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Eden of the Eclipse - Chapter 7

Published at 22nd of June 2022 05:23:24 AM


Chapter 7

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Lucy Heartfelt took off her VR Helmet and escaped the cozy drag of her fluffy bed with mild unwillingness. If it wasn't for the hunger in her stomach and the possibility of her caretaker's anger were she not to wake up by 1, she would have remained inside Eclipse for as long as she could.

"Good morning, Alice," She said habitually as she stood, stretching, feet stepping on a soft carpet of gray.

"Good morning, Master," A feminine voice replied as the room brightened, the chandelier on the ceiling blinking on as the curtains of the glass doors beside her bed parted to reveal the sun.

The flat screen television upon the wall in front of the pink bed shifted from a painting to a face. Contrasted with Lucy's short, platinum, hair, the person there was a two-dimensional girl who looked similarly her age; hair a wavy blonde that matched the length of hers and eyes shining purple.

"Maria has already prepared lunch and there are currently no tasks scheduled." The figure smiled. "Would you like me to prepare your bath?"

Lucy nodded, beginning to strip from her pajamas of blue. "Please."

A moment later and she heard the sound of rushing water. She crossed the length of her gigantic room, going rightward from her bed, and opposite her balcony, to enter her personal bathroom.

As soon as she left her bath, a voice connected to her room.

"I'm glad to see you didn't decide to game all day. Come down." The tone of the female was soft but sharp, yet pleasant to the ears of the listener. "Lunch has been ready for a while now."

Lucy rolled her eyes. "Good morning to you too, Maria, I'll be right there."

"Mhmm, good morning."

She moved to her large closet and changed into blue shorts and a white dress shirt. Slipping on her soft slippers, and equipping a plain, white, watch to her left hand, she approached her door.

It slid automatically leftward to reveal a space that would have been breathtaking to anyone.

To her front was a railing to which, at either side, stairs ran down to meet the open, wooden, bottom floor of her apartment. There was a living-room space at the left, couches of white, and a television with a set of speakers that might as well have been a small theater. To the right, there was a dining quarter and an open kitchen, and even a balcony. She couldn't see it at this moment, but the place also had three more rooms beneath the stairway, two of which were guest rooms and the last a storage 'closet' that was big enough to also be fitted with a walk-in freezer.

It was 2056, but none of this was cheap. From the custom artificial intelligence, Alice, that maintained the place, to the worker robots currently within the storage unit, and the 2-floor 'apartment' itself. Nothing was cheap. Indeed, living on the top floor of an extremely luxurious apartment complex, Lucy Heartfelt was filthy rich. In fact, she owned the building itself. Though her grandparents currently managed her inherited assets for her, her bank account was never without money.

Yet, she was still a 14-year old that needed to be taken care of.

She walked down the stairs and soon sat at a circular table that had more chairs than needed.

"I made your favorite to celebrate summer vacation." A hand reached from behind her, placing a plate down. "Spaghetti."

Then a glass cup filled with a purple liquid.

"And grape juice, chilled with no ice, just as you like it."

Lucy's expression immediately elated. "Thank you!"

"Mhmm."

Maria Williams took a seat at the opposite end of the table as Lucy dug into her meal. She was a black-haired beauty in her early twenties, hair long enough to reach her waist, and eyes just as dark. A mole was beneath her left eye and, most importantly, she wore a western, maid uniform with a skirt less than 5-inches from the ground.

Though the A.I, Alice, ran most of the apartment on her own, there were always certain specific things only a human could do. And that was why Lucy had hired a caretaker with the blessing of her grandparents. Of course, she had been the one who specifically asked that her caretaker be willing to wear a maid outfit. She chuckled to herself as she took a bite of her favorite meal. Who wouldn't want a maid serving them?. . .even if she could be rather strict. . .that must have been her grandparents' input. . .

"I thought you might be interested in this," Maria spoke, sliding an item across the table.

"Hmm?" Lucy caught it as she took a gulp. It was a tablet. She picked it up with one hand and folded it until it resembled a laptop as she set it down to stand.

"Ooh, the forums!" She realized the website it was on. "You know me well."

"Naturally." Maria smiled. "It's been four years."

As she ate, Lucy looked over Eclipse's Official Game Forum, ran by the publisher's company itself, Encore. She was quite sure she had some shares of that conglomerate with her name on it.

"After death, if you do not revive with souls and instead lose 50% exp and drop a level, the game removes your souls from your stats to match the maximum stat points for your new level? That's quite. . .brutal." She muttered as she eyed a particular post.

She was sorting by popularity, secular to the American server of the game, and was already seeing some interesting things. She scrolled with a finger, the bottom half of the tablet's screen upon the table automatically shifting from a keyboard to a large mouse pad.

"The info-broker, Worm, tried following a river's current and drowned to death, confirming that yes, you could drown in the game."

Maria chuckled from the other side of the table and Lucy couldn't help but follow—though she decided she wouldn't mention her own quick death. It seemed some people were already making names for themselves with antics. At the very least, however, the person named Worm published the results of his or her findings. She clicked a link to their personal blog and looked at the currently pinned article.

The piece confirmed that different players met different goblin scouts. It would always wield a weapon suitable for the class of the person engaging it. With the starter weapons that also broke randomly, it was almost as if the developers made everyone work for their initial step in the game.

'Yes, but the duck wasn't needed.' Lucy pursed her lips as she scrolled down. Though she supposed she was becoming familiar with the village of Acron and the game's physics as she chased it.

Then, her eyes widened at the snippet of a story at the end of Worm's article.

"Someone tried having intercourse with the goblin scout only for their avatar to be smitten by a white beam from the sky?"

Lucy was speechless.

She silently sent the website to her own computer.

It sounded like it would be a good laugh.

LotsChrono

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