We need a healer. Want to come join us in World of Damakar tonight?

Led looked up at Dan with an incredulous look, as if he must have been speaking to someone else and just happened to stare right into his eyes at the same time.

“I-i beg your pardon?” Led managed to fumble out, clearly flustered by the question.

“World of Damakar? You know? The most anticipated VRMMO game of all time that just happens to launch tonight? We need a healer and we know you have some experience with MMORPG's so why not join us and be our healer?”

Dan, short for Daniel, had an expression of business painted on his face. An expression Led could understand he would have, considering the fact that he had barely spoken to Led the three years in high school they had been in the same class together. This, however, was also the reason Led was so caught off guard. How did they know he was experienced with MMORPG's, and why did they want him to join their group?

“Weren’t you a beta tester? Don’t you already have a healer from the beta testing days?” Led had a million questions tumbling through his head, like pebbles in a tumbler on high speed. But, this question managed to get to his mouth first. He figured all his questions about “why him” could come later.

“Yeaaaah, we did, but there’s a healer class that no one can understand how works and we figured you might be the guy to crack it.”

A healer class that no one could figure out how works? How hard could a healer class be? It’s basically just -stand out of combat, heal tanks continuously, use burst heal on squishy DPS-dealers that get the occasional aggro, and that’s it. Led had no idea how a healer class could be tricky. His train of thought had finally stopped derailing, so he focused on this thing that bothered him and put all the other confusing element of the conversation on hold. Let’s think this through one thing at the time, Led thought to himself.

“Tricky how?” He questioned, right to the point.

“It’s hard to explain, I think you just need to try it out yourself, it would be easier to explain when you see the skills and techniques yourself.”

“Ok?” This wasn’t an answer Led wanted, he didn’t really matter how inaccurate the descriptions were of how the class behaved. As long as he had something to analyse, he could work with it.

However, he didn’t want to bother Dan about this. He was still so perplexed that the most popular kid in high school would ask, perhaps one of the most unpopular kid in high school if he wanted to be their healer.

So, many, questions! What about the other healer classes? There should be a lot of all types since World of Damakar was a huge game that had almost a 100 starting classes, that could branch off into about a 1000 specialised classes.

Oh yes, Led knew a lot about the game he could not yet play. Only the people with connections could get into the beta, Dan was influential, Led was not. So he stuck to the old ones where he was still one of the most feared players, with his various aliases. The thing about World of Damakar also was the cost of the extra gaming equipment you had to get. It wasn’t cheap, and you needed the new equipment considering that is what also had the game installed. You couldn’t just install the game on your computer, or your homemade VR rig, you could only buy it pre-installed on the game company Beyond Illusions’ VR helmets. And, the helmets costs more than what Led would get in allowance in a whole year. Maybe more. He came from a poor family of two, he and his mum, all their money went to Led’s education and the rest for simply living. The little that was left was saved up for Christmas presents.

“I think you know that I can’t afford it though Dan, I’m not exactly hiding the fact that I'm not well off.”

Led saw the flash of a smirk on Dan’s face when he said this, he was unsure if it was on his behalf or the fact that he had insinuated that the VR equipment was expensive. He knew that it was pocket money for Dan, and when you have the whole beach at your disposal. If you called a simple sand grain “a lot of sand”, you too would probably smirk.

Led didn’t mind, he knew that he wasn’t an easy person to get along with and that Dan was his exact opposite. Dan was generous, social, quick with a line and otherwise a good sport. Led on the other hand was none of that and even worse.

He knew this, Led had a bad habit of analysing everything down to the very last detail. He had always been like this, and it had become more than just a bad habit. It had become his whole persona.

Whenever Led met a new person he would dissect them down to their very core, and he could never let go on details that didn’t fit into the whole scheme. Whenever someone said that they weren’t afraid of spiders, Led would point out that he had seen them squirm when confronted with one year ago. If someone said that they didn’t think their very well painted art piece was crap, Led would point out that they should admit that it was their best piece yet, because he had not seen any better from the said person. If someone would have tired eyes, he would ask if they slept badly last night, or if they forgot to put on makeup.

All in all, it was the epitome of bad habits, and Led knew it. He had tried to better himself many times, but since he always analysed his surrounding first it often ended badly. He would analyse, then speak, then self-analyse when realising that what he had said was perhaps rude.

All in all, Led never made friends. They always thought of him as judging and annoying, who never would let anything go. Led knew this, he wasn’t so naive to not analyse himself down to the very programming his own brain had done the years he had grown up. He knew a lot about how others ticked, but most of all he knew how he himself ticked. After all, he had the most data when it came to himself.

“Helloooo? Earth to Led?”

Led snapped back to reality, he had gone on one of his analysing trains of thoughts as he had named them. Also one of the reasons he was hard to get along with, hard to keep up a conversation with someone who wasn’t really there for half of the conversation.

“Ah yeah! Sorry!” Led’s brain had started overdrive mode ever since Dan had stepped over to his desk. “What did you say?”

“I said that you could have my Beta Helmet, I bought a new one of course since the beta version didn’t have all of the features that the release version has.”

Led blinked again but managed to stop himself from analysing every detail of this statement and instead asked.

“You are willing to just give it to me? Why?”

The shadow of a smirk showed on Dan’s face again. Led’s tipping scale was now leaning over to the fact that Dan was just simply rich, and that being poor wasn’t really in his understanding. Ergo, it was a bit laughable why Led would get so hung up upon it.

“Well, my beta-mates all have their helmets, they also bought the release version of course, but they have no need for my spare helmet. It said in the contract that the helmet was mine to do what I wanted to do with it when the beta ended, so I see no harm in using it for recruitment.”

That. That made sense to Led. Why keep one for yourself when you could use it for your own gain? Not giving it away was actually a worse idea than using it for something like this. Since all VR Helmets had a lifetime repair agreement with the gaming company, you really never needed a spare. You could just get it fixed, or get a new one immediately. Of course, Led would never buy himself a new helmet, he would’ve just used the beta helmet instead, but he also knew that when a better product was out on the market, a rich person always had to get it. Led could not see any backsides for neither him nor Dan with this agreement.

“So in exchange for your Beta Helmet, all I have to do is become a healer in the game and help you guys out?”

“Yeah, that’s all of it. We really need that healer dude, and as I said, my team is all about damage and tanking. No one is even interested in healing.”

Led frowned when hearing this because that was not Dan’s original explanation of why they wanted him to join. They wanted him to play a particular healer, a particular class that no one of his friends could play because they couldn’t understand it.

Led was about to point this out (of course), but he stopped himself. Instead, he asked.

“What healer class did you want me to play again?”

“The Trickster Priest.”