“One more!” Sora roared with excitement smeared across his face as he barely could sit still in his seat, moving around excessively through sheer overjoy for the game and his own accomplishments in it.
Sora ignored the bang-like sound on his apartment which he had initially thought was a sound ingame. The sound grew larger and Sora got slightly annoyed now, thinking it was his neighbours being drunk or not answering their door.
“Shut up, I am about to have 200 wins in a row and go pro! Geez, be a little considerate will you?” Sora yelled as a response to the endless noise being made behind him.
The opponent’s health bar dropped to a low percentage point, 13%.
“Alright, I am going to feign and then stab him on the side while dashing forth and consecutively stabbing him from behind, ending him!” Sora thought to himself.
In the meanwhile, the door had collapsed as the entire room was filled with a devastating sound, and men in black ops like armor rushed in and grabbed Sora from his computer and controller and forcibly dragged him out without further ado or questions.
“No, no, no stop!” Sora cried out. “What is going on, at least let me finish the game, you have no idea what is going on!” Sora desperately tried to shake his newfound enemies loose.
Sora’s eyes fixated on the screen, gazing upon his character a last time, and the cruel sight of it being worn down, and the flashing of his screen appearing red in blood, “Defeat”. His streak was officially over, and Sora shed tears quietly on his way out as the cruelty of the situation had crushed his heart and dreams, he was within a palms reach and it had all faded and lost meaning. Sora remained quiet the entire way through to whatever was awaiting him next and he stared of nothingness with dead eyes head on. He arrived after a substantial amount of time at an exam room with computers and a handful of other males sitting there quietly and equally confused as himself. Sora was pushed to his seat and what appeared like a principal figure had entered the room.
“You are the lucky 30 selected NEET’s to be chosen towards a path of redeeming yourselves and rehabilitate back into society. Now you will each have gamer based exams against each other competing against one another in order to realize your standing at this academy amongst the males. Best of luck.” The principal spoke and momentarily after clapping his hands twice which was to signal the start of the gamer exam and then went on to leave the room.
Competition? Sora’s ears only caught that word and was brought back to life.
“Who is the unfortunate opponent, or is it opponents?” Sora grinned and started to resemble his former self.
The screen began to flash and a barrage of quest with timelines, and other quests involving PK and PVP covered the entire computer screen. Sora finished these all first-handedly amongst all other males in the room and waited for further instructions. Patience grew thin, as he was left to seemingly rot for about an estimation of two hours time according to his own estimate of passing time. A special quest arose from his screen, apologizing for the delay and stated he was officially the rank one male student in the academy, and that a special device phone with all his details, access codes and quests was awaiting him in room 201. Sora arose from his seat and went to the hallway in order to find his room as he was instructed.
After a while Sora had finally found the room and opened the door, to find a bed and an empty desk with an access card and phone lying in wait for him. As Sora picked up the phone, it buzzed and the information read, “Rest until tomorrow, then come to the inner gates of the school, as your dormitory is in the outer sector, this is a mandatory quest and must be adhered”. Sora sunk into his new bed. Fresh and soft sheets, this was a new experience for him.
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
“I want to play… Not sleep,” Sora cried out in a hushed voice, as he remembered his streak being ended in such a cruel fashion earlier today, while his fatigue and sorrow put him to sleep.
The next morning awoke Sora with something he had not experienced in a few weeks. A ray of a sunbeam came streaming in through the window and covered the entirety of Sora’s face. Awakened, Sora found to his own annoyance there were no curtains and that it was almost time to go onwards to his new quest “the inner gates area” as suggested on the phone last night.
Sora had navigated himself and found a handful of novices such as himself in this new “game experience” called “real life” quoted by one truly. The crowd of males were the same as the room last night filled with computers, including himself an estimate of thirty. Sora began to be annoyed as they were blocking his path, hindering him like an overcrowded dungeon and was wait to stand idly by for the “queue time” in order to commence the dungeon.
“Move!” Sora ordered the herd.
The herd of males instantaneously moved and began to gaze upon Sora like he was some sort of gaming god-sent about to embark on a quest that was yet to be solved. Sora courageously and out of sheer curiosity peeked through the outer gates into the inner area and saw masses of characters belonging to the opposite gender, “female students”. Hastily Sora pulled back and crouched behind the wall outside the outer gate alongside his newfound comrades of fear of what lied beyond these gates.
The phone buzzed, “Time left remaining to reach the auditorium, 4 minutes, 58 seconds”. Sora peaked once more, and it seemed to appear all threat had dispersed into smaller numbers and were heading towards a building which looked like his next destination. Never failing to complete a quest in his entire life, Sora rushed head on and all male students quietly followed in his wake, close behind him.
Through his short sprint, Sora fell out of breath, as he had successfully avoided the possible attacks or generating any aggro of any female member, simultaneously while completing his quest upon arrival in the auditorium. The principal figure from earlier arose behind the podium and began speaking of the new rules enforced in the High School.
“All students will be forced into the line of questing, females will try to prevent the males from accomplishing the gender competitive ones, else receive a fit punishment for failing to meet those criterias. On the other hand the males will strive simply to complete any quest given to them, in order to graduate and be successfully rehabilitated back into society with a diploma allowing them endless of possibilities assigned from both school and the government, which was issued last night. That will be all, I wish you the best of luck, and let the happy questing commence!” The principal spoke and snapped two of his fingers together making a sound which followed a stream of buzzing phones across the entire auditorium.
On everyone’s phone the next quest appeared to be, “find your newly assigned classrooms and be there within 15 minutes without fail”. Seat and classroom number was both issued and stated in the quest, which could also be found in the quest log application on the phone.
Sora smiled, amused thus far of the questing idea, and thought how this may lead to another gaming opportunity since the principal clearly stated that the diploma was something of worth attaining besides his own freedom of solitude back. His phone buzzed again, and two tabs appeared.
Tab 1: “Congratulations of reaching level 2. You are the leading male in this academy, your new access point awaits you in the following level.”
Tab 2: “New hidden quest discovered! Early graduation possible upon completing the quest:
Being betrothed to a girl before graduation and upon marital agreement the following day after the graduation ceremony. [Note. This quest was only given to the highest ranking male, in other words biggest NEET whom life was endangered.]”
Sora’s jaw dropped as he was less amused at this point of the idea and very nature of this ridiculous quest.
“How the hell am I supposed to betroth one, if I am unable to even approach let alone speak to one of these opposite gender players and mysterious skill-based characters?” Sora protested loudly, only to realize he was the only one left and everyone had already departed.
His phone buzzed, “Two minutes remaining until your arrival in the classroom fails”. Sora cursed to himself and began to head onto his next quest thinking, a normal graduation will just have to do instead!