“Hello, hello?” said my sister, Nelly. “Herald? Are you there?”

“Yes, I’m here,” I loudly replied, unsure if she’d be able to hear me too.

“Are you at your apart—?”

“Is there anything wrong with my voice?”

“Huh? I don’t…what? Why are you asking that? Do you have a cold?”

“No,” I said. “You were saying?”

“I was asking if you are at your apartment. I had Jimmy deliver some packages to you. He’s on the way now.”

“I’m not at my apartment right now.”

“Oh, okay. I’m just going to tell Jimmy to leave the boxes with the guard. It’s your old stuff. I figured you might want to check them out before we store them—”

“I’m in jail,” I cut in.

My sister paused for several seconds before replying, “So…it finally happened. I knew this day would eventually come.” A hint of amusement was in her voice. She was holding back a giggle. “Mum’s going to arrive in a couple of weeks. We’ll visit you by then.”

“I’m serious,” I said. “I need you to bail me out. They arrested me after I punched a priest.”

She snorted on the other end. “Really? Who did you punch? I know you hate Father Thomas for his hour-long sermons because they cut into your playing time, but that wizened old man is already dead for years. Do you even know any other priests? Or did you punch the current priest of the church near our old house? You do know that’s not even the same religion anymore?”

“I punched a priest in a game. I’m playing Mother Core Online.”

“Oh my gosh, really?” Nelly nearly yelled. She was excited, way too excited for something so insignificant. “You finally did it. I…uh…it took a long time, but you’re finally playing again. That’s awesome!”

“I passed by Vanguard Gaming earlier and bought an AU-VR Helm.” I updated her about the new Vanguard Gaming and what Jefferson and Boady were up to.

“So, you’re really in MCO right now?” she said after my story. “That’s why your voice sounded weirdly clear.”

“Yep. I plugged my WeeCee into the Helm.” This allowed me to access it while I was in the game—an extremely well-thought convenience.

Technically, I wasn’t ‘hearing’ Nelly’s actual voice; I was asleep in the real world. It took some time to set up the WeeCee-Helm connection because I also had to calibrate the voice generation feature by providing sample speeches with different tones and cadence. It allowed the system to project the signal received by my WeeCee into my brain and then simulate my voice to speak the words I intended to say out loud…and that was the explanation provided by Herald Stone, the Half-Baked Tech Expert.

“I haven’t tried calling while playing,” she said. “You know me, relaxation and work are separate. On that note, I should leave you alone now so you can get back to your game and enjoy your alone time. Check those boxes later, okay?”

“Sure. I’ll log out of the game soon. Just enjoying my time here in jail.”

Nelly and I had butted heads on several occasions over her stubbornness not to do anything work-related whenever she decided it was time to relax. For me, I simply couldn’t let a call go unanswered, an email unopened, a report unread. Now, with her at the helm of the family business, she’d understand there never was an ‘alone time’. Maybe we’d reverse our mentalities with our reversed roles.

But without anything to do here, I decided to work with my WeeCee. The jail was relaxing—the one in MCO; I was sure jails in the Middle Ages were god-forsaken filthy places. I had always suspected there was something to jails because many historical figures had written famous books while they were incarcerated.

And it was the time for me, Herald Stone, the Priest Puncher, a.k.a, the PP, to write my literary masterpiece…by going through emails and mainly forwarding client queries to the appropriate subordinate with my instructions on how to deal with them.

Recalling my conversation with Bonk about trying everything to discover secrets, I thought, why the hell not? I hadn’t expected the game to allow me to punch Chaplain Cobbles.

Hitting a nice old clergy member of some religion sounded bad, even if this was in a game. In my defense, I was only level four—I gained experience doing random quests—and I hadn’t allocated my free attributes to Might or any other option. I also didn’t wear any gear. Stacked up against Chaplain Cobbles, a level 9 character with at least one Ocadule, I was basically a kid. It wasn’t too bad for a child to hit a priest, right? Just scold the kid and be done with it.

The town guards that popped out of nowhere to arrest me didn’t buy my ‘kid excuse’, and dragged me to jail. I tried fighting back but a system message informed me it wasn’t allowed, a built-in system to prevent high-level players from wrecking a town with weak NPC guards.

I had to spend an hour in jail for my offense or pay with Experience, Gli, and Artas. My Experience and Gli would be wiped, which wasn’t a big deal since I had just leveled up so there wasn’t that much loss, but I didn’t have enough money to complete the payment for my freedom. I could’ve just logged out and awaited the time limit, but it was a nice change of pace to work in a virtual world; as I’ve told Enrico, many companies had moved to virtual offices, some even in MCO itself.

“Hey,” said a mysterious raspy voice. “Hey, you there.”

I closed my WeeCee window and looked around with a raised brow. “Hello?”

It was the person in the cell across mine who called out to me. [Human/Sprite Lvl 13|Petty Thief: Morglow] ambled from the back of his cell to the bars in front, coming out of the shadows and revealing himself—a terribly wrinkled prune of a man about the size of a child. With his lanky arm that was strangely long compared to his small body, he gave me a jovial wave. “Greetings, stranger. What brings you around these parts?”

“I punched a priest.”

“Oof, you’re more of a criminal than I am,” Morglow said. “I’m just a misunderstood half-sprite with not a coin to spare to buy bread.”

“So, you stole food?”

“I didn’t steal anything,” he vehemently insisted. “I’m going to pay for it. But I can’t work to earn no piece of coin if I pass out from hunger, you hear me?”

What was this supposed to be? Having an inkling of how MCO worked, with discovery and exploration and all that, I assumed this was a secret quest. It should be rare for a player to get sent to jail; people default to acting as a good guy even in real life. “I’m going to pay for the bread you…borrowed,” I said. “And you can apologize for what you’ve done. Maybe they’ll let you go.”

“I’m just about to ask you for a loan,” he said. “The Mother Core has touched your heart that you offered it to me before I uttered a word.”

“I may be a priest puncher, but I’m also a helpful guy.” I checked the timer—only halfway done. I hoped I had enough Artas to pay for whatever this guy stole. This better be worth the trouble.

“Of course, of course.” Morglow excitedly rubbed his hands. “I’ll never forget your help, kind stranger. I’ll surely repay you because Morglow, the misunderstood half-sprite, is not a thief.”

“And I’m not an awesome guy,” I sarcastically replied. “Your name has ‘petty thief’ on it.”

“I’ll prove to you when you get me out of here that I’m not bad, simply misunderstood.”

“Sure, whatever you say, pal,” I said. “I’ll get you out.” What reward would I get for helping this strange NPC? The likelihood of this being a serial quest was high since this was relatively well hidden from the average player. Each successively completed quest in the story usually racked up the rewards.

Artas? Gears? Could be Ocadules. I’d even hazard a guess that Morglow could lead to the Sprite Cidule.

My only hope to catch up to the strongest players, given that this game had been already out for more than a year, was to find secrets no one else had before. Like that dwarf who hoped to find a miraculous six-star recipe to rank high among the crafters. And like the Expeditionary Legion. If I could find something valuable, I could even sell it to them.

Here I go being competitive, I thought with a smirk. I still couldn’t let go of Goal #1.

Then I realized there was bound to be a guide about Morglow’s questline. Human characters were the most numerous among the player base, and Amberkeld town was one of the first starting points available with a functioning Gate. This should be one of the most explored areas, and surely someone had already discovered this.

“I’m right, in a way,” I mumbled to myself, after reading all information I could find about Morglow. His questline didn’t result in the Sprite Cidule, but it was one of the prerequisites to finding the hidden Sprite Matriarch that would unlock their race Cidule quest. And, wow, it was a pretty lengthy quest. Maybe I could try something else.

After my penalty time expired and the guards released me, I approached Morglow’s cell. “Misunderstood half-sprite! Come here,” I said. “I want to try something out.”

“You’re already free, stranger. Whereas I’m still stuck here.” Morglow shuffled closer, hesitantly twiddling his thumbs. “Your promise to help me…you remember it?”

“I do. We just talked about it fifteen minutes ago.”

“Perhaps you can help me now, stranger. I may not have anything on me to repay you, but someday for sure, I will. I certainly won’t forget your kindness.”

“I’m going to say sorry in advance for what I’m about to do.” I didn’t notice any information about this in the guide I read—it could be somewhere else or somebody had done it before but didn’t share its consequences. Who knew if this could lead to another hidden quest?

“What are you going to do?” Morglow asked.

I punched him.

The guards arrested me.

Jail time for a repeat offender was two hours.

“I’m not going to wait for that,” I grumbled as I took off the AU-VR Helm. I could feel I was on the sofa.

Opening my eyes to check if I was back in the real world, I found out I forgot to turn on the lights before I donned the helm and the sun had already set. Only hints of the streetlights outside filtered in through the curtains.

I fumbled around the helm with my fingers, feeling for my WeeCee. I popped it out and slapped the circular gadget on my arm. Its straps automatically wrapped around my wrist.

Connecting to my unit’s living system, I turned on the lights and played classical music for ambiance—and also to be pretentious. Another button on the projected holographic control board opened the automatic glass doors of the living room. The cool breeze of the evening flowed in and made the curtains flutter.

I gingerly walked towards the window. It was an eerie feeling using my real body once again, similar to having a sleeping foot—I knew it was my body, but it also felt distant when it moved. The sensation of using the fit virtual body I had in MCO might get me addicted to it. If I added points to Might and Vitaliy, would I sense the changes? Would I feel even stronger? That’d be amazing if it was the case.

The sounds of passing cars and people mingled with the mellow music. I stared at the street below, tapping my finger on the sill as I thought, huh, I already miss Hierakon.