"Fuck! I played way too long. Just how much time has passed since the last time I logged out?" Bao covered his mouth as he yawned loudly and ripped the cable from his neck.
All the joints in his body cracked the moment he jumped off the small bed, but to his big surprise, not a single muscle reminded him of the physical cost of playing VR.
"Damit!" A single glance at the clock was enough to answer his previous question, it was eight o'clock in the morning and a new day had dawned. But to his big surprise, he didn't feel tired despite having played through the night.
His thoughts were still in Nelenia with Elincia, Morell and the others before Vibrations spreading throughout his whole body, brought him back to the here and now. Back to the real life.
"Good morning lil' sis, what's up?" Cuifen was on the phone.
"Brother, you didn't forget your promise did you?"
Immediately every single brain cell started searching for what he had promised to his sister. Was it to go shopping together or maybe to go to the cinema?
Even though he was still dazed until a moment ago he was now awake. What was it, what did he promise her? His eyes wandered from left to right in search of anything that might bring back his memory. The seconds got longer as he searched for an answer, and just when he was about to apologize for forgetting his appointment, he heard loud voices echoing through a hall of some sort in the background of the call. Was Cuifen at school? On a Sunday?
"Hello, you still there? So you did indeed forget it didn't you?" Bao could hear the disappointment in her voice even through the phone.
"No..., no I would never forget your school festival. I just had to work overtime at the net cafe so I slept there. I'm coming right now, I might stink a little bit though."
"Hehe," she giggled. "You always stink. I'll wait for you at the entrance then."
"Do I?", he asked but she had already hung up. "Sigh, well then I should probably take a quick shower before going there, if I remember correctly we have one for staff members."
The empty net cafe was indeed scary, the long shadows thrown by some dim lights shining through the closed windows created the silhouettes of monsters. But he had no time getting terrified by his own imaginations. If he didn't get to his sister's school anytime soon she would definitely scold him, and who in his right mind would want to get scolded by his younger sibling.
Half running and his hair still dripping wet, Bao appeared in front of the school gates where his sister already awaited him, just in time for the opening.
"Did you stand there for the whole time?", asked Bao
"I talked with some friends so it wasn't such a long wait. But say did you become even more muscular than last time? I don't even recognize you anymore!" She touched his wet hair. "So you took a shower before coming here, take this we don't want you to get sick do we." From the small bag lying over her shoulder, she pulled out a black cap and put it on his head after binding his hair into a small ponytail. "You look way cooler now brother hopefully, you don't get overrun by girls now," she joked and poked him in the side with her elbow.
Quite a while had passed since the last time he spent some fun time together with his sister. They wandered around the campus between the stalls of all the different classes, enjoying the delicious food offered to them. The pungent stares directed at him reminded Bao of the old school days where everyone was making fun of him and his scrawny appearance.
"Isn't that the cosplay queen Yan, over there? Impossible, how come you have her here at your school?!" Bao being the nerd he was, immediately recognized the beauty on a small pedestal who waved her snow-white hand at the masses who came to see her.
"Ah that. She is an acquaintance of one of the students in our class so we asked her to be the reward for the first to complete our attraction."
"Attraction?"
"Yes, basically she represents the maiden in distress and the participants have to complete the obstacle course in order to save her. But we obviously made the parkour impossible, at least for normal humans."
"What's the prize for completing it?"
"You get to take a picture together with her and she'll hand you a gift basket..." his sister turned to him. "Wait you're not planning on doing it? Did you even listen to what I just said?"
"You said your big brother looks cool, now I'll show you how cool he really is," Bao said with a smirk on his face.
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"Hmpf, do what you want."
"Since when has he become so confident?", whispered Cuifen to herself.
Bao called up his status board as he walked up to the line of participants, thanks to the quest he had just completed, there were some XP points left for him to invest in agility.
David
Level 11 -> 15
HP
70/70
MP
0/0
Strength
14
Perception
2
Endurance
2
Charisma
6
Intelligence
3
Agility
2 ->10
Luck
2
Skills
World Traveller
Level 1
Scuffle
Level 5
Backstab
Level 3
Gathering
Level 2
Sneaking
Level 3
Swordsmanship
Level 6 -> 7
Berserker
Level 1 -> 2
Evasion
Level 4
Titles
Acquaintance Of The Holy Maiden
Soulwalker
Farmers Saviour
Stampede Survivor
Adventurers pupil
Avenger