7 Go Fetch?

(I forgot to add exp to the quest. I fixed it.)

It had been several hours since we left Corsoll's restaurant. Unfortunately, we haven't found anything to do. Maybe we had gotten lucky and quests aren't that easy to come by.

I was confident that it would be much easier to get quests if we enlisted for the war. Sadly, neither of us had any idea how to do such a thing. We weren't even sure how to get to where we would enlist, let alone where that is.

We would find out eventually but for now, it was probably better to get used to the game. As we wandered around, we got a snack from a food stall and a bottle of water too. It only cost us a few credits for these things.

I took a bite out of the fruit I was holding. "Hmm, I can't really figure out what this tastes like. It's so sweet a juicy like a peach, but it tastes nothing like that. Ughhh, this is gonna bother me for…"

[System alert: Please log out for self care. Forced logout occurring in five minutes.]

I froze for a moment. Seeing this, Galen looked at me. "What's wrong?"

I shook my head in disbelief. "I'm being forced to… ummm how can I say it, return home for personal care."

He raised his brow, slightly confused. "Oh, that's interesting. You probably need to eat and take a piss or something like that."

I shrugged, stepping towards the side of the road. "I'll be back in like 10 minutes."

Galen nodded. "I'll do the same. See you in a bit."

I thought about the menu coming up and a short list of options appeared in front of me. The list included Currency, Options, and Logout.

While we were walking, we explored the options menu. There were very few things that could be adjusted. One of those things was the ability to toggle the currency HUD, which puts a small number in the corner of my vision that shows how many credits I have. I kept it disabled since it just looked out of place. Regardless, I was able to see my balance on the comm I bought from Corsoll.

The other notable thing was the adjustment of pain levels. It was defaulted at 20%. I figured that it was set that way for a reason so I just left it.

Once I focused on the logout option, a confirmation window popped up. It was a brief warning that my body would be left idle in my current position. Seeing this, Galen and I found a bench and sat down on it. I then confirmed the logout sequence.

My vision faded to black. After a few moments, I found myself within my virtual home. Looking over at the display that I used to log in earlier, I found that the entire screen was tinted red, stating that I needed to end my session.

I tapped the end session button on the display, my vision becoming black again. It was just a few seconds before I felt the soft support of my bed below my back. I reached up and removed the headset from my head.

My arms felt a little sore rather than the stiffness I was expecting. The whole atrophy prevention system really worked. It felt as if I had just finished a short stint of manual labor.

Placing the headset down next to me, I grabbed the bowl with what I decided to refer to as the "spit cup" in it. As I walked to the bathroom, I barely felt a difference between my real body and the one in the game. One thing I did appreciate, however, was the clean smelling air in my home.

When I was walking across the hall, I looked to my left and saw my dad's bedroom door open. He was currently eating a protein bar. Seeing that, I quickly peed, washed my hands, face, and the spit cup, and then left the bathroom.

I walked into my dad's room. "Hey dad, how's the stream going?"

He looked up from his protein bar, seeing me standing in the doorway. "Pretty good. A few more viewers than I expected. It's probably because of how easily I'm finding quests. I'll be level 3 after I finish this quest I'm on."

I blinked, not sure if I heard him correctly. "Huh?"

He laughed. "Yes, I know that it's not supposed to be this easy. I got lucky and arrived on Coruscant near a Coruscant Security Force, or CSF, precinct. I'm just gonna keep running with that until I find something else to do. Chat seems pretty entertained by it too."

I shrugged. "I'm guessing you were forced to logout?"

He nodded, sighing as he glanced at the headset. "There's gotta be some way to stay in for longer. Hopefully they come out with something soon."

I nodded, fully agreeing. "I wonder how they'll solve the bathroom issue though."

He shrugged. "Alright, I gotta finish this snack and get back in-game. I've probably lost a few thousand viewers already."

I waved and turned around. "Sounds good. See you later."

Turning around, I walked back to my room, placing down the bowl with the spit cup. Then, I left my room, going down to the kitchen for a quick snack. I had barely taken 3 minutes since I logged out so I still had time.

Upon opening the fridge, I found the snack I wanted. I grabbed some sliced ham from the drawer and sat down at the counter. While I ate a few slices, I pulled out my phone. There were a few texts from Jordan and Taylor.

The messages asked where I was and what my name was in the game. Sadly, the only thing I knew was that I was on Coruscant. Thus, I just told them my name.

By now, it was about time to log back in. Realizing this, I put the ham back into the fridge and went back upstairs.

When I sat down in my bed, I took one last breath of the clean air. I had always taken clean air for granted and I now realized this. With this, I logged back in after clearing the DNA lock.

As my vision became clear, I found Galen reading some posters on the wall next to me. "See anything interesting?"

Against my expectations, he actually nodded. "Yes actually. There's some help wanted posters. Maybe this is how we find quests?"

This piqued my interest so I took a closer look. There were only two posters here. I presumed that there'd be more in other areas. The first poster was a hiring notice. A club needed extra bouncers for the weekend. They were taking anyone with any availability. Unfortunately, the poster also stated that they are looking for people with experience in security or combat. We have neither of those. The worst part was that the pay was quite generous.

The other poster was a hiring poster for the CSF. They needed auxiliary officers. I wasn't entirely sure what for, but I presumed it had something to do with the war. The good thing about this one is that there was no experience required. They'd train us and provide equipment. The pay was also decent.

I pointed at the CSF poster. "We should check that out."

Galen looked at me with a questioning gaze. "Why? Wouldn't being a rent-a-cop be kinda boring?"

I shook my head. "My dad has been questing with them since he arrived this morning. He's a streamer and apparently it's entertaining."

Galen nodded. "Well, that's enough for me. Thinking about it, anything is better than just walking around."

I laughed, heartily agreeing with him. I then noticed that I was still holding the fruit I had bought earlier. "Well, let's find a map and we can make our way over there."

Galen's expression quickly changed as if he remembered something. "Oh yeah! While I was… fuck… at home as you put it, I talked with a friend and learned that there is a map function on our comms."

I quickly took out my comm, tapping the screen to turn it on. From a glance, I could only see a list of contacts which there were two of. Taking a closer look, I noticed a square shaped icon with a partly transparent circle under it towards the bottom of the screen.

With nothing to lose, I tapped it. The list of contacts immediately disappeared and a few tiles appeared on the screen. The tiles had an icon that looked like the contacts app on my phone, one that looked like a pin on a map, a note pad, and a card with a person next to several lines.

My eyes lit up with excitement. Even though I had something like this in the real world, it was still so cool to find this. "Holy shit, I'd have gladly spent every credit I had on this!"

Through a quick investigation, we found that the icons were contacts, map, notes, and identification respectively. These would all be very useful and I was confident that we'd be able to get more functions later. I could already imagine tapping my comm and watching my starship land in front of me.

Galen seemed to be heavily focused on his comm while I was having visions of grandeur. "Alright, I think I figured out where to go. We go down this street…"

As he started talking, I noticed that my comm was blinking. The screen was now covered with an interface. It stated that I was receiving a call from Corsoll and showed a picture of him. There were two options available; Accept and Decline.

Obviously, I accepted since we weren't busy. "Hey, Corsoll, you need something?"

I could hear quite the commotion through the comm. Fortunately, his voice still came through clearly. "Like hell I do. A huge party came in and I'm almost out of liquor. Can you and Galen pick up two crates for me?"

Galen was able to hear what Corsoll was saying and nodded adamantly. I chuckled and replied. "Yeah sure. Where do we need to go?"

Corsoll let out a sigh of relief that was audible over the comm. "There's a warehouse on the corner of 14th and 70th. It's already paid for and they'll be expecting you. Hurry up!"

*CRASH*

What sounded like glass shattering exploded through the comm. Corsoll panicked a bit. "Ah fuck, I gotta go."

The call ended with that. Galen and I stood there in silence for a moment.

[Quest Received]

[Urgent Delivery]

[Common]

[Corsoll has had an unexpected amount of customers at his restaurant. He needs you to retrieve a crate of liquor from the warehouse on the corner of 14th and 70th.]

[+200 exp, +100 credits, +200 reputation with Corsoll, +5 reputation with Old Republic]

I sighed. "Well, it looks like we have gotten our first fetch quest."