Spending My Retirement In A Game

"Holograms!" Samuel yelled as he waved toward the figure as it revealed itself to be Benjamin’s in-game avatar, although not just any old version, but in his demonic form. He was currently spreading his wings and holding his hammer in his hand as his golden flames glowed lowly. If Benjamin didn’t know any better, he would have thought that there was a real creature on that platform instead of the holographic figure.

"Samuel... Why?" Benjamin asked with a loud sigh and placed his face into his hand, while his family looked at the old man, confused.

"Dad, what’s wrong?" Tony asked, concerned before Benji stared at the demonic figure with a grin. "Grampa, I gotta admit, your ’Demonic Transformation’ became even more awesome!" He said, recognizing Benjamin immediately, despite the apparent differences, before the others stared at him surprised.

"Thanks, only became that way last night." The old man chuckled as he moved his face away from his hand again. And while Natsuo, Lola, and Lyla were curiously trying to figure out how the hologram platform worked, Melody looked at the figure standing on it with a frown.

"Dad is this what your character in that game looks like..?" She asked, but Benjamin shook his head. "Not always, although probably a bit more in the future. Samuel, could you show them my regular character?" He inquired before Samuel slowly nodded and stepped onto the platform, tapping the air in front of the Demonic Eisen before a window, similar to the status windows Benjamin knew from the game, appeared mid-air.

After typing a few things in with a floating keyboard, the figure then changed, and the regular Eisen now stood there, although he was still wearing nothing but his leather apron and his wool-pants.

While Benjamin nodded now that he could show this version to his children instead, considering that this was what he was wearing most of the time in the game lately, Kyle stared at the figure of this weirdly ripped old man as his face turned slightly red before looking at Sophia. "Isn’t this a little worse..?" He muttered, but Sophia tilted her head to the side slightly.

"How so..?" She asked before Kyle sighed loudly and turned away, seeing that even Melody was somehow now alright with this outfit, despite it literally being her father wearing close to nothing.

Quickly moving on, Samuel began to explain what this was all for, "So, this holographic platform is a prototype for our actual product. We developed this to place into smart-houses so that you can change a whole lot of things around whenever you want. You can change the style of your furniture, the material of your walls, and you can even use it to try wearing different things. All with the help of these holographic displays. Anyone want to try the wardrobe-function?" Samuel asked with a smile before Benji immediately raised his hand.

"Yes, me please!" He exclaimed and jumped onto the platform, staring at Samuel with eyes saying ’Do it now!’, before Samuel himself just somewhat laughed.

"Alright, sure. You have a few different options there in front of you. Since you’re already wearing clothes, the options are limited, though. This program is just something meant to figure out what to wear for the day, as well as when you want to buy something online so that you can see what it looks like on you. Since that’s usually done in private anyway, this function is supposed to be used when you’re not clothed... Erm, Benjamin, what’s your grandson doing?" Samuel explained while looking down at one of the displays in front of him, before looking up and seeing that Benji was currently undressing down to his underwear.

With a laugh, Benjamin stepped up behind Samuel. "I think he’s undressing so that he can try it out."

"I can see that, but why..?" Samuel muttered, while in the background, Kyle was staring blankly into the open space in front of him, trying not to freak out completely.

"I don’t know," Benjamin replied with a grin as he looked at the excited Benji as he stood on the platform. "Oh, this has costume options!" Benji exclaimed as he scrolled through the settings and tapped the first costume he wanted to wear.

"Spiderman!" He yelled out, taking a quick look at himself before choosing the next few options in quick succession.

"Ninja! Knight! Ultraman! Princess! Samurai! Bear!" One after another, Benji’s outfit changed, until he stopped, looking like a live bear standing on his hind legs.

"Dad, can I have this?" Benji asked with puppy eyes, which just looked somewhat ridiculous considering his current appearance.

"Shut up, get dressed, and come down from there," Tony told his son while rubbing the bridge of his nose annoyedly, while Benji sighed loudly and did as his father told him to before Samuel now used this chance to move on toward the last few functions.

"W-Well, anyway... This Holopad has a Butler AI as well, which is just a digital assistant similar to Rover in the capsule. And the holopad can be used for calls within the game as well if you’re willing to connect the capsule with it. There’s the ’Private Call’ function that brings you to an open space, remember, Benjamin? If you call someone using this, they will appear in front of you, while they will be immersed into your house through the automatic scans made of the environment at all times." Samuel explained, noticing that this has caught Benjamin’s attention as well. "And on top of that, it could be used for others to contact you while you’re playing. Once the prototype goes through the required tests and is approved for sale, there’ll be an option to add a small, lightly downgraded holopad underneath the capsule. This holopad won’t only allow you to change the appearance of the capsule itself to fit in with the decor of your room or house, but it’s also going to make those calls available to the user. So if for example one of your family members needed to talk to you, they could press a button, and it would be like an artificial call, and you would appear directly outside the capsule for them." Samuel explained, while the old man quite curiously listened.

"Interesting. That could surely be useful." Benjamin answered with a grin, and Natsuo looked at his father with a gleeful expression.

"Useful? Useful?? This tech is just amazing! There’s no smoke, and there’s no mirroring off of surfaces, nothing! So how the hell did they manage to create this high-definition, non-translucent 3D renders mid-air?" He asked, grasping his hair as he was trying to figure out the technology behind it, while his two daughters were following their father’s example, Lola doing so with extreme excitement, although Lyla was a bit embarrassed about it for some reason.

"It’s just some gadget, right? Isn’t that a thing for those weird glasses that Benji talked about the other day?" Melody asked confused, somehow completely struggling with technology to the degree that nobody here could understand, considering the professions her two brothers pursued.

Seeming somewhat offended by this, Natsuo’s jaw dropped downward in an exaggerated manner. "Are you seriously trying to compare AR with holographic displays?" He asked, before Melody shrugged, not understanding the question.

Trying to move on so that this didn’t escalate, Samuel quietly laughed and led the group along to a different location, where a row of capsules was waiting for them.

"Anyway, I’m sure you’re not here to hear about the holopad, although it surely is a quite cool gimmick, but would instead like to play around a little." Samuel grinned, while all the capsules opened simultaneously. "I’m making a small exception for all of you. You won’t be playing a demo, but instead will go into the heavenly realm of the actual game world to play around with a few different things with a lot of freedom."

"Huh, the heavenly realm? Will, that count toward one of the requirements that I have to become a True Demon?" Benjamin asked curiously, but Samuel swiftly shook his head as all the others were already sitting down in the capsules excitedly, and even Melody was giving it a try, although she needed someone to help her figure out how to close the DiCap up.

"I’m afraid not, sorry. Although, I do have something rather special in mind for you." Samuel grinned broadly as he himself sat down in one of the capsules as well, before Benjamin chuckled and sat down in one next to him.

Soon enough, Benjamin found himself in a pure white space as Eisen, while his family members popped into existence one after another, all of them wearing the exact outfit they were wearing in the real world. The only exception was Eisen himself, who was wearing his regular in-game outfit.

And then, a certain young woman appeared in front of them. "Welcome, all of you." Ari exclaimed with a soft smile, and Eisen couldn’t help but smile.

"Well then, long time no see, huh?" He asked, and Ari nodded without much of a reaction. Eisen was quite glad that she wasn’t acting all giddy like the last time he was there. "Eisen, I ask you to make your way toward the gate over there with Father. He told me he had something to show you." The goddess explained before Eisen turned around to look for Samuel, who was standing behind the old man wearing a pitch-black suit. Other than that, he looked exactly like the way he does in real life, without a single change to his appearance.

"Alright then, I’ll be back in a bit, everyone," Eisen told his family with a smile, while they were too busy getting used to being in this weird environment to react in any particular way.

As he and Samuel were stepping toward the large marble gate, Eisen turned to the young man next to him curiously. "And what is it that you want to show me?" He inquired before Samuel simply grinned as he pushed the gate open, revealing a large spacious room with currently just four other people in there.

The other originals. Surprised to see them there, Eisen stepped into the hall and greeted the others. "Oh, hello there. What are you guys doing here?" He asked, and the others looked back at him just as surprised.

"We don’t know. We got a notification like an hour ago saying something about us being summoned soon, but we didn’t know why." Xenia explained, and the other three swiftly nodded while Eisen sat down at the table next to them. "And why are you here?" She then added before Eisen responded with a frown.

"Huh, weird. I’m at Prime Industries right now, Samuel was giving my family and me a tour. They are beyond the gate we entered through right now testing a few things out with Ari. I don’t know what’s going on either, though." Eisen explained, looking around the large hall before Samuel stood in front of them at the table.

"Well, then. I think I should explain it, now shouldn’t I? Or rather, cut that... I think they should explain instead." Samuel said with a grin as he waved his hand, causing a large door on the other side of the hall to open, where dozens of people then stepped through one after another.

They were all unique entities, most of them with features and characteristics that were not that of humans while Samuel grinned. "Let’s leave the talking to the ’gods’ for a bit."