Prologue
It was predicted to be the new best-selling game of the year; everyone and their grandmothers were planning to buy it. The fact that it was coming out exclusively on the new HMD console the Rift Visor (or RiVi for short) practically guaranteed it a system seller. The legendary creators of the Oculus Rift would probably be swimming in money by the end of the week.
The RiVi was a new head mount introduced by the Oculus VR company a while back that provided a new definition to the term "virtual reality." Instead of the company trying to make the virtual reality world feel real to the player, they decided to make the world real itself by transporting the player there. In a sleep-like state, the RiVi can transfer the player's mind to worlds of dragons and knights, or even lands of fluffy flying unicorns. Despite not having many games available for the RiVi, the console was almost omnipresent in every house around the world.
She tore off the plastic film that protected the large octagonal-shaped box before her. Carefully, she opened the hinged lid of the box and let out content sigh. They were both embedded into bumpy dark grey foam and she forced back a squeal. In the bottom part of the box sat her new, Crystal White Edition Rift Visor. Excitement jolted through her fingertips as she gingerly picked up the Visor from its resting place. She marveled its sleek beauty and candy white paint over the beaked eyepiece. A narrow grey line shot across the very middle of it from ear to ear, and it would glow a bright neon blue once turned on, as depicted on the box art. She cautiously fitted the RiVi to her head, adjusting the head straps and made sure the earpieces fully covered her hears. She pushed up the eyepiece above her head and reached for the plastic video game case that was resting within the box lid. On the cover, three figures stood valiantly with their backs towards the camera, the closest figure with their ragged cloak flowing in the gentle wind. In thin, spaced out letters, the title was splayed over the cloak figure's back. Destiny, it read.
She had been saving her money for weeks to get the game in her hands, and when she found out it was exclusive on a console she didn't own yet, she forced herself to wait a while longer until she could afford the bundle. She wanted to pay for the whole thing completely by herself, but being a new and unemployed college student, she ended up having her mother spot her a few bucks. Of course, she felt guilty, but she didn't really have a choice considering she had no source of income. It also didn't help that she was practically peer pressured by her best friend to buy it, since he constantly complained to her about having no one to play with.
Five days had passed, and she was already nearing the so-called legendary level twenty. She couldn't count how many times she was grateful her best friend was a level twenty two Defender Titan. She died constantly due to her low armor stats as a hunter, thus she was forced to always hide behind cover after taking a measly one shot from a sniper rifle. It frustrated her, seeing as how she seemed to always be hiding while her partner in crime went off and punched the faces off of countless Fallen. She felt useless most times, but the feeling was always overridden by the ridiculous amounts of fun she was having.
Pain never existed in the game; whenever she was blasted in the face by a plasma rocket, her shouts were always that of surprise. When she did die, she would be reduced to a small floating blue orb with a spiked shell—a Ghost, they were called—and her voice would emanate straight from the Ghost's filtered speakers. In a Limbo like stasis, she would wait patiently as her partner would make his way over to her and drop a Ward of Dawn shield before reviving her. And as always, she would give him a whimsical "thank you," which in turn was replied with an irate "STAY IN THE GODDAMN BUBBLE" (to which she would respond grumpily "fuck you and your stupid bubble" before taking a seat on the floor).
She enjoyed spending time headshotting Cabal soldiers from afar as her best friend constantly and willingly ran into the fray. She enjoyed the countless hours spent on hard level Raids and the various new inside jokes she shared with him. It was moments like these that made her forget all the stupid and trivial things in her life. She would never get tired of these moments with him, and sometimes even, she wished it would never end.