Opening the door to the back room which read, “Employees only,” I made my way to the set of shelves shelf which held racks of high tier potions. Taking a half dozen health and mana potions along with a few strength and dexterity, I placed them in a wooden crate filled with hay. Carrying it out to the front desk I pulled up my UI screen along with a system receipt before handing the crate over to the man covered in a dark robe with an intricate trimming of a staff. Nice guild crest, I told him before grabbing the small chip the size of a credit card which read 247 credits. Taking a seat on the small wooden stool, I looked over to see another man, his attire, a basic brown tunic along with a trainer's long sword, gave away he was a total newbie. “You need help with anything?” I asked, walking up the bewildered man staring at sets of lamps and rope.

“Umm… yeah, I’m looking for a pickaxe.”

“Do you also need smithing items as well?”

“Yeah, I just obtain got the smith profession, so I wanted to start grinding away in the mines for some ore,” the man said in excitement.

“Try the Xuxan on server four, they have all the supplies you will ever need for mining and forging.”

“Why don’t you sell them here?”

“We sometimes do, but since we're on server one we usually get a lot of foot traffic that comes in to sell items. Our inventory is pretty maxed out at this point and we only keep items that have a fast restock rate like potions. Anything that does not sell within the end of the day gets transferred over to our other stores with different specialization. Our store does offer an app that can help you find any item you're looking for, and it also comes with the ability to search our inventory.”

“Wow, that seems useful. How do I get it?”

Opening another UI screen, I placed terms of service agreement in front of him. “I need you to agree to this.”

“What is it?”

“Just your basic TSA, this lets the app edit your map and give you directional arrows to help you find any of our other thousands of stores.“

“Oh, makes sense,” the man said pressing the accept button. “What’s this thing under my map?”

“That’s our banner, it lets you know when stuff goes on sale.”

“That’s pretty helpful. Looks like you were right, they have all the stuff I need on server four. Thanks for the help,” the man said vanishing from view.

Terry came up behind me and slammed his fist to the back of my shoulder. “How the hell do you do it? That’s like what, the third person you go to install that crap. You must be rolling in commission credits.”

A somber ring beeped in my head as I scanned the corner of my UI. The server time just hit midnight letting me know my shift just ended. “I’m done with my shift, what about you?”

“I still got a few hours, I was late to clock in yesterday so I'm trying to make up the hours.”

“You better watch your time, they might fire you for being late too many times.”

“Yeah, whatever, you heading straight to bed?”

“No, I'm going to go grab a bite, I haven't eaten in three days.”

“Three days, how are you not dead?” Terry exclaimed.

“I haven’t been moving much. There are no events running, so we only get a couple of people coming in to resupply for dungeons or the occasional noob. I’ve been pretty much just sitting behind the counter.”

“What about restocking?”

“You know how Misa and Shu like to flirt with each other?”

“Yeah, what about it?” Terry said, with one eyebrow raised.

“They make frequent trips to the storage room if you get my drift. They also grab items to restock before leaving so the manager expects nothing. Pretty much leaves me sitting here all day doing nothing.”

“Lucky punk,” Terry said with a smug on his face. “Enjoy your meal.”

Taking a step out into the cold cobblestone road funneling towards the center of town. I followed the sets of low burning lanterns essential to the town as they acted as warding beacon against wandering monsters. A notification popped up in my inbox letting me know my hours have been officially registered within Xuxan general store’s logs.

System: A deposit of 84 credits has been deposited to your in-game account from account [Xuxan accounting].

In the middle of town stood a small water fountain with a statue of a long forgotten knight, the feature worn away with time. Different colored shops surrounded the fountain as well as the four roads branching out towards the outskirts of town. Most of the buildings were closed as I headed down a small narrow path between Grant's Apothecary and the Silver locket Armory. The smell of freshly baked bread wafted down the small alleyway, making my mouth salivate. Taking a sharp right turn, a small almost hidden store with a pink and green striped awning sat snug between the backs of three other buildings. Stepping up to the open glass counter, I rang a small bell which chimed with a musical echo.

“I’ll be right out,” a voice said from the back of the room. A slender elven girl strode up to the front counter and gazed at me with a death stare. “What the hell,” she said, crossing her arms.

“What?”

“I haven't seen you in three days, and you come walking in like nothing. You had me worried, I thought you had been deleted.”

“Sorry Rachel, but it will take a lot more than going hungry for me to get deleted. Can I get my usual.”

“Sure thing,” Rachel replied, going into the back room and taking out a large brown paper bag.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Handing me the bag, I materialized a two credit chip and handed it to Rachel. Taking out a piece of bread, I chomped down on the cold stale almost brick-like consistency on the baguette. My energy bar rose back up to thirty percent letting me know I wasn't at risk of dying due to fatigue.

“I added something extra for you, it’s one of our new recipes the shop is testing.”

“You shouldn't have,” I scolded her.

“Too late, you already paid for it, and besides it’s a test batch, we were going to delete it either way. It’s better than the day old stuff your eating, and it comes with a minor dexterity buff.”

“No thanks,” I chuckle. If I started loading the shaves faster, my boss will expect me to be doing it that fast all the time.

“Or worse, you might get a promotion,” Rachel added.

“More work with the same amount of pay, I’ll pass.” Taking another bite into the crusty bread, I made my back towards the store. Taking a left just one block from the store I entered a small rundown building on the edge of town. Inside the builder was a long narrow hallway with two doors on the left and right side with an additional door to the back. Entering the back left door, I walked into a cramped six by eight room. In the back, almost taking up half my room, was my straw bed which I had, over time, padded with animal feathers. I hopped onto my bed, being careful not to damage its durability, and open my UI showing the twenty thousand credits I had saved up over my four years of working. Tapping on a large red flashing dot on my notification I read the system warning that popped up every month.

System: Your subscription ends in 2 days 6 hours 14 minutes.

System: Would you like to renew your subscription?

Pressing the large floating yes in my UI, the payment of 653 credits was taken from my account.

System: Your [tier one basic subscription] has been renewed.

For most people playing Grand World, a subscription to them means the ability to log into the game. For me, a subscription is my literal livelihood. That's because those people have a body to return to every time they log off. For me and the many other hundreds of thousands of wandering NBP non-body-players, we don’t have that luxury. Everyone has a story of how they lost their body, either through misfortune, a bad gamble, or they just needed the extra credits, my story is the same as everyone else. When I was fourteen, my parents were in a bind, not being able to pay back a loan, they did what any parents living in the slums would do; they sold my body.

Selling a body is simple and quick. First, all you need to do is get someone to purchase a body, a simple task when you're selling a young, youthful body. Then they put you in a VR pod, press a few buttons and bam, they evict your mind into whatever server that could be a host.

For me, I was thrown into the Neural Hub, a main-lobby of sorts where people could switch between different games.

Entering the hub, I immediately saw a red flashing dot to the top right corner of my vision. Focusing on the dot, a message appeared in front of me.

System: Thank you for joining the Neural Hub.

System: Your 30-day trial has started.

30 days, 30 days is all I had before the hub would delete me from its server. I was in a full panic to where I sat on a small white bench and cried for a good few hours. During that time, thousands and thousands of people would walk past me not giving me a second glance, and why should they. This type of thing happens every day, I’m not the first nor will I be the last person that will be evicted from their body.

Getting up from the bench, I walked down the pristine white lobby looking at the many portals that lead to different games. I need to make money, and I need to make it fast, I told myself, clenching my hand into a tight fist of anger. Getting up, I walked around the lobby looking at all the different portals leading to all sorts of different and unique games. Some portals had maybe one or two people going in and out, others had long ever-growing queues. Getting in one of the longer lines, I asked the person in front of me why this line was so long.

“This is Bulletstorm, the Hub’s newest game. Everyone is migrating their account over because they want a chance at winning the top prize.”

“What’s the top prize.”

“Couple million credits.”

“Wow, does it cost anything to play?”

“No, it's free, but they have the extended bundle. I'm getting the savage killer bundle, it comes with a fantastic arsenal of guns along with a few revives.”

“How much is that?”

“1200 credits. Ha, by the look on your face I say maybe too pricey for you, they have cheaper bundles like the arm’s dealer which only run for 400 credits.”

“That’s good to know,” I said, keep a straight face.

Entering the game, a large banner showcasing a series of bundles greeted me along with a customized avatar feature. Scanning back and forth on the bundle page, I notice a tiny almost invisible skip button that would almost be impossible to find if you weren't specifically looking for it. Going to the avatar page, I clicked on the first preset they had and accepted my options. The screen then did a quick cut, my body materialized between a muddy smoldering trench. In my hand was a basic pistol, along with a four or five extra clips holstered to my side. Following the roaring crowd of players, I made my way across a barren smoldering landscape pocked with explosive shells. What do I do, I shouted?

“Shoot the aliens,” a gruff-looking man said wielding a mini-gun.

A large eruption shook the floor, a monster the size of a school bus popped out, its teeth dripping with green ooze. Raising my hand, I let loose a burst of twelve bullets before a click of an empty chamber was heard. The monster crawling out of the grown with its six spider-like legs stomping across the floor, trampling everyone in its way. Falling back, I saw an automatic rifle on the floor someone had dropped their weapon after their body had been disintegrated by a large ball of acidic slime. Picking it up, I tried to look for cover. The monster charged the battlefield thrashing its monstrous black tail across the field. Diving towards the floor, I saw a battalion of players rush the monster, some brandishing rocket launchers while others had an electrically charged rifles. Rallying with the other players, I made my way across the field holding down the trigger as every bullet flew towards the monstrous beast. The monster dove, leaving a giant hole. A group of player ran towards the hole, throwing in a handful of explosive trying to lure the beast back out. The field again rumbled large cracks formed around the edge of the hole quickly traveling outwards. I was frantically trying to figure out what the hell was going on before the floor collapsed taking thousands of players into a dark pit. All the player huddled in groups making sure they could not be ambushed from behind. I did the same, finding a huddle of twenty other players. I could hear the screech of the monster reverberating across the large cavern shaking me down to my bone almost to the point where my knees locked.

System: You have been affected by [fear]

System: Your movement speed is reduced by 30%

The monster slammed out from the side of the cavern, charging at us like an angry rhino. The other player let loose a flurry of bullets trying keeping the monster at bay. All of a sudden, another identical monster came charging at us from the other direction. Unlike some of the other players, I was able to scramble out of the way.

“We’re done for,” a man who was laying next to me said, his face dripping with sweat.

“What, why?” I asked, getting back up.

“We’re in a nest, and by the looks of it, these are just the small workers.”

I could hear the screech of more monsters coming from every direction. “What now?” I shouted in hysteria.

“Restart,” the man said, firing a bullet into his head.

No, I told myself, looking for a way out. Several hundred, even thousands of monsters poured into the cavern, each one spewing green acidic spit across the floor block the exit for many players. Throwing the assault rifle away as it had run out of bullets, I picked up the camo printed electric rifle the man had left. Taking aim at one of the beasts, I pulled the trigger hitting it in the back of the head. The monster whirled around in a frenzy searching for the source of the blast. Its eye, red and focusing, it glared at me like a lion stalking its prey. I run back, but a spew of green acid blocked my path. The monster slowly trudges up its mouth filled with large spiky teeth. Holding down the trigger, I tried to let loose another electrical arc from the weapon.

System: Charge [67%]

I gasped in a large gulp of air as my eyes fluttered open into the white shine of the hub. Another red dot blinked in my vision, as I focused in on it, it said.

System: 28 days 16 hours 34 minutes

Fuck, I screamed, I had lost a whole day after my death. I need to find another way to make credits.