World Online

Jake opened his eyes. He was back in his room.

Taking off his headset, he looked straight with sunk eyes. He had just spent more than ten hours in the virtual world.

Even though this was a common occurrence when he was old, this was the first time that he did this in his young body.

He felt like he was going to vomit.

Holding it in, he left his room and looked outside. His parents were sitting on the table, while his brother was probably at a friend's house, playing.

No one was stupid enough to play outside though. The heat was unbearable, and the air, unbreathable.

"Mom. What happened? Why are you so down?" Jake asked.

Lydia turned around and looked at Jake.

"While you were wasting time in your game, we were busy trying to figure out how to make money. It turns out that we need to play this game, and work there to earn money now. There is no other way." Lydia said.

"Did you not enter the game yet? I thought the news made it clear! This is martial law now! I don't want you getting punished. Just enter the game, and go through the tutorial village. Did you get the headsets yet?" Jake asked with an upset face.

"Yes, someone came in the morning. Why are you so confident about this? Do you understand what situation we are in? We don't have enough money to even last the year!" Jake's father, Peter, said.

When he turned around, Jake could see the stress wrinkles bearing down on him. This was a man who worked too much to barely keep his house and family afloat.

And yet, in his last life, he would not be able to get things together, and fall in debt.

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"Give me one week dad. I will give you the money that you need." Jake turned around to head back to his room.

He needed no rest. He had to get to the top as fast as he could. If his body couldn't take it, then he would push it. But in this one week, he needed to take care of the first hurdle that he needed to clear: Money!

Putting back his headset, he entered World Online once again.

[Entering World Online. Progress saved. Proceeding to Tutorial Village.] Martha's voice rang in Jake's head.

He appeared back in the tutorial village, and with the same clothes.

The sword master was standing in the center of a crowd, with a lot of people listening to him. Another batch of newcomers arrived, and it was time for their tutorial.

Jake waited patiently for them, and let them finish their introduction. After they went scrambling to the swords, Jake approached the swordmaster.

"You are here already! I thought that it would take a while for you to come, but it seems like you are very impatient. I will not force you anymore. Follow me." the sword master said as he got up.

He then walked inside the unassuming hut right next to him that Jake did not even notice.

Jake followed quickly and entered the hut. He gasped as quickly because inside the hut was a space that was larger than Jake's own house!

In one corner of this hut was a pile of broken swords, and an entire forgery! The heat from the forgery was hitting Jake, causing him to sweat.

"He is a secret forger? Don't tell me, this is a secret forging class?" Jake speculated as he kept following the sword master.

He stopped in front of a table and took a sword that was lying on it.

Twirling it in his hands, he sighed.

"Do you know what I was called when I was in the kingdom? The sword of Misery, Richard Jinster, they called me. And all of that for this sword. You want to become my pupil? It is not up to me. It is up to you. If you are able to handle a sword like this, then it is yours." the sword master, Richard Jinster, said.

Jake nodded as he reached for the sword.

"Not so fast. I said a sword LIKE this. Not this one. Not yet. You have a long time in front of you. Now, do you know what the mission I gave everyone who completed swinging the sword was? Very simple. Go to the outer edge of the forest and kill twenty rabbits. Now, I can't have you doing something so easy, can I?" the Richard chuckled.

"Easy? Twenty rabbits are easy to kill? If I had a proper sword, then maybe. But the stupid wooden sword does almost no damage at all!" Jake wanted to scream, but he refrained himself.

Unlike NPCs of other games, in World Online, they were like real people. They took offence, and they made the players pay for it.

"I want you to go kill a few animals. I think that rabbits are too weak to put up a challenge. Why not do foxes this time? One hundred foxes? And you should take the materials that they give. They are very useful." Richard said.

[New Mission unlocked!

Difficulty: D

Kill 100 foxes and collect the materials dropped. (0/100)]

Jake nodded.

"I will make sure that it is done. There is no time limit, I presume?" he asked.

"I wanted to give the mission to you tomorrow and wanted you to end it by the day's end. Because you are so tired right now, I won't change that. You have until the end of tomorrow to finish this. If you don't, then do not worry. Even if you are not destined to be a sword of misery, you can be fated for something more than what these other incompetent fools are." Richard said as he glanced outside the hut.

"I will not disappoint." Jake crossed his heart.

"Oh, and these wooden swords that you use are absolutely useless against foxes. I am not cruel. You can take one of the scraps in that pile if you can use them." Richard pointed to a pile of swords on the other side of the room.

Sighing with relief and joy, Jake skipped over to the table over there.

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