Friendly Neighbourhood Uncle Gorm

Grey exhaled lightly as he laid down on the bed again. The VR headset was beside him on the bed. He reached out for it and put it on.

[Error! You have died and will be unable to log in for the next 24 hours! Remaining time left: 00:1:27]

"So apparently you get banned for 24 hours if you die? Shit, better not die again in the future then…" Grey sweat dropped. Thankfully he only has a minute left, so Grey waited patiently until the timer reached zero.

[24 hours are up! Connect?]

"Yes!"

The world began to shape into being around him. The familiar feeling made Grey smile a little before he turned his attention to the location.

'It appears I am back in the town? So if you die you return to the nearest town?' Grey thought to himself. He looked around for a bit before checking the notification logs.

[You have completed Shara's quest, "Farm Invasion"! +45 XP and +12 copper coins has been handed to you as a reward!]

It appears as though he had completed the quest, which made Grey very happy. 'Right, where is that NPC Shara anyway?'. He looked around for a little before giving up. 'Maybe she isn't in town anymore.' Grey then decided to just walk around town.

As he was walking around, he noticed that a lot more players were in the town than when the game just released. And all of those people were noticeably gathering around a single point in the town. Shrugging his shoulders, Grey began moving towards the forming crowd.

As he got closer, he saw that the place the players were crowding around, was an enormous burly man, easily twice the size of Grey. The man's muscles were bulging so much that they looked like they would pop out of his arms. His unique red hair gave him an aura that he was an expert. Even with his back turned, Grey knew that he would not even be able to scratch him.

Grey listened to the people around him speaking and gradually began to understand why everyone was crowding here.

"I heard that he is a unique NPC!"

"Seriously? That's so cool, what's the quest though?"

"That's the problem, no one has been able to get the quest so far! Anyone who tries to approach him is instantly knocked away."

"Fuckin' hell, doesn't that mean this is a late-game quest? Why the hell are we crowding around him then?"

"Well, apparently the players who were knocked away from him noted that their durability actually increased after getting hit!"

"Wait, so getting attacked by him increases your Vitality?"

"Precisely! Hey where are you going?!?"

"Hah!, I'm gonna get that sweet Vitality as well babyyyyyy-"

The guy then began to run towards the burly NPC, who promptly sent him flying. The player wasn't annoyed however, and was actually visibly crying tears of joy while screaming, "+2 Vitality!!!!!!"

Grey shook his head. 'There's no way that I'm doing that. I still have my pride as a man you know!?'

As Grey was about to return though, the man slowly turned around as though he felt Grey staring at him. His green eyes pierced through the crowd before his frown previously on his face, began to fade away. Instead, an enormous smile began to form. Suddenly, out of nowhere, he began to laugh. Grey could almost feel his spine shivering.

The man began pushing through the crowd, walking towards Grey, all while laughing the entire time. The players in the way of the man were sent flying instantly, and some were even crushed underneath his feet. Finally, he arrived in front of Grey in a matter of seconds, even though they were over 50 feet away from each other.

Grey the entire time was sweating bullets. Why the hell was this burly uncle moving towards him?? What exactly did he do to deserve this? Why does god hate me?!? He didn't even spare a second to think about escaping. This uncle could catch up to him in no time, and fighting against him was suicide. As such, he could only think of one thing.

"Please spare me, great sir!"

Grey planted his head in the ground while holding back tears. 'This may hurt my pride, but as long as he doesn't kill me-'

"No, please, get up!"

…

"Sorry?"

Grey looked up cautiously at the burly uncle, who was towering over him. Eventually after careful thinking, he slowly got up and faced the burly man. As Grey was considering just running for it, the burly uncle slowly opened his mouth.

"I thank you for saving my daughter!"

"???"

The man took Grey's hand and shook it furiously, so much that he thought it would fall off. Grey just looked straight ahead while considering just logging out. Finally the burly uncle put him down again, before slapping Grey on the shoulder.

[You have been attacked! -5 HP]

Grey almost began foaming from the mouth, but the burly man didn't seem to notice. He then continued, "When Shara told me that a man had defeated all the slimes that were threatening her farm, I tried to look for you to thank you! Little did I know that you were here all along! Hahaha!"

'Wait, Shara?'

"Excuse me for asking, but you're Shara's dad?"

"I sure am! The name's Gorm!"

'Thank you god!'

Grey was practically crying tears of joy. The man wasn't here to kill him!

"I was out of town for a little while, but I didn't expect those evil balls of slime to attack my sweet daughter while I was gone! I thank you for helping her!"

Uncle Gorm laughed throughout the entire sentence. He took a big breath, clearly out of air from so much talking. "As such, I will grant you a gift, as a thank you!"

'Jackpot baby!' Grey exclaimed in his mind. This is what luck is! Luck: 10 as a stat is extremely overpowered!

Gorm reached over his shoulder, and grabbed a wrapped-up gift that was obviously a sword. He then put it in his hands and gave it to Grey. Grey hurriedly received it, as though it would be snatched by the players around him. Maybe it actually would, as an enormous crowd was gathering around him.

Players whispered between each other.

"What the hell? Did he complete the secret quest?"

"How did he do it already? It hasn't even been 4 hours since Uncle Burly(Gorm) arrived."

"Share the quest information!"

"Share the information!"

"Teach us oh great gamer!"

Grey ignored their pleas. 'Why would I allow you guys to catch up to me? I'll reap all the benefits from this, and you can pick up the scraps! Hahahaha!' At the end of the sentence, Grey stood in a pose of absolute evil. Then, he looked down and received the sword.

[Iron Sword. A carefully crafted, beautiful standard sword. Very useful for stabbing and slicing. +3 Strength]

"Hell yeah!"

Grey cried. 'I don't think I need this anymore!' He took out the rusty sword and chucked it into the crowd.

[You have engaged in combat with another player.]

A scream could be heard in the distance.

[Enemy killed. +30 XP]

"...Woops."

[You have levelled up!]

[3 Stat Points are ready to be distributed!]

"Oh, I levelled up? Awesome!"

Grey thanked the unknown player in silence. Then he directed his attention to the blue screen in front of him.

'So I have to distribute my stat points every time I level up? Alright, sounds cool. But what do I want to distribute them to?'

"Um, adventurer? Are you alright?"

A loud voice resounded into Grey's ear. 'Right, forgot about this guy.' He spun around and faced Gorm again.

"Perfectly fine!"

"Uh. If you say so. Anyways…"

Gorm coughed slowly and then pointed at him.

"I also noticed that you do not have an affiliation yet? Why have you not picked one?"

Grey stared at him, his eyes slowly blinking.

"What's an affiliation?"

Gorm's jaw dropped. He then slowly face-palmed.

"Forget it. You better figure it out yourself. Have a good day adventurer!"

Gorm quickly perked up again and then ran away, almost breaking the speed of sound. Grey stared at him while he ran away.

"But what is an affiliation???"