The first thing that greeted William as he returned back to reality was the opaque visor, only showing the ceiling in the twilight of his room. Bleary, crusty eyes were trying to wet themselves as his dried tear ducts took their sweet time to fulfill their function. It felt more like he had awoken from one of those deep naps that left him without a sense of time.

How long had he been out for? Since there was no ingame clock on his interface, he would have to calculate based on the simple 2-to-1 time dilation: for every hour in the real world, there were two hours passing in Eternium. That in and of itself was the most mind-boggling aspect of the game, since you could theoretically experience an entire day of adventure in little more than an average job's working hours. However, for every moment he took too long outside the game, he would lose so much more time within the game.

That was also the reason why he had taken two weeks off, just to really get into the game and don’t fall too far behind when there was no other choice but to logout.

Easing his muscles into their first movement in what felt like hours, being reminded of the poor state of his virtual body, William carefully removed his VR helmet and settled it down on the loading station next to his bed, just so it wouldn’t tumble off the bed and accidentally get damaged.

Squinting around his dimly lit room, which still felt illuminated enough to his eyes, William needed a moment to decipher the time, mostly because he just couldn’t believe it. If the launch happened as scheduled at eight in the morning, and his clock correctly showed the time to be barely half-past eleven, he played for some odd three-and-a-half hours of real world time - or a grand total of almost seven hours in Eternium!

Granted, most of that was just the trials and character creation, but he still couldn’t believe how perfectly immersive this game was that he barely even noticed the passage of time.

With the sounds that his dad usually made when getting up from the couch, William heaved himself into a sitting position and stretched his back. His small fortress of pillows and blankets had done their part to keep him from any sore spots, but it seemed he hadn't even moved a tiny bit in his “trance”. That alone had earned him some stiff joints.

“Water..”, he croaked with a dry throat and grasped for the always ready bottle of sparkling water at his bedside, guzzling down half of it as the cool, moisturising liquid soothed his thirst. “Ahhh~ Sweet ambrosia”, he muttered to himself as his foggy mind slowly cleared, and it took him another minute to just sit and relax until he could muster the motivation to get up. Truth be told, he was already far too eager to get back into the game.

However, his body told him with very clear signals that some functions had to be taken care of ASAP. And after quickly grabbing his phone, William hurried towards the bathroom.

This little break gave him a moment to look up on how to contact people inside Eternium. And it would appear that, beyond an ingame messaging system that also connected to a real world access with your account, there was no way to initiate a video call or even voice chat with those sitting in DIVE pods. You could only send a request to them, but you needed some kind of ID or call number to make that happen.

Also, players in their pods had some kind of “waiting room”, which seemed to be a much more elaborate version of the character selection area, where they are sent after death to wait out their respawn timer. The unfortunate player to discover and reveal this also added that, if the system AI judges your actions leading to your death to be self-caused or especially stupid, the time until respawn would be particularly long.

And apparently, willingly finding out that gravity, and therefore fall damage, does exist in the game, you get a whopping twelve hour penalty.

Wandering back into his room, William was pondering his next move. He didn’t feel particularly sore or exhausted anymore, nor was he especially hungry. And since he had no way to contact Robert or Chelsea at the moment, the only thing left to do was hop back into the game and hopefully stumble into them while getting his bearings and following up on that quest with the city guard.

After sending his mother a quick message that he wouldn’t join them for lunch today, just so she wouldn’t try to wake him up, William settled back onto his bed, made himself comfortable and put on the VR helmet once again. A quick glance towards the clock let him know that he barely spent fifteen minutes outside Eternium, so no more than thirty minutes could have passed inside the game.

Eager to return to this new reality, even though he already dreaded going back to the body of an old man, William powered up the headset and closed his eyes as if trying to fall asleep. Yet after just a few moments, he involuntarily blinked and found himself back inside the “waiting room”, facing another system message.

Since this is your first time logging back in as a VR headset user, please note that your virtual body stays inside Eternium where you last occupied it. However, outside forces can still influence, move or outright harm this body. Yes, this also includes death! It is strongly advised to logout in a safe place if you value the progress you’ve made! This is the only time you will receive this courtesy, so make sure to remember this.

“Oh, come on! Why didn’t they tell me before logging out?!”, William loudly protested into the empty space around him. “I swear, if anything happened that--”

A whooshing sound interrupted his already driven tirade as a glowing portal of sorts appeared right in front of him, giving off a slight hum.

Please note that you will immediately awake inside your body for this and any future logins, and you will not return to this area unless absolutely necessary. Step through the portal when you are ready to return to Eternium.

“..Fine. Better get back into it and hope nobody had any funny ideas.” With a growl he stepped forward and through the portal, being forced to close his eyes from the blinding lights, before a sense of vertigo overcame him. It was almost like the feeling you get when you’ve almost fallen asleep, but then suddenly awake with the sensation of having dropped into your bed from a high altitude.

Only that he didn’t wake up in a pile of pillows, but rather staring up into the faces of people he most definitely didn’t recognize. Judging by their attire that you would find at any regular renaissance fair, they seemed to be ordinary towns folk, who were now backing away a pace as his eyes shot wide open.

“He’s awake!”

“Back off a little, give him some room to breathe..”

“But what if he’s a zombie?! He was practically dead only moments ago!”

“Impossible, my healing spell would’ve caused damage if he was an undead”, a female voice argued against the last comment in a calm, serene tone, belonging to a woman in off-white robes embroidered with simple decorations. “Are you feeling better, child?”

Squinting as the sun directly shone into his face, William nodded and righted himself up with a groan. “Y-yes, thank you”, he coughed up the words, once again finding that even the smallest movements made his body ache.

“You are one of the travellers, are you not?”, the same woman inquired in the same calm manner, with only her mouth showing movements in her face. William only nodded in the affirmative.

“A traveller? One of those troublemakers!?”, another voice in the small crowd called out, with some of the others giving him the stink eye now.

The priestess, or at least William assumed she was one, simply ignored the other people. “This is not the first time today that I had to heal one of your kind who collapsed in the street. Can you tell me why? Others haven’t been very.. talkative., and if this is an ailment or even a sickness, we need to prepare for it.”

“I’m.. not sure I could explain it properly”, William was trying to dodge having to explain that he just logged out of the game and that his lifeless body stayed behind. Would an NPC even parse this information? “But it’s not a disease or anything, I guess it just happens to us travellers when we, uhh.. meditate?” Yeah, he wouldn’t believe such an obvious lie himself, but he didn’t want to dive into a lengthy discussion like this with a bunch of 1’s and 0’s.

And apparently, that was all it took to alleviate the priestess’ concerns, as even her neutral expression seemed to somewhat relax. “Very well. However, if this meditation as you call it is intentional, please be sure to find a better place for it than in the middle of the main road”, she almost seemed to quip, getting up from her crouching position now.

Did the game just double down on that warning he got in the waiting room? Although, considering how dense and unaware some players could be, it was probably a necessity so they absolutely couldn’t claim ignorance.

“I’m sorry, ma’am. I will care better for myself from now on”, William nodded along with her suggestion as he slowly got back up on his feet, the crowd around them having dispersed somewhat already.

“Good. Seeing as you couldn’t know any better, and you somewhat helped me understand why we’ve had so many travellers fall unconscious everywhere, I shall waive the fee for my services this time around”, the matronly figure informed him, slightly brushing off her robes.

“Really? Thank you very much”, he offered back with a slight smile, which came out rather wry with his aches of simply trying to stand up straight. “But.. just out of curiosity, don’t priests usually heal people out of charity?”

The corner of her mouth twitched slightly at these words. “I’m not sure where you come from that priests can offer their divine-given powers so freely, but you won’t find too many of that sort in Ardania”, the woman flatly stated, folding her hands in front of her. “Now, please take care of yourself, young man. I have duties to attend to. Good day.” And with that, the priestess was marching off with a stern step, the crowd readily parting to let her through.

Still standing to the side of the road somewhat awkwardly, William looked around to get his bearings. The flagpoles of the market square where he first arrived in this city were still in sight towards one direction, so he just had to keep walking away from them, just like Bertram had told him earlier.

And once he wasn’t surrounded by people who knew what he was and judged him for it, the stroll through the streets was rather pleasant, as long as you avoided the carriages and waggons using the middle of the road. Most people didn’t bother to look at him as they went about their business, even as William sometimes stopped and stared in wonder. This game was basically in constant photo mode, with the rustic yet charming scenery surrounding him offering so many motives for a painting.

Even though it would be somewhat silly to spend his time in this game with just more of his day work, William definitely had to try out how well his skills translated when he had some downtime. For now, it was off to the bank! Feeling elated that he could now with good conscious focus entirely on his first day in this world, William strode ahead.

And very soon realized how punishing his lack of Constitution really was, when he almost keeled over again from sheer exhaustion. He hadn’t even considered how quickly his stamina left him at the speed he was walking, which really was just a little faster than his normal step. But that was already too much for this body?

Switching into what felt more like a crawl towards his destination, William felt ashamed to shuffle along like some decrepit old man, and even those elderly people he passed on the street seemed more youthful and energetic in this world than he was at the moment.

His exhausting march was made even worse by the succulent smells wafting around the streets from the food stands that were practically between every other store front, and sometimes even the store front themselves. And seeing all the hungry pedestrians getting their share of a grilled meat-skewer or stuffed bread roll, William was positively salivating half way to his destination, his stomach urging him to go get money quicker.

Huffing from this little bit of exertion alone, he had almost missed the massive building that was very clearly designated as a bank, with customers slowly streaming in through two of the broad entrance doors, while the other side was apparently reserved for exits only. Following the flow of crowd inside, William soon found himself in line to one of the counters, each occupied by superbly skilled bank tellers that quickly and efficiently took care of every client's requests, while still maintaining a passively-friendly attitude.

That, however, changed when William stepped up to one of the windows and the man sitting in front of him almost sneered in disgust at his sight. “Marvelous, another one of you travellers. Let me guess, withdraw money from the account you’ve made in advance?” His voice oozed disdain as he pulled out a slab of some kind, mumbling under his breath. “These cretins just keep buzzing around like flies from a bloated--”

“E-excuse me? I can hear you!”, William protested against these horrible remarks, getting a surprised, yet haughty look from the bank teller.

“So not all of you are mute, stone-faced brutes? Shocker”, the man replied only slightly less hostile, while giving William a few scrutinizing glances, the stylus in his hand writing down several things along.

“Are you treating all of your clients this poorly?”, William shot back and tried hard not to lash out even more against this rudeness.

“Only the ones dressed like beggars”, the bank teller snorted. “If you’re dissatisfied with our services, you are free to leave or take it up with security.”

“No, I need the money, so let’s get this over with. Do you need any information from me?”

“Already done. And yes, I can read this information just from looking at you”, the man mocked with a haughty grin, pushing the slab towards him. “This is your account balance. How much of your riches would you like to withdraw, sir?”

Grinding his teeth in frustration, William just bit back any remarks he might’ve had and looked down at the slab. Carved out in glowing letters were several numbers, each accompanied by a symbol that stood for the individual sizes of currency. The day before, William had transferred about five hundred dollars to his game account, which left him with a mere fifty gold - his entire budget until he could earn any money through quests or farming.

And considering that he was practically useless for combat at the moment, he should better live frugally for the time being.

“Five gold, ten silver and twenty copper. Please.” Just so he had a little bit of everything.

“Oh my, how lavish!”, the bank teller kept up his unprofessional attitude, before pulling out the requested sum from a compartment under the table. Surprisingly, the gold was handed to him as five small bank notes, each of them worth a single gold. The silver and copper were placed on the table in neat little stacks.

“Since this is clearly your first time withdrawing money, judging by your face, I am required to inform you that these bank notes are only worth their intended value if you sign them. In case a bank note is lost or stolen, this ensures no one else may use them. However, this money is still withdrawn from your account, and we can not replace any of it, unless you are insured against this - which you’re not, and definitely can’t afford. Has my explanation been clear?”

The pure spite with which the bank teller lectured him on this was absolutely infuriating, and William was already clenching his fists halfway through the tirade, but ultimately took a deep breath and unclenched his jaw. “Perfectly clear, thank you. I wouldn’t have known otherwise”, he responded as flatly as possible, putting the few banknotes and coins into his pocket. No need to start anything over a pathetic little man who abused his power.

“Good, and now get out of here. There are proper clients waiting for our esteemed services”, the man growled and waved him away, which William happily complied with and hurried out of the building. He really didn’t want to waste anymore time on unpleasant experiences, and find things that were worth living.

For starters, he would quell his roaring hunger by digging into one of those delicious looking meat-skewers that were sold at one of the food stands he had passed. Not even being remotely picky with his choice, William went for the first one on his way back to the market square, eyeing the steaming spits of meat like a starving wolf as they were handed to him.

With forty coppers a piece they didn’t seem too cheap to him, even though he didn’t have any frame of reference yet. But money be damned, this food was to die for. The tender meat left trickles of fatty juice on his chin, and the salty, gamey taste was something he would expect from an above-average restaurant in the real world.

To think that he could experience these flavours anytime now, and even eat copious amounts without impacting his actual body? William was convinced this game would attract more than just hardcore gamers once word got around what it was capable of.

After the last bite vanished down his gullet, and William discarded the empty wooden skewers in one of the public trash cans - quite progressive for a medieval city! - he kept walking down the main road towards the market square. However, this time around he could really take his time and went with a leisurely stroll while frequently stopping to window shop.

Most of the things on display were clearly out of his price range, even if he would go back and clear out his entire savings account in the real world. But it also wouldn’t really make sense to buy shiny new gear that he might not even be able to use properly, so rather than splurge on stuff that only satisfied his inner loot hoarder, William was looking for useful items that would aid him in the near future.

Unlike in other games, where the description and flavour text popped up with just a click, here William had to actively inspect the object or even ask the merchants about them. And despite his meticulous, bordering on obsessive search for any curiosities or items that might trigger a quest, just about everything he found here was at best of common quality. Not even the few uncommon items that he had to ask for piqued his interest, as those were more or less above-average household items and simply useless to him.

Nevertheless, he still settled for a simple belt made from woven hemp, which was only supposed to hold the small pouch he also bought, just so his money wouldn’t clatter around in his pocket anymore. Both items came down to not even a single silver coin, showing how little value they carried.

Simple Belt. Item class: common. Made from woven hemp. Can safely hold up to one kilogram of additional weight. Durability: 19/25.

Small Pouch. Item class: common. Made from coarse leather. Only for small and light objects, often used as a make-shift purse. Durability 14/20.

He didn’t even try to haggle for these things, as they were only meant to last until he could afford proper gear in terms of cash and physical capabilities. Of course, with such a simple pouch, any pickpocket could rob him of the few coins he carried on himself, so he situated the small pouch towards the front where he should at least notice any attempt at theft.

Yes, he was basically wearing a fanny pack now, so what?

William would’ve also preferred to get himself a backpack, so he could actually carry any of his future gear or should he find something interesting worth buying in one of the shops, but even the lighter ones put such a burden on his back without any items in them, that it just didn’t make sense to buy one for now.

Rather certain that he wouldn’t find that one huge bargain or secret quest-starting item anytime soon, William decided to head for the garrison. Playing a medieval shopping simulator was nice and all, but he wanted to get to the meat of this game.