It was a long and messy process, however, I was eventually rewarded with the sight of three Beast cores. With no experience butchering anything, I made a complete mess of the process, nearly throwing up multiple times, however, in the end, I’d succeeded.

The air seemed to hum near the cores, the telltale sign of Psi energy strongly present. I could only assume these cores were what made the Dire Ferrets so large and vicious. Possessing a core must be what separates Beasts from normal animals.

A search on my watch showed a store buying them for a hundred and twenty credits each, giving me three hundred and sixty credits for this fight. While I’d used some of my ammo and medical supplies, I estimated that I’d made a profit of roughly three hundred credits.

While it was far from paying back what I’d invested so far, I couldn’t help smiling at the first real sign it was possible to earn more than I spent. If I could keep this up without it costing me too much, I might even be able to pay for my trips here and back.

In the immediate future, however, I had to get away from this clearing. While I didn’t know for sure if the bodies would attract predators like in real life, I wasn’t about to risk it. Besides, with the mess I’d made, this clearing was going to get very unpleasant very quickly.

That said, I still had a severely injured leg. While I’d stopped the bleeding and taken painkillers, putting all my weight on it would surely just injure it further. Without a lot of supplies, the best plan I had was to get a large walking stick and limp onwards.

It would drastically slow my speed, however, it would hopefully help heal me up faster. Plan in mind, I began re-packing my supplies, not looking forward to their weight while I was injured.

A few minutes later, I was ready to go and began limping as best I could to the edge of the treeline in search of a walking stick. That part, at least, was easy, as there were plenty of fallen branches on the ground. I was able to break the branches off one of them to provide me with a nearly straight stick, good enough to proceed with.

Next, I reluctantly pulled my pants on, wincing even through the painkillers as I dragged them past my calf. They were almost as soaked with gore as my shirt, I would have to make cleaning both of them a priority.

I pulled up the scanner on my watch, eventually figuring out how to get it overlaying my map for a broader view. This gave me the ability to search further out, while still giving me more detailed information within a mile.

I sighed in relief as I saw no new dots signifying enemies. Safe for now, I began looking for a stream in the rough direction that I was traveling. The closest one I could find was six miles further onwards. A trip of only a few hours normally it would take far longer at my slow, limping pace.

Still, there was nothing for it, at least this would be a target to keep me moving. It would make for a suitable spot to camp as well, I only had a single canteen of water after all. I just hoped I would make it before dark.

I spent the rest of the afternoon limping through the forest with my stick, supporting me. It was hard going, and I pushed myself harder than I probably should have, however the disgusting smell from my stained clothes push me forwards. I could not wait to get them clean again.

I only encountered a single Beast on the way, a brutish pig monster that almost gored me with its tusks. Luckily I’d seen it coming on my scanner and was able to take it out with a series of three shots just before it reached me.

While slower, it had been far tougher than the Dire Ferrets and I had to wonder if this was the effect of stats at work. The notification I received informed me I’d killed a Forest Boar Level 2, granting me 20 XP. That suggested my theory was correct.

At level 2, it should have had more stat points than the ferrets, and given that it had taken a shot to the face without dying, I imagined that most of them were in Toughness. That made me particularly glad I’d invested my free points in the stat, hopefully, one day I would be capable of such feats.

It would make the wait for my Psionic Abilities a lot more survivable if I could shrug off wounds in combat. After being seriously injured once, I had no desire to repeat the experience.

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Hours after the boar fight, I reached my destination, the stream. It was only about two feet wide, but its crystal clear water flowed along merrily. I’d made it just in time too, the sun was already setting.

Much as I wanted to dive straight in and get clean, not to mention have a drink since I’d run out over an hour ago, I needed to get my camp set up before I lost the last of the light. Bradford had told me that fire was key to keeping Beasts away while I slept. Given that I’d need to log out soon, it was imperative I got a large fire started.

It would need to last the eight hours I would be required to stay offline for. I knew little about fires, so I’d need to make it as large as I could and hope for the best. That meant gathering wood in sufficient quantities.

While there was plenty about it, it wasn’t the easiest task while keeping weight off my injured leg. By the time I figured I’d gathered enough, it was truly dark. I could only see from a light projected by my watch.

My cooking gear included an electric fire starter, so I pushed much of what I’d gathered into a pile and began trying to light it. While I knew very little about fires, I was pretty sure you needed tinder to start one. Not having anything else close to hand, I used a pile of dry leaves.

While it resulted in masses of smoke, this worked, leaving me with a large blazing fire. A check of my settings showed I had nearly two hours before the system would force me to log off, enough to get clean and make this body some food.

Now that I had a fire to protect my camp, I finally allowed myself to wade into the stream. It was near freezing, yet I barely cared as I could finally wash off the gore.

My camping supplies had come with a cleaning agent that was safe to use without polluting the water, and I used it judiciously to get my gear clean. I kept my plasma pistol and ammo close at hand on the bank as I did so, having learned my lesson earlier.

Luckily, the fire was keeping away any Beasts that were close and I spent a cold, but pleasant hour washing until I finally felt clean. Wading out of the stream, I laid my shirt and pants out by the fire to dry. Then I began prepping my cooking gear for use.

The rations I’d purchased came in two parts. The first was a pair of high-density protein bars to eat for lunch, designed to be easy to consume on the move. While the second portion was a heatable bag of food, not too dissimilar from my freeze-dried meals at home. After being boiled in a pot of water for twenty minutes, it would be ready to eat.

While I waited, I began setting up my single-person tent. Luckily, it had detailed instructions, as I would have been lost otherwise. Halfway through, my watch pinged me with a warning, informing me it was no longer in contact with a charging shirt.

So that’s how it stays charged, I mused as I finished setting up the tent. I wonder how it works. Converting body heat maybe? Or bioelectricity? Either way, I was glad it wouldn’t end up dead while I was out here.

Though that did mean I’d have to make sure my shirt didn’t get too damaged. Presumably, it wouldn’t be able to charge if I lost the sleeve on my left arm. I would have to think about bringing spare clothes next time, they would have been useful multiple times today.

Not long after finishing the tent, the timer I had set up on my watch beeped. My dinner was ready. I poured the packet out into a bowl and began eating. It was a meat stew, of about the same quality as the freeze-dried meals I was eating in the real world.

Not the most pleasant meal, but it got the job done and ensured that this body got enough to eat. Meal complete, it was nearly time to log off, I only had about fifteen minutes left of the fifteen hours I could play each day.

I stoked the fire and pushed some more wood into it, hoping that it would be enough to last until morning. Then I slipped into my tent and zipped it closed before lying down on the bedroll inside. Not seeing any reason to push for the last few minutes, I logged off, returning to the real world.

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I woke, confined once again in the hated pod. Even though I was more prepared than earlier, it was still a deeply unpleasant experience. I wasted no time in extracting myself and spilling out into my apartment.

I spent the next hour dealing with my physical body’s needs before getting ready for bed. While I had to spend at least nine hours in the physical world per day, only six of them had to be consecutive.

With the hour I’d taken off earlier and the hour I’d just spent, that left seven before I could return to the game. While VR gaming didn’t give you the full experience of sleep, as your mind was mostly still active, it still helped. Frequent gamers often reported that they only needed six or even fewer hours of sleep per night.

I hoped to be one of them. I’d need to exercise at least once, preferably twice, per day if I didn’t want my body atrophying on me. If I only needed six hours’ rest, I could fit that in without costing me any of my precious game time.

I lay on my single bed and pulled up the covers, trying to sleep even as thoughts of the day whirled through my mind. All in all, I was very happy with how my first day in VSO had gone. While I’d spent more money than I wanted to, I was already seeing at least small dividends from my investment.

Hopefully, with more time and levels, I could build that income up to where it could meet all my expenses, allowing me to turn the game into my full-time job. While that seemed like it was far off, I had a hard time limit to pull it off.

I now had less than four months left before my money ran out and I’d have to find an actual job or be out on the streets. With the job market the way it was, a sensible person would start looking at least a month before that happened.

Trying to push my worries away was hard, however, I was eventually able to drift off into slumber. Tomorrow would be another day and another chance to move my dreams forward.