"What do you mean, 'No college will accept me'? You just said that I have the highest grades in the state." Luther was sitting in front of his guidance counselor.

"It is precisely how you said, college criteria has changed. Tell me, if you would, what level are you in the game SECOND CHANCE?" He spoke in a way that didn't hide the fact he didn't want to be there.

Luther was a little taken aback. " I've never played." 

" Exactly. Each player gets their own digital ID that has their information. Their level, occupation, their skills, and how much money they can make. The information found on those IDs are much more valuable as they can't be forged or hacked. Colleges don't trust our information."

Hoping to be a Science and Engineering Major, he didn't understand the point. He took shop class and everything related, and he Passed AP Calculus and Bio Early. While everyone was playing a game, he was actually putting in the work required to move up in the world.

His actions actually made him behind his peers, who would have thought?

"My advice is to join as soon as possible. It might seem unprofessional to recommend a game to a student, but that's all the advice I can give you. If you were a couple years older you could most definitely get into Yale. But now, they want the money associated with the game. College costs have been going up."

Of course, he needed money. It was always about money. With just him and his dad, Alex, they enough money to live comfortably, but not college level cushy. When his dad got a promotion last year, he stocked up on canned goods and bought two VR pods. He wanted to spend time with his son. And it would have worked if he didn't buy them during exam season.

Luther spent the walk home grumbling about annoying, money grubbing, higher learning institutes. His dad won't be back until 6pm, so he just hopped in the pod that was collecting dust in the corner in his room.

SECOND CHANCE was the product of two separate companies and games merging together. 'The Twelve Kingdoms' was a medieval fantasy game with magic, knights, and dragons. 'Accension Dreams' was more eastern with cultivation and immortals at its base. The merge turned the two halves into a complete world where anyone becoming anything they wanted.

< Chose your appearance.>

He kept everything as he was in the real world, with one change. He changed his fire red hair to ocean blue.

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5' 11'' with a lean ,yet muscular, build.

He tapped YES and he closed his eyes and fell asleep standing. He woke up standing on a grassy hill overlooking a village.

"Status." He said without any hesitation. If he wants to go to college he needs to know what he is dealing with.

< Player: Luther

Level: 1

HP: 600

Strength: 8

Speed :6

Mana:10>

He smiled a little. "This might not be so bad." He said to no one. He personally wants a magic class. In order to do that, he needs to get to level 5. This max Mana Stat shows promise.

Still standing on the hill, he closed his eye and looked into himself. Inside himself, there was a small collection tiny blue bubbles.  He just observed them float around aimlessly. Sometimes colliding, making a bigger bubble, and separating almost immediately after.

[Magic Intellectual]

[You looked inside yourself to become more synchronized with your Mana]

[Reward: Mana + 5]

That was curious, but proves his theory. You can control Mana like you would on the other side of the world. and he wasn't the first one to do this. 

The question he had now was, How did Mages control their Mana? Was it the same? Or was it different? 

He pondered things like this as he went down to his starting village.

He was immediately disappointed once he made it past the Gate.

[Starting Village: Kokiri Village]

[Population: 1 (you)] 

 Kokiri village was a ghost town. He walked around and only found abandoned houses and a barred up adventurer's guild.

This had to be a mistake. Right? He walked behind the guild and found a paper nailed to the backdoor.

"Notice of bankruptcy." He read out loud.

Now it made sense. From what the forums stated, a guildhouse like this one was the actual heart of village economy. They commissioned jobs and paid. Food and monster parts could be traded for other materials, making guildhouses; tradehouses as well. 

Their fields could no longer yield crops and the monsters got stronger. He was the only one here. This was a good thing and a bad thing. It was good because everything in this village was free by default. It was a bad thing because he couldn't get Quests and had to hunt to level up. And he was unable to fight as he was now.

He knew what to do next and broke down the backdoor to the Adventurer's guild. Which took a half hour. a level 1 newbie breaking into an abandoned Adventurer's Guild took a lot of work. Two axes and a hoe later, the door was beyond repair and he could walk in.

He walked over to where the Quest board should be. Instead there was a map hanging on the wall. The village was in the center and there were four red huts surrounding it. The grassland was covered in red dots as well. A panel popped up.

< Epic quest found!>

[Quest: save the village!]

[The village is surrounded by goblins. Destroy their camps and kill their chiefs.

Objective: kill four goblin leaders. 0/4

Kill goblins 0/500

Reward: 1000 XP

??? Chest

??? Book

Consequence for failure: none]

Luther got excited and angry at the same time. "How the hell is a level 1 newbie going to complete an epic quest by himself?!" He took a deep breath and calmed down. He made up his mind, he was going to do it.

Luther got a little excited as he turned around. He had a Guild to loot.