“These will do.”

Once he got out of bed, he went to take a shower. He decided he'd change into some clean clothes before leaving the room. Once he finished he walked out and on the outside, there were three doors; just the two bedrooms and a door leading to the laundry room, past it all led to the living room. On his way, out he tossed his now soiled and ragged clothing into a basket in the laundry room.

“Why is it so quiet now.”

He walked into the living room and looked around. Noticing the draft coming from the open veranda, he went to close the glass doors. As soon as he had shut them, his pocket vibrated, followed by a familiar ringtone. It was an email from Soogle.

“Hm...? Oh, It’s a hundred more than what I expected. Ah, wait-”

He glanced towards the hallway, holding back a grin. He took a few steps to the door closest to him, he placed his ear to it and knocked twice waiting for a response. There was no answer.

After trying once more to no avail, he nodded to himself and went to the kitchen.

“It’s been a long time since I last had some quiet time for myself.”

Shortly after crossing the counter, he walked to the shelves in the corner of the kitchen. On top of one, and hardly visible from below, there was a round, porcelain pot.

“Come here~”

Inside of it were several cookies of different toppings, like choco drops and dried cream toppings. But what he pulled out was something wrapped in a white cloth. A black wallet. And after opening it he browsed through the cards that were the only things inside the wallet.

“Brown, white, red... orange, found it.”

The orange card with dark blue lines that he took out had the VT initials on the front, while the full name of the agency was written in a smaller font on the back. Vitau Bank, it was also the name mentioned in the email he received.

“...Should I order some food, or go out to eat?”

He checked the time again. It was just twenty minutes before ten o’clock, and there was a lot of time before the restaurants closed.

As he turned to walk back to the living room, something appeared in front of him that caused him to flinch.

{A new notification has arrived.}

“Haa, can I even go out like this?”

“No, wait. I wanted to confirm some stuff about this anyway, so it might be good to go outside for a bit.”

After thinking for a bit he grabbed the mail and took it to the glass table in front of the sofas, sat down and began to stare at it with fingers crossed.

“One of those commands I tried earlier should work. Then... notification open...!”

{Notification list has been opened.}

{Alert: Four hours have gone by since the start of the quest. There are eight hours remaining.}

“It's weird to say that out loud... huh, how should I be alert of a quest I don’t even know about?”

“I can’t even check the quest information or something, can I?”

{Displaying the Quest List feature.}

“Whoa-”

As soon as the mail appeared it began to grow to a size comparable to the TV behind it startling him for a moment. The grown hologram was hazel colored on the background and the outlining borders were completely white.

{Quest List:

[Grimoire of the Altar]

[Qualification of The One who Plays]}

“Those are... buttons! There are buttons now, ooh.”

The two names below “Quest List”, or rather the titles, were standing out of the screen in a cubic manner like bricks on a wall. He even tried to pull one out but it didn’t budge in the slightest, not even pushing or uplifting the screen was possible.

“Haa... why is this one impossible to move? At least the buttons are softer than they look, it’s easy to push.”

He pressed the first quest’s button. The screen’s size didn’t change but the contents were erased and refilled with the information of the selected title while a [Return] button popped at the top left side.

“...Are you serious?”

{ [Grimoire of the Altar]

Quest Status: Cleared.

Party-Play. | Unique-Class Quest.

Description: ▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯.

Quest Clear Conditions: Place four or more Grimoire’s pieces on the altar.

Quest Completion Progress:

Grimoire’s Piece (5/4).

Quest Failure Conditions: 1. Death.

Quest Clearance Rewards: ▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯.}

“Ué? What's this black thing?”

He blinked a few times before taking a deep breath in and out. His fingers neared the blackened spots that seemed to cover the information and tried to peel them off with his nails but to no avail.

“I thought it was censorship or something, but it looks like black tape, no? It isn’t any different from the flat surface though, so maybe it’s just paint? But, will all quests be...”

Getting anxious from such thoughts he pressed the [Return] button in a hurry and then the second quest button right away. And it was noticeably faster for the list to recover the details of the first quest than it was to display the second one.

{ [Qualification of the One who Plays]

Status: In-Progress.

Solo-Play. | Tutorial-Class Quest.

Description: Welcome to the “Player” system, user. As a new being who plays, you are expected to make full and better use of the system to reach high “Levels” and become the best in whatever path you plan to take in your life. The system includes several features and settings that can be unlocked as you progress through its uses. As a first time lesson provided to all new players, you must go through the examination test to adjust yourself to this new life of yours. Now, please, proceed to take the first steps as a player.

Quest Clear Conditions: Under twelve hours, experience all the initial features of the “Player” system and activate the “Party” feature at least once.

Completion Progress:

O. Notification List Feature.

X. Personal Information Feature.

X. Inventory Feature.

X. Party-Play Feature.

Quest Failure Conditions: 1. The twelve-hour timer reaches zero. 2. Death.

Quest Acceptance Rewards: 1st Quest List Feature will be granted.

Quest Clearance Rewards: 1x Rookie Player Kit F. 3x Clean Slate Scroll. 1x All-Stats Buff Scroll.

Choosable Rewards: [1x Stats Reorganization Privilege] [1x Ten Stats Points Scroll] [1x Full Restore Potion] [2x Lucky Box(Small)]}

“Phew~ No black paint. Now let me read this properly...”

“It’s called ‘Player’ system but it’s not really about RPGs, well I only know about adventure games and MMORPGs so it’d be good if the features were similar to them...”

“Anyways, what was up with that first quest then? Surely that black smudge was not part of the quest info, so maybe it got bugged? If only I knew how to report those errors they might get fixed... plus there are game admins who send gifts to players who report bugs.”

Hmm...?

After getting up he turned to the kitchen but at his first step away from the screen, and without a warning, it disappeared.

‘So I can’t either move it or turn away...’

He leaned on the kitchen counter with these thoughts as he started to dial the numbers written on a pamphlet. The pillar beside the counter had several pamphlets glued to it with tape.

Tuu... Tuu... Tuu... Pin~

“Good evening, I wanna order a half bacon half mussarela pizza?...”

“...That’s right, and my address is...”

“...I will be paying by debit card, so please do...”

“In less than forty minutes? Thanks, I will be waiting then.”

Tuu-

“If I remember correctly, there’s no drinks in the fridge... I can go buy real quick.”

“Ah, I didn’t even check if it was closed or not.”

He walked out onto the veranda and looked at a two-story-tall shop right across the street, just two stores away. The lights were still on and a glowing sign was right above the entrance with the words, “As Logo Logo” written on it.

“Okay, It’s still open, I’d better leave before my quiet time ends.”

After picking up the keys on top of the drawer beside the sofa and his wallet on the counter he put on a pair of dark blue sandals, opened the door and stepped out to the corridor.

An open view corridor stretching to both left and right. His room was almost at the middle of the row of doors under the number three-zero-three and the closest elevator was to his left, so he locked his door and walked there.

Right beside the elevator was two flights of stairs leading up and down. Residents coming from either would greet him as he waited for the elevator to come up.

Pin!

The doors opened and the passenger leaving it looked like a zombie from how haggard and tired he was.

“Good evening.”

“Hm? Ah, good evening.”

The man was an acquaintance of his so he gave the greeting a go.

“Are you getting back this late...? Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I- Haa, I just got some overtime done today but I’m good.”

‘Looking this haggard? Even my old bird looks healthier than you.’

He seemed to be hunching forward as if he was carrying something heavy but only a briefcase could be seen in his hands. Wore a black suit with a white social shirt that seemed a bit wet and a plain dark blue necktie that had been loosened up.

“That’s great. But hey, I’m going to have some pizza for dinner, want to come along?”

“No, it’s fine... it’s, you know, wife and stuff.”

“Wife and stuff, yeah, I got it.”

He noticed a blinking light from the elevator which meant that someone had requested for it at another floor at that moment.

“Then, I will see you later.”

“Okay, see you.”

He let go of the elevator door and let it go up to the fifth floor, after they boarded in he pressed the first floor button and all of the passengers left when the doors opened again.

The first floor was a large hall with two entrances right beside the elevators. At the middle was a reception desk and beside it was a bulletin board with flyers and stuff.

As he left through the automatic door and went down a flight of stairs, he stopped by a vending machine. The area outside his apartment was as large as a park and this space in specific had quite the calm atmosphere with stone benches and vending machines on the sides.

“And the snack I wanted wasn’t restocked yet.”

It was akin to the habit of opening the fridge at every opportunity that caused him to check this one machine whenever he stepped outside.

After checking the vending machine he went down another flight of stairs and walked along the wall towards the entrance gate, there were two gates and between them was a guard post with dark glass windows.

“It’s empty again.”

He walked down the steps and approached the sensor next to the right gate with his keychain to open it, it was at the same time as another resident tried to get in so he just let them pass before closing the gate.

Stepping out into the street, he made his way across the striped white lines, and upon reaching the far side proceeded to pass 4 closed shops before arriving at his destination.

The shop he went into had several furnitures lined up, wooden tables carved with flower adornments and dark wood chairs of several sizes, right next to the entrance and with price tags.

The reception desk by the east side resembled the bedside drawer he has in his room but a bit larger. And there was also the noise of wood being cut by some loud machine coming from above.

“I will grab two bottles just in case.”

When he arrived on the west side of the building, the scenery of several rows of wood was substituted by four tables with three kinds of snacks on each. At one side were fridges with many bottles of different drinks, and on the other were shelves with several brands of chips.

He walked to the cashier with the bottles of soda, one lemon flavored and one guarana. After paying with his card, he'd take the bottles in a bag and leave the shop.

“Oh, didn't even see when u got back.”

When he got back to the entrance gate, a disturbing presence was flicking on her phone right in front of it. It dawned on him very quickly that...

‘And there goes my quiet time.’

Chapter 2: A Short-Lived Peace.