One Chance
Chapter 1: Narra Town
Andrew Jay had to wake up early at dawn in order to prepare the kids' food. It had been his habit ever since he quit school and helped out at the day care his grandmother owned. He washed his face and plodded towards the kitchen. He spotted two pint-sized girls trying to cook their own breakfast.
"What is National Geographic doing up so early to cook?"
National Geographic referred to Jay's twin sisters. 'National' was Natalie and 'Geographic' was Angela, whose nickname was 'Gie'.
"Kuya did you forget? Mama traveled to Dipolog early today while you were asleep."
"We figured that we would cook our own lunch."
Jay knew that his sisters cooked better than him but didn't like to admit it.
"Well don't lock the door when you go out. I'm going to head over to Lola's."
Picking up the ice pops from the fridge, he walked over to the neighboring day care directly across their house.
"Good morning, Lola."
His grandmother did not reply but with good reason. She was praying the morning novena in front of her room's altar, a habit she'd formed from her younger days.
Jay prepared the morning's breakfast which was bread, scrambled eggs, milk and coffee for the adults. Some of the kids went over early in the morning because their parents did not have time to take care of them, which was why an additional charge was paid for breakfast. As for the coffee, some of the kids had drivers.
One by one the kids arrived, sitting at the mess table waiting for their food. Jay rushed to serve them as well as the drivers waiting outside with courtesy. His grandmother came out of her room, sitting down at the mess table with the children.
"Good morning, Teacher Fely!"
The kids chorused as they greeted the head teacher and their guardian for the day. His grandmother smiled and engaged the kids in lively conversation.
"How was your day yesterday?"
The pint-sized runts raced to answer the question.
"I had mango shake!"
"I went to the park with my mom at night!"
"...I ate some strawberries. They were sour, yuck."
Jay worked as the day care's handyman as well as the secondary teacher, taking over whenever his Lola Fely tucked in for the afternoon. He quit school right before he was supposed to graduate and was gratefully given an opportunity to work in the family business.
"Teacher Jay, teacher Jay, look what I got!"
He knew that voice. It belonged to the precocious 5-year old girl Mia. Ever since he made a paper crane for her she stuck to him like glue.
"My sister brought me a makeup kit. I asked her how to use it and now I know. Look at my selfie here..."
Mia pulled out her smartphone and showed him a picture of her making a duck face.
"How do I look?"
Dredging up his well of experience with girls wasn't of much use; Jay thankfully knew how to deal with children.
"You look wonderful, Mia."
The kid's face bloomed as she celebrated on her own by hugging Jay's neck.
"Mia let go, I have some things to do."
She pouted at first but regained her smile when he promised her an ice pop later. At this time the kids were heading to the classroom for their daily writing exercises. Pocketing the money for groceries, he took a tricycle to his friend's gym a few blocks away, planning on killing time before he got back to cook dinner.
*****
"Hey there, Jude."
"Hay is for horses, Jay."
Kristian Jude was the son of a rich family dealing with furniture. The second of three sons, after graduating with a degree in Business Management he opened up a gym. It had been his dream to open one being a health nut and all.
Jay was his friend, but he was not going to let him stay for free. The most he could do was offering him a discount which Jay happily accepted.
"Hitting the treadmill again? You never lift the weights and when you do they're never full repetitions."
"I'm a nerd. Nerds aren't supposed to hit the weight room."
Jude shook his head.
"No, that's just how you think nerds should look."
Jay shrugged as he continued running. He was Jude's first customer as he was basically forced by his best buddy to train at his gym. Jay originally did not want to since he had no desire to exercise. He was an introvert and he believed you lost at life if you worked hard.
"At least I do the exercises you tell me to do."
"True enough. Hey, speaking of things I tell you to do..."
Jude showed him a pamphlet about a new game coming out. There was no way Jay hadn't heard of it as well, seeing as it had been getting non-stop media coverage.
"Let me guess, you're going to want me to play this with you as well?"
"I already bought the machines for our personal use. It's at my room."
Jay looked at the paper for a while. He had heard of the real world prize the company would be giving out if you completed the game's goal and it piqued his curiosity a bit.
"Look, I keep telling you that you need to go outside and meet people, not get stuck inside your small world of house, day care, gym, and supermarket. This is the answer. I get to meet different people with you in the comfort of your own home. What's more, it's not creepy."
Jay weighed his options.
"You got it all wrong. I'm all for playing this game; it's just that I haven't played a game like this in my entire life."
"No worries bro, I'll take care of you. Not that I'm good at it or anything, I'm a casual player myself."
His workout done, he washed himself as Jude got the VR headset from his room.
*****
After eating lunch and cooking dinner, he went up to his room to assemble the gadget he got from Jude.
"So this goes here, and this cable connects to this port..."
He succeeded in assembling it as well as connecting the headset to the internet. Jay looked at the clock and it was almost 6 o'clock at night. Confident that his sisters would be able to fend for themselves as he left a note telling them what to do on the dining table, he put on the headset and went off to dreamland.
Moments of darkness and silence passed before a scene of kaleidoscopic colors greeted his sight. Jay marveled at the scenery until he got into the registration section. A cool female voice suddenly rang out.
"Welcome to One Chance. Please fill the fields with your full name, age, and gender."
He did as he was told and once he was done, he was taken to the character customization page.
Appearing in front of him was a giant body mirror. His appearance was turned into a slightly anime-like version of himself, with options to change numerous things like eye and hair color.
What caught his attention was the race tab. There were five main races all in all. They were as follows:
Jay was currently of the
For an
"Is this how I will look when I grow old?"
He agonized over his race as he was customizing his in-game name as well as his password.
"Jude will forgive me, right?"
Jay selected the
*****
Jay opened his eyes and a rustic sight greeted him. The game informed him that he was currently in Narra Town, the starting point of all the newbies in their region of One Chance. The sight of so many people crowding in one place made Jay slightly dizzy, so he walked around looking for his friend, wondering if he would recognize his slightly altered look.
Jude was standing right at the newbie spawn spot on the town shrine waiting for Jay when he finally saw his friend wandering around.
"Jay is that you? You took too long."
Jay turned his head towards a familiar voice. He spotted his friend.
"There you are. You're a human?"
Jude nodded.
"Yeah, I couldn't choose the other characters because I was worried you wouldn't recognize me."
He glanced at his friend's head where his name was supposed to be.
"Dude seriously? Your name is Jay Low?"
Jay snorted.
"Speak for yourself; your name is Jude Lawbreaker. It seems like you want copyright to come after you."
Both of them stood silently.
"Why aren't you commenting on my appearance?"
"Who cares what you look like?"
Silence reigned once again.
"So what are we doing today?"
Jay followed Jude around as they completed quest after quest, mostly hunting and gathering herbs along with the random small jobs of deliveries. They familiarized themselves with the combat system easily enough; what with Jude taking up boxing while Jay took up Arnis back when his grandfather was alive. Naturally, it all involved Jude lecturing Jay on what to do and how to do it.
In the middle of a hunting quest, both of them were hunting for
"It hasn't been a day yet but those people already have their first classes. What happened?"
Jude looked at the same direction.
"They're power leveling I bet. Some people take their games seriously—watch out!"
Jay dodged the mayfly at the last moment, making an opening for Jude who struck down the offender. Gathering up its ears, he continued his explanation.
"As I was saying, these people grind to min-max themselves. They want to optimize their builds like body builders do with their diet and calorie intake."
"So if I get this right, they're gamers who plan and calculate every move in order to get the best out of everything they do and have?"
"Fast on the uptake as usual, Jay."
*****
They leveled up at a decent pace until they reached Level 10. Being a newbie, getting to Level 10 meant you could change classes. At the Class Change and Information Center, there were many players looking for advice on which classes to promote into. The crowd was so packed it looked like a can of sardines.
Normally, in a game like One Chance where you only had one life, your class meant that you would be playing that class your whole tenure. But being the casual players that they were, Jay and Jude didn't think about it until they got to the clerk sitting at the station. He looked extremely bored as well.
"What class do you want to get promoted to? Hurry up, I don't have the time."
Jay only stared at his face until the clerk coughed once.
"Oh um, is there any class where I can plant seeds?"
"Anyone can plant seeds kiddo."
Jude looked at him like he was crazy.
"What the hell are you talking about Jay?"
Jay looked at Jude funny.
"You know that it has always been my dream to own a farm. This is my chance! My one chance!"
Jude shrugged his shoulders in surrender.
"Whatever, it's your funeral."
Jay grinned and faced the clerk once again.
"Is there any class where I can plant seeds fast?"
The clerk sniffed before he put his foot down.
"Kid, if you want to be a farmer then get out of the line! Look for any farm on the outskirts!"
Jay waited for Jude outside of the office instead.
*****
Jude was promoted to a Swordsman. He had a big smile on his face as they vacated Narra Town. Jay was the opposite, huffing all the way. Instead of heading directly towards the big city, they had to take a detour and find a farmer.
"Why couldn't I change class right there? This is discrimination."
"Farmers aren't combat classes. You are the first person I know who wants to do non-combat classes in a game like this."
"It's still discrimination. Also why did that clerk still think I'm a kid?"
"You look young for your age."
"Really?"
Jay's mood strangely improved since then. Even Jude was getting slightly annoyed by all the whistling he was doing.
They had walked a fair distance from the town when a farmer noticed both of them and waved.
"Come here. Help me with field work."
"Will you make me a farmer if I do it, manong?"
"Let me decide that for you once you finish helping me."
Jude tapped his shoulder.
"It's a quest."
< His son is out on business. Help the old man harvest his crops. Rewards: 100 XP, 100 Pesos Note: This is part of a quest chain>> "What's a quest chain? Oh wait, please—no!" Jay unknowingly asked before immediately regretting it. "It's like it says. A quest chain is a chain of quests, so to speak, where the end goal can only be attained by finishing a number of quests in the order by which the quest giver gives you. By this notice, we have started a chain of quests that may or may not end in your promotion to a farmer. You got all that?" Jay sighed. Jude had a lecturing habit from being a gym instructor. Whenever you asked him a question he would launch into lecture mode where he would never fail to educate the person on what he knew about the subject. "I got it even before you told me all those things. I've had 5 lectures from you today already." Jude made a face at Jay when his back was turned after that. The farmer led them to a potato field. "Help me harvest these things. Get a shovel and start digging. After that, collect them in a basket. You can get your things from the tool shed over there." The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. Both guys nodded as they started traipsing over the field to get their tools. Jay was excited for the quest. "This is excellent. I was planning on planting a few potatoes at our yard." Jude chased after the old man. "Manong, don't you have a tractor or any large tool to help us harvest?" The farmer made a face underneath his straw hat. "What are you talking about? Stop talking and start moving." Jude was bewildered just as Jay exited the tool shed with a shovel, hat, and a pair of animal skin gloves. "What the hell are you doing? Try and find a way to do this faster." "I'm asking you the same thing. Why aren't you geared up yet?" Jude shook his head and headed over to the tool shed as Jay started digging. ***** It was already midday and yet they only barely finished half of the field. The farmer came out for lunch and instead of inviting them in, shook his head at the work done. "You whippersnappers can't even harvest right! You brats better be thankful I hired you for this job!" Both guys were too tired to retort, lying on the ground amidst harvested potato plants. "Why's he mad? Day-night intervals are only 30 minutes in real time here. You can't harvest a whole field in 30 minutes by hand with only 2 people." Jay made a face at the sky. "Just leave the old bag be." Through sheer boredom, Jude rifled through his inventory and stats. His eyes grew bigger as he looked in it. "Bro check your stats, you won't believe it." "Wow, you're right. What happened?" As they checked their character pages, both players discovered that their Strength stat increased by a bit as well as their Stamina bar. Jude quickly processed the information. "I think I've figured out how the system works a bit. Whenever you do an action repeatedly or habitually in the game, it reflects on your character's growth and gives us statistic bonuses. We've been digging up potatoes all this time, that's why it gave us strength and stamina upgrades." "So you mean we might as well continue pulling these up to get the more benefits? I'm in." With the additional motivation, they earnestly worked through the afternoon with only biscuits and water as sustenance, since the game had a hunger system to it as well, where you start draining HP and MP because of hunger. As they finished, they eagerly checked their character pages once again, celebrating when their expectations weren't let down. Once they deposited their work at the storehouse, they knocked at the farmer's house. A sweet smell of cooking soup greeted their noses as the door opened. "Oh you're done? That's great, check back in tomorrow for your next work." Jay's enthusiasm sunk fast. "What? All this work and I still don't get to be a farmer? Come on 'nong, I've got to get to the big city by tomorrow." Jude was on the same page as his friend. "Let's go back, Jay. This was a waste of time." But Jay was not one to give up. "Sir, can you please find it in your heart to do it now? We really need it." The old farmer did not listen and instead started to pound his fist on the opened door. "Why do you young men always want to be farmers, yet leave the farm in the end? You never listen to the elderly like me!" His eyes were livid with anger. "I have trained many a boy like you, child. All of them went to the city after helping me with odd jobs. I blame my son, this all started with him!" A stout woman came out of the kitchen with spit in hand. "Here you go again, blaming Pedro! The kid had dreams, why can't you accept that?!" "His life was here on the farm and nowhere else!" The woman just shook her head and faced the two adventurers outside. "I'm sorry. My husband goes on tangent sometimes when our son is concerned." "Remember that he slammed the door on us saying he had no future here." She shook her head at his actions. "Come in. I made soup for both of you as well." Jude and Jay looked at each other. "Thank you." "Thanks Tiya." They both sat down on the dining table while the old farmer was still grumbling. "Worthless son, abandoning his parents like that..." The woman in the kitchen suddenly screamed. The two boys sitting at the table were alarmed while the old man snorted derisively. "No point in getting angry at me when he's the one who left, Amelita." "NOT THAT! THERE ARE WOLVES OUTSIDE!" Through the kitchen's back window, they could see about two big grey wolves with red eyes. Jude stood up and barricaded the door right away while Jay rushed to the kitchen. "Tiya, do wolves attack your farm all the time?" The aunt in question looked at him with a scared expression. "This is the first time wolves have been here. My husband encounters them all the time in the forest, but they never wander to human settlements." The old man was ready to fight. He had a rake on his person. "I may not as be as strong as I was before but I swear to drive them off my land!" "No don't go, you'll die out there." Jude was not convinced and it angered the farmer. "What's it to you? You're just a one-off part-timer from my field. Get out my house and let me deal with these varmints!" Jude would not budge from his position, stopping the old man from going outside the house. At the moment, both wolves were circling the premises. "He won't come back even if you die, you know." "What?" Jay stared at the man with a serious expression. "With all due respect, I don't think your death will make him come back. At least, his return will not be by his own volition." The farmer started tearing up. "What should I do then? It's been years since I've seen Pedro, what should I do to make him come back?" The wolves were now banging at the walls and the windows, trying to find their way inside. Jude left his position and armed himself by the door. "How about leaving the wolves to us first and we'll talk about Pedro later, Tiyo?" Jay agreed, following suit and readying his dagger. Jude then opened the door strongly and out charged Jay in a thrusting motion. The wolf at the door dodged right at that moment, but not before inflicting a cut ear. Going back inside the house, Jude took up position of barricading the door. "Tiyo, to be honest with you, we can't drive away these wolves without your help." "I need to be promoted a class first, if I want to deal with them effectively." Jay smiled sheepishly as Jude was busy blocking charges from both canines. "Are you still not convinced, Tiyo? Well then how about this? We will take on the job of making your son go home when we find him in the city." Amelita, the farmer's wife who was busy crying on the floor, suddenly raised her head. "You'd do that for us?" Jay smiled. "Both things are promises we intend to keep." Just then, two quest notices popped up. < His house is under attack. Repel the intruders! Rewards: 500 XP, 500 Pesos Note: This is part of a quest chain>> < Pedro's mother and father desperately want to see their son home again. Help them fulfill their wish. Quest ends and your reputation sours if Pedro dies. Rewards: 10,000 XP, 10,000 Pesos, Positive reputation in Narra Town Note: This is a Special Quest, only triggered by defeating both wolves and promising either Diego or Amelita the return of their son. It is the final link in the quest chain>> "Nice going, Jay!" Jude was ecstatic after seeing the quest windows. His hands were full from holding off the wolf barrage, but it was nothing he could not handle. "You better keep your promise!" The old man Diego rushed to his room to retrieve the class contract. After signing it, Jay began to glow and change. His armor did not change right away though, and he did not have a weapon presented to him. But he had a skill that he could use for the first time. "What skill did you get, Jay?" "Useless crap called < "What the heck is that? Is there anything useful for combat?" Jay rummaged through his inventory. "It seems like I get a weapon bonus when I use farming tools as weapons." "Well then use that and help me kill these things!" Jude had been hard at work tanking for the family. Right now his HP was at half and were it not for his stance switching and timely dodging, he would have long been overwhelmed by the monsters. Both men were of a lower level than the attackers, but both of them also had confidence that they would not die in that situation, even though there was pressure from doing so. Jay found a hoe at the back of the house and rushed after Jude who had started engaging both animals. "Let's do it like it training, Jay!" The way they hunted monsters was the same thing they did right there. Jude was to attract the monster's attention while using his skills to counter. Jay was to attack from the back and stick to the monster's behind no matter what, giving off the threat of a back attack and distracting it from fully committing to the fight. The problem was, Jude had about a third of his HP left from all the tanking he did. They could not consume potions during a fight and if Jude died in-game, he would lose his chance to play the game for the rest of the beta testing. "Jay let's do it fast, I can't hold out long!" "That sounds gay, you know!" Jay laughed as he hit the first wolf with his hoe, all the while keeping the second wolf in check. It cried out in pain but all Jude could do was guard since the moment he countered the first wolf, the second would lunge at him. However, the second one was not lunging for some reason. It was furiously scratching its nose with its paws. "Jay, what did you do to the second wolf?" "I'll explain later, kill them first!" Jude immediately countered the first wolf's lunge with his own skill, < "No seriously, what did you do?" "Remember when I told you that I had a skill called < They both took their designated positions on the front and back of the wolf. "I used it on one of the wolves and discovered that their noses were sensitive to smells. I remembered that there was some ground black pepper in the kitchen so I grabbed some of them along with the hoe. Sorry, Tiya!" Amelita thought nothing of it and waved back. The poor wolf could do nothing but watch as both men dug their weapons repeatedly into it. "You can do that?" "That was just being lucky." Having completed the quest, they looted the monsters before going back to the old couple. "I'm glad you're both alright. Here come in, the night air is still cold and I kept the soup hot for you." As Amelita went to the kitchen to serve the food, Diego stopped them for a moment. "You really promise to bring my son back?" Both Jay and Jude raised a thumb up. "No worries!" "He'll be back safe and sound." They were still eating when the first sun rays shined over the horizon. "Oh, it's morning. We better go, Jude." "Eeyup." Amelita fussed over them. "Don't you need some rest? You just battled two big wolves the whole night after all." "Thanks for your concern." "We don't need it really. Besides, we did say we were in a hurry." Both Jay and Jude replied at the same time. As they opened the door, one could see that Jay was wearing new farmer's clothing and even Jude had some new gear of his own. "Are you sure you're giving these to me, Tiyo Diego?" Diego just waved Jay's concern away. "I don't need them. They don't fit me anymore too, so there you go." Jay was wearing a green cotton shirt with a brown leather vest and a straw hat, along with soft hide pants and rough hide boots. As for Jude, he was given Diego's old gauntlets and helmet from when he served in the king's army. For all players, an inventory was default. But if you wanted to carry additional items, you needed to carry them physically. It was why both of them now carried burlap sacks. Jay's was filled with the necessities and Jude's was to be filled with loot. Waving for the last time to the old farmer couple, they went on their way with full stomachs and a load of experience and items. "That was an adventure." "We didn't need to grind either. I'm satisfied." With his new < "Jay, look at the quest marker we got for Pedro. We must have been really exhausted after that fight to not notice it right after." One look at it told them all they needed to know. Pedro was not at the big city. Just then, the announcer voice Jay was familiar with rang out. "Forced logout will be in five minutes. Forced logout will be in five minutes." They both looked at each other and laughed. "Good night buddy." "Yeah have a good night's sleep." "By the way, this is going to bother me so much, Jude." "Why?" "This day's adventure ends on a cliffhanger."