Leonard’s POV:

It’s already been 7 days since John entered the game, and I can’t help but feel extremely stupid. In my excitement, I completely forgot to tell him ANYTHING about how to play the game! I don’t know why I assumed he would be just like everyone else and be able to figure everything out easily… Yeah I know… Stupid me!

Time passes by 4 times quicker in our game, so 7 days means 28 days during which John has been inside the game. Yes, 28 days straight he has stayed inside the game! Why? Because I don’t think he even knows how to logout!!

He doesn’t know anything at all about the game, and what did I do? Pushed him into the game without even batting an eye! Yup… Stupid me!

I realized he didn’t know anything about the game too late. It had been about 27 real-world hours since John entered the game when we started to get worried about why he hadn’t logged out yet. Unlike other players who would log out and return to the real world, John would come into the specially designed room where me and Dr. Richard first met John. But does John know this… nope! I know... I know… *sigh*

By the time John had been inside for 30 straight hours I couldn’t help but worry what he was doing so I started digging around his account logs to see what he had been up to. The logs showed basically everything apart from the video of the game being played, and John’s account logs were surprising to say the least.

They showed that he gained 2 stamina points just a few minutes after starting the game. Then he started his first quest, a simple quest in which all he had to do was help a woman carry her bag to her house and he gained a point in strength during the quest, perhaps by carrying the bag? But after the quest ended was when things started to get weird.

Instead of going forward with the game, John stayed in the same place the quest ended for a long time, only venturing out a few times during the day then quickly returning back to the old lady’s house. This was weird enough, why would anyone want to stay so near the starting point?

But that wasn’t all! As he stayed near the old woman’s house, he started gaining stats like crazy! First he gained many points in intelligence, followed by a few in wisdom. He then went on to start gaining stat points in dexterity, strength, stamina and also had a small gain in luck! He also managed to create a new stat: charm!

To top off all the weirdness, he started gaining skills rapidly! Fast reader, quick learner, wood cutting proficiency, herb-gathering, bow-mastery, Axe-mastery, cooking and tailoring. And he was still at level one!!! Just what is he doing?!?

Unable to make sense of anything, I gave in to my curiosity and opened up the video logs of his account and started off from the start. It showed how he ran about while laughing his head off in the field as soon as he started. With a smile I thought, ‘well at least I did one thing right by starting him off on the other side of the village away from all other beta players. Otherwise they would have definitely made fun of him…’

John then stopped running and met the old lady soon after, finished the quest but then he went inside the old lady’s house and didn’t come out for a long time! I re-winded back to just before John finished his quest and enabled the sound, and I heard how John if the old lady could teach him how to read…

Oh my God! What have I done?? I sent John into the game when he didn’t even know how to read?!

After I realized what I had done, I immediately stopped the video logs and made a decision. As soon as the Beta test is over and John comes out of the game, I will personally see to it that he can get any information he wants when he wants it!

It’s already been 28 game days since the beta test started, and it was only scheduled to run for 30 days in-game. It’s not long before John will be forced to logout, and I will be waiting for him in his virtual room to answer any and all questions that he may have!

I just hope that the third floor nurses don’t find out about how I sent John in without him knowing anything… Because if they find out… *shudder*... Let’s not think about that…

I asked my secretary to not disturb me at all while I put on the custom headset and waited with my eyes on the clock. As soon as there are 10 minutes remaining in the beta test, I will start my headset and wait for John to come!

John’s POV:

I know how to read now!

Not just that, I can now do so many other things too!

It’s been almost a month since I asked Miss Margaret to teach me, and she has been so kind to me all this time… It’s like she isn’t an actual human being! Or maybe she is just a rare nice human….? I don’t know…

Anyways, she started to teach me how to read and it was so difficult! I really had to work so hard at the beginning, but I never gave up!

Miss Margaret also offered to let me stay at her house while I studied under her. At first I was scared… Maybe she wanted to tie me up and start hurting me while I slept like my parents did…?

I saw the room she offered me and it had a window! First thing I did as soon as Miss Margaret went away was to jump out of the window to see if I could escape through there if there was a need to… And it was a success! With my escape route decided, I agreed to stay in her house, but I always made sure to block the door from the inside with chairs so that if someone opened it during the night I would be able to hear it and jump out and start running….

After staying with Miss Margaret a few days and making little progress with learning how to read, I started feeling bad that I was taking so long. It was also bad that she had to keep feeding me and providing me with a place to stay while I did nothing for her.

I made a decision and asked her if there was anything at all that I could do to help her around the house. With a smile she asked me if I could bring in water from the well outside and of course I agreed! I brought a bucket full of water back from the well… It was so heavy!

Then she asked me if I could dust up and clean the house a bit, and I was very happy to help her for a change! After a few hours of cleaning and scrubbing though I was regretting it, my arms were sore all over! But then she made me a nice warm soup and it was so delicious that all the pain in my arms seemed to vanish!

During the next few days I helped her with everything I could and I found out how multi-talented Miss Margaret really is! She knows how to read, how to cook, how to gather herbs, how to make clothes, how to clean clothes, how to collect firewood and she could use a bow to hunt animals! It was like she was super-woman!!

I begged her to teach me everything else too apart from reading, and after some convincing she gave in. Yayyy!

I learned so much it was amazing! At first, it was really difficult for me to understand, but I noticed there was a DING! sound somewhere and after that sound it became really easy for me to learn everything!

I still ignored the tiny blue squares that kept flashing in the corner of my vision because I couldn’t read yet. I just concentrated on learning everything I could!

Over the next few days, I used to get up early in the morning, get water from the well and collect firewood which I had to then chop up into little pieces with an axe that Miss Margaret gave to me. Then I helped a little with Miss Margaret in cooking breakfast, after which was the morning reading session. After a couple hours of reading, me and Miss Margaret would go outside where she would teach me archery. I didn’t like hurting the little bunnies or the squirrels, so I only practiced on wooden targets.

After archery lessons, we would go gather up some herbs to use in cooking. Miss Margaret taught me which herbs are supposed to be eaten and which ones are supposed to be avoided. After herbs had been collected we went back to the house where I helped her make lunch. After lunch, she usually took a nap while I tried to read some more.

When she woke up from her nap, she would help me some more with my reading till dinner time. I again helped her with the cooking and after we had eaten, she would teach me how to sew clothes. She even made me a couple of shirts and new pants to wear! It was the first time I got new clothes in my life!

This was my daily routine and I got better and better with everything, especially reading! I can now read fast and can even understand most of the big, difficult words!

Today, after almost a month of learning so much, I am sitting on my bed excitedly. It’s night-time, and I have decided to finally open up all the blue squares and see what they mean, because now I will be able to understand them! Holding my breath, I touched the first square…

Congratulations!

Due to constantly understanding new information you have gained a bonus.

+1 Intelligence

Wow! I got more intelligent! And there were many of these squares! I counted and I had gained 39 points of intelligence! I am so smart! Hehe…

I then opened up the next square…

Congratulations!

Due to constantly making smart decisions you have gained a bonus.

+1 Wisdom

Oooh! I am wise too now! This is great! I counted and there were only 6 points I got in Wisdom, not as much as intelligence but it is still good!

I decided to open up all the rest of the windows because I just couldn’t wait anymore!

Congratulations!

Due to constantly pushing your body to the limits you have gained a bonus.

+1 Stamina

Congratulations!

Due to repeatedly doing hard physical work you have gained a bonus.

+1 Strength

Congratulations!

For using your hands to perform different tasks you have gained a bonus.

+1 Dexterity

Congratulations!

Due to finding so many useful things at one place, you have gained a bonus.

+5 Luck

Congratulations!

By managing to convince Margaret to teach you so many different things you have gained a bonus.

New stat: Charm!

+20 Charm

Congratulations!

By constantly reading you have gained a new skill: Fast Reader (Beginner lvl5: 68%)

You will now be able to read books much faster.

Passive

Congratulations!

By always trying to learn new things you have gained a new skill: Quick Learner (Beginner lvl3: 47%)

You will now be able to learn skills and improve them much faster.

Passive

Congratulations!

By repeatedly cutting wood you have gained a new skill: Woodcutting proficiency (Beginner lvl3: 84%)

You will now be able to cut wood faster and with more finesse.

Active

Congratulations!

By constantly using an axe you have gained a new skill: Axe Mastery (Beginner lvl2: 93%)

Using an axe will provide you with a damage increase.

+2% damage when using an axe

Passive

Congratulations!

By using the bow repeatedly you have gained a new skill: Bow Mastery (Beginner lvl1: 98%)

Using a bow will give you more more attack speed and damage.

+0.5% attack speed and +0.5% damage when using a bow.

Passive

Congratulations!

By gathering herbs repeatedly you have gained a new skill: Herb-Gathering (Beginner lvl4: 09%)

You will now be able to tell different types of herbs just by sight.

Active

Congratulations!

By helping to cook meals daily you have gained a new skill: Cooking (Beginner lvl1: 72%)

You can now cook a small variety of dishes with a decent taste.

Active

Congratulations!

By learning how to sew you have gained a new skill: Tailoring (Beginner lvl2: 17%)

You can now make basic clothes out of basic materials.

Active

Wow!

I am completely speechless!

I had to calm down before starting to read the barrage of squares in front of me. I read them one by one and got more and more astonished after each one!

All in all, I gained 27 points in stamina, 19 in strength and 33 in dexterity! I also got 5 luck and 20 charm! I have no idea what most of this means but I do now that I am much stronger now!

I also gained so many skills! And this quick learner skill must have been the reason why it got easier for me to learn new things as time went on…

I really have to thank Miss Margaret for helping me so much during this past month! I hope I can repay her someday…

I have to figure out how all of this will help me in the future as I still don’t understand a lot of it, all I can say is that hard work really does pay off!

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Author's note: Okay, I'm having trouble adding tables here, can anyone help me?

I added this without proof-reading first so please let me know if there are any mistakes.

Thanks for reading! :)