Yawn

I could never get enough of this game, it feels way more realistic and dreamy than the real world.

That was the first thought I had after waking up in the game. I felt totally refreshed and my body felt like it was filled with vitality.

‘Let’s start the day.’

I looked at the time, it was displayed in the right corner above my head, both in-game time and real-world time.

[13:02 GMT -6]

[07:12 Mayhem time] [24 hour format]

It had just been 5-6 hours since I entered the game, and half a day and a night had already passed.

Without wasting any time, I went out of my room and walked down to the restaurant owned by the inn. According to the inn’s paying system, I had already paid for the one-time meal, since I had skipped dinner, it would be breakfast for me right now.

Walking to the pretty lady with a scarf tied to her head, I ordered my food. It was self-service since a lot of people came in and out of this place. I got 2 pieces of bread and a glass of boiled milk with added sugar, I was more than happy to take it of course.

Due to my circumstances in the real world, eating luxury food was never an option for me, and hence, I was used to all the normal day to day meals.

Sitting on a side of one of the round tables scattered inside the inn, I started eating the bread and gulping down the milk together with it. For some reason, the milk felt extremely rich.

Maybe it was toned milk?

Thinking about various absurd things totally unrelated to me, I slowly enjoyed my breakfast.

Since I hadn’t eaten anything for the whole day yesterday, my hunger gauge was at rock bottom. Eating high-quality food would fill the hunger gauge and keep one's stamina up for quite some time.

“Did you hear about the Orcs of the southern tribe? I heard some of them had invaded the Malta forest.”

“They sure have grown some guts. Although there have always been many differences between the humans and the orcs, none of them had ever invaded each other's territory due to the Empire of Kashan’s law. Do the orcs really think they’re enough to subdue an empire?”

“That’s just funny thinking, haha. I heard it’s more of an agreed visit than an invasion. Apparently, the orc prince has a crush on the daughter of the Duke of the Sahhan Empire. The princess is currently sick due to some type of poison, and the prince had come looking for materials to make the antidote.”

“Huh, what does any of that have anything to do with the king of Crisedia? Why would he help some orc prince impress his crush?”

“You’re not understanding the deeper scheme here. Our normal populace can only make guesses, but I am sure there is something in for the king too. Why else would he, the king of a country, agree to something like this otherwise.”

“Well, whatever you say. Oh, by the way, did you hear about the new girl at the Vasquez brothel…”

I finally withdrew my ears which had become longer than Pinnochio's nose. The guys who were sitting two tables apart from me had talked about something interesting, unconsciously dragging my ears to their talk.

Even if half of it was a rumour, some of it should be true. After all, there was no fire without some spark.

And if the part about there being the ingredients of an antidote in the Malta forest were true, then I am sure I would be able to get some of them if I go on an ingredient hunt.

‘Wait, did they talk about some orc prince of the western tribe..?’

Unpleasant memories buried deep within my head started to resurface as a giant Ocr’s face was carved within my mind.

‘Don’t tell me it’s Zultan!’

Deep fear and anger were planted on my face, remembering that one incident that made me fear the orcs of the southern tribe.

‘No, let’s think positively! It might not necessarily be Zultan. And even if it’s him, what are the chances of him running into me? Ha…haha yes! Positivity is the key.’

“Who the fuck was it that told me to be positive? I’ll murder that son of a goblin! I am ruined! Ruined!”

As I was chanting the verses of the positive mantra, a beggar like a man entered the inn. His condition was so poor that even pigs would pity him, his eyes and whole body were swollen from apparent beating and his clothes were so tattered that even bikini models would have more clothing than him.

Streams of tears, snot and all different kinds of liquids flowed out through his face and his face had an indignant look as if the world had colluded together and betrayed him.

The bulky guards of the inn instantly threw out the troublemaker, but he kept shouting and crying even outside the inn. After some time, everyone got to know that this man was a famous merchant of Azler town.

He liked some girl and wanted to make a good impression on her. Someone from this inn told him to be positive about everything the world had to offer when they saw him drinking alone and sulking.

The next day, the merchant happily proposed to the girl, the girl first hesitated then asked him for some conditions. One of the conditions was to transfer every bit of his assets after marriage to his wife. He readily agreed, being positive that this girl loves him and there shouldn’t be a problem with her owning everything when they’re married.

As soon as the merchant transferred all the assets, the girl ordered the guards to beat him up and then some lover of hers popped around, beating the merchant more. By the time the merchant realised his mistake, he had already lost everything.

After hearing his story, everyone sympathised with him and started cursing the demon who suggested taking everything positively.

Sweat trickled down from my forehead as I sneakily left the crowd gathered around the merchant without making the slightest sound. I didn’t even bother to pick up whatever was left of the bread and milk, instead, I just ran as fast as I could.

‘How the hell was I supposed to know that something like this was going to happen?’

I cursed myself in my head as I reached the other side of the town, the positivity in me diminishing with every passing second.

‘Positivity is not the key for god’s sake!’

I firmed myself on the inside as I started walking towards the city gate.

The smell of flowers hit my nose as the breathtaking view of the flower field just outside the city came into my view.

Mayhem Online was set in a mediaeval period, with fantasy elements as its main core. I had done quite an amount of research even before I started the game, after all, my mom was going to take out a loan so I could play it. I couldn’t half-assedly just play like any casual player.

My main goal behind playing Mayhem was to earn. But, till now, I was on a different path. A path that seemed like a shortcut, but instead was longer than the usual route, without any gains. I had wasted months of game time searching for a fortune, instead of levelling up and earning like other players by involving myself in this world’s story.

The town of Azler was a part of Marquis Kwant’s territory. According to the game’s settings, it was possible to locate antique cars and such, powered solely on magic stones.

But since the town of Azler was way out of the royal capital, you could barely see horse carriages here. Heck, the royal capital even had magic trains! How wonderful would it be to sit on such a train? But to my misfortune, I had never gone to the royal capital.

Heck, ever since I started the game, I have only travelled to the southern parts of the Crisedia kingdom. Exploring ruins and mountains, paying no heed to the game's story or the amazing things it had to offer.

I suddenly felt like such a frog in the well.

Walking to one of the horse carriages, I asked the old coachman.

“Which is the closest town to Malta forest? How much would a ride there cost?”

Walking to the Malta forest would be suicide and walking without any kind of information would be bigger suicide. And hence, I had decided to stop by the closest town to the Malta forest. Ther, I can go and get information regarding the antidote. Since the ingredients were available in the Malta forest, surely, the recipe should be present in the town near it, right?

The coachman gave me a weird look and then coughed.

“There’s no town, the Malta forest is just outside the royal capital. It’ll take a week’s time to reach there on foot, and a day and a half on my carriage.”

His word’s halted for a moment as he gave me an appraising glance, then said.

“It normally costs 10 gold for the trip, I will give you a two gold coin discount. So you can get to the royal capital of Crisedia for just 8 gold.”

It seemed like he wanted to add a sentence in the end but ate it up. That sentence should have been ‘Clearly not a scam’.

“5 gold, not negotiable.”

I said in a voice where it seemed like nothing could convince me otherwise.

“Deal.”

The coachman smiled to his ears. It didn’t even take him a moment’s hesitation before he agreed to the negotiation. I suddenly felt like I had been duped even with the negotiations, but I could just suck it up now.

It wasn’t my fault that I didn’t know the rates, after all, I’ve never travelled such a long distance in the game at once.

At this point, I just hoped that I could reach the royal capital quickly.