"It's fucking here!" Dan shouted as he ran into the house with glee.
"You're new fleshlight?" Mike replied in a tone that conveyed sarcasm, but also a note of genuine curiosity.
"No! It – wait, what? Fuck you, Mike." Dan opened the box delivered by drones of Great King Fuhrer Bezos, and after removing a slew of packing peanuts, revealed a large and sleek black helmet.
"This is the new VR helmet! This thing is going to change gaming."
"We've had VR for a while now." Mike pointed out, "How exactly is this going to change anything?"
"Okay, well, for one…" Dan began, "This isn't just playing video games. You wear this bad boy when you sleep, okay? You wear it and get to spend a third of your day gaming with no fucking consequences! I can game from nine to five and not waste any of my day!"
"Why do you get up so early?" Mike asked.
"Irrelevant!" Dan responded, "The game takes place in dreams – within MY MIND!"
"Uh, okay – that's, um, neat."
Dan shot an annoyed glance at Mike. While he didn't expect Mike that share his complete enthusiasm over this new device, he didn't appreciate the condescending tone Mike had displayed throughout the conversation. Mike clearly picked up on this.
"So, wait, what console is it for? You just have your laptop. Is it, like, PC or Xbox One X 360 X or PS6?" Mike asked, trying to seem interested.
"Actually, there's no console. Just games downloaded to the helmet." Dan fiddled with the helmet in his hands, eventually resting it so that the visor faced directly at him. He spent a moment gazing at the helmet, and then resumed speaking.
"This one came with Fallout 4: Game of the Decade edition included." Dan said, lost and staring at the VR helmet in his hands.
"Fallout 4? You still play that?"
"Look, Fallout 4 the last original game released by Bethesda in the past 12 years. I don't agree with their business practices, but dammit I love RPG's."
"What about Prey?"
"Fuck Prey. Not enough waifus." Dan said in a somewhat-joking-but-disturbingly-serious tone. "Uh, look, man, it's getting late. I'm going to head to bed and get started using this thing."
"Yeah. Sure man." Mike replied, "Goodnight."
"Goodnight."
Dan headed up the stairs and made his way to his bedroom. The sight was, admittedly, dreary. His unmade bed was surrounded by piles of unfolded clothes. Sky blue paint chipped from the walls, and soft whispers of air came through his old, unsealed window. Reaching into the black mini-fridge beside his bed, Dan pulled out a bottle of cheap whiskey. He took a quick night cap and grimaced, then returned the booze to the refrigerator. He jumped into bed and warmed himself up under the covers. He soon placed the helmet on his head, and quietly drifted to sleep.
Dan's vision went to a pure and opaque black. A blinking green cursor appeared in the upper-left field of his vision, and text soon followed. According to the text, Dan's data from old Fallout 4 saves had been detected. Dan was confused for a moment, but soon remembered he had used the same email account for all six editions of Fallout 4. Considering this email is also the one used for his Amazon account, it wasn't surprising that his data had been sifted through. Dan figured picking "retrieved saved data" was the best option, as otherwise his "Busty Female NPC" Mod would not be loaded into the new game. Without it, there was really no point in playing. After a few minutes of loading, the old data had been uploaded.
[STARTING NEW GAME…] appearing in the upper-left hand corner. Dan couldn't help but find this strange. Considering that the old saves had all been uploaded, he assumed he could just jump into his old game. Dan wasn't bothered, however. He was always up for a new adventure.