"Tory, aren't you curious about what's in the truck?"

Vik's blue eyes seemed to shine brightly after saying that.

They had been through so much trouble for this truck. The least it could do was to give them something valuable in return.

They both were excited about the contents they could find in the truck. Vik and Tory kept throwing guesses at each other as they made their way toward the truck located in an underground garage.

***

Underground facilities had been a common thing for well-to-do houses. That's because there were groups of bandit gangs and pirates who would pick up your vehicle by flying over it using their aerial pick-ups if you didn't park it underground or in another secure facility.

Finding an abandoned house was also not that uncommon at this age. There were a lot of abandoned houses that could be found in regions that were far from the city-states. The population of all the nations became concentrated in the respective city-states within their regions.

Sometimes a city-state would pop out of nowhere and would force the people living outside its vicinity to migrate there. And people had to pay the piper because in the city-state lay all the opportunities.

Homeowners scattered across the ungoverned areas would just leave their houses and relocate to a relatively safe city-state without looking back. They couldn't sell their house because nobody would buy a house far away from any nearby city-state. And they didn't want to destroy it because it would cost them money.

In addition, the homeowners did not have to pay heavy taxes on an abandoned house since it was not in the city-state's jurisdiction. So abandoned houses were not exactly a rare sight outside the city-states. That's why Vik was so confident in finding one suitable for their needs if they looked hard enough.

***

"Let's open this bitch up."

Vik entered the truck's cabin. He had to open the only door at its back before doing that.

The truck had a touchscreen interface. And the duo had already hot-swapped the vehicle with an electronic key. So it wasn't difficult for Vik to find and select this option despite the truck's heavy protection mechanism.

The truck was more than 6m in length and 3m wide. It had ample interior space.

When Vik and Tory walked in, they felt like they were exploring a spaceship. Many touchscreen and spectral interfaces acted as the three walls of the interior.

And in the middle was a pair of advanced-looking Oasis pods.

***

"Whaaa.. what the actual fu*k, Vik. We have done all this to steal Oasis pods? I took a bullet that pierced my chest for a pair of freaking, pretty-looking O-pods?

I say we head out and catch that baldy. And beat him up to a pulp. I'll start the truck.."

Tory was enraged after seeing all his efforts almost wash down the drain. Vik tried to calm him down with words that he didn't seem so sure about.

"Calm the f*ck down, Tory. Let's look at things from a brighter perspective. I believe this set of Oasis pods would be the yet-to-be-released or not-to-be-released versions of Oasis Online.

We could probably sell both of them for a fortune?"

Vik's way of calming Tory down had the opposite effect. The latter snorted before responding immediately.

"No shit, Sherlock! I know that these are special Oasis pods. But at the end of the day, they are just pods. And we only have two products to sell.

These things are stolen goods. That means we will have to settle on a compromise. This job was not profitable at all for the work we did is what I'm saying."

Vik had no counter to that argument. Tory always thought things through when it came to money. They had spent quite a lot of their winter funds to pull this heist off. Even if they were to succeed in selling this stuff now, they wouldn't necessarily make profits.

===historical

Oasis Online was described as being a virtual world created by Oasis Corp, a global conglomerate, to establish its dominance for centuries to come. The virtual world was as big as the earth itself. A lot larger if one counts all the side dimensions one could visit as one enters the world. But the non-Metas were only restricted to accessing the most basic features of Oasis Online-- Earth.

Visually, the virtual world was as real as the real world itself. The physics of the metaverse was based on true-life physics. However, it did not have the traditional limitations.

People could create and use their avatars to explore this ever-expanding meta world. Their avatars were created based on their real profiles at the time. Or they could choose something taken right from the fantastical settings.

Oasis Online was more than just a space for friends and family to interact. Sure, it started that way. But slowly and surely, it turned into something larger than life.

People seemed unaware of why Oasis Online was formed. But they didn't care anymore.

Almost all the remaining members of humanity could be found in the meta world now. The only difference was how much time they spent inside that world.

And the most exciting part?

Perception of time was skewed in Oasis Online. Three hours in the metaspace was akin to only an hour in the real world.

That meant people could do more in the virtual world while spending less time in real life doing so. And it didn't restrict what one could do inside, as long as they followed some obvious codes of conduct.

Users were almost free to do whatever they wanted.

Plus, non-Metas could go to almost anywhere in the Meta Earth dedicated to them after using the right channels. The giant companies were able to discard their real-life offices and summon their employees in the metaspace, enabling them to slash costs drastically.

Safe entry into the Oasis Online was made possible by the Oasis pods. Almost every household has at least one pod these days.

People could enter the meta world while they were sleeping for 8 hours and spend an entire day there.

Yes! They could enter Oasis Online while their real bodies rested. And they'd be free to spend even more if they wanted to. And thanks to these pods, there was almost no side-effect of doing this.

In short, the O-pods were considered a common commodity.

That's why it was disappointing for the duo to find out their stolen goods consisted of two pods. No matter how rare they were in their variation, these things were what one referred to as collector's editions.

The buyers who could buy such items were limited in number. Frankly, even Vik was disappointed after seeing the contents hiding in the truck.

"Haah! We might as well enter Oasis Online to have some fun before selling this sh*t at a reasonable price."

Tory said that before approaching one of the Oasis pods. Vik on the other hand narrowed his eyes and looked at the other Metapod in contemplation.

'There must be something really special about the O-pods.'

He couldn't help but have this thought after running through the entire turn of events in his head.