Max’s senses were jolted back to those of his real body as he was forcibly disconnected from the game server.

“Huh? What? Why?”

Max exited the game capsule and looked around. To his knowledge, the only possible explanations for disconnection would be either a medical emergency, or someone hitting the emergency stop button on the capsule’s exterior.

‘???’

Nobody was there. There was also no alarm from the game capsule, so it wasn’t a health emergency. Max was perplexed as he was left without an explanation.

Finding his phone, he decided to call Rone. Surprisingly, Rone’s name appeared on the homescreen before he could even open his phone app. Max accepted the call.

“Hey Max, were you just logged out?”

“Yeah, I was kicked out of the game randomly. How did you know?”

“All the livestreams are down and people are already starting to complain on the forums. It’s not just you, it looks like everyone was disconnected. Maybe the entire server crashed or something.”

“Oh, man.” Max had thought it was just him. For everyone to lose connection on launch day; it didn’t bode well for the game company at all. After all, millions of people had logged in to play the game at launch. “Have Virtek put up an announcement?”

“No, not yet. It’s really strange.”

“Huh... Well, that’s disappointing, but it’s not terrible timing for me, actually.”

“What do you mean?”

“I have to go to work soon.”

“Wha-? You mean you didn’t cancel for the game launch?”

“Dude, have you forgotten that you gave me the game last night? As if I could have cancelled. The other instructor can’t even do Fridays.”

An exaggerated groan came through the phone speaker. “Couldn’t you be less diligent for once? Seriously, who works on their birthday. You suck.” Rone complained in a fake whine.

“Haha. Hopefully the server is back up when I get back so we can play some more.”

“Are you forgetting I’m dead?”

“...Oh.”

“Nevermind, send me your game recordings so I can watch them while you’re gone. Since nobody is streaming, I’ve got nothing better to do.”

“Alright, how do I do that?”

Rone fed Max the instructions as Max held the phone up to his ear using his shoulder. Fortunately, Max was a quick learner, so he managed to download the recordings and send them over without much difficulty. The pair chatted for a bit longer before Max eventually had to leave for work.

“I’ll text you when the game server comes back online.”

“Yep. Alright, see ya.”

“Bye.”

Max hung up the call. Halfway through the door, he remembered that Lina had baked a cake for him, so he did a 180 and packed some in a small container. She was a really good cook, so there was no way he would leave without it.

He also left a thank-you note on the kitchen counter, so she would see it whenever she woke up.

“Alright, time to go.”

Donning his signature red cap and jacket, Max’s keys jangled as he shut the door behind him.

...

...

Max arrived at the clubhouse to the sound of complete silence. Unexpectedly, there was nobody here.

‘That’s strange. There should be a group session in the morning.’ Max checked the time on his phone. ‘Yeah, it’s about the right time, where is everyone?’

“Hey, Mason?” Max called out for his boss. The clubhouse had been unlocked, so he should be around here somewhere.

“Max? Ah right, I forgot to message you.”

A buff elderly man emerged from the back room with a melancholic expression. “I have some bad news unfortunately. Very bad.”

The man named Mason awkwardly leant on the doorway, as if he was trying to find a good way to broach a difficult topic.

“What is it, old man? Spit it out. Where are all the students?”

“About that... They’re... The school is shutting us down.”

“Wh-What?!” Max was taken aback. “So suddenly? What happened?”

The archery business where Max worked was run in partnership with a local high school. Following the school’s endorsement, students would come to the club to receive training from Max or another instructor, while Mason allowed the school to borrow the club’s facilities in return.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“Well, you know that kid named Zach?”

“Darron’s student? Did he do something?”

“He was complaining about his classmates earlier this week and joked to Darron that’d he’d take his bow into school one morning and teach them a lesson. Naturally, Darron, being Darron, laughed along and agreed.”

“No, don’t tell me...”

“Yeah, he wasn’t joking. He took his own bow from home and started taking pot-shots at his classmates, chasing them around the school grounds. He didn’t hit anyone, but they definitely would have been traumatised. Immediately after that happened, the principal implemented a school-wide ban on all use of bows near the school grounds and in school uniform.”

“Oh sh*t.” Max was astonished. That basically sounded like a school shooting.

“Over half of our members have already either cancelled their upcoming lessons or called to request refunds.” Mason sighed. “Basically, we’re screwed.”

“...” Max wasn’t even sure what to say. Students from the school made up over 90% of the club’s paid lessons, so he couldn’t refute; they really were screwed.

Mason moved into the club’s kitchen for a glass of water, “It’s not so bad, I had a good run, and I’ve saved up just enough to retire. The main problem lies with yourself.”

“Me?”

“Even if I’m an old fart, I still have my memories; I know how much this club means to you.” Mason showed a sombre face, “Or did you think I wouldn’t notice?”

“...”

“We’re closer than that.” “...We’re also close enough for me to know your financial situation.”

Max grimly looked away.

“Since we’re closing down, this is your three weeks’ notice. Not that you have to do any work in those three weeks, because our clientele’s collapsed.” He chuckled weakly. “I highly recommend that you find a new job in the meantime. I’m more than happy to act as your referee.”

“I understand... Thanks for your support.” Max needed a moment to process; this was extremely bad news. Just yesterday he’d been planning to look for a second job, now he didn’t have even one.

“I don’t suppose you know any other clubs hiring instructors, do you?”

“Sorry kid, no chance... I have one idea for you though.”

“What is it?”

“You could try to going pro.”

“Sorry?” Max was unsure if he heard correctly.

“I know, I know. I told you that all those tournaments and competitions were just pissing contests for rich people... but things are different now. You’re the evidence. You have that weird game that you can practice in, and I’ve seen your skills improve tremendously because of it. You’ve even surpassed me now.”

“That’s not-”

“It’s true, so don’t try to deny it.” Mason smiled, “Too much humility is a demerit, you know.”

“...Alright, I’ll look into it then.” Max decided to trust his teacher’s judgement.

“You should still get a job on the side, just in case it doesn’t work out. I have no idea what the bar is to shoot professionally, but only a few people at the top of the country can do it.”

Max knew that Mason had once participated in an archery competition many years ago. During that competition, the scores were manipulated to favour another player, essentially stealing Mason’s victory. From then on, he’d paid no attention to any archery competitions or tournaments, not even the Olympics. He also discouraged others from watching them.

“Anyways, just help me with some paperwork and then you can go home. You’ve always been better than me at that mathsy stuff.”

“Haha, sure. You know my classmates used to call me the human calculator, right?”

“I’d believe it.”

...

...

Max helped Mason to finish all his paperwork and then went outside to eat the cake he’d packed.

“Mm.”

As expected, Lina’s cooking was always the best.

He walked around the range while he ate, taking in the sights since he probably wouldn’t come back here. Mason planned to sell this land to buy himself a cushy house by the beach when he retired.

After wandering around aimlessly for a bit, Max ran out of cake and found himself under the large oak tree which stood at the end of the range. He remembered once climbing to the very top of the tree before his dad yelled at him, demanding he come down.

Max smiled widely at the memory as he imagined his panicked dad at the base of the tree.

Lowering his vision, he scanned the thick bark, following its deep vertical fissures until he found it; a small dent. One so minor and insignificant that anyone would have missed it if they weren’t specifically looking for it.

Its significance was anything but minor to Max, as he stared at it thoughtfully.

...

“Go on kiddo, take the shot.”

“What’s the point of taking the shot if I’ll just miss anyways?”

“Who says you’ll miss? You might hit it.”

A young Max with a frail body and a pimpled face wore an unconvinced expression as he adopted his best shooting stance. After drawing an arrow and aiming for a few seconds, an arrow was released which missed the target completely, flying well over it and into a distant oak tree.

“Ha- Hahahahaha!”

Max was extremely dissatisfied and pouted as he watched his dad laughing in schadenfreude. “See! I couldn’t do it.”

His dad stopped laughing and looked at Max. “Ah~ But that’s incorrect!”

“How is that possibly incorrect? You have eyes, I clearly missed the target by miles.”

“Yes, but that’s not what you said. You said you couldn’t do it, which is wrong. Just because you missed once doesn’t mean you’re incapable of doing something. You know what all the top masters of every sport and skill in the world all have in common?”

“Talent?”

“Hard work. They practiced for thousands, if not tens of thousands of hours to be as skilled as they are in their fields. No one is ever born an expert at something. You could become even better than them if you put in enough effort.”

“…Is that really true though?”

“Of course it is! There is nothing in the world that cannot be overcome with hard work. From now on, whenever you find something difficult, I want you to throw yourself at it to take it down!”

“Why would jumping at it help?”

“No, I don’t mean literally throw yourself at it. I mean try your hardest. Every time you fail at something hard, there is something to learn, something better you can do next time. Take your shot just now as an example.”

“My shot? Did I do something wrong?”

“Well duh, if you hadn’t done anything wrong you would have hit the target. Right at the last millisecond you pulled the bowstring back further, which threw off your aim. Try again without doing that.”

Max blinked at him with some doubt but still did as he was told and took aim again. Following the advice, he gently let go of the arrow at release and made sure not to tug back on it. The arrow sailed into the target and hit a red ring, only two rings from the bullseye.

“Hey, nice shot! See, you improved, right?”

Max looked at the arrow in the target with some shock as he contemplated what his father had just told him. ‘Can I really be the best?’

…

Max stopped looking at the tree and turned around to go home. He had more work to do.