Hugh walked out of the facilitator's room to an empty hallway. The cacophony of complaints and shouts by the majority of the spectators were nowhere to be heard. He walked forward and saw an open room devoid of all people the would surely barrage him with questions and protest the results.
Hugh looked around and found it was the right place to exit the game and come back into the real world. Before he logged off, he checked his virtual wallet and found the 50,000CM reward money for ranking in the top 1 of the power rankings for the unadvanced tier.
Hugh smiled as he completed what he set out to do with time to spare.
He opened and closed his fists, feeling the power and pressure he could exert as his transformation was still active. He was maintaining the transformation all this time only because of the sustenance pill that he got from Robbi.
Once he exits the game, he will find himself to be the same fat, obese, and weak self that he always knew. He powered himself up as he savored the blood flowing through his veins and giving him energy.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, then opened the game's system to log off.
<40 points have been deducted>
Hugh opened his eyes to see a dimly lit ceiling, the same ceiling he remembered to be the 'Console room'. He laid flat on the capsule and used all of his strength to prop himself up due to his weight.
He already missed his transformation.
He stood up and walked away from the capsule towards the exit. On the corner of his eye, he saw a glimmer of light that caught his attention. He turned his head and saw a brand new capsule on a pedestal.
Most of the capsules here were well-maintained but had unmistakable shreds of evidence of multiple uses throughout its tenure. This new capsule had a holographic sign that displayed a price.
<100,000 points>
For a hundred thousand points, he could buy his very own capsule to use on his house. He would not have to worry about the price per hour to use the machine. It would be extremely efficient to save up and buy his own capsule if he planned to play Planets&Monsters for a very long time.
Because of the sustenance pill, he planned on returning to the game soon to complete missions and gather enough points to buy the capsule. In the meantime, he had to buy the materials for his daily tasks.
He walked past capsules that had either a red or green light indicating their vacancy. He looked towards the entrance and saw multiple students chatting and playing around, excited to play the game with their friends.
Hugh noticed that the students coming in the 'Console room' had the standard uniform indicating their year levels. Hugh guessed that most, if not all, of the upper year levels could buy their own capsules to use for their houses.
He thought back to the unique and lavish homes he walked past in the area where the third years lived. They had artificial wood, soil, water, and every detail, which would have cost more than a hundred thousand points.
He walked to the entrance, and the blinding sun hit his eyes. Only four hours had passed since he played the game, and the sun was still up in the sky. It was not on its zenith, but neither was it close to setting.
He walked the streets he walked from before to find himself at the entrance of 'Oxyiel's materials'. He was once again on the steel door, which he previously had trouble going into due to Van being too busy.
He raised his hand and prepared to knock on the door multiple times in an intense way to get Van's attention. He curled his fists and knocked on the door.
*knock* *knock*
Not expecting to be answered the first time, he prepared to knock harder, but the door suddenly opened to reveal Van with his lanky stature.
Hugh was tongue-tied as he still had his hands raised and positioned to knock on the door. Van looked at him and titled his head as he inquired for the reason why Hugh visited him.
"What do you want."
".....oh! I came here to buy the materials."
Van stared at him for a minute while Hugh just stood there waiting for a response.
"Materials."
"...?..."
Hugh was confused as it seemed that Van just stated a word without any context. It only took half a second to realize that Van was questioning him about the materials. Due to Van's tone, it didn't seem like a question.
"The woods. I came here four hours ago to discuss that."
"Hmm...sure."
Van turned around and walked away, leaving Hugh behind. Hugh ran towards Van only to remember that he did not close the door. He turned around to close it, but he saw the door close by itself.
Van walked towards the shelves and didn't stop to look at Hugh. This was a similar occurrence to when Hugh first came here, so he already knew how to deal with Van.
"Can you lead me to the woods section?"
"...."
Van did not seem to acknowledge Hugh's words and just suddenly turned to a corner to the right. Hugh did not know if Van heard him, but he saw a familiar section of the factory that led him to believe that he was close to the woods section.
Van stopped next to the shelves that contained different kinds, shapes, sizes, and colors of woods available for Hugh to buy.
Hugh almost salivated at the thought of biting into the crunchy exterior of the bark and feeling the texture of the wood itself. Then he thought that there might be some other kind of wood with a different texture and perhaps had no crunchy bark to chew.
He steeled himself and cleared his mind. He had to focus and deal with buying the materials first before he thought about eating them.
"I need ten different kinds of wood. Preferably the greater the quality, the better with the limitation of 30,000 points."
Hugh had 50,000 points from the prize for being rank 1 in the unadvanced tier plus the 9,200 he had in his pocket; he only had 59,200 points. He still needed to buy ten different kinds of metals to complete his daily mission. Not to mention that he had to use 200 points every day for his buffet of food.
"Hmm...."
Van closed his eyes and did not consult the woods that was displayed on the shelves. As the keeper of Oxyiel's materials, he had to know every piece of object in here.
After a few seconds of thinking, Van thought of the possible wood that Hugh could buy with his budget.
"You could buy 1kg of dark bark wood, 1kg of oceanic wood, 1kg of ..."
Van listed all of the wood that fit Hugh's criteria. Hugh did not know half of these woods, but he still believed in Van's ability to assess the materials.
"How much is that?"
"27,350 points."
Hugh nodded in affirmation to the price of 10 different kinds of wood. This was still in his budget, and he was relieved that he could buy all of these woods today. It was only due to his luck that he could get that kind of money in a short amount of time.
"I'll buy it."
"Do you want to carry it, or do you want it delivered?"
"I want it delivered."
Van nodded and reached out to one of the shelves in the area. He pushed a button, and a handprint pad came into being. He gestured for Hugh to place his hand on the machine to complete the transaction.
Hugh obliged, and blue light scanned his hands to transfer the points needed to buy the woods.
<27,350 points have been deducted>
The tablet displayed the confirmation of the transaction between Hugh and Van.
After it was done, Van turned around and started to walk away from Hugh. He did not dally on and just went on his way to finish whatever he wanted to do.
Knowing there he still needed to buy ten different kinds of metals, Hugh stopped Van.
"Wait! I still need to but ten different kinds of metals."
After hearing Hugh's declaration, Van did not stop and turn to look at Hugh but instead turned to a sharp corner to his left. Hugh already knew of Van's peculiar behavior, so he followed him to another set of shelves.