The city Matt lived in wasn't one that seemed to care about aesthetics or the environment, so there were no trees anywhere in sight.

'Oh come on! So that's why this quest is considered hard?'

He was surprised that it hadn't occurred to him that he didn't see trees too often because he lived in a city. He had assumed there would be trees since most cities have trees, but he never stopped to notice that there really weren't any.

'I guess I could try to find a park?'

He opened up his map skill. He had forgot to open it this morning and keep it open to level it up. He sighed and told himself to try to remember next time.

He looked on the map for an area labeled park. In a couple seconds he saw one, and it was only around a mile away. He noticed that it was a pretty large one, so it should be possible to find a decently sized tree there.

As he headed toward the park, he thought more about his situation.

'I really should learn how to defend myself, and if it comes down to it, I need to know how to fight too.'

He felt like he hadn't prepared nearly enough for the eventually public release of the system. He was worried that once it was released, the world would be a very dangerous place. He remembered how in every game he played, there were always people who somehow made it to the top incredibly quickly.

'There are bound to be people like that once the system releases too. They just grind until they can't grind anymore. They're no-lifers.'

He realized how funny that term was. In reality, if the system was released, it would be life now. You couldn't really call them no-lifers. They may actually work harder than they ever have since it actually matters, instead of just a fake reality in a game.

'When I get home, I'll try to see if I can try to learn some self-defense. I don't really have the money to buy classes for it, but maybe I could find some basic videos about it?'

After a couple minutes of running, he finally reached the park. It was a large green area with trees, a lake, and a few statues and benches scattered around. It was like an oasis in the middle of a concrete wasteland.

'I wonder why I never came here before. It's kinda nice.'

As he walked entered the park, he saw there were a lot of trees. The quest didn't seem to mention any specifics, so he guessed any tree would do. He walked up to the closest one and grabbed onto the bark.

'Is it just this easy?'

He pulled himself up and grabbed onto more of the bark higher up. He noticed how it was a bit tricky to hold on to the bark without any branches or anything to grab onto. All of the branches were higher up, and about 15 or more feet off the ground.

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Luckily, he had increased his strength stat by a lot. Although his hands shook as he held on using just his pure grip strength, he still held strong. He slowly made his way up the tree.

'I should probably be careful. I might have more constitution and health now. But I'm pretty sure if I fell, it would hurt a ton.'

He looked down as he thought this. He was just a few feet up, but it still looked pretty far down from this perspective. It made his heart jump a bit.

Matt didn't really have a fear of heights or anything. He hated falling about the same as anyone would and so he took his time, carefully climbing.

Once he made it about 10 feet up, he seemed to be in range of one of the branches now. He grabbed onto the lowest branch and pulled himself up once more. He finally had good footing.

He paused to rest a bit. He checked his quest and was a little annoyed.

__________

[Quest In-Progress]

Climb to the top of a tree [Reward: +1 STR, +1 AGI, +20xp]

__________

He was kinda hoping he would only have to climb this far. But he saw that it said he had to go to the top of the tree. He was already pretty high, so he was getting a bit nervous.

'I shouldn't die if I fall from the top right? I have 20 health, so it should be fine right?'

He tried to reassure himself, but it didn't really work. Either way, he wasn't going to just go back. He just needed to be careful.

'I literally fought a gun-wielding maniac yesterday. I'm not going to lose to a tree…'

He took a deep breath and continued climbing. He made his way up the branches, carefully choosing which one to grab. Every time he chose wrong, and there wasn't much of a path up, he simply went back to the previous branch and chose a different one.

He was so high up now that he didn't dare to look at the ground in case he would wimp out. So he just kept looking up and finding new branches to grab. The leaves above him were getting brighter, so he assumed he was getting close to the top.

'I have to admit. Even though this is a bit scary, it's kinda fun. I could've never done this with my strength before.'

He sighed and calmed down a bit. He was pretty close, but he also didn't want to think about how he was going to get down once he reached the top.

'Huh. I really didn't think of that… Oh well, I'll not worry about it for now!'

He had to push the thought out of his mind or else it would start freaking him out. He was so close that he might as well finish the quest before trying to figure it out.

The quest still hadn't gone off, so he assumed he really had to get to the very top. He saw that he was almost there, and pulled himself up one more time. He had made it to the top.

But he saw something weird. He hadn't noticed before because leaves were blocking his view.

A woman was sitting on a branch at the top of the tree. She stared at him and he stared back at her. An awkward silence followed.