Returning back to town, Shesmu handed the reputation quest before he went offline.

Coming out of the virtual capsule, Shesmu felt surprisingly not stiff. The VIP capsule had a massaging mechanic used to help keep gamer’s body in shape even after long sessions of play. This mechanic wasn’t present in the normal capsule, much less the virtual headset.

Seeing that it was around 11 pm, Shesmu decided to treat himself to a dinner. He was already heaps and bounds ahead of everyone in the game and will easily keep that lead. Rather than grinding for another 3 in-game hours, Shesmu would much rather spend 1-hour dining in a luxurious restaurant to stay familiar with the higher class lifestyle. On the same occasion, he also wanted to meet with a gaming friend of his.

It took Shesmu about 10 minutes to reach The Bright Way restaurant from his apartment using his car. The car wasn’t fancy or anything, just a normal car you would find anywhere on the street, albeit with more comfort options. It isn’t that Shesmu didn’t have enough money to buy a sports car. Throughout his gaming career starting from the age of 10, Shesmu amassed quite a fortune. Whether it be sponsors, tournament, sold items or donations from fans, Shesmu’s bank account accumulated enough money to buy a small mansion. However, he liked the normal lifestyle better when he was eighteen. This thought process changed as he grew up though. He gradually understood that one can only hold enough power if he rose up through the social rankings and made connections with the leaders of the world. It was a little bit late for Shesmu in his past life when he wanted to participate in the social game, and this error cost him the spot of the guild leader of Dawn’s Resonance. This left him frustrated for a long time as he could only grit his teeth and stay stuck in the position of team Shadow’s captain.

Clearing up his thoughts, Shesmu entered the restaurant. A red carpet covered the entrance signaling the entry point to another world, as the quite orchestra music complemented this fact from the background. The dimly lit honey-colored light didn’t put any strain on the end, quite the opposite of that actually, it welcomed visitors with a charm reminiscent of a beautiful woman.

Due to it being Tuesday, and no special event going on, there was no reservation needed to dine at the restaurant. This saved Shesmu a bit of face as he didn’t have to deal with an embarrassing situation. Finding a waiter, Shesmu asked for a table for two. He already called his friend before setting off from the apartment, so he knew it wouldn’t take more than five minutes for him to show up.

Sitting on the table, Shesmu had the very tempting urge to take out his phone to read Ashes of Gods’ forums. However, taking out a phone on such a high-end restaurant will make him look like a country bumpkin. In this day and age, anyone from the upper middle class and higher used digital eye contacts. They had the same features as an ordinary phone, but one could use them instantly without stopping the conversation with the person next to him. They were such a widely used object due to its usefulness among high-class people that it became a societal separating line between the modern equivalent of peasants and nobles.

Shesmu lived with the motto “As long as you don’t directly affect me or those around me, I don’t care about your thoughts or actions”, so he usually didn’t care about this kind of stuff. However, the people around him are all potential partners. If his behavior was going to make it harder to make contact with the right people later, then he considered it to be stupid, idiotic, and something only a non-evolved chimpanzee would do.

So Shesmu fought the urge to look at the forums while swearing to anything that is holy that he will buy a digital contact lenses first thing tomorrow morning. For now, he could only grind his teeth and wait for his idiotic friend to show up.

After an eternal five minutes, the person Shesmu was waiting for finally showed up. A tall figure with a slim waist and a strong body appeared. Black as ink hair, covering his face strain by strain gave Shesmu’s friend a cute and mysterious appearance. A small nose, clear eyes and delicate lips made all the females in the restaurant to unconsciously turn towards him.

The tall figure of Shesmu’s friend rushed towards him before grabbing his head and messing with his hair. After playing with Shesmu for a bit, he finally stopped and said.

“It’s been a long time Mark. How have you been doing for the past months? You stopped playing to prepare for the SAT, so how did it go?”

Hearing his friend’s question, Shesmu was surprised as the SAT wasn’t on his list of priorities. Thinking about it, Shesmu reincarnated after the SAT was over, and he never really checked his score so he didn’t remember.

“Wait, Alan, I forgot. Let me check it real quick.” Shesmu said as he took out his phone. His past plans were down the drain, but Shesmu thought that the trade was worth it. Losing a potential good impression compared to being very suspicious in his best friend’s mind was a trifling matter.

Hearing his friend’s reply, Alan had a shocked expression on his face as he sat down on the chair, waiting for the server.

“What is that even supposed to mean? You forgot your SAT score, how is that even possible?” But before he could even finish, Alan caught a laughing fit. “And what is that? Hahaha. You’re still using that old phone I got you three years ago. Quit being so stingy and get yourself some digital lenses, you have the money for that now.” Alan couldn’t help but laugh at his friend’s weird antics.

Hearing what Alan said, Shesmu who just sat down turned his focus from his phone to his friend’s face. “About that, you’re going to help me choose a pair. I want them to be comfy, not strain my eye, have a transparency option, and be of an overall great quality. I’m counting on you.”

Looking at his friend’s face practically shoved into his own, Alan couldn’t help but break out in a laughing fit again.

“Haha! Sure, I would do that for you. Now, just check your SAT score, I’m so curious. For you to forget that, something is definitely wrong with you. Haha!”

Shesmu kept checking for his name on the government’s website until he finally found it: “Mark Daveman”. Looking at the score next to his full name, Shesmu was surprised. Against all expectation, he actually ended up with a great score, 1470 out of 1600.

“Ehh” Looking at the score, Shesmu didn’t know what to say. The fact that he forgot his score when he had such a great one will only appear as extremely arrogant.

“What, did you get less than 1000? What happened?” Looking at Shesmu’s weird facial expression, Alan felt that something was wrong and asked for an explanation.

“Actually no. Here, just look at my score, it’s better that way.” Shesmu passed his phone to Alan who was surprised by how this scenario developed. However, it didn’t take Alan much time to understand the reason for Shesmu’s weird behaviors. Looking at the extremely high score, Alan had to check multiple times that the score matched Shesmu’s name. His eyes kept darting between the name “Mark Daveman” and the score 1470 for a couple seconds before he said.

“What the hell. How did you do that?” His expression then turned serious and he whispered into my ears “Please, tell me how did you cheat the system, my brother will pass the SAT next year and will need your enlightenment.”

Hearing him say such weird things with the most serious face he could muster made Mark break into a laugh.

“Hahaha! Dude, you’re way too funny. Holy shit, it feels good to talk to you after months.” Shesmu said, but he then muttered in an inaudible voice ‘Even though it was years for me. Long and arduous ones. This time, history will change’.

However, Alan didn’t notice Shesmu’s muttering. The waiter just came so he made an order before replying to Shesmu.

“Yeah, it does feel good. Oh, how I wish I could play again with you. But you should be now busy with all the studying. Prestigious universities are challenging and strict after all. Oh about that, I forgot to ask, which college did you go to in the end?”

Shesmu was stunned for a second. In his past life, he decided to go pro after the beta for Ashes of Gods ended. He fell in love with the game at first sight. The mechanics were smooth, the interactions with the NPCs were realistic, the game was fun and fueled his competitive spirit. Even though he had a great GPA and SAT score, Shesmu didn’t hesitate for a second to throw all of that out the window and try to become pro in Ashes of Gods. In the end, it was the right choice as he made an insane amount of money while also doing something he loved and wanted more than anything else. Shesmu never regretted that decision once in his life.

Now that ten years have passed and Shesmu returned to the past and got asked the same question, it felt weird. For him, gaming was a way of life. One he adopted since he was ten years old. So the question “What college will you go to?” felt foreign and unfamiliar.

“None.” Said Shesmu. “I’m not going to college.”

It took a fraction of second before Alan could process what Shesmu just said and he finally replied in a loud voice.

“What?! Why? What’s going on, why not go to college?”

Before Alan could continue on, Shesmu signaled him to tone down his voice as everyone in the room started looking at them.

Alan then said in a lower voice than before.

“Why will you not go to college? You have such an amazing opportunity.”

Shesmu stayed silent for a while before saying.

“What game are you playing now?”

Alan looked surprised at the quest but in the end, he answered truthfully, he wanted to understand Shesmu’s reasoning.

“I have been continuing to play Star explorers for a while before I stopped two months ago. There was this game called Ashes of Gods that was still in beta and I was lucky enough to get a key. I played the game and it was hella fun, so I’ll probably focus on it from now on.”

Hearing Alan talks about Ashes of Gods, Shesmu had a smile on his face. In his past life too, Alan started playing the game early. They went through many tribulations together and survived many hardships. The friendship that was between them was thicker than blood.

“I’m playing AOG too, it’s really fun. I haven’t had as much fun since I started gaming.”

“Oh really, that’s super cool. We need to add each other as friends. By the way, which country are you in? I already started playing today and I chose Pliyx Stal kingdom’s capital as my birthplace. The beginner town I was put into was Thousands Leaves town.”

Hearing Alan talk, Shesmu was surprised. He already knew from his past life that Alan chose Pliyx Stal City as his starting town, so that didn’t come as a surprise. However, for them to end up in the same town, Shesmu could only marvel at his luck.

Officially, beginner towns weren’t named. However, locals cannot communicate with merchants and travelers without having their town be named. Due to the need to have a name so as to not end up with awkward discussions where no one knows which town you are talking about, people created local names for their cities. The beginner city Shesmu was in was called Thousand Leaves due to the lush forest surrounding it from all directions.

“You’re kidding right. We started in the same town.” Said Shesmu in a faint voice, obviously surprised by the weirdness of the situation. By this time, the waiter came and served the meals ordered on the table, before promptly leaving.

“Are you serious? What are the chances for this to happen? 1 in a million? Or maybe more? Is this what they call destiny?” Alan threw one rhetoric question after another, obviously surprised too by this turn of event. However, he immediately went back to his cheerful mood and exclaimed.

“Isn’t that awesome?! Now, we can play together and have fun! Ahh, I’m so excited!”

In front of his overly excited friend, Shesmu could only turn shy and say faintly.

“Yeah, I’m also hyped up.”

Seeing that the conversation was mostly about him, Mark decided to throw the ball Alan's way this time.

"Oh, enough about me for now. Tell me about you, how have you been doing, O great Archmage Seth of the destructive apocalypse of the abyss something something" Said Shesmu with a grin. He always liked to poke fun at Alan for his nickname and would always exagerate it by adding something edgy at the end of it.

"Oh c'mon, it's just Archmage Seth. If you're going to have a war of who has the cringiest nickname, look at yours. "God speed Shesmu" I don't even need to add anything your name is already cringy as it is."

After this exchange, they both laughed out loud inquiring the annoyed glances of all customers. They then quickly toned down their voice. After that incident, they continued their meal while reminiscing about their past adventures and planning their future ones. If someone looked at them, he would think that they were fairy tale characters. Such a deep friendship was rarely ever seen in the real world, where genuine happiness is so hard to find.