Ep. 7 — Chapter 25: Time on the Clock (1)

Sub-quests, commissioned quests and trigger quests are a bit different than main quests. Because one, all players are given a warning about when a main quest will occur. And that's usually when the [Cube] starts descending, signalling the start of a main quest. Or events, whichever one you'd like to call.

And two, main quests are large. Other quest types would usually consist of a single party, or even a lone individual, but main events would require most, if not all, players involved. Unless you have a [Sequence Key] in possession, you are not exempt from the Game's main quests. With [Sequence Keys], you players are eligible to locate and use [World Warp], and when unlocked, the current world will be joined in with the other worlds, the ≪Online World System≫. That was what this system talked about earlier. At least, that was what Alicia told me.

She seemed to be fairly familiar with the overall concept of the Game. I wondered if she really had only been here for a few months, and not for a few years instead. When I asked, she would say that the boss was the one who taught her. And once again, my curiosity about the boss peaked.

A few days had passed since. It was the last day before the main quest. And now, the [Cube] had begun its descent. The timer counted down until the next day, midnight.

And still, neither Lia nor the kid showed any sign of waking.

"You sure come in here a lot." I turned around at the voice and met Ali standing in the doorway. "You know those two? Girlfriend? Son?"

"Sister."

"Oh. Right, sorry about that." Ali sounded majorly flustered, and started to stumble over words as he tried to find the right words to say, but it seemed nothing came to his head. Eventually, he said the only things he could think of. "What level are you currently at?"

It would seem that even he thought it was a dumb question and started to clear his throat, starting a new sentence before silencing himself. Even so, I answered him. "Level 23. You said you were around 30, right?"

"Yeah. I'm surprised you remembered."

"It isn't exactly hard to forget. You only told me two days ago." I told him and he let out a chuckle. He raised his back from leaning from the doorway.

"No, it's impressive, really. 30 is not a really impressionable number. So it's surprising that you'd remember."

"Not when you're always getting reminded that you'll turn 30 soon, it's not really all that special of a number."

"You're…29? Dang it, you look so young. Envious…"

One thing I was thankful for from my dad. Oh well, it wasn't as if it could do me any good either way. Being young-looking while almost in my thirties did me no good other than elderly women hitting on me once they found out I was almost as old as them. Though I don't think the 20 year age gap could be considered as 'almost as old'. I'd be offended, honestly.

"You only joined this week, right?" Ali asked, stepping up closer to me and leaning his [Greatsword] against the nightstand. Sure enough, the item was just as big as he was. I wondered just how much he put into strength for him to be able to swing that around with ease. "It's admirable that you made it this far. Even almost getting to level 30 in just a short time. It took me almost a few weeks of sleepless nights to just get this much. You have some sort of exp boost?"

"No, no, nothing of the sort."

I couldn't tell him about the [XP Orbs] just yet. Now that I think about it, I still had some more didn't I?

I analysed his [Greatsword]. It could range somewhere between a rare to a legendary-tier item. Though I don't think it's a mythical-tier, since it would be a lot more recognisable. After all, most of the mythical items were direct copies of real mythical figures. Something such as the Triaina of Poseidon or Thor's Mjolnir. There is even the Ruyi Jingu Bang, weapon of the Monkey King.

The game only ever mentioned the weapons. But there should be the figures as well, right? Shit, now that I'm thinking about it, facing literal gods seemed a bit horrifying.

"Can I ask where you got the [Greatsword] from?" I remembered seeing some of the early testers possessing the weapon, though I never got to obtain it myself. "Are you perhaps a veteran?"

"Oh, no. I just…ran into some people along the way here. It was actually the boss who retrieved it for me, saying it's my battle prize. At that time, I thought, maybe I should hold onto the [Greatsword], no matter what, since the boss gave me it with his own hands. You should meet the boss. I think you'll like him. And he'll like you too."

From the way he spoke, Ali seemed to feel guilt. Especially because he took the lives of people in his own hands. Of course, I was in no way to assume such things about a person I never met, but the look in his eyes. Regrets that run deeper than what I could even imagine. But I didn't push him and simply looked away.

"Do we know the locations of the next main quest?" I asked him after checking my phone once more. All these time, I never got a single word from Hua Lin. I started to wonder if she was still alive or not.

'Wish for the best.' I thought to myself. But it wasn't helping much. Though I couldn't really focus too much on that right now. It did feel a bit bitter, not being able to mourn my only friend in the world, but I had this feeling that she wasn't one to go down so easily. Even the slightest…if I can get even the slightest clue of her whereabouts, I'd go find her.

But for now, there were other people with me. I was even back with my sister. At least, I should focus on them for now.

Once again, I looked at the two bodies on the bed. Still, they showed no sign of waking. But they were still alive. Alicia said their hearts were still beating, and in fact, they still felt warm. They were just not responsive, no matter how much we tried to wake them. Even when I touched her eyelashes, Lia wouldn't wake up like she would normally, whenever I did that…years ago.

How many years have we been apart? Yet, I still haven't even spoken a word of apology to her. To be sorry that I left her alone, simply because I felt like I needed to be free from that damned house. Sorry that my only excuse was that she has a decent relationship with mom, therefore she would be just fine living in that house.

"Ahem, you do know that the world has changed, so there will be some landmarks you've never seen before. But the main quest will not be reserved for one location only. Oh, though there will be a 200-player capacity. Are you thinking of joining?" Ali asked abruptly, sensing the uneasiness in the air.

"Yes, I should." I replied. "That's why, I need you to tell me the location. I also will be leaving this place for a bit to get outside."

"It should be near the plaza downtown. The city is nothing but ruins at this point, so you sure you wanna go outside?"

"Yeah. There's a dungeon I want to visit." I told Ali, and he seemed a bit shocked by the revelation. It was most likely due to the fact that I knew about dungeons, despite being a new player. "Since ≪Shell≫ is a safehouse, you guys must have a map of the city right? Have you located any dungeons yet?"

"Well, there sure is…but are you sure? Going alone is a bit…"

"No, I won't be going alone." I told him, before getting up. I brushed my pants a bit before putting on the jacket around me. "Don't worry about it too much. Could you show me to the map?"

"Sure thing." Ali replied, grabbing his [Greatsword] as we both made it to the door. I closed the door shut behind me, a little less careful than the first time, knowing that neither of them would be disturbed by any noises at all. Still, it just didn't feel right to slam doors, so I didn't. Ali took me down the hall and into the lobby. The others were there. Today was Leon's turn to go out, and surprisingly, he asked someone else to go with him instead of me. I didn't get a chance to ask him why since I only found out that he was gone through the twins.

Alicia was gone too. I thought she may be in the back. We passed by the twins, gaming. Damn, they could still play games during all of this?

We passed through the other hallway, walking right past my room and into the room at the end of the hallway, right beside the stairs that led us outside. Ali pushed the door open and we were inside a well-lit room. It wasn't small, but not extensive either. A table in the middle, shelves running around the entire place. It was a storage room. And in the middle of the table lay a map.

"This is the map. Usually when going to hunt, we would take different routes and record it on our [Cloud Map]. The boss was really thorough in setting up a base, and even managed to obtain it just for the sake of the safehouse. It's definitely a rare item."

"How does it work…?"

"Whoever goes out into areas that are still not revealed in the map and returns, the map will update by itself."

It's similar to the game's mapping system. I never thought I'd see it in real-time. It was a really cool concept, honestly. I observed the map. It was interactable, so I was able to drag it around, and even zoom in on areas. These people have discovered a lot of areas. Several dungeons have been marked as well. Even the Guild Tower has a limited supply of [Cloud Maps], and only the top guilds were provided with one. The price of it was something else. This boss…just who the hell is he?

As I looked at different dungeons, I realised that even the difficulty of the dungeons were told by the maps. A lot of them were normal ones, around 1-2 stars. But there was one that caught my attention. The only 3 star dungeon. Even the rewards were something else. For beginners, at least.

"Take your time. Just turn off the lights when you're done, and make sure to close the doors tightly." Ali said as he left the storage room.

With the entire room to myself, I continued to observe the map carefully. There were a lot of undiscovered areas, most of which were to the east, which is the direction of the Guild Tower. It made sense the ≪Shell≫ wanted to stay off the Guild Tower's radar to prevent themselves from being caught up in unnecessary trouble. But it's halting our progress. Sure, we could discover the rest of the opposite side, but if there's one thing I know about the Guild Tower, it's that they are placed in the most strategic location that allows security and access to many dungeons and other areas.

Meaning, the areas we haven't discovered yet will probably have some good dungeons with promising rewards.

I continued to look at the map for a few more minutes before leaving the room, turning off the lights and closing it as I was told and made it back to my room. By then, I could hear Leon in the lobby. I checked the closet and took my chains and a fresh green long coat.

One last day before the main quest begins.