Beep. Beep. Beep.

“Wu-wut? What’s going…on?” I groaned, shutting my eyes tighter as my brain grudgingly booted up. With great effort, I raised my arm with a vibrating WeeCee wrapped around it. The blinking light was so bright it pierced my closed eyelids.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

An inexplicably stiff and sore wave of my other hand over the WeeCee turned off the alarm—peace and quiet. I let my heavy arms fall back to my soft bed.

Should I go back to sleep?

Half of my brain thought it was a good idea. The other half reminded me of a meeting this morning. Nelly pestered me to attend and guide her. Something about acquiring a small local company for our supply chain; my brain cells were trying to retrieve the details obscured by MCO stuff because I played all night. I slept way late even though I had an appointment early.

So that’s what the alarm was for…

I tried to get up, but my head felt encased in rock. A sharp pain shot up the back of my neck. I immediately laid back down, wincing. That hurt! What in blazing meatballs was going on?

As the pain jogged me fully awake, the utter soreness of my body from yesterday’s workout swept over me. The latter was a satisfying kind of suffering—a sign my muscles were recovering. Contrast that with the sharp ache radiating from the nape of my neck sideways to my left shoulder. It was like a rebar was lodged inside my body, parallel to my shoulder blades.

I felt around my head, taking care not to move my arms at an angle that’d cause more pain. Instead of cheeks and hair, I touched a hard plastic material formed into a shell. I knocked on it as if I’d kickstart the cogs in my brain to turn. And it did.

“Don’t tell me…” I said, opening my eyes, “…I fell asleep while playing? Damned infernal intercourse to the tenth level!”

Sleeping with an AU-VR helm wasn’t exactly a problem. My brain should be safe, I hope.

All brands of VR helms were legally mandated to detect deep sleep and not interfere with the body slipping into it—a result of a bunch of health studies and assorted horror stories when VR helms were taking baby steps in the global market, the backstory of most regulations. Nowadays, they operate only during induced pseudo-REM sleep. Mumbo-jumbo of turning dreams into conscious thought. That was according to the experts on HTV.

Deep sleep, REM sleep, I personally had no idea what those were. What did REM even stand for? Rolls, eggs, and muffins? I was famished, my body craving to refill the thousands of calories—I’m incredibly optimistic—I expended at the gym last night.

Call Jimmy. Quick bath. Breakfast. Go.

Here came the problem—I couldn’t move. If I tried to sit up, the shooting pain would say no.

Fricking frying stiff neck.

This had happened to me before; I should’ve known to avoid it. But in my rush to return to MCO after obtaining new ideas from Enrico, I forgot to wear a neck pillow to compensate for my awkward posture when I lay with an AU-VR helm on. Here was my reward.

“Maybe I should skip the meeting? I have another important thing coming up later.” I stared at the ceiling and sighed. “No, I promised Nelly.”

I rolled to my stomach and pushed myself up. Clumsily, I got out of bed, trying to keep my movements to a minimum. Taking a bath was literal agony. Same as putting on clothes. I mulled going to the office wrapped in a towel. I didn’t bother making breakfast or brewing coffee; I’d get some on my way to the meeting.

As I sat in the car, fidgeting while trying to find the best position for my strained neck muscles to relax, I wondered if the pain was worth it—a resounding yes.

Returning from the gym, I played MCO for several hours—not sure exactly how long before I left the virtual world for the dream world—immersing myself in Blighted quests. I did those a few levels below mine, the ones I could solo quickly with relative safety. I missed out on a lot of Blighted Tokens by doing easier quests, but I’d make up for it when my complete party did our runs later. The level penalty gap was also there, lowering the Essence and Gli I got. I considered it a small tax for hogging all the Essence and Gli instead of dividing it among party members.

I could’ve carried several newbies and showed off while at it, but the time for promoting Herald Stone’s magnanimity to the world was over. It was time to play with myself and get harder… for the Great Hunt.

Still several minutes away from the office, I opened my MCO account on my WeeCee to check my newest acquisition.

Lvl. 4 Compelled Frenzy: Magically goads non-Player enemies around you into a deranged fury, increasing their Attack Speed by 27.5% and forcing them to attack you. The strain on their bodies reduces the taunted units’ Attack Power, Magic Power, and Accuracy by 18%.

Cost: 25 Energy

Duration: 4.5 Seconds

Cooldown: 6 Seconds

The skill’s name turned out to be [Compelled Frenzy]. I bought it for five and a quarter million Artas. Not exactly as inexpensive as Enrico had said, but it was cheap compared to [Final Stand] and [Battle Banner], costing more than thrice.

A noticeable boon to solo grinding, [Compelled Frenzy] increased the DPS of my retribution by making monsters attack faster. It made up for [Chorus of Delirium] reducing incoming hits; monsters standing around or attacking each other weren’t proccing retribution. A welcome interaction that didn’t occur to me back at the gym. And so, I dumped my free LSPs into [Compelled Frenzy], including the one I got for leveling to twenty-six.

Enrico probably forgot that [Compelled Frenzy] also reduced Accuracy. Not that beneficial at present, but it could be if I raised my Evasion. Perhaps someday, when I’d transition out of retribution.

A couple more improvements.

Lvl. 4 Molten Corium: Ancestral Flames thread through the skin of Aritu practitioners, granting them (+27% Fire Resistance) and (+8% Fire Resistance Cap). Being of such untold purity, the Ancestral Flames also warp (13.5% of all incoming non-Fire damage) and convert them to the Fire Element.

[Molten Corium] from my Aritu Ocadule leveled up, and it might be a sleeper hit. Though it didn’t tickle the human psyche like the big pee-pee numbers of [Ancestral Constitution], it dutifully did its job in the corner like a diligent but unappreciated employee. If I could pile sources of incoming damage conversion to the Fire Element, I could heavily lean in on [Molten Corium] and focus on Fire Resistance rather than spread my resources to cover all Elements.

Lvl 6. Cleansing Flames: Purify yourself from ailments with enhanced flames of the Mardukryon ancestors—remove five (5) negative statuses, bypassing those that prevent you from using skills. Let suffering give you strength, be resolute amidst adversity, and gain courage from the knowledge that you are never truly alone. Stand resolute until aid comes.

(Passive) For every negative status you have (Max stacks [6]):

+225 Armor and Magic Resilience, +14% Healing Increase and Received, +6% Resistance to all Elements, 4% Resistance to all Ailments

Cost: 65 Ancestral Shroud

Cooldown: 10 Seconds

Between [Ancestral Constitution] and [Cleansing Flames], I chose to latter to bestow with the GSP from leveling to twenty-five yesterday. When I saw that it could now bypass Stun, Silence, and those annoying crap that used to shut it down, I did a little celebratory dance that would’ve made the crimson goat proud.

Of course, I’d rather avoid using it. I wanted to retain my intentionally stacked debuffs. But there’d be situations when having a counter to Stun and whatnot would be a matter of life and death.

Note to self, find more self-debuffs. At level six, [Cleansing Flames] went up to six passive stacks.

I had only four consistent ones: three from food and [Morabodry] poisoning. The fifth, [Penitence Misfortune], could be up only half the time. Thankfully—very amusing to think this way—enemy monsters filled the rest of the stacks with pesky ailments they’d inflict.

[Cleansing Flames] was instrumental in quickly finishing Blighted quests as I employed an almost suicidal strategy. I ran from the start of the tunnel to the end without stopping, right up to the blocked exit, dragging the myriad monsters I passed. No worries about them switching targets because I was alone. Then I’d let myself get surrounded to make the most of retribution, [Blight Cloud], and poison smoke. With my new skills lowering enemy DPS, tanking was way more manageable. In a few minutes, I’d wipe the mobs and complete the quest.

But the actual test of the new and improved Herald Stone would be later. There was one more piece I was waiting to get—hoping to get, to be more accurate. I’d know the result in a couple of hours.

“A very productive discussion,” I said, leaning back in my swivel chair to show ease and dominance. This was our office, and we were the bigger company, so we should act benevolently, though we’d benefit more from this deal than them.

“Everything sounds good to me so far,” said the bushy-mustached Mr. Freytag, a modest chicken farm owner. He patted the stack of papers in front of him. “I assure you that my farm can supply you with all the chicken you need. If it’s full capacity, just that… there were some financial difficulties recently.”

I flicked my eyes to Nelly, indicating she should take the lead in the conversation. She had been used to letting me deal with business. I had set the stage for her; this was a done deal. She should step in to take credit as I had trained her.

“That’s why we’re infusing capital into your farm, Mr. Freytag,” Nelly said. “It will recover, and we project expansion in a year or two. Of course, you’ll manage it even if our company owns majority shares. As we have promised, which will be in writing, the name, the logo, everything will be the same. Your legacy will live on.”

“Sounds good to this old man’s ears,” he replied, a bit teary-eyed.

Nelly learned well from me. I smiled at her, giving her a wink. She turned to me, letting her bangs fall to the side of her face to hide her rolling eyes.

Sawyer’s cattle farm supplied most of the beef needs of our company, but we didn’t have a centralized source for our chicken needs. We heard of a farm about to go under and decided to acquire it at a discount. Might as well start our own chicken supply. If we failed, we could sell the land someday with much profit considering how close it was to Egret City.

Monetarily, our side had much to gain in the long run. But to Mr. Freytag, he gained more than us by preserving his family farm, making him eternally grateful and loyal.

My WeeCee vibrated. Good thing I didn’t forget to turn off the alarm’s sound so it wouldn’t blare like a missile was locked on our location. The time of reckoning had arrived.

I exaggeratedly raised my WeeCee and peered at it so close as if I needed glasses. “I just have to take this important call,” I said. “Very important, yes.” I winked at Nelly as I left my seat. “This might take five… ten minutes.”

She raised a brow. “Don’t worry. We’ve pretty much ironed out everything. We’ll discuss the schedule next.”

I hurried to my small office—Nelly got the bigger room with a nice view—and pressed the button to turn the window walls opaque. After ensuring our employees couldn’t see me wasting time, I donned the AU-VR helm Jimmy had left on the table. Then I lowered myself to my chair, grimacing as my stiff neck acted up.

In the next blink, I was back in Hierakon, ready to participate in the auction of a [Health Conversion] Shard.