Crystal?!? Huh? Why’d she just leave? We had just won the battle and I was getting ready to hear about how she managed to win after I had died. I had simply gathered up all my courage and sent her a friend request. Why’d she leave with such a red face right after accepting the friend request? I was truly confused.
“Charlie you bastard!” It was Max that had yelled out towards me, Annalise behind to his side.
“Fucking hackers!” Another person called out. Shit, I had to quickly get out of here.
‘Force Logout’
Becoming weightless and dark, the world felt truly empty. My vision eventually returns and I find myself back in my desk chair in my dormitory room. Sleep, I really need sleep. It is dark but what is the actual time, I’m so disorientated. I glance towards my digital clock on my bedside table.
‘9:04 PM’
I feel like I’m about to vomit. It feels like I had stayed up an entire night and it was already lunchtime the next day. At this point, I could tell I would never get used to this. I need some sleep…
******
*beep*
*beep*
*beep*
It was my alarm. I had set it to go off at 7:00 AM shortly before I went to bed, so that I could get a semi-decent sleep. All I can say is that it had worked. Getting out of bed and turning off my alarm I head to the bathroom to relieve myself and take a shower.
Warm water is always refreshing. I let out an audible relaxed sigh as I rethink over all the events that had occurred during the testing phase of the tutorial. It really was over the top, book-work for hours on end, an incredibly tiring run, and then to top it all fucking off, a fight to the death with grenades. It was really too much, I had even read on a forum that there was little to no action in Economicalopoly. Did they lie? Probably.
I turn the hot water off and because I was too slow at turning off the cold water, felt a few seconds of liquid nitrogen poor over me inside a glass prison, a shower. It was still better than a few seconds of magma if you turned off the cold water first, in my opinion. We all have our thoughts.
Staring at myself in the mirror, I was surprised to see no dark circles under my eyes. I guess that it was only my mind that was tired. That makes a lot of sense, actually. Venturing back into my room I put on some new clothes, nothing special. It was supposed to be nice weather today so I wear shorts and a t-shirt, both being dark colors.
Leaving my room I walk down my dormitory’s hallway and see that quite a few others are also out of their rooms.
“Charlie! What’s up?”
“Oh. Hi Adam, it’s been a while.”
“Dude, I saw you yesterday?”
“Oh, you’re right. VR games are confusing…” I mutter quietly to myself.
“Did you just say VR games?” He must have just heard me. It’s not like I planned on hiding it anyway.
“Uhh, yeah. Do you know anything about them?”
“Are you serious?” Adam seems quite shocked at my question.
“Yeah, why?”
“Oh, I don’t know… Just that a good 80% of every student here uses VR!”
“Huh? It’s that popular? I just started yesterday.”
“Oh, is that so?”
“Yeah. Really throws my perception of time out of whack.”
“Ehh, the trick is to use it in moderation and to not use it before anything important.”
“I get it. I’m assuming you know from experience?”
“Yeah, a good half of us play a game called ‘Economicalopoly’. The other half play a medieval one called ‘Death’s Bridge’. I’m part of the former.”
“The very same…”
“Huh? You play Death’s Bridge?”
“Errm, No… Economicalopoly.”
“Ahh. You must be doing the tutorial then? Shit was hell.”
“I only just passed the testing last-night. I'm not keen to jump right back in and get my results just yet. I’ll head down to the library and read some stuff on psychology first.”
“That’s your other class right?”
“Yeah. You must have a good memory.”
“Not really, I’m sure you remember mine anyway.” Shit, what the fuck was his other class again? Robotics and…
“Accounting, right?”
“No… ‘Fine Arts’.”
“I was just messing around.” I produce a fake laugh and quickly attempt to steer the conversation away, “What are you planning to do today?”
“Not much really, Some friends are coming over and we’re having some drinks though.” Not knowing how to respond I just blankly stare a bit.
“Charlie, you wouldn’t happen to want to join us would you?” He must have misread my stare.
“Umm, I’m fin-”
“Nonsense, just knock on my door at around 7:00 PM, alright?”
“Uhh, sure.” It’s too late to take it back. I hope it isn’t too bad, I really don’t like talking to people that much at all.
“Alright, see you later then!”
“Bye.” I wave good-bye and we both go our separate ways.
******
The library is quite busy but I don’t mind. I’m going to just hide in a corner on the second floor anyway. It was about time I look properly at psychology and not just treat it as my secondary course. It was also important in ways understanding how ‘Homo sapiens’ were and why they do what they do.
Grabbing the first book I see, I collapse in a chair in one corner of the library, just like I had planned.
The Psychopathology of Everyday Life
- Sigmund Freud
It had an interesting title so I decided to attempt reading it.
Chapter 1 - The Unconscious Mind
The unconscious mind is not what many believe it to be.
It is incredibly and most definitely complicated. You might
be unbeknownst to it but the unconscious mind has an
incredible influence on your thoughts, actions and most
importantly, mistakes.
In my findings I have found that humans are incredibly
talented at being able to tell what object out of two - one
in each hand - is the heaviest. The test subjects would
announce that they couldn’t tell what object was heavier
or that they were the exact same. After confirming that
they really weren’t sure what weight was heavier I would
ask them to take a guess. Nine times out of ten, the
test subject would be right. The differences in weight I am
talking about would be mere grams compared to the weight
of the object being perhaps 3-5 kilograms.
Eventually I also realised that random actions that you do
- and aren’t entirely sure why you had done them or if you
had really actually done them - are most likely also the
manifestations of your unconscious impulses. For example,
when you forget a close friend's name and it’s right ‘on the
tip of your tongue’, forgotten words, seemingly random
actions, everything of the like can all be attributed to the
deviations of your mental fortitude and unconscious mind.
Another very common example of this would be when one
leaves a room to go to another room with a goal in mind,
but the second they enter the room they forget why they
had ever left the room to begin with and know that whatever
they were planning to do was important before they had
forgotten it.
I also propose that ‘Déjà vu’ has something to do with the
unconscious mind but I haven’t found any conclusive links
thus far.
It was truly interesting. So, when I had forgotten Adam’s secondary course, it was because my unconscious mind had deviated my attention? Psychoanalysis for the win. I am really going to like Psychology, I can tell now.
***Perspective Change***
I know I said that Charlie was going to feel major jetlag when he got out of the game, but right now, it actually felt like it was going to be me.
“Crystal!”
“Yeahh??” It was my sister. I take off my VR Helmet to be more polite.
“Why are you looking so sick?” She had just entered my room and forgotten what she was going to originally ask, having seen my appearance.
“No reason…”
“Oh, right, what was I going to ask again?” With a confused expression she starts muttering to herself as she leaves my room.
I really needed sleep at this point and I had passed out in my bed unintentionally.
******
Waking up, I slowly crawl out of my bed. It must have been almost lunch time because the sun was streaking brightly through my curtains. I guess I should head back in-game. I wonder if Charlie’s online already…
Placing the CNS Cortex Linker on my head and pulling the visor down, I press the ‘On’ button. A pure bright white is the first thing I see, which then darkens into a pure black.
Friends Online:
Charlie Adams
He’s online!
Important Notice!
Thank-you for your patience!
Your results have been calculated and can be found below.
You will also find a copy of your User I.D - resume that can be
handed out in your inventory.
Take note that the resume is divided into two main parts,
the status page and the skills page.
The status page is effectively your worth tallied and displayed
in numerical values. If you have played MMORPGs before, I'm
sure with a single glance you will understand the majority of it.
The main difference is that rather than having stats that go on
forever, stats are instead percentages that rank you against
others.
The higher the number, the better you are in that area. If you
ever encounter someone with 100 in a stat, it means they are
the current number 1 at that stat. Only one 100 can be in each
stat at any time worldwide.
The skills page is simply put, your qualifications, real-life skills
and your education level in a nice simplified and compact area.
If applying for a job, you would most likely only present your
Skills page. Take note that you can choose to omit certain
details when handing out your resume, however, nothing can
be added.
Shortly afterwards my User I.D - Resume popped up in a new window, beside the other one.
User ID - ResumeStatsName:Crystal MurakamiLevel:16(A/N: Not a percentage.)Balance:$3400 (Not considered as part of your earnings in the tutorial)Intelligence:83Strength:44Agility:72Stamina:65Endurance:84Courage:86Strategic Sense:89SkillsJapanese(A/N: As a First Language)AdvancedEnglish(A/N: As a Second Language)NoviceMathematicsEssentialScienceIntermediateHumanitiesAdeptPhysical EducationElevatedAttributes/Traits:Anti-socialEmotional CompetenceAttractiveKind-heartedDiligent
Were those stats good? I wasn’t entirely sure because I had nothing to reference them with. I was assuming that if a stat was above 50, it meant that you were better than one out of two people. Also, what does a level even do?
Important Notice!
You must now choose a Username!
Criteria:
Must be realistic, (eg. no slang, no ‘Pwnage’, no ‘The Beast’, etc)
It has to seem like a real name!
It must be different from your full name.
You may keep either your first or last name the same, however, not both.
The name must be approved by a moderator.
A name? What should I go with… I think I want to keep ‘Crystal’ but what could I pick for a last name than? Thinking hard for a few moments, I settle on ‘Valentina’. It reminded me of Valentine's day which left a warm feeling in my chest.
Help
Is ‘Crystal Valentina’ okay?
Yes.
No.
Reaching out and hovering over the yes button for a moment, I make sure I wasn’t missing anything as it seemed like I wouldn’t be able to change my name too easily.
Help
Hello Miss Valentina!
You will now be transported into the next segment of the tutorial,
located in the actual game world!
******
A large city? Looking around. all I can see is incredibly tall buildings that border on touching the clouds. I was currently in the middle of a square of sorts with a fountain in the middle and several people staring at people teleporting in, just like myself. I guess this was the starting zone in this city?
Oh, right. Charlie? Looking around I notice that Charlie isn’t in the new place I had been teleported to. Where was he?
Help
Charlie is currently in an unknown area. Would you like to call him?
Ehh? Huh? Umm, Y-yes. My cheeks brighten at the thought of calling Charlie and I can’t help but feel everyone nearby glancing at me periodically.
Help
Calling 'Charlie'.
Waiting several heart-wrenching moments, I hear a noise indicating that he had answered.
Help
‘Charlie’ has answered.
“Hello?” It was Charlie that had begun first.
“H-Hii.” I didn’t know what else to say.
“How are you Crystal?”
“I’m good. Sorry about leaving so quickly yesterday, some stuff came up.”
“It’s fine, don’t worry about it.”
“Okay, what are you doing?”
“I’ve been trying to get a job…”
“Huh? Why so fast?”
“I definitely don’t want to have to do a tutorial twice. It would shame me as a Gamer.”
“Ah, I see.”
"So, what do you need?" Charlie had caught me off guard, why exactly did I call him again?
"U-Umm. I-I was wondering if we could t-team together. Is that okay?"
"Ohhh, uhhh... I'm sorry but we can't exactly. Some stuff went down before you came online."
"Huh? What kind of stuff?" What did he mean? I was a bit upset that he outright rejected me.
If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
"Well... Elizabeth and Leaf had approached me about a business idea. At the time I had accepted, provided that a place was reserved for you." A business idea? But why would this stop us from working together?
"I don't get it?"
"Basically what happened was, the others were angry because we destroyed them and it would have affected their business."
"Wouldn't Elizabeth and Leaf have been the same way?" Charlie sighed, it seemed I had asked a good question.
"Well, no. They seemed pretty happy that they had gotten me with that undodgeable grenade, must have given them some nice bonuses or something."
"Oh... So I'm still with them?"
"Yeah, you might find it interesting."
"Hmm? Why?"
"You'll see, give me a second. I'm sending Elizabeth's contact to you."
"Okay, thanks Charlie!"
"No problem." I hear him chuckle a little bit. What's he up to?
Help
'Charlie' has sent you 'Elizabeth's' contact details.
Friends Online:
Charlie Adams
Contacts Online:
Elizabeth Hawk
"Alright, if you need anything let me know."
"Sure, thanks Charlie!"
"It's alright, bye Crystal."
"Byee."
Help
'Charlie' has hung up.
It's interesting, huh? I guess I should call Elizabeth than.
Help
Calling 'Elizabeth'.
I hear the same nostalgic dial-tone and ringtone from my childhood. After a few cycles of each, she finally picked up.
Help
'Elizabeth' has answered.
"Crystal!" Elizabeth had suddenly shouted in a happy voice at me, "I'm guessing that Charlie gave you my contact details?"
"Uhh, yeah."
"So, are you in?"
"The thing is that he didn't tell me anything about it, just that I'd enjoy it."
"I suggest that you slap your boyfriend next time you see him."
"B-Boyfriend!?!" My cheeks take on a pink shade and I can feel myself trying to make sense of the situation.
"He was messing with you, we're just doing cleaning. One of the contacts I received after completing the tutorial was a company that was in dire need of cleaners. It's obviously not the best or highest paying job but it is guaranteed to have us pass the tutorial."
That little shit Charlie, you just didn't want to do cleaning! Charlie was definitely not the kind who would want to clean up after others. I didn't have any reason to reject Elizabeth though, I suppose I'll just take it. I can always look for another job if I change my mind.
"I'll give it a go, alright?"
"Sure, you'll have to come down to us though. More importantly, how much money did you get from the tutorial?"
"Uhh... $3400?"
"$3-3-3400?!?"
"Y-yeah? Is it not enough?"
"I'll put it this way, you got more than Leaf and I combined."
"R-really? What do I even need it for?"
"Crystal, you need to stop thinking of this as a game. It's your second life now. What do people need to live?" What does she mean? Like, essential things?
"Ahh, a house? Food? Money?"
"Right! It's not likely that you'll be able to get a job if you're homeless. You also need food so that you don't starve. Money is your bridge to all of that."
"I get it, so this game is basically real life?"
"Yeah, about houses, I found an apartment building that was really cheap and nearby to the spawning square. Charlie, Leaf and I all got a room. To cut down on costs, Charlie and Leaf had actually got a room together. We could do the same, if you like." Sharing a room with someone else? I hadn't done anything like that since when I was sharing a room with my little sister, years before.
"I'm okay with it, how much would that be, though?"
"If we split the rent and food costs it'd be around $350 for the rent and $120 for food, $470 a month."
"Isn't that really cheap?"
"Yeah, don't worry, the place isn't bad or anything. I'm not too sure why it's so cheap."
"Alright, so what do I do?" I thought it was time we wrapped the conversation up and moved on to the next step.
"I'll send you a location on a map and you'll simply have to walk there. Alright?"
"Umm, sure."
"Alright, see you soon!" With that, Elizabeth had hung up.
Help
'Elizabeth' has hung up.
Help
'Elizabeth' has sent you GPS coordinates. Would you like to open them up on a mini map?
Yes.
No.
Pressing yes, I set off on the journey to begin my second life.
***Perspective Change***
The only thing I disliked more than 'Homo sapiens' was cleaning up after messes that they had made. Coming up with a plausible excuse, I managed to slip away from the tendrils of Elizabeth and start looking for my own job.
I open up my 'Important Notices' log and check over everything from when I had logged on earlier. (A/N: All of these messages had already popped up and read/used, hence past tense.)
Important Notice!
Thank-You ‘Charlie’!
You have completed all required tests, now you will
be able to move onto the next phase.
No one said it would be easy, stop frowning!
We are now calculating your test scores and will place
you in approximate rankings while also generating an
accurate resume on yourself. The resume also serves
as a form of identification. Take care not to lose it!
You can't actually lose it but still!
At the time, I had waited patiently for the next box to show up.
Important Notice!
Thank-you for your patience!
Your results have been calculated and can be found below.
You will also find a copy of your User I.D - resume that can be
handed out in your inventory.
Take note that the resume is divided into two main parts,
the status page and the skills page.
The status page is effectively your worth tallied and displayed
in numerical values. If you have played MMORPGs before, I'm
sure with a single glance you will understand the majority of it.
The main difference is that rather than having stats that go on
forever, stats are instead percentages that rank you against
others.
The higher the number, the better you are at the area. If you
ever encounter someone with 100 in a stat, it means they are
the current number 1 at that stat. Only one 100 can be in each
stat at any time worldwide.
The skills page is simply put, your qualifications, real-life skills
and your education level in a nice simplified and compact area.
If applying for a job, you would most likely only present your
Skills page. Take note that you can choose to omit certain
details when handing out your resume, however, nothing can
be added.
From the above box I had already learnt how the stats actually worked.
User ID - ResumeStatsName:Charlie HughesLevel:14Balance:$3000Intelligence:93Strength:53Agility:62Stamina:45Endurance:68Courage:86Strategic Sense:94SkillsUnderstanding of RoboticsBasicEnglishAdvancedMathematicsAdvancedScienceIntermediateHumanitiesSatisfactoryPhysical EducationGeneralPsychologyBeginnerPhysicsAdeptAttributes/Traits:Sweet Talker(Hidden Attribute*)Hard WorkerUnsociableBrutally HonestEfficientLogical ThinkerHidden skills are bonuses that can
be obtained in-game that directly
affect your experience. 'Sweet-
Talker' has the ability to convince
NPCs that what you are saying is true.
Some recommended uses are:
Haggling prices,
Obtaining information,
Obtaining women.
Congratulations!
For managing to complete the physical part
of the examination with a severely lacking
team you have gained an incredibly rare
hidden skill!
Enjoy!
I had already understood after a quick skim over it that my results were quite good.
Important Notice!
You must now choose a Username!
Criteria:
Must be realistic, (eg. no slang, no ‘Pwnage’, no ‘The Beast’, etc)
It has to seem like a real name!
It must be different from your full name.
You may keep either your first or last name the same, however, not both.
The name must be approved by a moderator.
Not wanting to part with 'Charlie', I decided that I'd simply only change my last name. I had quickly chosen Charlie Adams. It was a simple last name but I liked simple.
Help
You have chosen 'Charlie Adams'.
Would you like to confirm this?
Yes.
No.
At this point I had just pressed yes without a care in the world. It was easier not to think about trivial things.
Help
Hello Mr. Adams!
You will now be transported into the next segment of the tutorial,
located in the actual game world!
After all that, I had met up with Elizabeth and Leaf in the square. To my surprise they actually wanted to see me and they proceeded to make an offer about a job and housing.
Listening to their propositions, I had quickly agreed to the apartment plan. I didn't mind sharing something I'd probably never use. Besides, it would cut costs. The only thing I would not do was clean up after 'Homo Sapiens', quickly coming up with an excuse like 'The others from the examination group would come to resent you, damaging your reputation'.
******
After having played for only a few hours, I had noticed a few things.
NPCs were not actually aware that they were not actually real people. I could use the word 'people' because they weren't actually real. NPCs were incredibly lifelike and I could not actually tell the differences unless I asked a question about the real world.
Some 'Homo sapiens' literally lived this world. I had heard things about 'Homo sapiens' playing for an entire real day straight, sleeping in game and everything. This would turn out to be just over a week of playing. They would earn all their money by playing and then converting it into money in real life.
This city seemed to go on forever. I had went for a walk along the street that my apartment was on, walking for 30 minutes, I could still see no end in sight for the street as it seemed to bend with the horizon. I remember from an old physics class that the horizon, if on a perfectly spheroid earth, was just beyond five kilometers away. This was one long-ass street.
Everything possible in game was possible in real life. Essentially, Economicalopoly was a clone of the universe governed by the exact same laws(Thermodynamics, Newton's Laws, etc). Because of this and the fact that time advanced much faster than the real world, technology had advanced to a point well above the real world's. Scientists would attempt to understand the technology and incorporate it in the real world. Although the universe was a clone, it still had a few differences, the pocket dimension of an inventory for one.
Lastly, being overqualified sucked. The NPCs were just as stingy as real 'Homo sapiens'. I had applied for 4 different jobs at radically different business but was immediately turned down at all of them. They believed the work I would be doing would be too easy and for being capable of so much more it would seem necessary to pay me substantially more than average.
******
Hmm? What's this? Having been walking along my apartments street for at least an hour, I had noticed a 'GameShop' in the distance. What is 'GameShop' doing in a game they sell?
My interest piqued, I head towards it at a faster speed. Walking in the door my eyes open to the maximum.
"Alysia?!?"
At this point, the girl I had met in 'GameShop' in real life, was in front of me.
***End of Chapter***
Hello everyone! I was going to write even more and hit maybe six thousand words but I decided against it because I thought that it was the perfect point to end it(right there ^^^^), on a semi-cliffhanger. I mean, I fucking hate cliff-hangers but they really show that you are emotional about something and that’s what I’m going for. Yay! <3 Vote on the poll like usual and also, releases will be speeding up from this point on! Also, tables take forever. I could release almost an entire hour earlier if it wasn’t for these pesky tables!