CHAPTER 1
"Riley! Riley! Time to get up! Don't forget the promise you made to me yesterday!"
Riley grunted in reply as he flipped over to his right. His mum's yelling never failed to wake him up from his beloved sleep.
He opened his eyes slowly and glanced at the alarm clock standing atop the shelf beside his bed. The red led light had the time: 9:47, clearly displayed on it.
Riley groaned. He indeed remembered his promise to his mother, which was to finish his homework before lunch. Riley, because he had just woken up, tried his best to recall exactly what had transpired last night when he had made that promise.
He vaguely remembered his last conversation with his mom last night before sleeping. His mom had barged into his room at 12:45am
"Riley! Don’t be busy playing games all the time, finish your homework!"
Riley, who had his headsets on, replied, "Mum, I'm really busy right now! I'll finish it, I promise!"
Riley's eyes were fixed on the computer's screen. It was a Saturday night, and he was in his normal routine; he was having a boss raid together with his guild, “The Alliance”.
Riley first discovered the game World of Legends when it first came out 5 years ago, and he immediately fell in love with it. It had everything he’d ever want from a game; a wonderful combat system, a diverse number of jobs and roles such as farming, woodcutting, and fishing, and a vast, ever-expanding world to explore. Best of all, it’s fully free-to-play (f2p), and not a pay-to-win (p2w) game.
Riley is obsessed with the game, spending hours at large grinding and exploring this multiplayer world, and mastering his in-game skills to stand above the others. His hardwork has indeed paid off; he’s established himself as the top 50 players in the world, besting millions and millions of other players across the globe.
It was common to do boss raids late at night, since his “guildies”, as he liked to call them, were from different parts of the world, and the only time in which all of them could play together was a Saturday night. Riley wasn't going to risk missing raid night, which rewards participants lots of Experience Points (EXP), in-game currencies, and also rare loot, and thus he ended up making the promise.
“Are you sure you’ll remember?”
“Don’t worry! I only need 5 more minutes!" He had made this empty promise, knowing that he would continue sleeping until at least 11 in the morning.
Turning over back to his left side, he saw what looked to be a blue box floating above him, about half a meter from his face. Ignoring it due to his sleepiness, he closed his eyes and tried to go back to sleep.
Half a second later, the gears in his brain started turning.
"Wait, what on earth was that?!"
He rapidly opened his eyes, and before he could turn his head towards the ceiling, he could see it floating right in front of him.
He stared carefully at the floating, 2-dimensional "box" in front of him. He felt a mix of both curiosity and surprise.
He turned away towards his window, and the box followed his gaze. He turned his head to the opposite direction, and once again, the box followed, locking itself to the centre of his view.
Trying to shrug away his astonishment, he mustered all the courage he could get and reached out for the box.
The moment his fingers touched the surface of the box, he realized that it felt similar to water. It wasn't a holographic projection; it was semi-solid and clearly existed. It was cold, and the gelatinous, matte texture of the box rippled with his touch.
As he tried to push his hands further in, thinking that he could push his hands all the way through, he ended up pushing the box. He was quite surprised and continued playing around with it.
He tried placing his fingers on its surface again, and slowly dragged his fingers around. The box followed his finger around, as if it was a computer "window".
He finally dragged it closer to himself, so he could read the text more clearly. At the top, the box was a darker shade of blue, with the words "Quest" printed in the center.
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Directly below were the words “A promise to Mum" in bold print.
There was some slightly smaller text below it, which stated, "You made a promise to your mum last night to finish your homework today. She took your word for it, and she hopes you will complete it early. Quest conditions: Finish your homework before 12 o'clock. Do not get caught playing games before finishing your homework. Quest rewards: 10 EXP, +1 Charisma, and your favorite burger as dinner. Failure: Your mum will nag you for the whole day and -1 Charisma."
After these details were two buttons; on the left was "Accept" and on the right was “Decline”. Scratching his head, he thought to himself: "This has to be a dream. I’ve gamed to the extent that I’m starting to think I’m actually in some sort of RPG."
He closed his eyes and pressed his eyelids together really hard before opening them again. The window was still there.
Sighing, he pressed the "Accept" button, while he thought to himself, "Hmm, I have to finish my homework anyways, since tomorrow is a school day, so might as well enjoy some extra rewards."
After clicking the button, the window disappeared and a new window popped out, with the words, "Quest accepted. Check Quest Log for quest details." At the top right was a cross.
He clicked on it and this window disappeared.
As he slowly walked down the stairs, Riley was still deep in thought. "Is this really a dream? Or could this… actually be reality?"
Riley pinched his cheeks, hoping that it would wake him up. The pain stung, and caused him to release his hands.
A long rectangular bar popped up in front of him. It was red, and had 249/250 written on it. He dismissed it before he could get a good look, and it soon disappeared.
“Morning mum!” Riley called as he entered the kitchen.
The moment he caught sight of his mother, he froze. To be specific, whatever was on top of his mother made him stop dead in his tracks. “M-mum? What’s that above you?”
His mum had been busy cooking until she heard Riley’s remark. She slowly peered upwards, then relaxed when she realized there was nothing above her.
She sighed and said, “Riley, enough with all your pranks. It’s funny the first time, but if you continue doing this, I’ll have to ground you, young man!”
Riley replied immediately, saying, “Haha, sorry mum. I promise I won’t do it again.”
He then proceeded to take a seat at the dining table. Riley then fell deep in thought.
Above his mum was three lines: “Sarah Petesgeralt, Housewife, Lvl 0”
Below these words were two bars, one red and one blue. “Hmm, it seems that only I can see those… words above her head. Is this a new ability I’ve gained? And why is her level zero? What if…”
He picked up the shiny spoon to his right and looked into it. He could see his reflection and indeed, there were words on his head too, showing, “Riley Petesgeralt, the Roleplayer, lvl 1”.
Below it were the same red and blue bars. However, this time, it had numbers on the bars. On his red bar, the numbers “249/250” were there.
That must’ve been when I pinched myself. However, on the blue bar, it showed only “200/200”.
As he continued staring at the spoon’s reflection, his mum suddenly placed a plate in front of him, saying: “Stop daydreaming! You have a lot of homework to complete!”
After that, she returned to the kitchen to clean it up.
Riley was still deep in thought. As he placed the spoon down, he picked his fork up and started poking at the egg omelet his mum cooked for him.
He continued thinking about this mysterious ability of his.
“Through most of the games I’ve played, I assume the red bar is my health (HP), and the blue bar is my mana (MP). Wait, if I have a mana bar, does that mean I can perform special skills and, maybe even… magic?”
Suddenly, a new window popped up, between his breakfast and him.
“Through thorough mental analysis, the skill “Analyze” has been discovered.”
A lower text below captioned, “By performing “Analyze” on something, you may gain varying information on the target, depending on the level of the skill.”
The window disappeared after Riley read it.
“What was that? Did it just say I gained a skill? … That was weird.”
Riley looked at the omelet again, then muttered the word “Analyze”.
A window appeared right in front of his omelet.
Riley fixed his eyes on the window, like an eagle that had just spotted its dinner.
The text on the window read: “A nutritious omelet made by Sarah Petesgeralt. Tastes wonderful. Restores 50 Health after consumption.”