Game time 5 Minutes. Shutdown mode.

  Lance fell through his Inns floor. He fell into darkness, then into bright light. The wind blowing past him, his gear and sack hood slowly tearing off. Until it abruptly stopped Lance held his hands in front of his face but opened them to see himself back in his Specter Home screen. A table and couch in front of a TV. Spex appeared to the side of him, startling Lance, who let out a girlish scream.

  “ Hello Lance. How did you enjoy playing today? The information on your feedback needs time to process, would you care to give some words on your experience.” She held forward a clipboard with a piece of paper on it. It was titled Wish Legacy Game Review. And went on to ask questions about the gameplay.

  Lance looked at it and sighed. “ Really.. I'll fill something out later. Honestly I'm just a little tired. Also WORST timing ever Spex. Did you save the footage like I asked?”

  “ Yes, your video is currently being uploaded to your drive. You have a few minutes if you'd like to watch it.”

  “ Nah that's okay. I'll just check out my messenger really quickly and maybe browse the Specter store. Do you know any cooking games that are popular?”

  “ You still have a home screen memoir unopened and it seems you have two more from today.”

  Lance was already scrolling his menus when he heard Spex ask. He paused.

  “ Actually, sure show me.”

  Spex had a crate appear on the floor. Next to it a Goblin stood. It's eyes straight, it looked nowhere but beyond. Lance's Eyes grew wide.

  “ Grax? Is he alive?” Lance said, waving his hands in front of Grax’ face. No response, no breathing. It was like he was an eerie taxidermy.

  “ This is just an ‘Ingredient’ like you asked for. And the crate there is full of the other ingredients you asked for. The last item from today's game play is this.” Spex said as she pulled forward the burlap mask.

  Lance stared at it, puzzled, he looked into the eye holes and the mismatching stitches. The jagged cut mouth hole. The string that he could still almost feel digging into his throat. The mask disgusted him, he didn't know why. It just felt wrong, looking at it here in this, clean, space. It was like it stared back at him. He grabbed it from her and tossed it on the crate.

  “ Alright Spex, first what the fuck.” Lance gestured at Grax, particularly his penis. “ I ain't looking at goblin dick every time I turn on the console. Put this one away for now. Actually just put it all away. Can you get me a stove or something next time? Good job I guess, but it's still useless.”

  Spex nodded and bowed a second later the home screen items disappeared. He began to check again for cooking games and while still browsing. The screen grew bright white forcing Lance to close his eyes. When he opened them he was in his bed. He sat up.

  It was late in the evening. His mom as sister we're still gone. He got up hungry, and went downstairs. He moved into the kitchen, and sitting there, was his dad.

  “ Hey bud. Didn't know you were home.” His dad said eating take out, obviously bought for one person. A large plate of a baked potato covered in barbecue meat, chives, butter, sour cream, and cheese. His father was already halfway through it.

  Lance stepped forward and gave his dad a big hug from behind his chair. “ That's okay, yeah I was supposed to cook, been really tired today. Mom and Rogue went for take out. I'm starving. Thought they'd be back by now”

  “ Yeah they called me. I guess they decided to sit down at the restaurant. How you been? School good? I'll be off for a few days if you wanna catch a game or help me in the garage.”

  “ I'm fine, schools going fine. I could watch a game, yeah, who's playing? And by help you meannn?”

  “ Mastodons and the Samurai, BlueBall playoffs. And yes” Lance's dad smiled wide. “ On the grain. Just some touch up staining and sanding and I'll finally finish that table set mom wanted for the patio.”

  Lance sighed. He wanted his dad to say with his other hobby, welding. Lance wanted to learn another skill so he could avoid having to fall on his schooling as the only avenue for income. Then he remembered his Viewcube account. “ Oh actually I forgot I have some stuff to work on for school, a quarter finals project. But we can catch the game, I'll help if you need someone to help move it though.”

  His dad shook his head as if expecting an excuse. “ Right. Okay. I'll call you when I wanna put it out back.” His dad then stood up and went to the fridge putting away his food. He grabbed a glass of water, then went upstairs. His clothes were still dirty from work. Lance watched his dad leave. His father was a general contractor, but he worked for a construction agency that had contracts states wide. Sometimes his father would be gone with his crew for a week or more. It paid really well, and his father didn't have to work unless he chose to take the contract. It allowed them a comfortable living, he just had to take work when in season so he could float them through the dry seasons. It was early spring, the busiest time of the year. Lance could see his dad was tired. He heard the shower start. Lance opened the fridge. With a lack of choices available for a quick meal he poured a heaping bowl of cereal and went back upstairs.

  Sitting at his desk Lance scrolled through the game's on the Specter app, looking for cooking sims. A lot of the game's didn't have that many reviews, he imagined a lot of them were too niche or childlike, their audience too small or uncaring. He stumbled upon a game that was a remastered version of a game he had heard of from the Specter 2 console. “Hot Kitchen” a game that had a very famous chef who voiced the main npc, the head chef slash restaurant owner. The game boasted about being a high end restaurant that made food for specific clientele. As Lance scrolled through the reviews and pictures he began to blush.. The reviews talked about what it was like to make the right food and be rewarded and making the wrong food and being scolded by the main voice actor Bjorgen. It seemed like a lot of the reviews were women as they had an obvious fancy for him. He scrolled until he found a review that wasn't useless.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  “ This game is what I played years ago while I went to culinary school. It helped me learn a lot of tips and tricks that I use to this day, as a proud owner of my own restaurant. From cooking to people skills this is an easy masterclass where vr takes place in a fun setting while teaching you applicable skills for a fine dining environment.” - Noodles34 5/5 stars

  Time played - 364 hours on Specter 2 console.

  “Damn.. seems legit. A lot of game time and he says it's a masterclass…” Lance still had some money left for games and this one was on sale for thirty bucks. He remembered he had more money coming in then decided to buy it. “ Well King, here's me learning.”

  Lance began to watch his gameplay slowly cutting out pieces of it that weren't all that useful. He chopped down the video until late in the evening. He eventually went to bed and woke up the next morning.

  Elsewhere….

  Courage and Valora took off their headsets and placed them on the hooks next to them. Their chairs began to rise from the pod they were strapped into. Once upright the siblings looked at each other. They both smiled.

  “ Dude, aren't these so sick! I'm so happy dad decided to buy these.” Valora said, stepping out of the pod. She wore a white skin tight suit with cabling running along its seams. She grabbed a water bottle from the refrigerator between the two pods. Tossing it to Courage who now sat up on the side of the pod, she grabbed another.

  “ Haha yeah these are great. We get to be whatever we want. I really like Rielly. She's super chill, glad tomorrow we get to have Lance back. He got a tank so that means we're fully set. But..”

  “ Yeah I know. I need to reroll. This class is great but I'm not on hard.”

  “ Valora, you don't have to, you know we don't have to get to level 200.” Courage said looking around the room. The two of them were extremely spoiled. Their parents both owned businesses and their family was already set for generations. Neither of the siblings needed to work a day in their life. This entire floor was full of toys and consoles of many varieties. On one side was Valora's room and the other Courages. This was just one floor of the high rise that the siblings lived in in Australia. The building belonged to their parents who didn't live there but allowed their kids to have the floors seven and eight, leaving the two floors of space above to be rented out.

  “ I mean yeah but still, I'm not scared anymore, and you guys are all on hard. I don't want to get left behind when you guys get up to the higher floors. Plus you heard Rielly hard groups get better drops.” Valora said as she approached the pod her brother was in.

  “ Yeah true. But how are you gonna pass level one? And that means we will have to wait even more, for you this time. You should have just gone with Lance before he finished it.”

  Valora smiled “ Hey I wasn't confident until I got to level 2 and played more with you dummy.” She said as she pulled up a chair. “ Besides in there.. well it's good to have fun with you.”

  Courage smiled as a little tear welled in his eye. He put his head down using his hair to cover his face a little as he leaned forward grabbing his wheelchair's arms. He pushed off the pod and sat himself gently in the chair while his sister held it. “ Yeah I get it, it makes me happy too.” He said covering up his sadness with a drink of water.

  Meanwhile….

  King sat forward in his recliner, taking off his helmet. He stood up and went to his computer. “ Viewcube… Dungeon Chef..”

  He began to look over Lance's channel. He watched the two videos he had up. Noticing the high view count and likes. “ Damn good.. on the right path. Well might as well just nudge him further.” King liked and subscribed. He left a comment on his last video. “King content when?”

  He popped open a beer then began watching videos.

  In Japan….

  Reilly jogged on a treadmill. Sweat dripping, heavy breathing, slow but consistent. The machine gave a beep indicating her kilometer was finished. She stepped off legs wiggling like jelly. She stood up tall and walked in a few circles. She grabbed her gym bag and went to the changing room. She showered and left the gym. As she walked home, she pondered what to eat for dinner. She took a turn down a small alleyway. Small food stalls were everywhere on both sides of the path. She kept going, following the same route she had for a couple days. It wasn't until towards the end of this lane she came across a small shop selling a Hispanic version of sushi. Most of these rolls are spicy and with beef sliced thin and seared in spice, or spicy vegetables in place of crab fillings. She smiled brightly and ordered a couple rolls then went home. Trying her best to find a resemblance to the goblin tacos she ate with Lance. She wrote notes on the food and checked a couple boxes she had created trying to narrow down something. After dinner she got ready for bed, then she received a notification.

  A new video from TheDungeonChef.

  Goblin Friends or Foe

  Watch now ? Watch later? Ignore

  Reilly or Rairī, her Japanese name which means beautiful. She adopted an easier to understand version online a long time ago, before the new translative ability of the Specter 3. She smiled and began to watch the video. The beginning started from when King and Lance were alone, at their first checkpoint. The pair of them preparing their small stakes, it flashed over to when they were on the path and ambushed the goblins. Conveniently not showing off Kings sly use of Chiten armor. Rather just showing them combining efforts and taking down the goblins. Lance showed them loot and doubled back to the second checkpoint. It then Skipped Forward to the interaction of Lance and Grax. The two of them exchanged body language, King, Lance and the goblins trading and then it showed them eating and drinking together. Suddenly it seemed that once the goblins got what they wanted they had tricked the two of them, and ambushed them. A clever edit painted the goblins in a poor light but it was Lance's intent, he'd seen that while they could be interacted with he'd rather people be cautious than to fall prey, hiding his mistake.

  Lance believed his mistake was simple but scary. This game was lifelike. These creatures were intelligent, they had names for each other. They identified with one another on more than one level, down to the clothing. Playing Wish Legacy was so life-like that he'd forget it was a game sometimes. Living in the moment elsewhere. He wanted to test if the memory of the creatures were wiped if the level was attempted a second time. Jumping back in from a checkpoint and trading them their friends gear seemed stupid in retrospect, but he didn't account for them, as creatures of the dungeon, to be personable with each other. A curious thing about the world within the game. He failed to even think about it but even Wellyn was rather unique. For an NPC he had a real sense of individuality. AI intelligence was pretty remarkable for games, but to the degree he had seen previously in the Specter 2, it still had set dialogue trees. Specific circumstances expanded and contracted the ways in which you could interact with them but generally they were tailored to railroading you through a story. Lance felt excitement, level one had brought so much to think about. It was time to grind.