Jim's PoV

Jim felt like he was floating on clouds. As he opened his eyes he could see he was laying down on a massive four poster bed. The massive pillows, the heavy blanket and the room were all a pristine white. And then he saw her.

A blonde angel with dainty white feathered wings flew in and landed right in front of him. Recovering from her landing, she tucked her wings behind her and started making a beeline towards him.

Ms. Angel was eyeing him like he was the last glass of water on a desert island. The tightly fitting white gown left little to the imagination. Seconds later she was on top of him. He kept having annoying thoughts like 'This was not where I went to sleep'.

Angel lady also seemed to have a weird kink for ears. She kept licking his ear over and over. Finally the haze cleared from his mind. Sadly Jim realized that this was a dream. Unfortunately that realization caused him to start waking up and the angel lady disappeared. Disappointed Jim opened his eyes and found he was in his dingy hotel room.

Dingy might have been a bit harsh, but when compared to the vision of a few seconds ago, there wasn't a more apt word. Oddly he must have still been half asleep because the licking didn't seem to stop. Sitting upright on the bed the sensation continued. Jim groaned, finally figuring out the cause. Evil little demons from another world were playing tricks on him.

Shifting his right eye he once again saw into the game world. The first thing he noticed was that he was no longer sitting down with his back against a tree. He'd fallen over. Looking through the corner of his eye he could now see the cause of his problem. One of the wolf cubs was licking his ear.

As he locked eyes with the wolf, it yipped happily and pounced on top of his chest. In an instant the wolf's sibling joined in and he had two cute little wolves standing on top of him licking his face. Jim feebly tried to fend off their attacks.

Unfortunately he had some trouble trying to stand up because in one world he was sitting and in the other he was on his back. Being in two different positions at the same time really messed with his coordination. Puffy happy playful looking wolves pressed the advantage and continued raining their tongues down on his face.

In between a gap in their attack, Jim finally was able to shout "Stop!" To his surprise it actually worked. The pair backed off and sat on their haunches looking at him while panting. Right behind them he saw a familiar helmet.

As he inspected it more closely, he saw that the chin strap was broken. They must have chewed through the strap and took his helmet off. Refocusing on the pair he growled "Just give me a few minutes you little bastards and I'll be over. First my foot and now my ear? What next?"

During his speech one of the cubs took a bite at the other's tail. Of course the other puff ball retaliated. Playful fighting followed. Safe for at least a few minutes, Jim's vision shifted back to his hotel room. He quickly got some breakfast and took a shower. While getting ready he started focusing on how to achieve his first objective, he needed to find somewhere he could keep his character parked.

The place needed to be safe. He quickly considered heading back to Alextria, but then tossed that out. In the back of his mind he replayed killing the wolves parents, but this time the image was overlaid with a man on a horse.

He remembered how his sword had easily cut through man and beast alike. With the wolves' display of fear, he looked at the events that took place in Alextria in a different light.

Were the NPCs bugged? Or were they just intimidated? He almost didn't want to know the answer. If the answer was the latter, then his stay at Alextria would not be peaceful at all.

There was no way he would be left alone for the time he needed if what he suspected was true. Between the guards and thieves there would constantly be eyes on him. Or they were just bugged, but he wanted a solution that covers both possibilities.

The next option would be trying to find a place in the wilderness to fort down in. The place was a low level area, but that still left him with the problem of getting randomly attacked by creatures. While it's true the creatures would be no problem to handle, he needed to be able to focus without having to worry what was happening when he was in the real world.

Being worried about constant interruptions would distract him way too much. He might make a stupid mistake because of it. What would be the best course of action to gain time in the game world?

Considering some ideas, Jim thought about maybe 'borrowing' a boat. With little thought this idea got shot down. Staying inside a boat alone was a good way to drown. Plus he couldn't swim. He would sink like a rock. Preferably he didn't want to suicide his in-game self till he had some answers.

Maybe he could build himself a little mini-fort? Bunkering himself under a wall of loot sounded kind of cool but slightly impractical. In the end it would just be a more time consuming way of getting robbed. As he thought of different places to hide outdoors, he quickly realized he needed civilization. There was no way he was going to remain undisturbed for days in the wilderness.

Maybe he could go back to Alextria in disguise? He had tons of different gear and armor. Yet he remembered how damn tall he was for some reason. Unless he hunched over like an old man, he wasn't going to fool anyone.

Sneaking on a ship in Alextria was also shot down. Considering how long it took to hoof it to the city from the farm, taking a ship anywhere was going to take forever. Being an unconscious stowaway would probably just get him tossed overboard. Another death by drowning scenario.

As idea after idea got crossed out, everything seemed to be pointing to pushing onwards. There was a little village that was not far away that was the next major plot point in the game. Humanity had been split for hundreds of years because of the boss monster in the caves.

That would be a good thing because word of mouth from Alextria shouldn't reach there. He just needed to do a little skip so he wouldn't be followed. Jim would just be an outsider there instead of being known for his murderous antics.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

He really wished that he could discount how people would act in the game. As he was going through his options he realized he was thinking the NPCs would respond like real people. Jim would need to keep that mindset until proven otherwise, it would be dumb to underestimate his surroundings when there was no pause button.

Maybe he was being too paranoid, but better safe than sorry. The game world was moving even if he was not. Even if they were algorithms simulating people, realistically the actions they take could be indistinguishable from real people.

Pissing off a robot that calculates it should stab you in the back and a human that will stab you in the back have the same outcome. Being cautious seems to be the right play till there is more information. With his plan clear, Jim sat down and closed his eyes.

Jim was still laying down when he logged back in. The wolves stopped playing and looked over at him. There was a pause and they both started rushing over with a fierce attack. Better prepared this time he quickly stood up. Now out of their evil reaches, Jim looked triumphantly down at the pups who had their paws on his shins. They were looking up at him with tails wagging.

The first interesting thing he saw was that the raptor corpse was no longer the way he left it. A pile of bones was left in its place.

Looking at the broken skull of the creature it reminded him of when he had crushed its skull while driving. Now that he was standing up he had a much better perspective on the creature. It was a lot smaller than he remembered. It was more the size of a very large dog, and not an eye level raptor like the ones in the movies. Still the thing had been picked clean.

Looking back down at the pups he started to cast Sense on them when he remembered that he had learned a new spell! With anticipation he opened the appropriate menu with excitement. Fire, he wanted Fire! Finally selecting the right menu he looked at the abomination of a spell that he had learned.

Sitting there in his spell list was now Sense Lv2. Jim sighed and muttered darkly "I think this damn game hates me."

A higher tier spell was always a much lower chance to learn than a lower tier spell. In a normal game most players would learn three tier one spells before learning a tier two spell. To earn a level two spell as your second spell was around a four percent chance.

As you learned more spells, the odds changed, but generally the three to one ratio was average. This held true for tier 2 to tier 3 and tier 3 to tier 4. Normally this would be amazing, but his first tier one spell was Sense.

This situation was so messed up. Normally this was a cause to rejoice. Getting a level two offensive spell earned a character a permanent spot as a damage caster. Or a level two heal this early would make that character a perfect healer. Jim sighed as he read the description of the spell.

Sense: Level 2 - Cost 3 MP Allows the user to see the Class, Level and Stats of the target. Chance to learn of an enemy's strengths and weaknesses. In addition the spell also will glean some information about how the target feels towards you.

The first two sentences just basically summed up what Sense Lv1 did. The new stuff was in the last sentence and he couldn't help but roll his eyes. Not only was it still terrible, it somehow got worse than what was in the game.

Normally Sense Lv2 did what Sense Lv1 did to all enemies in an encounter at the same time. Somehow the spell morphed into a more terrible version of itself. Great, he was now going to see how all the monsters of the world wanted to kill him. Fantastic ability.

His mind lept to visions of him reading how monsters wanted to eat him because people tasted good. Or maybe he would fight evil witches and he would get to know that they just wanted to add his skull to their collection. He would even have the privilege of knowing that thieves wanted to kill him for his stuff! Game breaker right there.

Taking a deep breath he calmed himself. He didn't need no super cool fire powers. He had a super cool sword and his stats were stupid high. His attempt at cheering himself up failed. Looking down at the two wolflings he casted the spell on them. Their stats hadn't changed much. They were still level one, and somehow hungry. The little blurb after that stat readout was different though.

Hungry Wolf Cub Male Level 1 HP: 100 / 100 MP: 0 / 0 Strength: 3 Agility: 1 Stamina: 4 Magic: 0 Bonus Information: Views you as the new leader of the pack. Completely loyal to you.

Hungry Wolf Cub Female Level 1 HP: 75 / 75 MP: 0 / 0 Strength: 1 Agility: 3

Stamina: 3

Magic: 0 Bonus Information: Views you as the new leader of the pack. Completely loyal to you.

"Views you as the new leader of the pack. Completely loyal to you."

The statement was mirrored on both cubs.

Jim sighed as he looked between the small sentence and the digitally cute monsters. He couldn't bring himself to hurt or even abandon the pups. Digital or not they were too cute. Damn his weakness. But still the pair was hungry.

Jim scanned through his item list to try to find something they could eat. He half contemplated giving them something leather to chew on, but then realized how terrible of an idea that was. It would just teach them to chew on anything leather he wore. They really didn't need more reinforcement in doing that.

He had different healing potions on him. Maybe those would work? Dragging them out of his inventory he sat down and fed them the red potion. The task was rather difficult considering he didn't have a bowl on him. Jim gently grabbed the muzzle and slowly poured out the liquid into the pup's mouth.

As he finished he quickly casted Sense Lv2 again to still find that the healing potion had not done the task. Little buggers were still hungry. Scanning his list of items he found his stash of Elixirs. Grabbing one of them he repeated the process.

As he finished the wolf was licking its muzzle. Seemed to like that one a lot more than the previous one. Bringing up the stats once again, he saw that the wolf was no longer hungry. Getting the next one in his inventory ready he could only think "Most expensive dog food ever."