"That smells good."

"Of course, your Mom will cook only the best today."

On top of the table were numerous dishes that mom would only cook during special occasions like the New Year's Eve or my birthday. This is the most I have seen mom cook for a long while. This feast had me now curious.

"Mom, it's strange for you to cook too much. Dad said that you both have surprises. With all of these, I can't help but want to know it already."

"It can wait, honey, but I think your dad can't. Let's discuss it while we eat."

I followed what Mom told and took a seat on my usual place at the dinner table. I do not see dad anywhere while I can hear loud running footsteps above, so I assume that dad was getting something. As much as how many strange things were going on, the food was too delicious to not care about even if I have already eaten two boxes of pastries.

"Ta~da~."

Dad finally entered bringing a half a meter-sized box covered with a gift wrapper. I thought they stop giving gifts during Christmas day after I went into college. Maybe this is the 'special occasion' that they were talking about.

"Guess what it inside, Lotti."

"I don't know, the ETHER Link."

I said indifferently. It was one of the topics most searched words today along with New World and I just said what comes into my mind first. I did not bother to entertain his guessing game since I was busy enjoying myself with Mom's food.

Slurping the noodles with Mom's special sauce, I was in my own world of taste heaven. I did not even bother to notice my dad's reaction or why he became so silent.

"Ara~, how did you know honey? You already peaked on it did you?"

"What are you talking about?"

Only when Mom asked me did I realize what happened to Dad.

"Wa- It's really the ETHER Link?!"

"Lotti already knows. What's the point of the surprise? Bohoho~~~

"Stop acting like a child dad. I was joking when I told you my answer neither did I also expect you to really bring an ETHER Link. How did you get one in the first place when ETHER Link is supposed to be released on the first day of next year, right? And the preorders are two days before that?"

"Well you know your Dad is someone that have connections even though he looks like that"

It was Mom who bothered explaining to me while my Dad was busy crying with the ETHER Link in his hands.

"We also got our own Links with your dad. I've never seen him so excited in his life after he got his hands on the Links so I'm planning to join whatever this is. Not because I heard you can feel young again playing this game, alright. It's totally because I want to bond with my family and nothing else."

"Okay if you say so, Mom."

"You don't sound so thrilled. I expected you to be jumping right now."

"I stop playing games already."

"What?! My daughter stopped playing games. Who are you, what did you do to my Lotti?"

"Stop joking around Dad. Whose fault it is anyway."

"Someone in your class is bullying you? Tell me who that is!"

He does not seem to recognize that his blabbermouth was the reason why I got too embarrassed to play games anymore. I am sure everyone in his workplace knows me as someone who almost died just to play games for straight days. Nothing to be proud of.

Even the first words the co-worker of Dad that visited last week were 'Don't play too much, you have inherited your parent's good looks. You can easily be popular.'

Thanks, I appreciate the concern and the compliments, but was that supposed the first thing someone will say when meeting them for the first time?

"They said New World is really not a game rather it is- "

"The human's second life. Yes, I knew it already, Mom. It's the first thing you'll see when visiting their official website."

"If you knew all of these so why not try. Anyway, if you do or do not want to try it at all, we will still give this."

Mom took the ETHER Link from the hands of my grumping Dad and gave it to me. The feast on the table was already long over and I place the dirty dishes on the washer before heading up again. I do not need to worry or do anything anymore since Dad's spirit was up again after shouting that he would be browsing for New World contents on the internet.

In the end, New World somehow came to me. I am curious if the server is up even after getting the Link this early.

I ate an Eclair before setting up the ETHER Link and looked up for how to set-up this thing. Thank goodness ETHER are considerate enough to release the manual days before the release date so people can just jump into it when it is online.

When I opened the box and took out the Link, the first thing I thought of was that it could improve in its appearance. It looks like a low standard VR helmet of this age. Nonetheless, I followed every instruction and finally wore it.

"It should be starting any second now."

…

All I can see was black for a lot of seconds now.

I got my hopes all up and all but as I expected, the servers are still down.

However, for some reason, I can see my hands clearly and I feel a bit chilly even though I did not set my air conditioner that low. If I remember correctly, the way to log out of Link is through this and-

"Welcome to New World!"

Oh.