System Message

You have died.

You may log-in again in 24:00:00

Ren looked at the notification for a moment then sighed. He knew he was bound to die at some pint but that didn't make him feel any better. Ren left the game and returned to his room in the VR pod. While it felt like months since he was last here in actuality it was only a few weeks. Ren lay down on his bed, set up a timer for when he could log back in, and started browsing the internet for Second Awakening related news. Ren checked out some forums, read some articles, and watched videos. Apparently the internet exploded a couple weeks back about some anonymous person becoming a Saint. There were countless articles filled with speculation, forum thread dedicated to finding the person, and many offers from new outlets for the identity of the person, either real-life or in-game. Right now there was a lot of talk about the Goblin King.

Ren continued to browse random sites until he heard the sound of a phone ringing. Ren brought up the video chat system and found his family, minus his father, look at him through the camera. Ren was initially shocked but quickly smiled. He and his family talked for a while. He found out that his father, who was software engineer and a pretty good programmer, had been offered a job at Moonlight Arts as one of the lead game developers. The company figured that since not only does he have skills that they're look for but also his son was basically living in the game that Ren's father would have more motivation than a normal person to make the game the best it could possibly be. They talked for a little more, his mother Katherine scolding him for not coming out for a few weeks. Ren 12 year old, Matthew, had been fidgeting the whole time there were talking. Seemingly not able to hold what he want to say in any longer he interrupted his mother and said.

"Ren. Guess what, guess what!" he excitedly

"What?" Ren replied with a slight smile.

"Mom says that I can play the game!" Matthew burst out.

"She said you can play once summer vacation starts in a month." Ren's 24 year old sister Nicole said. "I get to start in a few days once finals exams are over."

Ren was a bit surprised but also very happy. He and his siblings have always been close. Nicole, while kind and caring, wasn't someone you wanted to mess with. She was an instructor at a local muay thai and kick-boxing gym as well as being a black belt in kenpo and reasonably skilled in Jujitsu and a Brazilian martial art call capoeria. Overall not someone you want to be on the bad side of. Matthew Jut seemed like a store house of knowledge and was pretty intelligent, though nowhere near enough to be called a genius. What he excelled at was analysis and logical thinking. Ren was different from his siblings in the fact that he was pretty well rounded. Active but not athletic, intelligent but not the special. What Ren really excelled at was hands-on things. Be it sewing to plumbing to rebuilding a small engine, Ren was very good with his hands.

As Ren and his family caught up various doctor would come in and update Ren about his treatment. The doctor were reasonably confident they could fix Ren's hearing though his vision and movement would take some time. If they screwed up the procedure it could possibly make things worse. They had a physiologist come in to check his mental state. The psychologist left feeling that Ren was in good mental health. After a couple for hours his family left, though not before Ren’s mother made him promise to come out at least once a week. After they left Ren lay on his virtual bed and though about what he could do to keep himself busy.

After some time Ren thought of something he try. Since he was in a virtual world that he could control why not see what he Ren decided to do a little redecorating. Ren stood in the middle of his room and, with a simple thought and a wave of his hand, caused everything to disappear. Next he changed the floor to solid gold, the walls were jade and the ceiling a star filled sky. After that he changed the room into a small apartment. Then an idea struck him. First Ren tried to change the size of the room and, to his surprise, it actually work. Ren played with the room size and layout, He would go from one large room to a labyrinth if rooms a passage ways. After some time Ren finally decided on a layout he wanted. He would have nine rooms. One would be an office/bedroom, the next would be laid out as a forge, complete with smelter and a never ending supply of materials, and the third as a tailor’s workshop, again complete with a storehouse of never ending materials. The forth room would be a dojo filled with different types of weapons from swords and axes to more exotic things like shuriken and claws for Ren to practice with. He left the other five rooms empty for now. Ren walked around his new living space, pleased with himself. He now had a place to practice his skill even if he wasn't in the game. Ren check the timer he had set and found that there was only a few hours left. Ren went to his bedroom to take a quick nap to pass the time and be ready to dive right back into the game.