Even though Andrew felt like he had gotten the best sleep of his life, he was dreading his day. In the game, he had gotten this amazing sense of adventure, this freedom he hadn’t even felt in his day to day life where he was pushed around and forced to work a job he hated.

Because of this, he wasn’t in any rush to be out the door, and so went about his morning slowly, throwing something cheap in the microwave while he did his hair and brushed his teeth in the mirror. “Well… Guess the faster the day goes, the faster I can get home again and log back in, right? Maybe I should just work really hard and hope the time goes by quicker.” He couldn’t help but laugh at his own words. No one worked hard at his store; it just wasn’t worth it.

If you were caught working hard, the managers would give you more work, but you wouldn’t get more pay for it of course, they were just off-loading their work onto you. Andrew just shook his head to get those negative thoughts out of it and sat down on his couch while he worked at his food, scrolling through the news feeds on his phone.

Apparently Astrala Online was doing really well, almost two million players in the game on day one, and there hadn’t been a single server issue! Apparently people had learned just like him that you gain skills by actually using them, and some people had found some pretty unique ones, like this one guy who did nothing but jump around all day.

There was mention of specialization bonuses, having one or more skills high enough to gain a sort of title that gave some impressive bonuses, and some skills even gave some pretty unique effects when they hit a certain level, meaning there would hopefully be no meta on what players started playing. Andrew’s thoughts went back to his climbing skill. He had thought it was a massive waste of skill points, but what if it would give him some crazy power no other player had? I mean who spends their entire play time trying to climb things? He would have to put some extra work into the skill and find out.

Some players had already accrued some infamy and fame too, like the Bloody Blades guild, who apparently went around slaughtering PC and NPC alike for no real reason other than to be dicks, or this one guy called Baalk, who had found a powerful sword hidden away somewhere that gave him a unique skill.

Andrew shook his head a few times and finished off his meal, “Guess it doesn’t matter the game, you’ll always have a PK guild out there looking to cause trouble. Wonder what kind of a person you have to be to be in a PK guild knowing that you’re actually causing real pain to the people you mess with?” He had PKed, also known as player-killing, a few times in his gaming career, but he had always had a good reason for doing so.

He chewed on his thoughts as he left his apartment with his keys in hand, ensuring that the door was locked before making his way to the parking lot. “I bet if I focus on evasion and stealth, I could make a build that would be super strong in PVP, maybe even avoid it all-together if I see the Blood Blades around.” He muttered aloud as he walked. He realized he had missed his chance to gain the dodge skill with the wolves, he had just stood his ground like a warrior rather than trying to fight to the strengths of his desired build, which definitely wasn’t the best move.

His monologuing came to an end as he came into the parking lot of the apartments, and he saw that his cheap car had a long scratch going along the drive side door all the way to the gas cap. “Oh, come on! Can the world please wait until I’m at least half-way through my day before giving me the shaft!?” His cries of irritation got some looks from some others coming and going from their cars, but he just ignored them and climbed into the small vehicle.

Unlike his house, his car was rather clean and well taken care of. The car had been an absolute steal for the price, and it only had some minor damage that he had gotten fixed just after buying it. It was easily one of the nicest things he owned, save for his new VR headset, of course.

******

The drive to work was thankfully uneventful, not even a lot of traffic on the freeways. Andrew pulled into a parking space in front of the gas station and got out of his car with a groan, the humidity and the afternoon sun hitting him like a punch to the face. When he got inside, the person he was replacing just scowled at him and walked outside to their car, leaving the store without saying a word.

“Nice to see you too, ass hole.” Andrew mumbled as he got into place and started serving customers. It wasn’t glorious or satisfying work, but it was easy and meant he would have enough to eat every day. A few hours went by of doing nothing but serving customers or reading news articles on his phone, with it being a weekend, there weren’t a lot of customers coming through, so he was able to catch up on a bit of his reading while he waiting for the shift to end.

The door opened up, and Andrew called “Welcome in.” soullessly to the newly arrived customer without even looking up.

“Well, aren’t you just a ball of positivity?” A voice called over to him.

Andrew’s head perked up at the voice, and squinted when he saw who it was, a grin spreading across his face, “Robert, you’re back!” Robert was a customer who used to come in all the time, and was the only customer Andrew was actually happy to see. The man was practically statuesque, like he had been pulled right out of a magazine. Tall, muscular and tan, with short black hair that’s always done up perfectly and deep brown eyes that always seem to be accompanied by a devilish grin.

“Sure am! Germany was crazy man, you wouldn’t believe it! But I only rented the Vila for a month, so I figured it was time to come home, you know?” Oh yeah, he was filthy rich too.

Andrew chuckled and shook his head, “Only you’d be able to say something like that and it actually be believable.” he commented with a wry grin, genuinely enjoying the conversation with Robert.

“Yeah well, either way it’s good to be back in the states, wish it wasn’t so humid though… Hey, you see that Astrala Online just dropped?”

This caught Andrew’s attention of course, and he flashed his friend a bright and toothy grin, saying, “Yup! I actually won a headset in the raffle!” Joy literally dripped from Andrew as he said this, as if it were his biggest accomplishment. The sad part is, it actually was.

Robert’s eyes shot wide open and a genuine smile graced his features, “Holy crap, really? Dude, you should totally join my guild then! What town did you start in?”

“Town?… Uh… Kiiiiinda started in the middle of the forest?”

Robert winced when he heard that, shaking his head a few times, “Bad luck friend, until you can get to a town, that’s your spawn point. So if you die, you’ll just be right back where you started.”

Andrew’s face lost a bit of it’s joy at the news, shaking his head a few times, “Well, that’s just my luck, isn’t it?” He asked with an awkward laugh. He really did have some bad luck.

“By the way, where’s your car?”

Andrew blinked a few times, moving from the register to poke his head out the door to look for his car. Sure enough, there was nothing but a bit of broken glass where his car had been. “Oh, COME ON!” Now his car had been stolen? Seriously not his day! With a groan, he flipped open his phone and sent a text to his boss, telling him that he was going to be calling the police and that his car had been stolen.

Not thirty seconds after he sent the text, his phone started ringing, showing his boss was calling. He picked it up. “Hello?”

“Don’t call the Police, you’ll scare away the customers.” The words coming out with such force and malice that it make Andrew nearly scowl.

“What do you mean don’t call the police, my car has been stolen, and I guarantee that the store camera caught it!” He complained, his voice almost sounding a little pleading now. He would be out of a job if he couldn’t get his car back, he simply lived too far away to walk.

The voice on the other end of the line cleared their throat, and said, “Our sales are down, if you call the police, you’re fired. This isn’t a request.” The arrogance in their voice was a nearly palpable thing, and in that moment Andrew’s face went red, his blood boiling with anger.

“Are you kidding? If I don’t have my car, how am I suppose to make it to work?” He asked, his voice straining not to just scream at the person on the other side of the phone.

Apparently the anger in his voice wasn’t as well hidden as he had hoped, because his manager spoke again with an even more venomous tone, “Don’t you take that tone with me, it’s your fault your car got stolen, you should have been watching it! Just take a Taxi or something until you get a new car.”

The sheer stupidity of those words made a vein in Andrew’s forehead bulge and he decided that he had had enough of this treatment. “You know what? Go fuck yourself, I quit. I hope someone comes and steals everything in the store.” And with that, he hung up. Would he regret that decision down the line? Probably, but right now he felt vindicated, more free than he had in a long, long time. He would get his final paycheck soon, and with all the saved up paid time off he had, it would be a pretty big check. He could probably live off of that for a few months.

Robert looked at him with a pained expression, walking over and putting a hand on Andrew’s shoulder. “You alright man?” It was always awkward trying to console someone who was as angry as Andrew was right now, but he just turned around and laughed, shaking his head a few times.

“You know, I’ve always wanted to tell him off. Shame I couldn’t do it to his face.” Andrew said with a grin. He was in a pretty rough situation now, but he was trying to bring a little bit of humor into the situation.

Robert shook his head at his friend, “You’re crazy man. Hey, you know you can convert in game money into real life money, right? Ten bucks for a single gold coin. It’s not a great rate since in game, a gold is worth like a hundred dollars, but it’s something right? Maybe enough to tide you over while you look for a job?”

Andrew’s eyes lit up like the fourth of July, he hadn’t know about that! “Wow, really!? Then I should get home and…” He looked at where his car had once been and grimaced.

“Need a ride home?” Robert offered.

“Please.”