Races: Online (VR Smartphone App)

Grandma Moe stared at the young man with an earnest expression on their face—it told her that he was willing to do whatever it takes to bring along their fellow villager? She pulled out a locket from her pocket and tossed it to him."I suppose there's something that you can do. Take this."

"Huh? Do you want me to pawn this off and get money?" Han held the locket carefully in his hands and inspected the craftsmanship. It wasn't like he was a jewelry examiner but could someone really from this village have some sort of treasure? That thought was written entirely on his face.  "I can't tell if this will actually get accepted though?"

A sigh escaped her lips, he had a good head on his shoulders but sometimes that wasn't enough. "That had already been pawned off to me."

"Wait, you would accept this even though this might be a fluke?" Surprisingly, Han grew up to be astute, even business-minded. He would have probably done fine enough as a [ Merchant ] or [ Trader ] if he wanted to, but clearly the world had different plans for this boy.

"He had sworn on his mother's last breath that it was real—he pawned it off so that he could go with you." She eyed the young man to see his reaction.

"...this is Timothy's?"

"It was his mother's, her only valuable possession I surmise. He was willing to give it up so he could accompany you."

"But that's...."

"Wrong? Stupid? Callous? We can think of names for him all night—but the matter remains, he gave it up so he could loan enough money to travel with you, and I suppose I gave it to him. His mother would be proud that the boy finally decided to do something in his life." Grandma Moe pinched the bridge of her nose. "But I'd like you to return this back to him, I couldn't keep that without feeling guilty. That's a memento."

"I mean sure, I'll give it to him. Maybe when we're sort of far away from the village? I have a feeling that he'd be the type to want to return it to you."

Grandma Moe relented. "That makes sense, now that we're done talking—go ahead and rest up, find a comfortable spot in the saloon to sleep, though don't try doing anything with Miss Becky here." She stood up. "Heard that your hut was blown away, so you're lucky we have more than enough floor here."

"Ahaha....thank you, Grandma Moe." It was obvious that he didn't want to sleep on the floor—but she'd be out of her mind if she'd given up her bed when her back also hurt. And that was without any apparent injury unlike that fool.

She cleared her voice, "Everybody get out of my saloon and back into your homes!"

.. .

The room was pitch black. Han could barely see a thing except for the moonlight peeking in from the wooden doors. Alas he couldn't sleep.

At least not with the snores that was bothering him.

Once again, he was confused with the idea of Becky as the village's beauty. Maybe she was pretty with her auburn hair in pigtails and when she wore a dress—but she was also as tough as a cow and snored like one too. At least, based on his imagination of what a cow would sound like.

"Inventory." He muttered to himself.

[ Inventory ]

8 stones

12 shells

3 silver

Timothy's Memento

"Wait." A realization came to mind. If he couldn't sleep right now, he could log out of the game! What an easy way to cheat the system's twenty-four hour time...but he also needed to know what time to get back—what was the difference of time? Was there a time dilation thing going on? Should he ask the server chat? Or could he ask somebody else?

[ Chat Room ]

Demon Lord:  20+ New Messages

Peach: No New Messages

Universal Chat: 100+ New Messages

He could ask in the universal chat, but he had a feeling that he'd best get answers from someone who actually was an authority figure. Plus, unlike the others—this one knew his situation, his actual place of residence and even his True Name. Han Jing sighed and collected his thoughts.

Han: Um, hi there! It's Han again, well you know who I am. I wanted to ask if there's a time dilation and how exactly it works

Peach: Huh?

Han: I mean, when I logout—I'm not waking up like one year in the future, right?

Peach: Why don't you check? :3 

Han: ...I first checked in 'full-reign mode' around 9:30pm and then I woke up at 5:30am, but then I logged in around 8:00am or something, and I'm not sure if I'm going to be glad if I end up waking at 8pm

Peach: Why not just stay here forever then?

Han: Very funny, but no. I didn't think that the Moderator would be such a jester.

Peach: I'm a Moderator and not a Creator~ So what I can advice is for you to check it out yourself

Han: I'm logging out then, I wish this simulation had a pause function or something

Peach: The world doesn't revolve around you unfortunately~ 

Han: I knew that! This is like an VRMMORPG

Peach: You know, you could always just use the notification settings though

Han: What?

Peach: I already helped you, so figure that out on your own~

Han: Thank you!

Dismissing the chatroom, Han stared at the darkness around him. He was feeling a bit excited, not because of the talk but because he'd be logging out—using the cool phrase at that.

"Ikikaeru!"

.

.

.

Han Jing's eyes snapped open, he stumbled out of bed and looked around. It looked the same as it was before he relogged in the game.  It didn't look like a century past or something, he scrambled for his phone and quickly shifted into the home screen.

1:35pm 

The date and year was still the same. Not that he was actually scared of that Peach's words… and like, he had been transfering his conciousness into a game for two days in a row now.

That was perfectly normal.

As if it was! Han Jing sat on the floor for a moment—everything was real. Or he was medically insane and seeing hallucinations, but he knew he was mentally sound. He couldn't wipe away what he had experienced. His back still felt the tingle of sharp rocks on his body from rock shrapnels digging into them. But it was probably his mind simply playing tricks on him. He was Han Jing, not Han the Human. 

It was a dream of any person like him.

Virtual reality or transmigration into another world, he didn't know what it exactly was but he didn't care that much. What mattered was that he was experiencing them all! 

And at least 68 more people.

He was in server sixty-nine, so some other person like him was also playing this. Were they taking it way more easier than him? Had they contacted the authorities? Started to get lost in that new world without figuring a way out?

He fought the urge to relogin in the game immediately, but he did open the app. Same openings, loading screen but the main menu finally showed something else.

[ Races: Online ]

Start The Game

Configuration

Was this what the Moderator wanted him to do? It didn't appear the first time he logged back in the game. Did he need to talk with the Moderator to unlock features or something?

He selected the Configuration button and was led to a common game setting set-up page:

Configuration Menu:

(Mobile)

Controller Vibration: On

Screen Shake: On

Subtitles: On

Screen Size: Full Display

Language: Auto-Translate

Resolution: HD+++

Sound: Stereo

System Notifications: Off

(Full Reign Mode)

Language: Auto-Translate

Time Reminder: Off

Sensory: Full Immersion

In Game Notifications: On

System Notifications: Off

Tweak Notifications

Privacy Settings:

Allow Server Members To Find You: Yes

Who Can Contact You: Everyone

Han's eyes bleared through the settings, it was as if the Creators had intended from the very start to make Humans immediately easy to be found. Or maybe that Demon Lord happened to be waiting for someone new to arrive. He immediately turned on the notification settings and promptly received the annoying popouts on his phone.

But there was also an important one in them.

[ Races: Online: Han the [ Human ] is asleep. Come back soon! ]

[ Races: Online: World Time is  4:55 ]

"Huh, so that means I need to be online in maybe another hour or something. Wait, when I logged out, it felt like it was 2am or something...what a weird time mechanism. Do they really want me to spend all of my time in this game?" Han Jing asked himself.

It wasn't like he didn't already consumed most of his time with games in between juggling side and odd jobs. The only difference was he had to transfer his consciousness in the game. Then again, it had a  [ Play via Mobile ]  option. But who'd like to play using that mode when you could experience it as if it were real?

It was real.

But it really wasn't his reality.

Was it? 

Han Jing's stomach grumbled, he'd eat first and decide later. He didn't really need an existential crisis at the moment, all he wanted to do was play the game!