+1 Skill Point

“Oh shit,” Jack said.

“What did you get?” Brian said.

“One skill point.”

The other two finished their challenges as well and also got 1 skill point each.

“Yes! Okay I’ll try to get something now, which skill should I choose?” Lucas said.

“No! We agreed that as soon as we completed the challenge we get the fuck out of here. Let’s leave, now!” Jack said.

“Okay, fucking chill,” Lucas said

They split up the leather loot and stood around in a circle. Jack focused on the Exit Button in the corner of his field of vision and got ready to click it.

“Okay, on three,” Brian said. They all stared tensely at each other. “One, two, three, see you in hell boys!”

Brian disappeared, then Lucas. Jack remained.

Then Jack disappeared from the green, sunny forest filled with balloon monsters.

Jack blinked. He looked ahead and saw that he was sitting inside the weird chair capsule. He looked at his arms and saw the blue leather sheets he was carrying.

The exit door was open and he could see the small room with the metal door leading out to the real world.

He sighed in relief.

Let’s get the fuck out of here…

…

“Most I can give y’all is 100 bucks,” the pawnshop owner said.

“The fuck you mean! This is high grade shit. Have you ever seen blue leather this clean?” Brian said.

“Best I can do,” the owner said.

“If you give me all the cash in credits that I can only spend in this store, can I get a bonus?” Brian said.

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The pawnshop owner paused, then smiled.

“Okay, I’ll give you a 15 dollar bonus for that,” he said.

“Deal.”

After coming back to the real world yesterday, they saw that it was 2 AM and they were all absolutely exhausted and decided to just go home and sleep before spending the skill points.

Brian and Lucas kept some of the leather sheets to use for their makeshift beds, before collapsing from exhaustion. Jack stared at the ceiling for half an hour with thoughts racing in his mind before he also fell asleep.

It was now day and they decided to buy supplies before heading back into what they all agreed to call “the game”.

In the pawnshop, using their 115 dollars of credit and all of their cash reserves, they bought three backpacks, 3 combat knives, dried food, water canteens, toiletpaper, and an emergency power bank, since they needed their QR codes to get into the game.

They were now eating breakfast at a restaurant before heading back into the game.

“Why didn’t we take any pictures while there?” Jack said.

“Oh shit, I didn’t even think about that,” Lucas said.

“Let’s do it today. Hey, maybe we should also check the web to see if anybody is talking about this,” Brian said.

“Good idea.”

They checked the web and found nothing. They tried searching for many things. For example the name of the game company, the name of the advertisement plus Greentown, they searched VR realistic game, everything they could think of, but found nothing.

”We spent all of our money. We need to go back into the game,” Brian said.

Before going back in, they tried to figure out how to spend the skill points.

“I’ve been trying all day and can’t get this shit to work. I tried that button we saw in the game but it doesn’t follow us out here. I tried picturing that reward screen pop up but it didn't come. We know we can take stuff out of the game, but how do we know that applies to skills as well?” Lucas said.

“I still have my knife fighting skills so I think skills also work out here. And this,” Jack said and pulled out the small, yellow marble crystal and gave it to Lucas. He started playing around with it.

“I tried doing many things to see how to use this. Like imagining skills, imagining using magic powers, trying unlock my ki or some shit and it doesn’t work,” Jack said. “Anyways, I think when we figure out how the game works, you two should get the knife fighting skill,” Jack said.

“Why? I wanna get some superpower, not that boring shit,” Lucas said.

“You already have the skill, so we should diversify and get other skills to figure out what’s best,” Brian said.

“You two were shit with your knives. But yeah that diversification thing. Okay that sounds smart,” Jack said.

“I’ve also been thinking about this. Before heading out to the forest, we should talk to some of the people in the plaza. Get information. Our weakest link is information right now. Figure out how to use skills. Which ones are best to get. Shit like that. I know it’s high risk but we should try,” Brian said.

They agreed to Brian’s plan.

“This thing is kinda fragile,” Lucas said, while playing around with the crystal in his hand. “Maybe I can break it?”

He squeezed the crystal tight and it popped and let out a kind of yellow energy which went into Lucas’ hand.

Insect Movement Control: Rank 1

“You owe me a fucking crystal,” Jack said.