“...only chickens disconnect...”

“...THE END IS NEAR...”

“...Eflgaurd, competitive PVE guild looking for members!”

“...Looking for healer to duo wolves!...”

“...Looking for merchant ally!...”

“...look no further Aeternity PVE/PVP guild now recruits!...”

“...you're an idiot...”

“...everyone disconnect NOW...”

“...get lost noob!...”

“...selling leather armors, buy while they're hot...”

“...Leave while there's still time!...”

“...Don't join Eflgaurd, they are noobs!...”

“...look, mom, I made it in the pro scene!...”

What woke me up was the incessant noise and shouting coming from outside of the cheap inn room, reminding me what great invention modern window frames actually are. Stretching my arms I felt oddly relaxed, like I had quite a few hours of sleep, and judging from the shouting outside, whatever synch problem existed had long now been fixed and I was late for worked and fucked...

The clock on the top right was reading a quarter past seven in the evening, which would mean that I had a full eight-hour rest, and was about two hours late for work.

Thankfully, just before hitting the, now available, log out button I took the few seconds to read the system message that had popped while I was asleep.

Really important notice, do NOT just skim through it

Greeting Players.

As you have noticed we are having some synchronization issues. First and foremost, we want to express our sincerest apologies for any and all inconveniences caused by such issues. As for the delay from our part for an answer or an explanation, that's deeply tied to the nature of the synch problems.

At this point, we've verified that there are zero health issues with logging out, and as such we have re-enabled the logout button. Everyone can safely log out if they wish to do so.

The bug that caused the issue happened only on this specific server shard, so, while you'll be unable to log back into the same server shard, you can create a new character on a new shard to continue your adventures!

As for what the issue is exactly, it's maybe one of the most important modern discoveries of all times. The holy grail of VR advancement that kept eluding us. Time manipulation.

To spare you the technicalities, one of the main difference of RealWorldIII was the coding that provides an extremely fast reception speed, allowing such a detailed world as the one you're experiencing to be realized.

For some unknown reason, a bug on a single shard of our servers somehow causes everyone inside to experience everything ten times faster than normal time. And the game has adapted itself by speeding up accordingly.

To put it the most simple we can: For the first time since VR history, we've managed to accelerate Virtual time. Time passes ten times faster for all of you at this point. Hence why the delay of this message. What you've experienced as six hours of desynch is actually only just over half an hour for us.

Our first priority at this point is making certain that this won't cause any abnormality in your brain, and all tests so far on people, employees of the company, who have logged out, indicates that there is absolutely no reason to worry or panic. Everything is ok.

Furthermore, since we still can't manage to replicate the exact same bug an another shard, the United Scientific Community, alongside the World Wide Military has asked us to extend, ON THEIR BEHALF, the offer to stay in the game so that they can monitor your well-being.

To put it simply, the moment the population reaches a low critical mass, the server is configured to merge you with a more populated shard to keep an enjoyable experience. If this happens, before we replicate the bug, there is a huge potential of losing our one chance for such a discovery to be made. They wish to extend a monetary offer to all of you to continue playing, alongside with monitoring your out of game vitals to ensure that you stay perfectly safe for this period of time.

Unfortunately, due to the seriousness and the moral implications, they ask you for a day or two of good faith until they draft a suitable, legal, contract. Which for all of you translates to more than a week of game time.

As a company, we remind you that your real life responsibilities, like family, should take priority. But if you can manage to stay online, apart from the monetary rewards, this is your chance to be part of a monumental discovery for the whole of humanity.

Choose responsibly and carefully.

Well... yeah... that changes things a bit? For starters, I'm not actually late for work!

As far as out of game responsibilities, there is my job and... that's it? I'm pretty sure neither my father, or my mother, or my sister need me around, my job isn't that critical either way, data analysts exist in droves after all...

Actually, that's the only problem. It's damn hard to get a decent desk job these days, so maybe the safest bet would be to actually log out and go back there.

It won't be the first time I would have declined a chance to make money off a game instead of a normal job, I had such an offer extended to me twenty years ago, with the closure of RealWorld, back when I was leading GV. I was scared back then and didn't actually have the economic support to chase after such a dream.

The most harmless solution would be to stick to the game until I have to go to work, which should be in like two in-game days, and then deciding.

Yup, let's do that. It has nothing with pushing the decision for later, nonono this is for... erm... data collection!

At the very least, that gives me two “free” days of playing, and I've already spent most of the daylight stupidly sleeping. Well, stupidly from a player's point of view, I DID start the game after a twelve-hour work shift...

I already had liquidated half of the meat I had and all three rabbit pelts to pay for this room and get a tiny sum of money to feel more at ease, although, from what I gather, my 8 coppers that I have left shouldn't even be considered money at this point, even the room was a full silver. And with the leather chest requiring three wolf pelts and a rabbit pelt to be crafted, plus two more wolves and one more rabbit for the leather leggings, I should do my utmost to farm those before the night falls. Not sure I can handle the dreaded forest of doom at night.

And so... it finally came. The time for the game's flagship. Time to spend the combination point. Although let's be real, I can't be the only person here that thought of temporal buffs on his summons.

So, here we go.

Do you want to combine Elementalism Lv3 with Inscribe Lv2 Y/N?

Yes!

Suddenly an extreme feeling of nausea hit me. I could feel stuff stirring inside of me like I've eaten some rotten food and it was running amok in my stomach. It was almost like the feeling I had when I used my mana to summon the elementals, like there was something inside me, both natural and unnatural, moving by its own will. Only this time there were two clear “somethings” and they were mixing, and churning, and turning, and separating, and mixing again. Seconds later, the spell of dizziness passed, and I was really grateful that I hadn't eaten anything in game yet because I wasn't sure that it wouldn't have left me alongside the nasty feeling. Yet, now that it was done, it almost felt right somehow. Like the internal “somethings” inside me fit my body better.

Elementalism Lv3 and Inscribe Lv2 have successfully combined, creating the skill Inscribed Elementals Lv1

Inscribed Elementals

By inscribing the proper runes on suitable materials, you can create a contract with a minor elemental. This allows you to call one favor/ability from each inscribed elemental before it leaves, permanently free, to the world. The elementals have minimum intelligence, allowing very slight freedom regarding their effects.

The highest the compatibility of the elemental with its home, the more power it can draw out during its activation. As an example, using Inscribed Elementals on solidified magma to bind a fire elemental will produce greater results than using it on a burned charcoal which would, in turn, produce a greater effect compared to binding it to a stone pebble. The range of favors/abilities depends on the skill level. The size, and thus effect, of the favors/abilities, depends on both the size of the provided material and the level of the skill.

Only the binder can call on those favors/abilities.

...what?

Ok, that WAS unexpected. And weird. And totally NOT what I was going for. Hell! I can't even completely understand what it does, but it seems like a consumable type of thing only the creator can use?

Ok, ok, let's see. It looks... limited. But at least the tooltip gave a hint of how to use it. For starters let's find a stone to try to bind an earth elemental to actually see what this does.

I walked down to the main hall of the inn, towards its exit, and immediately did a 180 turn towards the back as I noticed the inherent flaw of my plans: Why play with rocks, when you can play with fire! “MUAHAHAHA...HA” Why is everyone looking at me so strangely? It was the perfect occasion for a manic laughter!

There's the hearth, there's a coal... “AAAAShitFuck”

-1

Listen well kids, never, ever, try to grab a searing coal with naked hands. Time for plan B. Pull a coal from the edge of the hearth even more out and wait for it to cooldown a bit... Five minutes later, the innkeeper probably took pity on my trying to test if the coal was cold enough and brought me a rusty coal clamp to pick it up. That works too.

Now, let's see. I picked up the coal with the clamp and inscribed the rune of fire that somehow I knew what it looked like. No reason to actually use ink, simply scratching it on the soft coal surface should work, according to knowledge I have no clue how I have. Then close my eyes and chant softly the incantation. Yes, there's the familiar feeling of mana moving and slowly leaving my body, and.... done.

Holy shit! I actually did it on the first try! Am I a genius or what?

Minor blast stone: Explodes on contact (except creator), Damage: 10-20 fire damage, Radius: 0.5m. Only usable by: Qualexys.

Ok. That was not what I expected. I expected that I had to talk and make a deal with an elemental and work out some kind of contract. This, this seems usable with not much hassle. I would have personally named it something simpler though, like “elemental consumables” or something, but I guess this way they try to please the lore junkies.

There are some slight problems with the skill though. It took 25 out of my 29 Mp just for one of those. It took about a minute for the chant, and another for the actual inscription. I have no clue how much is 10-20 damage, given that my dagger only says +2 Patt. I can at least say that if I was to eat two of those in the face, I would probably die, but on the other hand, it seems I'm made out of paper.

Time for test number two.

The second I walked out of the inn I saw the chaos that was going on in the streets. People were shouting to one another. People were running around like headless chicken, people were... grabbing me from my hand and pulling?

Looking backwards, towards the one that was pulling my ragged clothes, there was an old dude staring fervently towards me. His long white hair and white beard gave him the stereotypical image of a great wizard or something, but his rags, which rivaled mine, and his raging eyes, made that image of the wizard crumble to something more like a raving lunatic.

Spittle escaped his mouth as he shouted towards me.

“You! You can still leave! Run fool! Don't throw your life inside a game! The real life is outside! They're just telling us lies, they want us to be moved to clinics to study us. Us! Human beings! They want to chain us and monitor us!”

“Chill dude...”

Before I had the chance to finish, another one pulled my rags. This one was a blonde elf with one green and one blue eye, wearing gloves that looked like made of rabbit fur, pants made from some form of brown leather, and a blindingly yellow, tattered blouse. He tried to shove the old man away but somehow it looked like he was trying to push an unmovable boulder until an expected message popped out.

No-pvp zone

Disgruntled, he resolved to the only way he knew how to be heard instead of the old man. Shouting even louder close to my ear.

“NOOOOO! Don't listen to him. This is the opportunity of a lifetime, getting paid for playing a game! Err... I mean... Helping the scientists or something... Come join us! We're the PlayForLife Guild. We accept everyone! I mean, we try to help new players like you!”

“Aren't you new yourse...”

“We got gears! We even have two beta-testers on the guild! Join us and...”

A few more people picked up on the words “join” and “me” and as if on cue, there were three more players surrounding me.

“Don't listen to this noob! We're far better and...” A beautiful brunette human female, dressed in a white robe started to speak but was interrupted by a fierce looking red-headed dwarf that was brandishing his battleaxe.

“Shut up, you swindle newbs out of their money! We...” The dwarf roared, and before he finished he was, in turn, interrupted by a huge looking zombie that somehow was the best dressed out of all of us, wearing some awesome buccaneer looking leather pants and a frilly white shirt.

“Gentlemen, relax, I'm sure you're all too violent for our friend here. We, on the other hand, have a more casual appr...”

“””SHUT UP STINKY””” All of them shouted together

“Who called us a newb! Duel with me! One on one!” The blondie continued to shout unfazed as he had procured a crappy looking spear from somewhere and was waving it on the air.

“Put that thing away before I stick it where the sun doesn't shine son!” The dwarf shouted back, defending the female he had himself interrupted and accused only seconds ago.

“The government is trying to control us I say! Leave now! Everyone logooooooooooooout!” The raving old man thundered above all of them.

And as they thankfully focused on shouting on one another, I figured it was the best opportunity to slip away.

Watching the open, player-less, fields in front of me, I was at least thankful that, apart from the morons inside the village, and for lazy asses like me, the newbie farming grounds were mostly devoid of players, most of them having out leveled this content while I was in the inn sleeping.

Spotting a small rock outcropping, I picked up a stone that easily fit my palm, and tried my new skill again. This time it was much easier, given that I only needed to write the rune using my inscribe ink.

Minor stone burst pebble: Explodes on contact (except creator), Damage: 20-30 blunt and piercing physical damage, Radius: 1m (Damage greatly reduced depending on distance from the center). Only usable by: Qualexys.

So, this one did more damage, but physical, and reduced if you didn't hit spot on. Fire one on the other hand probably could get higher damage with more appropriate material.

Now I had 4 minutes to spare until my mana got back for the final test I wanted to do, so I spend those, using my awesome Lv1 Outdated Stonemanship recipe, Create stone arrowheads, that only cost 1 mana.

The crafting took just one minute to complete, and it created five arrowheads, far better than the stone chips that I've previously used. Apart from being vastly superior time-wise, it also had the amazing effect of actually not getting my palms full of cuts like when I first made them.

About four minutes and twenty arrow heads later, I've just enough mana for my last try.

Writing the runes for air on one of them, and then chanting...

You failed Minor air dart recipe (Requires Infused Elemental Lv5)

...at least it's possible later on. And the fail attempt refunded half of my mana back! Let's go, Rock-kun, infused dagger! Time to slay some rabbits at last!

…

I won't lie. Rabbits were like free xp. Rock-kun would draw them out, start the fight with a nice one-two punch of his, then I would sneak from behind with camo on, backstab, stab, and it was already half dead by that point.

On the other hand, they gave next to nothing xp wise. I've gotten 400 out of the boar, 200 out of each wolf, but rabbits were just 25 each.

8 rabbits later my inventory was full. Thankfully, in between, when I got enough mana, I've tested it out and, yes, stone burst pebbles did correctly stack on my inventory.

Since for what I needed I actually required 10 rabbits, and I was in no mood to go to all the trouble of hanging them around my neck once more, it was finally time to actually test those consumables.

First one obviously had to be the fire one, since this was only one and it took a whole space on my inventory.

I've spotted a rabbit that seemed relatively still, sneak to about 5m from it, weighed the coal in my hand, and... missed.

At least it hit the ground next to it, getting the poor rabbit into the explosion, which then proceeded to charge towards me. Because why wouldn't a rabbit charge towards an armed person that could throw fire?!

Despite being a little disappointed I didn't one shot it (let's be honest here, that was what I was expecting), the rest of the fight went about the same way. One-two from Rock-kun, a stab from me, and a few wild hits from each of us, and it was down.

So, without any knowledge about animal resistances, it seems that the blast stone did just a little less damage compared to the backstab I missed... could be worse.

Stone bursts didn't do better either. First one missed by just a bit and did almost nothing, making me believe that the dropoff damage was quite severe, something that didn't seem to be the case for the fire one. That battle was actually quite a bit tougher. The second one managed to hit it dead on, and it did comparable damage to the fire one, making me believe that rabbits did, in fact, had horrendous Mdef.

With ten dead rabbits on my inventory, the first step for my world conquest has begun. As I raised my head towards the village, it suddenly struck me. The sun was already setting, and yet, I could see and move almost as good as I did in the dark forest. It seems that I had, once again, really underestimated those racial skills. Acute senses were awesome!

Running back to the village, I prayed that the leatherworker was still open. This hero had a job to do, and it would sting to have it delayed due to formalities like working hours!

Just as the shop came into view, I saw a tall, sturdy man walking out, turning to lock the door.

“WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIT!”

“Hmm, what do you want little one?” He asked with a deep, and deeply annoyed, voice.

The tanner's little brother was... well... not that little. Unlike the chubby elder brother, this one was a mass of muscle, a good two heads taller than my tiny self. In fact, the only family resemblance would be the thick mustache they shared.

I bet you all know what was coming next though, right? What was holding back my path to victory?

“Backpack! Sell me a backpack recipe!”

“I was clos...”

“PLEEEASE! Here, 7 small pelts and 5 coppers, that should be the 4 silvers that it costs right? It'll only take one second, we would have already finished the transaction if we weren't talking!”

“Ok, ok, wait a second.” He said as he reopened the door, briefly disappearing into the darkness of the store.

When he returned, he offered me a piece of paper that had some crude sketches and diagrams on it, which I promptly proceeded to snatch from his hand, handing him the 5 coppers and the 3 pelts I've already skinned.

“Wait, there are some missing?”

“Just a sec! I'm dismantling them as we speak now!”

And a few minutes later, the long awaited system message appeared.

New Lv1 Leatherworking recipe added to your recipe book: Crude small backpack. Cost 3 tiny soft pelts.

Crude small backpack: Adds 10 slots to the inventory.

Using my last three pelts, I finally doubled my inventory!

Also, don't ask me why I didn't dismantle the rabbits while I was hunting, since pelts and meats stack. That's a secret! A secret!

Next in line would have been the wolves for my armor, but before that, there were preparations to make. First stop, the inn. Unfortunately, the innkeeper became increasingly annoying asking for money after the fifth coal, something about the hearth going out and rest nonsense, so I only managed to make five burst stones there.

Next, stone, the rock outcropping. Half an hour later I marveled over my awesome stack of stone burst pebbles. And then there was training time.

It took me about half an hour flinging stones at a nearby target till I finally managed to snatch the skill, which seemed wildly unfair considering I got the dagger mastery level with the first hit against the boar, but such is life... unfair, and it soon would be unfair for the poor wolves, Hehehehe, I let my inner self chuckle evilly while I was rubbing my hands.

Of course, I also diligently kept creating more stone burst pebbles as I trained for the throwing skill, adding them to my treasure trove, increasing the stack to 18. And finally, with that done, in the middle of the night, it was time to see who was the superior night hunter... or not.

I grabbed my empty stomach as its rumbling sounds disturbed the silence of the night, scaring a rabbit that was sleeping nearby. That also made me notice that hunger had also dropped my maximum stamina down to 90 out of 100.

I started walking back towards the inn but stopped a few steps later. If I would indeed stay here instead of going back to the real world, I would eventually have to learn to cook something, especially if I pursued that hunter thing more.

So, I gathered a few stray sticks from the edge of the forest, and wasted one of my precious (not really) flame burst stones, which to my surprise caused the sticks to light on fire and not actually explode into smithereens, which answered my last question about what the whole “elementals have minimum intelligence” meant in the skill description.

Now, let's barbeque some , how hard can it be?

Ten burnt stakes later, I finally managed to make something resembling the sole of a shoe, and by the fifteenth out of my original sixteen, I finally managed a that gave me

Not wanting any more surprises, I walked back to the village well, stuffed myself full with water, and THEN it was finally time to challenge the forest. The only issue being that it was already four in the morning, it would dawn in a bit, and I was once again getting sleepy. So, since I was back already in the village, and I had a few more hours left from my daily rent of the room, I naturally went back to sleep.