37 Crazy Dude Maral

[Hmm. Yea. That sounds about right.]

"Nice. Thank you, I'll be relying on you in the future. We'll meet pretty soon in-game, I think I'll have an easy time catching up to you."

Two people were having a conversation over the phone. Within a dark room, a girl's voice came from the silhouette that was lying on its belly with her legs moving about in excitement.

[You're in Donut City, right? My party is currently at Cassava Gorge. It's quite far in terms of levels but pretty near in terms of distance.]

"I see. You're still within Doof Kingdom. I thought you were already at the hundreds?"

[There are a lot of places to level up in Doof Kingdom. Monsters there are pretty unique compared to other kingdoms with the typical mob fantasy monsters.]

"Then I look forward to your bus."

[Sure sure. I think we'll stay within Cassava Gorge's regions for a month, contact me when you get to Candy City.]

"Okay! Talk to you later."

The silhouette ended the call and threw her phone aside within the bounds of her bed. Despite the lights being off, her eyes shined and quaked.

"I should go do my research assignments now." The silhouette stood and wriggled her way through the darkness.

She reached for a particular switch and then light suddenly showed itself. Her desk lamp and desktop have been turned on.

"It's the weekend but I better do this now so I can play without worries."

She sat on her work chair and began working on her assignments.

And a couple of hours later, the clock struck midnight and the typing ceased. A heavy sigh resounded in the dark room.

"Ugh. Finally!"

Bang~

She slammed her head on the desk and food wrappers were thrown from the impact. Her eyelids trembled and she felt as if she was released from the clutches of death.

"I'll go *Yawn*, and freshen up before heading to bed."

She stood with her body being ragdoll like. She went out of her room and made it to the bathroom in ages.

"This should be Mom's."

The bathtub was filled with used bathwater. The silhouette took her clothes off and threw them. She relaxed in the tub soon after.

"I could sell this bathwater, there will be plenty of simps who'll buy it."

Then she fell asleep. The next morning, she woke up with a body that pruned up like dried berries.

-

*Welcome to Immersion Online. Explore the wor-

"Skip!"

*Welcome back, Annera.

Her vision was suddenly filled with scenery. The usual city that she grew to like suddenly change. The colors of the buildings were patched in brown, and that was unusual.

"They should have been destroyed, right?"

Annera saw the devastation of last night's sudden werewolf attack. She was sure that the houses around her were destroyed or at least suffered visible damages.

"Did they repair it already?"

The houses she saw had brown patches. Most probably because of new cement. She could even see a new house entirely.

"Did the developers not want the cities to remain dysfunctional?"

Annera walked for a while and saw that the buildings in the area were promptly repaired.

"Well, I wonder what will happen to the season's quest."

She gave it one last thought and then focused on other things. She brought up her message windows and didn't find any notifications. She checked her friend's list and found that Bob was online.

"Hmm. He sure is early."

But her statement made her think.

"I wonder if he's really a bot or just controlled by a person from GG. Either way, I'm still going to benefit from this."

*You are trying to call 'Bob'.

*The person you are calling is unable to receive your call at this moment. Please try again later. For additional information as to why they can't answer your call at this moment, click here --->

"Oh? Is he inside a restricted dungeon this early in the morning?"

Annera thought that Bob was busy leveling up by himself but she couldn't be more wrong. Bob was fast asleep as he abused his body the entire night.

"Hmmm. The other guys are offline as well. Maybe I'm online a bit too early."

Minion, Blight, and E all had separate lives. They came to know each other because E started a group by himself. And now, even though they had major differences in age and livelihood, they meet up every time they can in the game.

*Your Party Leader 'E' is now online.

And due to that prompt, Annera contacted E so that they could meet up just outside the church.

"Good morning. You're quite early today." Annera greeted E when they met.

"Good morning, Annera. The kids are staying over at my parent's place so I can spend the whole weekend playing." E happily said.

E was a father of 2. With his work schedule and his busy life as a father, it severely limited his time to play the game. At times, he doesn't get to go online at all.

"Oh? Nice. Let's wait for Blight and Minion then? They should be online by noon."

"Yep. I'll do some side quests that can be completed within the city. Wanna come with me?"

"Sure. It'd be nice to grab a bit of experience and materials."

And so, Annera and E walked together towards the central area of Donut City. The central area had a lot of houses that were filled with NPCs that had sidequests of their own.

"Let's check this one." E picked a donut-shaped house and went inside. Annera followed after she nodded. Once they were inside, they were greeted with the warmest of welcomes.

"Get out!"

An NPC screamed from the top of his lungs. His scream made E and Annera back off.

"What kind of security does this damnable city have? Adventurers are just invading my property left and right!" The NPC continued berating E and players in general.

[Shit. I forgot about the NPC update.] E whispered to Annera via PM.

[Yea. This isn't like the game anymore. It became real life, somewhat.] Annera replied to E's whispers.

[Hahaha. I got used to just barging in the houses since the NPCs from before never moved from their spots. To get the quests, we had to walk up to them in their houses.]

[Old habits die hard. Let's get out of here, I doubt this guy will give you a quest after blatantly trespassing.]

Their conversation happened while the NPC continued his rant about adventurer's aberration from the norm. He only stopped screaming when he found that both Annera and E walked out on him.

"Whew. Why are they like this? One of the adventurers even opened my family's Safe and took our money in front of my face."

The NPC calmed down after ranting for a bit. He was constantly robbed of his riches before. That was before the update where NPCs didn't have proper AI and movement.

-

"Let's be careful next time." Annera warned E.

"Yeah. We should avoid getting into their nerves, we wouldn't want to go to prison. Compensating for crimes with online hours in prison isn't the best way to spend my weekend."

They made their way towards the plaza. When they reached the plaza, it was empty. There were not many people yet as it was morning. Players usually had a fucked-up sleep schedule so morning is when they're asleep.

"Why are we here again?" Annera asked E.

"Hmm. We were aiming to get some side quests done but we got bored." E lazily replied.

"By the way, E. Don't you have to take care of your wife as well?"

"Not really. She's also playing the game at this moment. Our game rigs are in one room so we are never alone."

"Oh? Then why isn't she with you in-game?"

"Do we have to? It's best to interact with a lot of people. She may be my wife, but she isn't my life. We both have lives to live on our own and when all else fails, we have each other."

"Are you implying that you're in an open relationship with her?"

"That does not equate. Perhaps I'll tell you more about the details at a much later time. I don't like the look of that man that's approaching us."

After E said that, he pointed forward to reveal a man wearing a fur coat. His fur coat was dirty and full of soot, lacking the dignity of a person that owns the wealth to purchase such a cruel coat.

"Kikikiki. I have seen enough in this city." The man in the fur coat creepily laughed and said.

"There were werewolf attacks here last night, mkay? That means that this world is finally rushing to its end!"

[Is this an NPC? This one has a screw loose.] E whispered to Annera.

[Should we go? I feel that this guy has an interesting quest to give.] Annera, as usual, felt that there is profit to be gained.

"Hey! Are you even listening?!" The dirty man became livid at being ignored. The duo was not answering his questions.

"Listen here, you fellers are adventurers, mkay? Then I have an adventure for you. Care to listen?"

*Crazy Dude Maral is offering you a quest.

[One of the Twelve]

"I need you fellers to find me an egg. A rainbow egg. I wish to eat it. The world has gone to crap anyways. Hikhikhik."

[Do you accept?]