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Chapter 3:
-”What!?... NO! No, thanks!”
The old man immediately stopped snoring and opened his eyes, and sighed in resignation.
“Oh come on boy! I just made it so easy for you… you are really going to make me give you the tutorial version?”
-“The tutorial version of what!?”
The old man sighed again.
“What are you?”
The man-corpse asked.
-”What do you mean what am I? I am huma…. Well… I guess I am a ghost.”
“Yes. And do you know how to be one?”
-”... No.”
Dark remembered the dizziness and pain he still didn’t really understand.
“Exactly. I am the guide of all ghosts and passing souls that come through here. Though… I must admit you are the first immigrant ghost I have seen. I am here to educate you on how to be a ghost…. Now. I was expecting you to just possess me and figure it out on your own… but I guess we shall just have to have a little chat.”
The man looked at Dark for some kind of confirmation, so Dark nodded.
“As a ghost you can go through walls. You can not touch anything. People can not see you. You lose most of the bodily senses while you are in ghostform.”
The old man’s voice had assumed a lecturing tone.
-”Yeah… I know all that alrea-”
“Shush and listen boy!”
The geezer stared daggers at Dark, silencing him.
“You can possess people. There are however certain limitations to that which you will find out in your own time. You cannot die, but in turn, you only gain half of the EXP you earn… the other half goes to your host.”
-”But-”
Another look from the geezer instantly silenced Dark.
“You need a host for satiety, as a ghost you cannot live long outside of the graveyard. While you are inside the host you have full control of their body… as well as their skills. You have to take possession of your host for more than one whole day before you are eligible to learn one of their skills. After leaving any host you will lose at least one level… other factors come into play. If your host dies while you are possessing him… or a up to a day after you have left him… you will not be able to learn any of their skills and you will lose an additional five levels, and are banished for a week… Well… there is more stuff to tell but I’m kind of hungry so I’ll let you figure out the rest for yourself…. toodles.”
The old man smiled, showing his rotting teeth and continued to walk in a straight line, going straight through Dark. Dark readied himself for the gut wrenching feeling he had felt going through a person previously… but when the Geezer passed through him… he only felt a slight tingling sensation.
Dark watched stoically as the Geezer ambled off.
He didn’t pay attention in which direction the man had gone off to, but instead he immediately left the graveyard, trying to find the pub the beautiful girl and her… partner had gone into. He had left in such a rush of dizziness that he had a hard time finding it again, but after going through countless pubs and occasionally going back to the graveyard to recharge his satiety levels, he finally found the Rotten Tomato again.
Why anyone would call their pub “rotten” he did not know, but seeing as he had been to the Broken Musket and the Rusted Anvil… he figured it was some sort of fad.
Inside, he finally saw her again. He took a moment to just stare at her in plain sight, going across the bar to stand directly in front of her. He had an excellent view of her as she (in his eyes) cutely slurped down some soup, how her breath hitched as the heat of the dish hit her tongue, how her boobs rose looking like they would spill out for his viewing pleasure. (Female Perspective: Personally… I don’t see how anyone can look attractive while they eat.… I don’t know why eating is a social thing. *Would rather eat in a dark room* HAHA. Okay maybe not… but still. Eating is kinda…. aaanyways. ON with the story shall we. (P.S.: Female Perspective does not approve of this borderline fanservice.))
He felt like a bit of a stalker standing in front of her like that when her eyes went directly through him. At that moment he wished he was visible so that she could see him, he wanted to see the reaction she would have to his sight.
Instead, he had to put up with remaining invisible to her eyes as she spoke to her partner.
“Let’s try again today.”
-”Oh come on! Won’t you drop it already!? Let’s go do something else. Plus today our month of quarantine in the town is over… I only went along this far because there wasn’t anything better to do anyways. I am not doing it again. Let’s go kill wolves or something instead… Or at least do some exploring…”
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
The man babbled.
Looking at him, Dark couldn’t see why the girl liked him. Sure… he might have a nice jaw, he might have nice sparkling green eyes, he might have a perfectly styled head of hair, he might even be able to make those beginner-level robes look manly… but still. Why him!? (Male Perspective: why does all this matter again? I do not approve of this borderline fanservice here...)
Dark was depressing himself by analyzing the man, so he shifted his attention back to the girl as she spoke.
“We can do that tomorrow… Come on… You remember how secretive that priest was about the graveyard. There has got to be something important in there. You can’t even see what it looks like from the outside with all that fog in there. There is something they are hiding and I want to find out what it is. Maybe it’s a secret class…”
-”Oh not this again…. I know you are just going to end up being a warrior like always…”
The girl swiveled her gaze at the man, staring daggers at him.
“Maybe not okay!? I heard there are hidden classes in this game. There might be the perfect one for me. You don’t know what you are talking about.”
-”Oh… I don’t know what I am talking about? Well… I think twenty years of experience says otherwise.”
“Whatever Min-Jun”
-”Hey… Don’t use my real name here… Jung-Ah.”
The man said mockingly.
The girl’s eyes narrowed at the man and silence ensued for a second.
Then however, both burst out laughing.
“We are twenty years old and we are still acting like little brats. We should call each other Linux and Aegis while we are in game. Now, let us just do as you…”
Aegis (or at least he assumed that was her choice of name) was interrupted from finishing her sentence as a man stumbled onto the bar right next to her.
“Hey!”
The girl screeched as she scooted out of the way.
“Watch where you’re going!”
-”Sorrry… Sorry. What’s a pretty girl like you doing all alone at the bar?”
“I’m not alone.”
She thumbed at Linux who still sat on her other side.
Dark, who had been mesmerized by Aegis had not seen the new arrival, so when he finally turned around to face him, he was surprised to find the Geezer facing him.
“No, you really aren’t.”
The old man said as he wheezed a laugh.
“An ale over here!”
The Geezer called to the barman who was serving customers on the opposite side of the counter.
Aegis now aimed her eye daggers at the old man as he ‘sweetly’ smiled at her, showing… some of his yellow teeth.
Soon, Dark felt a tingle as the barman passed through him.
The barman in turn shuddered, handed the mug of ale to the Geezer and said.
“Woah… mighty chilly in here ain’t it? Here’s yer ale.”
----
“I demand to see your manager… now!”
Jim yelled at the Unicorn receptionist.
He was freaking out, it had been over an hour since Dan had logged into that stupid metal coffin and they still had to finish their route. Jim had tried everything to turn off the stupid machine, but when he had tried to forcefully turn it off he had been repeatedly shown the following screen.
Forcefully quitting Royal Road is not possible at this time.
Jim had wondered if he should have waited longer… for the ‘time’ to change, instead he had chosen to go directly to the source of the problem, Unicorn. He was sure there must be a tech geek in there of some sort that could handle the problem. He really needed his partner back… it was impossible for him to complete a route by himself and he didn’t want to get fired for stinking up Chicago.
“If not your manager then at least someone who can turn off that damn coffin you have sitting outside. It’s a death trap I tell you!”
-”Sir could you please calm down? Otherwise I will be forced to call security.”
“SECURITY!? Are you kidding me? I am the one who should be calling security on your whole company. My friend is stuck in one of your machines… and what do you do? You call security on me. Now I don’t know about you but that sounds an awful lot like you are running from your problems, so get me someone down here imme-”
Jim’s tirade was interrupted when he felt someone touch his shoulder. He turned around angrily ready to deal with the security guard when instead he came face to face with a man with greying in a professional looking suit.
“...Oh.”
Is all Jim could say.