Kai was pretty distracted the entire school day after his plotting the previous day - if you could even call it plotting though - so he was pretty much matching the class speed for a change. Instead of reading a book between assignments, his teachers did notice, but Kai wasn't really distracting any other students, and he was pretty amenable usually, so they didn't say anything. The short school day passed by, and after finishing the homework he was given, he set to play cards with some friends - Tam included. All the while, Kai was looking often at his phone to check the hour.
"You are checking to see if you should ditch us to play Dendro, aren't you?" Tam spoke between shuffling cards for another round.
"Well, I mean, yeah, it'd be a shame to waste an extra hour outside when I already have a bunch of things to do in the game," Kai replied.
Tam was about to reply, but Pen, the third person in their group, spoke first. "You should just focus on other stuff. Dendro is gonna stay there for a few years; I'm pretty sure about that. Anyway, you shouldn't get yourself burnt out on the game. It'd be a real shame to spend 100$ on the game just to quit it after a week."
"Actually, I paid 150$ because I had to buy it from a scalper in the end. But either way, I played for only like 2 hours, and it seems like there's a lot to do. So I think I'm fine. If burning out is your concern. Anyway, I guess you also play, then, Pen?"
"Well, yeah, of course. I don't get how you didn't end up being the first between us to start playing."
"It's just that I was skeptical about the tech. It's not like I didn't try, but my stomach is apparently really weak when it comes to VR games. So like a year ago, after trying for a bit another VRMMO, I almost puked from just 15 minutes playing. But surprisingly, I didn't feel any of that in Dendro, even though I had more range of motion than in the previous two games I tried, both like I said, almost made me puke," Kai explained.
Tam inserted himself back into the conversation, dealing the cards to them. "So, Pen, guess what starting country Kai chose?" Tam said it with a mischievous smile. Kai didn't understand what was funny about his prompting.
"Let me guess, you went to Dryfe for mech combat? Or did you seriously go to Tenchi?" Pen replied simply.
Kai answered instead of Tam. "No, I chose Legendria. The high fantasy sounded cool."
Pen didn't listen, instead starting to chuckle before speaking. "You seriously didn't check any forum or anything about the countries, did you? Apparently, there's been a large influx of weirdos into the country after some of the features of Infinite Dendrogram became more public knowledge."
Kai thought for a moment what Pen could mean by that before instinctively groaning. "No, this can't be real. Are you serious?" Kai composed himself and then spoke. "Fine, fine, whatever. I just need to deal with one thing in Legendria, and then I'll go to my next option. Sure, why not? This shouldn't take long to beat some rando, right?"
"Well, it depends. What level is this guy? I know grinding can take a pretty long time," Tam chimed.
"Yeah, and even then, sometimes embryos can totally disregard levels because they can be really strong and not dependent on your level to evolve," Pen added.
"I checked the guy's videos yesterday to plan my fight, and in his arena fight, he fought someone at level 150, so I guess he's probably around that level, but his embryo isn't that impressive. It's just his centaur body and creating ice. I'll make sure to notice any sneak attacks from it this time," Kai replied somewhat indignant at their lack of faith in him.
"Wait, the embryo is the centaur body? Dude, it's a rare type. Who knows how powerful it actually is, then?" Tam chimed in.
"I don't know about rare types, but I don't think it's actually the entire body, just the lower half," Kai said.
"Oh, I see. Well, still, don't be cocky. You are playing against a stacked deck. You still have school, and from what you said, this guy made his job in dendro. He probably has more time than you to power level," Pen warned.
They went on to talk about their upcoming tests and worried about getting good recommendations from their teachers to get picked as programmers in the army. Kai was actually quite worried about recommendations, even though he was sure 2 out of 4 of his teachers would be glad to give their recommendation. He felt that his antagonism towards the principal of his school could end up canceling out any favor from his other teachers.
Another half-hour passed as they talked about one of the subjects in class that Kai didn't completely understand. Tam helped him understand it, realizing he actually missed part of the lecture because of his distraction that day. The subject simply didn't pop up meaningfully in the assignments, so it didn't give him trouble in class. But the explanation was useful to solve those assignments more quickly.
They closed their stuff and took off, with Kai and Tam taking the same bus while Pen went in the opposite direction. Once home, Kai checked his phone and saw that it was only 2:30 pm. He had to wait another hour and a half before his death penalty ended. He went to his room to take off his bag and found his sister wearing the game helmet in his chair, pretty much motionless. For once, he couldn't hear the sound from her headphones.
"I looked into the helmet yesterday, and it didn't have a screen, so maybe it's all supplied directly to the brain. This would be awful if someone convinces the developers to put ads in the game. Every time someone invents new tech, companies will definitely use it for marketing," Kai thought to himself, annoyed at the idea that he knew would come sooner or later, but had to accept the reality of it.
"Hey, Tsuno, what are you doing with my game?" Kai asked, stopping for a moment to think about how she even got it to activate before the death penalty ended.
"You better not reset my save," Kai quickly warned, realizing that she already might have done so.
Tsuno took off the helmet a little disoriented and spoke disconnected from Kai's conversation, "Oh hey, Kai, I was just playing it a bit. I didn't see any save, and you weren't coming for another hour, so I thought it's fine."
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
"What do you mean you didn't see any save? I played for an hour yesterday. Where did you spawn?" Kai asked.
"I appeared in a study with a pair of twins sitting in the same chair in front of me. They gave me a tutorial and an embryo egg. I did ask about the save, and they said that each account is linked to the unique brainwaves of each user, so I wasn't playing on your save or deleted it. Can I play for like one more hour?"
"Well, my death penalty only ends in an hour and 20 minutes from now, so I can't do anything about it but move to the public space, please," Kai replied.
Tsuno took the helmet and played in the public space like Kai asked while he took out his computer and started reading and printing some practice tests for school to do later. 25 minutes passed, and Tsuno knocked on the door. "Hey, I finished. You wanna play now?"
Kai replied offhandedly, "Look at the clock, Tsuno. You still have 50 minutes. I'll tell you when the death penalty is over."
Tsuno quickly walked to the public space to check the clock, realizing that only about 30 minutes had passed. "Wait, but I checked the in-game clock. It said 12:50 PM when I went back inside."
"Did you not ask anyone for tips or something?" Kai reflected on that question, realizing how much good it actually gave him. He simply explained to Tsuno, "the game moves at three times normal speed."
"But I did a lot in 25 minutes. I don't think I would've been able to do all of that in 25 minutes," Tsuno protested.
"It's not that the clock and day cycle move at triple speed. The entire game gives you triple the normal time," Kai clarified.
Tsuno stood there for a moment with realization before she ran quickly back to the public space to play her remaining hour or three hours in Dendro time. Kai waited and read, ending up reading more than 10 minutes past 4. He went to the public space and tapped Tsuno on the shoulder, and she took off the helmet.
"Can I please play for another half an hour?" Tsuno asked.
"No, I already gave you plenty of time. Come on, I want to check on my account," Kai replied.
"Fine," Tsuno said, giving Kai the helmet before quickly going to their mom's room. "I guess she went to ask Mom to buy a helmet for her as well." Kai went to his room and put on the helmet.
◇
lancer , Shekō ruun, Amneal
Sheko appeared again at the city gate. The first thing he did was to check his inventory. He now had 2200 lir and no weapon, but he was equipped with a new glove. his embryo was named "Odysseus, Clever Voyager," and looking at its description gave Sheko the full explanation of his embryo's two abilities.
The first ability was called "Ignorance Is Bold." It allowed him to create a mark on himself and move it freely around his body and equipment or even envelop his entire body with the mark. The ability also had the capability to create a mark on someone or something else that he touched with his gloved hand or touched directly with the gloved hand in the case of ranged weapons the projectiles he shot would be temporarily marked without a limit on their number and hitting someone with a marked projectile counted as hitting them for the creation of a new mark. That mark could then move like his own mark but was limited to the major body part that was hit by it. He could not make more than one of each mark at a time, meaning he had to dismiss a mark he put on something or someone else before he could make a new one. The ability did nothing beyond a visual change on its own and cost nothing to activate.
The second ability was much more interesting as it had an actual effect. The ability was called "Ride Through The Storm," which allowed Sheko to activate any number of placed marks created by "Ignorance Is Bold" to turn the target around the mark in increments of quarter rotations. Each increment of turning cost 1 SP, and the turning speed was a fixed 5 times Sheko's AGI. However, the amount of increments when activating the ability was not limited beyond the amount of SP Sheko had. This did, however, put a limit to Sheko's control over the ability, as he always moved his targets in a fixed increment, and he could not move himself and a target at the same time unless he was willing to turn the same way his target did. All of this seemed to guide him towards his planned build, most likely Kai's interest in creating a quick and versatile build, led to his embryo fitting it quite well.
After that lengthy reading and consideration, Kai set out to the guild building to take the Matador job. It was apparently only available in cities that had a colosseum, but Sheko was lucky in that matter as Amneal had a colosseum. However, when Sheko asked about it, he was told by the guild register that he could not fight in the arena until level 50 for safety reasons. Sheko was not interested in cutting his playtime short today. After taking care of his job situation, Sheko asked for directions to a bar called The Four Wagons, which was special for its accommodations for the large residents of the city. Sheko was not interested in alcohol whatsoever, but checking Kaizo's channel, he knew the group was supposed to gather soon at the bar. So if he ran there now, he might have a chance to speak with GasStar.
Finding the place was very simple, as you'd imagine a bar serving customers that loom over normal people close to nighttime was pretty eye-catching. However, when Sheko was about to enter, a gray-skinned giant blocked his entry.
"What are you looking for, little human?" the giant asked with a rumbling slow voice.
"I was looking for a master called KaizoStomp. I heard he's a regular here."
"It's none of my business to go into master problems, but I'll tell you Kaizo is not here and was already told yesterday that he shouldn't come to the bar for a few days. Some rumor spread that he kidnapped Mr. Chanter. The man is a character, I'll tell you that, but he hired some regulars in the bar from time to time, so people have respect for him, and more importantly, it paints a bad picture on them if they get associated with Kaizo now. Their potential employers might suspect them, so it's best to let it cool off."
Sheko listened to the explanation carefully, somewhat impressed by the articulation of the situation by the giant guard.
"Thank you, sir. Do you know where Kaizo might've gone instead?"
"I think I might've given you the wrong idea. We prefer to give privacy to all of our patrons, so I will not answer your question."
"Well I do appreciate your values, if I ever decide to start drinking I'll take you into consideration"
"Sure, that is if you'd even be able to finish one mug in our pub"
Sheko turned around from the pub and went on to find a blacksmith that might be selling a weapon he could use like a spear, a throwing axe, or a shotgun if that was even an option in this country. The search wasn't long considering that after he was told by the first blacksmith he found that many of the blacksmiths in town didn't even deal with the budget range he was currently in, and gave him an address for a blacksmith he knew had stock he could afford.
The shop he was referred to wasn't large, and the shopkeeper was standing outside shouting deals to the general crowd. Sheko went up to the man and asked, "Sir, I'd like to check your shop if you'd allow." The man replied quickly before returning to shouting, "I have a price list behind me. I'll get your request out once you've made up your mind."
The list he was referring to listed the prices for 10 items, including a full set of leather armor for 4000 lir, an iron pickaxe for 750 lir, and an iron spear for 1000 lir with no job to use with the axe that was also listed. Sheko's limited funds made him hesitant on gambling his chances with learning a new, less reliable weapon than a spear. He did consider getting both but decided against it as he realized he was feeling somewhat hungry, or at least his avatar was.
He quickly bought a cheap batch of fruits after paying for his new spear and ate on his walk to the forest. It was a truly weird sensation tasting the fruits, not because they tasted weird, but because they tasted exactly as he had expected fruits to taste. This technology alone should have cost a fortune to create. Testing even just a few basic food items to then replicate the taste was still probably more advanced than any other VR technology made public yet.