Sunghye didn’t resist.

She tried to (not really) but her urges won her over and she brought her Ninowatt to work with her. Now it was just sitting in her bag getting to know her sunglasses and very empty wallet at the moment.

When she arrived at the food truck that was parked at their usual spot in an empty parking lot in the early mornings, she was greeted by her boss Soyou who had more of a calm demeanor than a cheerful one she would be forced to put on because of her task with handling the customers. Though because of her serene personality, Soyou didn’t interact with her like a boss but more of a friend which was why talking to her came so easily.

“So how’s ‘The Renegade’s Sword’?” Soyou asked. She was the one who initially suggested the game in the first place.

“I actually didn’t buy it,” Sunghye responded before she took to frying some of the vegetables that were already cut up by Soyou.

“What why?” Soyou asked as she pulled up to the window and let the smell of food waft spread throughout the lot. Soon enough, a few other trucks pulled up, setting up their own stations as well.

“I got distracted by Arceldia instead.” Sunghye rubbed her forehead of the sweat that was building up already from the heat of the flames.

Soyou let out a groan at her answer though. “That . I wanted us to game together.” While it wasn’t exactly welcomed at work, Soyou as much as anyone loved the Ninowatt gear but kept a strict code of conduct that play and work should be kept separately.

“Maybe another time in the future,” she said with a smile.

Quickly the two got into their routine and Ninowatt wasn’t brought into the conversation until after the lunch rush when gamers finally poked their heads out of the door for something to fill their stomachs. As much as virtual food was good, it would never replace the actual substance.

But Sunghye had to admit that everything else was amazing, which was why when break time rolled around, she pulled out her Ninowatt glasses and went into semi-immersion despite the expression from Soyou’s face which she could still see despite playing the game.

Instead of her fully embodying her character in the game, she saw herself standing there.  With a few thoughts that resulted in a nonresponsive Sunghye puppet, it took a while before real Sunghye could figure out how to move her body and control it.

No one ever told her that semi-immersion was harder than full immersion.

Out of curiosity though, since she was standing near the outskirts of the town with the pub, Sunghye used her power and saw her become something like out of a fantasy. Instead of seeing just from her eyes the dragon beam, the full body vision was pretty cool.

When Sunghye was about to try a few more moves however she was alerted by a notification that told her one of her teammates just logged in.

Surprisingly enough it was Kai.

Quickly Sunghye sent him a message if he wanted to meet at the pub. Kai responded pretty quickly with a confirmation and without any delay, Sunghye was at a table drinking a coffee and waiting for her group member to come.

When he did, he waved at her cheerfully and then sat at the chair across from her.

“Should you even be on around this time?” Kai questioned her with a raised eyebrow.

“I’m on break and its semi-immersion too,” Sunghye responded easily.

“Feels weird doesn’t it?”

Sunghye forced her head to nod. “Definitely, it’s like an out of body experience. But that was how games were back then wasn’t it?”

Kai rubbed his chin thoughtfully, “maybe but there are hardly even any retro games anymore because of Ninowatt. It’s practically taken over.”

It was true; any other gaming devices were obsolete at that point when everyone chose Ninowatt over other brands. Store shelves dedicated themselves to showcasing Ninowatt and the games for it alone than save one for a relic of the past like the Xbox1004.

“What about you though, don’t you have work or something?” Sunghye asked him.

“I’m on a break also,” Kai replied, “though that reminds me, Sehun won’t be playing for a while because of upcoming exams he has to study for. He messaged me earlier today about it.”

“He’s a student?”

“Yeah, why do you ask?”

“He seems older,” Sunghye sputtered.

“Gaming does that to people. He most likely lied a bit about his age in his settings but probably not by much; otherwise the system would have picked up on it.” Kai smiled but now that answer had Sunghye’s mind spin.

Carefully she eyed him from her stand point. “What about you?”

“What about me?”

“You’re not secretly like thirty are you?” Sunghye asked suspiciously.

Kai laughed. “No I’m not. I’m happily in my twenties thank you very much.”

Sunghye’s character reluctantly smiled at him on its own accord and just when she was about to say something else to him, Kai disappeared out of sight and so did the