Spending my retirement in a game

chapter 3

"Alright then, Rover. The game should be ready around now, right?" Benjamin asked while sitting at the beach of the lake in his Desktop-Mode, throwing rocks into the water to make them skip. The moment he said Rover's name, the small orb appeared in front of the old man.

"Yes, that's right! It can be launched in approximately 14 seconds! Do you want to run the Application the moment it is available?" He asked in his cheerful, robotic voice. Benjamin nodded his head and stood up, patting the sand from his pants instinctively, "Please! Seeing how real this small world seems, I can barely imagine what the Game world will be like, haha."

With closed eyes, Benjamin stroked his beard and laughed softly while imagining the possibilities that are to come.

"The Application can be launched now. Have fun playing, Benjamin!"

Without giving him the chance to reply, Benjamin's surroundings changed suddenly once more. The Lake and Forest around him faded into non-existence and he found himself in a white space like when he first entered the Desktop-Mode.

The only difference was that behind him, a single decorated wooden door stood, with nothing behind it. Only the door, nothing else. Surprised, but figuring that there's a reason that the door was there, Benjamin walked up to it and grabbed the handle.

He pulled on it and the door opened up without any resistance. Within the space behind the door was a room made of marble, Vines running across the pillars that encircled a small table in the center. When Benjamin stepped through the door, it closed shut behind him immediately and disappeared. Across the room, he could now see a Woman standing on a balcony, a vivid blue sky unfolding behind her.

Her bright blond hair flowed in the wind like waves and her long, decorated white dress followed in part while an air of nobility surrounds her.

The woman was looking into the distance, and with the sound of the door closing she turned around and looked at the old man that just entered her domain.

Her eyes began to glister as she ran up to him excitedly. "Are you Benjamin Joyce?!" She yelled out and grabbed Benjamin's hand with her's. While looking at the young woman, Benjamin's impression of her from before instantly vanished.

Laughing softly at her behavior, he begins to stroke his beard with his free hand. "That's me, young lady. Uhm, but who might you be?" He asked curiously. Could this be another player already?

"Ah! Sorry! I was just so excited after Papa told me so much about you... And when he told me you would be coming here as well, I was so excited I could barely wait! But now you're finally here!" She yelled out and turned around with her arms stretched to her sides. Really, the maturity that could be felt from her before just absolutely turned into childishness all of a sudden. But Benjamin didn't really mind, he was just curious who this girl was!

Just as he was about to ask her again, she turned back to him with a smile. "My name is Ari! I'm the Artifical Intelligence in charge of managing this world!"

Shocked at this revelation, Benjamin ripped his eyes wide open. There was no way in hell that was an AI! Someone had to be playing a prank on him!

"So... you're an artificial intelligence? You're not one of the developers?"

"What? No, silly! How I said, I was created to manage this world! You see, this place, the World of Magic, works much like your world out there! The people here act like, well, people! I don't know myself, but Papa told me in most games, the people, NPCs as you call them, can't think for themselves. Not in this world! They think, they love, and they hate!" Ari explained happily, joining her hands together behind her back, trying to figure out the funny expression that Benjamin was giving her.