A pair of hands caught him before he hit the ground.

Opening his eyes, the boy looked at this savour.

“As I said, lad, you should return home,” the officer looked at the boy in concern and spoke.

He paused at the officer’s face for a while before,

“Thank you. However, I must continue.”

He gave a respectfully thank you before returning to training, dismissing his bleeding hands.

***

“Huh!” Alexander violently woke up from the memory infusion.

He turned his head to the side, releasing his stomach content. Whilst easing his headache with one hand, his other hand moved around to find the ground. Yet it only met air until it came in contact with rusted metal.

Alexander glanced his head up. A skull full of scars and fiery blue eyes greeted him. Spooked, Alexander jumped, falling straight to the ground.

The skeleton stared at him blankly before saying, “New recruit … should … be careful.”

After delivering the same monotonous sentence, the skeleton moved away, not letting Alexander bid his thanks.

***

This headache was much worse than before, leaving Alexander immobile on the ground. Turning his head to the side, Alexander saw his Shortsword laid but a few metres away whilst his golden chain had already retracted back into his arm.

Chibi Cillian hovered over.

“How did it go?” He asked with a joking look.

“Terrible!” Still holding his head, Alexander disappointingly replied.

“Hehehe!” Chibi Cillian broke in a laugh.

He glided towards Alexander's shoulder and gave him a tap.

“Cheer up, kiddo! This trial was not designed to finish in a day!”

“What do you mean? I need to attend Cillian’s funeral in a few days. Must I stay in the game until I complete all the tutorial quests?” Confused, Alexander queried a series of questions.

“Huh? I guessed the drop impacted your thinking capabilities more than I had expected. No one said you have to be in the game the entire time.”

Alexander rolled his eyes as he complained, “You never explained anything, so I just assumed. After all, it is not my fault that you never explain things properly.”

“If you want to log out, just say ‘Menu’, and the in-game menu will appear. I thought a long time gamer like you would already know this.”

Not wanting to deal with Chibi Cillian’s sarcastic remarks anymore, Alexander commanded, “Menu!”

True to his words, a menu appeared along with the Log Out function. As Alexander stared at the menu, Chibi Cillian spoke once more.

“The time flow of the game world and outside world is different. A ratio different of 1:10 to be exact.”

Glancing at Alexander, “If you are tired and have nothing to do in real life, I recommend you find a place to rest in-game. Influenced by the modified time flow of the game, your real-world resting time will also be reduced.”

Speaking of rest, today was a long day for Alexander. A lot had happened. Mostly bad things.

For the past hours, he tried to distract himself with the game whilst his body had been running on fumes.

“What about food?”

“The pod is equipped with the latest health monitor. When it detects hunger, it will inject your body with nutrients.”

“But where do those nutrients come from?” Knowing his brother’s questionable ethics, Alexander must ask.

“From our latest Eliot Nutrient products, of course. They will be released alongside the Deep-Vr Pod. They came in many different classical flavours like strawberry, mango, energy drinks, etc. Hell! We even have ice-cream flavour,” Chibi Cillian gave Alexander a quick business-like presentation.

“Our premium clients can also request specific flavouring. We are also testing regional variants to infiltrate foreign markets. Like our halal variant for the UAE, or American Burger variant for the United States.”

Hearing Chibi Cillian speak, Alexander rolled his eyes. He had expected this from his brother.

“We are also using athletes to advertise Eliot Nutrient as an alternative healthier and quicker meal.”

Alexander highly doubted that his brother’s products were healthy.

Seeing his twisted face, Chibi Cillian admitted, “I mean, in essence, they are just flavoured compressed curated bio-mass. It is all about how we spin the marketing narrative. For people like you, however, our products do contain all the required nutrients and vitamins to support a functional body.”

Alexander’s face twisted even more.

“Would you like to try one?” Chibi Cillian laughed as he summoned a smoothie-like drink in front of Alexander.

“Although users can’t taste the delicious flavour if used in conjunction with the pods, our in-game store does provide these items as alternative regenerative and food products. They taste exactly like their real-life counterparts.”

Alexander grabbed the smoothie but didn’t immediately drink it. He smelled and inspected it first.

“Don’t worry. I offered our best product for you. It’s mango flavour too. Your favourite.”

However, as his stomach grumbled, Alexander reluctantly took a sip.

His mind was instantly blown away. Delicious juicy mango flavour danced in his mouth. Drinking it was like drinking the nectar of the gods.

*Slurp* *Slurp*

Alexander couldn’t stop slurping down the delicious content.

Seeing that he had successfully made a sale pitch, Chibi Cillian drove the point home, “You are currently consuming our top of the line product, the Deluxe series. It’s on sale right now in-game. You can get 50 at only £110.99.”

Still enthralled by the drink, Alexander instantly purchased a batch.

“Thank you for purchasing with us. Your drinks will be accessible within the Store Inventory.”

***

After finishing two more cups, a full Alexander sprawled flat on the ground.

“Why do I feel full? Like you know, IRL full.”

“Ah! Whenever you consume food in-game, the pod automatically injects you with a small amount of nutrients. We do this to simulate the consumption effects. The function can be turned off within the Settings.”

Laying there, Alexander looked up at the wall and sighed. He was still a long way out. The top was still far out for him.

“I recommend that you find someplace to rest for the night and try again tomorrow!”

Agreed, Alexander dragged his body up. He walked back to the fortress.