1 Mysterious Fog World

"Welcome dear viewers to another exciting episode where we try to uncover the mysteries of the world-famous VRMMORPG, Mysterious Fog World. The only game that boasted and delivered 100% reality."

The reporter enthusiastically introduced her new section.

She was standing in what appeared to be a forest. She was dressed in simple but stylish attire, but the daggers sheathed on her waist didn't match that image.

"As you all know unlike orthodox games, here you can't just level up as long as you gain experience but you need special potions to become extraordinary in a path then you can level up."

"Since any knowledge related to potions is strictly regulated, it is extremely difficult to get potions. Even after getting it, there is the extreme danger of consuming potions. That led to very few players who stepped into the extraordinary."

"Most of the players who consumed potions have done it for the common pathways; warrior, mage, knight, rogue, archer, and priest."

"Very few players in the whole player base have found potions from uncommon pathways. According to the limited information we got, they are much stronger and vastly different than the common pathways that are like the traditional RPG classes."

She then showed an intriguing expression as if about to tell something interesting.

"You might be thinking why am I telling you the facts you already know."

"Today I am taking a live interview inside the game of a player unknown before but saw a meteoric rise in his popularity recently."

"Yes, I am talking about none other than Jason Cold, the latest player who became extraordinary in an uncommon path."

A man in his early twenties came into the camera's field of view. He looked so average that he would not be recognised in a crowd.

He was wearing leather armour with a sword sheathed on his waist.

"Thanks, Aria, for inviting me and giving me this honour," Jason said humbly but those looking carefully could see the arrogance hidden in his eyes.

"The honour is ours, Jason. And all the viewers are very excited to hear about the pathway you discovered. Will you shed more light on it?" Aria asked with an enchanting smile.

Jason looked enamoured with her smile, then he proceeded with a slightly haughty and arrogant expression, "Yes, I discovered the Quest pathway. I became a Sequence 9 Adventurer."

"That's great, will you tell us more about it? How is it different from the common pathways?" The reporter prodded for more information.

"Of course, there are many differences. First is unlike in common pathways, where each pathway gives certain abilities, like the Warrior pathway gives a strength boost, the Rogue pathway gives agility and dexterity boost, etc. Adventurer is a Jack of All Trades, it increases all aspects. Though the increase is smaller compared to common pathways."

"That means…" Aria's eyes widened as she thought of a possibility after listening to Jason.

Jason only showed a mysterious smile and walked deeper into the forest, Aria though puzzled, followed him.

There they saw two rabbit-looking monsters. They had long and sharp front teeth and a menacing-looking horn on the forehead. The monsters saw them and started running towards them.

He raised his hand, and then a fireball formed in front of his hand. He launched it towards one of the rabbits. Then proceeded with two more fireballs.

The monsters only covered half the distance and one was already down. A strange coin was shining near its burnt carcass. The second maintained its pace without flinching.

Jason then unsheathed his sword and swung it towards the rabbit that covered the rest of the distance. 

It dodged but was still hit on its hind leg as he changed the direction of the sword in mid-air, another hit and it joined its friend. Another coin shining near it.

Aria was shocked seeing that action. In a short fight, Jason showed the magic of a mage, the dexterity of a rogue, and the strength of a warrior.

A feat that only be achieved by sequence 9 Trainee Mage, Trainee Rogue, and Trainee Warrior from the Mage, Rogue, and Warrior paths respectively.

She had a shocked expression and Jason secretly felt proud of it. But as a professional, she quickly schooled her expression.

"Jason I must say I am impressed. You said you are a jack of all trades, but you look like a master of all."

"No, no, Aria, I am far from being a master." Jason showed a fake humble expression.

"Jason, you are too humble."

He continued showing another mysterious smile, "Aria, do you wanna know a secret?"

Aria showed an intrigued expression, and played the game with him, "Yes, of course, I want to know."

"This is not the only ability I got as an adventurer. My second ability is even better." Jason no longer hid his arrogance.

Now Aria was truly shocked. Just the previous ability was too overpowered in front of which all the common pathways looked like a joke, and now there is another even better ability.

This time she showed a flirty expression and asked, "Jason will you shed light on your second ability? I am sure the viewers also want to know desperately".

He showed a satisfied expression seeing her reaction. He said, "You know that all players start with 5 SAN points. If they lose all the points, they will be forcefully logged out and can't log in again unless the SAN points regenerate to at least 2, which will take 48 hours, meaning a regeneration rate of 24 hours per point."

"For all the pathways discovered irrespective of whether they are common or uncommon, becoming a sequence 9 gives two SAN points, for a total of 7 points."

"But I got 3 points for a total of 8 points."

Aria was about to say something but he interrupted her.

"And the SAN value regeneration time is reduced to 20 hours."

Jason, after dropping the bomb, stayed quiet to let her process all the information he dumped on her.

Aria was too shocked to say anything. She knew the importance of SAN in the game world. It was so important that in the player status panel, the only stat available was SAN.

In a world filled with weird mysteries, anything can reduce SAN, and this has caused one too many players to curse at the game company for creating those mechanics as losing all SAN meant not being able to play for at least 48 hours.

She had tons of questions but asked, "Will it reduce further?"

He knew what she was asking and replied, "I believe it will."

Aria wanted to ask more questions but Jason again interrupted her, "Thanks Aria for giving me this opportunity. But now I gotta go, still, there is too much of this unknown world to explore."

She understood she could not get any more answers from him so she ended the interview gracefully, "Thanks Jason, for being part of the show. I am sure it will not be long before you will become a ranker."

"Thank you for your best wishes Aria, but it's a long way to go for me to become a ranker," Jason replied again with a fake expression.

Jason left the camera's field of view as Aria turned toward the camera.

—------------

"Drake, dinner is ready."

"Coming, Mom."

Drake turned off the television that was playing the interview and went towards the dinner table.

There he saw his mother setting the table with his elder sister helping her and his younger sister sitting while playing with her phone.

They heard him coming and smiled towards him. 

"Drake, are you ok, you don't need to overexert yourself." His mother, Eleanor asked him with a worried expression.

He understood her worry after all it's been only three days since he recovered.

Since birth, his brain has had some problems. First of all, the emotional part of the brain was mostly blocked, only the logical part was working. That caused him to behave like a robot, capable of performing daily tasks including studying but not capable of interpersonal interactions.

Moreover, he had close to no personal thoughts, even if he had some, he was incapable of expressing them. Also, he never spoke a word before.

But he had a great memory. And even in studying, he was the topper in both school and college.

His mother took him to many world-famous doctors but none were able to diagnose him.

But suddenly after living the last twenty-two years of his life like that, three days ago for no reason he was cured. Everyone was shocked. His mother took him to many doctors but since they couldn't find the reason, they were even more incapable of finding out how he was cured. So he was labeled a medical miracle.

He was grateful for the fact that his mother was very powerful, otherwise looking at the faces of those doctors who looked like they were looking at a specimen, he was sure he would be strapped to a bed in some hidden facility living the rest of his life being experimented on.

He joined them at the table, his mother and elder sister, Olivia were also done setting up the table so they joined him.

His little sister, Abigail, two years younger than him, showed a curious expression and asked, "Brother, were you watching the news related to that game?"

His mother and Olivia also perked up at Abigail's question. They knew of the latest VRMMORPG, Mysterious Fog World, that's in the craze nowadays. It was released a month ago and took the world by storm.

Eleanor also wanted to create a guild in the game as it meant various business opportunities but was holding it off because she was busy with her work.

Another more important reason was that her dear son showed interest in the game. This was the first time he showed interest in something, and she would do anything to fulfill his wishes.

"Yeah, but it was nothing interesting. A reporter was interviewing some random guy who got lucky and got a potion from an uncommon pathway. He was trying his best to sell himself to the guilds." Drake dismissed the guy from the interview.

His family was also uninterested in the guy, what piqued their interest was the uncommon pathway.

They wanted to create a guild in the game so of course they had done their homework.

Getting a sequence 9 potion of an uncommon pathway was great but just that was not enough. If it was just that only mid-tier or some high-tier guilds would show interest in him. But top-tier guilds need more.

Each pathway had 10 sequences from 9 to 0. Each sequence consisted of 10 ranks from 1 to 10, and each rank needed separate potions. What Jason got was just the Rank 1, Sequence 9, potion.

To level up, first, a potion was needed to consume. Then the player could level up till level 10, then a rank 2 potion was needed.

Leveling was not necessary. The NPCs who took the potion needed to digest, only after 100% digestion could they consume the next one if available. The time of digestion depended on the type of potion, the consumer's talent, etc. On average, it took 3 to 6 months to digest rank 1 potion, for players they were given an alternative. They could digest the potion in an old-fashioned way or use the experience to complete the digestion. With each level representing 10% digestion and the digestion starting at 10% when consumed, the player needed 10 levels per rank adding up to 100 levels in sequence 9.

What the guilds were interested in was not the potion but the potion formula, as the former was a consumable usable only once, but the latter could be used to make any number of potions as long as enough raw materials were available.

In the game the most important aspect was knowledge and potion formulas were considered some of the most important pieces of knowledge. To date, no guild or player was publically known to have a complete potion formula for even rank 1 potion.

"Brother which pathway is it?" asked Abigail.

"It's the Quest pathway." He told his sister and proceeded to tell her the abilities it offered.

Eleanor, listening to her son, was also surprised by the Quest path's abilities. She turned towards Olivia, who turned towards her too. She looked to her daughter and she nodded as if she understood what her mother wanted.

The dinner ended with some light chatting among the family members.

After dinner when the family was sitting together, Olivia showed a mischievous expression and said, "Drake, I have a surprise for you."

Eleanor and Abigail, who knew what that was, also showed mischievous expressions.

"I brought you the game capsule, I know you wanted to play this game."

"Thanks sis. You are the best." He gave his sister a big hug who returned it wholeheartedly.

"Will you guys also play?" asked Drake.

This time his mother answered, "Yes, sweety, we will also play but not, for now, me and Olivia need to prepare to set up our guild."

"Great, what about you Abigail?" Drake asked his little sister.

"Of course, I will also play. I made plans to play together with my girlfriends. We will take you to level up whenever you want, big bro." declared Abigail excitedly. Too excited to take her brother to level up.

"Then I will take you up on your offer, dear little sister," said Drake ruffling her hair.

She tried to remove his hand but there was no strength in her hand, she too secretly enjoyed the intimacy she shared with her brother now that he was cured. She likes spending time with her brother even if he never spoke a word. She took it as her responsibility to protect her brother.

Eleanor smiled seeing the antics of the brother and sister.

After some time, as if she noticed something, she said with a smile, "Drake, I know you want to play the game, you can go."

With today's advanced technology, the game capsules completely supported gaming for days uninterrupted and took care of all body needs. So she was not worried that he would play games till night without sleeping as inside the capsule the players were technically sleeping. Moreover, with her connections, she got the best game capsules for her family, so was not worried about anything.

Drake made an expression as if he was caught stealing the pie, he asked in a low voice, "Can I?"

Eleanor laughed a little and confirmed, "Yes".

"Thanks, mom." He gave her a quick peck on the cheek and ran to his room at light speed.

—------------

The game capsule was already set up, so he didn't waste any time and directly jumped in and closed his eyes. The capsule closed on its own and the game started.

Drake appeared in a foggy forest. The sky was black with fog covering his visibility. He could not tell how he was even able to see on such a night.

He knew the game's lore would be starting soon. Since he had already seen it before, he wanted to skip it and proceed to enter the game.

But he heard a sound that should not appear there.

[Ding]

[Hello host, belated congratulations on your death]