Age of Summoner

“…But their service charge is a bit higher than ours.”

The two of them then finally reached the store’s third floor. There was another glass door at the entrance with an electronic door sign with the word “Online Center” written on it. Without delay, this young lady named Rin immediately opened and walked past the glass doors, causing Joke to poke his head around in amazement.

“Our store’s divided into three major zones, Joke. One of them is the reception zone on the first floor, which is taken care of by Madame Fon. Trading cards, receiving quests, and other processes will all be on the first floor. The second floor that we just walked past is the Duel Center, which is the place where all summoners, like us, can go online into Arcadia.”

“Arcadia?”

Joke asked in confusion. The lady simply smiled and nodded, signaling that she was about to show it to him.

Once he saw the inside of the Online Center room, he discovered that it was a narrow room with a walkway large enough for only three people to stand shoulder to shoulder. The inside was also divided into smaller room blocks, each with a number labeled. At the very back of the room, a man sat on a small working table; it seemed like he was this area’s supervisor.

“Hi, Tae.”

Rin cheerfully greeted the man, causing the man to stop short and put that thick novel in his hands down. He beamed from ear to ear upon seeing two customers walking inside the Online Center.

“How’s it going, Rin? You’ve not been in the online section for such a long time.”

The young man greeted. He had short hair and wore a pair of glasses. It seemed like he was in his late twenties.

“I’m busy organizing my new deck with those guys these days, so I’m often in the duel section.”

“Oh… The madame had already called telling that you’re doing a quest introducing a new player. Over there, room 18; I’ve already booked it for you.”

“Thank you so much.”

The young lady cheerfully replied before leading Joke towards the back of the room on the instant. He was checking out the surrounding rooms that were divided up to twenty rooms. Each of them could be considered as extremely tiny—a size so small he assumed he could only stand and sit in it still with his movements restricted. Once he followed Rin into room number 18, it was as he had guessed.

The inside of the room was so narrow it would take him only a couple of seconds to walk around in it. But what caught his eye seemed to be the two large chairs that were placed next to each other. They appeared to look rather strange. It was a semi-sleeper chair that you can lie down comfortably in with a small dome—large enough to cover your head, which reminded him of the machine in a beauty salon—attached to the top. Apart from that, there was also a small table for belongings to be placed on.

“This is a room used for going online, Joke,” Rin continued to explain. “Typically, every player can go online anywhere they want through this Online Synchro device. But these devices tend to be very expensive—some of them cost up to hundreds of thousands. So, the store offers these devices for hourly rental to all players, but you can use them free because you’re still under the first-time registration promotional terms… You can go ahead and put down your belongings.”

Rin stated as she pointed towards his shoulder bag. Joke then placed that bag on that small table in confusion before Rin gestured towards that strange-looking chair.

“This is a chair used specially for the online mode,” Rin explained. “It’s an online neural synchronization device that syncs us to the main server of AOS. It’s highly safe, so don’t be worried.”

“Okay.”

Joke nodded before sitting down. The chair was soft and comfortable and felt relaxing when lying down, making it possible to sit in it for a long time to the point where Joke wanted it at home as his office chair. As a matter of fact, Joke had some idea about how today’s online gaming technology was starting to use the synchronization system to make you feel like you were really in the game.

Needless to say, this device cost up to six digits. As for the smaller version of the device that was more affordable, those still cost tens of thousands; therefore, people usually preferred playing the game at internet cafes or card stores like this.

“Can I have your ID slot?”

“Oh, here.”

Joke grabbed the device that he had just paid for, handing it to her.

“As I said previously, this ID slot acts as a connector linking us to this device. First, you need to insert your ID card right here.” Rin inserted Joke’s black ID card into an opening at the bottom of the device. “As for the cards used for playing the game, you insert them here.”

She then slid open the device’s cover, which was located in the middle, revealing a gap large enough to fit the cards inside. Rin inserted every card in the tester deck inside the device and slid back the cover with a loud “clack!” in a short amount of time. She then stopped in front of the chair Joke was in and pressed a button on the armrest, causing an opening to slide out.

“Then, we insert our ID slot right here, close the cover, and voilà.”

The sound of the machine in the chair churning kicked off once she inserted the device into it.

“Online system calibrated. This ID is going online for the first time and does not yet have a summoner name. Please insert your desired summoner name…”

A female voice blasted from the chair’s speakers, which rendered Joke speechless. He looked around, searching for the source of that sound. The young lady in front of him giggled at his surprised expression before picking up an object from the chair’s side.

“Try this on.”

She handed him an object that looked like a large pair of goggles. Rin then put the goggles on him. At this point, Joke still did not have much understanding, but he still put on that goggle over his eyes. The image of the room thereupon slightly shifted; there were various information windows similar to graphics on a computer screen floating mid-air all around him.

“What the heck is this…” Joke muttered.

“It’s a virtual reality interface system, which is now connected to your brain wave. Try touching them with your fingers.”

Upon hearing that, Joke turned around to look at the young lady beside him who was still smiling sweetly at him. He then tried reaching out to touch them. Even though he did not feel like he made physical contact with anything, the interface moved around in the places where he touched.

Technology had gone this far; he was starting to feel that he was such an outdated person!

“Ah...I guess I have to type in my name here?”

Joke asked when a window interface labeled “Your Name” popped up in front of him.

“That’s right. You can put in any names; it doesn’t have to be your real name. And it can always be changed. As of now, just type in any random name so the system can run forward.”

The young man nodded before touching the provided space until a keyboard popped up in front of him. So he began to press his fingers on it while thinking: this would probably look like he was doing some strange moves midair to those without these goggles.

“Your name was confirmed. Summoner Joker, welcome to the world of AOS.”

The computer sound blasted from beside his ears. He assumed that there was a sound system embedded near his ears because the voice was loud and clear as if someone was speaking right next to him.

“Okay. All done. Let’s continue our talk over there. I’ll start explaining to you about AOS in detail.”

“Over there?”

Joke raised his eyebrows while the young lady named Rin walked over to a device nearby, lying on it. She then inserted her ID slot inside the machine before turning to smile sweetly at him.

“You’ll see once you’re there.”