When he finally made his way to the gameroom, Taemin flipped the switch on the game, forever plugged in, sitting cross legged on the floor as he waited for it to boot up. The game started more quickly than before, as though the more he played it, the more it improved in quality. He pulled up a cushion to lean against and logged in.

The first world Taemin always visited was Paradise Planet. He still hadn't gotten the headset required but he could always talk to Sandy and roam around the world despite not being able to communicate with any of the other players in the game. Once he got bored of whatever Sandy had to say and the mundane activities of the World, he'd roam around the other Fourth level worlds trying to gain any EXP he didn't already have, bounce back between the first few level Worlds, and then he'd always end up back in Paradise Planet before logging off.

He didn't mind the routine so much, but it was getting boring and Taemin was antsy. He had a habit of throwing away games whenever he got bored of them, but he didn't want to get rid of this game yet; he still had so many unfulfilled curiosities and unanswered questions about the higher up Worlds, and he still really wanted to try the voice feature, so he knew he wouldn't give up on the game anytime soon.

Although this waiting business for him to level up was getting seriously annoying. He had no idea what more he could do among the Fourth level Worlds to gain more EXP. He'd played all the mini games, explored the new sites, done tasks his character could do to gain more strength and health in an attempt to somehow convert it to EXP, but there was nothing more he could do; he was stuck at a standstill.

He was still pondering this, sitting on a bench in one of the many Paradise Planet parks when he saw Sandy from a distance. He smiled and waved her over and she grinned, ambling over, her floating tablet trailing along behind her. She sat down on the bench next to him, tablet hovering by her head as it began to type

Nice to see you again, Taemin!

'Nice to see you too, Sandy. I was wondering if you could answer some of my questions.'

I'll do my best!

'I was wondering...', he started out, 'what other ways there were to gain EXP in the Fourth level Worlds? I was always able to do it pretty easily in the previous Worlds, like playing the mini games, checking out the different areas in each World...I can't seem to level up past where I'm at right now, and I was wondering if you knew how?' Sandy grinned before replying.

Of course! To continue to level up, you need to activate the voice feature. There's a lot you might be missing out on right now by your inability to communicate with other citizens. I can only tell you how to approach the citizens, where in the Fourth Worlds to visit, things like that. I can't pose challenges and tasks like citizens can, I can't offer you any way of levelling up, but by interacting with them, they can. Unfortunately, you can't interact with them...

'Unless I get a headset,' he finished for her, 'right. I'm still working on it.'

You're welcome in Paradise Planet any time, Taemin. Once you acquire a headset, you'll be even more welcome.

'Thanks, Sandy.'

Anytime. With that, she stood, offering a small wave of farewell, and continued on down the street. Taemin stayed seated on the bench, his character looking as downtrodden as he did, by now, curled up with the cushion between his legs on the floor of his gameroom. He had to get a headset or he was never going to be able to level up from this goddamned World, and he was only on the Fourth level. He wasn't even halfway through the entire game and he'd die before he made it to the Tenth World at this point.

Armed with determination and laden with rich pockets, Taemin shut the game off quickly and went to go get dressed and go out.

Taemin wasn't actually allowed to go out by himself, something his parents made clear to him at a young age. They were never very strict with him, but always made sure he knew he had to wait for the nanny or one of them to accompany him out, because heaven forbid anything bad happened to him outside, alone. Taemin had long since forbid his parents from giving him a nanny, relying on his parents' trust that he wouldn't do anything to break the rules they'd set out for him.

As he inched open the door of his house and peeped his head outside checking both sides before darting out, he figured well, this was one of those rule-breaking times.

Taemin knew he had to make this quick. His parents may've been very lenient with him, but that doesn't mean they were dumb. He didn't have a very large chance of being able to sneak out and make it back without them somehow knowing he was gone. Even if he made it back before they came home from that stupid lunch, he knew he was walking on eggshells because they'd always been able to see right through his lies.

See, the thing with Taemin's parents is that Taemin could up to the extreme and they'd still baby him about it...as long as he told the truth about what he did. Like the time he was seven and forgot to feed their puppy despite him bragging about how he'd never forget when they first bought her (under Taemin's command, of course) and the dog had peed on the floor out of some sick revenge. Taemin had only been seven, his poor soul, and came clean right away, sobbing over how little Eve wouldn't let him pet her because she was angry with him which was why she did a 'wee-wee' on the floor. Taemin's mother hadn't even scolded him, simply calmed him down and asked a maid to clean the mess while another maid kindly filled Eve's doggy dish. Taemin learned that he needn't even lie to get out of trouble; he was already out of trouble just by being their son. Of course...Taemin didn't think that would last forever, and the year he turned eleven, after accidentally screwing up while trying to dye his own hair blue and staining the entirety of the bathroom sink and mirror a royal blue (but not his own head because he didn't even know he was supposed to bleach it first), he'd decided to lie on the cleaning maid. As soon as the lie slipped out of his mouth, he'd known he'd made a mistake because of the way his father's lips clenched into a heard line and his mother shook her head at him reminding him through a steel-toothed grin that the cleaning and gardening maids had asked for the week off, meaning they were never there in the first place. Taemin had been grounded for a week, albeit a light punishment for the price of getting blue stains out of mahogany cabinets and off marble counters, but he'd sulked nonetheless about it, vowing never to lie again.

It was much easier if he just came clean from the start, he'd learned, and accept whatever half-assed punishment his parents could conjure up. Unfortunately, since Taemin had started feigning sick to miss important events just to play 'that wretched game' as his parents dubbed it, they'd been none too happy and anything bad Taemin did, his punishment was to be directly related to the game. They'd hid the console for a week once, and the next time they'd said the maid must've 'misplaced' the controller during her cleaning rounds. Once, after a particularly bad event involving Taemin throwing a tantrum and breaking several kitchen plates, his parents had actually cut the cable of the game, disabling it from working forever. Taemin had actually begun to cry softly at that point, ashamed of his behavior and he guessed his parents had felt pretty bad because only a day later, after returning to the gameroom, he found a brand new cable, still wrapped up with a twisty cord situated right next to the console.

Taemin wasn't trying to push his luck this time and have them do something crazy like destroy the actual game. He remembered when he and his parents had purchased it; there had only been one left from a rundown shop that was closing down. If they destroyed it...he'd never be able to play the game again.

Taemin quickly walked through the streets trying to get to the main shopping district as quickly as possible. He soon came across the towering mall and slinked inside, scanning the mall map quickly and ambling off to the highest end electronics store. He wasn't going to beat around the bush and get a cheap model in the case that it didn't work well with the game.

He flicked through some of the headsets available for game play reading the different descriptions on each one until he just settled for the one that said it had the highest quality audio, no echo, an adjustable mouthpiece, cushioned earphones, and was of the newest model, so it wouldn't go out of date quickly. As Taemin made his purchase, handing over a wad of bills (there was no way he was paying for this with his card - and have the purchase turn up on his parent's monthly bank statement? No way) he hoped that he'd be able to use the same headset on the higher level worlds. He winced as he accepted his receipt, noting the price, hoping he wouldn't have to pay this again when he leveled up.

Taemin quickly exited the store and rushed home, slipping his shoes and jacket off, and stuffing them into the closet before bounding to the east side of the house again, and entering the gameroom. He quickly booted up the game again, and as he waited for it to load, he unwrapped the packaging around the headset. Once the game rumbled to life, he quickly sought out Sandy to tell her of the news

'I bought a headset'

Congratulations, Taemin! Please select an option. Like before, a game option window opened with new options; A for 'I have activated the headset', B for 'how do I activate the headset?', and C for 'I am unable to activate my headset' Taemin chose B and waited. A new window popped up with instructions for how to activate the headset and register it with the game. Taemin fumbled around for the piece of paper with the 9-letter code on it and as soon as he typed it into the box on the screen, the headset 'plinged' and flashed a green light a few times before it turned a solid blue.

Taemin, please select a response. Sandy showed him a list asking him what color the light on his headset was. When Taemin responded with the 'blue' option, Sandy's screen shifted back to typing

Congratulations, Taemin, your headset has been successfully activated. All you have to do now is adjust the volume and speaker settings of the headset according to the brand you have acquired and press the start button to proceed using the voice feature. Remember you can toggle the feature on or off in the game settings. Taemin was presented with an option window with two options labeled 'begin using voice feature' and 'use voice feature later' to which he selected the former. Immediately, his headset 'plinged' again and he could suddenly hear the game's features through the headset. This was new, Taemin could now hear the birds in the game chirping, the chatter amongst Paradise Planet citizens, and even hear the water in the ponds and the creaking of the metal on the swingsets in the parks. This was awesome.

As he turned back to Sandy to talk to her, he watched her collect the floating tablet in her hands and place it gently in her messenger bag before she - for the first time  - opened to speak.

"Hello, Taemin! It's so nice to use the voice feature with you!" She had a nice voice, Taemin noted. Strong and soprano and littered with friendliness.

"H-hello," he tested out the features, and when his character's mouth moved, his voice came out. It was similar to a video call over computers, and Taemin settled into it easily, "this is so cool, I can hear everything in the game now!"

"Yes, I'm glad you can! As previously stated, remember that now that the voice feature is on you can interact with all the other citizens now. Remember that this will increase the likelihood of citizens approaching you now, because you are able to communicate with them. Feel free to make friends and acquaintances."

"This is awesome, so I can talk to other users now?" Taemin's interest in the game skyrocketed; he couldn't wait to try out the speech feature.

"There are no other users." Huh? Taemin turned back to Sandy's smiling face, a confused expression etched across his.

"What do you mean?"

"You are the only user. The other citizens of Paradise Planet are computer players. They are not characters like you, this is their real home," she smiled. Taemin's eyebrow cocked as he realized it was a one-player game, and other players couldn't access the same server. It was just him.

"Oh," he said dumbly, "so I'm the only human then."

"Precisely," Sandy replied. Then she waved goodbye to him and sauntered off, her tablet re-emerging from her messenger bag to hover hear her head again.

Taemin retreated back to the home menu and logged off soon after, tired as he was. There was always the next day to try interacting with other citizens, after all.

Hey guys, LifeisSHINee here! This is the second installment of this story, like I said it might be short (I'm aiming for under 10 chapters but we'll see how it goes). This chapter seems a little y and kind of rushed to me, so sorry about that. I wanted to update earlier (I honestly had this chapter half finished sitting here as a draft for almost a week) but as some of you may know it IS exam period for me and well, school will always come first. So again, sorry if this chapter seems wonky and random, it felt like it to me, but I may update again soon with some *ahem* ACTUAL developement so please stay tuned. Until then, take care!