after the boa snake was dead 4 orbs appeared, but daniel was under shock, after the incident with his soul he passed out, so he didn't really "experience" the pain, but even if virtually, he was now suffering for the first time, to the point of forgetting temporarily that this was, in fact, a game
this of course lasted only for a few seconds and after remembering it was a game he started to look for something he could use as a bandage, soon later he tore his jeans and used it to cover the wound, denim it's not the ideal material but was still better than leather, then he took a branch of the charcoal tree to use as a crutch, it looked a little bit brittle but was surprisingly sturdy enough
in the end, he wasn't a normal kid, and after handling it perfectly he also gathered the orbs and started to slowly limp towards the safe zone, he met a few small critters on the way back but they seemed even punier now and he simply killed one of the small snakes who decided to attack him, 2 orbs dropped but he didn't look and used the bag to bring them with him without stopping, all he wanted now was to save and leave
after another 20 minutes of limping, he finally reached the safe zone, refilled the bottle in the cold zone to wash the wound then he sat down where he left the suit previously, he was under the impression that the wounds were programmed realistically because the pain was real
but as he started looking at the wound on his leg, to his surprise he found out it had already stopped bleeding, partly because he was lucky and the snake missed the artery, and on the other side this was a game and to make it enjoyable wounds healed up faster, after he finally calmed down completely he noticed a notification pending
congratulations, you bandaged the wound, the healing rate is +1.5%
Daniel blatantly ignored the long list of unrealistic stuff and said "it's better to close it again" then put back the denim bandage and decided to wait for a full recovery
in the meantime, Daniel started to rummage through his loot there was black boa skin, black boa meat, black boa tendon till now everything was normal, but when he saw the last one, he was irked again from the notification that popped up
congratulation, you found a weapon
name: black boa knife
type: knife
rarity: E
damage: 5-10
damage type: slashing/bleeding
specials: none
Daniel said "I was already bothered that a red and orange snake it's called black boa, and now . . . this is so unscientific" while looking at the knife he was holding, then he looked at the other orbs and found meat and skin from the small snake, adding the goat meat, horn and pelt he had quite a few items now.
while waiting since Daniel didn't want to waste any time he started to look at what he could make, he used his crutch has firewood, using the cricket to light it up to badly grill the various meats, then he cleaned the small snakeskin to use it has a bag to hold the future goat and snake grilled meat
he then used the end of the big snakeskin to make a bigger water skin, with a knife available this kind of craft became much easier, sadly daniel didn't have any experience, and also missed some materials to do these things, so the results were not optimal or better barely usable junk
to add insult to injury the grilled meat became really bad jerky that without seasoning or cooking skills tasted really bad, especially compared to the fine dining he was used to, and the water skin didn't close completely, so it would leak a little if it wasn't kept straight, but even if not perfect at least it worked
of course, because of all of these reasons he wasn't able to turn the goat pelt into a fancy coat, and just ended up opening a hole for the head to use it like a poncho, then with the big snakeskin, he bandaged the legs and arms for added protection and all that was left now was a horn a little piece of the big snakeskin and the various tendons, but after looking at them for a while Daniel couldn't think of any use for these things and after his leg was completely healed, he finally went to the forcefield and choose to save and exit
as soon as he exited the egg, the first thing Daniel did was check his little leg, he didn't feel any discomfort, but after what happened he felt compelled to check, and after seeing that everything was normal he relaxed and started walking down
as Daniel arrived down the stairs, he saw that vincent and joseph had their eyes closed, while in a lotus position and didn't welcome him like usual, so he thought they were connected to virtual reality and walked past them
as he arrived in the kitchen Daniel took a juice box from the fridge, and while he was drinking the juice phoebe walked in and asked "how was the game?"
daniel responded "it hurts, and some things are annoying"
Phoebe smiled and said "hurts? what happened?"
daniel sighed and said "first was radiation poisoning, then a boa snake bit my leg"
Phoebe was confused, after entering the game she choose the difficult portal but the enemies there were only the weakest groundwalker units, some sort of quadrupedal robots that attacked by charging and using their "mouths" as vices
with Phoebe's experience in real fights, the tutorial was completed in a short time and she had already driven her small ship to the sea of stars so she said "your tutorial is different from mine, you must be trying the anomaly tutorial, I didn't expect my little man to be so adventurous, getting hurt in VR it's not a bad thing as long as you pay attention not to get hurt in reality"
Daniel said "I understand mom" Phoebe's words may seem cold to us, but the culture on Verulus was different, pain builds character and parents are happy when their children display courage as long as it isn't exaggerated
afterward, Daniel and Phoebe went back to the living room and found Vincent and Joseph had exited S.L.B and were discussing their in-game experience
Joseph was saying "I'm finding it difficult to mine for gredium, it's much easier to raid one of the overseer minor mining outposts it has few guards"
Vincent responded "I'm more concerned with finding a site for the base, I want a territory rich in minerals but lack the firepower to defend it" then noticing the new arrivals continued "hey daniel how are you doing in-game?"
Daniel smiled and said "if my theory is correct, I'm doing very well, I took the suit found a pistol, and crafted some rudimentary utilities from some animals I defeated in the hot zone, even if the price I paid was being bitten by a fat boa snake"
Vincent was a little stunned, then said "you are doing the anomaly trial, hahaha good, I tried too but failed in the third part, the ship in the poisonous marsh was more broken than expected, and I didn't have the necessary parts with my suit durability basically at 0% I couldn't go back in that wretched environment and game over, wait, you said pistol, where did you find it? I made a machete with a piece of the wreckage in the radiation zone"
Daniel said "it was Gregosh's, I found a gun box under what was left of the ship's right-wing"
Vincent replied "I didn't even take a second look there, after all the time was limited, I just grabbed everything I needed and run all the way back, it surprises me that you managed to find the way using the stars as a compass, few people know how to do it nowadays, did you learn it in school?"
the virtual academy did not have a survival course, so Vincent was genuinely curious, and Daniel replied "no I remembered the position of the stars in the sky, and the way became obvious"
the trio was surprised once again they finally accepted that Daniel was much smarter, but that wasn't enough to justify something like this, after all however smart may one be, remembering the position of every star in the sky it's something absurd that's impossible even for most cultivators, as it required a different kind of smart
Joseph said "it's surprising how many times you shocked us with your wits, and your ability to memorize"
Daniel just responded with an embarrassed laugh at his father's compliment, he was feeling very proud of his accomplishments
then phoebe said "I heard of the anomaly tutorial, but only after I completed mine so I didn't have that chance anymore"
Daniel was surprised, in the comment he read, that no one said anything about losing the one chance, as it was common knowledge and the struggle to request a second chance was already a thing of the past, so he asked "why?"
phoebe responded "I have no idea why, but the anomaly trial can be accessed only on the first access to the game, the diary that starts it disappears afterward, even if one restarts the game with a new account"
Vincent then added "it's because the rewards are too good, if the mission could be repeated, many people would have continued to create new accounts to do it till they succeeded but it's impossible since the game account is linked with the identity card, the functions of the tutorial it's not just to learn the basic function of the game"
Daniel once again asked why, but Vincent smiled and said "you will understand when the tutorial it's finished, in any case, don't worry if you are unable to finish this one, you can always choose one of the other three, after all, it's really difficult and I think it requires a certain dose of luck as well"
Daniel thought for a moment, then said "luck it's such an abstract concept, does it really exists?, I prefer to use knowledge and logic, now that I think about it, you said that another ship must be present but in my research, no one ever found the third ship"
Vincent laughed and said "maybe not, but maybe someone found it and never said it to anyone, after all, there are almost 500 million players, it baffles me that no one completed it"
Daniel said "The anomaly trial seems less about fighting and more about surviving, after all, there are some enemies but they are not particularly powerful instead the environments are extreme for a player without gear, it also gives two recordings at the start to give an idea of the terrains, but then it's the player responsibility to explore and find a way out"
the trio nodded, during the conversation they almost forgot that Daniel was still a little boy, but it wasn't their fault, all that knowledge he was absorbing like a sponge made him act and think more maturely
the next day, after Daniel followed his lessons and had lunch with Joseph, he entered S.L.B again
this time as he entered instead of being in a black box he was levitating in space, in front of him the 3 letters S.L.B seemed as big as a planet and under them, two options continue and new game were displayed in glowing characters
Daniel obviously choose to continue, and a moment later he was in the safe zone wearing the equipment he fabricated, everything was like he had left it, and a moment later a notification popped up