Chapter 4,

You have now spent 8 hours in-game.

You will be forcibly logged out since you are in a safe spot.

Please eat meals and exercise.

You can log in again after a few hours.

The game will continue from here and none of the messages will be lost.

The surroundings went black and I was returned to the headset’s home screen which also showed a shut down message and quickly everything around went blank.

At least it reminds the gamers to take meals. The exact regulation is you can only play for 4 hours around every 12 hours. So, a total of 8 in one day or 24 hours. Taking inspiration from the way of thinking that the 24-hour day is 8 hours of work, 8 hours of play and 8 hours of sleep.

Since its been a while now from the launch. The forums should be bursting with posts about different classes and how the players obtained them.

I move my hands upwards to remove the headset. But my hands instead touch something else. Something much softer and warmer than a headset.

“Evelyn, what exactly are you trying to do?”

“Ah… I was just waiting for you to exit the game.”

Knowing that she was standing there just looking at me while I was practically asleep. It’s a tad bit weird but okay.

“I know that you’re concerned about me, but you don’t have to keep standing there for no reason.”

She takes off my headset, as my eyes slowly adjust to the light in the room, her figure becomes clearer.

“It’s my job as your nurse. Anyways, I bought your meal. After that let’s go outside a bit.”

“Were you the one who cooked it?”

“What? Some problem with that?” She asked back, a little worked up and puffing her cheeks. Quite cute.

“No, not really.” I reply, and continue under my breath. “You’re a great cook.”

A cute, blue-eyed brunette. Is how I’d describe her. Even though our ages shouldn’t be that wildly apart.

I slowly sit up and she brings over the tray, full of exotic dishes that you wouldn’t at all expect in a hospital but rather in a restaurant. Maybe she learnt cooking from somewhere.

“Would you like me to feed you, Young Master?” She asked teasingly.

Ah, that sent a tingle down my spine. She doesn’t need to act this cringeworthy.

I need to pay her back somehow.

“Yes.” I say and put on my most indifferent face, which comes quite naturally to me.

Now that she can’t just stop the farce, she picks up the spoon and then starts with the soup, bringing it closer to my face.

Not enough.

I turn my head away from the spoon.

“It’s too hot. It’ll burn my tongue.”

She sighs lightly and then proceeds to gently blow on the soup to cool it down. Then she again brings it closer to my mouth.

That’s enough I suppose.

I open my mouth, letting her have the privilege of feeding me.

A picture worthy moment indeed. Too bad I wouldn’t be able to capture it. I’ll need to remember to go through the security camera footage and save this moment. Even if the management denies the existence of such a camera, I have a feeling it is there somewhere in this room.

…

After the meal, as Evelyn takes the tray of empty dishes away, I start moving to get off the bed.

While it does hurt slightly to move a bit faster than usual. I feel like I couldn’t compromise on this. Not after finding out how good freedom of movement is.

I take my phone from the desk beside the bed and open up Un-Reality’s website, and go to the game’s forums. The official forums, while they probably aren’t the only place discussing the game, I’m sure they discuss it much more than other forums would.

While Dawn, the company behind it, haven’t expressed much interest in telling all the mechanics and possibilities of the game, it seems they have no intention to stop the discussion on it.

Evelyn returns to the room. Without her help, I get up from the bed.

“What are you doing?” She panics and rushes towards me.

“It’s fine.” I grit my teeth as I reply through the pain and start walking towards the door.

Her expression still shows her concern but this really is something that I should accomplish on my own. She stays unmoving till I reach the door and open it, when she finally realizes that I might leave without her so she rushes to me.

As we walk through the gardens, she speaks up to break the silence.

“So, how was the game?”

“Really good.”

“It didn’t hurt you to move or something, right?”

“No, it was fine. That aside, didn’t I tell you to start playing it too?”

“You know I can’t exactly play when I’m at work, right?”

“Sure you can, when I ask them for it.”

“Val…”

The money isn’t a problem at all for her either. I know as the nurse dedicated for the VIP section of the hospital, she gets more than enough money to buy the headset and pay for the subscription. Not like there’s anyone other than me at the VIP section right now either.

“Evelyn, I want you to be with me, even as I play the game.”

“Aww…” She blushes a little.

Her inclusion would really make things easier. Especially if she becomes a support type class. Getting into the rankings would be easier then. But I’d rather not force her into choosing one class over the other. If I force her into doing something she doesn’t like, the effectiveness would decrease drastically.

Not that I have the leisure to feel bad over manipulating someone’s feelings into doing what I want. That statement wasn’t entirely untrue either, her presence really makes things better for me.

And that she already has an inclination to get a support class. She’s a nurse after all.

“I could tell them that you can practice being a surgeon using that headset.”

“But I’m not training to be a surgeon, Val.”

“Like a surgeon simulator or something.”

“Val. There’s no need to come up with any excuses. I know they’ll agree as soon as I bring up your name.”

“Well then, get to it.”

“Okay…”

Walking through the gardens, we reach a bench and I sit down on it to take a rest.

I bring up my phone. Oh, right, I was going to look up the forums before. A phone certainly is great that it could remind me what I was supposed to do sometimes. Or distract me from what I was doing.

Evelyn leans in closer as I scroll down the forums and see the post titles.

Berserker, possibly the strongest melee class?

Duelist, an evasion type class and the hardest to attain?

A guide on how to obtain the Ranger class.

Which ranged weapon is better, traditional bows or flintlocks?

Professions, which one is the best?

How I got the blacksmith profession.

And there were many more. But one of them I found the most interesting, so I opened it.

How I got to level 20 without any combat. Truly a game of choices.

So when I first played this game, I didn’t expect there to be a way to proceed without killing anything. I don’t like killing at all but thought it to be something granted in an RPG. But this game proved me wrong. I started by talking to the priest who described he found that there was some trouble occurring in the town graveyard and I was the one who was prophesized to solve it somehow. There was a sudden influx of frenzied creatures there who were desecrating the graves. The presented solution was of course to grab a weapon, do a few quests from the adventurer’s guild and help some townspeople to gain exp and then kill all the beasts that gathered there.

But while going through the place, I found this musician performing near the town hall using an odd instrument. So I spent a few hours learning it from him. Finding out more about it and getting better skills at using that lyre or what it was called and gained some exp from it. Then I felt quite bold and went to the graveyard and played the lyre. And I didn’t expect it to work but the lyre managed to calm the beasts down, from where the towns guard then led them away from the graveyard and then outside the town. And I managed to complete the quest and reach level 20, getting a bard class.

Hmm, interesting. His starting town was different than mine but the beginning was similar, in a temple of sorts.

“He must have had a talent in playing instruments. Or maybe the game helps a bit too.” Evelyn comments, interrupting my thoughts.

Where was I going? Oh well, I look through the replies.

They mostly include people congratulating the poster, some saying that it was a fluke he managed to obtain that class some saying that his starting town was easier than theirs and other stuff like that. Typical I suppose.

So, he didn’t go through all the quests word-for-word either but fairly close to it and reached level 20 before the end of today. Impressive indeed. That reminds me,

The leaderboards of current public, level rankings.

1- Arthur level 23

2- Silent_Kill level 22

3- LeSpank level 21

4- (Numerous players) level 20

Oh, looks like I wasn’t that slow in gaining levels. Or that the majority of players didn’t get special permissions to play longer and perhaps those who did, chose not to appear in the public rankings.

There’s other categories visible than just level rankings, but those are empty. They mostly include individual classes and skills ranking, PvP rankings and that stuff which takes more time to accomplish.

I should better get back into the game, the competition seems quite intense.

I get up from the bench and continue walking down where the path led, but I smell something odd which makes me stop.

“What did you find now?” Evelyn speaks up.

I sniff the air a bit longer. That peculiar smell seems to be coming from the middle of the garden, so I start walking through the bushes on the sides of the path and head directly towards that place.

“Ah, right. They built this quite recently. It was under construction for a few days, and just yesterday they filled it.”

It’s a small pond with multiple colorful fish swimming about in it.

“Evelyn.”

“Yes?”

“Make fish for dinner tonight.”

“What do you think I am? Your personal chef?!”

“Yes.”

She lets out a light sigh, “Okay then.”

“It must be boneless too.”

“I know… I know…”

…

I lay down on the bed and put on the headset, continuing the game from where I left off.

As you have cleared an instance dungeon, your HP, MP and FS will be refilled and basic status effects will be cleared.

However, certain status effects (buffs and debuffs) will stay.

Would you like to exit the dungeon?

Yes/ No

You will be automatically taken outside after a certain amount of time elapses.

So, after clearing a dungeon, it allows to rest for a moment. Nice.

You have just reached level 20 and received a class.

You have now gained 2 skills.

‘Not Weakness’ and ‘Eccentric’

You will gain a skill according to your class every 10 levels.

Since you have just gained your first skill, would you like to learn how to activate skills?

Yes/ No

That would be great, but before that I feel like seeing the status screen.

Chris Val

Class: Enigmatic Killer

Level: 20 (4000 exp left)

HP: 110 of 110

MP: 55 of 55

FS: 125 of 125

Hit: 10-15 (Primitive fishman spear equipped.)

Str: 15

Con: 11

Int: 6

Res: 8

Spd: 15

Crit: 15

(20 stats left to allot. However, you cannot allot them.)

Mov Spd: 100%

Luk: 10

…Show Details… (The detailed view is currently unavailable.)

Skills:

Not Weakness. (FS cost: (depends). Cooldown: 10 sec.)

Unleash the potential of your weakest stat. It doubles the value of that stat for the next 5 seconds. The attack depends on which stat was used and its value.

Eccentric. (MP cost: 0. Cooldown: 5 sec.)

Eccentric behavior, unpredictable moves. Allows you to cancel the movement resulting from using any skill, without stopping the skill or its effects.

… I can’t assign my stats?!