Planting the Yellowdells took up the remainder of her game time, once they were done, she logged out. Stepping out of the pod, she stretched and yawned, it felt good to move around for a bit.

She could hear chatter coming from the kitchen, which meant her family had gathered together for lunch. Natalie hurried downstairs, she didn't want to miss out on a family lunch, her brothers would eat everything not nailed down if she wasn't quick enough to grab some.

Atfer an enjoyable lunch, Natalie moved into the other room with her brothers, she was curious about when they would be joining her in the game. She knew they didn't have as much free time as she did, since they had to balance their extra education with the nightly work tasks and any projects or actions that needed to be done within their chosen fields of professions.

"Anymore ground shaking developments in the game Little Sis?" Asked Brian with a grin plastered on his face. "Or have you just been planting things."

"Well I don't know if it's ground shaking," Natalie replied. "But I did find that every profession in the game has a sanctuary, and that the person you talk to and receive your first from starts the main theme of your sanctuary."

The brothers looked at each other in surprise and then back at Natalie, they hadn't expected she would actually have anymore news so quickly, both feeling that she had just stumbled on a bit of fortune in the game. Now here she was, telling them that there was more to it then first thought. Unaware of her brothers reactions Natalie continued with the rest of what she had uncovered so far about the sanctuary's.

Halfway though this her sister came in and quietly sat down to listen. She watched as her little sister told them everything about the game so far and could see how their brothers were having to hide and backtrack on their assumptions on their little sisters ability to playing the game.

The three older siblings knew that the game was also supposed to be the hardest game to play and work out, nothing could be taken for granted in it. The developers had tryed to make it as random and lifelike as possible with all the pitfalls and achievements you would be likely to receive in real life.

With this new game the developers had also hinted that it would be possible to become an expert in whatever fields of interest in the game you decided to work towards and that it would have a positive outcome on real life options, that it was going to be heavily linked to real life companies and give work opportunities to the people who were, until now considered less then optimal candidates in the society of today.

Chelsea smiled to herself, maybe their little sister would be making something of herself after all she thought. Her brothers were now looking at her in a different light, they had a bit more respect in their attitude as they listened now. Chelsea wonder if she would have been able to do as well as Natalie had, and decided that no she would more then likely be still stumbling around like the countless others already in the game.

None of them had worked out that just simple manners and common sense was needed to work with the NPC's of the game. Natalie's quiet attitude and unassuming nature was becoming her biggest asset in this game.

Natalie sat with her siblings for an hour talking about the game, her brothers would be joining the game tomorrow, and Chelsea who had just made her avatar, would be in the game this afternoon. Though she had picked a different area to spawn in then Natalie had, since she had really liked the elves forested area and wanted to experience it fully.

Jake watched his sister walk upstairs, she had surprised him, he loved his little sister and like the rest of them had worried about her. But he wondered if that worrying was misplaced, could the game be just the thing needed to make her shine?

He hoped so, because with what he had learnt in advanced classes, had made him realise the injustice, that was an acceptable part of life now, was likely to be a bit more of a burden to his sister then she seem to acknowledge.

He thought about the game and everything she had just told him and felt a bit of glee at the advantage this was going to give them over others in game and it was all from his little sister.

He felt a bit of pride surfacing, she hadn't managed to get any achievements or awards in her schooling years, her parents had been waiting for two days he knew for the school to send them. And here she was showing up the other players by already advancing in the game. Jake nodded silently to himself, she will be ok he decided and started to check though the game channels for anymore news on Freedom.

Natalie entered her pod, she wanted to check if Amanda was around. Tomorrow they would be going to the Mall together and Natalie was looking forward to it. Once logged in, she went out the door into the huge lobby that held all the doors for her year mates.

Looking around she couldn't see Amanda anywhere, so she entered back into her space, approaching her work station Natalie could see her message light was highlighted.

"Sam access the message and run it please." She ordered.

"There are two messages Natalie," Sam spoke. "The first is from the main work branch administrator."

"Natalie Clemain, you have been allocated an extra work section, BR470 Charlie, please be sure to check for irregularities in the bot raft assigned to that section. Thank you."

"That was quick," Natalie said. "You only sent the paper work in this morning. Please read the other message Sam."

"This message is from Amanda," Sam said.

"Natalie I will meet you at the Old Oak in the park, Saturday morning, really hope you make it. This is going to be so much fun!"

Natalie smiled, Amanda sounded so excited and she found herself bubbling with excitement too at the thought of tomorrow's outing. She had better check out the new work area now so she wasn't held back from going tomorrow.

"Sam access the new sections raft and start checking them, see if they just need maintenance or if they will have to be replaced like the last lot did." She ordered.

While Sam was doing that Natalie started to code in the instructions that would be need to slave the new sections robot raft to her general orders management system, then she reviewed the stander instructions for that area so she was familiar with what would be needed to keep it functioning at optimal requirements.

She checked the time once they were done, she had about 2 hours before dinner, she decided to log into the game. After setting the alarm to exit her from Freedom 15 minutes before dinner would be served, Natalie ask Sam to log her in.

Once in the game Natalie walked around the garden making sure all her plants were growing well and since none of them were ready for harvest yet maybe it was time to explore a bit more of the surrounding area outside of the sanctuary.

She went to the exit stood for a minute to get her courage up, the other players might still be out there and she wasn't looking forward to any confrontations. Walking though she quickly looked around but there was no one in sight. Pleased, Natalie relaxed then looked at the other big field over the other side of the road. She hadn't explored over there to much and she wanted to check out the far side which was covered in large bushes.

It took her only a few minutes to get to the bushy area, she could see half of the bushes had berries on them. Looking carefully around first to make sure there was nothing dangerous nearby she started to pick the berries. They were very plump and gave off a sweet aroma that she was finding hard to ignore.

She wanted to pop a few of the delicious fat purple berries into her mouth, but that would be silly, they could be poisonous. Natalie kept picking them until she had a large amount in her inventory, then will herself back to the Sanctuary. She went to the work shed and pulled out the testing kit, this item should tell her what sort of effects or Magic's the berries had in them.

Natalie placed one of the berries into the mortar and picked up the pestle, slowly and evenly as possible she ground the berry to a watery paste. She then poured it into the glass test tube she had waiting, the next step she took a very small amount of grey powder and put it in with the crushed berry. Using a long crystal rod, she channeled a bit of mana into it and started to stir the mixture.

Watching it carefully Natalie kept stirring, Molly had said it would take a bit of time. This was the first test, to check if the berry was poisonous, if it turned green she knew not to eat them. The shade of the green would tell her how poisonous they were. She wasn't sure what the mana was actually doing in the stirring rod but she kept filling it as she stirred.

This was tiring work and she found it difficult to concentrate on keeping the mana flowing. After 10 minutes she stopped, it hadn't changed to green so no poison. She checked the time and was astonished to see it was almost time to log out. That had taken up more time then she thought.

Reluctantly she cleaned up her tools and put them away, the rest of the tests on the berries would have to be done next time. Natalie felt a little conflicted, she wouldn't be in the game at all tomorrow. Her outing to the mall with Amanda would prevent her from playing, she wanted to catch up with her friend but the game was luring her into its grasp, with all the interesting things she had discovered so far.

"Log me out Sam," she said. "I need to have dinner then we will do our night work, I want to start early so I can meet Amanda in the morning."

Natalie climbed out of her pod and went downstairs, she found the kitchen empty but on the table in the large food keeper, was a big selection of sandwiches and buns, also fresh salads. Looks like it was a help yourself night, her mother and father must be very busy with their work projects.

Natalie picked up a plate and loaded it with the premade food, went to the fridge and poured a large glass of juice then headed back up to her room with her bounty. She turned on her small bedroom news screen and watch a show while she ate. After taking care of her dishes and a shower, Natalie climbed back into the pod and began her night work.

At 6am Sam slipped her into real sleep with the alarm set for a 7:30am wake up. When the alarm went off, Natalie sat up feeling excited today she was going to meet Amanda. She opened the pod climbed out and got herself ready.

By 8am she was walking out the front gate, turning right she walked down the street past the six other large house blocks on this side, her goal was the large park at the end. Natalie loved the park with its sculptured gardens and the huge trees, it was a place to relax and forget about the rest of the world.

She walked along the path heading for the large clearing that held the old oak tree in its center, breathing in the smell of rich earth and flowers. Watching the butterflies and other insects flitter about the gardens. Soon she came to the oak and sitting under it with her eyes closed and a dreamy smile on her face was Amanda.

"Amanda," Natalie called a smile blooming on her face as she watch her friend.

Amanda opened up her eyes and looked to see who had called her. She was an attractive young girl, her ebony dark skin glisten in the gentle light filtering though the huge trees branches, long dark curly hair cascaded down her back. Her eyes were bright with a inquisitive light to them and she had an engaging smile that most people found hard to resist.

"Hey Natalie about time you showed up," Amanda said trying to keep her face stern. " I had to wait a whole five minutes for you. It was torture, I tell you torture!"

Natalie giggled and moved closer.

"Yeah I could see how much torture you were in as I walked up," she laughed. " that grimace on your face was so bad it looked almost like a smile!"

Amanda laughed and jumped up they hugged both still giggling.

"Well let's go," Amanda said. "I want to shop till I drop."

"We will both drop pretty quickly then Amanda, since neither of us have very much in the way of credits to spend." Natalie giggled.