The sharp sounds of the phone jolts me awake.

It's already been five hours? And it looks like the sun is also up.

Wait, what is this buzzing sound? And why won't the alarm stop, after hitting the screen?

This isn't the snooze button, it's a message notification. What the fuck?!

[Incoming message: From Delivery Drone. Subject: Your government-sponsored food rations arrived. Text: The Delivery Drone hovers near your GPS location and can't access your living space. Open the door to allow delivery, and take your food.]

No, no, no, it's supposed to come at noon. I set the alarm at... Tomorrow's six o'clock?

Arnim, for fuck's sake, how stupid can you be? Yeah, because it was past midnight. Damn it.

Okay, let that drone in, before it sends a complaint to the cops.

How much time until the deadline?

God, I hate sleeping in when it's the most important to start early.

And the sun slaps in the face as soon as the container's doors open.

The drone floats in as if it's the most natural thing, and drops the box on the bed.

Is it the same cardboard box he used yesterday? It even has my name and a barcode in one of the corners.

It looked like some recycled stuff but they reuse it over and over.

The speaker asks for the food containers from yesterday too, it's a good thing they are clean.

It only took him one occasion to learn where to find me and how to serve the food.

That's smarter than some of the NPCs in the game.

He waits until the box is empty again, then prompts to put in the empty cylinders and flies away with them.

He's gone before saying thanks, the buzzing noise echoing in the distance.

The surveillance drones are out here too, zooming around in the Container Park. They clear a path for the larger delivery one as if it's their boss.

It feels bad to let it go without a farewell. Well, it's only a robot anyway, and I'm sleepy as fuck.

How, why? After what, eleven hours? Oh, but the headache and ringing is gone. An urge to yawn replaced both overnight.

Okay, that's an easy fix, that energy bar in the food rations is the first thing to grab. And they packed another apple, great.

That's all about the pacing and taking breaks.

It will be one long marathon to have a chance of finishing the fed's mission.

It's a good thing, the character should be well rested too, and in the right place to start.

There is no time for a smoke, the apple takes too long to chew already.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

The rest of the food has to wait. They will be my reward once there's some progress.

If they kick me out of the program, there won't be any more of this luxury anyway.

Who knows what kind of food they serve in prison? Or worse yet, in the foster home.

[Welcome back, Arnim 13642.]

Yeah, yeah. This thing loads faster after each launch, yet that feels way too slow today.

The avatar materializes in the Adventurer's Guild, right by Selena's desk.

She's as busy as always, organizing jobs, turning her back to me, and then noticing the arrival like a true cliche.

"Oh, welcome back, Noob, I didn't see you there."

Here's a hint, there was nobody here a second ago.

There is no way to tell her that as the game suppresses anything immersion-breaking.

Yeah. This info freaked me out last night, there is a vague recollection of it.

"Good Morning, Selena."

No time for any of that. It will be a tight run, even with giving my all, so let's go.

"Rats. Which area has the worst infestations? Without the highest level contracts, I'll lose that bet."

She opens her arms and shrugs. It's a bad start.

"This is odd, because this desk was full of those requests yesterday, and now most are gone. No new reports came in since you left, and no zombies either."

Oh no, already?

Running them last night would've been the right choice, rather than sleeping in.

She still takes out a few papers that match the description, but the stack is much smaller than before.

They are the E-class ones at least, that's still almost five hundred Exp each.

She's an angel, with that grey lock in her dark bun. She slips another paper here too.

"Now that your rank went up, you could bring some more delicate chemicals from the Pharmacy too."

Her wink tells it's a task worth taking.

The description promises a full silver for the short run, the payouts grew a lot with the E-class. Mana potions? A full rack.

"Selena, anything for you, any time."

I nod, taking that mission first.

She giggles, looking younger and even more mischievous than before.

Or is it thanks to the long sleep, making me see the world in a new light?

"Any news about bandits?"

She stops to ponder for a moment.

"Now that you mention it, we had some strange reports about stuff that went missing. It's unclear if the bandits have anything to do with it, but they started after the Guildmaster went out with you."

Here is a clue, somehow the character did manage to kick out a new event.

"So the new jobs are for high-level adventurers to deal with the bandit threat?"

If this means they want newbies to party up, I'm screwed.

No, sleeping in screwed me either way.

She only shakes her head, pushing another hand-written description under my nose.

"These aren't high-ranking, neither do they offer much reward. They should be easy for anyone though." This makes no sense.

The villagers want help reinforcing their homes and setting traps to deter intruders. This particular one is F-rank, a beginner could do it too.

Wait a second. A system message appears over the description, that says, 'You can't take this job.'

These are crafting tasks, you need to make the traps yourself and set them up.

Crafting is Premium only.

Are you kidding? The starter village's next event spawns paywalled quests.

This is even worse than fighting overpowered opponents or setting up parties.

There is no way of participating, regardless of determination. Thanks to the metagaming ban, there's no room for complaints.

The only thing the headset allows saying is that I'm not interested.

"Too bad, these seem to be the big hit today, but it's understandable. The reward wouldn't be enough to win your bet, so I'll keep my eye on the juicier contracts for you."

Her winks are the real life-savers here, not the Guardian Angels.

This is both ironic and infuriating though. The avatar kicked off a new event in Origin.

One that he can't take part in because I spent the cop's ten credits on smoke like an idiot.

Let's hope the ratting tasks last long enough to reach the tenth level.

Forty thousand Exp, that would take eighty of them.

[Government Issued Quest: Reach Level 10 within 3 days. Importance: Utmost. Difficulty: Average. Progress: 7/10, Exp to next level: 3549/6400. (24/72 hours left).]

This is what an utter, unmitigated disaster looks like.