*'Hiiro'*

I woke to pain, like most mornings. Great.

I Ignored it and went to get breakfast, leaving my tomb to go to the kitchen.

As I walked up to the fridge to see what I could cook up, noticing Shun had joined me.

I greeted him, wanting to know if he started playing or not. "Hey Shun."

"Oh... hello Hiiro," he responded. He gave a deep sigh before adding, "I doubt you have, but have you heard about Jeong from first year?"

He asked intrigued, with a slight tilt of the head. But this disappeared soon after saying it.

"I haven't," I said, answering the almost rhetorical question. "Why?" I tilted my head to show my confusion.

"It appears she'll be joining us next term in the scholarship dorm, getting a 93% in the last test, and according to teachers and students, she'll get a 95% or higher in the next one almost definitely. I assumed you would be curious to who she is."

Oh, so that's why.

"Hm, then I would like to know basic information about her, yes. But no gossip please." I accepted his help since my interest was piqued, but idle gossip was going way too far.

"Are you sure about the 'no gossip' thing? I haven't really met her in person, and gained all my knowledge second-hand. So you'd have to forget the whole 'appears she'll be joining us' part, since it’s all based on gossip."

"Guess I don't have a choice then..." I paused before  begging, "but please only tell me the relevant things. I care not for her love life." I asked the last part half seriously, but the visible droop of his face as I said that was kind of disappointing...

Was her love-life important to him or something?

"Okay, as you say. Stop me if I go too far." he paused for a second, as if waiting for me to continue him. Our eye contact with holding, he eventually continued.

"The Jeong I'm specifying is Jeong Hyeon. She's supposedly daughter of a famous author and an equally famous artist. Being the only person not in this dorm to get an over 80% score makes her the only real candidate, so far, to enter the dorm. Her personality screams 'posh', having a small but elite friendship group. This included Yun, who told me about this. She's acting as our secretary, but doesn't seem open to guys. This is why we haven't really met. From the meetings we've had though, she seems outspoken. Mostly arguing with Yun over what would be best. And bringing up your existence at least once a meeting. She's been more quiet about it since the tournament though."

Probably another person who hated me out of jealousy then. No wonder Shun wanted to tell me about her.

But more surprising was the fact she's the only person to score 80% apart from us. It was an easy test, tricks for those not paying attention, but no BS marks or anything like that, I learnt most of it in high-school.

Argh! This makes no sense! I mean, I'm saying this as a person who got 100% in that test, but still...

I thought about it for a while, before concluding 'must be a weak year then' and paying attention to Shun again, who probably assumed I needed to add her to an exhaustive list of people who hate me or something, so waited patiently. This isn't the case by the way. Since I have many haters, it's the opposite way round. Noting the people who seem not to hate me instead of those who do.

"An elitist then?" I think it's an easy conclusion to make with her choice in friends, and constant discussion of me.

"Pretty much. If she makes it in the end-term test, we can make pretty sure she'll make your life even harder. So be careful when talking to her... Ha, sorry. I almost forgot who you were." He joked, trying to end this bad news in a nice way.

I grabbed some leftovers from a meal one of the other two made, and was about to go back when Shun called out. "By the way, I got the adapters you texted me, I'm a bit confused about how to set it up though. Care to help me?" Beckoning me to follow him.

I was going to waste my time anyway, so why not. My door glistened out of the corner of my eye, trying to entice me to go back in my tomb for my next eternal slumber...

I humbly rejected it, going with Shun to his room. Leaving the now dismayed door, and the room on the other side to rest. Well. That is, until I finally grovelled back into it to waste even more of my finite life-span deadlocked between screens...

Inside his room, it was surprisingly normal. I've never looked inside either's room, so had assumed nothing... as I didn't really care. Caring though, I wouldn't expect anything like this. Oh yeah, to make my judgement seem fairer, these twins are the offspring of the ruling emperor, or prime-minister or something. Yet again though, I didn't really care...

But no chandeliers, no princess beds... my eyes were treated to a neat, crease-free monochromatic bed, with appropriate furniture to give a humble, but still cultured vibe. The computer system is was rather big though.

It had two monitors, some brand logo I assumed was expensive and quite the setup for gaming. I, myself, had a spew of consoles encapsulating my room. So I didn't really spend much money on my computer, mainly sticking to the five year old obsolete computer. But he only had the PC, and the setup he used was taking up over a quarter of the room.

Whilst I was gawking at his room, Shun proceeded to get out the headset and gloves and hand them to me. He then grabbed the wires that came with, the adapters mixed up with them in a jumbled mess...

"Sorry, I got confused with which wires went there, and ..." He noticed me ponder off, and stopped.

"One second." I exclaimed, as I went back to my room, grabbed a small booklet, and came back.

-

"So I have a question. Do you have this little booklet, that instructs about how to properly wire up the system?" In response was nothing but an embarrassed look, trying to hide itself.

I pulled my palm to my face, questioning whether this guy is seriously that dumb. And then dropped it, glaring at the whimpering man-child in-front of me.

No words needed to be spoken.

After fully reading my thoughts from body-language alone, Shun put up his hands, and pleaded, "I didn't even try to read it... Sorry."

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Accepting his fault, he quickly drew a similar booklet from a nearby bin, dusted it off and proceeded to read it.

In about ten minutes, the booklet was dropped, then he flawlessly did what he had failed to do earlier... After a while spent untangling all the wires and discerning which were which though.

I finished eating my breakfast as he finished on his end. I had assumed he'd ask about classes, sub-classes and stuff. So stayed idling around until he was done.

He proceeded to put on the helmet and gloves and lied down. Seemingly losing his ability to move, with only breathing and slight twitches of the muscles making his body move. I assume he’s now configuring, since that’s what I did first. This took only two minutes, he then took off the helmet and gloves, sat up and looked to me.

"How’s the movement lag?" I pondered curiously. When I underwent it, the lag was very noticeable, so I had to adjust my movements to make it less awkward. I wondered if his was the same.

"Non-existent... I didn't accidentally hit you, did I?" The anxiety on his face seemed legitimate.

Hm, the motion in the system is very realistic. So confusing it with real motion is pretty reasonable.

"There were a couple spasms in your arms. However, you never got up from lying down, let alone hit me." As I recounted he visibly calmed.

"So what class would you suggest for me?" He queried. I knew he'd ask me sooner or later, but still had no idea on an answer...

"What play-style do you want?" I countered his question with my own. I mean, how am I meant to know what he'd enjoy?

"Probably someone at the back, with decent range, but the capability to hold off in combat."

"Hm..." I thought of an answer whilst stretching that sound...

My lungs gave in, forcing me to declare my failure. "I don't really know. Any class can use bows, and since weapons have their own skill system. I can limit a few, but I don't really know a singular answer... Could you be more specific?"

"Huh, really? Well then. Someone who doesn't take a lot of skill to use then? I enjoy playing MMORPGs, I'm just not that good at them... I always enjoyed socializing more anyway."

I’m not really sure how partying works. Considering the freedom of weaponry, groups probably used style of play as position markers rather than just the class they had. I mean, it’d be far more efficient for them.

This could be false, but asking me, a solo-player, about parties is stupid in the first place.

To me, someone like a tank who mainly uses a bow would be placed well with the healers, soaking up damage they might take, could be a possible match for him. It would take little skill, be able to hold it’s own if caught in a melee, and would be mainly behind the swordsmen who probably made up the front-line.

"Makes sense, then maybe you go tank then. I don't think they have many instantaneous class-skills to use, mainly just passives that help with certain types of attacks, if I remember correctly. I'm not one though, so don't know for certain. What about sub-classes?" I vaguely recount the information box under each class stating something similar...

"I'll pick out the ones I find interesting enough. I gather it says a word or two on it." As he said that a light on the helmet started flashing, indicating the processing had come to an end. "Okay, I'll set up my character now then. Thanks for the help, I hope I didn't waste too much time..."

"Okay, have fun."

Huh... those words feel weird coming from me. With an internal check, making sure my emotions hadn't been hacked, I thought about why I actually helped him, knowing it was a hassle...

I guess it's because I just like noobs. They usually come up with more unique and fun ways of playing a game, maybe using strategies unheard of but the tryhards. All the tryhards do is mimic the 'meta' without much thought to making the style theirs. An unbroken cycle of copying and only changing something when the rest do... yet unlike them, noobs seem more focused on having fun rather than winning, leading to, personally, more interesting fights...

After getting that straightened out, I had finally gotten back to my door.

I instantly turned to the familiar helmet and gloves on the table, and went back into the game.

I was welcomed with the same blinding light, as a world of pure white welcomed me.

"Hello Miss or Sir." I greeted. I still had no idea about their gender, so felt like vocalizing it to see the response.

"Just call me Underscore #5. Now then, how was the event?" So he did know about the event, skillfully dodging my question.

"You made the NPCs too human, so I chose neither, disagreeing with both of their motives and methods, then technically won the fight..." I stated the truth. I won on efficiency, since unlike the Samurai_Girls clan I didn't lose any health or AP during the fight, whilst they had quite a lot of deaths... I'm not trying to brag though.

"As expected... Well was it fun at least?"

"Not really. I guess for those without my strong ethics it's passable, but for me... I had no 'fun' going through the event. It wasn't that challenging considering the level gap, I can understand that it's a starting quest, and most people aren't like me in their understanding of the game yet... but still. I mean try to spice it up with the guards at the town hall attacking you when certain damage is dealt or something like it, please. It seems way too unnatural to have the entire city just accept this disaster that holds up the entire street."

I took a breath, letting him take in my criticism. It was clear my rant was over.

"Well, if that's what you thought. We'll try to make the next event better. You're first pay-check should be coming soon."

"Okay. Thanks for accepting the criticism, I hope I won’t rant about the next one." I ended the conversation, curious to what happened next.

Poof. As I ended my response, I left the white room. My eyes instead still developing the scene of the 'city' I was still in. Hm, let's see the aftermath of that fight.