The Earth After Rebirth

Chapter 8: Head Gear

EA was huge, housing fifteen thousand students per year and accepting five thousand new students every year. The campuses had a lot of departments as well. Each student had their own dorm room. No sharing.

Each room had its own shower. It was only one room not counting the shower room but it was spacious, a bed could be seen in the corner, a book case in front of the sofa, a student desk and a smart TV.

Which was a device that was 5 inches long and thick, you simply pressed it and a big virtual screen appeared. You'd simply swipe left or right to change the channel and since it had a sensor there was no need to touch it.

Each room was packed with this and because they both went to register at the same time, Hiro and Kiro became neighbours. Which they were both grateful for.

Outside the campus grounds was the student town, simply called Student Town. On weekends, many would go there to have fun, go on dates, clubs, buy things they need or want. Ranging from snacks, clothes or tech devices.

Kiro couldn't believe he was here, again. But he was also grateful that it was now before the game was released. His lips curled into a smirk. He knew he'd have to use a portion of the next semester's money to buy the head gear.

Classes still had two weeks to start. The Game had 3 days until it's launch. The next day was a beautiful one, as if they were transported back to the July sun. First night on campus for both boys. Kiro strangely woke up early. Maybe the bed was too soft, it was too comfortable. He was used to his concrete bed. This was new territory, which made him a bit restless.

"Shouldn't these beds be uncomfortable so that we don't sleep in and miss classes? This dorm is a scam." Kiro mumbled to himself.

After waking up, he showered, put on his clothes, went down with Hiro to breakfast.

There was too much variety in foods. For slum rats like them, they weren't used to this many choices. Hence they just stood there, having difficulties processing their dilemma. They had no idea what they wanted to order, so they kind of ordered each of everything.

Kiro sighed. Rembering how he scolded Loki, but now he was doing the same thing. 'I guess siblings aren't too different after all.'

The staff looked at them like they were crazy. And to be honest, they were, mixing all these kinds of foods wasn't good but it didn't look like that bothered them at all.

They were poor, so they wanted to take advantage of this 'order whatever you want' style buffet, they don't get to eat like this back home, they don't get to eat like Kings at all.

Eating every bit of the food made them the topic of the whispers as usual, dorms were mixed, girls and boys, so it wasn't a surprise that there were some girls at the cafeteria, who were the main source of the whisperings.

There were a total of 45 dorm buildings, each campus with 15 and each building housing around 330 students. That's how big this place was. Naturally, the scrubs sat alone. It looked like they were the only ones from the lower district in this dorm building, so naturally they had the table all to themselves.

After breakfast, Kiro convinced Hiro to accompany him to student town. He was sceptical, but he agreed in the end.

They walked to the station just outside the campus gates, the security told them, even though the school hadn't officially started. The curfew was 10pm, not only will you sleep outside if you're late, you'll also be punished severely. How strict.

Kiro never went to student town in his past life, he didn't have the courage of using his tuition fees as he did now, so without money to spend he never set foot there. He only ever ordered school supplies from there, and they were delivered to him.

It took 10 minutes for the train to get to the student town. Hiro and Kiro's mouths were open wide if it were the slums a fly would've surely went in. The scene was mesmerising. 'This was, isn't this a whole city?'

Sky scrapers, Billboards, 3D screens advertising things. They had never seen these kinds of 3D screens, the people inside of them seemed to be able to walk or jump from one screen to another. It was a beautiful illusion.

They were just rooted there in place, for like 2 minutes, staring at the cleanliness and beautiful architecture in awe.

Coincidentally, the big screen was advertising the VRMMORPG Asgard Online: Fallen Heroes.

'Asgard, the home of gods and fallen heroes. Even fallen heroes stand up to fight, do you dare pick up your weapon?'

This was the coolest ad they've ever seen. It was visually pleasing, everything here was. Hiro's eyes started to water. Kiro wanted to tell him 'I know man, I know'

Instead he shook him out of his stupor with the words,

"Let's buy head gears and play Asgard Online together."

Hiro looked at Kiro incredulously, as if he had just spoken the most ridiculous thing and Kiro understood. He was basically telling them to court the prettiest, richest girl in this academy.

But Kiro was adamant to be listened to, he wanted to make his case. He wanted to convince his new friend. He wanted both of them to make it out of the lower district. 'I know the future' he thought to himself. Though he couldn't really tell him that.

They were poor. They had no business wanting something that cost 100k creds. They couldn't as much as rob a bank. That was a useless endeavour. You'd think virtual banks would be easier to break into. Not in Sanctauri. The security was insanely tight. It was made to not have a single weakness, so it didn't.

"Are you insane? We can't afford that. Head gear is like 100k creds, EACH." The stress he put on the 'each' made Kiro almost feel bad for the word. Hiro wasn't done, so he continued, "I could earn that, only in my pipe dreams. There's just no way. No way." He added matter-of-factly.

'Good, at least he knows the price of the gaming gear. Meaning even though he can't afford it, he's been eyeing and obsessing over it. Now all I have to do is make my case sound like convincing nonsense.'

Kiro smirked, he was definitely going to manipulate him. He had to, otherwise he'd remain poor.

"We have money for next semester, we could borrow from there and work out a plan. Come on man." Kiro pleaded.

Anybody walking by could tell Hiro was tempted by something, they could tell he was about to be scammed or something close to that. When he thought about how hard his parents worked to send him here. He was painfully dragged back to reality. His expression went from dreamy to unconvinced.

"We can play for 5 months and if we don't come up with a plan, we can always resell them for 90k creds and take a loan or work for the 10k creds. This is a sweet deal. We can always return it if it doesn't work out." He told his friend, trying to convince him.

Originally Kiro didn't plan on including him in this endeavour, but seeing as they're both dirt poor. They both needed this more than anyone knows.

Hiro looked at Kiro and licked his lips. He closed his eyes turning his back on him. He, looked up at the sky, put his pale skeletal-like finger on his pink lips, opened one eye. Making a thinking face. He then tilted his head and stared at Kiro once more.

'Holy sh*t, I have a pretty dramatic friend.' Kiro thought, holding down laughter.

"Are you sure this is going to work? Well if you say so, lead the way." He said, tried as he did to hide the excitement from his voice, anybody with ears could hear it.

Kiro was left speechless. He could only burst out laughing.

"Come on Hiro, let's go be rich for one day."

"Mum's going to be pretty happy when I tell her I made a friend here. Thanks for being my friend Kiro." He said abruptly, which caught Kiro off-guard.

Kiro shook his head, "You're my friend too, no need for thanks."

"Although she would beat you senseless if she found out about your idea." Hiro laughed at this, he realised how easily conversations flowed with Kiro. He felt grateful he found someone he could be comfortable around.

"My parents would either watch or join in."

They chatted and laughed about different scenarios Kiro would be in until they reached the VR shop.

They entered and browsed through. There was just one lady at the counter. Unlike everybody else in this place, she didn't look at them like they're the four horseman. Which both boys appreciated.

They got the Head Gear they came for. Luckily it was 10% off. Since they had planned on spending 100k creds, they decided to even pre-order the game. So that when it comes out, it would be automatically installed in their head gears.

They checked out and the lady said, "Thank you for your patronage."

Hiro clasped his hands together and bowed and as though Kiro was hypnotised, he followed suit. Hiro looked at him like he was an idiot, Kiro gave him a 'she's the first person here to treat us like people, let me do whatever I want' look.

They wanted to go back, but they couldn't. They had to buy snacks. And the expensive kind of chocolate bars, just for today they thought. 'Don't we deserve a treat for registering successfully?' They thought.

Just then, Kiro's mother called, a video call too. If it was Kiro from the previous life, he would've ignored the call. Sighing deeply,

"Hello M… Family?"

They were all talking at the same time. Some were asking why was he already breaking his promise of calling every day.

Some were asking if he was settling in okay, Some were asking about a black rose.

First she wanted a rose, now it had to be black? Kiro couldn't help but laugh at how cute she was being.

"I'm sorry everyone, I was gonna call but registration took a long time and well I was tired after that so I had to sleep." He lied, when he realised they weren't buying it, he quickly continued, "today I came to check out the student town, with my friend Hiro. Hiro come say Hi."

Hiro was extremely hesitant, but he came and greeted. Now Kiro's family's attention was on him. 'Diversion successful.' Kiro thought with a smirk.

They asked him a lot of questions, turns out Hiro lived 20 minutes away from where they come from and yet they have never even met, not even once. The universe was a mysterious place.

After promising that both of them will study hard, they ended the call.

"Your family is great. Quite lively too."

"You have no idea!"

Kiro was curious about something so he asked. "That day on the train, why didn't you ride at your station?"

"Woke up late," He laughed at how idiotic he was. He was so used to the alarm that he could sleep through it. "I had to run from my station to yours."

Kiro wanted this to be a serious moment because they wouldn't have met if the train left him. But his guts twisted, as he was laughing hard.

"So," He said, in-between laughs, "do I have to wake you up every morning?"

"I'd appreciate it." He said with the biggest grin.

Kiro shook his head as they entered the candy shop. They walked to the most luxurious looking section, the most expensive chocolate bar they had was 20k creds. They almost choked on their saliva. What the actual hell? Their egos were deflated right then and there.

At the end they went to the cheapest snacks, bought plenty too, all kinds for 100 creds. 2 hours had passed, the day was still young they could stay for a few hours longer but they decided to leave student town. If they stayed, they'd end up using all of this tuition.

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