VRMMO Brink

Preparation

After our eventful dinner, it's concluded that I will get a gift each from the three of them. Betty give me a semi-passive skill Meditation for increasing my force recovery rate, Old Mar gives me a 10% bonus for selling material to his store, and Old Bar agreed to gift me the Stiletto. Well, Moon also asks something to her parents and her uncle Mar. I guess I already at the end of the tunnel and now my life would become better and better.

With meditation, I somehow made it before sunset and I reached level 8 as well, with Impact skill experience almost reaching one-third, I probably only need a day to level it up.

Finished putting the last chicken into the warehouse I go into the house through the back door and go to the second floor to get some sleep. The room is lent to me by Betty and it's beside Old-Mar room, with a blue slide door on the second floor. I heard that room is reserved for old Mar use. They chat and drink and eating snacks for the whole night. They look like a long lost buddy that only get reunited after years of separation. The truth though they always do that at the end of the week, was something I heard from Moon.

Passing the dining room I see Betty drinking something, probably a tea.

"Good morning. Thank you for letting me use the room."

"Don't mind it, you're our guest so of course, we should do something as simple as that. And no one dares to really stay here for too long anyway, they are either afraid of the wolves or my husband, maybe both. How unthoughtful of me, do you want some tea?"

"No thanks, I'll get some sleep first before old Mar wake up. He said, he will help me deliver the good to Mr. Ax, but I still need 5 lambs to complete my task given to me."

"Okay then have a nice rest. Don't worry about the lamb I'll ask Moon to take care of it."

Walking upstairs I easily open the bright-blue colored door; it had two chairs, one wooden table, and a bed. The room is like a mess of color, some of them look great while most of them look terrible. I guess this is the room they let Moon experiment as she pleased.

Laying down I remembered that I probably in the game for half a day or less. I should get some rest and log out.

Putting the gear beside the bed I look at the clock and it's already 2 am. Ugh… I feel groggy maybe playing 13 hours in one go is a bad idea while my body isn't adapted yet. Now my limbs are sore, especially my hand and feet from the accident. Massaging my sore powerless limb to ease the pain. So this is probably what old Bar feels, even though it's useless but at least it eases the pain in the heart. My complete body under control makes me forgot this reality, now it kicks in, it hurts.

Finishing my deed in the bathroom. I saw a note in front of my door said: "dinner is in the fridge and don't forget to heat it before eating."

After eating I finally feel a bit better and looking around at the dining room everything seems over-wear and old. We need to get a new furniture soon. Sigh… money and money.

"Let's get some sleep. Hopefully, I'll get some money tomorrow."

--

Opening my eyes and looking at the clock its 7.13 AM I feel refresh and thirsty. After breakfast, it's slightly over 8 so I'm hurrying over to login to the game. From what I read in the news the reason why the game I'm playing named Brink is because of it's in the brink of collapse not from the tale told by the fairy Alte but because of the rift of dimension that appeared out of nowhere and the inhabitant cant explore the said rift except for the few strong ones.

The rift is a pocket dimension that akin to a bridge that connects two dimensions together. It looks like cracks in the mirror but inside is filled with unintelligent monster similar to fiends in their dimension but that is not always the case. Like in their world there is intelligent fiends so there is high chance that place had it as well.

The 5 heroes create a giant labyrinth to contain or rather force the rift to appear inside the labyrinth so even if they can't clear it at least the monster will be trapped in the labyrinth searching for the way out and died from exhaustion or so they thought but nature always find their way. The inhabitable place becomes a paradise of monster, they eat and breed there like it's their own homeland.

After decades without a watch, the rush happened. The monster inside the labyrinth go outside and trample everything in their path. They finally realized that the monster is no different than the fiends they always hunt. It takes years to clean the monster but countries, tribes, clans, and etc. agreed to send their soldier regularly to clear the labyrinth.

Drifters aka player are the one who can dive into the rift without them needing to be super strong because they can teleport outside after clearing the rift. Inside the rift, they can get weapons, armors, jewels, gold, and so on.

--

Feeling the vomit inducing experience I knew I'm inside the game and looking around I'm still in the bedroom. Walking outside I found Betty feeding the wolves, seeing me come toward her she smile and stand up walking to me.

"Marant already delivered the goods to Mr. Ax so do you want to eat lunch with us?"

"No thanks, I'll go to training ground first to report and please say my thanks to Moon for helping me with the lamb."

"Is that so? If you can wait for a few minutes you can go with Moon. It's better than walking alone right?"

Sure enough, I can see Moon coming inside the house with adventurer like a suite.

After an hour and half of walking, we now arrived at the front gate to check for our identity. It is a basic check not like the inner check on the noble area or the castle where the royalty reside. Still, we need to pay the gate toll and its 10 bronze coin. I have 1 silver given by the system when I start the game now I only left with 90 bronze to spend.

Inside we part ways, she wants to go the market while my destination is the training ground. Thinking about our walk into the city was awkward as hell she doesn't try to make a conversation even while I ask her some question to pique her interest but I got nothing. It's like her from last night that keeps talking is a lie. I guess she is the type that won't strike a conversation if she wasn't close enough to say, person.

Passing through the gate I still see the group of people I see previously and few new players with their basic clothes given by the system, not like I'm out of basic clothes but few of my equips already pretty good for my level.

I easily found the person I'm looking for, with his big stature in the open fields. He was like a teacher surrounded by his kindergarten students.

"Sir I've finished the quest."

"Okay good I'll eat it later for dinner and I told you to call me instructor right? I heard from lil' Mar that you hunt the chicken by yourself at Bar's place. Did you want to take the job advancement challenge?"

"What kind of challenge would it be?"

"There are 2 kinds, the first one is a normal challenge and the second one is job challenge which harder than the former. Well, they said it's like challenging your nightmare within your nightmare while you're in a powerless state but ten times worse."

"Then doesn't it mean the second one is suicide? And which one will I send to?"

"I don't think so. Their will is just too weak. After all, you can't die inside and you can re-tried how many times you like. A thing to note though the first one had 3 level while the second one had 10. And you will be sent to the second one of course."

"I don't think I'm strong enough, but I love to try it. Is there something I need to know?"

"Kill everything in your path?"

"Why are you not even sure about that? Anyway is there any extra reward for me?" Chatting for a while and trying to dig more information from the big guy. I found out the challenge will take place in a separate dimension within the tower. There is few kinds of them here in this game; dungeons, instances, towers, and rifts. Each of them has different purpose and goals.

Tower, for example, is a place created to search for a suitable heir of some sort and the simplest thing is to train a younger generation. While instance more of one-time kind of event, an example is a bandit den, after somebody clear it there won't be a second bandit den there. Except a new group choose that place as theirs.

A dungeon is a phenomenon that happened without notice. Some scholar said it is alive most denied them saying it can't be possible alive but they agreed on the same thing. The dungeon core had a consciousness or instinct like most carnivorous plants, some lure their prey by releasing a honey or wait for the prey to pass through them. Basically, a dungeon is a thing that consumes life or force as their food and the monster inside form a symbiosis with the dungeon. Sometimes someone who conquers the dungeon may form a contract as their dungeon master who manages the dungeon for the core in exchange for eternal life or power as long as the core is intact.

While rift is a c***k in dimension; it may open everywhere from deep within a body of the ocean or high up in the sky. The rift, inside of it may look like a world by itself but with monsters on it. Only a single person found the reason about the rift because while he dives inside the rift aren't yet complete so he sees another c***k inside that pouring monsters out. From the few facts, they can find, scholars hypotheses that the monster or whatever was on the other side can't send instantly to this side because of rejection or some sort that will lessen after they stay in the bridge for sometimes.

….Was something I read from the forum.

Postponing my trial given by the suppose Instructor that send his instructee fallaciously to the tower with highest difficult with no bad intention. The tower creator itself is an 'S' as well; what the heck, you can't just put normal and nightmare level side by side. Grumping while I stroll into Old-Mar shop to thank him for helping me transfer the loads.

Few minutes of walks I found the market area and look for the store with black scale and white pan as its logo. Looking at the humble-looking store from the outside I can see a few children coming in and out from the store with a happy smile plastered on their face. Walking to the front store a girl probably 7 or 8 years old come to me and said with a smile "what are you looking for mister? We have vegetables, meats, fruits, candy, spices, and everything, and we also have people who can create stuff, and-and… we can do everything but we can't go outside the wall until coming of age"

"Really? That's awesome! And no I'm looking for Old-Mar. I needed to thank him for helping me so much." replied her with a smile as well I can't help but pat her heads. Looking at her I feel like my resentment with the world lessen. Happy children really can make some change within me, they healed me spiritually.

"Grandpa is nice and he always said he doesn't need a thanks and he will be happy if we were happy. He said."

The happy child led me inside where I see another 5 more children around her age, some of them with a customer while the other is either playing or reading a book, each one of them looks pretty busy doing their own thing. Looking around I saw a fifty-ish man with a head full of white hair but his face doesn't have any wrinkles or some sort, he is just like an old gentleman from fictions story. That man is Marant, the kindest man I know except my grandpa.

He's playing with a child younger than the girl, who brought me here and she was gone. Old-Mar is really a kind grandpa you can find on the neighborhood. Since I've been standing here for few minutes Old-Mar turns his head to search for the source (gaze) and smile at me.

"Ohh, lil' Vain how long have been standing there?" motioning his hands for me to come over and telling the child to play with other children.

I walk closer and said, "Sorry I come without notice, and I've come to thank you for helping me transport my quest goods to Mr. Ax."

"Haha~ no problem. Don't mind it, I need to deliver the goods from Old-Bar as well. Right, here is your share for the ten chicken beast that you slay. Inside there are gold coins I get from selling the materials like claws, the skin on their feet, their insides except for the few parts the chef wants, their core, and etc. its 23 gold in total and don't bullshit me like you can't take it. I've lots of money you know. Yes. I'm bragging and you probably need that money to prepare the trial you're going to take the trial from master right? For sure it won't be easy."

"What? What is this? I-I feel like… okay." Patting my shoulder I can't help but nodding my head to him. I change the subject to move my mind from the debt I'm currently in and said: "I honestly don't have any idea what I should do next."

"now, you need to upgrade your equipment and get your weapon to enhance. After that, you need to get stronger and more experience with how your job works. One with the same job and the same level can be more dangerous than the one with less experience with their job. The more experience you have the higher your chance to finish the trial."

The list goes on and on but the more important thing I noted was: in the tower, my power will get 'balance', I need to search for the Rest skill because I need that to recover my stamina faster.

"My bad, this old man keeps on talking, I'll call someone to guide you to shop for equipment. Lily~ Can you help grandpa guide this uncle to shop for equipment at Blood and Sweat store and tell the grumpy old man there it was by my recommendation."

Leaving with Lily the kid who led me inside to Old-Mar and leave on her own accord. We drift from alleys into alleys and crowded market to a less visible back alley where I found a shop with a big chimney at the side and a pounding sound from inside the store. The little girl without hesitation open the door and shout "Muscle grandpa I'm here, where are you? …Ohh, a pie." She even eats the snack on the table without asking for permission first.