New excitement of meeting a stranger

Huobai downloaded the game, named the Secret of Legends, on his new computer, which he had express delivered into his room and helped set up.

And he loved even the loading screen of it. The art of the characters showed care and precision. It looked like somebody spent a lot of time drawing and designing the poses they all were in.

Huobai signed up and experienced an unknown excitement of waiting. When the loading bar stopped at seventy percent, he almost got a heart attack because of how excited he was.

Then it reached one hundred, and a cinematic scene appeared.

Huobai was soon pulled into the story of fantasy war and a pursuit of a balance between all fractions, all races. And the peace of the world would be reached when all the secrets of the legends would be found and put together to defeat the evil lurking in Netherworlds.

He loved it!

When the cinematic ended, he was introduced to all the professions and classes he could choose from. He was so thrilled to read about them all.

And it was really hard to choose. He loved guardian's armor, assassin's stealth, summoner's cool magic. So, he chose a class that had everything.

Magician.

It had cool armor because it had a low physical defense. It used magic, and that's why it had to be stealthy at the end of the team. So, he ended up being a magician. And a cook.

A cook would cook meals for quick HP raise. And that was something that he, with low HP needed. This way he didn't have to depend on someone and could fight alone.

After he chose those, he was allowed to customize his character and give it a name. But Huobai sucked with naming. Really, a lot. Because he ended up with MoSHU, magic, in Latin alphabet, because the game was foreign.

Then he appeared in a town. And that was it.

Without even noticing, he spent the whole Sunday playing a game that had totally sucked him in, that invested he was. And it didn't bug him at all.

He leveled up fast, but the real problem started when he noticed his armor and clothing weren't enough. When he reached level ten, he got nothing as a gift. That surprised him. His armor and staff were still beginner level one, and he was once killed because of how weak he was.

So, now, he stopped fighting, and he was walking around the town to get the feeling of the actual gameplay. And hell, he was surprised.

He had to sell his meals to restaurants or shops to earn money. So that he could buy better weapons, accessories, and armor, made by other players.

He could also sell material he collected from killing monsters to NPCs, but that didn't make that much money. And most of the materials were for meals he could make. As if the game knew what to drop.

Huobai ran into a swordsman and a gunner who were on similar levels to him, but they… looked far more powerful than him.

"Excuse me, are you new too?" he asked them in the 'nearby' chat. The swordsman ignored him, but the gunner stopped and turned to him actually, as if they were talking in real life.

"Yes, we are :)" he sent and Huobai was speechless. They, especially the swordsman, were walking around the town as if they were the best in the server.

"Could you help me, please? Do you know how the economy works?" he asked, hoping that they would pity him and help him, or that they could work together because they were both new.

He saw the swordsman halted his steps too, and the gunner wasn't answering for a while. They were probably teamed up together and talking now.

The swordsman, whose name above him was Doom, pretty cool if you asked Huobai. He walked away. But the gunner, SIG, stayed there.

"Of course, add me as a friend, and whenever you have a question, I will try to help you. But we are newbies too, so I'm not sure we can help with everything," SIG wrote after a few seconds and Huobai felt another excitement.

He imagined the gentle tone of the gunner. Yes, he imagined him as a guy, given that he had a male avatar. But it made him excited because he met someone he wouldn't be tied to.

If something happened to him, SIG wouldn't know if Huobai didn't tell him. They were acquaintances, but with no emotions. And that's what he needed now.

He loved this game more and more.

And even though Huobai hesitated a bit, hovering above the 'add to friend list' button. He pressed it. And send a friend request to the gunner. And it was accepted almost immediately.

Huobai was stunned. Had he really just met someone that didn't see his face, that didn't know his parents, or how much money he had. And despite all that, he just added him to the friend list?

They talked for a bit. SIG explained some things to Huobai who now knew and understood better the setting of the game. It was almost like a real-world economy.

Huobai wanted to play some more. But his mother called him for dinner. After yesterday, he wasn't brave enough to say no. And to be honest, he was a bit hungry. He didn't know that thinking and playing games could be this exhausting.

He pushed the chair away from the table, and his fingers hurt. His hands. He had them in one position the whole day and it was a position they weren't used to.

It alarmed Huobai a bit, so on the way downstairs, he searched up something about playing, hand exercise, and things like that.

"Put the phone away or I will take it away together with the computer and console," his mother said.

And nothing. Nothing could make Huobai put away his phone faster than this threat. Maybe the one she made yesterday. That she would turn off his Wi-Fi. That made an effective threat, too.