A Special Event

[Progress: 55%...]

[69%...]

[74%...]

[86%...]

[98%...]

There was only a couple of minutes left before the update finishes, however each second that passed felt unbearable for Connor as he restlessly shuffled in his seat. His eyes kept going back and forth between his smartphone screen and his surroundings. It was as if he was trying to anticipate what the danger might be, while at the same time, paying absolutely no mind to his teacher's lesson, and the weird looks thrown at him by his table mates.

[99%...]

[Estimated Time: 17 seconds]

Connor looked with unblinking eyes as the timer counted down to zero, he even held his breath as his body got into fight or flight mode.

6...

5...

4...

3...

2...

1...

0...

[Update Complete]

Suddenly! Out of the corner of his eye a classmate abruptly stood up, and took a few steps, before bending down... to grab the pencil that he dropped!

Connor stared at that scene as he found himself standing up as straight as a tree, while everyone in class awkwardly looked at him. He felt his face heating up.

"I-Is there anything you need Connor?" His teacher said after a few seconds of silence.

"Uhh... yeah! I really need to go to the restroom!" He said with no confidence in his voice.

"Well, alright, let me just write a pass for you." The teacher made his way from the screen projector, to his desk, and quickly handed a paper slip to Connor. He resumed his lesson, as Connor quickly escaped from the situation.

...

'So embarrassing! I'm such an idiot!' He thought to himself as he rushed at full speed to the nearest restroom.

Upon entering, he quickly washed his face with cold water, and locked himself in a stall. Calming himself down, he pulled up his phone, and opened up the Custom Life app. He wanted to see what had changed.

First and foremost, the shop had opened up. And the first thing he saw was a tutorial on how to use the shop, as well as explaining the Diligence Point currency and the ticket fragments.

From its explanation, DP is based on your unwillingness to do something, and can be gained even without the help of quests. The more unwilling you are to do something, the more DP you gain.

At this point, Connor's brows were furrowed, however he kept reading through the explanation. The tutorial then talked about the tickets. Each ticket type needed 100 fragments to combine into 1 usable ticket. Then when you have a whole ticket, you go into the shop and press the lottery machine icon at the bottom left, from there, you can just insert any ticket that you have.

Connor looked at the screen with frustration, he understood everything, however he didn't like the fact that there was just a massive info dump. Wasn't there supposed to be a tutorial at the beginning? Why did it happen now, and after an update at that? However, the next scene instantly made his mood light up.

[Thank you for completing the tutorial! To celebrate the new update, we're giving you a starter gift, as well as a special event!]

Below the text was a generic looking gift box. Without hesitation, Connor clicked on it, and it gave a soft glow as the top of the box opened; spewing out several items in the process.

Looking at the drops, there were a few DP coin stacks, and 5 tickets. Staring at the five tickets, Connor was washed with a giddy feeling as he noticed that they were whole tickets! He felt rich!

However, he didn't get ahead of himself. The items were safely stored into his inventory, and the number of his DP, went from a low 3, to a whopping 253 in one go! Happy as he was, his mind kept recalling a tiny detail from the tutorial.

'...a special event!'

'What did it mean by that?'

The [Shop] probably had the answers that he was looking for. And he was right, as soon as he clicked the shop tab, he was greeted by a huge banner that wasn't there before. It had a string of words that said [To celebrate the new update, as well as to help grow this server, we are holding a very special event! Click for more info~] Clicking the banner, a timer had shown itself to him, and it was in typical blood red fashion.

[Time Left Until Event Ends: 6 days: 23hrs: 45 mins: 37 secs]

At the sight of this, Connor felt his skin start to crawl. The feeling of fear- of dread, it was back. And it was stronger than before. It felt like he was drowning under an invisible pressure. His stomach started to turn as he quickly stood up from the toilet seat, and aimed his face into the toilet bowl.

Bllaaarggg~!

Connor's pale face stared at the ceiling as he weakly leaned against the door of the stall. He smiled wryly as he softly mumbled, "What a waste of a delicious breakfast."

After a few seconds of rest, he flushed the toilet, and thoroughly washed himself up. It had already been more than 15 minutes since he had left class, the bell was about to ring soon. And he was right, just as he had left the restroom, the bell blared next to his ear, and streams of students were suddenly flooding the previously empty halls.

He rushed back to his class to grab his backpack. The room was already empty as it was his teacher's open period. Noticing him come in, the teacher couldn't help but tease him.

"If you had told me that you've got the runs, I would've released you earlier! Haha, do you want a late pass kiddo?" His teacher chuckled as he sipped his coffee and pulled up another slip.

"Yes, thank you Mr. Collins." Connor's face went red as he accepted the pass from this eccentric teacher. He was his Chemistry teacher, and amongst all of his other teachers, Connor liked him the most.

Rushing to his next class, he was able to fortunately make it before the late bell rang. Panting slightly, he got himself sorted for class, before taking out his phone. He still never managed to read what the special event was about.

Below the ominous timer that still gave Connor butterflies, he read through the paragraph.

[Within 7-days, this server will be open to other servers! This means that a wonderful opportunity to grow presents itself to you! Not only will quests be better, it will give out more items and DP! You can also try your luck against other players of the foreign servers! If you managed to defeat one player, you'll be rewarded with up to 50% of their items and DP, as well as experience points to level up! At the end of the event, the players who are left will be given a generous award! It has already begun! Good Luck!]

Connor fell silent as he pocketed his phone. This was it. He was sure of it! This event was the source of his immense dread! And from the last sentence, it seems like something big will happen within the next seven days.

He gently rubbed his temple, as he began to think. Just as one of his question was answered, many more had popped up in its place. 'Who were the foreign players? There were different servers? We have to battle with other players?'

However, the most worrying part of the paragraph was in the last sentence.

'... the players who are left...'