Ch 41 – A Strange Sensation

As these thoughts fueled my mind with grand aspirations, I felt something weird, something unnatural, as if something has changed that I can't determine, it was so disturbing that I felt like I can't understand anything, it's like I am back to the time I was a boy with a nearly crippled body not being able to do anything.

"Guk," I said while scratching my head in confusion as I felt like I want to sleep and stay awake, it was so chaotic nothing felt right nor wrong, but one constant "thing" that was there was that promise, that oath I made a few seconds ago repeated in my mind that made the world fall into a black void.

As if all of reality was disappearing around me, it was so surreal I just wanted to fall into a mental breakdown at how nothing made sense.

With me falling to my knees while grasping my head, the feeling of my whole body, no, my whole existence being affected was so rage and fear-inducing that my eyes became watery.

"You okay?" suddenly said a voice beside me that put me out of my weird trance as the whole world around me reverted back to a clear state as clarity was brought back to my chaotic thoughts.

"J- Jong-ga?" I muttered as droplets of tears drop down from my eyes with him looking at my face in confusion.

"What happened?" asked Jong-ga as he neared me and stretched out his hand to help me which I gladly grabbed in response and with a pull, I stood up from my kneeling position while wiping my eyes along the way.

"It's nothing, I just remembered something bad," I said with a forced smile which he responded with a suspicious look.

"You mind telling me?" said Jong-ga as we both sat down on the bench behind me which I previously sat on before that sudden insanity-inducing experience.

"Well… it's a bit personal" I said while scratching my neck to show a message that it is something personal, even though I just went through something strange I took this as an opportunity to continue my manipulation on Jong-ga.

"You can tell me, Aki, you're my friend, I can lend an ear for you" Jonga-ga muttered with an amicable smile to comfort me.

"I… it's…" I said with constant pauses and waited for the timer to count down.

"Yo!" shouted a voice from the distance as both Zoran and Sora appeared in the distance behind the fountain.

"Let's go," I said as I stood up with a cheerful smile and went towards the two with Jong-ga following behind me.

"When did Jong-ga arrive here?" asked Zoran as he puts his arms around my shoulders.

"Just a few seconds earlier," I said while we went towards the two benches side to side near the fountain.

"Well me and Sora met each other at the entrance that way," said Zoran as we sat down on the bench.

"So what now? Rifts won't appear till later so what would be our plan?" asked Jong-ga by the side.

"How about finding a base first? Weapons won't be a problem with our Gifts and Zoran can already make weapons, but storing the corpses of the monsters for a profit is a must if we want to be rich" said Sora by the side as we nodded and gave our own inputs.

"We are quite literally orphans right now so that's that, we are at a disadvantage to adult players because they have more legal rights so buying a house on our own is pretty much impossible right now including with the lack of money," I said as the others rubbed their chins to make a plan.

"How about making a makeshift house in the forest? Or we can just wander around, hunger isn't a problem for us so we could just walk around the city for a few days" said Zoran.

"Can we enter Hope Academy? It should be plausible right?" asked Jong-ga.

"Maybe, we still have time before our 8 hours are up so we could just explore the city for now," said Sora.

"Okay, so exploring for now?" asked Zoran.

"Sure" "Why not" "Yep" responded the three as they all simultaneously stood up from the bench and started to walk out of the park to explore the city.

As the quartet walk around while chatting with each other, they explored all around the life-like city with impeccable detail but there were some minute changes all around them like a building in the distance was closed off or others being rebuilt from the ground up.

"What do you think those things are for?" asked Zoran while pointing at the building in the distance.

"Probably a building for the game like a weapons shop or a place to sell the monsters," said Jong-ga as we nodded in agreement with his educational guess.

"Do you think there will be a place to buy skill books later?" asked Sora as we stopped in our tracks to look around the open road that was beside us.

"Probably, but I do wonder if there will be guilds just like in New World when there are enough players?" I muttered.

"Maybe there will be a real Hunter Agency for the game as a test for what will happen in the real world," said Jong-ga.

"Well we still don't know what those are for, let's just continue our march," said Sora as we nodded and continued to walk around exploring the whole city with a sense of surrealism constantly being with us from how strange it was to explore a city you were so familiar with be so unfamiliar.

(A Few Minutes Later)

"Finally here," said Sora as we arrived in front of the Gates of Hope Academy and our other classmates seems to be not there.

"You think we can enter it?" asked Zoran as we neared the gate with wonder in our eyes.

"Let's just try it," said Jong-ga as he stretched his hands out towards the open gate that divided the outside world from the campus of Hope Academy and it… worked.

"Oh," said Jong-ga as he soon entered the academy without a problem with the trio looking at the gate in surprise.

"Huh, I really thought it would be a banned area with only a few being able to enter it," said Zoran as we all walked through the gate without a hitch and just like that, we found ourselves inside Hope Academy.

"You guys think they will put in more classes in the future? Maybe we can get new classes inside the school in the future" said Zoran as we all wandered around the academy with curious eyes.

"Probably, but they have said that there are currently no new classes other than Hunter in the real world," said Sora as he sent an article to the group chat which depicts what he just said in more detail.

"Why can't they just make new classes on their own?" said Zoran with a grumble.

"Maybe because they want to get as much real data as possible to use it for real-world purposes," said Jong-ga as Zoran kick a random pebble near us towards a tree.

"If I were the maker of this game, I would make it cool as heck with any builds being possible, you want to be a berserker wielding flaming hot swords, boom! You can, you want to be an archmage that relies on alchemical drugs to power up their magic, you can!" said Zoran as he gave more examples to us which shows how much he wants for this game to improve.

"But you didn't make the game," I said with a smile as Zoran rolled his eyes.

"So, what now? We're here already and no NPCs seem to be around" said Zoran as we went towards a nearby tree without any plan really in mind.

"Yeah, there seems to be a lack of student NPCs in this school, we haven't even seen a single soul around here," I said as we looked around the barren campus with raised eyebrows.

"Sigh, if there was only a villain we can fight against," said Zoran by the side as he slumps down on the ground with bored eyes.

"I thought this game would be more exhilarating, but it has proven me wrong," said Zoran as a gun appeared in his hands without any notice.

"C'mon, we should wait for the rifts to appear, that's the main focus of the game right?" said Sora with a wry smile.

"But like they should have spawned some villains around to fight against," said Zoran as he slowly stood up while grabbing onto the tree beside him as a support to stand up.

"You always want some thrill, maybe a villain will suddenly fall from the sky, now what?" said Sora while rolling his eyes as Zoran chuckled.

"As if that would happen, it's not like this game is that ridiculo-" but Zoran was cut off as a loud boom suddenly appeared behind them along with dust covering their whole view from the place where the boom has appeared.

"W- what?" said Zoran in confusion as we looked at the distance with raised eyebrows and even planned to approach it until we heard a loud roar from the smoke that suddenly paralyzed our whole body in either fear or something else which alerted our minds with danger.

AN: This is 1580 words, you're welcome.

The Sword of Damocles hangs above each and everyone one of you with its ever present threat of despair, so send me some power stones with your power of friendship and save the thousands perhaps even millions to come who will read this masterpiece immortalized in the tunnels of time.

(April 20, 2022 – 147th day of writing)