Synchronization - Cyber Clash Online 1

Chapter Two : Welcome Home?

After a few deep breaths failed to calm me, I hurriedly tore off my VR Headset and tossed it aside in a panic, grabbing the trash can next to my bed and dry heaving into it.

What the hell just happened?

A blinding white light and a spinning room were all that I could remember. The nausea wouldn't leave me, even though I hadn't eaten since before noon and had nothing left to give it.

I glanced at my alarm clock, the digital display embedded into my night-stand mirror.

7:33 PM

My stomach rumbled and I shoved my face into the bin again.

Had I really been Online for that long? Normally I'd at least take a couple of breaks for food or water throughout my gaming session. It hadn't felt like that long. Even so, it didn't help that lately it was getting harder to tell between reality and being Online, especially with digital worlds where the Time Flow Rate (TFR) was slower than that in real life. My current job at Subs N' Shakes had had me use an Online job simulator for orientation that lasted two Online weeks, only to come back to reality at the end of it with only two actual hours having passed. I was pretty sure I was really sitting in my room, but pinched myself for good measure and luckily, felt the sting.

I tried my best to calm my breathing, a method I used often for anxiety. After a few minutes I was finally able to put the bin down and lay back onto my twin-sized bed. Who knew it could be so exhausting to sit still for hours on end, practically hallucinating?

I reached onto my nightstand and grabbed my glasses, those annoyingly important things that made me scared every time I felt the thickness of their frames. Having just turned 18, I should not need such a heavy prescription. I knew it. My doctor knew it.

One of the many, many, many reasons I preferred to be Online. I had a list.

The crooked smile of Graz Black shone down at me from the digital display above my bed, an advertisement for the upcoming second season of the Tournament of Elders. He was a Sniper class, like me, and I tried to match his build as closely as possible. The man was not only the highest-level player in all CCO, but last year's Tournament Champion. What was even more impressive was that the tournament was a contest for clans to take part in.

But the Black Wolf only played solo.

I imagined, with some amount of shame, that at least two hundred views on the CCO official channel were from me alone, watching his incredible performance in the final few moments of last year's tournament where he single-handedly took down entire squads of enemy players without them even aware of his presence. I had tried to mimic some of the moves and techniques that he had done so gracefully, only to end up feeling like a clumsy oaf instead. Level aside, his skill was something else.

And I was his biggest fan, though I would never admit that to anyone else in Revolver-X. My parents already thought the action figure I had of him was weird and they didn't even understand what video games were. Fortunately, they weren't home very often, both on business trips to separate parts of the world and hoarding money that they didn't need. I didn't mind, however. That meant more time for me to leave the empty too-large house and my blurred vision behind and spend it with my friends in CCO.

I reached into the top drawer of my nightstand and pulled out my cellphone, checking to see if my parents had mentioned anything about coming home tonight. If not, I would have to withdraw some more money from their account in order to pay for the subway this weekend. There wasn't school for the next few weeks due to Thanksgiving break. It was my senior year, so I skipped my fair share of class already, but I still had things I wanted to do in town, people to see. I also tried to ignore it, but if I remembered how big and empty the house was, I had a hard time not letting my anxiety get the better of me.