With the pair of scissors from his desk, he cut away the tape sealing the box. He peeled back the flaps to reveal the contents; inside were two unusual helmets and a pair of folded black fabric. "Happy early birthday Matt!" Chris cheered as he pulled out one of the helmets, handing it to his elder brother.
"No Way!" Matt exclaimed. "Is this..."
"It sure is." Chris smiled brightly. "They are prototypes to test, but they are the newest VR system from VWT!" He pulled out and unfolded the fabrics. They were an identical set of skin-tight nerve suits, also the latest prototype.
In tandem, the headset and suit would like directly with a person's brain and nervous system, allowing them to experience everything in a virtual world. While nothing harm or otherwise would occur to a person's real body, they would still experience, pain and pleasure, just as if it would actually happen to them. Additionally, this latest prototype would help stimulate muscles, and the like, to keep atrophy at bay. The only thing it lacked was a way to provide true nutrients to the body. Any food that a person ate in the game, would do nothing to actually sustain them in real life. However, the person in the game would not feel their body's hunger until the safety protocols awoke them. The VR system would automatically eject someone from the game if they spent too much time without eating or drinking in real life.
"This is amazing! How did you get your hands on these?" Matt asked, but then answered his own question a moment later. "The entry. You must have been fast."
Chris nodded. "Yep. I had already started filling it out before the ad was over. Want to try them out?"
"Yes. Don't have to ask me twice!" Matt quickly answered.
Within a few minutes, Matt and Chris had stripped their clothes and dawned the soft fabric of the suit. They laid beside each other on Chris's bed. After placing the helmets on, there was a small wait time as the helmet and suit pairs synced, and fitted to each of their bodies. "Finalized syncing process. You may initiate the VR world." a computerized voice spoke to each of them through the headset. There was a pause. "An adjacent VR set detected. Do you want to link accounts?" Both selected 'yes'. "Initiating transport. Enjoy gamers."
A moment later, Chris felt weightless as his mind seemed to zoom through a starry and bright wormhole. A moment later, he found himself in a sealed chamber. Lit braziers around the room provided adequate light. It appeared to have no entrance or exit. In the center was a stone table with an open book, lined in what appeared to be gold. Floating archaic runes seemed to dance off of the pages. Beside him, Chris saw his brother, though he appeared translucent.
Chris and his brother approached the table. The runes jumped from the book and surrounded the brothers "Two new souls seeking to enter the world of Uarth?" A voice bellowed around them. "Do you wish to enter the world together, or apart?"
Chris glanced at his brother, "What do you think?"
His brother's incorporeal form shrugged. "What is the difference?"
The voice answered, "Only in birth. Together would mean you could have a blood relation such as cousins, siblings, or as close as twins... Apart would mean being unrelated such as childhood friends, comrades in arms, or simply a first time meeting in a tavern... Both have advantages and disadvantages... But since your souls are linked, you have the option to be related which tends to have more benefits depending on the connection."
"Well, I guess we know what linking our accounts means now." Matt said.
"Lets pick 'together' then, since that seems to be the rarer of the options." Chris said. His brother nodded in agreement.
"Very well. Related you will be... What is your blood relation?" The voice asked.
Chris cocked a smile at his brother, as if speaking to him without words. "Brothers" both answered at the same time.
"Of course." The voice acknowledged. The runes began to spin more quickly around them, and images of various brother pairs appeared, almost as numerous as the stars in the sky. "You may select from any of the options. Since you selected a broad category of 'brothers', you will find the options to be numerous. Simply state a more specific classification to narrow it down. Or... you may choose to create your own avatars. The choice is yours..."
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