'It will be fun, come on na!'
The voice still ringed in my ears, how sweet it had sounded in those moments, but right now standing among all these other folks, I wasn't sure about it.
The same sentence repeated itself in my head.
Yeah, it kind of feels stupid now. Now that I was standing in line behind hundred others, as far as I could guess, they made this whole line thing to experience the enigma of the newer generation.
That was how my friend, Mason, had described the new game. Yeah, the time passer of all generations. The mere addiction of these games, are enough to send back the entire civilisation to the very back of human behaviour.
I was well informed about the behaviour, because at one time, I too was the victim. And that is why, I had repeatedly tried to deny mere invitations to any of the game related things.
No thanks, I like how things are as of now.
It wasn't like my life was all great, and I was some kind of philanthropist who had passed on the ideology of all day work and no games, I was and am just a regular employee in one of the firms.
"Aren't you excited?" Cherry had a huge grin on her face. I could feel her excitement radiating through her body, all the way, when we were working in the office.
It was commendable that even this long of a wait hadn't dampened her motivation to experience the game. She was the same girl, who had asked me and Mason to go with her, or rather it was the other way around. But the mere mention of 'The three grand pillars' had her making immediate plans, after the office work.
I still think that the name was kind of basic and stupid, but whatever.
Well, I being from a small village, didn't have much interaction with females, or rather I wasn't used to the body language, and the communication of these city girls, it always perplexed me.
And then fortunately or unfortunately I kind of got a crush for Cherry.
That I hid it deep inside myself because remember no distractions.
But in the same manner, my only friend Mason told me about how he had deeply fallen in love with her. I had sighed back then. It was kind of an everyday thing for him.
I just nodded along with him, and forgot about it. And that was how we became friends with each other.
The line steadily got shorter and shorter, but as far as my eyesight allowed me, I still wasn't able to see the end of it.
"I hope the line doesn't close on us."
I sighed.
A few people grumbled around me.
"Hey man don't jinx it. " Mason said with tension on his face.
"Yeah Seken you are being too pessimistic."
Cherry pouted.
I had only seen people pouting in films and commercials, but now seeing it first hand, she kinda looked cute.
I moved my eyes away, to take a look at my back.
A teenager stood behind me, kind of obese, with fat around his cheeks and his stomach.
The boy, noticing my eyes, scrunched up his nose.
"What are you looking at, you old man?"
I must say, I was kinda pissed at being called an old man by a boy who was what? Merely,ten years younger than me.
The boy, continuing growling and making faces at me, I looked for a hint of her mother or someone related, he was alone.
For a few seconds, we made eye contact, serious eye contact. Like we were trying to say something important to each other. Then I opened my mouth.
"Aren't you hungry?"
At my unexpected question, the boy got confused, his face kind of looked stupid, but I wasn't saying that.
Then the boy nodded back after contemplation, and took out his backpack.
He opened it and I could see a various assortment of snacks, filling the entire bag. The boy took a chocolate bar, unwrapped it and started eating it.
Then he looked back at me, and seeing that I was still paying him attention took out another chocolate bar and handed it to me.
"Thank you."
I nodded back at the unexpected goodness from the boy.
He smiled back. I was wrong about him. In the deep of my heart, I begged for his forgiveness, and we started talking. All while both of us continued to eat our respective chocolate bar.
Not sparing any chances of being called selfish, I tore the bar, from the defined corners, and handed some to my two friends, Mason and Cherry.
As the wait continued, and the line got shorter, this time I had company with someone whom I enjoyed talking with.
Turned out that the boy was named Benson, and was a local of this city. And that his home wasn't far from mine.
Seriously Benson knew his stuff. Like everything that I hadn't heard about the game 'The three grand Pillars' and the surrounding conspiracies. It was seriously fun to listen back with him.
The game was released a month back. It had been a huge deal even before its launch.
It was the first time a company and different government entities had come in collaboration to spread the game name.
And the noise didn't diminish even after the game launched. Because something was really peculiar about this game, like you couldn't download the game even if you wanted to, nor was there some kind of hard copy available for this game.
The game was only accessible from the 'Grand Transit Centres', it sounds even cooler than the game itself. Like the line, we were currently in one of the three transit centres, made in the city.
And even when the accessibility was kind of difficult, the enthusiasm only deepened towards this game.
It is said that the game promised full immersion. I knew AR and VR, but somehow the game didn't follow the same standards.
The line grew thinner, till only a few were standing in front of us.
A quick glance towards the back, and I could see the huge line. Seriously, how was the company managing the influx of these many people?
My friends had arrived a few times before, and weren't new to the process.
Suddenly only my friends were standing in front of me, and there was a door, with a person guarding it. The man seemed dressed for theatrical occasions, he was in some kind of ancient traditional garment, taken straight out of eastern mythologies.
The man had sharp eyebrows that were constantly frowning in deep seriousness.
"We would like three tickets, please." Cherry asked the man, while pointing at Mason and me.
The man had a slate of some kind that looked glossy at first glance. The edges of slate were embroidered with expensive looking crystals. But as far as I knew, and doubted that wasn't probably that much expensive.
He ran his fingers around the front of the slate, which was hidden from us, or rather despite trying hard enough I wasn't able to look into it. The man, in a few moments, swirled his hand around the slate, without touching it and then he looked back at us.
"That will be 12 Crystals."
What the hell was he trying to say? The manner in which he said, sounded cryptic to me, but as if Cherry understood it, she took out 12 crystals from her purse.
For a moment, even I had a hard time understanding the process. Why were they asking for crystals?
And what about those like me who came for the very first time.
The man took out something that looked like a mark of some kind, and waved his hands onto Mason's hands. As soon as he finished doing that, an exact mark appeared on his hand.
I was seriously bewildered and a little suspicious too. Had they come to some kind of magic show? It wasn't wrong when whatever game it was, was hidden behind a veil.
Mason entered the veil and disappeared.
"This is cool right?" Cherry had a small victory smirk, looking at my widened eyes. The man pressed the mark onto her hands.
I was forced to nod.
"Don't worry too much. The expression is normal for first timers." She said while going into the veil herself.
Then the man came to me. I was forced to acknowledge that even though the man looked silly in the dress, there was a regality and dignity in the way he moved.
The man pressed the mark onto my hands. I looked dumbfounded, as the mark appeared on my hand, and seriously I didn't feel the man touching my hand at all. The man then looked at me, a bit surprised.
"First time." He asked.
"Yes."
I must have looked stupid.
"I hope you will become one of the bearers." Saying that, the man bowed to me.
I was bewildered by his strange encouragement. Even then I clumsily repeated the movement and then the man pushed me.
Seriously, I was going to complain back to him when I felt myself going behind the veil. Before I could even understand what had happened, the world disappeared from my eyes.