Lee Jun wore a pensive look on his face as he sat on top of his bed with his VR gaming console on his lap. It had been an entire week since he last logged into Elementarem Vim, an equivalent of three weeks in the gaming world. It had been 3 weeks in game time since he had witnessed the murder of the NPC, Theodore. Most players would have rushed to log back into the game after such an exciting development, more so if it involved them. Lee Jun was no different, a completely addicted gamer, who could breath, eat, live on gaming. Yet, here he sat facing a mental block that dissuaded him from playing more Elementarem Vim….

Murder was something Lee Jun had witnessed many times in Athenos. However, it was never something so brutal and violent. He had killed thousands in a single swoop in Athenos all with a simple click of a button. He never really had to witness the detailed pain that the victim was going through. Even when fighting physically, it took firing no more than a few shots to kill. One shot in itself was instant kill for most races (given the correct gear). Even the most dangerous villains in the Athenos universe would fall significantly short of evil. Each important character in that game had a simple background, if you understood their background, then you would understand their motivations and there wasn’t really anything to fear.

However, what Lee Jun witnessed in Elementarem Vim shook him to his core and left him with only fear. There was no explanation readily available at hand to explain the motivations of Shadow. Who is Shadow? Why did he massacre so many innocent lives? And what was he after?

Having witnessed the death of Theodore only added to the painful emotions Lee Jun was facing. It just wasn’t Theodore, most likely the old couple were killed as well. Lonely. The game had suddenly become such a lonely place for Lee Jun. There was the society that he had joined, ‘Sons of Ivaldi’, however that was going to take some time to uncover.

Even if he kept himself preoccupied with that he would continue to feel lonely. With Theodore and Rodriguez by his side, Lee Jun had a very memorable time at Elementarem Vim, with them gone….was there something really to look forward to? Never before did the characters of a game grow on to Lee Jun before. The NPCs of all other games would appear to feel so artificial to him that he always thought of them as nothing more than mere pawns. Yet here he was faced with emotions so real that he had to question whether they were NPCs or real players? Or was it one of the charms of Royal Road: Elementarem Vim? Did the developers create such life like characters that one could easily mistake them for real people.

A normal player could have thought of several reasons to return by now. However Lee Jun was not a normal player. The very word vengeance did not exist in his vocabulary. So revenge could never be a tool to motivate him to join back the game. Adventure and mysteries were as alluring to him as candy is to a baby. But Lee Jun was only a child by body, his mind was many times more mature. He could see and understand his own temptations and weaknesses better than anyone. He wasn’t so senseless as to dive back into the game without any additional preparations.

But was this really the truth? Would additional preparation be enough to mentally prepare Lee Jun for Elementarem Vim? Lee Jun kept denying the truth to himself, but he had indeed grown afraid to log back in. The fear of Shadow’s merciless massacre or the loss of his mentors crushed any courage and conviction Lee Jun had to log back into Elementarem Vim. ….

With no guts, to log back into VR gaming, killing time in the real world seems to be an awfully daunting task. Lee Jun began the first day (after the massacre) waking up and preparing breakfast for his mother. It was an absolute delight for his mom. The son that she had taken care for the last so many years finally became more thoughtful, it was a dream come true….

Lee Jun went on to clean the entire house (it’s surprising how much society evolved, technology never made it easier to clean the house). There were autobots to vacuum the place….but putting stuff back, rearranging and redecorating….all of that remained manual labour.

If it weren’t spooky enough that Lee Jun cooked breakfast and cleaned the house, he even helped with lunch. For Lee Jun’s mom, the situation was very confusing. She had a son who only lived on VR games like most brats his age and yet here he is helping out with household chores without being asked to do so….something was not right. She wanted to ask him if everything was alright, but knowing her son, he would probably brush it off saying there was nothing bothering him. She had to wait for him to open up to her.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Most mothers would be proud that there son turned into an angel overnight….Lee Jun’s mom was worried. She was happy to begin with, but seeing him around her all the time started getting on her nerves. If that wasn’t irritating enough he even was doing her household work for him….bringing her to face a situation where she can’t keep herself busy! Most mothers would be longing for this opportunity but when done so suddenly it’s more of a disruption to their everyday routine.

As the day crawled by, Lee Jun’s mother decided to accept the sudden change in her son, ‘for better or for the worse at least he isn’t playing games all the time! That can only be a good thing!’ His mother could not have been more wrong. If she had assumed this was going to be a onetime thing, she was terribly off the mark. The second day just like the first, Lee Jun was all over the house, helping out. His mom could only smile as her son was invading into all her free time. She would try coaxing him to get back into VR gaming…but Lee Jun pretended not hear it.

The third day, Lee Jun was up and about again; this mundane life was tiring and testing him as well. He had never really physically exerted himself before as he was doing now. Household chores were tiring him out, which was a good thing because he could sleep soundly at night. No longer did he have to worry about a nightmare where he is killed by Shadow. It was pure bliss. As Lee Jun tucked himself away in bed, he wondered how long could he keep this up for, it had already been three days since he logged back into VR gaming.

Things were really getting out of hand. With each passing day, Lee Jun grew more and more timid. He would often lie down in his bed at night and try to work around why was he so frightened to face the game Elementarem Vim. He couldn’t die by playing it. The worst thing that could happen would be loss of a level and it’s not like one feels extreme pain in a game. So there really shouldn’t be anything to be afraid off. Yet, was it only fear that drove Lee Jun into a corner? Lee Jun did not know the answer to that question. If it were loneliness he could simply make more friends by playing some more…

‘So what am I really afraid of?’ He asked himself.

Reflecting back on that night, Lee Jun marked another day on his computer calendar. ‘It’s already been seven days….’

Several times since then Lee Jun, would hold up his VR gear and contemplate putting it on. But he never was able to do it. Something always held him back and it frustrated him that he had no idea why he was holding himself back. Sheepishly putting away his gear he walked down stairs to help out with dinner.

The terrible thing about exercising is that the body gets used to simple routines. When that happens you need to take it up a notch. Lee Jun did not notice this small detail, however in the one week he helped around with household chores, his body quickly grew used to the small amount of labour. As he tucked himself in, Lee Jun grew anxious, he didn’t know why but he had a feeling that tonight was a going to be a terrifying night….He tried staying up as long as he could but before he knew it he was asleep……..

Lee Jun looked around, he was still on his bed….but something was off, his bedroom seemed so much bigger than before and then the air began to change the bedroom peeled back to reveal another scene he had seen before...

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Authors Note:

1. So I am jumping between Lee Hyun and Lee Jun in the coming few chapters.

2. This chapter begins with day 7, then I go through day 1-3 and back at day 7. Just in case there is any confusion.

3. Chapters are bit short, but there will be more of them.

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Connect to Royal Road – Elementarem Vim next Chapter?YesNo

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