“Enjoy, Mr. Yamada.”

“I hope it’s not too late.”
A boy was running with all his might, sweat forming at the temples of his face, as if his life depended on it. He crossed a street, avoiding people and cars like obstacles he’d score points for dodging.
“Damnit,” he once again murmured to himself, “Just hold on, I’m on my way. Just a bit longer, please, just hold on…” The stakes were high, his adrenaline rising to match.
On the brink of collapsing from exhaustion, at last he came upon the street that led him to his goal. Was it too late for him? No, it couldn’t be. It was his destiny to fulfill.

He came to the entrance of the building and stopped in front of a man standing in front of it. Panting, nearly unable to speak, he tried to catch his breath. “Am…” he tried to squeeze out of his lungs, “Am I… too… late…?” The older man looked at him with slight confusion.
“What was that last part, son?”
He tried to get the words to crawl out of his lungs once again, “Am I… am I too late for the F-Diver sale?”
“Ah,” the old man nodded slightly, “I get it now. Our last one sold just a little bit before you got here.”
The boy fell to the ground on his hands and knees, slamming his fist against the pavement, which actually kind of hurt. “This can’t be happening… after all I went through… I went to bed early just to be up at 9 a.m. on a Saturday for this…”
“Well, just a minute. You’re actually in luck. We’re processing a return right now, and when we’re done we can sell it to you. We’ll even give you a small discount since it’s been opened.”
A suspiciously narrow ray of light from above shone on the boy. His expression switched from solemn to a large, goofy grin, and he immediately propped back up.
“Really? WAHOO!” he yelled with such vigor that the old man chuckled.
“Never seen someone so happy to give me their money. It’ll be a minute, so you can come on in if you’d like.”

They entered the little shop, which was chock full of video and computer games, merchandise, and various decorations all along the walls. The boy looked around for a little while, picking up various older retro games, making mental notes of which ones he’d like to get after he wins the lottery. The man then called out to him, “Young man, it’s ready, if you’re still interested.”
The boy darted to the register, pulled out his wallet, which was held together with staples on the binding, and gave the man a credit card.
The man slid over a box, plastered with images of a Virtual Reality headset and bold font of exaggerated claims, but most notable, was the large text that said “F-Diver” on the front.
The man took the card, inserted it into the reader, and after the successful charge, printed out the receipt.
He handed it over to the boy, “All yours. Enjoy, Mr. Yamada.”
“Thank you sir, I will.” he said as he snatched the receipt and darted out.
The man called out to him, “Um, sir! You forgot your card!” The boy without looking back yelled back, “That’s okay, you can keep it!” and began dashing back down the road he took to get there. The man stood still in utter confusion. After examining the card for a moment, the phone rang.
“Good day, this is the Toy Box, your one-stop shop for all your gaming wants and needs. This is Mr. Hayashi speaking. How can I help you today?”
A firm voice came through on the other line, “Good day, Mr. Hayashi. We’re just calling to confirm a recent charge on a credit card, with the last four digits being 7761. This card was reported as stolen about 15 minutes ago, when it was used to purchase around 300 packs of spicy pork ramen, and it alerted us that it was just used at this location. Our systems have been slow today, and the freeze on it has not gone through yet. Even though the card was not declined, I’m afraid that charge is fraudulent and will likely not be processed. We’re sorry for the inconvenience.”
The man’s face contorted and he ran outside and looked toward the road the boy ran down, but by that point, he was nowhere in sight.

After running down several blocks, the boy felt himself in the clear, and began slowing his pace to a less conspicuous brisk walk. As he was making his way alone through the narrow streets with the light of the sun dimming behind him, he briefly paused as he turned his head to the side. It was faint, but across the street, he saw a silhouette of someone in the reflection of the glass. It didn’t move at all, and when he turned around to examine the streets around him, he found no one else there. When he looked back to the glass, it was gone. He shrugged as he started walking again towards home, only with a slightly faster pace than before he briefly stopped.

The boy turned the handle to his door, shutting behind him the faintly lit street and the dimming twi-lit sky. Holding his newly, albeit questionably, acquired prize in his hands, he set it down beside him and flicked the lights on. His apartment was small, and showcased the studiousness of a guy living alone: empty cups of ramen and containers of convenience store snacks littered the kitchen, with piles of trash lying against a wall. Beyond the curtain (that he had put up himself) separating the kitchen area, was his single room, which was organized, but mostly empty. It was like walking from a world of noise and clutter into a world of silence and stillness. Hungry after his recent venture, he opened up the cabinet and several packages of spicy pork ramen fell out. It was overflowing from the amount of ramen hastily crammed in. Undeterred, he picked out a package and heated up water. He laid his phone down and washed up after his hard day of honest work. The shower was cramped, but he was used to having to maneuver in such a small space after a year of living there.

Now in his room, he slumped down onto his bed and checked his phone. No alerts, no calls, no texts. Just a lone, unread voicemail that he knew he’d never open. It was as if his phone had no service, though he knew it did given that he sold a collection of manga in order to pay for it in advance. The small book shelf in his room sat eerily empty, as if it was the aftermath of a crime scene, only instead of a chalk outline, places once occupied by his possessions were outlined by dust. His figures, his manga, his limited edition merch and one-of-a-kind gaming memorabilia (that may or may not have been reproductions), all his shut-in essentials, had been sold. He scrolled through various gaming apps, undecided on what to play, then browsed a video sharing site. He looked up a video on quickly setting up an F-Diver, and saved one that looked promising with no annoying sponsor to his playlist. Right beneath was a video he saved of the F-Diver contest. A man with red hair wearing a giant slice of bread appeared on the screen. He spoke energetically but his eyes looked strangely emotionless and lacking any kind of soul.

“What’s crumbling, guys? It’s your boy, The Gingerbread Man, here to make a very special announcement. I’m here with Rainforest, who just released their new VR system, the F-Diver. The F-Diver is used exclusively to access their latest MMO, Constellarium. This brand new headset allows you to dive into space with the greatest graphics anyone’s ever seen, at 21k resolution. Explore the vast trenches of space from the smallest asteroid to a giant black hole. Take part in interplanetary travel, with every planet having its own unique environment, inhabitants, and resources. And with their revolutionary sensation kit, you can touch, taste, and yes, even smell these environments like you’ve never experienced before. Defeat enemies, take over planets, and find all sorts of amazing gear and collectible trading cards. Trading cards? In an MMO? You heard right. Explore a unique battle system that combines trading card strategy and real time combat. Collect hundreds of different cards, called Tarots that match your play style alongside your class abilities and gear, and invent your very own way to play. The battles are intense, customization is endless, and victory has literally never felt so good. You aren’t just at the center of all the action, you ARE the action. Now, that’s enough commercial, let’s get into the reason I’m here. To celebrate the release of their newest tech with their most popular MMO, Rainforest designed a new, hidden boss, and is holding a contest to see who can defeat it the fastest. But there’s a twist, unlike any other MMO, the final boss is hidden somewhere in the vast reaches of space. To beat it, you’ve got to find it first. The player and their companion that does, will receive awesome mythical gear and a one-of-a-kind Tarot not featured anywhere else in the game. Not only that, but there’s a 10 million dollar cash reward on the line. You heard me right guys, 10 million. Each. Now that is some serious dough. And get this - Rainforest will also donate an additional 10 million to the Save The Dolphins foundation. This looks like an all around W to me.”

The boy paused it and rewound the video back a few seconds and let it play again.
“Not only that, but there’s a 10 million dollar cash reward on the line. You heard me right guys, 10 million. Each-”
He rewound again, replaying the cash reward lines over and over. He went into the kitchen to grab his spicy pork ramen, which was now soggy and tepid. He grabbed the F-Diver and crossed the barrier from his world of clutter into his world of emptiness, sat down and began slurping up the broth in his bowl. He exited the contest video and started playing the F-Diver quick setup tutorial. After watching it a few times, he eagerly grabbed the F-Diver box, and pulled out the headset. The instruction manual immediately fell out onto the ground, where it was promptly ignored. After undoing some plastic wrap, he placed the F-Diver on his head. It was lighter than he expected, and he was able to adjust the band around his head to make it rather comfortable to wear. They were more reminiscent of goggles with a singular lens rather than the bulky headsets he had worn in the past that felt like he was wearing a scuba helmet. Also included in the box were gloves that had a circuit board type design going along the fingers and hands. They felt rubbery on the outside, but on the inside was a soft mesh material that felt pleasant. Tapping the sides of the goggles while wearing the gloves, as he saw in the tutorial, the F-Diver finally turned on.

In an exhilarating rush, he got the sudden sensation that he immediately lost all weight in his body, as if he was gently floating while submerged underwater in a vast, empty sea. Weightless and comfortably warm, he imbibed his new surroundings: darkness, with nothing visible in sight, no matter which direction he looked. In front of him appeared some text floating rhythmically that read simply, “Dive”. Remembering the tutorial, he made a motion with his arms like he was swimming towards it, and with a giant ripple effect, it transitioned to a different kind of environment. It was still mostly pitch black around him, only this time tiny sparkles scattered all around him, the glimmering of distant stars. In front of him a menu appeared. With the same breaststroke motion, he chose to create an account and was prompted for a username. He thought for a moment, then using the voice command, he entered “Tanuki,” which the game accepted, then assigned him a unique player ID. He felt a small lurch forward as the screen progressed to the next, and for a brief moment the stars surrounding him turned into long streaks of blurred white, as if he was traveling at light speed. There was a new prompt facing him, asking for his date of birth.
He thought about it for a moment, debating whether or not to use his real birth date. Even though he had used Rainforest products before, so they probably had every detail of his life anyway, sitting on a data farm somewhere just waiting to be hacked, his stomach had an instinctive lurch. It always felt awkward whenever he was prompted so straightforwardly for information about himself. He sighed and entered his actual date of birth. He breezed through the character customization menu, as he was accustomed to creating the same avatars in all the games he’s played. Medium build, pale skin, dark brown hair, brown eyes. Not too far from his own likeness. There were a few other species to choose from, but Tanuki knew he could get stuck on customization for hours, so decided it was better to not even look.
“Thank you,” the prompt stated, before another one appeared, “Welcome, Gemini, to Constellarium. You are about to embark on the greatest voyage of your life. Are you ready to embark? …As you wish. Remember, Gemini, you can hold a star in the palm of your hand.”