MotivatedSloth

"Hello, sir. Are you cashing out or leveling up?"

Dungeons Online was the first game that cracked the system. Let nerds earn by nerding, and they will nerd forever. And Dungeons Online did just that. 

Noobs turned into middle-class workers. Pro-players turned into celebrities and multi-millionaires. 

And there was Tom. Likely, the only top ranker that lived off the scraps and cat-food. A courtesy of his father that went and disappeared, leaving Tom with just enough money to survive until his graduation. Until the day where the option of cashing out would appear.

Dungeons Online. A game where developers never shared a single bit of information. A game where the death of one's avatar is permanent. A game that can turn a beggar into a lord just as quickly as turning a celebrity into nobody. 

But where does all this money comes from? How is it connected to the unnatural disaster that all governments across the world buried any information off? And how is this all connected to Tom's missing father?

Dungeons Online

"I can't believe you've done this," Claudia muttered as she followed closely behind Tom's back. Ever since the waking-up incident, she refused to match steps with him, instead opting to walk right behind him.

"We overslept," Tom said in the same, monotone voice as countless times before. "We can't waste time like that," he added, refusing to elaborate any further.

"What harm would an hour or two of shopping do?" Claudia asked, unwilling to drop the topic yet. Even though she continued to nag Tom about this for the past fewteen minutes, even though Tom's answer didn't change at all, she couldn't just give it up like that. "Wasn't that a great opportunity to learn what kind of equipment one can buy in this place? Maybe even learn something that would force us to return home posthaste?" she continued to speak, finding new and creative ways to put the shopping as an actual worthy way of using their time.

[Bonus chapter]Guild License