Logging out from the game, Henry saw the fluorescent lights above him blink and hum, as he crawled out of the FIVR pod. He stretched, feeling refreshed like he just came out from a good dream. He finished his second day of gaming, and he was slowly becoming addicted. Heaven’s Gates felt more real than virtual.

But real life would not be denied. He still had to go to work, pay rent and utilities. He checked the nutrient capsules on the pods and was surprised to see they were still full. He guesstimated the capsules could last a week or one month in-game. And he owned the cheapest nutrient capsules, the more expensive ones could last six months to a year.

Henry looked at the clock in his apartment it was midnight. Even though it was late, Henry felt alert ready to seize the day. He was excited that the got his second crafting class. Being an apprentice in tanning and blacksmithing would help him immensely after the left the town.

‘Left the town,’ those words gave him pause. Even though Roy, Martha, Alice, Josh, and Michelle were NPCs, lines of code, he had grown fond of them. He would miss Roy’s hearty belly-shaking laughs, Alice’s mile-a-minute speaking, Michelle’s cooking, and Josh’s helpful smile.

But he had his own plans. He wanted to find a remote location and build a homestead. He wanted to build his own house and farm. He’d craft what he needed and eat what he grew. That reminded him, he’d need to get Roy’s Dwarven Amber Ale receipt before he left. Roy’s beer was by far the best he tasted in the game, and there was no way he could go back to drinking the sour wheat beer served in the tavern.

“Urgh, I stink,” Henry said after smelling himself and quickly hopped in the shower.

After showering, Henry quickly mapped out the rest of the time in White Pines Town. He purposely left one tree in the sawmill to complete as soon as he logged in to finish Josh’s quest. This meant he need to think about the carpentry skill tree, and what project he wanted to work on with Josh.

According to what Roy said, he was already specializing in tanning and blacksmithing as a general leatherwork and toolsmith. He also had the generalist carpentry Woodworking skill. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t learn another specialist skill in carpentry. He immediately ruled out learning to be a fletcher or bowyer, he was an axe man. He also didn’t want to be a shipwright. Which left copper and cartwright. And of the two cartwrights seemed the most practical.

The more he thought about the idea the more he liked it. New player starting bags only had 10 storage slots, which wasn’t enough for what he planned to bring with him. There was no way, he could put his carpentry and blacksmith tools, fasteners, seeds, dry goods, and pelts in his bag of holding. Furthermore, he also planned to purchase small livestock to take with him. Cartwright was definitely the way to go.

With that settled, Henry read the Heaven’s Gates forums and ate breakfast until sunrise. There was so much going on in the game. Players were exploring dungeons, finding hidden quests, one player even earned the game’s first hidden class, a Church of Light paladin. Others found epic and rare weapons, which increased their leveling speed dramatically. Everyone was curious about whom the first person to reach level 10 would be. They were making bets. Henry enjoyed reading about the game lore and story development.

But what caught his eye was the Heaven’s Gates player auction went live tonight. People were trading, and bidding thousands of gold for rare weapons, skill books, and quest information. Henry checked his inventory and found that he still had skill books given to him by Josh, Alice, and Roy. He quickly uploaded the books to the auction house and set the starter price at one silver.

Afterward, Thaddeus moderated the crafter forum he started. He was excited to see the forum he created, was expanding nicely. There were discussion boards that focus solely on blacksmithing, enchanting, and alchemy. There were fewer posts written by people pursuing artificer, tailor, leatherworking, and carpentry classes. But Thaddeus did find people who had gotten hidden classes such as potter and glassmaker class and how to get to the skill. The crafter had gotten so popular that Buena Vista released bots to help co-manage the site.

Before leaving the forum, Thaddeus quickly added the information he learned from Roy. He discussed what he learned about the crafter specializations and various skill trees. He mentioned his progress in general leatherworking, woodworking, and tool smithing.

At 8 in the morning, he left hurried out of his apartment had headed to his state university, where he majored in computer science and business administration. As a senior, his class schedule was filled with capstone courses, seminars, and internships.

His first stop was the student center to grab a quick bagel and coffee to meet his friends before his business capstone class. When he walked in, the usually empty student center was filled with students. Thaddeus wondered if he missed the email about a convention on campus or recruitment fair.

“Henry over here!” Dustin shouted.

"Guys this is my friend Henry; he's playing Heaven's Gate too!" Dustin told everyone as Thaddeus waved and sat down.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Dustin, what’s going on?” Thaddeus asked.

“Did you miss the announcement? Everyone here plays Heaven’s Gate. Look over there, that is where you can register to join a campus guild. And over there, that’s the sign-up to join major quests. There’s even a university forum dedicated to Heaven’s Gate. Check it out, it’s on the university homepage,” Dustin explained.

“Oh, that explains it,” Thaddeus said looking up the forum on the university homepage.

“I’ve been so busy playing we haven’t even checked in with each other. I’m a Level 9 human knight, what are you?” Dustin asked.

“I’m a Level 8 human-bear kin carpenter,” Thaddeus informed him

“You’re a crafter? But you always play as an elemental mage. Why did you decide to become a crafter, is there some hidden secret combat class you can obtain?” Dustin asked in a whisper.

“No, I just wanted to take things slow this time. I don’t want to hurry through the game and power level all the time. I want a different challenge,” Thaddeus explained.

“Oh, this has to do with your parent's death,” Dustin said understanding.

"I guess a little bit. But I really just want to slow things down and enjoy the game?" Thaddeus explained.

“Their death wasn’t your fault. No, could have predicted that the truck’s brakes malfunctioned,” Dustin said comforting Thaddeus.

"I know it’s not my fault. But if I had gone to the store instead of my parents—”

“Then you’d be dead, and your parents would be miserable,” Dustin said cutting off Thaddeus.

“What sucks about the death of a loved one, it feels like time slowdowns for you and speeds up for others,” Thaddeus said softly.

But before he had time to process his grief, his dad's lawyer signed the settlement with the truck company and added it to my investment fund. He dumped the insurance and the settlement into a blind trust operated by BlackRock and left it to the whims of fate. That’s how he inherited a sizable trust fund. But he refused to touch the payout, it just felt wrong to use that money. Instead, he sold his family home, paid his university tuition, got a job on campus, and moved into his current apartment.

Honestly, if not for Dustin, Thaddeus probably would have quit college and become a drug addict. His friends were the only ones there for him during those dark times and appreciated him.

“I know bud,” Dustin said before talking excitedly to the rest of the people at the table.

"I choose a crafting profession too. I’m a Level 8 alchemist,” said a young woman named Heather, placing a loose strand of hair behind her ear. She was a chemistry major, with deep hazel eyes and brown hair. She wore small rectangular glasses that accentuated her girl-next-door beauty.

Their eyes locked in just a moment until, Chad, a stocky lacrosse player, belted out, “You guys are lame. I'm an Orca Berserker. You three are missing out. There's so much cool land to explore and fun shit to kill," he said animatedly.

“Henry, what city are you going to after you reach Level 10? I'm going to Pinewood in the Arcadian," Heather said.

“Same here. But I only plan to stay there for a little bit. I’m planning to build a homestead in some remote place where I can be alone,” Thaddeus explained.

“Lame! Why would you limit yourself to one location, when there is so much to explore?” Chad asked.

“Dude, shut up. Why step on someone else’s dream?” Dustin chastised.

“Yeah, I think it’s a perfectly fine dream. Building your own house, farming your own crops, and raising a family harkens back to when American settled in the west,” Heather explained.

“No one said anything about a family,” Katherine laughed at Heather’s semi-confession. Kathern was Chad’s girlfriend.

Thaddeus, Dustin, Chad, Katherine, and Heather had known each since freshmen year when they all took GEN 1001: Freshmen Seminar together.

Heather turned away from the table of friends, trying to hide her red checks filled with embarrassment.

Thaddeus ignored Katherine and thanked Heather for supporting him.

“Whatever, my in-game name is Maria. I’m a Level 9, wood elf archer," Katherine said proudly.

"Excuse me,” said a black-haired Asian man gathering everyone’s attention. “My name is Kwon Kim, I’m co-president of the HG Club. I hope everyone here signs up. We plan to meet here at this time during the week, breakfast will be served. Feel free to swap your ID tags with other players, sign-up for quests, or join a university guild. Okay, see everyone tomorrow,” Kwon said.

“Bye everyone, my first class starts at 10:00 AM. I go to go,” Thaddeus said waving goodbye.

"Wait before you go, my guild could use a crafter. I spoke to your friend Dustin. If you're interested, we can talk later!" Kwon shouted.

“I won’t join your guild, but I’m happy to work on commission,” Thaddeus explained.

“That’s too bad, but let’s trade contact information just in case,” Kwon said respectfully.

Thaddeus knew guilds, especially newer ones, would jump at the opportunity to make friends with crafters. Nurturing a crafter would only strengthen a guild overall. That is why crafters held major influence within a guild.

After leaving the Student Center, Thaddeus found his middle-row seat in his first class. His typical seat was four rows back near the aisle. Why it was the perfect place to blend in. Faculty usually paid attention to the back and front of the class. The middle provided perfect camouflage.

On Monday and Wednesday, he had his business classes; and on Tuesday and Thursday, he had his computer engineering classes. Today, he had ECON 300: Industrial Organizations and Public Policy, ECON 310: International Trade: Causes, Consequences, and Controversies, and ECON 331: Labor Economics. Tomorrow he had CMSC 315 Algorithms, CMSC 323: Design and Implementation of Programming Languages, and CMSC 327 Machine Learning.

After class, he grabbed some tacos at a food truck parked on campus and ran to his job at the library. Where he spent the next four hours working at the IT Helpdesk, helping students lockout out their computers, reset their passwords, and asking if their computer was on.

When his shift finally, ended he ran back to his apartment and logged into the game. The world spun around him, before settling down in his bedroom in the sawmill. When he logged into the game it was already afternoon.

He quickly made his way to the sawmill to finish his request. An hour later he got the notification he wanted.

Quest Completed: Lumber

Joshua the carpenter needs you to joint and plane the 30 oak, cedar, and pine trees for lumber. Each beam and plank must reach a minimum standard of [Good] to quality.