The assembly went as expected. School went as expected. Everything went as expected, It all was as painful as ever. Once the bell rang, Ethan found himself picking his stuff up and immediately heading home.

The house was empty by the time he arrived. The car that occupied the garage this morning was nowhere to be seen, and all the doors and windows were locked. He checked the family group, but nothing in the chat.

He unlocked the front fence and made his way inside. Everyone had their own set of keys, so he locked the fence before going in. He went into his room and washed himself, before preparing dinner and doing his homework. The fact that in-game food couldn’t make players full in real life irritated him since this meant he would need to return to town and sleep, exit the game and eat dinner, before going back out. He could sleep outside of town, but that would mean exposing his virtual body to the wilderness. If someone or a monster jumped on him, he would risk losing some of his possessions.

When the time for dinner came, Ethan sent a message to his sister and mother, and while both claimed that they would be eating dinner at home, both would be home late. Ethan heated up the soup he made before heading back into his room.

He lay on his bed. He took his headpiece and put it on his head. The headpiece connected to his mind, a window appearing behind his eyelids. Using the power of his brain, he turned on the system.

It didn’t take long for him to return to the world he called home. He woke up under the dull, almond-colored walls. The skyline showed a bright blue, with clouds all over the horizon. Ethan got off the bed. Before he exited the room, he brought his cloak over his head, covering a small portion of his face. He could still see, but the shadow cast darkness into his eyes. It didn’t bother him all that much, but there were times when he needed to lift his face to be able to see.

He exited his room and made his way down the narrow hallways that formed this building. At the end of that hallway was a stair that brought him down to the ground floor, right behind the receptionist.

“I hope you have a good day.”

“Thanks.”

Ethan answered, despite knowing that she was a computer. He often put in some little interactions like this, not out of kindness, but usually out of habit.

He made his way to the guild. The walk to the guild took him only about five minutes, probably the shortest distance between two different places that he would visit on this day. It was one of the weaknesses of being in Aevimedii, the southern country. This country had banned the use of any form of both technology and magic, some say referring to the middle ages of Europe. This meant players entering and spawning inside the region had all their technological and magic-based weapons, equipment, or even abilities locked.

As a result, this became the country with the highest difficulty, which meant the most rewards, the most experience, but at the time the most barebone. Since many technological advancements didn’t exist back in the era this country was based in, many of the amenities didn’t exist yet, vehicles included. Ethan could buy a horse, but he had other priorities for the time being. He entered the guild, decorated to fit the theme.

The lines were filled like usual. The game only had three servers for the entire world, composed of many different time zones. For some people, this very moment may be midnight, evening, or even the afternoon, thus it was almost always crowded.

He walked up to the receptionist, waiting patiently in line. The guild had a limit of one hundred twenty seconds for each player, so that one player couldn’t hamper up the line. Large, buff NPCs stood guard near the stairs, ready to put down any players that dared to attempt to mess up the operations. Eventually, it was his turn.

“Welcome to the players’ guild. Would you like to accept a quest?”

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A screen appeared in Ethan’s vision. The player menu was one of the few technological features that could exist within this country. Its existence did break the immersion sometimes, so some players opted to turn it off and use their voices instead. Ethan didn’t bother with it and scrolled through the quest. The Southern Forest offered the most rewards, due to being among the most difficult areas. It was a yellow zone, where enemies roamed the lands freely, but players couldn’t attack him. There were some red areas surrounding Adastra, areas that allowed PvP and had better rewards, but they were further away and would need a horse to get to.

He accepted three different quests. As usual, one would be a high-level, hard-to-do quest, the second would be a mid-level one and the last would be low-level, the ones usually given to beginners. This was to ensure that if something did go wrong, he wouldn’t risk his time for three different, failed quests. In a worst-case scenario, he was confident he could still return with the low-level quest in the bag. After accepting the quest, he went back to the streets and waited for a carriage that would take him to the town’s southern gate.

He noticed a girl coming up to his left, waiting for the same carriage. He glanced at her, and recognized her features.

Chione.

She may not talk much to him, but she usually still greeted him if they met, so he pondered on why she remained silent for a while, but was soon reminded that she didn’t know it was him. He had a completely different avatar, one with a taller posture and more handsome features, messy dark red hair and black eyes, unlike the boring, real-life him. He didn’t consider himself to be particularly ugly, as long as that version of him didn’t stand side by side with this one.

He sneaked glances at her, wondering what she was doing. She was here, so obviously she was waiting for a carriage, he knew that much. Why she waited and where she headed were the things he felt curious about. He didn’t ask, however. In her eyes, he was no more than a stranger, and the only reason she even greeted the real him was out of politeness. She was that kind of person, the type that was nice to everyone and had a lot of friends. It would be weirder if she never greeted him.

Besides, even if she knew who the owner of this avatar standing next to her was, that didn’t give him the right to ask about her private information. She obviously felt uncomfortable about the fact that she played this game in the first place, so why would she tell her reasoning to anyone? Especially him?

Not long later, a carriage arrived, and both of them got onboard. He took the position in the back corner of the carriage, while Chione found space near the front. The carriage rattled as the horses pulled it forward across the town, stopping every five hundred meters, letting passengers come and go. He originally thought that she would get down at any stop by this point, but she glued herself to her seat. The carriage finally arrived at its last destination, the southern gate.

With the money automatically deducted by the system, Ethan got off before Chione. He headed down the road for the Southern Forest, not looking back.

It didn’t take him long to finish all his quests. He watched as the corpse of a Forest Bigfoot, a high-level enemy that pounded on him, disappeared into the skies. It was a close call, as it attacked right when he was inspecting his quest. His sights were focused on the screen, and it struck him from behind. Had he not used the agility build, he would probably take some damage, the amount depending on what kind of build he used. It reminded him of just how dangerous this forest could be.

The rewards from this encounter appeared on his screen, and he made a quick check while walking through the forest, careful not to trip on anything. He closed the window, satisfied with the results, when he heard the sound of two swords clashing coming from his right. He looked in that direction and started walking toward the source.

At first, he thought someone was fighting another player. While the yellow zone didn’t allow PvP, it did allow duels, where players in the same party would fight each other with no risk, but once he saw the two fighters, he realized that he was wrong. Instead of another player, it was a Forest Knight, a high-level monster that guarded the forest. It had the form of a knight, covered with metallic, silver armor, a sharp sword in hand, its face covered with a metallic helmet. The only thing that differentiates it from a player knight were the two thorns coming out from its forehead. It brought his sword down onto a girl, who defended the attack using a weird-looking sword.

Ethan focused his eyes on the girl, and realized that it was Chione, still fighting with the beginner sword the game gave her. The beginner sword was a wooden sword, but with metal coating on the sharp ends of the blade.

What is she-

Clang.

The monster’s sword sliced through the metal covering and broke the blade, splitting Chione’s weapon into two. The strike caused her to fall back, landing on her butt. The knight edged closer toward her, while she tried moving back. She found herself in a corner, her back stuck on a tree. She didn’t scream as she watched the metal blade swinging down straight at her.