After logging off of the game, Maria decided to take a break from playing Unitale for a few days. She didn’t have much to do in real life and it wasn’t like she was behind on her school assignments, but she just wanted a break. She had started playing Unitale when she was a second-year student and, after its launch around a year ago, she was now a third-year student and had recently just celebrated her 17th birthday.

There wasn’t much change for her in real life, so she could just continue living as she did until now, but she still needed to think about her future. In a year from now, she’d be a fourth-year student and she’d have to think about what she wanted to do after that.

It was good to set a goal for herself early on so that she wouldn’t make any half-assed decisions in the future. Maria needed to determine whether she wanted to continue pursuing her studies at university or do something else after high school. She was born with a golden–or rather, a diamond spoon–in her mouth, so she had the leisure to do whatever she wanted as long as she didn’t waste her life, as her father wouldn’t like that.

Playing Unitale had become a norm for everyone in the world and the world’s economy was tied to the game now, so people were able to make a stable living from it. Being a full-time Unitale player was a viable career plan and Maria was already doing well as a gamer, but she was still a little doubtful.

The reason was that she only played the game for fun and didn’t expect to have her future tied to it. One day, she’d naturally have to stop because she’d get too old for it. The lifespan of the game was also indeterminate, but everyone in the world expected the game to be around for another 10 or maybe even 20 years.

“I only play the game to have fun, but is it enough? Big Brother Mikael and even Father play the game but only occasionally since they’ve got other things to do in real life…even Big Brother Gerald has something he wants to do outside of the game…” Maria grumbled.

She was currently the only one in her family and friendship circle that didn’t have any actual plans for her future after she graduated. Lizzy and her other friends had something they wanted to do after high school that wasn’t completely tied to the game. They told her about what they wanted to do, so Maria was a little bummed out that she was the only one who didn’t have any future plans.

Lizzy apparently wanted to go to university and major in business economics, while Amanda had the same idea. The two of them had family businesses they wanted to inherit, so it was only natural they wanted to learn and gain skills about it.

Not only that, but if things failed with her family’s business due to her other siblings already getting a head start on her, Lizzy said she wanted to try striking out on her own in the future and Amanda entertained the idea of working with her if she could.

Since Unitale was greatly connected to reality, they also needed to learn about business-related matters because managing the guild would become tougher for them in the future if they didn’t have any knowledge regarding that side of things.

There was a limit that they could do if they were only players that just focused on the game all the time. Even while managing their guild, the Fallen Angels, they were required to have advisors by their side that were sent from their families whenever they had to go to the business side of things, which was apparently very complicated given their limited knowledge.

They didn’t want to be duped by any of their business partners and sign a bad deal without understanding what they were getting themselves into. This was apparently their biggest motive, so they had their goals set after high school.

Emily, on the other hand, was different. She wanted to continue pursuing her future in sports, particularly fencing, so she planned on going to one of the Ivy League Colleges just like her brothers had done. She had brought her real-life skill and talent into the game which was why she was able to play as a powerful knight-class player despite being only a ‘kid’. She similarly planned to continue playing the game in the future just like the others because she could get a lot of practical combat experience through it.

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On another note, Emily had become the captain of their high school's fencing team a few months back because of her incredible skills and leadership ability, which she honed inside of Unitale as one of the leaders of the Fallen Angels, so this fueled her desire a bit.

Since she was doing well with this, Emily thought she’d just continue it and see if there was a future for her there. Her parents supported her decision, so they didn’t stop her from becoming a jock like her brothers, who were also athletes.

Maria was the only one among the girls that still hadn’t decided on what she wanted to do. She played the game only for the fun of it and learned everything she had to in real life so she could play the game even better. Maria exercised, learned to handle various types of weapons, studied city management and planning, politics, economics, military-related knowledge, and everything in between so that she could do a good job as the Queen of the Dire.

She only spent a year learning all of this inside and outside the game, where she attended classes, online and offline. Her father was quite happy with her newfound motivation, but learning so many different things backfired a little bit for Maria.

With so many options in front of her, she just didn’t know which path to choose. The game had helped Maria to develop herself in so many ways, but at the same time, it made her unsure of herself. Having so many paths to walk wasn’t always a good thing.

Since her ongoing goals in Unitale completed, Maria wanted to take a break from the game to think about all of this because her father had asked her just recently what she wanted to do in the future. The question came at a bad time because Maria had just finished her Castle Bran raid and officially took over the entire Blood Continent, marking a milestone in her grand design of conquering the entirety of Vanhal.

Her next step in the game was obviously to complete her Class Advancement, but in real life, Maria didn’t know what she wanted to do.

“...I don’t know.”

It was the first time in Corinthus’s life that he heard Maria say that phrase. Usually, she’d always have an answer to any of his questions thanks to her decisive nature, which she inherited from her mother. Being indecisive wasn’t like her and even her brothers were rather shocked. The three of them–father and sons–were puzzled because there was obviously one path forward for Maria, who was so good at the game.

Obviously, it was to continue building the Empire she had established in the game, but since she still hadn’t figured it out, they decided to keep silent and let her realize this on her own. Helping her out was fine but it was very important that they let Maria discover this on her own because it would help her mature as a person.

The question, ‘What do you want to be or do in the future?’ was something that could easily be answered by a child. Only an adult, or a person who was about to become one, would say, ‘I don’t know.’ Finding her own path would be a turning point in Maria’s life, so Corinthus warned his sons not to do anything too excessive and let her figure things out herself.

To an observer, Maria’s path in the future was clear but as the person in question, she just couldn’t see it even though it was right in front of her. Her friends didn’t know about her worries because she hadn’t told them about it, but they expected Maria to continue playing the game since her future was literally there.

Many players could only dream of becoming what Maria was in the game and accomplishing what she accomplished. Being able to secure one's future by just playing a game was something everyone could only dream of but Maria was the only person who didn’t realize it. In the first place, she only played Unitale for fun and never really thought about it in a serious way, since she didn’t need to.

“Agh, this is confusing…”

Maria used the entire duration of her break to think about this but, in the end, she couldn’t come up with anything even after she asked for a little bit of advice from her father and brothers. After giving what little advice they could, her family simply told her that because it was her future, she should figure it out herself and not rely too much on anyone’s suggestions to determine what she wanted to do.

No one should tell her what to do, since she had the power and support to basically do whatever she wanted. It would be different if she had circumstantial problems that prevented her from this kind of leisure contemplation, like economic problems or whatever. Her father worked hard his entire life to be able to provide a good life for his children and allow them to do whatever they wanted in the future, as long as it wasn’t anything bad or a waste of their time.

Now that Maria had come to a crossroads in life where she was seriously contemplating what she wanted to do, Corinthus only provided the minimum amount of advice before telling Maria to determine what she wanted to do for herself.

‘Whatever it is, just know that Papa has your back. Just make sure it isn’t anything bad, okay?’

“So he says, but I have no idea what I wanna do!” Maria said as she pulled her hair.

In the end, Maria’s break wasn’t really a break as she received a splitting headache from thinking too hard about this.

Maria sighed before saying, “I’ll think about this later. I still have another year in high school…let’s go back to the game tomorrow.”