Chapter 3: No Hope For Micheal.

*1 Week Later*

*Micheal POV*

"Hey Tommy is it just me or does Micheal look a bit....Off in a way."

"You know I thought I was the only one who noticed it. He looks like he hasn't slept in days."

Inside of Tommy's mechanic shop a mechanic and Micheal's uncle Tommy spoke to eachother in a hushed whisper not wanting to catch any attention as they looked at Micheal from a distance as he worked on fixing a cars engine on the other side of the mechanic shop.

Even though Micheal was working just fine there was obviously something....Off about his appearance. His eyes were slightly red and had a tired/Dead look in his eyes and even had large bags underneath his eyes. His short black was also extremely messy like he had just gotten out of bed which would've made sense if it was still morning. But at the moment it was the evening and yet Micheal still looked like he had started a new all caffeine diet.

"Hey do you do think Micheal's gotten any sleep lately?. I mean he looks like hes literally one step away from losing his sanity." The mechanic a girl in her 20s said. As she said this Tommy and the girl swore they saw one of Micheal's twitch but not in a angry sort of way. More like a "I'm going insane and I am one step away from killing someone" Sort of way.

"Do you think I could be overworking him?. I mean he does work a few more hours then other mechanics sometimes so maybe its getting to him. And with his messed up leg it might make things even harder then him." Tommy said.

"Nah he works just fine I also do a few extra hours with them occasionally and he never seems bothered by the work. Besides you know Micheal is the type of person to tell you if something is bothering him at work something might be wrong with him outside of work. Why don't you ask him if hes alright? Your his uncle he'll probably tell you." The girl mechanic said as Micheal finished repairing the engine he was working on and walked up too the owner of the car so he could ask the owner why the hell there were pieces of gum holding his engine together and why he hadn't gone to a mechanic shop sooner.

After Micheal had finished giving the owner of the car a very "passionate" explanation as to why holding his car engine together with gum was a bad idea and the owner drove off Tommy cautiously approached the potential ticking time bomb that is Micheal.

"Oh hey Tommy whats up?. I just finished fixing up that guys engine and can you believe the guy was using gum to hold his engine together?. Some people are just plain old dumb sometimes am I right?." Micheal said in a tired tone of voice as he gave a little wave to Tommy.

"Yeah that just sounds straight up dumb but good job on fixing it....But hey Micheal I don't mean to be rude but you kind of look a little....Tired are you doing alright?." Tommy asked. This just caused Micheal to let out a small chuckle before he responded.

"Yeah I do look like shit don't I?. Don't worry man I've just been sleeping pretty crappy lately and I've just been a tiny bit stressed out but its not a big deal." Micheal said.

".....Is it because of a girl?."

"Dude why would me being stressed out be because of a girl?."

"I'm just saying that that when my wife was still alive I had my fair share of stressed out moments. Lord knows the amount of times she almost gave me high blood pressure because of stress. I also have no idea how you handle relationships since we both know you have never been in a serious relationship."

".....At this point your not even trying to find out whats wrong with me now your just insulting me."

The duo laughed at eachother because of this little action clearing the small amount of tension in the air as Micheal let out a relieved sigh like he had wanted a reason to laugh like that.

"Well if you wanna know why I'm a bit stressed out is kind of dumb. Recently I've picked up a weird....Hobby that's kind of been screwing up my sleep schedule." Micheal said letting out a slightly embarrassed chuckle.

"Oh really? What type of hobby did you pick up?." Tommy said curiously surprised at this new information. Most of Micheal's life Micheal hadn't really been interested in any topics or picked up any hobbies in his youth other then going hunting with his dad. Him joining the marines was the most interesting thing hes done with his life. So Tommy was interested to find out what could interest someone like Micheal.

"Its kind of dumb but....This last week I've been trying to beat this new videogame called Valhalla or something that Sarah sent me and its way harder then I thought it would be." Micheal said letting out a tired sigh remembering his attempts to properly play the game.

"Huh I didn't know you were into gaming. I've never heard of this Valhalla game though." Tommy said.

"Neither did I until Sarah told me about it." Micheal said.

"Look man I don't care if you play videogames or anything like that its normal but just don't overdue it Ok?. And try to get some proper sleep man." Tommy said.

"Yeah yeah I'll try not to overdue it." Micheal said waving Tommy off. After this little conversation the two continued their day like normal and after a few more hours the day finally ended and as Micheal walked too his car he let out a tired sigh of relief as he sat in his car.

"God I might just quit that stupid game it isn't even that fun." I muttered to myself.

For the last week I've done nothing but play that stupid Valhalla game. At first I thought this game would've been cool based off of the tutorial but this game has been nothing but hell.

Every time I try and explore this crappy village I'm stuck in I get shredded by all sorts of animals. First it was a big ass bear then it was a pack of wolves then it was a giant beaver.

WHY ARE THERE GIANT BEAVERS IN THIS GAME?!.

Also for some reason I still feel pain in this game!. Have you ever been torn to shreds by a pack of giant wolves? Let me tell you something it hurts like hell!.

"I don't even know what I'm supposed to do in that crappy game....I might as well just put the headset up and just stop playing whats the point." I muttered to myself as I drove back to my apartment and after walking into my apartment I couldn't help but glance at the VR headset I left on my bed.

"No don't play it ignore it and just watch videos or something." I thought to myself as I went and got my laptop sat down on my couch and begun too scroll through videos. After watching a few nostalgic lets play videos I begun to get bored but then I had an idea.

"You know If I'm not going to play the game It cant hurt to find out more about this game." I thought to myself as I searched up "Valhalla game website" without expecting to find anything. But surprisingly multiple links popped up so I clicked on the first one I saw that looked like it was the most popular.

The website looked like a wiki of sorts and there was all sorts of information about this Valhalla game. There were links about races weapons rankings places on the maps hell there were even links about famous players.

"Huh this looks pretty well made this was probably made by the company who made Valhalla. Huh there's even a little chat area where people can talk to eachother about the game." I thought to myself as I curiously clicked the chat option. As I did so my screen was immediately flooded with notifications as messages began to flood my screen.

[Looking for extra party member for phoenix raid preferably a tank class or support class. Level requirement is level 250 at minimum if your interested PM me]

(A/N PM is short for Private Message)

[Any silver rank guilds looking for an alchemist?]

[Guys do you know any good medication for diarrhea?]

[Mate this chat is for Valhalla not your bowel issues]

[GUYS THERE IS AN ARMY OF BEAVERS ATTACKING MY GUILD I NEED HELP!]

"Holy crap there has to be at least hundreds of messages maybe even thousands. How many people even play this Valhalla game?." I thought to myself as I saw this never ending flow of messages.

"Hhmm maybe I can use this website to my advantage." I thought to myself as I begun to type into the chat. No one might not notice my message in this sea of messages but who knows someone might be able to help me out. I quickly typed my message.

[M.: Hi I'm a new player and I need some advice. I'm stuck in the starting area of belleau woods and everytime I try to leave I get killed by monsters. Does anyone know to get off the mountain without getting killed?.]

"Yeah that looks about right and send." I thought as I sent my message expecting it to blend into the never-ending flow of messages. But for some reason as soon as I sent in my message the chat seemed to pause for a second.

[.....]

[....]

[:....]

[PFFT HAHAHAHA HOW DID A NEW PLAYER END UP ON THE WHITE MOUNTAIN?!]

[This must be a troll account because only an absolute idiot could end up stuck on the white mountain]

[What's next this guy is going to tell us hes a Einherjar if that was true then they have to be the most unlucky person in Valhalla]

[M.:....I actually am a Einherjar whats the big deal?]

[HAHAHAHAHAHA NO FUCKING WAY]

[Ok he has to be lying there is no way the game would've allowed something like this to happen]

[I know right you have a better chance of getting demon king candidate as a race then getting Einherjar]

[Sucks to suck man there is not a player in the world who can help you]

"Well screw you too random stranger why is everyone acting like what I just told them is a big deal?. I've got too find out if my current situation is such a big deal." I thought to myself as I saw countless more messages laughing at me and saying I was unlucky. Luckily there was a search bar at the corner of the website so I just typed in "white mountain area".

As I did so there was a surprisingly amount of articles talking about it but one article that was made by some guy named king had literal thousands of views more then all the other articles combined so I clicked on it.

[Why You Should Avoid The White Mountain]

[Hello fellow gamers it is me King again with some more advice for Valhalla players who are still trying to figure out how this game works]

[So unless you did absolutely zero research before buying Valhalla you would know that their are all sorts of different areas kingdoms empires and other places in the game the map of this game is ridiculously huge. And some places are obviously more dangerous then others with some areas being full of high level monsters or the area is full of dangerous terrains that could kill someone if they aren't paying attention to their surroundings]

[Of course while these areas are dangerous they are usually the hunting grounds for high level players because the stronger a monster is the more rewards they'll give you. So these types of areas are high risk high reward and are manageable if your a high enough level but there is only one place that is so brutal that even top players avoid myself included]

[And that area is none other then a frosty mountain located in the north of the Elysium kingdom and is a frosty mountain that will hit anyone with the freeze effect if they get to close. This alone isn't to bad its easy for most players to get gear that makes them immune or resistant to the freeze effect but once they get on the mountain that's when things start to get bad]

[As soon as you get on that mountain you will be immediately be swarmed by all sorts of beast type monsters the entire time your there and there are zero safe zones on that mountain. This wouldn't be so bad if these creatures weren't so strong and numbered in the literal millions and will not stop attacking you even when your on quests]

[The weakest species of monster on the white mountain is the frostborn mountain wolf which is usually level 150 and usually travel in packs of 6 to 12 which are usually lead by an alpha wolf which is usually level 250. But in some cases there could be packs of literal thousands of these wolves]

[Another common monster you'll find on the white mountain is the frostborn war bear which is usually level 300 at minimum and just like the frostborn wolf usually travel in packs of 6 or 12 and are lead by an alpha frostborn war bear]

[To get a general understanding on how the level system in this game works the maximum level cap for players is level 1000. But at the moment the number 1 rank player in the world is only level 550. Players who are under level 100 are usually new players who are getting the hang of the game. Players who are level 150 are mainly players who have a general understanding of the game and know how to survive but aren't all that special. Players who are level 200 are mainly players who are actually pretty good at the game and are above average in skill compared to players who are level 150 these guys are basically gods.]

[Players who are level 300+ are mainly pro players who are very good at the game and are the type of players who do boss raids by themselves pretty tough guys. Now I don't want to brag but players who are level 400+ like me are even better then those level 300+ players and we are without a doubt some of the best players in all of Valhalla. Don't believe me I dare anyone under level 400 too try and fight me in game]

[Anyways as I was saying before people who are level 300 are high ranking players and yet on the white mountain one of the most common monsters you can find on their the frostborn war bear is literally as strong as those players and there are literally millions of them on this mountain. And their are even more monsters on that mountain way stronger then those bears. 3 years ago when me and a party of other level 400 players tried to explore this mountain we only covered 18 percent of the mountain before we got wiped out by a legendary ice wyvern world boss]

[Now if this mountain wasn't full of ridiculously strong animals I would personally use it as a hunting ground. While we were raiding that mountain we actually got a decent amount of EXP and found a good amount of rare loot and materials. However due to how dangerous this place is the loot is just not worth the risk and if you are unlucky enough to end up stuck on this mountain you might as well delete your account and make a new one because its impossible to escape once your stuck. There have also been rumors of dark elf gangs hiding out in that mountain and if your unlucky enough to end up running into them I advise you GET THE FUCK OUT OF THERE BEFORE THEY GET YOU!.]

****

"Oh great I really ended up stuck on the worst possible place for a spawn point. FUCK I may not be an expert at videogames but I know it isn't a good idea to just toss a new player into the most dangerous place on the map. How am I supposed to play this game without dying in the first 5 seconds!?." I thought to myself.

"You know maybe there is still some hope for me." I thought to myself as I typed in "Einherjar race benefits" expecting to find all sorts of results. Instead there was only a single article also made by the same king guy from before and just like the last one had thousands of views.

[Why Einherjar Is The Worst Undead Race]

[King here again back with more advice for new Valhalla players. Now if your someone who wants to buy Valhalla and decided that they were going to choose the undead class but aren't sure which undead race is the best I'm here too tell you why there is only one race you need to avoid at all costs]

[Now if you choose the undead race one thing you must know is that even though some races are better then others that does not mean they are bad. The zombie and skeleton option are very weak against fire and holy effects but they do give you increased durability and stamina. The vampire noble vampire and incubus race even though they do take extra damage to holy effects they do have a pretty good resistance to holy effects compared to other undead. They also give the player enhanced strength durability and like all undead poison resistance and even special magic. But the spirit wraith lich and lich king race are far superior. Not only do they grant the user high amounts of defense and speed but give them a ridiculous amount of mana even as a new player. Also necromancy is a very good magic for grinding. But demon prince and demon king candidate are much stronger then any of the other mentioned races but its ridiculously rare to get them so there is very limited information on them]

[Overall the undead is a pretty decent option except for one race the Einherjar. On paper the Einherjar race seems decent not only do you learn skills 5% faster like humans you don't take extra damage to holy effects unlike all the other undead races and even give you a cool subclass. But unlike all the other races when you get the Einherjar race your sense of pain is activated for some reason so everytime you get stabbed or ripped apart you feel everything as it happens. Also their spawn point is located on the white mountain one of the worst places in Valhalla]

[Overall this race is the worst one in the game compared to other races the buffs it gives you aren't that impressive and its not worth playing a game where you have too feel the pain of getting slashed with a sword everytime you try and play it]

***

"Oh great I must've done something to piss off the gaming gods because they decided to just screw me over!. Did whole experience did nothing to make me feel better maybe I should just make a new account or something because this is pointle-"

*Ding*

I couldn't finish my sentence as a notification came from my laptop as someone seemed to send me a message for some reason. As I did so I saw a message for some reason pissed me off.

[Potatobob123: Lol imagine being stuck on the white mountain of all places couldn't be me noob]

Noob

Micheal had no idea what this word meant why some random person had sent him to this but for some unknown reason this word made his blood boil with rage. For It was not just a simple insult but a primal insult that is capable of driving even the calmest gamers into a frenzy as they try and prove that they are not a "noob".

"OH you want to call me a noob?!. Fine watch me as I go and bloody conquer the entire mountain!. Then we'll see whose the noob Potatobob123. I will also make sure to remember your name so that when I find you I'll prove whose the noob between the two of us!." Micheal screamed at his laptop before slamming it shut as he rushed off too get his VR headset.

This was the beginning of an event that would later be known as the great frosty incident in the world of Valhalla.