3 The starting village (1/2)

I quickly arrived at my house, it was only five minutes walking from Marco's. My family was waiting for me in the living room. Father was watching, as always, sports on TV and mother was cooking. As I said, they are great sports fans, my father especially. In his youth he used to compete in the decathlon, he had some success until he got injured, when he met our mother who was a physical therapist, and there was me, and little later my little sister, you know how it goes. Now my father is a coach, and mother retired a few years ago and now mainly stays home taking care of the house and helping Hope with her studies, not that she needed it.

, Father, mother good day to you.”

, Hi son, go freshen up, we are going to have lunch soon.” said my mother.

, Son are you ready for new victories?” asked my father.

, You know about the game?” I asked him a little surprised.

, Of course, I know, it is everywhere in the city and on TV. I remember that three of you numbskulls almost brought chaos every time one of those games came out during your time in high school and college. Did you exercise as I told you? You should keep your body in shape if you want to play the game every night.”

, I did dad, don't worry.” I started exercising ten years ago when dad told me about the need for a healthy body for people who play games daily.

, As long as you are aware.” he said.

I freshened up and came to the table for lunch. At the same time, my little sister Hope came downstairs from her room. She hugged me and said:

, Big brother you are finally home, I am starving.”

, Haha you little glutton, is it that hard to wait for me to have lunch.” I said glutton but Hope was under no circumstances fat or chubby, she had a big appetite because of her regular training at the track every day. Dad was the guilty party, he found her talent and she also enjoyed doing track and field every day.

, Usually not, but you were late today.”

She was right I was usually on time or I called beforehand to tell them not to wait for me. I guess that when you are part of The Nerdy Trio time is ticking differently.

, He is here now so let's start eating.” Mom said and we sat down and started eating.

Lunch was delicious as usual, and we talked about how we spent our day. When dessert came, Hope asked me.

, Bro, are you going to play Age of Gods, everyone is talking about it at school.”

, Of course, I waited ten years for the game. Me, Marco and Wolf made an agreement that as soon we had our own money we would play virtual reality games. We could have already started one, but all of them were already in later stages, so we waited for this one.”

, Can I also play, many of my friends will play too. ” she asked with her beautiful smile. I couldn't say no to her but I knew that mom and dad wouldn't allow her.

, You can ”said mom with dad nodding his head in approval,, if your brother can buy one helmet for you.”

, Yes, yes, big brother you will buy it for me, right?”

, But how can she play and I couldn't?” I asked my parents.

, She is more responsible than you when you were her age, we don't need to worry about her neglecting her studies and training.” said my father.

I facepalmed myself and could only say,, Don't worry brother will buy you a helmet, but you know that you need to wait until your 18 birthday to start playing virtual reality games.” That was a law, only persons at the age of 18 and above can play virtual reality games. There were some exceptions, but not that many and only with parents approval and in rehabilitation medicine.

, Thank you brother, she hugged me and kissed me,, remember, my birthday is not even a month away. Ugh, I can't wait, why isn't it sooner, I will fall behind this way.”

, Don't worry, I will help you and you will make up the difference in no time.”

, You are the best brother thank you” she hugged me again and ran to her room.

, You must take care of your sister even if it is only a game.” reminded me, my mother.

, I know mom don't worry”, I assured her that I will look out for her and then went to my room to take care some of the school stuff and to prepare to enter Age of Gods.

Finally, I thought as I laid down in my bed and put on a helmet. A good thing about virtual games in this age is that technology is very safe, you can even sleep with helmets on and they are not taxing on the body and mental health. Still sleep is important to recover and it is not recommended to play often without sleep. Well since sleeping is one of my favorite things to do I won't have problems with that. In the past you could even sleep in some games I wonder if that will be possible in Age of Gods.

As I was wondering about sleeping, the game was slowly starting. It was already 24:00 h. First thing I saw was that incredible trailer. It was even better than on TV, it was like you were in the center of everything. Then a female soft voice said:

, Welcome to the Age of Gods, we hope you will enjoy and try not to anger any of the many Gods or else...”

Wow I thought, they don't kid around with the Gods. Well, it was natural, Gods are not easy to trifle with, there are a lot of examples in mythology where mortals insulted and defied Gods that didn't end well.

, Please choose your region” the voice continued.

Then the Earth showed up. It was turning around and stopped on Europa. I could see a lot of regions to choose from. Well, the choice was obvious but it was good to know what are other regions up front. Far north there were Nordic lands, in the center were Germanic lands west were Celtic lands, east were Slavic lands and south was also Slavic region(Balkans), my region, and of course Hellas the land of mythology and Roman Empire. Wow, there was directly Roman Empire, maybe it was easier to name it like that or it may have a different meaning we will see in the game.

With no further ado, I choose the Slavic region(Balkans). After that there was character customization, The only thing I did was to remove my glasses and add a little facial hair, that was enough. After that voice said to choose a name. I was curious so I asked:

, System how many players choose a name with the word Champion in them?”