Haven Online

Continuing to walk down the hall, the smile that graced Wei's features just seconds ago disappeared and a bevy of new emotions appeared on her face. Entering her room, she couldn't help but sigh, because once again she had caused her friend to needlessly worry about her.

If only she had thought to bring up the issue, the last time they had logged out of Haven, even if she didn't feel the time displacement as badly as she did now, she still felt as though she should have at least asked about it. It was just that when they had logged out previously they had been in a hurry to log back in the game, so she just paid it no mind.

However, she knew that was an idiotic decision on her part. No matter what they needed to do in the game, her health should have come first. Plus she didn't need any more mental hangups, she was already dealing with quite a few as is.

"I won't let this happen again," she whispered to herself with a sense of resolve. Wei knew that she had said these exact words a time or two before, in this type of context. And yet somehow she would always wind up repeating her actions, but this time different.

She feels like she had grown, if this was before she probably would have been quiet about what she was feeling, and pretended to be strong. Wei knew herself well, she was certain that would be the case, and only when the pod caught it would she get help.

At that thought, she began to wonder why the pod didn't catch that she was developing time displacement syndrome. With all of the money that she had spent on it, the machine should be able to catch even the tiniest brain fluctuation that happens in her head. 

She understood that it couldn't though, it was only a gaming pod not one of those high tech medical pods that the hospitals had. Even though it did have some elements of those medical pods, they were only the most basic ones.

Shaking her head to clear her turbulent thoughts, Wei walked over to her pod. Rubbing her hand along the shiny metal encasing, she located where the exterior control panel was hidden and opened it up, revealing a lone red button.

This button would activate the pod's system manager without Wei having to get inside of it. The system manager will allow the owner to change some of the basic settings of the pod, like audio, or visual aesthetics. Anything else wasn't allowed and only specialists had the override to do anything more in-depth. 

Pressing down on the red button, Wei watched as a transparent blue screen appeared in front of her. After a moment a ding sound was heard and a mechanical voice began to speak.

[System: Do you wish to change certain settings of this pod?]

"Yes." 

[System: Which system setting do you wish to change?]

'Crap,' Wei thought. She just realized she didn't know the name of the particular system setting that she wanted to change. Quickly going over to the nightstand that was on the other side of her pod, she opened up its drawer and started searching for the pod's manual that she placed inside. 

Grabbing it, she opened it up and began to scan through the book's many pages until she found the section on system commands. Finally finding the page she was searching for, she started to look through the commands on the page. 

Discovering the one she needed, she rushed back to the other side of the pod. However before she could say it, she was cut off by the system asking her the same question again. 

[System: Which system setting do you wish to change?]

Glancing down at the command on the page, Wei said, "I would like to change time code 01-233-Haven Online."

[System: Scanning... Are you sure you wish to switch the displayed time inside of the game?]

"Yes."

[System: This process will take 20 minutes, once completed the displayed time in Haven Online will show your region's current time. Is that the time you wish to see?] 

Nodding her head at the voice, Wei said, "Yes it is."

[System: Do not enter the pod until the update is over! Internalizing… ]

Wei watched as the transparent screen in front of her started counting down, changing from blue to red, while displaying the word updating on it. Seeing that there was no point in staying in her room waiting until it was finished she decided to check up on Xinya.

However, before she could even turn her body away from the pod, she heard her cell phone ring. Wondering if it could be her mother calling her, she walked over to the green end table where she placed it and picked it up.

Seeing Wandering Sound's name on the screen, she became confused, wondering why he was calling her. They had just seen each other ten minutes ago, she hoped nothing had happened to him. 

Quickly answering it, she said, "Hey Qiang, why are you calling? Is something wrong? Are you.."

"Calm down, nothing is wrong," Wandering Sound replied, cutting off her barrage of questions. He didn't understand why but it made him feel good to hear that she was so worried about him. "I was just calling because I missed your voice."

"How can you miss something you heard just a few minutes ago?" We asked, touching her flushed cheeks, a shy smile made its way across her face. 

Leaning back against his expensive leather couch, Wandering Sound started to imagine how Wei looked at this moment. He was sure that she was blushing right now, it was always so easy for him to get her to do so.

Not that he would stop, he loved how cute she looked, blushing beautifully at his words. If only they could meet outside of the game, but he understood that she wanted to take things slow, and he would respect her wishes.

Anyway soon they will be alone together, and they will be able to become a lot more closer to each other than they were before. "Every minute I don't hear your voice feels like an eternity." 

"That was so cheesy," Wei giggled while blushing more at him corny words. "I can't believe you said that."

"Did you eat?" asked Wandering Sound, changing the subject. He did not want to tease her too much, especially since he couldn't see her face. 

Walking over to a chair and sitting in it, Wei said, "Not yet, Drifting Cloud is making something now. What about you?"

"Not yet, but I have a premade dinner in the oven. I have to say I'm a little jealous of you, getting a home-cooked meal from Drifting Cloud," Wandering Sound told her.

"As you should be," She proudly responded. "Drifting Cloud cooks the best meals. I'm thinking about taking lessons." 

"When you do, will you cook for me?" he asked, with a sly grin.

'Cook for him?!' Wei thought her mind spinning at his words. "Do you mean inside of the game?"

"No," Wandering Sound answered, waiting for her to respond.

"W.. well," Wei stuttered, finally understanding what Wandering Sound was asking her. "Maybe one day."

Brightly smiling at her words, Wandering Sound continued to chat with her about random things, until he heard Drifting Cloud calling her to eat.