to open the box with bare hands, but it was actually sealed with nails. Pliers, and crowbars were required for the job and I rushed to my garage for the same. Gathering the instruments, the box opened wide with a creaky noise, and to my surprise, there rested something… something that was wrapped up in bubble wrap, of a different kind. Never seen before. I cut through the wrap and opened the package, and there were gloves. Gloves which were thick and seemed very skeptical. They were not heavy, but they were padded with some light material. Next package revealed a pair of headphones. Very premium, black matte finish and were light. They were made of carbon fiber and the cushion was soft like those of the high end audio professional gadgets. I plugged them into my mobile phone to check the sound quality and I actually got goosebumps. They instantly became my favorite headsets.

        Being satisfied with these gadgets, my hopes peaked for the last package in the crate. It was a VR headset. Although it had some steampunk vibes, I loved their shape. They looked like refurbished due to some smudges on the headband but they were totally flawless. The thing that made it different from other VR headsets, was the idea of turning a helmet into a VR headset. All these peripherals were made to extract power through the case that was at the base of the crate. The case was made of high quality metal, and it was totally sealed. I tried to figure out the peripherals inside that case but I was unable to find any piece of screw or any kind of, or plugs which I can detach to open up the case. Instead, I found some pin size holes, which seemed to be like screws but more advanced. My heart was pumping fast to try the console so I connected the case to the main power supply. The plug was firm and the cable was thick and braided. Such premium stuff could only be seen in the sci-fi movies. Connecting the case, and all the peripherals with the it, I discovered that the VR headset was to be connected at the back of the case for power supply, and the headphones to the jack in the VR headset. My first experience wearing the headset was different from common headsets. It fit snug on my head, leaving no part of the head uncovered. The VR screen viewed the configuration tab of the whole gaming setup, and that was very descriptive. It helped me join all the pieces to start the gaming journey. Although it was my first encounter with this gaming rig, I tried to discover its each and every aspect. With the knowledge of this rig, I would be able to post the best blog of my life.

        It took me several hours to study and configure the rig but still, I was unable to start the game. It crashed every time I tried to run it without any error prompts. I got all the peripherals connected, the rig connected to the internet, checked all the configurations of the platform, global settings and everything that can obstruct in the game launch but still, it was not working. After many trials and errors, I did the game version update and voila! It worked. All that the game required, were the latest updates and the security patches. Now, to save the game progress, I required some cloud space to save the files. For that purpose, authentication was required and to my surprise, the most popular authenticating service, google login was missing. Instead I have to manually sign up for the platform. It was so time consuming… selecting every key from the virtual keyboard, using VR controller and gradually filling up the details of the form. It was irritating. Filling the form, I ended up being so tired that all of my interest of gaming was lost instantly. I was going to quit the game when I heard some sound. The addicting sound of a theme song. A ray of hope was visible from the black clouds of disappointment. I was happy that at the end, my hard work paid. And there was the game. ‘Sponsored by Thesis Gaming rig’, ‘Asahi United presents’ ‘Arms: Survive the forces’. Well the intro animation was cool enough to make anyone, a die-hard fan but wait… ‘The graphics are alien. This is not possible. They are so real like I am actually standing with the armed forces. I would actually look good in this costume. The main menu itself is very much appealing, like I would sit here for the whole game. And the music… so cinematic. The audio professionals must have worked really hard for this, in fact every person who helped creating this game has done a great job. I really have a gut feeling that this company must be having the most awesome gaming crew in the world. Also, I can presume that the story is going to be incredible. But why is there not a single word of this gaming rig in the news or the technology world?’ I was confused.