‘Aah, as I thought, even if I have money, I’m not well received in just pajamas...’
Chloe thought as she walked through the doors of a Walm*rt. Embarrassed by the gazes of both the customers and employees, she quickly searched through the store for the things she needed. As it was only 5 in the morning, nobody stopped her, as they were all too tired to care about a customer wearing pajamas in the store. Searching through the clothes, she found a variety of simple, inexpensive clothes. She grabbed three pairs of everything, then took a sturdy backpack as well.
Finally, Chloe headed to the food aisles. She had eaten her McDon*lds on the way, but it only had a single hamburger and a small amount of fries. How that was supposed to feed both her and Fate, was a mystery. As food was her top priority, she grabbed a considerable amount, but took only enough so that her backpack would be able to fit it all. She had thought that was all she needed, but she noticed something as she was walking to the register. It was a toy known as a fidget spinner. She bought it as well.
~December 18, 2044. About 30 miles North of Lemoore, near Fresno. 7:33:12 pm~
“It seems that the [Sins] skill has somehow changed my body…” Chloe muttered to herself.
Chloe was currently in a rural are south of the city of Fresno. While she was walking without any direction, she noticed changes in her body. Although she was unsure where exactly she had gotten them from, she guessed that the only thing that could’ve done that to her would be the [Sins] skill.
“My strength has increased. My brainpower, speed, literally all of my bodily functions have seen an increase in both power and endurance. It’s a large difference compared to anything that’s happened before. Although it’s normally only a .01% permanent increase in strength, all of the 75% boost has become permanent. It’s really unexpected, but it’s pretty nice either way. With this, I can keep going.” Chloe explained to herself.
In it’s base form, the [Sins] skill provided a 75% boost to all attributes, hidden and revealed. It gave a 50% boost to weapon stats as well. Her weapon, the black and white wooden sword, did not receive any permanent increase. This was the usual for all weapons. As it is not a part of the body, it does not receive the power that is within the soul of the holder of the skill. However, in Chloe’s case, her body did not have any of the Gate energy that all holders of [Worlds Skill]s have. Due to the lack of Gate energy, her body is being molded to activate [Sins] in a normal way. Or so Chloe had guessed.
Finished talking to herself, Chloe continued to walk along the side of a dirt road. She had hoped she would be able to find some sort of hotel along the way, but her luck was not good, and she was unable to find any. Though there should have been hotels in the 30 mile stretch between Fresno and Lemoore, she was unable to find them. She was willing to sleep outside, but she did desire to sleep in a warm bed with sheets. Resigning herself to her Fate, she looked for a good area to sleep. She found one in a corn field and quickly prepared and went to sleep.
~Lorian Farm. 6:01:38 am~
Chloe yawned and stretched out. While stretching, she noticed that her limbs could bend much easier, and previously hard stretches were now much simpler. She once again put it on the [Sins] skill. Because she had not changed clothes before going to sleep, she put everything in her bag once more and walked out of the field. She continued heading North, heading towards Fresno. However, she was stopped when the voice of a middle-aged woman called out to her.
“Hey you! The one who slept in our field!” The middle-aged voice called out to Chloe.
“Huh? You mean me?” Chloe turned to look at the speaker, pointed at herself.
“Yeah, you. Who else slept in our field?”
The speaker was a middle-age woman wearing blue overalls and a white undershirt. She had brown hair that was tied up in a ponytail. She wore a straw hat to block out the sun. In other words, she looked very much like a stereotypical farmer. Chloe was surprised at her appearance, but she gave the woman her full attention.
“What do you need?” Chloe asked her.
“I’d like to know why you were sleeping in our field.” The woman answered.
“Because I had nowhere else to sleep. Don’t worry though, your dirt is very good dirt, I had a nice sleep.”
“Dear lord, how could a young lady like you sleep on the dirt. What do people think they’re doing forcing a little girl like you sleep outside?”
“Nobody forced me to sleep outside, I simply didn’t see any hotels along the way.”
“Now now, just come inside and clean yourself off. I can’t just let a pretty little girl like you be covered in dirt because you couldn’t find a place to sleep.”
“I’m fine, really-”
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“You don’t need to be so humble, just come with me.”
The middle-aged woman grabbed Chloe’s hand and took her inside her house. She showed her where the shower was and gave her a towel. She also demanded to wash her clothes while she was in the shower. Chloe was unable to refuse, and had her clothes stolen and put into the wash while she was showering. She finished quickly and dried off. She suddenly thought of the clothes she needed to wear, but saw simple a set of simple clothes and underwear. Smiling, she happily accepted and changed into them.
Chloe left the bathroom after changing, and saw that the other family members had gotten up as well. Evidently, the middle-aged woman had explained the situation to her family, and they greeted her warmly. She returned the greeting. She was told she could sit down anywhere and took a seat on the couch, picking up a book she had bought at Walm*rt. Apparently, the author of her favorite series had published the last two books while she was in Ionis. She had not forgotten a single detail about the series while she was gone, and found this book quite interesting, liking the way they solved the mystery of the last book. While she was reading the reveal scene, the son of the family ran up to her. He was a child around 9 or 10, with the looks of his mother.
“Hey lady,” He asked cheerfully. “Why were you sleeping in our field?”
“Hm? It’s because I was tired and there wasn’t any hotels nearby.” Chloe answered.
“Really? I could’ve sworn there were hotels near here.”
“Well, I didn’t see any.”
“Hmm…”
The son went silent for a bit. Reaching an awkward point in the conversation, Chloe turned back to her book and continued reading. However, before she could start reading again, the son spoke up once more.
“Hey, want to play video games?” He asked.
“Mn?” Chloe was slightly interested. “What kind of video games?”
“Well, why don’t you come take a look?”
Chloe looked at his parents for confirmation, and they nodded their heads with smiles on their faces. She turned back to the son, and followed him up the stairs. He was very excited, and he could hardly contain his joy. Along the way, Chloe noticed a door decorated with a sign. It had the name ‘Samuel’ on it. It was not the son’s room, as he walked right past it. She was curious about it, but put it aside, thinking it was for a still sleeping child.
Chloe walked into the son’s room. It was obvious that the room was a boy’s. It was decorated with truck toys, building bricks, and had a large stack of shooter games next to the TV. A few games caught her eye. She quickly recognized them as later iterations of different series. As a video game nerd, she was very interested in the new games. Luckily, she convinced the son to play one of the games she hadn’t played before. Although she needed to get back into the groove of playing console games, she soon began to dominate the son. Her previous achievements in video games were great, and she was once an urban legend that was known across the gaming community.
Chloe and the son got into conversations about video games, both saying their opinions on games. However, Chloe’s gaming knowledge encompassed mostly older video games, one from before the son was born. Even though they had this large chasm separating their conversation on games, they somehow arrived at the topic of the infamous LOWG.
“I hate that game.” The son stated venomously.
“Why? It revolutionized the VR game community and was a fricking great game in general. Ah, I got a rare drop.” Chloe replied.
“I never played it… my brother did, however… He’s still stuck in it.”
Momentarily, Chloe’s hands stopped moving. As a player of LOWG that was trapped in the game, she resonated with his brother. As he was her benefactor’s son, she wanted to help him out. So upon hearing that his brother was a LOWG player, she felt shivers up her spine. She remembered that event vividly. Many players freaked out terribly. Some players went insane and killed other players. Others committed suicide. And others went on quests and never came back. All of them were never seen again. They did not respawn nor did their bodies disappear like normal. Since all of the players were trapped, they were unable to tell if the dead players had died in real life, or if they had come back to reality. After hearing about his brother, Chloe was unsettled and curious at the same time.
“I see, sorry about that.” Chloe said quietly.
“It’s fine… After all, he’s still alive.” The son brightened up.
“Yeah...”
“Oh, I got a rare drop too!”
“About your brother...”
“Can we… not talk about this?”
“… I understand your feelings.”
“?”
“I have a family member stuck in the game as well. I have a close friend as well. So, although I can’t really say I completely understand, as he was stuck in there when you where much younger than me, I understand where you’re coming from.”
“… Mm…”
“I’m fighting the boss.”
“Wha-! Hey, wait for me!”
Shying away from the conversation about LOWG, the two gamers returned to the game and focused all their attention on fighting the boss. They continued playing until it was night. It was only noticed when Chloe said she was going to check on her clothes. They had long since been washed and dried. Chloe was about to leave, but the wife and father stopped her. They said that it was already late, and that she should not go out late at night. Eventually, Chloe was forced into a corner by the two’s insisting. She gave up, and was about to leave, but the father spoke up.
“That child hasn’t had anyway to play with ever since he was born. He always wished and wished for his brother to wake up so he could play with him. Though you have to leave, I’d like to thank you for everything you’ve done for him today.” The father told Chloe.
“Ah. It’s really nothing, I enjoyed it as well. He had some new games I’ve never seen before, so I was rather interested.” Chloe smiled.
“Either way, thank you.”
“No problem.”
Chloe told him, and then went back to the son’s room. She continued playing with him, and started to easily dominate him. Though the son was getting frustrated over his losses, Chloe was kind enough to start losing a bit. Eventually, it was time for him to go to bed. Chloe said goodbye, and left his room. Although she was offered the guest room, she insisted to sleep on the couch and didn’t back off. The couple gave in and she slept on the couch. They headed off to sleep, leaving her alone.
After waiting a few hours, Chloe moved upstairs and into Samuel’s room. She saw a kid about 14 years old, with long brown hair that was kept down by a VR console. He was thin due to lack of nutrition. Seeing this, Chloe noticed that a player’s real body would still get hungry, thirsty and sleepy, but would not change after that. When she had woken up, she had felt that she was only slightly hungry, thirsty and sleepy. A feature of the VR console was to force quit a player when their physical necessities reached a certain point. It had seemed to her that she was kept just above that limit, only going past it when she woke up. This gave her an idea.
Chloe walked up to Samuel’s body and placed her hand on his forehead. Slowly, she worked a bit of mana into his body, meaning to scan it for any abnormalities. Immediately, she noticed a flow of a minuscule amount of Gate energy. Suddenly, the pieces fit in place, and she understood why players were still alive without external help. The Gate energy had taken place of nourishment, and was able to refill itself through the connection established by the VR console. The VR console’s original function was to keep the connection between the player’s mind and their game, which was why it was so small. When a player bought the game, they were actually just buying an access code for the sever the game was on. For single player only games, they were downloaded onto a computer or similar device, as they did not require an online connection. Since LOWG was online only, it was connected to the severs. Chloe theorized that the connection between the severs and the player’s real body was changed when Ionis became real. Instead of connecting the mind and sever, it was connecting the mind and game body, which had become real. Due to how little was known about Gate energy, Chloe thought it might have just been possible. However, this still left one mystery.
“If that’s so… then why the hell did my chest get bigger?”