'Darkness...'

'Endless darkness...'

'How long have I been falling...'

'Am I awake... or did something happen...'

'What... hap... to...'

...

"Gah! Hah! Hah! I didn't oversleep, did I!?" Soren asked nervously, as he immediately from his couch and checked on his phone's time.

*crunch* "You didn' miss much. *gulp* Nora ordered some tacos for dinner and the delivery bot brought them a couple minutes ago." Lucas explained, as he passed a taco to Soren, as he had found out that he barely slept thirty minutes.

"Tacos? From where did you even order them? There are no Mexican restaurants around the area that do late night deliveries."

"From some food truck called Neil's All-Nighter Food Truck. They taste slightly funky, but these tacos are very cheap and he sells them by the dozen. Don't tell me you haven't tried before."

"Oh no, I have tried them before and... Well, let's say my first experience with them was... fun, to say the least."

"How come?"

"Let's just say after the half hour mark, I became tight buddies with my sh*tter." The moment Soren uttered those words out, both Nora and Lucas completely stopped moving, before Nora suddenly rushed towards the bathroom and a loud slamming noise echoed through the entire apartment.

"Well, there's also the fact that I forgot to take my meds that day and I had to eat my meal at the bathroom, while experiencing the feeling of sh*tting out hot lava."

"So... Y-You were just sick that day?"

"Yes."

"And the tacos didn't ruin your guts or anything?"

"No. Only my sickness. *munch* If I was any beh'r that day, my experience with 'hem would have been... *gulp* Me enjoying them with a couple of cold ones and my limited edition of The Baccarat Triads." Soren casually explained, as he grabbed one of the tacos and started eating it.

*sigh* "Could you not scare me like that...? I thought I would be meeting the grimy reaper in less than ten minutes..." Lucas asked in a relieved manner, as he wouldn't have to worry about looking for a bathroom.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

"Why would I scare you with that? Diarrhea isn't anything scary, just painful at times..."

"That's not the poi- You know what? Forget I said anything. Just eat the tacos and let's get going. We still got over two hours worth of playtime to fill." After that, Lucas and Soren ate their tacos in silence, before getting back to their respective work.

After logging back into the game with a calm mind, Soren decided to accept the Hopping Rabbit quest once more and focus on hunting a lot more seriously as before. He knew that just waiting for its hopping attack and plunging his sword on its back, although an effective and quick way to kill it, was clearly not optimal for getting the best rewards out of his hunting quest. Hence, he decided to focus on either decapitating them, or using Holy Touch on their heads, until their brains were fried either from the pain or the spell.

Aside from those though, the Lazy Squires were another mob he had to consider how to hunt, as they were no normal animal that would normally roam and charge on sight. They were completely stationary and he had no way of spotting them, unless all of them sat on the ground like the one he encountered a while ago. He did try to ask the guard about them, but he couldn't help much, as he hadn't left the settlement many times and most of his time is spent on being a guard or moving the supplies into the warehouse and suggested him to either ask any of the hunters, or the Hunter Guild's clerk, of which he had no intention of doing so.

In the end, he chose to look for squires the old fashioned way, while practicing his new hunting strategy on any incoming rabbit. Thankfully, he would find another Lazy Squire after hunting a couple of rabbits and it didn't take long to dispatch it, since he managed to parry the initial strike and swiftly followed with stab of his own, before plunging the sword on the ground and letting it slowly die. Slowly, but surely, he continued to amass more kills on both the rabbits and the squires and while doing so, a couple of familiars panel appeared in front of him.

Beginner Sword Proficiency has leveled up. (+1 Strength, +1 Agility, +1 Vitality)

Bless Magic Proficiency has leveled up. (+1 Wisdom)

"Finally... Level 5 Beginner Sword Proficiency. God, that was a grind and a half, but those three stat points are looking juicy and it comes with a bonus extra point. Still, no wonder none of my friends had hit level 5 on any of their passives, even if it took them nearly two hours non-stop grinding. It took me nearly three hours and that's not even counting the bloody time I took exploring the settlement." Soren commented joyfully, as he saw his three points in strength and agility and his two points in vitality, as well as his fifteen points on his health.

"Speaking of which... Lucas, can I ask you how the stats are calculated?"

"I don't know how they're actually calculated. I'm a data analyst and compiler, not a game designer. Ask one of the game developers for that." Lucas explained coldly.

"Oh... Bollocks." Soren then became dejected, before shaking off his dejection and continuing his hunt for the next half hour or so, before getting the notification from Lucas that they reached their four hour mark and that he's free to finish his playing session for today. In the end, he had managed to hunt down eleven Hopping Rabbits and four more Lazing Squires and quickly made his way towards the settlement to turn in his quest. In the end, he earned 71 copper coins from the rabbit quest and 54 copper coins from the squire quest, increasing his total amount of money to 1 bronze coin and 72 copper coins, before leaving the guild and logging off near a secluded part of the settlement.

Unfortunately, he still couldn't take off his helmet, as the real world hadn't materialized and was still falling into the darkness.

"Darkness..."

"Endless darkness..."

"How long have I been falling...?"

"Am I awake, or did something happen with the helmet...?"

"What has happened out there? Lucas? Nora? Hello?" Soren kept calling out into the darkness, but there was no response back, despite his repeated attempts to call out to them. As he kept calling out, a wave of dizziness and fatigue suddenly enveloped him and the darkness slowly morphed into tall black rectangles that could be clearly seen in the slowly dissipating darkness. In the place of darkness, thick black clouds were enveloping the sky and the ground was slowly morphing beneath his feet and once his feet touched the ground, a raindrop touched his forehead. As he turned his head towards the sky, more raindrops were dropping on his head and the black rectangles were slowly forming into proper buildings and before long, a dark city had formed in front of his very eyes.

"You're not welcome here, stranger." A foreign and coarse voice assaulted Soren's ears and once he turned towards the source of the voice, his eyes met a gun muzzle and a bright flash enveloped his vision, as everything blurred into the darkness once more.