Godfather World

100 Shots

The portal at his virtual door led to many places, but Zen ignored everything for now. His mind was dead set on only one place - the store!

With 11,300 credits, he had to be the wealthiest student in the academy. Even rank #1 was only awarded 10,000 credits, assuming they did not receive any transfers or sponsored credits from the Godfather.

It took a little while for the store to load in, but Zen did a double-take when it finally did. Was this really suitable for teenagers who weren't of legal ages yet? He could understand the Godfather theme with the whole dim lights and soft mature jazz music in the background. But did it really have to be a bar? What about his cool futuristic game cyberpunk type of store where robots and flying drones rule? What about cute virtual pets and animal NPCs that give the player some emotional relief from the hellish outside world? Wasn't this what VR was all about?

Instead, the store turned out to be a very classic bar with no customers. Perhaps this is a private world? Was this a self-service type of situation? He didn't see anyone around.

"H-hello? Is this the store?" Zen asked cautiously as he walked to the bar counter. Surely, someone had to be here, or there would have been some guide for him to look at. He wanted to buy game highlight clips. Where could it possibly be in this bar?

As he got closer to the bar counter, Zen could hear someone humming and polishing shot glasses. He couldn't see them and felt slightly spooked. There shouldn't be ghosts in a VR game, right? Even if this was the half-baked 'blood' awakening in him, it shouldn't be possible to listen to inner voices transmitted virtually over a shared network, right? It didn't make sense.

Curiosity won over, and Zen found himself walking over to the bar counter where the noise was coming from. Even at this distance, he couldn't see anyone.

"Perhaps this really is a ghost?" he whispered and almost at once, the humming stopped.

A blur flew from behind the counter at a speed that Zen couldn't follow and smack him on the head. Zen wasn't expecting an attack in a safe zone and flew back from the impact, crashing into the wall behind. Thankfully, the bar had no customers. It would have been highly embarrassing to see him fall over his head with his butt up in the air.

Zen quickly righted himself and scurried back to the portal entrance. Whatever that thing was, Zen had no chance of winning it! What kind of store tries to kill its customers?!

The blur that attacked Zen was faster and blocked the portal entrance before Zen was halfway there. The short figure smirked and waited calmly with hands behind their back as Zen skidded to a stop.

"An old lady?"

The bartender and store NPC was indeed an old lady. Yet, there was no realism in this store. The old lady was hardly more than half a meter. She wore a familiar VR headset and had her white hair tied into a neat bun. Despite her advanced age, the old lady bartender was a lot fitter than Zen could ever be with his frail gamer body. Was this the power of virtual reality? Even NPCs are stronger than players!

"What are you staring at?" the old lady in black uniform snapped.

Zen couldn't help it. She was wearing a very confusing black outfit. While he knew what a business suit looked like, he became confused if that was a business slack or a skirt. It somehow looked like it was merged together. Closer inspection told him she was wearing business slack with a black half apron over it. How confusing!

"Are you the shopkeeper NPC?"

The old lady huffed. "It's a bar! I'm the barkeep! Shopkeeper? Don't lump me on the same level as the part-timers. What do you want? You look a little too young to be here."