1 hour later.

Guide: Sir you bus has arrived. As for its cost we will cover it for its use. Of course only till the end of today.

Zen: Thank You. We will be taking our leave now.

So Grandpa Jo and me got on the bus and gave them directions on how to reach our little warehouse that housed 30 people including us. On the way we saw how everyone in the slums were starring at the bus that seemed to be out of place for its venue.

After all this bus was huge and even had a Jacuzzi in the very back of the bus. It didn’t drive on wheels but rather had floatation devices underneath. Our slums of a city had no roads only paths for bicycles and such. Even though the bus remained close to the grounds it would hover over the paths we used. Even though some places it really could pass through however the navigation on this bus found the fastest route. By using the river it floated above it as we went south towards my home. We knew the river passed by our block so it was very convenient to have such transportation. It took us 8 minutes to reach were as it would take us an hour to walk.

Our place was a complete garden of sort. Around the warehouse that had two entrances even though we closed one off, you could see gardens that surrounded it. Next to walls we planted vine type berries. We also utilized the new system to rotate crops that I won’t go in to.

Again getting off topic. Now back on track.

We didn’t have to call everyone since everyone came out at the sight of such majestic buss arriving. I stepped out to call my extended family on to the bus.

Grandpa Jo already got in the Jacuzzi at that time. Saying something like “before I die, I might have a glimpse of happiness.”

The moment I stepped out everyone could not recognize me until I started to shout their nicknames and called them to hurry get on the bus. With everyone on board and a briefcase full of money we headed to T.I.E.

1 hour later.

We arrived at our destination. The reason it took us an hour was because the spaces the bus could move through to get out of the slums took it almost 45 minutes. The bank I mentioned earlier was actually near the center of the slums. Even though it rarely saw business but their company motto was that you can find a bank location nearly anywhere.

T.I.E. Was in a center of the neighboring city and it was the center building. It was also the tallest building. The so-called grass roads leading to this building were much better with more space. That’s why we traveled through this city quickly. Meanwhile the bus parked right in front of the T.I.E. building, 4 of the elderly folk were nearly passed out in the Jacuzzi.

I then announced that we had arrived and asked everyone to hurry get up. Since we are going inside the building. Told the people in Jacuzzi to just put on the bathrobes that we found on the shelves. I then made sure the bus wasn’t going anywhere and would wait till we return.

Everyone was now ready to go. So we left the bus and entered the building. Lea was there to greet us and immediately showed us to a group room. Once we arrived she looked around and counted everyone present and said will all of the 29 people present here be buying a VR watch?

After I told her yes. She quickly called for more helpers and they dispatched them to their individual rooms. However this time I would go around knocking telling them to hurry up. As they took their time I paid for their watches $29,000 dollars. I was screaming in my mind, what was I doing. From my calculations I still should have $71k with me and another $100k in the bank. Still plenty I said to my self. We were going to stretch it as much as possible, mainly on necessities.

I had thoughts about buying a house but I knew I would need more then 5 million even for a small property. Since everyone wanted a property, the demand was high without many people selling. At one point the government put a restriction of how much property any individual or organization could own on a planet. Outer space was still technically free for all, as long as you followed regulations.

1 hour later

Everyone was done and even wearing the complimentary clothes that they all received. Many said how much more comfortable it was then their original clothes.

Soon we got on the bus and asked him to take as to a buffet. I still wanted to party with my extended family. Who knows how many years they will still live.

We parties like never before. You could hear some stranger make a reference such as. “The monkeys are coming run.” Perhaps it’s due to the Ape planet being a popular TV series that was remade to be experienced in a virtual world setting by T.I.E.

8 hours later everyone was tired and ready to go back home.

To my surprise not one of them drank that night. When I asked about it they said we only drink for things we want to forget. Not for things we want to remember. They all had happy grins on their faces. When we got home we locked the front door and every single one went to bed. I told them how to login and log out and other functions I figured out and so I too went to bed and start a game-playing marathon.

Thus I lay down and thought about logging in, in to the game and then my eyes again fell down as if being heavy and I dosed off.

Notification

Your NoobSter protection has resumed. You have 59:50 hours left.

Seems it was about right since I logged out pretty much after it told me I have reached my destination previously.

So I got up and equipped my supreme items that are worth probably billions of dollars in real life and went around looking at where it was I landed.

Right behind me stood the mountain I fell of off. To be more precise there was a huge cliff that I could tell how high straight up it was.

Since I couldn’t die under the NoobSter protection. I wanted to know what where the most dangerous creatures around. Meaning I would go to the very depths of any cave to find them. Given that avoid being swallowed or something of sort.

As the first step I wanted to measure how much time it would take me to cross this small forest until I reached the other mountain that I saw from higher elevation. I was lucky I could run practically forever without rest. Do to the Items I equipped.

During my run I had notification screens popping up one after another and I just dismissed them and even took a pause to access system setting and block them until I am able to see the status screen.

Hence I continued to run in a straight line focusing on the peak of the mountain that I could see through the gaps of the trees.

It took me 4 hours to reach the other side at what seemed like my fastest speed. By then it had been getting dark, however I did not even see a single monster. Wonder why that is. So I thought perhaps I should run back and see if I arrive faster at the other side minus the fact it was dark. I was still focused on finding some sort of monster that probably scared everyone away. Thus I started running.

Since I could not see I would crash in almost every tree on the way. Even when I tried to focus on the energy around I was unable to distinguish anything in the dark. No extra sense no nothing. My goal was the shining peak that was the mountain that I fell of off. Its peak was covered in snow, so that’s why it was shining in a clear sky with a big moon.

15 minutes in to running I really got tired of hitting every other tree in the way. So I thought of trying something with my ultimate weapon of doom. He he he.

I took it out and held it in front of me. Perhaps it will register that I am attacking a tree and somehow divert the pain. As I started to run again while holding the pickax in front of me its tip started to shine just a bit. Still not enough to see however I continue to charge like so.

As I charged like this I all of a sudden tripped on some roots only to find the ax meeting the ground with me on top of it. However the place the ax hit in a radius of 1 meter everything burned. When I pulled out the ax I struck it at the ground again to discover it cut the ground almost like cheese. Not yet butter like but still very soft. I then discouraged my self from using that method.

What would happen to the forest if it caught on fire?

That said I walked in a slow pace back. Not once did I hear an animal cry or a beast howl. The only thing I did spot once was a wing beast very high up circle around and then disappears. To be honest this place screams to me like a beast nest of some sort or perhaps there are animals in this forest that I can’t even spot or notice. So I made a plan to make my self a nice cave where I can escape to and set a few traps on the way to prevent perhaps even invisible prey.

I have played many games to know that such things could exist.

I was going the full day without any food and since my stamina recovery that was off the scales. I finally felt hungry and since I turned off my notification windows. I could tell that they were popping up constantly.

I walked nearly 3 hours in to the night until I tripped over something and hitting the ground I could hear something break beneath me. The moons light was enough to tell me that is was now a smashed apple. I hence looked around the area to spot some lone apples that where not covered by the trees shadow lay. That is when I immediately ate it and started to feel around in the dark shaded areas, thinking there was an apple tree nearby. I did find another one or two apples that I immediately ate. I was finally filled and not dying from hunger.

So that was when I decided to take a small nap before continuing and so I crawled in to a shadow of the tree and fell asleep without worries since I was still under NoobSter protection. I didn’t realize how tiered I was until I woke up and the sun was nearly half way through the sky.

The weird thing was that someone was beating on my back. If it were real I know I would have died 10 times from just one hit. Even though the pain during NoobSter was also turned off. I could still tell I was not just being hit but hammered as if a nail.

The moment I opened my eyes I saw that there was something underneath me. That is also I noticed that my hand was gripping something very soft, I should it wasn’t sonly soft but quite big.

Being finally awake I realized that a girl has crawled up underneath me somehow. She was a completely gorgeous, with pure black long hair and sharp facial feature. I have never seen such beauty before. Her skin had a slight olive tint. That is when it hit me to move my hand, since she seemed to be passed out and clutching me closely to her self. I did not want to know what would happen if she saw me touching her. (She would probably stock me till she kills me.)

XD He he he he.

I had to start and focus on happy thoughts.

In the mean time I still felt the hammer like pounding on my back. I then forced her grip on me to loosen so that I could turn around. I don’t know why the attacking never seized and why it continued for who knows how long.

As soon as I was able to free my self from her clutches I turned around to see an incomprehensible site. It wasn’t what I thought however I could see a huge black bear that was standing on two of its legs launching one of its paws at me while the other hit the ground near me.

As the impact struck me it sent me crumbling in to the ground. Luckily he was focused on attacking me other then the girl that was passed out near the tree.

I at first fought him barehanded and time-to-time I would actually be able to connect my hits. That’s when it occurred to me that no matter what he does to me where I gain from this or not I will fight him for as long as I could. That is how my longest battle started in my gaming career to this point. Not to sure if there will be more opportunities to be able to train with a such a though opponent without dying.

8 hours later I was still fighting this crude animal. In some cases he could completely overwhelm me and I could only focus on getting out. There was no need to defend since my health was not going down. However after these 8 hours the girl lying next to the tree started to wake up. What she saw now was 2 opponents fighting each other barehanded. I tried to use my weapons and even my ultimate weapon on the bear however it proved difficult to use at a very close range. Especially when most of the time the bear would pin down my legs by stepping on them and then I would only focus on hitting it with only my bare hands.

The girl realized that I was not dying and asked out loud. “Your under the NoobSter protection right?”

I replied with a loud shout. “Yes.”

That girl was in deep thought for a moment before she spoke up again. So it must have been you who I grabbed last night for protection without realizing you were actually a person.

I hence again replied. “Luckily for you I was there. You do realize I can’t kill it while under that protection system.”

The girl said: “Yes I know. However that bear is at a really high level so I can’t help you there since it too almost killed me with a merely one punch. Unlike you I am no longer under that protection.”

That is when I came up with the Idea. “Does this system allow partying?”

Girl: Yep.

Zen: I am Zen. What’s your name?

Girl: Amelia.

Zen: I invite Amelia to my party.

Amelia: Sure why not. What do you have in mind now?

Then on the left side of my vision I could see her name and health bar next to her name with Mana and Stamina bars.

So this is what we will do. I will keep fighting it and you go find me some food. In the mean time while taking its punches I will lead it to a cliff. Then I will mine a tunnel and hopefully it follows me in. I will choose to mine near a tree that is next to a cliff that way while I’m inside digging the bear should still follow me and continue hitting me while I mine the tunnel. After its barely deep enough for the two of us to fit in we will cut the tree next to the mine and let if all between the cliff and another tree that way the tree cannot be pushed away from the inside of the cave. Before it fall I will try my best to jump out.

Amelia: Are you stupid. Some of my X-Friends who are now on blacklist tried to mine these mountains and could not even go deeper then a foot and you want to mine it?

Zen: I can mine them don’t worry so you up for the plan?

Amelia: I have already died 2-3 times in this place and can’t leave for some reason. I at first thought that I would respawn in a village outside of this place. However it seems I just revive in the same place I died. It gave me a message that said “I was to far from my know location points of revival.”

Hence I was constantly running from the bears in this region I think there might be quite a few of them here. I did see some rabbits from time-to-time, however they are quite smart and avoid being spotted.

Zen: Don’t care what really happened between your friends, however we have to solve this predicament and we cant keep running or we wont get anywhere with that. So if I can mine us a mine to live in there its better then in the open am I right?

Amelia: Sure so, then we are first going to mine a trap for the bare and then we are going to mine us a home right?

Zen: That’s the plan.

Amelia: Ok then we should head this way towards that peak it seems to be the closest. (She was point to the place where I hit the bottom of the mountain.)

She ran ahead and I also started to run, although the bear would simply charge and easily catch up to me. So I got to work on my dodging skills especially when they came from the behind.

I arrived at the cliff and found a suitable spot for mining. I then took out my ultimate mining pickax and with the hammer end hit the bear on the head. It seemed to stun the bear for about 10 seconds, enough time to give me a few swings at the cliff.

The cliff still gave adequate resistance and hence I continued my operation of Trap the Bear. From time-to-time Amelia would toss me a few apples that I would eat. Even though I doubt I could die during the first 60 hours it probably effected my stat if I didn’t eat. This entire time Amelia found that the tree she was going to cut down had a nearly perfect nesting spot. It seems she knew where the apples were in this area. She did drink water from a nearby stream and offered me some from time to time.

At first it was hard work to avoid the bears ultimate attack the palm strike but then in about 4 more hours It seemed that the bear to ran out of stamina and would only do simple palm strikes that were easy to avoid as well as its charge. I continued in to the night and in to total darkness. The only thing I could see now and was the bears bright eyes in the dark. I somehow started to know when it was going to attack just by seeing the distance of the bear’s eyes. I still continued to hit the cliff and now it had about a 1-meter wide and 2-meters deep hole.

That is when I yelled at Amelia she woke up from the sound of it and began to chop the tree in a way where it would fall towards the cliff, which later would guide it down to the ground between another tree and the cliff. The tree it self was around 1-meter wide and around 15 meters tall. It looked like one of those yew trees that had long vines on it.

During the day I could tell Amelia wasn’t sitting idling by and cut the bigger branches that came off the tree and even changed her chilling spot to another tree nest.

I lost track of time by then. So when Amelia cut the tree, she yelled at me to warn me to get out. However at that time the bear had charged at me and I didn’t realize that I was pinned by the bear when the tree came down blocking my way out. Hence I continued to fight the bear.

We began yelling to each other because the bear was not only growing and hitting me but also hitting everything around since he realized that now he was trapped and that I was the only food around. He focused with a more sever effort to kill me so that he can eat. He started to bite more often and successfully done so since I had nowhere to run off to.

Amelia: I told you to get out why didn’t you>?

Zen: I was pinned at the moment the tree was going to collapse.

Amelia: So now what?

Zen: Well your safe and I will try to further fight him even though it wont die by my hand for sure.

Amelia: You just continue digging who know perhaps you’ll find a tunnel that leads to lava and lure it there where you can kill it indirectly somehow.

Zen: Is it possible to kill it indirectly?

Amelia: No one has ever tried something like that so I am not sure.

There was a slight problem. I could only barely chip the wall at this point. It was indeed so dense that it became another problem for me to continue digging it further. Even then I continued to try. I hence came up with a new method of mining. I would try to perceive where the next attack came from and truthfully I had the bears tactics and movement down to the last letter. So I would place the mining pick at the location it would strike next and with the bears power it made the pick go in 1 inch. Then I simply applied all my strength at the lever and it would chip away a bigger chunk.

Surprising enough I remembered the forest I was in and even though we were in a much darker place with absolutely no moonlight coming in I was beginning to see different types of shades of gray and black. I could say it was still worse then the time in the forest although I could guess. That I have gained a skill that would allow me to see in the dark if I only continued to train it in this total darkness.

We fought in this darkness until I again heard Amelia’s shout when she screamed to me Good Morning. I really felt as if an evil mastermind imprisoned me.

I then saw a notification screen pop up in front of me.

Notification!!!

You have 1 hour of NoobSter protection left.

This told me that I was playing the game for nearly 10 hours in real lifetime.

So what was I going to do? The bear stopped attacking me 15 minutes later. I wonder why. I also stopped digging, because I wanted a simple rest from constantly having to focus and guess where the bear would have to strike next. Perhaps the bear realized that it was causing more pain by indirect means to it self, rather then making me hurt or perhaps it thought that I was invincible. I could see much more clearer now in the cave and could even make out the figure of the bare.

It made growling and whining noises as if it was starving and hurt badly. The cave we were now in was 2 meters wide and about 5 meters deep. I was happy since I could control the pickax more freely when I truly understood why the other end had a hammer like end. The pickax was probably, meant to be used with another hammer that would strike it. I could even spot the weaker adjoining points in the wall of stone around me. It was easier to mine using those superficial cracks. I could even mine by myself as long as my aim was not off.

Notification!!!

Your NoobSter protection has ended. Normal mode will being immediately, be careful since now you can die and feel pain when you are hit.

***All of those who discovered that you could still learn skills during the NoobSter protection are indeed smart fellows and hopefully you used it to the fullest to attain some needed or hard to get skill.***

I had a grin on my face, for only 3 seconds. It disappeared when the bear that was now on its feet and approaching me was showing its teeth. I could see some liquid dropping from its mouth as if the mouth became watery of the food in front of it.

===========================

Story transferred by author from

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