Hi, my name is Leon Holmes. Yes my name did cause me to be bullied and yes I am an outcast. No I am not a NEET and yes I have finished college.

I’m a 35 year old, unmarried man (and unfortunately virgin) but not because I didn’t want to be. I actually have luck with girls on a friendzone level and if I push a bit I can have them like me more intimately but the reason it never goes beyond friendzone is because of my home and work.

My college degree is for biology in the area of bugs, so I specialize in entomology. The thing is, I am a bug collector as well and a bit of a fanatic. I don’t have living bugs unless it’s a rare species that would soon enter my collection when it matures. I keep living bugs in proper glass cages for each one and feed them properly to get the most optimal specimen. The problem is the simple fact that I collect bugs.

I live in a house alone. It has 4 rooms, my bedroom and a guest room, and two bug collection rooms, large kitchen, clean of any bugs whatsoever due to sanitary reasons, and several other needed rooms like bathrooms.

As you might have guessed, my bedroom is also included in the rooms that have bug cases and you may also notice that such a thing would be a serious turnoff to at least 80% of the girls I would encounter and the remaining 20% would be divided into people that would actually like it or wouldn’t really care but wouldn’t sleep in such a room.

You can tell that the people that like something like this probably wouldn’t amount to 2% of the population and I seriously can't find a single person within that 2% which is why I am a sad virgin who will probably die as such.

I do love my research, I try and discover uses for things gathered from bugs. It doesn’t need to be directly related to poisons and stuff, though I do that as well since it's necessary to gather antivenom from various creatures. It’s more like what uses can spider webs be used for or if there were more variants of silk bugs that made better quality silk and what type of bug pollinates different fruits to aid producers in wilder terrains like the amazon.

Still all this will eventually drain you, especially when you reach a bottleneck in your research. I’ve been seriously stuck on what to do for over two months to the point that stress has begun to eat away at me and my boss suggested I relax and reduced my work time so I only work at night instead of morning until 6 pm. Only night means from 6pm to midnight.

My boss also suggested I try out the VR game that came out a few months ago. It’s been the rage all over and many people strive to be #1 in the world ranking but I knew better than anyone. During my school years before and during college I read many Light novels and fanfics and know that the true high levelers were the ones that kept their traps shut and created information networks, formerly named the Dark Gamers. Money grubbers living off the game itself by getting rare items and selling them for big bucks.

I took him up on the offer anyway. I needed to unwind and relax but I don’t know what I will find in that game.

Anyway I already have the glasses ready and installed. It's not some big ass capsule or helmet. It would have been but because everything was withheld for several years they developed it into a pair of futuristic glasses that look like the earmuff headphones but instead of going over the head it goes in front of the eyes while covering the ears.

I put them on then connect the plug. It lights up and appears.

Would you like to connect your phone number to this unit? You will be able to receive calls while in game but it will cause a temporary standby where you will return to the login page to answer and be returned to your avatar instantly after it is turned off. If a call comes from within the game, there will be no standby.

It is a good feature for sure. I decided to put it but I don’t have many people that would call me so it doesn’t matter though I may hand out my number later on, hehehe.

After that I lay down on the bed and activate the game procedure.

A moment later that was a window saying ‘Welcome to Virtual Life Online’. The next moment I felt dizzy as everything went dark.

After a while the dizziness and sensation of falling faded I found myself in a white room. So cliche but whatever.

Standing there waiting like a doll was a woman with cherry pink hair and eyes, pale skin that was white like snow and a plug suit that showed each and every curve to its fullest.

There were two things she could be, either she was the AI or a GM that was aiding.

“Greetings sir, this is the character creation portion of the game. What do you want your name to be, you just need one name but can include a surname.” She says.

“Hmm… I expect it’s not some shitty name like “Iamtroll21” right?” I asked.

“Obviously, oh and surprisingly there were five other people that used the same example as you.” She said. “It has to be a normal name and we won’t block names because the number is limited enough.”

“Convenient for sure, are you the AI or a GM?” I asked.

“The AI sir and please proceed with the character creation.” She said with a poker face.

“Ahh~! So cold, must suck being stuck as some goddess in a world while not being able to play around. Anyway, the name…” I said, noticing her brows twitch. Must have hit a sore spot which made me grin a bit. It’s surprising that if you irritate a woman a bit you can figure a few things out as long as you know the limit before cherry coating your words.

“Ou~! Come on already!” She complained.

“I’m thinking, am I that unpleasant to look at?” I said faking tears. As expected she looked a bit worried after seeing my fake tears. What I expected was that AI isn't really mature in the area of discerning people's emotions? In other words they barely interact much. If they were allowed to enter their own games with an avatar and have real connection with the main database she would have long since noticed I was faking.

“Come on, don’t cry. It’s because you are so slow that it’s a bit irritating.” She said with a slight frown.

“Fine let’s see… Droso. Yeah that seems good enough.”

“Okay, the game only has humans at the moment but if you discover and unlock a new race you have a chance to change to that race. People that like breeding classes strive to create humanoid races so you can technically create your own race. There are several capital cities in the world.” She said with a snap of her finger. “Choose one.”

Northern Region

Kalagar

Southern Region

Uniden

Tegrel

Eastern Region

Revona

Pasvin

Linco

Western Region

Yggdras

Central Region

Zenova

Looking at the list I wondered why a few places had so few cities and asked.

“The western region is a dense tropical forest area so exploring is difficult. The central region has all been captured by the kingdom there and Zenova is its capital. It’s also the most popular as it's the most powerful kingdom while the western region is least popular due to lack of development.” She said making me facepalm.

“How can people be so stupid and cliché?” I mutter but it was loud enough for her to hear.

“I ask myself the same thing sometimes. They have no creativity.” The AI said.

“Yeah, anyway I want Yggdras.” I say.

“Great someone that seems more fun than the cliche idiots that are just running around like idiots. Now a warning, you will be stuck inside the city for 1 month and during this time it’s kind of like a tutorial period for most people to use to get a class.” She says.

“There is some kind of time distortion right?” I ask.

“Yep, the game world runs 4 times faster so it’s 1 day in the real world will be 4 days in the game. Also a personal tip for not being so cliche. Don’t treat the NPC like machines. They have intelligence like a normal person and aren’t tied down by the system but live their own lives. Quest are tasks that even they can obtain so don’t think players are the only ones that are thinking.” she said and suddenly everything goes dark again.

After a moment the scene changed again. When the dizziness subsided I found myself in a small town.

At the center of town was a large stone keep and the town spread out until it reached a 10 meter tall stone wall with several watch towers around the town. The place was filled with people but if you compare it to a place like time square this is nothing. The place I was currently standing was in a plaza with a fountain at the center. I didn’t get to change any features of my looks but it seems the system ‘Cleans up’ on my normal looks which is typically messy unless I have an important conference. At the moment I was wearing peasant clothes, pretty much rags, though clean at least. My shoulder long hair was in a low tied ponytail revealing my face. With a quick touch to my face I can tell the acne I suffered with, though very little was still gone.

Looking around I saw many people walking around and others running with crates or pulling small handcarts.

I began wondering what to do so I instead looked at my stats.

Status

Name:

Droso

Race:

Human

Level:

1

Stat Point:

0

Health

100%

Mana

100%

Stamina

100%

Class:

None

Satiety

100%

Thirst

100%

Strength

10

Agility

10

Dexterity

10

Endurance

10

Intelligence

10

Wisdom

10

Skills

None

So this game doesn’t have the luck and leadership crap huh. Considering what I know from light novels it is possible they are unlockable.

I then opened up my inventory to see what I have and found only 10 rye bread and 2 water containers (empty).

I take both the containers out and turn to the fountain and dip both inside letting the water enter it, filling both. It held quite a large amount inside which was in other words a magic item which I shouldn’t be surprised about.

With both containers full I left the plaza and walked into the town. I could only call it mediocre for a capital. From the keep to the town walls there were approximately 20-25 streets. The blocks of each street had four buildings in each block, side by side, before a larger road appeared. Between the buildings was the occasional alleyway and I could spot some silhouettes in them.

The buildings between the keep and seven streets out were made of stone and all the roads were paved though alleys were still dirt paths. After that was only wooden buildings that kept getting smaller and more numerous as you walked out. Finally at the gate, that was a large double wooden door with a large square tree log that lowered the block the entrance, was the guards quarters and HQ. This was the North wall so I think only guard quarters and the jails would be in the other gates since there are four gates each in one direction.

As I walk to pass through the gate I feel like I hit a barrier and it actually hurt my nose.

One guard notices this and walks over.

“Traveler, the goddess’s priest has told us that your kind is unable to leave the city for one month.” the guard said.

*SLAP*

Before I could say anything he made a sudden move and slap to his neck. As he pulled back I noticed a rather large mosquito and blood which had been sucked from the guard.

“Blasted bugs…” He muttered.

“Is there some kind of bug problem here? I did notice that there is a large number within the city.” I asked

“Aye, the bugs invading the town are from the surrounding forest.” The guard said.

Hmm? This only happens when there is a sudden expansion and deforestation and lack of nutrition for the bugs for their eggs which is blood.

“Exactly what has happened? Only rapid expansions would actually cause something like this.” I say.

“That’s exactly what is happening. After the first of your kind was able to leave the city they left the town and got beat by all the monsters outside. After they made large groups and kept hunting the weaker monsters until they got stronger and hunted the stronger ones. With less danger the lumberjacks could cut more trees safer and farmers could increase the size of their land and you can guess the rest.” the guard said.

“Has no one tried making pesticide?” I asked.

“What’s that? Pesticide?”

“It's poison against bugs.”

“Poison would enter the water and poison the population so no. To make it worse the sanitation in the slums doesn’t help as it gives the bugs places to breed and grow in.” he says. “Well not like you can help much but it would be nice if someone could help with this though cause some bugs have diseases in them and some of the population are getting sick already.” He said.

Quest:

Bug Invasion

You have discovered that because of the players, the rapid expansion caused by clearing the land, which became safer, caused the bugs that lived in the forests, and lived off the blood of the monsters, to migrate into the city where they are feeding off the people. The problems of this have begun to appear. The bugs, besides being annoying, even hold diseases that have begun to spread through the city.

If the problem isn’t handled or controlled eventually an epidemic could happen.

Difficulty:

D

Reward:

Unknown

Requirements:

Find a way to control/exterminate the bug population in the city.

Find a cure for the various diseases the bugs are spreading

Time limit:

4 Months if left unchanged.

Failure:

Epidemic spreads to everyone.

You ignore the quest, time limit ends.

“Woah, my first quest is D rank.” I thought

If I’m not mistaken the difficulty of quests is ranked from F, E, D, C, B, A, S. It is said that D rank affects an entire town depending on the quest. C rank would affect a kingdom, B rank would affect an Region and A rank would affect the continent and finally S rank would probably change the whole world.

The game has been running maybe 4 months and the number of quests at this rank is unknown since no one releases the quest they do and since only F and E rank are redoable quests like hunting and gathering quests.

“With my knowledge of bugs as well as speed at figuring out how to at least cure bug related diseases I should have much less trouble than other people. That said I need info.” I thought. “Sir, do you know if there is any place with books on the local buglife and flora?” I asked.

“Bugs and the plant life? The library should have it. The library is on the right tower of the keep and the first two floors are open to the public. There is a separate door for the library since it is separate from the keep.” The guard says.

“Great, if there is at least some basic information I can work with I may be able to start working on a cure.” I mutter “Thank you sir.” I said with a bow and ran off.

Quest accepted