Tumbling out of bed, she runs to take a shower, then prepares her breakfast and uniform.
Thank goodness it was a Friday.
While brushieeth, Aya checks the Moon Valley au house to see if there were any updates on her fire stone.
'I'll just lower the price if I didn't make a sale.' she thinks, spitting foamy liquid into the sink.
Scrolling to the au tab, she opens it and nearly drops her phone in shock.
"Eh?! Someoually bought it for that much." Aya yells, rinsing her mouth. She didn't think anyone would spend that mu a game. But there had to be some high spenders in any unity she supposed.
After putting on her work clothes aing the st of her cereal she runs out the door and doweps.
"Slohere's the fire?" Mars says, ing around the er. She was on her the steps when Aya came barreling towards her, the same as when they'd first met.
"The fire stone!" Aya says, barely catg her breath. Mars grins.
"Didn't I tell you? Make sure you get yourself something nice." Mars says. She waves Aya away, asding the stairs as Aya tinues her run out of the apartment plex and towards the bus stop.
----------
All through the m, Aya spends her time pting how much Gold she wao exge.
Her thoughts are interrupted by the sound of her boss calling for an urgent delivery to the top floor along with her usual deliveries.
On her way Into the elevator, a familiar figure calls for her to hold the doors.
"Oh, Mr. Nue, what a surprise," she says. "I was just on my way to give you some urgeers."
Ats, the president of the pany smiles at her.
"Didn't I say Mr. Nue makes me feel old?" He ughs. "It's Ats to you, young dy."
Aya nods, holding back a s his 'serious' voice.
"About the letters let me see them, I bet I know who they're from." He says running a hand through his hair.
Aya reaches into her trolley, retrieving the letters with the elegant gold trimmings and the strange insignia from before.
She deposits them in Ats' hand, their fingers brush against each other as she hands the letter off, and while Aya thinks nothing of it Ats 't help but blush.
"Say, what does this symbol mean?" Aya asks.
"It's the Lumos inc logo." Ats expins. Aya narrows her eyes, wrag her brain to remember where she'd heard that name before.
"They have a game, Moon Valley I believe."
"Oh!" Aya gasps. "Do you py?" After all, why else would Lumos inc be sending him letters if he wasn't a big fan?
Ats chuckles a bit but before he ahe elevator doors open with a ding.
"I'll see you around Ats." Aya says cheerfully. The man smiles at her again
"You too Aya! We should get food sometime." He waves to her as he leaves the elevator and walks to his office, barely saying a word to his secretary in the process.
her of them notices Viviana gring daggers in Aya's dire.
The elevator doors close and Aya is free to return to the mail room.
----------
Out of the 20 Gold, Aya verts 15 for a hefty sum of 93.15 Lue, her eyes bulge out of her head at the sight.
She'd made almost a third of her rent now, just pying a game that came out a month ago for a few hours.
"I guess I should stop being surprised, this is my reality now." Aya says to herself.
She falls into a daydream, fantasizing about making enough money from the game to quit her job at Nue Corp and move to Mericross City.
"You look a bit too blissful there young dy." Her boss says, interrupting her day dream.
Aya sits up frowning at him.
"Was just thinking about stuff, like my bills." She says.
"They pile up fast don't they?" The man says sinking into his seat with a tired sigh.
----------
Aya spends the rest of her time looking up areas to get good items but as usual, no one shares anything on the forums.
There was also barely any information about Bloom Haven, all it said was it was a starting area for a lot of elven pyers and was close to some of the rger elf NPC settlements despite being poputed with mostly humans.
"e to think of it, after that first day I didn't see any more pyers or at least not that many." Aya thinks back to that first day she logged on, the pyers hadn't even spoken to her only the NPCs did.
They were all heading somewhere else.
"I wonder where they were going." Aya says to herself.
After some searg, she discovers not all pyers start in the same area. Most pyers chose to leave their starting points to go to more popur areas in the game.
Moon Valley was a very rge game after all.
"If I recall the ad said the game had lots of secrets to uncover but not many people are talking about the game lore." Aya says. "They're leaving behind a lot of starting quests."
"PvP? Oh pyer vs pyer, I'm definitely not ied in that." Aya says. She makes a mental o disable PvP on her at once she makes it bae.
"Beating the hidden boss was such a feat, I 't wait to equip the sword and finally ge my main css."
"Harvest Guardian, 't wait to see how that works."
----------
"Thank goodness it's the weekend." Aya says strapping on her bag to go home.
"I'll have Saturday and Sunday to py Moon Valley." She says humming to herself.
B the bus, Aya prepares for her trip home unbeknownst to her the tides were shifting, whether or not it would be in her favor was a mystery.
----------
Aya meets Mars oraeps of the apartment plex.
"What are you doing out here in the cold?" Aya says taking off her work jacket and ying it on Mars' shoulder.
"Thanks." The irl says, accepting the jacket with a smile. "You're such a softie."
"Don't worry about it." Aya says taking a seat beside her oeps of the apartment plex.
For a moment they sit in silearing up at the lights of the city, Mars breaks the silence a moment ter.
"Guilds are f in Moon Valley, will you join one?" Mars asks. Aya shakes her head.
"I would rather py solo. Guilds do the PvP thing don't they?" Aya asks.
Mars nods.
"I don't want to PvP." Aya says with a ugh.
"Wise choice. Sometimes joining a guild might not be the best idea." Mars says. Aya detects a hint of sadness in her voice.
She hesitates but asks.
"Did you used to have a guild?" Aya asks. Mars rises from the ground, dusting herself off. She offers her hand to Aya, lifting the girl off the ground.
"Don't worry about it." Mars says, repeating Aya's words and patting the shirl's head.
"What's your setup like?" Mars asks.
"My setup?"
"How do you py?"
"Oh, I py on a PacBook currently." Aya says. Mars raises an eyebrow at the answer.
"Geez, not even a headset?" She asks.
"I've only got a broken one. But what's the big deal? Does it ge the game that much?" Aya asks.
Asides from some in-game features, she didn't know why everyo on and on about the VR Headset.
Mars folds her arms, a deep expression on her face like she's mulling something over.
"I'll show you." Mars says, making her way into the apartment. Aya follows, allowing Mars to lead her up the creaky stairs to her apartment.
Mars slots her key, pushing open the door and leading Aya into her dreamy apartment.
Aya steps into the half-painted messy apartment decked in purple.
She moves through a door, marveling at what Mars had doh pce.
Gohe cream and brown walls, repced with a pretty vender paint job and star stickers pstered on the walls.
"Impressed?" Mars asks with a smirk. Aya nods, looking back at the girl with stars in her eyes.
"Much better than my pce that's for sure." Aya says.
The apartment was a standard two-bedroom Daichi and his grandmother had shared whilst living here, Mars had verted the sed bedroom intaming room, filled with posters and memorabilia in the same vender colour scheme.
Mars takes Aya leading her into the sed room.
Peatly in a gss case was Mars' VR headset.
"This is the Zephyr gear." Mars says, Aya reizes the name instantly, knowing it to be the test in the line of best selling VR Headsets.
It easily cost about 5000 Lue.
How could Mars afford such a thing?
"So would you like to try it out?"
----------
Meanwhile at Lumos inc
The CEO and his inner circle wait for the attendant at the archives of the pany.
The CEO, a grizzled bearded man with salt and pepper hair, dressed in a dark suit stands waiting with a deep frown marring his features.
The dusty lower floor of the archives irritate him, but it was the only pce he could store the bulky old puter without hassle.
An attendant walks into the room calmly, upon seeing the CEO and his inner circle she nearly drops her clipboard.
"Sir, we weren't expeg you so soon." She says running to look for the main archivist on duty.
"I came as soon as I got Fred's message." The CEO says, folding his arms.
He gestures to the aged puter that hadn't stopped transmitting for the three days it's been on.
"What's happening Fred?"
The young blond man in gsses appears beside him wearing a white b coat and pin clothes underh.
Fred Barkley, head archivist and the only one present when the mae had e on.
He yawns, sipping a giant mug of coffee and rubbing his sleep deprived eyes. If the darkened bags under his eyes were any indication, the young man hadn't slept in days.
"Sir the puter is lio a pyer in Moon Valley. That is what triggered the Yvlena protocol." Fred says.
The inner circle begins to murmur in unison until the CEO calls for their silence.
"And do you know which pyer?"
Fred shakes his head.
"Sir I don't even know what Yvlena is." He admits tiredly.
"It's a character, ao be specific." The CEO replies. "You see, Moon Valley was inally my brother's vision-" Before the CEO could tinue, a pair of feet rush into the archive room.
"Sir the iors have called a meeting, you're needed in the boardroom." The woman says.
"tih the mae Fred, I'll be back for future updates." The CEO says. He and his posse head toward the elevator
"Sir, is everything alright?" One of the members of his inner circle asks.
"Yes, my niece might be alive."