《Overwrite》 Chapter 1 ¡°Ahem.¡± A woman at the front of a classroom cleared her throat. ¡°Ryu, I take it you already know all of this?¡± A boy whose appearance could be summed up in one word: average, pushed his head up from his desk. He blinked a few times and cautiously yawned, before looking towards the teacher. His eyes carried a droop in them, such that he perpetually gave off a vibe of being bored. ¡°Uhh... ¡° The boy - Ryu, yawned while the teacher rolled her eyes. Numerous sighs slipped through people¡¯s lips. Other students in the room were sat at their desks, some propping their chins up on their palm, some spinning their pens in between their fingers as, yet again, the boy in the back delayed them. ¡°Wide awake I see.¡± The teacher smirked and there were a few snickers around the room. ¡°Well Ryu, I suppose you can tell us how to solve this problem.¡± Ryu¡¯s eyes looked past the teacher and at the whiteboard, though, from the outside it would appear more like his eyes had lost focus, absently gazing into space. He wasn¡¯t good at math. Or English. Or Physics. In fact, he wasn¡¯t good at anything. His appearance was a reflection of his academic achievement: average. Never above the line, never below, at least not by enough to be called below average. Ryu finished reading the question on the board, mostly gibberish to him, so it took but a moment for him to determine his answer. ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± More sighs. For a moment the teachers smirk morphed into a scowl, before vanishing a second later. ¡°Moving on¡­¡± said the teacher. Ryu looked down at his book. He¡¯d never liked books. They were heavy and made his bag bloat. He propped his head up with his palm on one cheek and looked out the window. He didn¡¯t watch anything in particular. None of it was new anyway. Trees rustling in the wind, a gym class running laps around the field¡­ no, what he watched was that which couldn¡¯t be seen - time.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Livia taught maths, Ryu¡¯s favourite subject, so he watched, and watched, and... well, time always seemed to pass slower in Livia¡¯s class. Eventually the bell rang, though it wasn¡¯t actually a bell but rather speakers playing what sounded like a bell, but it held the same meaning. People packed up, including Ryu, and headed to their clubs, except Ryu. He didn¡¯t like clubs. Or, from his point of view, clubs didn¡¯t like him. As Ryu picked up his bag and headed for the door, he overheard a group of girls. ¡°Hey are you busy this weekend? We should hang out!¡± Ah yes, it was also a friday. The day before the weekend. A time Ryu generally occupied by lying in his bed staring at the ceiling, and, occasionally, when he had the will to get up, waste a couple hours playing another of those MMO¡¯s which took up far too much time in the dark. He¡¯d probably do that tonight, but for now he had somewhere he needed to be. *** Twenty two minutes later Ryu was sitting alone in a room with a single window, closed, with a curtain. He still wore his uniform, there was no need for him to change, and in front of him sat a desk. But he wasn¡¯t at school. The desk had a computer with what was clearly a spreadsheet on display. According to the job description he was a ¡°Database assistant¡±, but those were only as useful as the buzzwords used to write them. The stack of papers to the left and right of him was his true job - data entry. Click click click He wasn¡¯t a championship typer by any means, but he was fast enough, which was all that mattered to his boss. So fast in fact that his boss gradually let more and more of his fellow workers go in favor of having Ryu do it all, which was a complete lie. Ryu knew the company was dying. He saw the data after all, not that he¡¯d complain. The job was perfect for him. He got to sit on his ass for four hours, talk to no one, think about nothing and get paid for it. Plus his family needed the money, not that his mother, Caragh, would let him believe it. At first she¡¯d told him she was taking a little to help him save for university, but he knew it was going to the bills. ¡°I gotta find a new job¡­¡± mumbled Ryu. Nothing in life is free. It¡¯s perhaps the most obvious but difficult to comprehend things in life. Everyone knows it, but no one fully understands it until they experience it for themselves. Ryu¡¯s job started at four, so he had another five minutes on the clock. Though he¡¯d finished over thirty minutes ago, so he was more than ready to leave. Once the clock hit eight he was up and out the door. Chapter 2 Ryu never knocked when he got home, preferring to open the door himself. It was faster, and he himself hated having to get the door for others. ¡°Ryu? Is that you?¡± shouted the voice of his mother. In front of him appeared Caragh in her work clothes. She rarely changed, which, oddly, led him to wonder what she slept in at times. ¡°Yeah,¡± said Ryu, looking at Caragh¡¯s clothes. ¡°How was work?¡± Sometimes he felt like he was coming home to a wife waiting to greet him, except his wife was actually his single mother. ¡°It was good¡­ have you had dinner? I can cook you something.¡± On the bright side, she could cook. ¡°Yes please.¡± Ryu ate dinner alone, did the dishes and retired to his room. He liked his room, even though it was smaller than Ruri¡¯s and Caragh''s, it was his. He placed his bag to the side and quickly changed into a shirt and boxers. Nothing was specific, it was always function over form in his eyes. His computer was already on, sleeping, so a light tap on his keyboard was enough to wake it up. A quick check of his emails and his favourite subreddits, nsfw included, took a couple minutes, after which he grabbed his headset. He didn¡¯t put it on. The whole point of him reading all those coding guides was so he wouldn¡¯t have to play. Beep He plugged the headset in and it beeped. [User not detected] popped up on his monitor. The headset needed someone to be wearing it in order to login. He checked his code again. He¡¯d checked it hundreds of times, often revealing another bug or inefficiency which he had to stomp. ¡°Fuck it.¡± He couldn¡¯t find anything wrong, he hadn¡¯t for weeks but had resisted the urge to run it. He didn¡¯t have the luxury of a test environment, not for this. Either he¡¯d immediately be red flagged or he¡¯d do what no no one else had done before. Everything was ready and compiled into a single file, he just had to run it.Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. ¡°Go.¡± The headset was resting on his desk, still idle, when he started it. He¡¯d taken his time with this, going so far as to implement a simple GUI for the hell of it. Had it introduced more bugs? Yes. But did it make him feel like some leet hacker? A little. [Headset detected] [Attempt link?] [Yes/No] Ryu didn¡¯t give himself time to hesitate. [Constructing artificial user.... complete] [Injecting user profile¡­] ¡°Ryu!¡± Ryu¡¯s body shook at the sudden entrance of his sister''s voice. Ruri was standing in the doorway. ¡°What?¡± said Ryu. ¡°Have you been in my room? I swear to god if you took my clothes-¡± ¡°Why would I take your clothes?!¡± Ruri¡¯s mouth flipped open but then shut itself. ¡°Whatever.¡± The door slammed shut behind her, and Ryu let out a breath. ¡°Does she think I¡¯m a fucking a pervert or something?¡± Sure, he looked at porn, and he did dabble a little into wincest, but he never had her in mind. Those were fetishes, and everyone had them. Beep Ryu¡¯s eyes jumped to his monitor. [User validation complete] [Connect to game server?] [Yes/No] ¡°Holy shit. Did I do it?¡± Ryu reached for his mouse and hovered over ¡°yes¡±. As he¡¯d programmed it, a tooltip popped up. [If you are seeing this, you did it.] ¡°Oh shit.¡± Ryu jumped out of his seat and ran around his room, punching the air as he went. But he didn¡¯t scream or shout in joy. Ruri would probably kick him if he ran around shouting ¡°I DID IT I DID IT I DIT TIT!¡± like a kid high on C6H12O6. When he finished his momentary celebration he seated himself again. ¡°Yes, I would like to connect.¡± At times Ryu did wonder if he was different to other kids. Whether he was special. Did other people talk to themselves and sit in the dark in front of a computer all day? Probably, is what he believed as he clicked ¡°yes¡± to connect to the game server. [Establishing connection¡­ complete] [Logging in... complete] [Loading objectives¡­ complete] [Task assigned from priority queue: ¡°Level up¡±] [Determining methodology¡­] Something of Ryu¡¯s was getting hard as he stared at the stream of text on his display. It just kept coming, as he¡¯d programmed it to, and it was beautiful. The only thing which could¡¯ve made it better was if he could fuck it, but he already knew that was a problem he¡¯d be working on for the rest of his life. As Ryu slept that night, he left the bot running, both as a test of how long it could last, and also as evidence for the following morning that he hadn¡¯t gone mad. Chapter 3 Saturdays were always odd. Sometimes the old lady next door would ask Ryu to help her outside, mostly for company he¡¯d figured out, other times his mother would stay home and pester him about how he needed to get off his computer. That one was annoying, and also getting more common for some reason. Today Ryu woke at roughly 11 am, not an unusual occurrence and it did carry some meaning. The old lady would¡¯ve asked for him by now if she was going to come, so that only left¡­ ¡°Ryu!¡± Caragh pulled up the blinds and opened Ryu¡¯s window. ¡°Wake up it¡¯s 11 am.¡± ¡°Why does everyone have to shout?¡± mumbled Ryu, as he shielded himself from the light. ¡°And were you playing games all night again?¡± ¡°No-¡± ¡°Well your computer was still on and you know we can¡¯t waste-¡± ¡°Was?!¡± Caragh looked at her son, hands on her hips. ¡°Sorry,¡± said Ryu, rushing over to his computer. It was as he¡¯d feared. Off. ¡°Don¡¯t just turn it off,¡± said Ryu, hitting the button to switch on his computer. ¡°You should have a shower and eat breakfast first Ryu.¡± And so he did. *** Caragh was a good mother, that is, when she was there. Most of Ryu¡¯s childhood, as well as Ruri¡¯s, was spent alone since she was often working. Perhaps that was the cause of him learning to create his own fun, and also why most people considered him to be a loner. He couldn¡¯t even remember the number of times he¡¯d picked up random hobbies from the internet. At some point he¡¯d even spent his time writing low quality lewd wish fulfillment stories, but those days had mostly passed. Nowadays he just watched anime. ¡°Finally,¡± said Ryu, as he took a seat before his computer. It was just past 2 pm, meaning he¡¯d spent three hours ticking all the boxes on Caragh¡¯s list of ¡®things Ryu should do before he can use his computer¡¯. He was pretty sure there was more, but only an idiot would ask. When he took a look at his computer though, his eyebrows scrunched together. ¡°She put it to sleep?¡± Once Ryu unlocked his computer his suspicions were confirmed. Everything from yesterday was still open, as for his bot¡­ [Connection lost.] [Attempting to reconnect...] Of course, part of being a programmer was accounting for all the stupid shit people could do, and ''internet disconnecting¡¯ wasn¡¯t even close to the top of the list. ¡°C¡¯mon¡­¡± Ryu¡¯s back hunched over as he leaned forward. [... complete] [Logging in...] Ryu leaned back, closing his eyes and letting out a breath as he went. Beep Beep Ryu stopped and looked at his headset. It¡¯d never beeped twice before. [Server terminated connection with: ¡°Already logged in¡±] ¡°What? That¡¯s bull-¡± Ryu stopped himself before anyone heard. ¡°I gotta stop talking to myself,¡± mumbled Ryu, almost inaudible. Ryu¡¯s fingers reached for his keyboard, and in a moment a tense but not at all exciting scene of him typing the occasional command into his computer with no success went on. There were several moments of exclamation such as ¡°Dammit¡± and ¡°Fuck this shit¡± until he decided to try the oldest trick in the book. Turning it off and on again.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. His computer didn¡¯t take long to reboot, and soon enough he was back on his desktop. Beep [User not detected] Ryu always left his most frequently used applications on autostart, so immediately he heard that sound he was so fond of. Ignoring it, he started his program again. If the problem was on his end restarting would¡¯ve hopefully fixed it. Well, at least until something else broke. The prompt to attempt a link with his headset popped up, which was encouraging, and he naturally choose yes. Beep Beep Ryu shut his eyes and screamed with his mouth shut while shaking his head, allowing himself to let out his pent up frustration. ¡°Whatever, I¡¯m done.¡± He decided to throw in the towel, for today his problems would become tomorrow''s. And probably the day after that too. Always preferring to lean on the side of caution Ryu rebooted his computer again. At this point he simply wanted to game, but putting on his headset after he¡¯d just injected a bunch of crap into its memory didn¡¯t seem like the best idea. A quick reboot would do the job. As soon as he was back on his desktop he put on his headset. ¡°Good afternoon Ryu,¡± said a synthesized female voice - Sylfy being what the designers named her. ¡±You were last seen at two twenty-three pm.¡± Ryu didn¡¯t even listen, having long since learnt to filter out the welcoming message. It¡¯d impressed him at first, but it quickly got stale. He got up and laid on his bed, staring at the ceiling before flicking down the visor on his headset. There was no physical display or controls built in, everything was done through thought. The only exception being the visor which signalled the headset to begin its connection. ¡°Please remember to play responsibly and have fun,¡± said Sylfy. Connecting was generally unsettling, especially for first timers. It involved Sylfy making her legally obliged health warning followed by a sudden sense of disconnection. By now Ryu had gotten over the initial discomfort, and to him it was peaceful, tranquil if he had to pick a word. But it only lasted a fraction of a moment, after which the system would connect him with his other self. And the moment it did- Duhrttttbrrrdrzzzz Sharp noises, like fingernails on a chalkboard mixed with static, pierced into Ryu¡¯s mind, making him cry out to no one but himself. His vision was black, head still stuck in between as the noises kept coming. ¡°What the fuck!¡± His thoughts made no sound, but his silent cries helped. The sound burrowed into him, saturating his mind until he couldn¡¯t remember to cry. And then it stopped, finished, leaving his mind blank as his headset finally connected. His senses returned slowly. First came the cold sting of the wind against his skin as his eyes crept open. White. The clouds, the rain and everything else. Blinking, he raised his right arm towards the sky. ¡°... snow?¡± His throat felt coarse, as if he was speaking through sandpaper. The cold woke him quicker, and in seconds Ryu had pushed himself up off the ground to stand on his feet. The snow was fairly deep, up to his ankles. Spinning around a few times, Ryu¡¯s expression only grew more confused. ¡°Where am I?¡± said Ryu, out loud. He was pretty certain that no one was nearby to hear him. Coming to his senses, Ryu remembered this was all a game. A game that leaned towards realism at its own discretion. In virtual reality minimaps had been trialed, and immediately rejected. People didn¡¯t like having a map in the corner of their vision, and the vast majority simply considered it overpowered. Virtual reality was just that, a virtual reality. People wanted to feel like the world around them was real, and a bunch of floating boxes in their vision wasn¡¯t at all conducive to that. On the bright side, there was an inventory system. Remarkably, it turned out people disliked having to carry things, so with balance in mind it was kept, but equipped items did retain their weight. ¡°Where¡¯s my map¡­?¡± Scrolling through his inventory, Ryu scratched the side of head. ¡°Uhh¡­ where¡¯s my stuff?¡± He kept scrolling, reaching the bottom after only a few swipes. ¡°Where¡¯d my stuff go?!¡± Ryu did a search, which was as simple as thinking about what he wanted to retrieve. [No results for ¡°map¡±] He dismissed his inventory and looked around again. There were trees, tall, with pinecones, and a mountain in the distance. He needed something he could recognise. The first thing that came to his mind was how he should¡¯ve learnt magic so that he could at least teleport, but that was a high-level skill, and he was only level¡­ ¡°Twenty nine? Wait¡­ the bot worke-¡± Ryu shut his mouth, suddenly worried he might be heard. ¡°That¡¯s three fucking levels! In one night!¡± Ryu immediately opened every menu and stat window, inspecting them line by line. How far had his bot gone? How had it done it? Even though he was freezing he couldn¡¯t help but smile as the pieces came together. ¡°It sold everything and bought a shortsword,¡± said Ryu, looking at his waist where the weapon in question was sheathed. The purchase appeared to be from an NPC store - a terrible deal since Ryu¡¯s current balance was effectively zero, not that he was wealthy to begin with. Why had it done something so inefficient though? ¡°It was doing what I told it to do, taking the most efficient route to fulfil its objective.¡± No armor, only plain cloth and a shortsword. Speed and agility. A bot wasn¡¯t limited by mental fatigue or any of the other constraints that humans bear. It has no problem evading attacks while attacking, so it had no need for anything else but speed and agility. Ryu immediately became curious about what the bot would¡¯ve done if he¡¯d coded it to make money. What was the most efficient route to getting rich? Leaving that behind, Ryu still had no idea where he was. The bot obviously didn¡¯t need a map since it couldn¡¯t forget anything, so Ryu stroked his chin in thought. ¡°I could kill myself.¡± Chapter 4 There¡¯s moments in life where people wonder how they got where they are. Standing in the middle of a snowy forest wearing what were essentially rags, with a tiny little box hovering in his vision, Ryu was currently one of those people. [Actions that are directly incompatible with self-preservation are banned. This event has been logged and submitted for review.] ¡°Are you fucking serious?¡± Ryu knew that allowing people to stab themselves to death wasn¡¯t exactly an advertisers dream, but it did leave him out of options. ¡°So I gotta find something to kill me.¡± It was easier said than done. So far Ryu hadn¡¯t spotted anything remotely capable of murdering him.. It would¡¯ve been nice if the bot had at least chosen something a little warmer, but he supposed the cold wasn¡¯t a significant factor for the bot, what with it not being able to feel it. Without any preference towards a particular direction, Ryu walked straight ahead. ¡°Maybe I¡¯ll get lucky and fall into a sinkhole¡­¡± Growing bored, Ryu unsheathed the short sword from his hip, and the cold metal immediately made his skin go numb. There was nothing notable about the blade, it was a plain mass produced weapon that lacked any intricacies. ¡°So this is what my fortunes bought me?¡± Ryu sighed. ¡°I¡¯d throw this away, but then I¡¯d literally have nothing but the clothes on my-¡± ¡°Huh?¡± Ryu stared at the box that¡¯d appeared out of nowhere.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. It was unlike the ones he was used to, as it presented itself as a black box with white text. ¡°Is that a terminal?¡± Ryu¡¯s eyebrows scrunched together. His head shifted back, not that it did anything. The terminal was rooted into his vision, however much sense that made. Ryu looked left and right incase he was missing something. Perhaps it was a special event? Pattering in the snow made Ryu look to his right. Before he even noticed the Wolf stalking towards him, his eyes had darted to the black box. ¡°Wait... that¡¯s my program!¡± At the very moment Ryu came to that conclusion, the Wolf charged and leaped into the air. Ryu¡¯s eyes went wide as his body froze, taken by surprise. In the fraction of a second where the wolf was in the air, the world stopped. The wolf''s mouth hung open, canines eager to tear into flesh, and its eyes stared straight ahead, blank. The only thing that seemed to move was the terminal in Ryu¡¯s vision. Ryu became nothing more than a spectator. His right leg pulled back, allowed him to pivot to the side, and his arm unsheathed his sword. The wolf passed in front of him, close enough that he could see the sword in his right hand slicing through its flesh. The cut was clean, unnervingly so, as it lacked any resistance, like he was cutting through air. When the wolf landed it layed motionless, the snow around it turning red, until it all vanished, replaced by a small floating box to the side of Ryu¡¯s vision. [Large Canine * 1] ¡°Loot.¡± The words left Ryu¡¯s mouth without a thought. [+1.8% EXP] ¡°Right¡­ this is all a game.¡± The sword was still in Ryu¡¯s hand, with no signs of any blood. People didn¡¯t like cleaning. Still absent minded, Ryu sheathed his sword and opened the menu to logout. [Are you sure you want to logout?] [Yes/No] Chapter 5 The moment Ryu felt the familiar sensation of his back lying on his bed, he let out a sigh of relief. But that passed the moment he saw it. His visor was still down, blocking his view, but in doing so the white words became all the more intimidating. Ryu immediately pulled off his headset and headed for the door. Ruri was in the living room doing her homework, and she called out as Ryu passed by. ¡°Hey can you help me with this questi-?¡± Ryu glanced in Ruri¡¯s direction as he walked, but before he even had time to spot the question he already had the answer. <7> ¡°7.¡± ¡°Hey wai- wait! How¡¯d you do that?¡± said Ruri, staring at her notebook. By the time Ruri had finished her sentence Ryu was out the door. Fresh air generally helped him to think things through. Ryu knew he needed something, anything, to relax, and so he walked. He didn¡¯t have any particular destination in mind, but as if by nature he ended up heading towards an arcade. <2.7 km to destination>Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. Even though his eyes watched the ground ahead of him he could see it. It always dismissed itself once he¡¯d read it, but he knew it was there. Looking up for even a split second he¡¯d be bombarded by information, and whether or not he read it, somehow he still knew what it was saying. Ryu stopped at an intersection, waiting for the little green man to tell him when to cross. It was fairly busy, though nothing out of the ordinary. While waiting Ryu tended to look around, mostly doing the usual search for anything of interest. Usually girls. This time he spotted one. Coming from his right, he could see her looking down at her phone, and as she stepped past him, still looking down, he saw her take that step. But he didn¡¯t see her finish it. The girl¡¯s hair hang, frozen, in the wind. Her eyes looked down at her phone, oblivious to the metal mass to her right. She would die, at best. If not she¡¯d wish she had. Perhaps she¡¯d be whisked away to another universe to fulfil her wildest fantasies. If not, she¡¯d be stuck, forced to barely live as her family clung onto her poor existence in some cold hospital bed. A single frame passed by, like a video in slow motion, and the truck''s tires turned not even a fraction of a degree. ¡°Stop." The girl looked to her left, making eye contact with Ryu. Her eyes were green, like the little green man who told people when to cross. Perhaps that was why she thought it was okay? She didn¡¯t stop, but Ryu didn¡¯t stand still. The world seemed so slow in that moment, and Ryu couldn¡¯t help but process why the girl still hadn¡¯t moved out of the way. So, after he¡¯d finished considering all the possible reasons why this girl still hadn¡¯t moved out the way, he grabbed her, at the very last fraction of a second. ¡°Do you want to die?¡± said Ryu, looking at the girl who seemed to be short of breath. Ryu didn¡¯t wait for her response, after all, the little green man was telling him to cross. Chapter 6 ¡°Wait!¡± Ryu looked behind him, a little unsure whether he was being spoken to. It was the girl with the little green man eyes. ¡°Ah, green eyes.¡± ¡°Eh?¡± The girl looked confused, but quickly brushed it off as she fell into step beside Ryu. ¡°Um, thanks,¡± said the girl. Ryu glanced to his right and opened his mouth... what was he meant to say? A girl was talking to him! ¡°No problem,¡± said Ryu, who immediately wanted to shoot himself for being so lame. <1.9 km to destination (eta 00:22:37.142)> Ryu shook his head. ¡°Is something wrong?¡± said the girl beside him. ¡°Uh, nah, just something in my eye.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± said the girl. Ryu was well aware the conversation was reaching the point of becoming awkward, so he stopped and faced the girl.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Ryu wasn¡¯t in a position to consider how it knew all that, so he shook his head again and looked down. The girl, Shizuka if he believed it, was a little shorter than him, and he¡¯d be lying if he told someone he didn¡¯t find her attractive. Unfortunately, there was always a part of him that knew it was hopeless. She fell into the ''fashionable¡¯ category in his opinion. Probably on her way to socialise with the other hip kids. ¡°Thanks for thanking me, but you don¡¯t have to follow me. ¡± ¡°Huh?¡± The girl¡¯s head pulled back. ¡°You think I¡¯m following you?¡± Ryu mentally facepalmed, which outsiders would describe as his expression suddenly turning deadpan. ¡°Uh no, I meant-¡± ¡°You¡¯re not very good with people are you?¡± said the girl. Ryu sighed. It appeared any of the fantasies he¡¯d imagined with this girl would remain so. But that was okay, he was used to it. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m not.¡± The girl smiled and smoothed out some invisible creases on her clothes. ¡°Well it¡¯s nice to meet you¡­¡± ¡°Ryu.¡± The girl nodded her head, pleased. ¡°My name¡¯s Shizuka.¡± ¡°Shirakawa.¡± Shizuka took a step back. ¡°How do you know that?¡± ¡°Uh¡­ just a guess.¡± Ryu scratched the side of head. Shizuka squinted her eyes as she inspected Ryu a little more closely. ¡°Hmm¡­ do you go to Green High?¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± ¡°I go there as well, what year are you?¡± ¡°Second.¡± Shizuka smiled. ¡°Then I guess I¡¯ll call you senpai!¡± Chapter 7 Ryu was alone again. After Shizuka¡¯s convenient introduction she quickly shared her contact info before running off. Of course, as Ryu had expected, she did have somewhere she needed to be. So now he was standing in the middle of a footpath wondering where to go. The arcade didn¡¯t seem as attractive now, but he didn¡¯t want to head home yet. He could think now, and there were things he wanted he wanted to check. He started by focusing on a young woman walking down the sidewalk. The fact she was wearing a tight skirt played no part in his selection. He looked at a sign written in some Asian language he didn¡¯t understand. Ryu smiled, which quickly grew into a grin as more and more information flowed through. He knew what it was, he¡¯d known all along. It was his bot, and it was working perfectly. ¡°Excuse me,¡± said Ryu, to another woman passing by. As usual, the woman¡¯s clothing played no part in his decision. None at all. ¡°Yes?¡± said the woman. He needed to ask her for something he didn¡¯t know, something that it couldn¡¯t possibly know. ¡°Are you having a nice day?¡± said Ryu, a little flustered. The woman crossed her arms, a little taken aback. ¡°How old are you?¡± Ryu realised he probably should¡¯ve thought things through a bit more, but he¡¯d become caught in the moment. And hormones. ¡°I¡¯m sixteen.¡± The woman sighed. ¡°You seem like a nice kid, but you really shouldn¡¯t be hitting on women on the sidewalk.¡± Ryu looked down, a little embarrassed his introduction had come off in such a way, but also giving himself time to think. ¡°Sorry, but can I at least get your name?¡± Ryu knew he wasn¡¯t cute, but he could be pathetic. And sometimes pity was just as useful. A hand landed on his shoulder, and he looked up to find the woman smiling. ¡°Hey.¡± She lightly shook his shoulder. ¡°My name¡¯s Alana.¡± Ryu¡¯s expression instantly inverted.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. ¡°Wow.¡± To Alana it looked as if Ryu had just reached some sort of climax. ¡°Err¡­ I¡¯ll be going now,¡± said Alana, taking her hand off Ryu¡¯s shoulder. Behind him he heard her mumble. ¡°... I should¡¯ve known he was a creep¡­¡± Ryu didn¡¯t let the comment get to him, after all, he had something far more attractive to entertain him, and now he¡¯d confirmed the most important aspect of them all. *** Back at home, Ryu shut himself in his room and hopped on his computer. It was time to exercise his google-fu. He always made sure there was a fallback, something he could switch to in the event someone walked in. Gmail and Reddit generally fit this role, though he had to make sure to logout of his special interest accounts. With those tabs ready in the background, and his thumb ready to hit the ¡®retreat¡¯ button he¡¯d set up on his mouse, he began. [brain reprogram] All he got was crappy news articles, with every variation of the terms being about the same. He had to go deeper. Out came Atom and a quick script to crawl the deepest recesses of the clearnet, including every chan known to man. But all he found were spicy memes. In his head Ryu shouted ¡°Deeper!¡± like a nympho riding a hotdog in those doujinshi he liked to read for the plot, and so he decided he had to check the only place he hadn¡¯t. Ryu didn¡¯t go to the darknet often, not because he was a normie but because there really wasn¡¯t a whole lot to do. The movies always got it wrong. But if he wanted to be certain there was nothing on his case he had to check. He couldn¡¯t crawl the darknet, it¡¯d take too long, but there was only one place he needed to check. Though, five minute later he still hadn¡¯t found anything so called it a day. ¡°Well that was anticlimactic,¡± said Ryu, quiet enough that only someone laying sneakily on his bed would hear. ¡°What was?¡± said none other than his sister. Alarms went off in Ryu¡¯s head and he slammed the retreat key, immediately closing and clearing any evidence of what he¡¯d been doing. Looking behind him, he found Ruri laying on his bed. ¡°What are you doing here?¡± said Ryu, nonchalantly. ¡°Nothing.¡± ¡°Well?¡± ¡°I wanna play.¡± It took Ryu a second to remember he was the only one with a VR headset in his family, so it wasn¡¯t uncommon for Ruri to use his headset. He totally hadn¡¯t thought of something else at first. ¡°Ah, right.¡± Ryu grabbed his headset and held it out, before suddenly retracting his arm. ¡°Actually, not right now.¡± Ruri gut up and rushed towards Ryu, who put his hand up to stop her. ¡°Wait! It¡¯s faulty.¡± Ruri stopped, just short of Ryu¡¯s hand, and squinted. ¡°You better not be lying.¡± ¡°When have I ever lied to you?¡± Ryu looked at his hand, still between him and Ruri, though of interest to him was how she¡¯d stopped a centimeter from placing her chest within his grasp. If he extended his hand just a little bit more¡­ he would definitely die. ¡°How long will it take to fix?¡± said Ruri, backing off and taking a seat on Ryu¡¯s bed. ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± ¡°I thought you were good with computers?¡± ¡°This is like telling someone who can drive to build a car.¡± Ruri got up and prepared to leave. ¡°Whatever, just hurry up and get it fixed.¡± Once Ruri left Ryu slumped back into his seat and stared into his headsets visor. He wasn¡¯t lying when he said it was faulty, at least not fully. But he didn¡¯t want to risk Ruri getting hurt. ¡°I¡¯ll have to buy a new one¡­¡± mumbled Ryu. It¡¯d taken him almost a year to save for his headset, and he wasn¡¯t exactly swimming in cash. Yet, despite all this, he smiled. He needed a new job anyway. Chapter 8 For the first time since he could remember, Ryu woke up early on a Sunday. ¡°Where are you off to?¡± said his mother, Caragh, as Ryu rushed for the door. ¡°Out. I¡¯ll be home for dinner.¡± Ryu lived close to the central city, which meant there was no shortage of places he could offer his assistance. Feeling unusually confident, he walked into every store he came across. ¡°Sorry, we¡¯re not hiring.¡± ¡°Leave me your CV and I¡¯ll take a look.¡± ¡°This is an entry level role. You need at least five years experience.¡± ¡°I can offer you an unpaid internship with the possibility of a paid position in six months.¡± Needless to say, things did not fare well. Ryu visited every store he knew of without anything to show for it. What was he to do? He needed money. ¡°I need a computer. Huh? I need a computer?¡± Ryu was lucky no one was around to hear him talking to himself. He knew the city well enough so found himself a quiet bench to rest on. But now he had an idea. Well, it - which he really needed to find a name for - had an idea, and it¡¯d popped up in the forefront of his mind. <177m to destination>The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. ¡°Ah¡­¡± Ryu got up. A net cafe he used to frequent was nearby, and today seemed like the perfect day to pay it a visit. Getting there didn¡¯t take long, especially so when he knew the exact location. Upon arriving he paid for an hour and took his seat. ¡°PRESS R!¡± *Furious typing* Ah yes, just how he remembered it. Ryu placed his fingers on the keyboard and began to type... something. He wasn¡¯t sure what, but the characters came to him. Like a puzzle, the more he typed the easier it became to fill in the gaps, until he stopped. It was done, but it wasn¡¯t what he¡¯d typed. At least not what he saw. [01101001 01101100 01101111 01110110 01100101 01101000 01100101 01101110 01110100 01100001 01101001] The code was fragmented and mostly unintelligible to Ryu, but the logic was there. ¡°I can¡¯t run this.¡± A glance and he¡¯d interpreted it, seen what it would do, and he knew what the repercussions were. Was money worth taking such a risk? What if he got caught? He didn¡¯t care about money. His family was always short of it such that he¡¯d grown tired of hearing about it, but it¡¯d also made himbleaklyaware of its value. ¡°Maybe¡­ just a little.¡± A new headset would cost 300 dollars, less if he purchased second hand. It wouldn¡¯t even be a drop in an ocean. The stream of characters flowed again. [01101001 01101100 01101001 01101011 01100101 01101000 01100101 01101110 01110100 01100001 01101001] Ryu popped his head up to look around the room. No one was watching. He took a deep breath before clicking ¡°run¡±. ¡°That¡¯s it, huh?¡± Ryu quickly checked his balance. [$307.00] He wanted to smile, he really did, but he couldn¡¯t. What if his mother asked how he got the money? Or Ruri? Neither of them would believe he had 300 dollars lying around. His job didn¡¯t pay that much, and what it did pay went to the bills. ¡°I need an alibi.¡± Chapter 9 Ryu returned home with a new, well, second hand, headset. As far as his family knew he hadn¡¯t suddenly retrieved 300 dollars from some less than legal black magic fuckery, so the easiest way to avoid questioning was to not draw too much attention. Turned out that was a pretty good strategy, as the first thing he heard when he walked into his room wasn¡¯t ¡°how¡¯d you afford that?¡±, but instead... ¡°Ah~¡± Not quite what he expected. Ruri was lying on his bed again with her back facing him and his sheets draped over her. Whatever she was doing it was keeping her- ¡°Ahhh~ Niiiii-chan~¡± Ryu¡¯s breath hitched. That wasn¡¯t a moan. Definitely not. Even though her back was turned to him and she was making cute noises which he definitely could not interpret as being lewd, there was nothing suspicious about this! ¡°Ahem.¡± The cute melody immediately ceased. ¡°I got a new headset.¡± Ruri¡¯s head turned to the side, with her body following after. Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. ¡°Ah.¡± She took a breath, short on air. ¡°That¡¯s good.¡± Ryu stepped forward cautiously, testing for any reaction, before taking a seat. ¡°Soo¡­ uh¡­ do you want to play?¡± Ruri stared at him for a second before her eyes darted away. ¡°Obviously.¡± She pulled the blanket up to her neck before holding out her hand. Surely she was cold, on this bright and sunny day. Thus, without giving it any thought, Ryu plugged the new headset in and handed it over. She put it on and laid back, flicking the visor down in the process. A few seconds later a notification popped up on Ryu¡¯s computer. [Link Active - do not disconnect] The other headset was still there, sitting on his desk, and he did feel like playing¡­ though, if he sat in his chair his neck would hurt afterwards. His eyes naturally shifted to his bed, where Ruri¡¯s body laid near motionless, only rising and falling as she breathed. ¡°I could¡­ no.¡± Ryu got up and paced around the room, which was really just walking back and forth since his room wasn¡¯t large enough for anything more dramatic. ¡°If I just scoot her¡­ no¡± Ryu stopped. ¡°I mean, this is my bed¡­¡± Ruri normally played for a couple hours, and, being the good brother he was, he never did anything despite the fact that she was completely defenseless and unaware of anything happening in the real world. So, keeping in mind the fact he was a good brother who only wanted to lay down and play, he crept towards his bed. Chapter 10 Returning to the virtual world, Ryu was immediately on the move. He didn¡¯t need a map because he had something much better. <132.8 km to destination (eta 12:38:51.428)> He wanted to get back to somewhere he knew, so that he could pick up where he¡¯d left off. No doubt his extra levels would let him blast through whatever quest lines he¡¯d been working on. ¡°Wait¡­¡± Ryu stopped in his tracks and looked down at his clothes. He¡¯d have to make a few stops before returning to town, and he realised how ridiculous it would be for him to try and run back to town given the distance. Maybe there was somewhere closer? <22.6 km to destination (eta 02:09:08.571)> ¡°That¡¯s still too far.¡± The bot had only been active for a night, yet it¡¯d travelled more than 130 kilometers with time to spare. How? The only way to travel so fast was with-This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. ¡°Magic.¡± A box appeared before Ryu, showing him his abilities; however, as he¡¯d thought he didn¡¯t have any such skills. Magic wasn¡¯t necessarily uncommon in virtual reality, but not all magics were equally common. Teleportation for instance went into the ¡°extremely uncommon¡± category. Just because he hadn¡¯t officially learnt the ability didn¡¯t mean he couldn¡¯t use it though. The difference between using an ability a player had officially obtained, and using an ability they hadn¡¯t ¡®unlocked¡¯ was clear but not necessarily simple - they had to perform it themselves. But Ryu wasn¡¯t by himself. Like when he¡¯d fought an Arctic Wolf, Ryu¡¯s body moved on its own. His eyes closed and he exhaled, emptying his lungs until it felt like his chest was being sucked into itself. Whether it was him moving or the world moving around him was impossible to know, but in an instant he knew he wasn¡¯t standing in the snow. For a moment the world was silent, but then the sounds hit him. ¡°WILLING TO BUY GIRLFRIEND!¡± shouted a shameless soul. ¡°SELLING STRAWBERRIES! ONE GOLD EACH!¡± He took a look around while catching his breath. There were people walking in every direction, some wearing chestplates and others leather, but that wasn¡¯t what caught his eye. No game was complete without a myriad of women in what could only be described as ¡°bikini armor¡±. Ryu allowed himself a few seconds to appreciate their clothing that left little to the imagination, before stopping his search and turning around. Towers of polished stone bricks and marble looking over a tightly guarded fortified wall¡­ it was unmistakable. He¡¯d found his way back to none other than the holy capital of the Irzabet Kingdom - Sanctuary. Chapter 11 A second after Ryu had confirmed he¡¯d made it back, his celebrations were cut short by none other than a floating box. [Your offense of ¡°Action against self-preservation¡± has been reviewed by an agent and the following outcome chosen: 1 hour of active timeout.] Ryu was a fairly quick reader, but even he barely managed to finish reading the message before the world around him instantly warped into a- ¡°Is this a classroom?¡± said Ryu, looking around. ¡°Yup.¡± Ryu found the source of the voice, a boy about his age sitting beside a window. ¡°Y¡¯know, to teach us a lesson,¡± said the boy. ¡°Ah.¡± Ryu took a seat at one of the desks in the room and looked at the board. It wasn¡¯t a modern classroom by any means, in fact it appeared as if the room was devoid of any electronics. Whether that was to stay in theme or some other purpose, Ryu didn¡¯t know.Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. ¡°So what are you in for?¡± said the boy. ¡°I tried to stab myself. You?¡± ¡°Tried to diddle a 400 year old vampire.¡± Ryu smirked. ¡°Hey! I thought that shit was legal¡­¡± ¡°You know this isn¡¯t that kind of game right?¡± The boy grumbled and sat back while Ryu wondered what he could do for an hour. If he logged out he¡¯d still be here when he came back, so that wasn¡¯t exactly a solution. ¡°Huh,¡± said Ryu. The other boy looked at Ryu, expecting him to speak up. ¡°Uh, it¡¯s nothing.¡± Ryu placed his head on his desk and looked out the window. He¡¯d found the answer, why did he have to wait? <12:34 PM> Ryu remembered the time before shutting his eyes. It was mostly pointless though since he could see the numbers dancing even with his eyes closed. <1:34 PM> However, there were things he couldn¡¯t see with his eyes shut. Upon opening them, the first thing he noticed was the people, walking back and forth to get wherever they were going, but he couldn¡¯t hear them. It was if the world was on mute so that he could focus on box hovering before him. [Your timeout has ended. We hope this experience will deter you from breaking any rules in the future.] Chapter 12 With his freedom returned, Ryu was finally able to continue with finding some new clothes. He wasn¡¯t all that comfortable walking around dressed like a slave, and the mixed looks of pity and amusement from people passing by didn¡¯t help. Ryu wasn¡¯t dumb, he knew that if he saw another player walking around in rags he¡¯d be staring as well, but that didn¡¯t make it any less uncomfortable. So he walked quickly to the nearest store to sell some of the stuff Dot had picked up while leveling. [Arctic Wolf Pelt * 206] [Large Canine * 72] Ryu didn¡¯t have the skills to process these materials, and although it could be done manually, he didn¡¯t want to waste anymore time. Thus, he headed for the docks. Along the way he passed by a couple girls, who were clearly staring at him until he stared back, causing them to look away and whisper to one another. ¡°Is he a newbie?¡± said one of the girls. ¡°I dunno, it says he¡¯s level 29?¡± said the other girl. Ryu ignored their discussion and kept walking until he reached the docks. It was quieter than he was used to seeing it, with only a single ship present, but he didn¡¯t mind. He liked being able to hear the ocean, and it also made finding the NPC he was looking for a lot easier. It took a second for Ryu to spot his target, a bearded man inspecting boxes that had just been unloaded.The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. Ryu approached the man who greeted him once he got close enough. ¡°Aye traveller, whadya got for me today?¡± NPC¡¯s were always easier to talk to for Ryu. Some could be remarkably realistic, where¡¯s others, like this one, were almost completely scripted. Ryu liked it that way. Two boxes popped up, side by side. One for Ryu¡¯s inventory and the other for stuff he wanted to sell. Ryu selected the wolf pelts and canines and hit ¡°sell¡±. [You will receive 11,036 GP for this transaction.] ¡°Wow¡­¡± It was almost enough to recoup the cost the short sword at his hip. Ryu confirmed the sale and his balance immediately went up, though he knew it¡¯d be going down soon when he bought some new gear. ¡°See you again traveller!¡± said the man as Ryu departed. Ryu headed back towards the plaza where most of the stores were located, however rather than going to a NPC shop he stopped and scanned over the many players advertising their wares. Some were selling loot they¡¯d found from culling monsters where¡¯s other were selling gear they¡¯d crafted. Ryu normally avoided player stores since it took too long to investigate them all, but that wasn¡¯t an issue anymore. It was impossible for him to see everything, but now he had an idea of what was where. A thin leather chestpiece for 4,000 GP, plain brown trousers for 600 GP and boots for 800 GP, all in all, it was significantly cheaper than buying from an NPC. Chapter 13 <2:14 PM> Ryu smiled to himself as he headed to his next destination. Dot was proving itself to be very convenient. Stepping through the wooden frame of a somewhat torn but otherwise sturdy looking building, he took a look around. There were a few other players running in and out the door, as expected. This was the source of a well known quest line. Specifically, it was the man standing behind a counter at the back of the building - a shopkeeper, who always seemed to need a hand. Ryu approached him. ¡°How¡¯s that job coming along?¡± said the shopkeeper. The last quest he¡¯d been given by the shopkeeper was to find him some mushrooms in a forest somewhere, which he had done, only for Dot to sell everything and undo his progress. ¡°I changed my mind, got anything else?¡± A notification popped up in the corner of his vision. [Sanctuary Reputation: 235(-5)] ¡°That¡¯s unfortunate¡­ well I do need someone to help me find something I lost. A few weeks ago I made an order which was to be delivered by carriage, but it seems to have gone missing. Do you think you can help me?¡± Ryu pretended to give it some thought. ¡°Yeah.¡± *Ding* [Quest Log Updated: Missing Supplies] ¡°The delivery was meant to arrive through the main gate, so I¡¯d start by looking along the road in.¡± Ryu took that piece of advice and departed immediately for the city''s exit. Following the road once he¡¯d gotten outside. Most of the land outside the city was kept clear, so there wasn¡¯t a whole lot to see, but in the distance it entered a forest. A location infamous for facilitating various forms of crime on whoever dared to pass through. Ryu entered the forest which was anything but that, at least for the first hundred or so meters. Being a leveling ground close to the city it was always populated, so it was only once he¡¯d gotten deep into the forest that he got another update. *Ding* [Quest Update: Search the area for clues] Of course, Ryu had no intention of doing such a thing. He wanted to test Dot¡¯s capabilities even further, both so he could teach it a few things and also learn its limitations. Ryu started with the hard dirt road beneath him. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. That wasn¡¯t useful to him, especially considering the road was covered in such tracks as well as footprints. He scanned around the sides of the road, searching for any signs of the cart being taken off the main road. Carts didn¡¯t vanish into thin air - well, actually they did. Ryu had to remind himself this was a game. *Ding* [Quest Update: Investigate where the tracks lead] This was a D rank quest, hence the excessive quest updates. Ryu couldn¡¯t confirm it himself, but he¡¯d heard that higher ranked quests were more immersive, with one factor being their lack of handholding. Ryu didn¡¯t really need to follow the tracks, but rather follow wherever Dot told him to go. Whenever he ran out of directions he¡¯d look down and Dot would find the tracks again, leading him along until he found what he was searching for, a cart looking totally out of the place in the middle of a clearing. [Quest Update: Check the cart] Ryu already knew where this was heading. Anyone who had ever played any video game would know where this was going. ¡°Can the enemies just ambush me already¡­?¡± said Ryu, sighing as he walked up to the cart. *Rustling leaves* Ryu drew his short sword as he spun around to ¡°find¡± a thuggishly dressed thug charging at him with a dagger in both hands. [Quest Update: Kill the robbers] Ryu waited until the thug was close, before his body pivoted to the side in an attempt to counterattack. The thug stepped to the side, evading Ryu¡¯s attacks, and slashed at him. Ryu¡¯s HP didn¡¯t like being slashed in the back. ¡°How did I miss?¡± Ryu kicked himself forward and spun around to put the thug back in his vision, only to duck as an axe flew through the air where his head had been. Two more thugs had joined the fight, circling him. One wielded an axe and and the other a single dagger. ¡°What the fuck are you doing Dot?¡± ¡°Who¡¯s Dot?¡± said one of the thugs. A dagger stabbed towards Ryu who had to deflect it on his own. His blade was slightly longer, giving him an advantage, but he was still outnumbered. Ryu wasn¡¯t entirely incapable of fighting on his own, but to put it bluntly there was a reason he¡¯d made Dot. The fact VR required more than simply knowing what button to press when didn¡¯t help. The thug to Ryu¡¯s right, bearing an axe, raised it into the air while the other two thugs kept him at bay. Rather than allowing himself to be split into two, Ryu sprung to his right, tackling the thug to his right and causing them to drop their axe and fall over. Ryu used his momentum to put some space between himself and the other two thugs. Ryu wouldn¡¯t have long until the third thug returned to the fight, so he had to move. His hand adjusted its grip on his short sword, before his right leg kicked into the ground, propelling him into the dual-wielding thug. Before the thug even had time to raise a defense Ryu¡¯s blade stabbed into their chest. Ryu pivoted on his foot immediately after, spinning with his blade outstretched to slash straight across the other thugs chest. Almost in sync, two thugs collapsed onto the ground as Ryu set his sights on the third thug, still unarmed, as they ran to collect their weapon, tripping on their own toes when they looked back. Ryu didn¡¯t need Dot¡¯s help as he raised his blade into the air and brought it down, piercing straight through the thug¡¯s chest. [Quest Update: Return the shopkeepers supplies to them] Loot was automatically collected, and at the end of combat the thugs bodies vanished, leaving behind no trace. ¡°Not bad.¡± Sheathing his sword Ryu walked towards the cart. He¡¯d learnt more than he expected about Dot¡¯s limitations in this test, and he had every intention to make sure they didn¡¯t get in his way next time. Chapter 14 Ryu returned to Sanctuary with the items from the cart and went straight to the shopkeeper. [Quest Complete: Missing Supplies] [Reward: +5 Sanctuary Reputation, +400 GP] ¡°Thank¡¯s for the help traveller, I knew I could count on you,¡± said the shopkeeper. ¡°Yeah sure.¡± Ryu ended the conversation there and left the store, seeing no reason to continue. He¡¯d gotten what he wanted so that was the end of it. But what now? In his honest opinion, he hadn¡¯t really considered what he would do with his bot if it worked. He¡¯d been so worried about whether it would work at all that he¡¯d never thought so far. But now... how was he to decide what to do? Strolling around the plaza Ryu¡¯s head raced with thoughts. Dot¡¯s ability to learn and, to a degree, obey his commands, led him to eventually wonder what he couldn¡¯t do. Ryu stopped in his tracks and looked around at the people going about their business. As usual his eyes drifted towards the women, a natural, instinctual, desire weaving through his mind. Usually his beta instincts would stop him from taking that first step. Usually. One of the girls he¡¯d been staring at for too long pointed at Ryu who hurriedly turned around. Changing who he was would take more than just a thought. With that Ryu logged out. He¡¯d had enough VR for today. *** The odds of being hit by a car are about one in 4300. In comparison, the odds of winning the lottery are about one in 14 million. So what would be the odds that Ruri and Ryu logged out of VR at the same time?This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°Huh?¡± exclaimed the siblings as they looked at one another, their noses centimeters apart. Ruri moved first, her eyes dodging downward as she shifted her head back. ¡°What did you-¡± Ruri¡¯s mouth hung open, unable to pronounce whatever came next. ¡°I just wanted to play,¡± said Ryu, answering the question he knew she was going to ask. Ruri got up and Ryu raised an eyebrow at what she was wearing. A tank top and striped panties? No wonder she¡¯d been cold. He added ¡°no bra¡± to the outfit as he watched her rush out his room. Ryu got up soon after, stretching a little before doing a little cleaning. Which was really just placing the two headsets on his desk. He did a quick check of his usual sites before leaving his room for the kitchen to grab a snack. Upon entering he spotted Ruri, now wearing a shirt and pyjama pants, peeking inside the fridge. Walking normally he grabbed a cup, and Ruri looked his way. ¡°What do you want?¡± said Ruri. Ryu grabbed the juice from the fridge as he replied, ¡°What?¡± ¡°For dinner,¡± said Ruri, folding her arms and leaning on the bench. Ryu took a sip from his cup, ¡°I dunno. Are you cooking?¡± ¡°Yeah, Mum said she¡¯ll be home late.¡± Ryu put his cup on the bench and inspected the fridge. ¡°You know, I could cook if you like?¡± Ruri tipped her head to the side. ¡°You can cook?¡± She wasn¡¯t wrong, but Ryu wouldn¡¯t be the one doing the cooking. ¡°You don¡¯t think I can?¡± Ruri rolled her eyes. ¡°Well then what are you going to make?¡± ¡°Uh¡­¡± Ryu took another glance at the fridge¡¯s contents. ¡°Creamy chicken pasta alfredo,¡± said Ryu, smugly. Ruri¡¯s head backed up. ¡°Do you even know what that is?¡± Ryu shut the fridge, not wanting to waste power, and grabbed his cup of juice. ¡°Do you not believe me?¡± The two siblings locked eyes, testing each other, until Ruri broke off first, looking down. ¡°You better not give me food poisoning.¡± Chapter 15 Ryu didn¡¯t normally cook, but neither had he had a bot in his head until now. How did Dot know how to cook? Ryu wasn¡¯t completely sure, but at the moment he suspected Dot had indexed all his memories, therefore bypassing the need to actually remember anything. Dot didn¡¯t know how to cook, it was just recalling a recipe that Ryu must¡¯ve seen at some point in his life, at least that was Ryu¡¯s currently standing theory. How Dot was able to determine what information was relevant though... Ryu was clueless. He thought about all of this while cooking, not needing to pay much attention to the task. Dot made it rather trivial what with the instructions being streamed straight to his mind. All Ryu had to do was follow them, which naturally lead him to wonder why Dot wasn¡¯t taking control like in VR. He went through a couple theories, such as whether Dot wasn¡¯t actually able to control his body and it was all the headset¡¯s doing, but that theory had gaps and contradictions which he couldn¡¯t explain. Ryu smiled lightly as he followed the recipe, step by step, until an appetizing scent permeated through the air. His ears picked up on Ruri¡¯s door opening as the smell drew her in, and he turned his head to greet her. ¡°Hey, it¡¯s almost ready,¡± said Ryu. Ruri walked up beside him and a took a peak as he was plating up their meal. She left and didn¡¯t say anything until Ryu had taken a seat opposite her at the table.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. ¡°So why''d you make dinner so early?¡± said Ruri. <3:57 PM> ¡°Oh...¡° Ryu felt like smacking himself. ¡°I forgot it was so early.¡± Ruri just rolled her eyes as she picked up her fork. ¡°I¡¯m hungry anyway so it¡¯s fine.¡± Ryu decided to wait until Ruri had the first taste of his and Dot¡¯s cooking; however, Ruri stopped her fork mid air as she spotted her brother staring at her intently. ¡°What?¡± said Ruri, suspicious. ¡°You didn¡¯t put anything weird in this did you?¡± ¡°Huh? No, I just wanted to try cooking. What would I even put in?¡± Ryu looked at Ruri who stared back as he tried to understand why she was so suspicious of him. A thought popped into his head, but the thought of mentioning it to Ruri made his spine shiver. She would definitely murder him. ¡°What are you thinking?¡± said Ruri. Silence wouldn¡¯t work here, so he settled with something direct. ¡°Nothing, and I didn¡¯t put anything in your food.¡± Ruri extended her arm, holding her fork at Ryu¡¯s lips. Stuck to it was a bit of chicken and pasta, covered in white alfredo sauce. ¡°Then eat it,¡± said Ruri. Ryu opened his mouth to reply, but stopped himself. What was the point in arguing? He leaned forward and bit down, enjoying the results of his and Dot¡¯s first meal. It was creamy, and despite the fact he wasn¡¯t any good at telling whether meat was cooked or not the chicken didn¡¯t appear to be raw. Ruri brought her fork back and made sure Ryu swallowed his meal, before looking down at her own plate and beginning to eat. With her suspicions cleared Ryu began to eat as well, and so from then the two siblings ate mostly in silence. Albeit, Ryu couldn¡¯t get it out of his head that she was using a fork he¡¯d just eaten off of. He was weird. Chapter 16 By the time Monday came around, Ryu couldn¡¯t believe only two days had passed. Now he was back at school, doing what he did at the start of every school day: sitting at his desk while everyone else chatted. ¡°How was your weekend?¡± said a girl to Ryu¡¯s right. Ryu didn¡¯t even turn his head. He knew she wasn¡¯t talking to him, but rather the pack of girls sitting around the desk beside him. ¡°Um, I only went down to the mall and did some shopping. There was a really good sale at Ukiko though.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± The pack of girls uttered in a low howl. Ryu knew he was practically invisible to them, though it did come with some benefits. A number of things he¡¯d heard from the shadows had convinced him girls were just as weird as guys. ¡°Well, they were selling really cute panties-¡± ¡°Karen!¡± The group squealed. ¡°Everyone take a seat and get out your books.¡± Ryu looked to the front of the class and crossed eyes with the devil incarnate, Livia Hopson, strolling to her desk. She always walked with her back straight, looking down on him with her chin raised. <9:00 AM>Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Livia took the roll and began her class, and, as usual, Ryu looked out the window at anything that might catch his interest. Today that meant watching a boys gym class playing soccer. ¡°Ryu.¡± Ryu knew that voice all too well, intelligent, commanding, condescending. Perhaps others couldn¡¯t hear it since all the boys fapped to her and the girls wanted to be her (which for some also included wanting to be fapped to), but he could hear it in every word. Every movement of Livia¡¯s lips was finely orchestrated to optimize insult, and only Ryu, who¡¯d heard it longer than anyone, could pick it up. ¡°Yes?¡± said Ryu. He already knew where this was going. ¡°I hope you studied over the weekend-¡± A quick glance at the board... <-0.5 +0.866i, -0.5 -0.866i> ¡°Do you want me to tell you the answer or write it down?¡± said Ryu. Livia stepped to the side, a whiteboard marker held at the tips of her fingers, and a smile on her lips. ¡°You can write it down.¡± Livia smirked as Ryu took the whiteboard marker from her and stepped up to the board. He never liked writing on whiteboards, it brought out all the bad parts of his already terrible handwriting. ¡°No working?¡± said Livia, when Ryu stepped back. ¡°That is my working.¡± For a split second Livia¡¯s smile dropped. ¡°So you can do this -¡± Livia eyes looked at the board, where an example of the question and a solution was written ¡°- in your head?¡± He could hear it, the venom may as well have been dripping from her lips. ¡°Yeah.¡± Livia snatched the whiteboard marker from Ryu¡¯s hand and wrote down another question- ¡°Negative one plus or minus one-point-seven-three-two i¡± Livia¡¯s hand stopped. ¡°Sit down.¡± Chapter 17 The rest of class proceeded normally, but Ryu couldn¡¯t shake off the feeling that he was being watched. It was while the class was busy doing practice problems that Ryu¡¯s suspicions were confirmed, as Livia called him out into the hallway. ¡°I¡¯d like to remind you that cheating will not be tolerated.¡± Livia didn¡¯t smile or even try to hide her annoyance; it wouldn¡¯t work on Ryu anyway. ¡°Is that all?¡± said Ryu. ¡°Is it?¡± said Livia, before opening the door to class and waving for Ryu to enter. Ryu returned to class and took his seat, mostly ignoring the problems in his book. He had all the answer anyway. Eventually the bell rang and people fell into their groups. Though, from Ryu¡¯s point of view there were only two: him and everyone else. Chatter started, the girls that normally chatted beside him sat down to have a snack, and Ryu did what he always did - lay his head against his desk in boredom. While he waited until the next period he¡¯d overhear bits and pieces of conversation, which helped to keep him somewhat in the loop, and overall there was a sense of organized chaos when he zoned out of it all. ¡°Is she a junior?¡± said one of the girls beside him. ¡°Why is she here?¡± said another. The balance between order and chaos was easily tipped by the unexpected entrance of something new. Ryu raised his head and swooped his eyes left to right, until he landed on the source of chaos itself. It waved to him. ¡°Hey,¡± said Shizuka, approaching Ryu¡¯s desk. ¡°Uh¡­ hi?¡± said Ryu, scratching his head. ¡°Do you need something?¡± Shizuka took a seat on the desk in front of him, dangling her legs over the side. ¡°You never messaged me so I thought I¡¯d find you.¡±If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Did she intend to stay long? Ryu wasn¡¯t sure, but what he was sure of was that she was disrupting his ¡°sit here and do nothing¡± time. Ryu had a way of doing things, and this was not it. ¡°Oh, I forgot,¡± said Ryu. There were eyes on him, though not because he¡¯d suddenly become interesting. It was the ¡°why is she talking to him?¡± looks from boys in his class. For now their looks remained peaceful, with most of them concluding in their heads that she was probably here for any reason other than ¡°she actually wants to talk to him¡±. ¡°You forgot about me Senpai?¡± In that instant, Ryu had but a single thought, ¡°shit.¡± The eyes of every boy turned red as their glares radiated against his skin. Now it was war. Cute kouhai asking for something from the boring upperclassmen? Sure, boys could accept that. Cute kouhai chatting to her boring senpai?! OBJECTION! ¡°Uh¡­¡± Ryu looked around the classroom, and every pair of eyes he crossed looked away. ¡°Yeah, I was busy.¡± Shizuka nodded with a smile. ¡°Oh, that¡¯s right. Do you have lots to study Senpai?¡± The glares intensified. God knows Ryu hadn¡¯t studied a single second since the day he was born. ¡°Uh-¡± ¡°Oh, um, is it alright if I call you Senpai?¡± It was already too late to ask. If he said no he was damned, if he said yes he was still damned. ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s fine. Anyway, what do you need?¡± Shizuka¡¯s smile wavered a little, and Ryu felt as if not even the sun could burn more than the blazing glares of his class members. ¡°Uh¡­ well...¡± Shizuka touched her fingers together. ¡±I¡¯m free after school and wanted to thank you, so do you wanna hang out?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t really go out much-¡± Ryu hadn¡¯t intended it, but Shizuka must¡¯ve thought Ryu was turning her down.. ¡°We don¡¯t have to go out if you don¡¯t want to, -¡± Ryu knew he¡¯d be dead if she stopped there. ¡°- we could meetup online?¡± ¡°VR?¡± said Ryu. ¡°Yup. What¡¯s your ID?¡± Ryu got out a pen and wrote it down, ¡°rhyu#1477¡±. VR didn¡¯t actually have usernames. For immersion''s sake people were free to call themselves whatever they liked ingame, as ID¡¯s were just a way of identifying a specific person - just like in real life. ¡°I¡¯ll send you a message when I get home, okay?¡± said Shizuka, pocketing the paper note. Ryu nodded and Shizuka left, returning to her class before the next period would start, and, sighing, Ryu laid his head against his desk and counted the seconds until class would start. Only then, would order be restored. *Bop* A paper ball hit him in the back of the head. Chapter 18 Although Ryu really wanted to head straight home after school and see if Shizuka had messaged him, he couldn¡¯t. Even he had obligations. Ruri had the swimming club, Caragh had her job and so did Ryu. Data entry was by no means fun, but helping his mother pay the bills did make him feel good. Arriving a little early, Ryu took his seat and looked at the work to be done. Stacks upon stacks of folders that needed to be manually entered into a database. It was monotonous, repetitive and ripe for automation. Once Dot started feeding the keypresses into Ryu¡¯s head, the limiting factor wasn¡¯t how fast he could type, but how fast he could feed Dot the information to be copied. A burst of cheap plastic keys being pressed would be followed by a series of pages being flicked through, only for another burst to begin until Dot¡¯s buffer emptied and Ryu had to flick through more pages. ¡°Hey Ry-¡± Ryu looked to the side, still typing, at his boss. A somewhat chubby man that always wore a suit. His boss seemed to be at a loss, as he listened to what could only be the sound of someone fingerbanging their keyboard. ¡°Yes?¡± said Ryu. His boss shook their head. ¡°I thought something might be wrong. Are you almost done?¡± Ryu took a look at the few folders that remained. Three and a half in total, if he counted the one he was currently working through. ¡°Almost, is there more?¡± said Ryu. Finishing his current burst, Ryu flicked through more pages. He only needed to see them once for it to be in his memory, and naturally the same could be said for Dot. ¡°No, that¡¯s all for today.¡± Ryu¡¯s boss walked into the room and looked at the screen, confirming for himself that Ryu wasn¡¯t just bashing random keys. ¡°Stop typing for a second.¡± Ryu finished the current row before ceasing, and his boss looked back and forth between the screen and folder. ¡°What is this? It¡¯s not from that page.¡± Ryu flicked back seven pages and placed his finger below the row in question. ¡°It¡¯s here.¡± Ryu¡¯s boss looked back and forth again, checking to be sure.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°You remembered all this?¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± ¡°Wow.¡± Ryu¡¯s boss stepped back. ¡°Well keep it up. You can head home afterwards.¡± Before the chubby man could leave Ryu spoke up. ¡°Um, will I get paid for the rest of my shift?¡± His boss looked at him funny. ¡°What? You¡¯re almost done, why would I pay you to sit around?¡± Ryu didn¡¯t like his boss. Feeling a little grumpy, Ryu quickly finished his work and left, having only clocked in barely an hour. What would that get him? Barely enough to cover transport. On the bright side, he did get to go home early. *** ¡°Why are you home?¡± said Ruri, as Ryu stepped through the door. She was in the lounge again, studying with earbuds on and the TV in the background. Ryu liked that, just having something playing in the background, and he supposed Ruri did too. ¡°I finished early.¡± ¡°Right.¡± Ruri perked up. ¡°Well can you help me with this problem?¡± ¡°Just give me a second.¡± Ryu took off his shoes and dropped off his bag in his room before returning to the lounge. Ruri was laying down with her legs on the armrest, but shuffled them back as Ryu took a seat beside her. ¡°It¡¯s this one.¡± Ruri pointed to a question - maths, Ryu¡¯s favourite. Dot would take care of it though. ¡°It¡¯s seven. Why is it always seven?¡± Ruri stared at the question, eyebrows together. ¡°How did you do it? I¡¯ve been working on this for ages¡­¡± ¡°I dunno, anyway I got stuff to do.¡± Ryu got up, ready to leave for his room, but Ruri grabbed his hand. ¡°Aren¡¯t you gonna help me?¡± Ryu turned around and looked down at her. ¡°Do I have to?¡± Her hand still gripped his, tightening. ¡°What have you got that¡¯s so important that you won¡¯t help me?¡± ¡°I can¡¯t help you anyway.¡± Ryu pulled her hand off his and left before she could utter another word. Shizuka could be waiting after all, and he wouldn¡¯t want to let down his cute kouhai that he was already having fantasies about. It was in his nature. Once he logged in, a wonderful event happened. A notification popped up. [You have 1 friend request] He opened it, and his heartbeat sped up. [From: sshi#6189] [Hey its shizuka. add me and we can chat.] Ryu never thought he¡¯d see something so beautiful from something that wasn¡¯t 2D. His eyes looked over the text a few more times, before he accepted it. There it was, his first friend. Not even Ruri, his own sister, had added him. And she was online. Was he meant to message her as soon as possible? Would she think he was creepy if he started being friendly? Another box stopped him in his tracks. [sshi#6189 wants to chat] ¡°I guess she¡¯s taking the lead.¡± Ryu accepted the chat request. [Your voice is now being diverted to sshi#6189] ¡°Hey!¡± said a voice in his ear. ¡°Hi?¡± Ryu hadn¡¯t used the chat function before. ¡°Can you hear me?¡± A moment passed, and Ryu grew worried that he may have missed something, like a push to talk button. But Shizuka settled his concerns in an instant. ¡°Yup, wanna meet up?¡± Chapter 19 Following Shizuka¡¯s message, Ryu waited for her at a cafe in Sanctuary. Who the hell went to a cafe in VR? Hell if Ryu knew, but he wasn¡¯t exactly a shining example of how to socialise. Though, being able to eat without getting fat was a nice perk. The cafe in question was bustling, with people chatting around large round tables beneath colorful striped umbrellas. It wasn¡¯t a setting Ryu was used to, so he kept himself off to the side, standing near the entrance, as he wasn¡¯t too sure what he was meant to do. Was he meant to find a table? Did girls normally want to meetup at cafes? Was he reading into this too much? Perhaps Ryu¡¯s understanding of girls wasn¡¯t as developed as he thought, as the thought of Shizuka only being interested in making a new friend with the boy who¡¯d saved her didn¡¯t even enter his mind. ¡°Hey!¡± Ryu looked around, a little unsure of what he was searching for, until he spotted a girl approaching him. ¡°Hey,¡± said Ryu. ¡°Thanks for waiting, anyway let¡¯s go. I got a few quests we could work on.¡± *** In a dungeon somewhere outside of town, Ryu and Shizuka walked side by side. The air was dry and the only light to guide them was floating ball of light summoned by Shizuka. ¡°So you¡¯re a mage?¡± said Ryu. ¡°Yup. I like magic, but it¡¯s hard to level on my own.¡± ¡°Shouldn¡¯t it be easy for you to find a party?¡± In Ryu¡¯s eyes Shizuka had two things going for her. One, she was a mage and everyone wanted them, and, second, she was a girl. Nuff said. ¡°I didn¡¯t really go for those kinds of abilities.¡± Ryu looked at Shizuka¡¯s clothing to try and guess what she might¡¯ve specialized in. She had on robes, which was normal for spellcasters, but otherwise there wasn¡¯t anything for him to go off of. ¡°So what abilities did you pick?¡± Shizuka hopped in front of Ryu and grinned. ¡°Well¡­ I¡¯m a succubus. So¡­ those kinds abilities.¡± ¡°Ah.¡± A stunning reaction. ¡°Not what you expected?¡± ¡°Uh, no. Not really. Nothing wrong with it though.¡± Shizuka hopped back to Ryu¡¯s side. ¡°How about you?¡± ¡°Pretty boring in comparison. Just sword stuff.¡± ¡°You can go up front then.¡± The two of them walked until they reached the entrance to a dark and spooky cavern, which somewhat lost its impact since all Ryu could hear was ¡°ooh!¡± and ¡°argh!¡± from people battling monsters inside. Ryu spotted arrows slicing through the air alongside rogues leaping at their prey - a coordinated effort to take down mobs as quickly as possible.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. ¡°Are you sure we can handle these?¡± said Ryu. [Cave troll - Lvl 35] Ryu didn¡¯t need Dot to tell him that was six levels above his own. ¡°Yup, if you keep them off me I can do damage.¡± Ryu kept it to himself that Shizuka was probably only thinking about herself, what with her being level thirty-four. ¡°So I¡¯m the bait.¡± ¡°Exactly.¡± Ryu was already forming a positive opinion about party combat. Pulling out his dagger, Ryu stared one of the trolls. They were passive from what he could tell, so he¡¯d have to grab their attention. Attacking was the obvious route. Kicking one foot into the ground, Ryu¡¯s body flew through the air, straight into the trolls fist. Like a ball being batted away, Ryu flew into the cavern wall, losing a sizable chunk of his health in the process. ¡°Ow...¡± Dot telling him the attack had failed didn¡¯t make him feel any better. ¡°Get up!¡± shouted Shizuka, forming a cone with her hands. Ryu jumped onto his feet and ran, straight towards Shizuka, with the troll lumbering after him. ¡°KILL ET!¡± Shizuka waved her hands around, and Ryu wasn¡¯t sure whether it was a spell or an expression of panic, before she bent at the hips and puckered her lips. Ryu opened his mouth, ready to express this wasn¡¯t the right time. Looking back, Ryu found the troll not far behind, as its steps were slow but longer than his own. Looking ahead again, he spotted Shizuka placing her palm before her lips and launching off what he would describe as ¡°a pink heart shaped cloud¡±, which was surprisingly accurate considering his poor vocabulary. The heart floated forward and dissipated in a puff of smaller hearts when it hit the troll, causing little pink hearts to fly around its head. The troll seemed to forget that it was moving and tripped over its own steps, falling on the ground. ¡°Did you just kiss it?¡± said Ryu, stopping beside Shizuka. ¡°Eww no. I charmed it.¡± ¡°How long does it last?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not sure. It lasts longer on stupid enemies.¡± ¡°So?¡± ¡°Trolls aren¡¯t very smart.¡± Shizuka began to walk towards the troll while making an effort to sway her hips. Ryu assumed it was another spell and followed after her. ¡°So why didn¡¯t you just charm it at the start?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not as effective if they aren¡¯t distracted. Anyway we still gotta kill it.¡± Ryu wasn¡¯t even sure if he dealt enough damage. His short sword seemed like a toothpick in comparison to the troll. Shizuka on the other hand kept swaying her hips seductively, grabbing the attention of Ryu as well as a few more players in the area. Ryu could see why she might avoid party combat. He left those thoughts behind and readied his short sword as he took up a position by the troll''s neck. Raising his blade into the air, he brought it down with all the force he could muster, which wasn¡¯t much since his strength stat was pretty mediocre. *Clink* His blade bounced off and the vibrations shook him down to the bones. ¡°Seriously?¡± ¡°Their skin is hardened. Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll take it out.¡± Shizuka walked up to the troll and stopped to make sure Ryu was watching. ¡°This one is really cool.¡± Shizuka inched her index finger towards the troll until it was hovering just above the trolls skin, and then she tapped it. From her finger outward, the trolls skin turned a shade of red, expanding until its whole body was highlighted, and then in a cloud of scarlet dust it disintegrated. Ryu already had a name for the ability, whether or not it was correct, ¡°finger bang¡±. That he would also be keeping to himself. Shizuka smiled a dazzling smile. ¡°Neat, isn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°Oh yeah, very cool.¡± Chapter 20 Ryu and Shizuka continued their hunt, with Ryu playing bait and Shizuka doing everything else. Ryu didn¡¯t exactly fancy getting carried, but when it was a cute kouhai how could he complain? ¡°Wew I leveled up!¡± said Shizuka, jumping up and down. They¡¯d been hunting for almost an hour by the time Shizuka got her first level up, Ryu on other hand had been gaining XP at a much greater rate due to the level difference. Now he was level 32, and halfway to level 33. ¡°Nice, any skill ups?¡± said Ryu, taking a seat on the ground. Shizuka took a seat as well. ¡°Let¡¯s see¡­ charm and devil¡¯s touch both went up. Nothing special though.¡± Ryu felt a tad envious that Shizuka had already chosen a class. He still hadn¡¯t, partly because he hadn¡¯t found anything he was sure he¡¯d like, and also because he didn¡¯t like the idea of locking himself into something he might later regret. A class brought with it pros and cons. The ability to use special abilities specific to that class was the biggest reason people specialised, but at the same time classes came with restrictions on what kinds of abilities could be used. ¡°How about you?¡± said Shizuka. ¡°Got an offer to learn the taunt skill, which I declined. Otherwise no increases. Just base stats for me.¡± Shizuka stretched her legs, which made no sense to Ryu since he was the one doing all the running. Stolen story; please report. ¡°Anyway my quest is done. Wanna head back?¡± said Shizuka. Once the two had returned to Sanctuary Shizuka logged off, leaving Ryu to do whatever he did. Which was usually nothing. So he just strolled around idling looking for something to do. In the Plaza he spotted a pack of people crowding around a stand, and above them all he spotted an NPC wearing a funny striped hat. Ryu approached, already having an idea of what might be happening. ¡°... they are coming! Lock your doors and hide your children!¡± ¡°What the fuck is he on about?¡± said a player in the crowd. The NPC stomped on the ground. ¡°The east! The east has fallen to those heretics and their abominable automatons! We must smite them down and show them the wrath of our holy mistress!¡± Whispers spread throughout the crowd. ¡°Can he just give us our quest already?¡± whispered someone in front of Ryu. ¡°Shutup! Who will join us in this crusade?¡± [A time-limited quest is available. If you accept you will be unable to progress in other quests until it is over] The crowd began to move, most people heading in the same direction to tackle the quest. Ryu quickly accepted and followed along. [Quest log updated: DOOM!] [Quest update: Exit Sanctuary] Outside of Sanctuary were several circles of white robed mages chanting in unison. Within each circle was a glowing pentagram, with sigils and other strange shapes between the lines. Rows of soldiers stepped into the circles, weapons ready as they were warped to some distant location. Ryu¡¯s attention was brought back to the crowd which stopped in front of a tall and broad man, armored from top to bottom with a helmet held at his side. [Commander Vessicle - Lvl 54] ¡°Ready your arms travellers, the battle has already begun! Once you step through there is no going back!¡± The crowd drew their weapons and stepped forward, rows of people vanishing as they stepped into the portals. ¡°May Freyja watch over you!¡± Chapter 21 When Ryu stepped into the portal, he immediately felt like he was being thrown up, into the sky, except he wasn¡¯t. He kept going up, into nothing, until his motion switched directions. Falling until he could see new ground and falling some more until he could see bodies on its surface. The ground was dry and cracked dirt, starved for water under the heat of the sun, and as he neared it he could hear it rumbling beneath the roaring of spellfire and the clanking of metal. [Quest update: Reclaim the eastern front] Ryu¡¯s feet touched the ground, and he immediately rolled left, narrowly dodging a fireball which scorched the hairs on his skin. Standing back up, his eyes swooped across the chaos around him. Above all else, the sounds were most evident. NPC¡¯s crying out for their nations as they crossed arms with the enemy, arrows piercing through armor and most of all bodies hitting the ground. However, the players were on a completely different level. Ryu observed an exchange between two colorful specimens. One, a rogue, donning a sword and buckler, and the other an assassin, wielding two katars. ¡°Only noobs play rogues!¡± shouted the assassin. The rogue kicked the ground, throwing dirt into the others eyes. ¡°You¡¯re saltier than super saturated hydrochloric acid!¡± spat the rogue.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. A few players stopped their fights to respect the effort placed into that comeback, regardless of whether it made any sense. ¡°Fucking no skill fuck!¡± retorted the assassin. The cesspool of toxic drivel that was player bants never ceased. Even in defeat, chat would go on. But the chaos around him was no match for the chaos within his head. Of all the places, a battlefield was the perfect source of data to teach Dot how to fight, and the steady stream of data was matched one for one by repeated updates to Dot¡¯s combat routine. Adjusting the grip on his own blade, Ryu leaped at the nearest enemy, which so happened to be a mage who¡¯d wandered too far. The moment the mage spotted Ryu coming at them, it was already too late, as Ryu knocked them to the ground and stabbed them in the chest, once, twice¡­ at this point it looked manic as he stabbed a third time¡­. and a fourth time. Ah, yes, now they were dead! Since when were mages so tanky? Ryu stared at his weapon. ¡°I think I need a new weapon¡­¡± ¡°Hey fuck face!¡± Ryu readied his blade. ¡°Quit standing around!¡± Ryu had no idea who was speaking, but he still got the idea. The battle around him was still raging, albeit, some players stood in groups and chatted while others fought vehemently to score as many points as they could. Put simply, more points meant a greater reward. And so far, Ryu hadn¡¯t done a whole lot. Chapter 22 Ryu figured he couldn¡¯t fight conventionally. It was just too inefficient. If it took him four direct hits to kill a mage, how was he supposed to kill someone actually wearing armor? So he needed a new target. ¡°LEFT FLANK LEFT FLANK!¡± shouted people around him. Heads turned, and the battlefield turned dark. A fortress equal part metal and magic was falling from the sky, blotting out the sun as it descended in a deafening howl. Ryu wasn¡¯t the only one to mumble ¡°what the fu-¡±, before the fortress collided with the earth, throwing rocks into the air as it towed itself forward through sheer momentum. The shockwave alone pushed people off their feet, and pulled dust and grit into the air. Unable to see further than a few meters, Ryu focused on steadying his balance as the earth shook beneath his feet. *Ding* [Quest Update: Die an honorable death] ¡°Ohh c¡¯mon! That¡¯s OP!¡± shouted someone on Ryu¡¯s side. Someone echoed a calm reply. ¡°NUKED FROM FUCKING ORBIT!¡± ¡°Why did I start in Sanctuary¡­¡± mumbled Ryu. It was the priestesses and their damned short skirts. ¡°I ask for a new target and this is what I get?!¡±This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. As the dust in the air began to fall, an eerie silence lingered in the air. Ryu¡¯s eyes glued themselves to the fortress which cast a sharp shadow across the battlefield, until someone in the distance made the first move. The clang of iron on iron spurred people on, and in seconds the battlefield became a moshpit of haphazard screaming and shouting as people hacked at each other. In every gamer¡¯s eyes that fortress could only mean one thing: the quest was coming to an end! Ryu needed points. But he couldn¡¯t kill shit, so he¡¯d have commit the ultimate sin. Ryu set his eyes on a battle between two warriors, both sparring furiously in an attempt to prove they were the superior swordsman. Ryu lurked at the edges of the fight, keeping his head low to avoid being spotted, until the time came. He jumped at the enemy warrior, stabbing them at the crux of the battle, moments before his ally could. ¡°Hey don¡¯t steal my kills!¡± Ryu shot his comrade a grin. ¡°I¡¯m not stealing kills. I¡¯m securing them.¡± Like the wind, Ryu vanished. The rogue and assassin he¡¯d overheard from before were still at each other necks, and Ryu couldn¡¯t tell who was winning. He needed to tip the scales, but Dot was too occupied with analysing the chaos around him to offer any help. Stabbing the ground, Ryu dug up some dirt and made eye contact with the rogue, who nodded their head. The rogue made their move, an overhead slash that left them wide open, and the assasin¡¯s eyes gleamed as they spotted an opening. The assassin dipped their head low and leaped forward, and the rogue stepped to the side as Ryu threw the dirt into the assassin''s eyes. With too much momentum to stop and no sight, the assassin ran themselves into the ground. ¡°Thank¡¯s man,¡± said the rogue, raising their blade up to finally claim the kill. Ryu grinned. ¡°Oh, you don¡¯t need to thank me.¡± The rogue only understood the meaning of those words after Ryu had driven his blade through the assasin¡¯s back. Ryu continued his escapades, ¡®securing¡¯ kills left and right until through sheer coincidence he had amassed a small army of salty comrades chasing after him. Friendly fire was punished by a point deduction, but Ryu doubted any of them cared as he kept running, using other combatants as cover. Other players saw the crowd of angry players charging towards Ryu, who happened to be running towards the oddly inactive fortress, and they joined in. Soon enough the battle flowed in a new direction - towards the fortress, and it¡¯d all started with a single player being a little shit. Chapter 23 As Ryu neared the fortress, he got a closer look at its walls. Plates of metal bolted together in layers composed the majority of what he could see, but the closer he got the more he could tell there was more. The fortress seemed¡­ fuzzy, like it was out of focus. From a distance it made no difference, but up close it became apparent that something was off. Running until there was nowhere left to run, Ryu came to a halt in front of the fortress¡¯ doors, and knocked, gently. Nothing happened. Probably because the point of hulking metal walls to keep people out and opening the gates wasn¡¯t at all conducive to that. But the army of people rushing in Ryu¡¯s direction wasn¡¯t going to stop just because no one was willing to answer the door. Oh hell no. They fucked that shit up. The horde of players rushing in Ryu¡¯s direction charged up their hardest hitting abilities, and the friendly NPC¡¯s even formed a shield around them. However, there was one fatal flaw. ¡°Shit.¡± Ryu was standing in ground zero. The first volley of spells were let loose, flying through the air in a dazzling array of colors, like a million small comets streaking through the sky. Ryu didn¡¯t shut his eyes, if he was gonna die he would do it with his eyes open. Not because he wanted to watch his impending doom, but rather the quest required him to die an honorable death and keeping his eyes opened seemed pretty cool. The volley closed in, and as the faster projectiles were mere meters away from Ryu, they exploded, as if they¡¯d hit an invisible barrier. The projectiles that followed after did the same, detonating preemptively right in front of Ryu, without even leaving a scratch on him or the fortress¡¯ walls. Soon eyes were on Ryu, who turned his head left and right.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! ¡°It wasn¡¯t me¡­¡± said Ryu, to no one since everyone was too far away to hear. Mages began channeling again and archers pulled back their bows, and, confused, Ryu looked back. The gates were opening, sliding to the side to reveal rows of shiny metal soldiers as far as the eye could see. Their eyes glowed blue, and their bodies moved with inhuman precision, every step perfectly in sync such that their steps formed a single earth shaking thump. In their hands they carried spears and a sword, the spear shafts all parallel and raised into the air, and the swords also raised at a perfect angle, with a shield attached to their spear arm. ¡°AUTOMATONS! ANNIHILATE THEM!¡± Ryu didn¡¯t have time to find the source of the voice as he jumped back moments before the automatons brought down their spears, forming a wall of spearheads at their front, before they charged. The players ahead of Ryu could see the oncoming attack and braced themselves. Arrows flew past Ryu¡¯s head, shards of ice rained from the sky alongside burning meteors, and the ground turned to mush as mages cast a quagmire to slow the advance. Ryu barely made it out as he stopped and looked around. On one front was a storm of spells and projectiles bombarding the oncoming automatons, and on another was a wall of NPC¡¯s and players fight back the same. The bombardment came to an end, and Ryu waited to see if it¡¯d worked. Dust blocked his view, and some players turned around to begin helping the other front. Thump Through the dust shot out the automatons, ramming their spears through the backs of those who¡¯d assumed them to be dead. ¡°This is so fucked!¡± shouted someone beside Ryu, moments before a spear impaled their chest. Ryu did what he was good at - dodged, and took cover behind more of his comrades, who proceeded to get slaughtered as both sides fell apart. ¡°KILL THEM ALL!¡± The same voice from earlier reached across the battlefield, and the enemy fought with newfound bloodlust. No longer was this a battle. It was a massacre. Ryu¡¯s evasion led him towards the center of the slaughter, where he could see players being felled from every angle, and as the last of his allies were skewered he shut his eyes and emptied his lungs. When he opened them again he was standing in the plaza, looking up at the white bricked castle of Sanctuary. [Quest failed: DOOM] Chapter 24 Ryu logged out after narrowly escaping his death, and immediately his stomach rumbled as he found himself unexpectedly hungry. <6:27 PM> Ryu took off his headset and headed for the kitchen. ¡°Dinner will be ready in a bit,¡± said Caragh, spotting him as he walked in. Ruri was lying on the couch listening to music, with the TV playing the 6 o¡¯clock news in the background. Ryu grabbed a glass of water before taking a seat at the table. A few minutes later Caragh brought the food to the table and everyone took their seat to begin eating. ¡°So why¡¯d you finish early today?¡± said Caragh. Ryu was pretty sure Ruri would have told her already, so he assumed she was trying to start a conversation. ¡°I finished my work early, so my boss said I can leave. How was your day?¡± The conversation lasted a few more seconds, most of it forced. Ryu¡¯s family wasn¡¯t exactly a picturesque image of a happy family. They took care of each other, which was what mattered. The sound of the news filled the silence, and Ryu listened in as the news moved onto the esports section.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°There¡¯s been some interesting developments in the virtual world this week,¡± said a female reporter. ¡°The leader of Mega Ultra Miracle Unit has resigned after losing another of their castles to Carpe Diem. This is the seventh castle they¡¯ve lost this month after Carpe Diem declared war against them¡­¡± ¡°I have no idea what they¡¯re talking about. I¡¯m guessing you guys do?¡± said Caragh. ¡°Mhm,¡± murmured Ryu and Ruri. ¡°I don¡¯t really take part in that stuff though,¡± said Ryu, looking at Ruri. ¡°Ruri might?¡± Ruri¡¯s eyes darted between Ryu and Caragh. ¡°A little.¡± ¡°We¡¯ve also gotten reports of movement in the eastern front, which we¡¯ll be following closely. For now I¡¯ll hand it over to Nick...¡± Ryu tuned out at that point, finishing his meal before leaving for his room. It was only Monday, which meant he had school tomorrow, so he figured he may as well try and study a little. He couldn¡¯t deny that he liked seeing Livia angry. But he was too lazy to actually pick up a book and, god forbid, flip through the pages, so he found a website on maths, ¡°Naan Academy¡±, which sounded tasty enough. Curious, he clicked on ¡°Number Theory¡±, thinking it sounded harmless enough. ¡°Oh god.¡± He had no idea what he was looking at. Ryu half hoped columns of green numbers would start scrolling through his vision, but that was ridiculous and it would never happen. Instead he felt the urge to keep scrolling and clicking through pages, not out of curiosity but rather because Dot was telling him to in his head. What was that Bot up to nowadays? And so, for the rest of the night Ryu excercised his fingers by scrolling through seemingly random pages for no reason other than, quite literally, feeling like it. Chapter 25 Tuesday came, and school passed by quickly. It was the only day Ryu didn¡¯t have to endure Livia¡¯s lessons. Not long after Ryu left for his workplace and arrived to find someone - or should he say something in his seat. ¡°Ah Ryu!¡± said the welcoming voice of none other than his boss. Ryu pointed at the object that was currently occupying his occupation. ¡°What is that?¡± Ryu¡¯s boss grinned, a grinchy kind¡¯ve grin. ¡°After seeing you breeze through all that work, I thought, y¡¯know what? Maybe getting one of those computers to take care of that stuff isn¡¯t so bad.¡± ¡°So¡­?¡± ¡°We don¡¯t even have to pay the bloody-¡± Ryu clapped his hands. ¡°Excuse me?¡± said Ryu. ¡°We don¡¯t need ya.¡± Ryu¡¯s boss scratched their armpit. ¡°But cause¡¯sa all that legal bull I gotta give you two weeks notice. How are you at cleaning?¡± Ryu¡¯s quickly opened his mouth to say something, but closed it halfway. ¡°I quit.¡± ¡°Oh, thanks.¡± Ryu wasn¡¯t sure if his boss was dumb or an asshole. ¡°Probably both,¡± mumbled Ryu.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. Ryu exited the building and stood on the sidewalk, unsure which way to go. Across the road he could see the scrolling electronic signs of an arcade, with students just out of school walking in and out. He could recall wanting to visit an arcade, so he did. Inside he found people standing in a crowd, circled around something. He¡¯d been here before, it was right across his workplace after all, so he was no stranger to the oddity. He could recognise a few faces as well, mostly people he¡¯d played with in the past, so he approached one of them. ¡°Hey,¡± said Ryu, to a spectacled boy in school uniform. The boy looked at Ryu. ¡°Oh hey, haven¡¯t seen you in awhile.¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± Ryu glanced at the crowd. ¡°What are they playing this time?¡± ¡°Some fighting game, I¡¯m not really into it.¡± ¡°Street fighter?¡± said Ryu. He didn¡¯t know much about arcade fighters. ¡°I¡¯m not sure.¡± Ryu left the boy and approached the crowd which was a few people thick. Scratching his head, he figured there was only one way to find out, so, gradually, he wiggled his way through to the front. ¡°UUARGH!¡± ¡°ARRRGHHHH!¡± It was a gladiator pit. Two people fighting to the death, wearing black goggles and holding stick shaped controllers as they punched and kicked at the air. Stationed at the center were four screens forming a box, and on it was their battlefield. A boxing ring where anything goes. The two players were rendered inside, and each wore shorts. One red, one blue. The only other difference was the sports bra worn by the red player. The crowd was shouting in unison ¡°RED!¡± as the red player kicked their leg into the air, impacting the blue player beneath the chin and throwing them into the air. A bell rang, the fight was over, and the two players removed their headsets. Ryu¡¯s eyes swept over the two players, but lingered on the winner a little longer. The red player was a girl, a schoolgirl in fact, and she was coincidentally from red high. His eyes lingered a little too long, and she caught his with her own. ¡°Hmmm?¡± She stalked in Ryu¡¯s direction. Ryu looked to the side, thinking it was a good time to leave. ¡°Excuse me,¡± said the girl, her voice sounding more refined than Ryu had expected. Ryu gulped as he turned his head back, and the girl smiled as he looked at her again. ¡°Do you want to play?¡± Chapter 26 Ryu couldn¡¯t deny it. When the prospect of playing with a cute schoolgirl was posed, his first thought was ¡°YES!¡±. So now he was standing in the figurative gladiator pit strapping trackers onto his feet with a headset resting on his forehead. ¡°Are you ready?¡± said the girl opposite him. Ryu still didn¡¯t know her name, and he felt too awkward to ask with all these people around. ¡°Yeah,¡± said Ryu. The girl pulled down her headset, and Ryu did the same. His vision was replaced by that of a boxing arena, albeit it was noticeably fake. Ryu spoilt by now that he¡¯d seen what true VR could look like. His opponent, still wearing red, stood before him. ¡°Have you played before?¡± said the girl. ¡°Only in VR,¡± said Ryu. ¡°Well this is very different.¡± The girl put up her fists. [Raise your fists to begin] Ryu looked down at his hands, closing them and opening them to get a feel for the controls. ¡°Oh, don¡¯t worry about me, please, take your time,¡± said the girl. Ryu held back his rebuttal and raised his fists. [3¡­] [2¡­] [1¡­] *DING* The girl vanished from Ryu¡¯s vision, and less than a second later he fell to the ground as he was swept off his feet. Momentarily immobilised, all he could do was roll as the girl stabbed her foot at him as if it was a weapon - and with how swiftly she did it, Ryu was starting to believe it was. ¡°You¡¯re really gonna-¡± Ryu dodged another kick, ¡°-kick a guy when he¡¯s down?¡± The kicks stopped and Ryu took the chance to get up, after which the first thing he saw was a fist flying straight for his head.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. The fist seemed slow now, in fact everything seemed slow. This wasn¡¯t the first time Ryu had experienced such a sensation, but now he had an idea what might be going on. Dot was the culprit. His brain, which was the only reasonable place Dot could reside, was working so fast that the world seemed slow in comparison. Dot couldn¡¯t control him, not here, in the real world, but it could tell him what to do. Like when it told him what to type the actions were there, at the forefront of his mind. Ryu began to step to the side, and in the next instant the fist flew past his ear. The girl backed off,. ¡°Not bad¡± said the girl, as Ryu charged at her. Before he had even reached the girl Dot changed its mind and Ryu was back on the defensive, dodging by a hair''s breadth as the girl threw punches and kicks in his direction. Even if he could think faster, it made no difference if his body was to slow to actually take advantage of it. The most he could do was dodge against this gung-ho kung fu fighting maiden as he waited for an opening, which he was becoming less and less sure would come. Time went on and Ryu¡¯s movements got slower, but so did the girls. His stamina wasn¡¯t great. It was no surprise, playing video games all day tended to do that. So he was lucky that the girls attacks were slowing down as well. Whether it was because she played games all day or because she¡¯d expended more energy on the offensive, he wasn¡¯t too sure. ¡°Aren¡¯t you gonna¡­ attack me?¡± said the girl, huffing. She jumped back, putting distance between the two of them as she rested. Dot began screaming in his head to attack with such an opportunity, and truth be told he was tired of being told to dodge over and over again. Ryu charged, and as he did so it occurred to him just how elementary Dot¡¯s fighting style was. There was no foresight or planning, just reacting to what was happening around him. He had all this time because his charge was nowhere near as swift or surprising as he thought it was. It was closer to a quick jog. ¡°Seriously?¡± said the girl, putting up her fists. Ryu could see it coming. Dot was going to tell him to stop and get on the defensive any second now- It took Ryu a moment to realise what that meant, and immediately after he put all energy in his legs and jumped, throwing his character''s weight at the girl. The two of them collided and collapsed to the ground, Ryu on top. His hand opened like one of those crane machines and descended on her neck, closing around it. *DING* [Player 2 wins] Ryu removed his headset and looked at the girl who was doing the same. ¡°Good game,¡± said Ryu, huffing. The girl looked Ryu in the eye, her breaths were shallow and rough, and she placed her hands on her hips as she rested. ¡°I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve ever had a fight like that before,¡± said the girl. ¡°Sorry, should I have stopped?¡± said Ryu, scratching his hair. The girl waved her right hand at Ryu, telling him to wait as she settled her breaths. ¡°No, it¡¯s just¡­ it¡¯s like you were trying to kill me.¡± Chapter 27 ¡°Oh.¡± Ryu removed his gear and looked around awkwardly. The intricacies of social interaction weren¡¯t exactly his forte. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, you beat me,¡± said the girl, walking towards Ryu. ¡°C¡¯mon.¡± Ryu trailed after her as she exited the crowd, which quickly found more people to throw into the ring. ¡°I¡¯m Kana,¡± said the girl, stopping once the two of them had left the crowd. Ryu looked at her and wondered why such a pretty girl would be in an arcade beating people up. Maybe he was sexist or some other overly used term, but he¡¯d have thought she¡¯d be out on the street window shopping or something along those lines. The girl looked at him expectantly. ¡°Oh, I¡¯m Ryu.¡± ¡°Mhm¡­ so you play VR right? What¡¯s your ID? I¡¯ll add you.¡± ¡°Uh, do you have something to record this on?¡± Kana got out her phone and looked at Ryu, telling him to go on. ¡°It¡¯s rhyu#1477.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll add you next time I logon,¡± said Kana, putting her phone away. ¡°Cool, I¡¯ll see you then,¡± said Ryu, turning on his heel to leave.The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. ¡°Are you leaving?¡± Ryu stopped and turned back. ¡°Sorry, I thought we were finished.¡± Kana nodded left to right. ¡°No, no, it¡¯s fine. You can go if you want.¡± Ryu considered staying, but he really wasn¡¯t sure where any of this was going. ¡°Thanks, I¡¯ll probably be online tonight, well, I¡¯m online most nights.¡± Right after saying it Ryu felt a little ashamed. He¡¯d basically just told Kana he did nothing but play games all day. Not exactly uncommon in these times, but it still wasn¡¯t impressive. Then again, what chance did he have with a girl like her? Is what he thought. *** For the second day in a row Ryu arrived home early, and this time he found Caragh and Ruri both in the kitchen cooking something up. ¡°Did you finish early again?¡± said Caragh, as he stepped past the door. ¡°Err, you could say that.¡± Caragh stopped chopping something and looked to Ryu. He knew that meant ¡°tell me more¡±. ¡°I quit.¡± Caragh opened her mouth, but Ryu beat her to it. ¡°My boss was going to fire me anyway.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± said Caragh. He could see the expression on her face, subtle but evident. The slight drop at the corners of her lips and the lowering of her pupils. Their families budget, the very food they were cooking at that moment, it would all have to be reconsidered. Cutbacks would need to be made. ¡°I¡¯ll find another job,¡± said Ryu. Caragh put on a smile and nodded her head. She didn¡¯t- couldn¡¯t, tell him anything else. She''d gotten so used to having Ryu¡¯s help that going back to how things once were seemed impossible. ¡°Dinner won¡¯t be ready for awhile,¡± said Caragh. Ryu took one last look at his mother before leaving for his room. Once he¡¯d shut his door he threw his bag on the ground and took a seat in his chair, leaning back into it and staring at the ceiling. While sitting his eye¡¯s jumped to his headset. ¡°Guess I won¡¯t be gaming tonight¡­¡± Chapter 28 The following day Ryu had the joy of sitting through another of Livia¡¯s lessons, and, unsurprisingly, she always found something to pester him with. At the moment he was sitting, waiting, for her to bring something up. ¡°Ryu,¡± said Livia, from her desk at the front of class The rest of the class was currently occupied with their workbooks. From any viewpoint but Ryu¡¯s Livia was an exceptionally structured and well prepared teacher. Her lessons always had a plan, the students knew exactly what they needed to do, and, best of all, her position on the beauty scale was just right - attractive enough that people wanted to impress to her. So why did she always pick on him of all people? If there was a reason, Ryu couldn¡¯t see it. ¡°Yes?¡± said Ryu, yawning afterwards. He¡¯d been up late applying for jobs. ¡°Is there a problem?¡± said Livia, referring to the fact Ryu, unlike the rest of class, didn¡¯t have his head down working. ¡°No,¡± said Ryu. There was something entertaining to him about giving Livia one word replies. Ryu always sat towards the back of class with Livia¡¯s desk in the corner farthest from him, but, even so, he could still see her eyes tighten. ¡°Then get back to-¡± ¡°I¡¯m done.¡± Livia didn¡¯t like being interrupted, and Ryu knew, which was precisely why he did it. It was petty revenge, but little things could add up. Livia stood up from her seat and headed to Ryu¡¯s desk, stopping once she was close enough to grab his book and inspect it.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°There¡¯s no working,¡± said Livia, flipping through pages. ¡°As far as I know you could have copied these answers from the back.¡± Around the room pencils and pens stopped as people listened in. There was a certain joy in listening to someone else get reprimanded, especially so when it was another student. ¡°I didn¡¯t cheat,¡± said Ryu. Livia put Ryu¡¯s book down. ¡°I¡¯m not saying you did, but without working how do you expect me to believe you?¡± said Livia. Ryu opened his mouth, but Livia wasn¡¯t done. ¡°It¡¯s been¡­¡± Livia looked at the clock at the front of the classroom. ¡°Approximately eight minutes, and you¡¯ve answered every question in this chapter with what seems to be the correct answer. Considering the number of questions, to even write all the answers in that time frame meant you would¡¯ve been left with very little time to actually work out the answers.¡± ¡°I write fast.¡± Livia leaned down and placed her hands on Ryu¡¯s desk. Ryu¡¯s eyes linked with Livia¡¯s for a split second, before they were lured away, down towards her chest as his eyes began scouting beneath her blouse. Ryu gulped, and Livia smirked, scoffing as she straightened her back. Clearing his throat, he watched as Livia strolled back to her desk, hips swaying, as he wondered what the hell had just happened. *** Back at home, Ryu¡¯s head was still in a turmoil. Livia had never done that- used that, against him. Was this a change in strategy? A sign he was winning? He wasn¡¯t sure, but things were going in a direction he hadn¡¯t foreseen. Ruri wasn¡¯t home when he got back, so he assumed she was either with her friends or at swimming club, possibly both. He grabbed a glass of water as he passed by the kitchen before shutting himself in his room. He took a look at his computer and then his headset. Shaking his head, he grabbed the headset. Chapter 29 When Ryu logged back in he was greeted by two things. One of them was a friend request from Kana which he quickly accepted, but the other was anything but friendly. ¡°What the hell?¡± said Ryu, as he looked at the piles of rubble surrounding him. Behind him, Ryu heard rocks tumbling, so he spun around to find the walking silhouette of a man, dust and soot decorating his frame. ¡°Traveller!¡± The man coughed repeatedly. ¡°The kingdom¡­ the kingdom has fallen!¡± Ryu looked to the side as a thought came to mind. Was this a quest opportunity? ¡°And it¡¯s all your fault!¡± The man charged at Ryu, but before he even made it halfway he collapsed on the ground. ¡°Papa!¡± shouted a girl, running up to the man. Following after the girl was a woman wearing a dress, dirty and torn. Ryu simply scratched his head. Where were all these people coming from? The woman approached Ryu with her hands wrapped together and looked up at him. ¡°Please help him!¡± ¡°I¡¯m not a healer-¡± ¡°Please!¡± Ryu was always amazed at how realistic the NPC¡¯s could act in this game. Part of him couldn¡¯t help but be fascinated by how people could develop something so lifelike, but another part of him did wonder at what point humanities creations would be their downfall. That part of him was often crushed by his sense of logic and rationale. ¡°Uh, I¡¯ll take a look,¡± said Ryu. *Ding* [Quest Log Updated: Dying Words]If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. Ryu kneeled down beside the dying man. A minute passed and the girl looked up at him, tears in her eyes. ¡°Aren¡¯t you gonna *hic* do something?¡± said the girl. ¡°I¡¯m not a¡­ ah, nevermind.¡± Ryu checked the man''s pulse, but it wasn¡¯t because he suddenly felt sympathetic to the girl. It was so he¡¯d at least look like he was trying to help for the quest. The man suddenly coughed and opened his eyes. *Ding* [Quest update: Listen to the man] The man stroked his daughter''s cheek before turning his head to face Ryu. This was one of the things Ryu hated most about VR. There wasn¡¯t a skip button. ¡°Family¡­¡± A second passed by, which to Ryu felt like an eternity. What was so cinematic about these kinds scenes? They were far too cliche for Ryu to give a damn. The man began speaking again. ¡°Take care¡­ of my¡­ family.¡± Ryu looked at the girl and then her mother, standing behind him. A few more people had shown up seemingly from nowhere while Ryu had been watching the man. ¡°Uhhh, sure?¡± Ryu was really wondering why the hell this man was entrusting his family to a complete stranger. It was probably better he died, because now his family wouldn¡¯t have to put up with his dumb ass. [Quest Updated: Take care of the man¡¯s family] ¡°People¡­¡± Another second. Ryu had time to look around at the many people now showing up. ¡°Oh no-¡± ¡°Take care¡­ of the¡­ people.¡± [Quest Updated: Take care of the survivors from Sanctuary] Ryu could count at least thirty people, with more still coming. ¡°City¡­¡± ¡°Wait. Stop!¡± The man ignored him, instead looking up to the sky before continuing. ¡°Rebuild-¡± ¡°Don¡¯t you fucking dare!¡± ¡°The¡­ city.¡± [Quest Updated: Return the city to its former glory] Ryu¡¯s hand reached for his sword. Fuck this ass hole, he was going to kill him himself. Unfortunately for Ryu, the man passed away before he had the chance to draw his sword. ¡°Papa!¡± screamed the girl. Her mother ran up to her and held her in a hug as the man¡¯s body dissolved into a cloud of glowing particles, floating up to the sky. Ryu stood up and kicked the ground. Was there some kind¡¯ve rule saying he wasn¡¯t allowed to have fun? Because he wasn¡¯t having fun. Chapter 30 Ryu continued his impromptu therapy of kicking rocks around in a cartoonish fit, until he eventually exhausted his frustration and took a seat on the ground. Moments later, he heard small footsteps in the rubble. It was the little girl from before. ¡°S-sir are you okay?¡± said the girl. Ryu sighed and began to get up, and, oddly from his point of view, the girl flinched, taking a step back as she did so. Ryu: Child Flincher. He didn¡¯t like the title, and he didn¡¯t like to think he was the cause of someone¡¯s distress, even though that someone was just a series of ones and zeroes. In his head Dot had already begun working on a solution, but this wasn¡¯t a simple problem with a single solution. People were unpredictable. Minutes passed, and whether it was Ryu or Dot who would identify the root of the problem was impossible for Ryu to know - whatever Dot was thinking he was thinking, and vice versa. Ryu walked in circles, continuing to sort his thoughts until he- they¡¯d, found it. He stopped his pacing in front of a tipped over lawn chair. Why there was a white lawn chair and table here of all places, he didn¡¯t care to ask. He could feel the eyes on him. Waiting for him to make his move. He leaned down and grasped the chair, hauling it back up. ¡±We WILL rebuild!¡± Ryu held his fist in the air, a symbol of strength; however, his somewhat scrawny arms did anything but prove his conviction. He¡¯d have to do some work on his image if he was going to be their new leader. ¡°What?!¡± shouted a voice in the crowd. ¡°You travellers are the reason the kingdom was-¡± ¡°THIS IS NOT A DEMOCRACY!¡± said Ryu, setting stage one of his plan into action. Ryu turned his back to the crowd. There was meant to be screaming and fangirling, women throwing themselves at him as he took his rightful place on the podium. With those three words he was meant to ascend from his status as a beta to an alpha! What kind of game would deny a man that? Who would dare to develop something so treacherous? [kkaw#2001 wants to chat] ¡°Wait a second, I got a call,¡± said Ryu, accepting Kana¡¯s chat request. ¡°Hey,¡± said Kana. ¡°How¡¯s it going?¡± ¡°Err¡­¡± Ryu looked back at the crowd, and found them to be oddly obedient. Good. ¡°I¡¯m good. I¡¯m looking for a new job though.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± Kana¡¯s voice hinted at her curiousity. ¡°When did you lose your last one?¡± ¡°Uh, a couple days ago. Anyway how are you?¡± Ryu took another peak at the crowd. Still waiting. Perhaps things weren¡¯t completely hopeless, is how Ryu was beginning to feel. ¡°You should¡¯ve said earlier. Do you want a job?¡± ¡°Huh?¡±Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. ¡°I don¡¯t think my mum will mind. But it really depends if you¡¯re okay with running errands for her? Her last assistant just quit and she¡¯s kinda tired of hiring people.¡± Ryu¡¯s heartbeat sped up. This was it. His ticket. Buy one, get one free. A job, a chance to get closer to Kana, and also a chance to get into her mother¡¯s good books. Wait, that was one more than two, which meant it was three. It was unheard of. Buy one, get two free. ¡°I¡¯ll do it!¡± said Ryu. ¡°Cool, I¡¯ll ask my mum and tell you how it goes. She¡¯ll probably wanna meet you before saying yes though.¡± ¡°Yeah that¡¯s fine.¡± There was a moment of silence and Ryu thought the conversation would be over, but Kana quelled that thought. ¡°I¡¯m like halfway through a quest at the moment, but there¡¯s a dungeon I wanted to try out. Would you like to do it with me? I don¡¯t like partying up with strangers.¡± In only a few days the number of women in Ryu¡¯s life had doubled if not more. Needless to say, he was more than willing for that number to keep climbing. ¡°When do you wanna do it?¡± said Ryu, taking the lead. ¡°I can head there now or meetup with you first.¡± ¡°It¡¯s outside Rayden, but I don¡¯t have time to do it today. I¡¯ll send you a message next time I¡¯m online. Today I just want to get this quest done.¡± ¡°Yeah, yeah, that¡¯s fine¡­¡± Ryu played it cool, despite the fact he had no clue where Rayden was. ¡°Anytime.¡± It was fine, Ryu told himself. He¡¯d just find out where Rayden was and teleport there¡­ except he couldn¡¯t because he¡¯d never been there. Perhaps a warp portal- and then Ryu realised all methods of transportation were almost certainly gone and all his hopes and dreams were crushed. In the background Ryu heard Kana say, ¡°bye,¡± before she ended the chat. Ryu swallowed his frustrations and turned around. This was a crucial time. Not the time to be kicking the ground. ¡°We WILL rebuild!¡± said Ryu, repeating his goal. It was important that his people know his goals. ¡°We can¡¯t rebuild Sanctuary!¡± There would always be naysayers, haters, flamers, people who¡¯s only goal in life was to crush the hopes and dreams of others. Ryu wasn¡¯t immune them, but he knew them well. They to had been burned, had their hopes crushed. A good leader could look past this on the road to their own vision. ¡°What the fuck has Dot been reading¡­¡± mumbled Ryu, off to the side. A good leader knew best. ¡°We¡¯re not going to. We¡¯re going to build something new, something better, and we¡¯ll call it....¡± Ryu was not that leader, but he could pretend to be. ¡°A new sanctuary?¡± whispered someone, as Ryu thought. Dot had only given Ryu the barebones, but like the pencil sketches of one of his waifu¡¯s, there was room for some imagination on his part. ¡°Yes! We will call it... ¡± Ryu put his hands together, and drew the outline of a rainbow as he spoke. ¡°New Sanctuary.¡± ¡°That sucks!¡± shouted voices in the crowd. The mother from earlier covered her daughter''s ears. ¡°HOW MANY TIMES MUST I TELL YOU?! THIS IS NOT A DEMOCRACY!¡± Ryu scouted through the crowd for a subject of interest. His eyes landed on a girl, roughly his age in appearance. Of course, her appearance was not a factor in his decision, regardless of whether or not he had a thing for fair skinned blondes. ¡°You! You¡¯re now my deputy!¡± The girl tilted her head. ¡°Secretary!¡± It tilted some more. ¡°Assistant!¡± ¡°Ohhhh, no thanks,¡± said the girl, nodding side to side. Resistance. He would find a way to overcome it before a rebellion could sprout, after all, his plan required complete and utter obedience. Chapter 31 After Ryu¡¯s less than satisfactory attempt at assuming control of Sanctuary¡¯s survivors, he left them and found somewhere quiet so that he could reevaluate his plan. The real question on Ryu¡¯s mind was how and why Sanctuary had been destroyed. The slaughter on the eastern front came to mind. That army of automatons and its maniacal sounding leader were the most likely culprit. ¡°Was it really necessary that they reduce the whole city to rubble?¡± said Ryu, rubbing his forehead. Destroying a city beyond repair was undoubtedly harder than taking control, and Sanctuary was by no means small - it was the capital of the Irzabet Kingdom, the largest in their whole domain. There was surely some strategic value in controlling Sanctuary, but to whoever had done this none of that mattered. And then Ryu realised he was being silly. He returned to where the crowd was to get some answers. Surprisingly, there wasn¡¯t much chatter going on when Ryu returned. A few people had taken a seat on the ground, and it occurred to Ryu that many of them were tired. ¡°So what happened here?¡± said Ryu, to no one in particular. The crowd mostly ignored him, that is, until a women at the back stepped forward. ¡°What do you mean?¡± Ryu¡¯s eyes quickly looked over her. Despite the condition of the city, she was still quite well kept. Her red and white dress, which shared a strong resemblance to a long sleeve short skirt miko dress, was still almost pristine. ¡°Oh, a priestess? Nice.¡± The priestess bowed her head. ¡°The goddess protects me.¡± The goddess must¡¯ve been protecting the priestess¡¯ clothing too then, Ryu assumed. ¡°Now what is it you are asking?¡± said the priestess. ¡°How did all of this happen? I wasn¡¯t here when it occurred.¡±Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. A few people in the crowd seemed perplexed at Ryu¡¯s statement, but the priestess remained composed. ¡°I do not know how it began, only how it ended. Will that be enough?¡± said the priestess. ¡°That¡¯ll be fine,¡± said Ryu. ¡°An army of magic and metallurgy - automatons I believe they are called, is what condemned us. It is not my place to say what is right and wrong, but the goddess dislikes it. For the soulless to take a soul¡­¡± The priestess closed her eyes and shut her mouth. ¡°It¡¯s the east,¡± said someone else, picking up the conversation. ¡°They cheated.¡± ¡°Really?¡± said Ryu. Perhaps he was on the wrong side. Cheating was something he could get behind. ¡°What¡¯s wrong with cheating?¡± Fists formed and Ryu touched the hilt of sword, but no attack came. ¡°I understand how you¡¯re all feeling,¡± said Ryu. ¡°How?¡± said someone in the crowd. ¡°What have you lost?! You¡¯re just a traveller.¡± ¡°The only thing you people are loyal to is gold and treasure!¡± shouted someone else. Members of the crowd began to pitch in their own positive opinions of Ryu and his fellow players, which he had to admit were all fair points. ¡°Would you prefer it if I left?¡± said Ryu. The crowd went quiet and people looked away. ¡°Please stay,¡± said the priestess, bowing slightly. ¡°The goddess¡­ she has shown interest in you.¡± Whatever that could mean, Ryu had no idea. He hadn¡¯t exactly kept up with the lore of this game. Turning around, Ryu spotted the white lawn chair from earlier. Ignoring how out of place it looked, he picked it up and carried it towards the crowd. For now, at least, it would suffice. ¡°Whoever sits in this chair will be your leader. So¡­¡± Ryu took a breath. ¡°Does anyone want to take a seat?¡± Ryu looked a few people in the eye, but in the end they all averted their gaze. ¡°I know you¡¯re all tired, so I¡¯ll make this simple. Does anyone disagree with me taking a seat?¡± Ryu stood himself in front of the chair and looked over the crowd one last time. Their eyes were on him, every single one. Waiting. But this time they knew what was coming. Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately - only time would tell, Ryu was never one to keep people waiting. He took one last look at the crowd, still waiting, before bending his knees and taking a seat, resting his arms on the chair once he¡¯d done so. Looking upon his people, Ryu decided on his commemorating words. ¡°You can call me...¡± Ryu looked into the eyes of the priestess and smirked as she looked back. ¡°Daddy.¡± Chapter 32 Ryu¡¯s people decided it would be best to ignore whatever weird fetishes their new leader liked to partake in, and so he had to settle with being called something far less entertaining - Ryu. His other suggestions such as ¡°The Almighty One¡± and the classic ¡°Master¡± had all failed to take hold. That didn¡¯t mean it was over, but at least for the time being he would have to settle. Ryu then spent some time finding out what resources he had at his disposal, and the results were sorely lacking. Dot had determined almost instanteously that it would be impossible to proceed with any degree of reconstruction without first dealing with some of the more critical issues. ¡°Do any of you know how to fish?¡± said Ryu. Food, water and shelter - they all needed to be dealt with. ¡°No,¡± said the crowd. ¡°Farm?¡± ¡°No.¡± What other options were there? ¡°I guess we could eat the weak-¡± ¡°NO!¡± Ryu stood up from his seat and scratched his head. ¡°Well does anyone know how to do anything?¡± ¡°I can pray,¡± said the priestess. ¡°Well that¡¯s useful,¡± said Ryu. ¡°And fight.¡±The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°Go hunting then.¡± ¡°I can only fight for the goddess.¡± Ryu tsked and continued his pacing. Why did he always draw the short straw? His people were all deadweight as far as he could see. Except the priestess. He liked her. ¡°So how have you guys been surviving?¡± ¡°Scavenging,¡± said someone in the crowd. ¡°Then go do that.¡± Ryu flicked his wrist, an act of dismissal, and all except the priestess scuttled off. ¡°You¡¯re not going to scavenge?¡± said Ryu. The priestess bowed her head. ¡°It would interfere with my duties to the goddess.¡± Ryu called bullshit. She was just lazy, not that he was going to complain. It meant he got to spend time alone with the cute priestess. He took a seat again and began flipping through menus, checking on things in case anything had changed. ¡°So what are your duties?¡± said Ryu. The priestess looked at Ryu, though he was too busy going through menus to notice. ¡°Whatever the goddess wishes I do my utmost to fulfil.¡± ¡°So what are you doing right now?¡± ¡°Ensuring I am free in case the goddess asks something of me.¡± Ryu stopped his scrolling for a second to catch the expression on the priestess¡¯ face. Composed as always. ¡°And when was the last time she asked for something?¡± The priestess opened her mouth, but shut it moments later. ¡°She speaks to me, but she has not yet asked anything of me.¡± ¡°I wonder why¡­¡± mumbled Ryu, off to the side, before looking at the priestress. ¡°Then there should be no problem with you giving me a hand, right? Come here.¡± Ryu waved the priestess over, and she stepped towards him, warily. ¡°So¡­ about your dress. It never gets dirty?¡± ¡°The goddess has blessed it.¡± Ryu reached out, fingers fondling the air. ¡°So¡­?¡± ¡°It is immune to impurities.¡± ¡°Ahh¡­¡± said Ryu, leaning forward. ¡°What kind of impurities?¡± Chapter 33 Ryu was alone again, though whether he was ever by himself was now questionable. The priestess had excused herself citing the goddess as the reason, though he had the feeling she was actually trying to avoid hitting him for his blatant sexual assault. Without much else to do Ryu returned to going through his stats, and he soon found an anomaly, something that wasn¡¯t there the last time he¡¯d looked. [Order - Level 1: Activate to issue an order to a target allied NPC unit.] ¡°Hmm¡­¡± Ryu stroked his chin. He needed a test subject, and, lo and behold, the priestess returned. ¡°That was quick,¡± said Ryu, getting up. ¡°The goddess changed her mind.¡± ¡°Uhuh...¡± The priestess took a cautious step back as Ryu approached her. ¡°There¡¯s something I want to try.¡± The priestess slowed down and nodded her head lightly. ¡°Bend over.¡± She looked away, and Ryu wondered if he was doing it wrong. ¡°I order you to bend over.¡± ¡°I cannot do that,¡± said the priestess, her voice sounding unusually monotone, like a robot. Ryu stroked his chin again. ¡°I order you to bend over.¡± ¡°I cannot do that.¡± It was as he suspected. The game was cockblocking him. But Ryu wasn¡¯t the kind of person to give up at the first sign of resistance, especially so when this was on the line. ¡°I order you to bend over and pick up that rock.¡±If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. The priestess¡¯ eyebrows knit together, before she bent down and did as told. Ryu knelt down so that he could observe her actions more closely, which is to say, the priestess¡¯ panties were a pleasant lacy white. ¡°I wonder if those are blessed as well?¡± mumbled Ryu. A wonderful question to accompany a wonderful discovery: the limitation of Order wasn¡¯t the order itself, but the perceived intention of the order. ¡°Your perversion knows no limits,¡± said the priestess, quickly straightening her back. Ryu was still knelt down, so he looked up to find the priestess looking down on him, like the sun on a blistering hot day, with her arms crossed. ¡°Sorry, I was just testing your loyalty,¡± said Ryu, standing up. ¡°There is no need. I am devoted to the goddess.¡± Ryu looked up to the sky, briefly wondering whether he was now looking up some goddess¡¯ dress. There was no winning with woman. ¡°Ah, the goddess¡­ who is the goddess?¡± Ryu pictured a woman with an hourglass figure and a white glow- ¡°You don¡¯t know of the goddess?!¡± Ryu looked at the priestess, who¡¯s mouth was left open, ever so slightly. ¡°No, no I don¡¯t. Should I? What¡¯s her name?¡± The priestess nodded side to side. ¡°It would be rude to speak her name for no other cause.¡± ¡°Then what¡¯s she look like?¡± The priestess¡¯ glared at Ryu. ¡°Alright alright,¡± said Ryu, raising his hands into the air. ¡°We shouldn¡¯t be standing here chatting anyway.¡± ¡°And you would suggest?¡± said the priestess. The issue Ryu was having wasn¡¯t figuring out what to do, but rather how to do it. Food was being scavenged, so he could consider that temporarily resolved. Drinkable water wasn¡¯t especially hard to acquire either. The ocean was nearby, so all that was needed would be a fire to purify it. ¡°We need to find shelter.¡± The current establishment of ¡°rags pegged into the ground and raised up with sticks¡± as the survivors put it wasn¡¯t unbearable, but it wasn¡¯t sustainable either. People could only live in such conditions for so long. ¡°I doubt you will find anything within walking distance,¡± said the priestess. Ryu scanned his surroundings, searching for options. Most of what he saw was rubble and burnt timber, useless for building as far as he knew. Ryu stopped his search and looked at the priestess, who still had her arms crossed across her chest. ¡°I meant that we need to build something.¡± ¡°Are you skilled in building things?¡± said the priestess, adjusting her arms. ¡°Not at all, but I can probably find something on the internet.¡± The priestess looked at Ryu like he¡¯d said something weird. ¡°It¡¯s like a library. Anyway I¡¯ll be back once I find something.¡± Ryu logged off, which from the priestess¡¯ perspective appeared as if he¡¯d suddenly teleported away. ¡°I¡¯ll never get to used to how travellers can do that¡­¡± said the priestess. Chapter 34 ¡°It¡¯s about time,¡± said Ruri, the moment Ryu¡¯s body shifted in his bed. ¡°Why are you here?¡± said Ryu, as he removed his headset and sat up. He wasn¡¯t all that surprised. Ruri had always had a thing for showing up without any notice. This time she was in his seat, legs crossed, and staring at him. ¡°Did you come home and login straight away? Don¡¯t you have homework?¡± said Ruri. Ryu ignored Ruri¡¯s question and got off his bed, stretching his back afterwards. How long had he been online?