She had gripped the edges of the blanket tightly, this was.. Strange to say the least, Theo never once made bacon for breakfast, it was usually a brunch thing. Unless she had been asleep for that long, but she wasn't she could see the time after tapping the laptop a couple of times.
It was still within breakfast ranges, not brunch.
Irene hesitantly reached out and grabbed the plate. Although she did soon also notice that their was no fork. The idiot had forgotten to bring her one.
At least that remained unchanged.
She changed her clothes and left her room, heading downstairs and towards the kitchen, still carrying the plate of bacon with her. The bacon was still warm. So it must've been fresh-...
The first thing she could smell as she entered was the lingering smell of the earlier burnt bacon, Theo had been rather charming again. She could tell just by the way as the smell only lingered and wasn't actually there. The burnt scent would have been more pronounced if it was in the bin. So he must've made her bacon separate from his own.
That was another reason she used to be so deeply in love with him, from school friends, to high school sweet-hearts, only getting together due to friends setting them up on a blind date, and then finally becoming girlfriend and boyfriend. Even living together since neither of her parents wanted her. She grew up with him as her only pillar, he had even paid for her year twelve school bill with his limited income from his part time job after his own parents had died.
This wasn't how today was supposed to go. He usually slept in as well, it wasn't that far into the day just yet, so either this was a sudden change or this wasn't the man she knew before.
After finishing her breakfast, which was a wonderful treat after what she was used to in the New World. She headed back upstairs and went to her room. Looking for a specific date, and once she had searched for a while, having completely forgot where she usually put her phone or what her password to the laptop was due to the long separation, she eventually found her phone, and found that the date was the twelfth of June.
Just the perfect time for her to be sent back to the past, a day before pre-orders came out. She's going to have to convince Theo to let her buy one of those helmets with their little remaining income. She knew how this conversation was going to be like. She knew how this went before. She knew that he'd reject the idea and probably get a little mad, but she'd need to buy one. The early access helmets usually had better talents, as she found with her allies after everything had changed.
The pre-order was also much cheaper then the main helmets as well, they had also been said that they also had a slight chance at getting an extra starting talent.
This extra talent could be the difference between a saving grace and death if it was useful, it might even get a lower powered player the chance to gain a power crystal a boost their ability level or trade for supplies.
Irene knew she needed to get one, either with Theo's help, or her secret savings. Her savings that her past self had been saving to buy him a proper gift one day. But money would become useless once the New World became reality as a new universal currency would be used instead.
Although it would still be needed for a while, as the descent wasn't that close just yet.
Irene had decided to tell Theo anyway, he already seemed slightly different from what she remembered, who knows what might be different? Maybe she's just overly worried about the future, maybe he will agree to her request? That would be ideal, because then if she wasn't home he could sign it off without possibly getting angry at the costs she would spend on them.
After giving herself a pep-talk to up her confidence as she hadn't talked to him since they had once broke up, she headed towards his room, where he probably was doing some online gig to gain some cash since he had started working during his time off to make up for the lack of money she could now bring to the household.
Theodore Ashford:
He had been on his own laptop, sitting cross legged on his bed, it had taken him a while to figure out his own password after not using it for so long, but since he had never been that creative, luckily it had been relatively similar to his locker password in the New World. In fact it was only a few changed numbers compared to before.
Theodore had been searching the internet about Heaven's Secret. Surprisingly, they had a pre-order coming out tomorrow. The earlier he got a helmet the better it would be, the earlier he could build his skills and get stronger. Perhaps he could even get lucky and get a good talent, that'd be perfect. A good talent, early start.
But he was soon distracted from his thoughts as a knock had sounded from his door. Only one other person had lived in the house with him, so he had immediately called out for her to come in. "Come in."
As the door opened he could see Irene coming in, she was wearing her usual casual home wear. It was a basic grey shirt and blue jeans. He wasn't going to look at her feet to see if he was wearing socks or anything like that, he wasn't a weirdo with a foot fetish, that just wasn't his preference.
"I have a request, if that's alright," were the first words that came out of her mouth, not a greeting, not even a quiet hello. Just a question almost immediately.
"What is it? You don't usually just come in without saying a greeting, or starting the conversation," this was true, an oversite on her part that she would quickly cover up in the future if she remember to. After all, old habits died hard, especially if they could be the difference between life and death in the end.
"I just think I might've found a way to make money without getting a job or doing online gigs like you do, I just wanted to know your thoughts on this. After all it probably isn't very stable. It might not make much," Theodore already knew where this train of a conversation was going to go if he refused like he once did before.
"I over heard you muttering earlier, it's about games right? I don't mind it," of course this was a lie, he had no such memory, but he couldn't let this go like it had before.
This had given Irene a small shock, she didn't have to try to convince him, it was just a straight up yes. "It's a bit of an expensive game though, and it's a new one. It might not go very well," this was also true. The first few days of the game would have very little players or attention. But this was also the best time to start without bumping into anyone that might kill your character for EXP that you hadn't used.
"I'm sure it'll be fine. After all you made the decision yourself, who am I to tell you that you can't? What game is it? If you don't mind me asking," he had already known the answer but he needed to ask, just to be sure.
"It's called Heaven's Secret, it's a new VR game that's going to be on pre-order tomorrow. Then the pre-order helmets get sent to us within the next week."
"Alright then, I'll order them early tomorrow so you won't have to wait that long. I'll even order one for myself so I can play with you during my free time. After all, my work's been getting much more stressful lately so I might end up quitting," this was partially true, he had already sent his resignation notice before he started doing his research earlier.
"You will?" This was a genuine question in itself coming from Irene, she really didn't believe it. She would've thought that he would've disagreed with her in the end.
"Of course, when have I ever lied to you?" Well, he just lied a few times there, but she wouldn't notice. Hopefully she wouldn't notice anyway. After all he was actually going to do it. This just gave him an extra chance to.
Irene gave Theodore a quickly thanks and smile before leaving his room, almost as if she had been in a rush of anxiety, which she probably was. He didn't comment on it, and simply went back to researching all he could about the game before it would end up being released.
Irene Claire:
That had to be the most stressed she was since she arrive, which wasn't very long. But still it was nerve racking to see that he didn't mind that she went into gaming. He even suggested that he was to join her. This was far too different from what little she had remembered in the end.
Had something else happened? Or was it because she asked earlier then she had in her past life. Maybe this was just a different timeline all together? The New World had confirmed the timeline theories once it became real. But no one had anytime to even try and see if they could get into different timelines before it became deadly.
Was she sent into this new timeline? What if things were just too different and the things that nothing was the same and that all her knowledge was useless? What if the game didn't even become the New World she remembered?
She had hurried back to her room, thoughts spiraling, but for now, relatively sane.
Theodore Ashford:
As he was searching the relatively newly made website about the Heaven's Secret, it only had some very basic information that would become common knowledge throughout players once the game released. For example, how much EXP it would take to reach the first level and some basic game mechanics. Apart from that there wasn't much.
So he decided to take a basic coding gig, after all he had already put in his resignation. Even if he still had to work for another two week before he could properly have resigned and spend most of his time on Heaven's Secret. But since he could just use all of his saved up holiday and sick day time, he would plenty of those days off he could spend while staying home until he either got fired or the resignation was finished.
Some of that might even be paid leave, which was quite fancy for what he was used to. Being that if you didn't work you wouldn't get to eat and if you still didn't work you would be used as Beast bait.
So he took up some online information searching gigs, they seemed liked they paid decently from what he remembered, and they were also relatively simple compared to other things he saw on that work site. Although he did also manage to find out how to make a word doc, that was an interesting thing to see all the presets that were available.
Either way, after he finished for the day he had put the laptop down and went downstairs to see if he should have lunch or not. As well as what there was for lunch if he did decide to eat.
He had decided to make some instant noodles since they would be easiest to make. Theodore could also remember how good they were. So he made two, just lie he had before, one for him and one for Irene.
He knocked before entering her room, finding it empty as she must've gone somewhere before he finished the gigs he found.
Theodore had placed the bowl of noodles on her desk carefully, she'd probably be back soon.
Theodore had eaten his noodles and went to go clean up whatever he had used to make them, then he went back to his room for a nice nap. Really hoping this wasn't just his mind playing tricks on him.
Before he went to sleep, he set an alarm on his phone, which turned out to have the same password as his laptop, for around five minutes before you could start pre-ordering the helmets.
Just in case he'd sleep in. Theodore didn't want to accidentally break his promise and a chance at a better future then what he had gotten before.
~-------------------------Chapter End---------------------------~