Player Level 999

Oliver's Turmoil

"Oliver, where the hell are you!? The forest is freaking burning!" Ryan's loud voice echoed in my eardrums.

"I'm swimming in a lake so I wouldn't get burned. It's my fault, okay? I did it to scare the Orcs away but I didn't exactly realize the consequences." I said in a guilty voice.

"Okay, okay. The leader wants to teleport all of us back to town. What about you?" Ryan asked.

"I'll be fine. Just go back to the town and report this to the admins. I'll log off later when I finally find a safe spot to leave my character." I panted as I swam further away from the fire.

"I'm sure they already know what's happening. I'll see you in RL." He cut the connection and logged off..

I saw a big rock in the middle of the lake and I immediately swam towards it. Maybe this'll be the perfect place for me to log off.

I climbed the rock and sat on top of it, setting my staff beside me as I observed my burning surroundings. I could smell burning wood everywhere but I'm sure that it won't do real harm to my lungs.

I wonder how much trouble am I in because of this?

Hopefully, I'm not the first one to create this much chaos considering the big amount of assholes in this game.

I'll panic about it later after I've had my lunch.

I opened my menu and pressed the 'Log Off' button after a small sigh.

My vision turned to black and I waited for a few seconds before I moved my real hands to take off the UVRC headset and the limited edition bodysuit that came along with it that enhances my sense of touch in the game.

I unbuckled the belts that tie me to the circular platform that's connected to the bodysuit, which is like a treadmill since this is what we use to freely walk, swim and jump around without really going anywhere in the real world.

I hopped down the platform and stretched out my limbs as I forced my eyes to adjust to the darkness of my room. I turned to the clock beside my bed and saw that it's 1:15pm, way past my usual lunch time.

No wonder my stomach's gurgling like that Orc's roar. Oh god, I shouldn't really be joking about that stupid stunt that I did.

I pulled my curtains open and groaned when natural sunlight immediately punched me in the face.

I saw my reflection on my window and I gotta admit that I look horrible; my hair's disheveled, my eyes have dark circles below them and the only clothing I'm wearing are boxers.

My ringtone blasted loudly from somewhere in my room and, after digging for a while, I found it below my bed.

I checked the caller ID and answered when I saw that it was Ryan.

"Yo." I greeted.

"Dude, we contacted the admins." His tone was a bit off and I groaned again.

"Did you tell them why I did it?" I asked as I struggled to put on some decent jeans that I found on top of my swivel chair.

"Yeah, but they still think that it's overkill. They need to talk to you ASAP. I'll meet you at the Library." He said and ended the call.

Crap, there's no escaping this. Well, I guess it's better than just getting permanently banned from the game. At least I could say that I tried to appeal to them, even though it's a pretty lame excuse.

I dressed up, grabbed my backpack and stormed outside of my room, taking note of the huge mess of papers in the living room along with the familiar small body of my older sister slumped over the sofa.

"Olivia, wake up." I shook her lightly.

She swatted my hand away as she groaned, turning over to the other side. I grabbed her notebook lying by her side before she could do any damage to it.

She must've pulled an all-nighter to reach her deadline. Her editor's usually nagging at her 24/7 whenever she would procrastinate instead of writing her novel.

"Olivia, I'm going." I shook her again and she just grumbled some incoherent words as she nodded at me.

I guess that's good enough.

I got out of the house and I blinked a few more times to get accustomed to the bright light bulb in the sky.

The library's just a few blocks away from my house and as much as I feel so tired from all the running that I did in Halcyon Dawning, I would still choose to walk rather than take a ten-minute buss ride.

When I arrived, I immediately saw Ryan's lanky frame standing in front of the double doors of the library. His eyes spotted me and he crossed his arms with a 'you-need-to-explain' look on his face.

"I know what you're gonna say, and I'm sorry." I raised both my hands in surrender when I finally got close to him.

"I just got another message from one of the admins. You didn't just burn down a small section of the woods, but the entire forest." He revealed and I felt my eyes widen in an impossible level.

"What!? How? Did they not notice that there was a forest fire?" I asked, exasperated and panicking.

"Apparently, the admins were absent because they were preparing for the Guild Wars tomorrow. The moderators were the only ones left and they were also too busy because there are more than 300 guilds applying for the event. When we got there, you can imagine how pissed off they were. Thankfully, the entire forest is probably regenerating right now." Ryan recollected as we started walking towards the nearby 7/11.

"Oh god, I think I'm gonna puke. Do you think they're going to permanently ban me from ever playing the game? Do you think they have refunds? Crap, I spent may too much money--" My blabbering got immediately cut off when he slapped the back of my head.

"Listen moron, all they said was that they needed to talk to you. Don't overthink, yet." Ryan rolled his eyes at me.

I took a deep breath and straightened my body before exhaling and slumping my shoulders again.

"You're right. I shouldn't be overdramatic." I said as we entered the convenience store.