Chapter 11

Once Cain reached the outskirts of the village, he decided to train his trapping in the fields whilst he figured out what to do next. He knew he could go in and pay the blacksmith with some of the loot he acquired from the shrine, but he just couldn’t justify it. The quests from this village where too easy for him and wouldn’t provide him with enough experience to stick around, all he needed was to find someone to show him the way to the next village. The problem was all the players in this zone were new and had no idea themselves, and most NPCs were farmers with no knowledge outside of their farms. There was only one option left, one that Cain wasn’t too excited to use.

| Whisper Marowit: Hey Marowit, where are you? I’m stuck back in the first village… |

| Marowit: Hey mate! Was wondering when I was going to hear from you! I’m a few miles out of the capital of Galekor. The villagers tried to make me take a caravan there, what a bunch of wimps, I’ve spent the last few days fighting my way here!|

| Whisper Marowit: Where do I find this caravan? |

| Marowit: Just north of town, the bloke running it is an absolute scammer, he asked for 20 silver pieces for the journey! |

Cain didn’t waste time replying and started collecting the traps he’d laid. He managed to catch a single rabbit providing a little trapping experience as well as some meat to cook! He walked around the outskirts of the village, making sure to stay clear of any guards just in case they attacked, until he finally reached a farm with a single hut yet tens of mules and various styled carriages. He approached the hut and found a few men playing cards inside.

“Can I get a ride to the capital of Galekor?”

“Of course, how would you like to ride?”

“What do you mean?”

“We each offer a different service. I can get you there in style and comfort; my cart has a full sized bed and is accompanied by three armed guards, though the journey will take four hours. Jimmy has a faster cart, though it only carries a few hay bales in the back to lie down on. Finally you can choose to travel with Todd, his cart is the fastest and will get you there in an hour, though you won’t have an option to lie down and rest.”

“I don’t care for anything fancy, I’ll ride in whichever cart is the cheapest.”

Jimmy stood up.

“That’ll be mine, 30 silver and we’ll get going. Estimated journey time should be only two hours if we don’t hit any bandits.”

“30 silver?! I’ll give you 10 and guarantee no bandits attack us!”

“Now how are you going to do that boy?”

“I know the bandits of the forest and they’ll do as I say.”

“50 silver.”

“What?”

“50 Silver for the ride. Those bandit friends of yours have ruined majority of my business! You have to cover the costs.”

Whatever I say to these people just makes the situation worse, is it because of my negative favour in the area?

“40. That’s my final offer.”

“Deal.”

Cain searched his pack only to realise that he didn’t have any coins, but only the loot he’d taken from the shrine. He picked out the smallest gold ring and handed it over to Jimmy.

“Will this do?”

Jimmy tried to hide his happiness but failed miserably. He was physically shaking and he accepted the ring. Cain suddenly realised he’d overpaid but didn’t want to make the situation any worse; he decided to stay quiet and hopped onto the hay bales in the back of the rough cart.

I need to sell this loot; I can’t waste it on simple things like this!

As the cart started to move, he laid down on the bales and after a few minutes a message appeared.

AFK MODE INITIATING: 10, 9, 8, …

Cain watched as the timer ticked down to zero.

***

Cain awoke in the real world. The lights were on. It was daytime. This time the headgear showed a two-hour countdown timer with a message above saying “AFK MODE ACTIVATED” following by “EQUIP HEADSET TO CANCEL TIMER AND BE IMMERSED AGAIN.”

So if I put the headset back on I’ll go straight back into the back of the cart? This must be so people can do real world activities while they travel or rest in game! I better use this time productively. Cain checked the kitchen area of his room and noticed that his bread has been replaced; he must have been out for nearly the full sixteen hours. He decided to have a longer break than usual four hours and use the time to research the game before getting some rest.

Cain spent two hours reading the guide back to front, as well as all 354 questions twice over. He wanted to be prepared for level 10, as well as efficient as possible when training and learning new skills. He only had 3 days left until he parted with the headset and started getting anxious, he didn’t know how to live without the game anymore, to return to normal life would be the end of him. Now that he had experienced what excitement and motivation was there was no way he could go back to watching mould drip from his ceiling for hours on end.

To clear his mind of all the bad thoughts of losing the game so soon, he decided to think over all the information he had just read to build an in game plan.

The guide said the game has only been released to the public for three months, so that means I can’t be too far behind the top players, and it also mentioned that there are hundreds of millions of players across the globe. Surely there can’t be that many corporates in this world? How many those players are just like me? Maybe I can buy myself some proper headgear with in-game gold, if people can do it in the real world by entertaining the corporates, I should be able to do it in game! But if I’m going to pay a corporate in game gold to keep my headgear, then I’ll have to find a good money making method…

After a while of thinking he was tired and eager to be immersed into the game again, as he got up he looked down at his body only to see the dirty clothes that he’d been wearing since he first got the package. He realised that he had been so focused on the game that he hadn’t even washed since he started playing. He decided to take the time to clean himself before getting a good nights rest. When he finally awoke the lights were dimmed, he must have been out for a while and Marowit was probably waiting for him in the next town.

***

Cain sat up in a pile of hay dumped outside a similar hut to the one where he first arranged his travel to the capital. He was focused on brushing the hay off himself until he looked up and noticed the scenery. He was standing atop a small hill overlooking the plains that consisted of farms of every kind reaching out near the horizon where he noticed a darkish area that he assumed must have been the forest he had spend the past few days in. He turned around already overwhelmed by the vastness of this settlement only to be confronted by hundred foot high perfectly carved stone walls that stretched on for miles, he noticed one side reached a shore but was somehow constructed out into the ocean, and in the opposite direction the walls curved out of view.

Not even a corporate could afford a place like this in my world. Whatever is inside there, it is easily a hundred or more times bigger than all the restricted and unrestricted zones I’ve explored.

Whilst Cain was marvelling at the sight before him, he realised why he was here.

I need to meet up with Marowit and start making money!

| Whisper Marowit: I’m where, where are you?|

| Marowit: I thought you must have died in the real world mate! I’ve been waiting here for over eight hours; I even took my sixteen out break! |

| Whisper Marowit: Sorry, I had things to do, where can I meet you? |

| Marowit: I’m on the curb of the Outer Ring Inn, it’s easy to find. Come and meet me here, I’m in a little trouble… |

Cain pulled his cloak on tight hoping it would hide his negative favour from the guards like it had in the small village. Once inside he asked the first person to direct him towards the inn and they simply pointed in the right direction before quickly moving along. The inside of the wall was completely different to what Cain had expected. He thought that he would see unbelievable riches and everything he had heard about how the corporates lived, but what he saw was the opposite. The place was a slum, it was dirty and packed with thousands of people buying and selling items and carting items from one small hut to an odd stall. The buildings were cramped and full, all hastily build and he had no idea how most of them were still standing. It was painful for Cain to see, he realised that the game world was no more perfect that his life and that there was always going to be people living at the bottom of the hierarchy, even if they were just NPCs.

He finally found Marowit sulking on the front steps of the pub being watched over by a man close to ten-feet tall. The giant made Marowit look like a field mouse! The guidebook had mentioned other playable and NPCs races but the only ones he expected to see were those of the squirrel kingdom!

Cain approached Marowit, the giant watched him but made no movement to send Cain on his way.

“What happened to you?”

“I thought you would have gotten here a bit sooner, and you know how you owed me 6 silver? Well I racked up quite the tab here hoping you would pay… but you never came…”

“How much?”

“How much what?”

“How much is your tab…”

“1 gold…”

“WHAT?!!! How is that even possible?”

“I was enjoying a few beers, and then the most beautiful elf and her friends approached me and asked me to buy her a drink, and I wasn’t going to say no. I even offered to buy them all drinks, so when you arrived we could have one each! But then as the night went on and you never arrived, we decided to leave and find a nicer place to stay if you know what I mean…. That’s when this punk grabbed me and tried to make me pay up!”

The giant made a grunt at Marowit, he had obviously had to deal with him before and didn’t want to make a scene in front of the pub again. Marowit calmed slightly.

“so you’re saying, you spent 1 gold on a group of elves trying to get lucky, even though you knew you had no coins and I only owed you 6 silver?”

“Well, I thought if I got you an elf as well you wouldn’t mind paying the extra… They were real lookers….”

“Wait here, I’ll be back In a minute.”

Cain walked back to one of the merchants he saw earlier strolling around with gold chains and rings. He approached the merchant and offered to sell the cheapest looking ring he could find in his pack.

“How much for this?”

The merchant flicked the ring through his fingers and expected it closely.

“It’s a fine piece of jewellery you have here, but the enchantment on it is weak, I can offer you 80 silver max!”

Enchantment? The guidebook mentioned that jewellery could be enchanted but I didn’t realise you could loot it like that!

Cain was expecting to be offered much less than the ring was worth, if this was anything like the real world then he new how the black market worked, but the enchantment was news to him, maybe he could push the price even higher!

“3 gold!”

“I’d be out of business buying at that price! I’ll only get 2 gold for it myself when I sell it, 1 gold 20 silver, final offer.”

“1 gold 50 silver.”

“Ok, but only because you’re new around here. Remember me when you find more!”

Cain took his new coins back to Marowit and threw him the 50 silver.

“This is all I could get, you’ll have to find another way to earn that other 50. Send me a message when you do.”

“W-W-Wait Cain!”

Before Marowit could finish his plea, Cain had already disappeared into the crowd of people. He couldn’t waste his time or money, he had to keep his headgear.