“John? John Frost.”

I was a little shaken as I woke up. Laughter went around in the classroom. The teacher stared at me from the chalkboard. I wiped the drool from my mouth and looked up.

“Pay attention, John. All of this is going to be on the test.”

He tapped the chalk onto the board. There was a long line of text with bullet points. There was a huge list of numbers, which I assumed were years, and details that were associated with them. I then remembered I was sitting in history class.

I was in the middle of deep thoughts about Strife of Celestials. I admit I was a bit obsessed with the game. It was a shame that the game released on a Sunday. Who released a game on a Sunday? Most kids have school! There was a notable amount of absences in some of my classes. I could tell they stayed home to play the game of the century. There was no way I could pay attention in class. My mind was going to be filled about what I wanted to do in the game.

I remembered waking up this morning to finding out that there was a patch to the game. I was glad to find out that there was a reason for the game’s maintenance last night. There were a number of changes which were mainly bug fixes. Some were just simple ones such as graphical bugs and fixes to the user interface. What caught my eye was the one where they fixed the experience bar. I was so excited that morning that I immediately went back into the game. I turned on my VR system and loaded the game. Then I opened my character menu just to be disappointed. They just fixed bugs with the experience bar. Why did it only say that it was 3950 out of 100 experience points!? What? I should have leveled up by now! I started slaying skeletons at Astor Manor but all it did was increase the experience points even further.

I went to school this morning disappointed. But that didn’t drive me away from my desire to play the game even with my circumstances. I tried my best to pay attention in class but all I could think of was what I was going to do once I get online again. There were many problems I had to deal with. So I laid them out in my head.

First off, I couldn’t raise my level. So by default, I couldn’t equip weapons or armor that boosted my stats. Other aspects such as sword techniques were also nonexistent for me. What I can do was mimic sword techniques. The ones early one were easy to replicate. I was just worried if there were more difficult ones in higher levels. I know that there’s a PVP feature in the game. If I ever get involved in a conflict with others later on in the game, they would have access to complicated sword techniques that would be difficult to master on my own. Plus their stats advantage, that would an almost impossible fight. At some point, I’d just die in one hit.

This game wasn’t a typical MMO. There are no skills that I had to learn to simply attack my enemies. I could just swing my sword to deal damage to my opponents. A light tap doesn’t register contact but a normal swing does. The force of the swing doesn’t affect the damage but it affects how fast I could attack. Blindly swinging my sword doesn’t mean it was effective. Each swing needs to be swift and ready for the next attack. So if I learn how to fight properly, I could overcome the barrier of levels and stats. There was also a question of unarmed combat. I wasn’t sure if that worked. Maybe I’ll find out later.

I feel like my movement was inefficient in the game. Was it because I wasn’t used to a more healthy body? I was a bit out of shape in real life. I’m neither too skinny nor chubby. Would that matter at all? I never had to play an action intensive VR game before. Maybe it was time I started exercising. It does affect the mind too. Maybe I should start walking to school instead of taking the bus? Or maybe I should invest in a bike. I should rethink how I deal with my lifestyle without wasting too much time.

So how do I learn how to fight? It’s not like I could just join some club that taught about how to use a sword, right? Where would they be? Would they even know how to fight properly? There are some VR games that specialized in replicating sword fights. They don’t actually teach you though. I didn’t want to waste any time. If joining some association or playing some VR game about sword fighting, then the less time I’m actually spending playing the game. But if do spend some time outside of the game, I can work on my physical health and learn how to fight properly. Those were the tradeoffs.

There wasn’t much in this small town. Maybe there was something in another city. Going to the nearby city would be a waste of time. I rather spend my weekends grinding out the game. Not that there’s much to grind actually.

If there’s a club in this school then that would minimize the need for travel time. But what kind of club would help with his sword fighting? I was a bit frustrated as I couldn’t find out since classes were still ongoing.

In between classes, I looked up information on my phone. There were some people who still practiced sword fighting in this day and age. They were all hobbyists who liked to learn and master the use of the sword. Some even used swords as a sport. Although they were not that well known. Except for fencing as it was an Olympic sport after all. I saved a few videos to watch later. I could practice when I get home.

Magic was another aspect. All I know so far was a simple fire magic where I throw a fireball. I could learn more magic at dungeons but I would need to actually complete one first. Magic by itself was pretty weak. Maybe as I close my distance, I could cast a fireball during the travel time. That made sense. There weren’t many options in this case so I should shelve plans about magic for now.

What else was there? There was so much to learn about the game since it just came out a day ago. The company running the game barely gave out information about the game. How was I supposed to know what other aspects of the game I can use to my advantage?

Frustrated with these obstacles, I almost started screaming in class. But instead, I just got weird looks from my classmates. At the end of the day, I was really eager to go home.

“Hey, John. What’s up?”

I asked my classmate Ryan if I could ask him a question. We were locker neighbors so we would naturally meet at the end of the school day. He had this unnaturally small backpack. I always wondered how he fit all of his books in there. There was also his slicked back hair that always bothered me. It had too much oil applied which reflected the light above us. The brightness would often blind me at times.

“Do you know any good clubs here at school?”

“There’s plenty of popular ones here. Like basketball.”

“I was thinking more like… sword fighting.”

Ryan just laughed. “I see you’re also playing Strife of Celestials.”

“Yeah. Just trying to kill time I suppose.” I could only nervously laugh along with him.

“You never change. Always finding an edge. You still haven’t returned that guidebook you know.”

“Hey, I haven’t played Duty Calls in years. How was I supposed to remember that?”

Ryan laughed.

“Well, no one even knows about this, but we have a fencing club.”

“W-what? I didn’t know that.”

“We’re a small club, so we’re always under the radar. Even with the increased interest from Strife of Celestials. I’m not sure that there were players of the game in this school.”

“We? That must mean that you’re in the fencing club.”

“Yeah, we don’t have many members.” Ryan chuckled. “But we participate in the fencing association at the city. So we have plenty of people to practice with. We also participate in matches. Although we’re not required to go. Say, are you interested?”

I thought to myself. Was it worth spending time at a club? I could easily just go home and play the game. But I thought about it more. If people I play with, like Buster, didn’t go online until much later, I’d be spending time by myself in-game. There were pros and cons to practicing in-game or in real life. I would be on my own either way. In the game, I could get used to the VR space as I work with my movement. In real life, I could work on my physical being and learn a real skill in learning how to properly fight with a sword. It would beat learning how to fight from just videos from the internet.

“I’ll think about it, Ryan.”

“Sure thing John. Just come by anytime.”

Ryan plays Strife of Celestials and was in the fencing club? He would be a formidable foe. The thought of having a level advantage along with the skill irritated me.

I closed my locker as I finished packing my stuff. Thankfully there wasn’t much homework to do. But there was a test I had to worry about.

Packs of students strolled through the halls. Some struggled to get to their lockers. I barely squeezed through the groups of students standing by as they talked along with their classmates. They should just take their conversation outside. The halls were limited space, you know.

The autumn winds were blowing as soon as I went outside. There were leaves all over the school grounds. I’m pretty sure the school gave up trying to clean up the leaves until all of the trees were bare. I enjoyed the cool autumn breeze until someone called out to me from behind.

“Hey, where have you been? Did you think you could simply avoid me?”

It was a familiar voice that belonged to an old friend of mine. Her ponytail swayed as she hopped over to me. She had her shirt untucked that went over her short skirt. It was against the uniform rules but I’m sure she didn’t care. Her book bag was over one shoulder and had various accessories. Pins, stickers, and patches all over the side of the bookbag. There were bracelets, necklaces, and rings all over her. I didn’t really like her style but she can be fun to be around.

Although she was right, I was avoiding her. I did that sometimes but this time was for a different reason. I didn’t want to waste time speaking to her when I could be going home to play Strife of Celestials.

“Hey, Nora.” I laughed nervously. I looked away and had my feet pointing away from her. I was trying to subtly tell her that I didn’t want to talk, but she would ignore that message anyway.

“John.” Nora had a furious look.

“You see, I had to go home early since I have errands and…”

“I know you just want to play some stupid game. Why deal with that virtual crap instead of hanging out with me? Like, we haven’t hung out in ages.”

I sighed. She was going to nag me anyways. I haven’t been spending time with her for a while. I had to think of a way to get rid of her and fast. I’m wasting daylight here. I wanted to play really bad.

“You see, there’s this new game that came out. I’ve been so busy with it that I forgot about you today.”

Nora just smacked me over the head. I shouldn’t have said that.

“Strike of Celery, was it? I heard about that game.”

“It’s Strife of Celestials.”

“Yeah, that one. I don’t understand what the fuss is all about. It’s just a game, right?”

“It just happens to be the first MMO in VR. No big deal,” I said sarcastically.

“Jeez, all those acronyms.I’m tired of these MMOs. Now that there’s this whole new VR craze, your addiction would surely get worse.” She laughed.

“Oh come on. It’s really good. You should try it,” I suggested.

Nora pondered. She looked up with her hand on her chin.

“I’ll think about it. I’d have to borrow my brother’s Paramount VR System.”

“We call it PVR.”

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever.” Nora waved her hands.

“When do you think you can play?”

“Probably tomorrow. Just don’t play too much with me. Got it?”

“No promises. You probably wouldn’t be too far behind.”

“Why so?”

“The character I play is currently bugged.”

“What’s that mean?”

I sighed. “It means something broke in the game. I can’t level up past level one.”

Nora had a confused look.

“And that means…?”

“That means I can’t gain more stats. Which means that my health and my damage won’t increase as monsters increase in health and damage. Is that simple enough.”

“That’s all you had to say. Jeez. Well, I’ll see you later then.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

We went our separate ways.