Chapter 131 - 127 : Energy Drinks

The Gamerbox Guide was a bit far from The Piramids. Sato and Yato decided to take a ride over there.

The year was 21** and most of the vehicles were AI piloted. Due to this, very few taxis had human drivers and most of the taxis were actually owned and operated by either the government or a private transportation body, depending on the region. The reason for this was to minimise traffic and organise the movement standard of public vehicles under one body. The 'road' transport system of the Common area of Shinjuku was under the government's jurisdiction. The entire public transport vehicles were all piloted by sub-bodies of the main transport AI designated to Shnjuku city. As a result of this, traffic was at a minimal level and one would always reach their destination at the designated time.

Hailing a taxi, the two got in and headed over to the Gamerbox Guide. The taxi then hovered off and flew to their destination, at an altitude not lower than 3 metres and not higher than 10 metres from the ground. This was the standard altitude for most hover cars, so as to prevent traffic accidents and incidents. Their trip was uneventful and since they were using a ride, it only took them 5 minutes to reach their destination.

The two walked into the building and went to the isle with the VR headsets meant for Infinite Realm.

"They restocked huh?" Sato stared at the VR headsets that were arranged on the counter.

"Restocked?" Yato asked. Sato then explained what had happened yesterday.

Previously when Sato had come here (which was actually yesterday), there were only 7 headsets and he had taken one, leaving behind 6 headsets. Now however, there were actually 23 headsets displayed for sale.

"It looks like Infinite Realm has gotten a lot more popular than before and this is just a few hours after it was realised. Otherwise, this store wouldn't have gotten a new cargo." Sato smiled. He had already expected Infinite Realm to become a blast as soon as it was released. Apart from the improved graphics and imagery termed 4 UHDR graphics (4th Gen Ultra High Definition Realism), there was also the smoother connectivity, better interface and larger world with various different life options; it wasn't necessary for players to even live their lives in battle as they could pick whatever subclass they wanted and focus on it plus they could level up with them. With all these amazing features and more, it was destined for Infinite Realm to have a large fan-base and player-base.

"But this should only be the beginning. I estimate that with in a month's time, the user count would increase to a billion players." Sato said.

"A billion players within a month?!" Yato was surprised. Even the current number one, Conquest, didn't reach a billion until 7 months after its release.

"Huh? Who the heck are you kids?" A man looking to be around 25~28 years of age walked from the side and stared at Sato and Yato. Despite calling them 'kids', he was just only a bit older than them but the thug face he kept make him look a bit older.

"And you are?" Yato looked back at the man.

"Who I am doesn't matter. What matters is the fact that you country bumpkins actually think that this rip-off would actually gain a billion players in a month. That's a billion not a million. Not a number kids like you guys could imagine, Mr Know-it-all." The man replied with undisguised scorn and disdain displayed on his face.

"Kids? And you? what are you? An old man?" Yato replied.

"Ignore him. Let's go." Sato said as he picked up a helmet and left. Paying attention to pointless human beings was never an action Sato liked to participate in.

"Hey. Did I say you can leave?" The man blocked Sato.

"Did you say I should stay either? No. Also, this is a private property and I'm pretty sure it isn't yours. Keep being stupid and I don't mind calling the security on you." Sato said to the man.

"...tch. We will meet again soon, kid." The man said as he walked away from the duo. If he got reported by Sato, unless he bought something from the store to prove that he was a customer, he could be banned from the store. Even if he still did so, he wouldn't go free so smoothly since he had already offended Sato in the store and there were cameras to surely prove so. As such, retreating was the best choice of action.

"What a dumb**s." Yato commented.

"You were once the same as he was." Sato plainly replied as he continued walking to the payment counter.

"..."

At the counter, Yato paid for the headset all by himself. Sato was initially inclined to paying a part of it as he still had some cash left, but Yato disagreed and used the money he was meant to spend on Mia today, to purchase his VR headset and a few other accessories like batteries, and energy drinks.

You might be wondering, why the heck are energy drinks sold at a gaming hardware store? Since most professional players tend to be active at least 15 hours a day with some going for 22 hours a day, especially since using a gaming cabin or even a headset is almost the same as sleeping, they hardly have enough time for meals and this is where energy drinks come in. Most energy drinks are now supplied with at least 60~70% of all the required nutrients the human body would need. In other words, taking a glass of energy drink is almost the same as taking one plate of a meat, vegetable, and oil-dish, that has all the nutrients, ranging from vitamins, carbohydrates, proteins to even lipids/fats [1] and minerals.

There were different types of energy drinks and the more complex ones went by the name 'Nutritional drinks' . Those ones had a much more complex ratio of nutrients that would enable the human body to work better and faster in a much healthy way; all tested by the right medical professionals. A simple sip would be more than enough to stop a headache and one bottle could even cure a simple fever.

Energy drinks were divided into grades. From the lowest to the highest: Grades E, D, C, B, A, S, S+ X. The higher the grade of the energy drink, the more nutrients it had. As of Grade B, energy drinks are called Nutritional drinks or nutrient drinks. This is because from here on, an average human being could survive for more than a month on just these drinks alone. The higher the grade, the longer they can survive solely on it and some of them could even be used to cure some diseases like Malaria, Diarrhea and so on. Inevitably though, energy drinks weren't a complete replacement for meals as some people still preferred that sensation of chewing and eating. At Grade S and above, they weren't freely sold in public and could only be gotten through special channels. Grade S+ and X were nicknamed 'Healing Medicines' because it was said that they could cure more complex diseases like Cancer and AIDs. Because of this, their sale was strictly controlled by the government to the extent that anyone found having the ability to produce them, would be taken under custody and monitoring. Grade X was even more strictly controlled and not even billionaires or trillionaires could get their hands on them as they wish. Each person could only purchase one in their lifetime and this was the rule by the entire parliament of the Alliance.

Seeing Yato purchase a few energy drinks, Sato recalled that his stock had also depleted and so used his cash to buy a few bottles, enough to last for at least 2 weeks. However, the grade he could afford were only the lowest, Grade E; even Yato could only afford 1 Grade D, while the rest were Grade Es. The Grade Es were still within the tens of ALDs (about 30 ALDs) but the Grade Ds cost at least 200 ALDs. In other words, 1 bottle cost as almost as much as a regular VR headset while 4 could already afford an Infinite Realm VR headset! And these weren't even the nutritional drinks.

Once they were done, the two left the store. Sato had requested for the drinks to be delivered to his home since he they were a lot of them. He only took 3 bottles with him before leaving. Yato had also done the same thing since his house was a quite far from here. The two didn't head back home but walked together. Their destination, the male dormitories of Shinjuku School of Engineering and Mechanics.

"Will he still be there?" Yato asked.

"If it's him then I'm pretty sure he will." Sato replied.

The 'he' Sato was talking about was their 7th teammate, one whom Sato and Yato had thought of while they were on their way to the Gamebox Guide. A weird guy that would rather keep staying at the dormitories even though he could afford a nice bungalow or an apartment in an exquisite high-rise building.

The 'four eyed' Seiichi Tadashi.