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Video Games. My favorite hobby. If I’m not playing games, I’m either eating, in school, or working. Yeah, I have a job. We sell consoles, games, figures, headphones, and basically anything a fellow gamer would require for maximum enjoyment on his or her game.

My name is Daniel Parker and I was born on May 16th 2025. I am a Senior in high school. But I don’t actually go to school. I attend online through Virtual Reality. Two people made this possible. It’s a lot of history. From 1987 to 2038. Their names were Jason and Thomas Roberts. They were brothers.

They lived in a family where money wasn’t a problem. They were rich. The two brothers decided that they wanted to start a company. Specifically for video games. They loved video games. Jason was also into tabletop games, like Dungeons and Dragons or Warhammer or Pokemon. He tried to get Thomas into them and he showed interest. Just not as much as Jason had.

They started off with jobs at this old company called GameStop. They bought from there and worked there. They learned more about games and gained a better understanding about their purposes. Video games are made to help you escape reality, Jason always said. That’s the thinking that birthed his greatest triumph.

VARS was created. Virtual Augmented Reality Servers. It started off with only being capable of holding up to a few hundred players. Then, it grew into something larger. It was filled with pop culture references. Star wars, Marvel, DC, Halo, Destiny, Mario and just about any movie or show or game the brothers have heard of, watched, or played on a daily basis. It can now hold almost 2 billion players at one time! It was revolutionary!

Then, the passing of a titan. Jason Roberts had died of colon cancer. He had been fighting it for 8 years. He lost the battle. But he knew he was going to die. So he set up a challenge for us. A Contest of Champions, he called it.

He said that the prize was 1.5 trillion dollars! Yes, he was a rich man. One of the richest people in the world, along with his brother. At first, I thought that his fortune would go to his brother. Everyone did. But they had separated. They had a disagreement of some sort. Nobody knows what happened. Thomas refused to say anything about it. So he now lives with his wife, Laura, in California.

The contest has been around since he died, 2038. It has been almost 5 years since. And NOBODY has figured out the first challenge. On Jason’s website, jasonroberts.com, he put a video that was set to release when he died. He went over almost everything I already mentioned. There are 3 stages. Basically 6 because you need the key and the gate to pass on to the next challenge.

Most people would team up and form teams, or clans, to find the keys and the gates. Somehow, they agreed to share the profits of whatever lies beyond the 3rd and final challenge, besides the money, obviously they’ll share that.

His video became one of the most popular and most viewed in the world. He made the contest very difficult. VARS is a huge place. Full of hidden secrets. He left behind a clue at the end of the video:

In order to know the future,

We must study our past.

If you do not,

You shall not pass

Nobody seemed to be able to figure this out. I couldn’t either. I was either too busy or I just didn’t have the brain power to figure it out. Whatever the case, I have to find out. I have a good reason. Not for the money. But because there is another company seeking to control VARS and change everything we love about it. Adding fees to login, pay-if you don’t have it-to own it, adding ads, making things more expensive. It’d be a horrible place. Just like reality.

The world nearly ended. Inflation. War. Nuclear Power Plants blowing up. Some cities, states even, got full of radiation from those plants and pollution. It’s a horrible place. VARS is what makes it bearable.

The company is called OASIS Studios. They started off making stories and short films and suddenly grew into this large empire. They produce movies, books, comic books, games, figures. I would know because I have to sell some of their products. It’s insane. They are insane. And every VARS player knows it. And we have to prevent them from taking VARS and turning it into a game for the rich and powerful.

. . .

I wake up every morning to my good robot friend Jerry. He notifies me of everything. Messages, calls, emails, any form of request, and anything else worth knowing ASAP.

“Good morning, sir”, Jerry said

“Morning, Jerry”, I responded.

Normally, I would wake up to the amazing smell of breakfast. But that was before my parents died. My dad died in a car accident 8 years ago, when I was 9, and my mom died recently. 2 years ago. I was 15, doing school, when a message icon appeared on the top right of my screen. It was from my friend, RedLeader_35-I just call him Luke, like Luke Skywalker. He told me that he saw on the news that a patient went crazy at the hospital my mom worked at.

I immediately logged out. The school was going to contact me and my mother, but I had a reasonable excuse. I got in the car and drove off towards the hospital. And when I got there, I kept asking for her. Nobody knew her. I found her friend, Leni, and asked her where my mom was. She suddenly started to tear up. I knew what that meant. She was dead. I gave Leni a hug. My mom and Leni had been friends since 2nd grade. They knew each other VERY well. They were like sisters.

I went home and I logged back in and I suddenly appeared in the Principal’s office. He turned in his chair with a solemn expression. He knew. He told me that I was excused for one week of no school after what happened. He gave me the counselor’s contact information so I can talk to her whenever I want, I still do, from time to time.

Now, I live with Leni and her husband, Rob. Rob and I are good friends. I used to stay with them when I was little. Except they didn’t have a kid yet. Rob Jr is 4 years old now. I play with him every now and then so he can have company, but he gets distracted with the TV or his tablet.

They are out of town and won’t be back until Friday. Today is Wednesday, May 14th 2042. I made some eggs and bacon really quickly and wolfed it down. I went back to my room and booted up my VARS console and put on my visor and haptic gloves. I had a treadmill for me to stand so when I run, I can actually run and it feels like I’m really running and I can feel the wind-the fans I have set up for when it gets hot. And I can get tired and feel fatigue like how my avatar would.

I logged in and said my passphrase, “No amount of money can buy a second of time”. In Avengers Endgame, Tony said that to his alive and younger father when he met him. The visor ran a retinal scan and fingerprints with the haptic gloves.

“Welcome, Iceman”, the voice said. I got that name from Top Gun. When I was cleared to log in, all I saw on my screen were two words.

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