Eye Candy - My Superstar System

First Time Seeing Ivories?!?

Tuesday, 21st February 2017 0200hrs

Right after I had written down whatever Sue had informed me, I finished up my meal and right after that, I went to the shelter. I didn’t store my cash over at the locker since I would be needing them in the day to open a bank account.

After I had verified with Sue, all I need is a name to link to my account and I would be given a Debit card that could be used for withdrawal globally. There are no other surcharges, whatsoever. I was glad when I knew about it since, in the real world, there would be at least 5 quid surcharge if any withdrawal is being made anywhere else besides the UK, Scotland and Ireland.

“Hi Laura, good morning to you. I just finished a long shift, is there anything for me or shall I take my leave and rest till 7 am tomorrow?” I asked Laura who was manning the front door, as usual, to wait for destitute that come in late like me.

“Oh, there’s nothing for now. Everyone here is asleep already. You may rest up before volunteering once you wake up at 7 am then.”

I nodded in appreciation and I went to my naked bed where initially there’s a plyboard lining the metal springs. But now there is a pillow and a blanket for me. I removed my shoes, ensured that the cash is kept deep inside my pocket before I turn in for the night.

That night was the most peaceful sleep I ever had in two days!

The next day, I was given some toiletries. Bless Sue and the rest of the volunteers and I went to wash myself up. After that, the toiletries were placed inside one plastic bag and it was tied to the metal frame of the naked bed.

“There would be some mattress coming in today so I would reserve one for you, alright?” Sue came to me and announce the piece of good news. Not that I want to complain but every time I moved on the plyboard, the bed would creak and I am afraid it might disturb other occupiers.

“Appreciate it so much, Sue. By the way, here’s a ten for blessings. I would give more on coming Sunday, would that be alright?” I passed Sue 10 quid and she gladly accepts it and she wrote down in her notebook on voluntary contributions.

“This 10 quid may look like nothing but then it would be able to feed 4 people for a whole day if used conservatively. Thank you, Matthew. Go ahead and have breakfast and you could help around here as you wish!”

I thanked her and went to the makeshift dining place to have my breakfast when I had an urge to enter the games room which some of the destitute spends the nights there. Once after I had finished eating, I cleaned my table up and went to the games room.

The games room was quite bare, except for a pinball machine, a foosball table, an upright piano and the radiator that Laura was telling me about.

Wait…Back up a bit here.

AN UPRIGHT PIANO!

I wondered if the piano is working fine so I went over there and removed the cover and I found that all the ivories are there. The keys are in good working condition as well and I wondered if the keys are quite alright. Given my current gaming status, I do not know s**t on how to maintain it, how to play it even!

I simply had lost touch on how to play the piano which I was accustomed to since I have one, plus a Korg MIDI synthesizer and an AX-Synth Roland Keytar! I looked at the piano keys like I was a fool or something and when I pressed a key down, I do not know what key I had pressed! I was TOTALLY LOST!

Laura heard the key being pressed inside the games room and found me gawking at it like as if I was mesmerised by the sound of the single note that I had pressed earlier…! “Hey, is there anything the matter?”

“Not really, it seems that I had lost touch in everything that I am used to playing. I used to play the piano and I have one back home, plus a modular keyboard which I would let one of my mem… Oh, never mind. It’s a long story now or maybe the story is non-existant at the moment. Besides, this is the MMORPG Popstars! Right?”

Laura was looking at me weirdly and said she had never heard of MMORPG Popstars! Before and was wondering if I had eaten something wrong earlier for breakfast.

“Eh? Is there something wrong here? This is supposed to be the MMORPG – Popstars! But then it turned out that Laura doesn’t even hear about it. Does it mean that this world is real within a virtual one?” I wanted to ask Sue but I push it aside at the moment since I had the wad of napkins with me since last night and its high time for me to open a bank account first.

The wad of paper napkins is important for me to reassess what Sue had informed me last night and it would take some time for me to absorb it and put it to work. Besides, putting money in a bank account is much better than leaving it lying around.

I excused myself as I went to do about my housekeeping duties and I can’t help to think about this real-world within a virtual one thingy. Sue was there and she interacted with me since I was alone and was holding on to a broom and dustpan and moving about looking for dirt or dust!

“So this is considered as a real-world to everyone, right? Don’t they realise something off? I mean the players that appear here are all wearing the same outfit when I came here on the first day. Besides, don’t tell me that they do not realise that this is a virtual world or something?”

“Oh, I forgot to highlight to you. All those people whom you think are real people are NPC which stands for Non-Player Character. They have little to no impact on the real players that are playing in this MMORPG – Popstars!”

“Besides, remember the one that you wanted to borrow a few quid from? That’s a player and only a player has the mentality to talk and move about autonomously. Others are considered as programmed and they acted almost human-like but they are NPC. Just like the police.”

I now realised that Laura is an NPC and the same goes to Mr Aziz, the customers and nearly everyone out there.

“But the players can buy their clothes and blend in like the NPC, am I right?”

“Yes, they can, Matthew. Same goes to you. The moment you don that red polo t-shirt, you are just like one of the volunteer NPCs. This MMORPG does not have a name or ID hovering over one’s head to indicate that he is a player. That is one thing the developer did not place that into this MMORPG and made the game as realistic as possible.”

“So when can I see the system and see my progress?” I asked since I was eager to see the progress and at least could give me some hints and tips along the way. The only thing I could see is my name and my health status and where I am employed and how much I earn per hour including overtime pay. The band name is there and I had appointed myself as the bandleader and that’s it. There is nothing else when I tried to access my name within the band since the option is greyed out.

“Blimey! Hope I could access sooner. I was simply worried since I was gawking at the piano as if it’s the first time I had seen those white and black keys!”