[You have added NotSophie as your friend.]
Finn looked at the new system message to see what the name of his new friend was, but he didn't recognize her name.
'Maybe she wasn't strong enough for me to take notice of her… I only know the top 10 players from my previous life after all.'
He thought as he looked at Sophie, who was still standing in front of him.
"So, your name is Sophie? My name is-"
But before he could even finish talking, Sophie raised her palm in front of his face.
"Stop. I don't care what your real name is, and I didn't add you because I liked you."
She then lowered her hand and explained the reason why she had added him.
"All I wanted was to make a connection with someone who looked experienced in this game. I will send you a message if I ever need you again. Bye."
With that cold rejection, Sophie turned around and began walking towards the newbie hunting grounds with her new spear in her hand.
Some players tried to approach her, but with one cold glare from her, they all looked away and decided to give up on wooing her.
'HAHAHAHAHA!!!'
Finn had a stunned expression on his face, not knowing what had just happened while Loki was laughing his ass off in his head.
'That's what you get for getting your hopes up. HAHAHA! Don't tell me you thought you were going to start going out with her after a handshake. What a dumbass! HAHAHA!'
'SHUT UP! I get it! I got lost in my own fantasies, but it's not over yet. We added each other as friends, and she said she would send me a message, so I still have a chance with her.'
A determined expression appeared on Finn's face, but Loki just shook his head.
'Sure… Keep telling yourself that if that makes you feel better.'
Loki and Finn then continued arguing until they were interrupted by the voice of a male player.
"Hello, I would like to buy a stone axe."
The player handed Finn 30 copper coins because he saw the transaction between him and Sophie, and he also wanted to buy a cheap weapon.
"Here you go."
Finn took the coins and handed the stone axe over, deciding to focus on selling his weapons rather than on a girl who had already left.
When the other players standing around Finn saw this transaction, they also decided to use their starting coins to buy themselves a weapon.
---
30 minutes later, Finn was completely out of stone weapons.
He did have some metal weapons left, but he wanted to sell those in the city and not to the poor players in the starting village.
After putting the blanket into his inventory, he got up and decided to log out for the day.
He had done a lot in this gaming session, and it was time to show himself in front of his parents lest they start to worry about him for not eating dinner.
When Finn logged out, other players also wanted to start selling stuff in the square, but when they sat down, they were immediately chased out by the villagers for trying to take their business away.
What the players didn't know was that Finn had brought Pyron back to the village, so the villagers didn't mind that he was selling his stuff in the square.
PSSHHHH
Upon waking up, Finn saw the capsule open as it emitted white smoke.
He was playing naked so that if he had to use the toilet while playing, it would get sucked out by the capsule and sent away instead of being stuck in his underwear.
Upon standing up, he noticed that he was at least 15 cm taller, and his previously skinny body was completely different.
He had a lean, muscular build, just like a professional swimmer.
"God damn! Is this my body? Hmm… Hmm… Not bad at all."
He kept turning around in front of the mirror while checking out his new body.
'Your body probably changed because you raised your strength stat in the game.'
"What? But that had never happened to others who played Second Life before… The only time people's bodies started to change was after Second Life got shutdown and the in-game character merged with the person's real-life body."
Finn was happy to have a new muscular body, but he was confused as to what was going on.
'It probably has to do something with the fact that I'm in your head. Maybe the capsule thought you are a god, so it didn't put those limitations that the other players have.'
Loki scanned Finn's new body and then continued.
'This doesn't mean you can use your abilities, though. You only had your body strengthened. Either way, it is a nice bonus that you have this body now instead of your old one.'
Not having another choice but to accept Loki's deduction, Finn had some clothes already prepared on his bed that he put on and went downstairs.
It was currently 6 a.m. the day after Second Life launched.
His father was still asleep, but his mother was already up, making breakfast.
"Good morning, mom."
Finn greeted his mom as he entered the kitchen, where his mom was frying pancakes.
When he was playing Second Life, he was being fed by the liquid in the capsule, so his stomach remained full, but immediately after smelling his mother's cooking, he got hungry and wanted to stuff his face with some pancakes.
"Finn! You didn't eat dinner yesterday! Your body is still growing, so you need to eat… wait... It is growing?"
She looked at Finn with wide eyes when she noticed that he was now 185cm tall and that he had a toned body packed with muscles, which were visible through the T-shirt he was wearing.
For a person like Finn, who would rather read a book than work out, to have a body like that came as a huge surprise to his mom, Helen.
"Where did you get these muscles, Finn? Don't tell me you took body-enhancing drugs."
She was frowning while looking up.
Helen was only around 150cm tall, so she now found it difficult to look into Finn's eyes.
"No mom. I've been working out with Leo. You know how I like to wear hoodies inside, so you probably didn't notice because I always had one on."
Finn argued with a random reason that he just thought of, hoping that it would calm his mom.
Helen knew her son very well, so when she noticed that Finn was looking slightly to the side, she knew he was lying, but she didn't want to force him to tell her the truth.
She believed that he would tell her when he was ready, so she just let it slide.
"Okay, come help me with breakfast then, your father will wake up soon. I want to see his reaction when he sees that his son is now taller than him."
Finn's dad Josh was around 180 cm tall, so Finn was always shorter than him, but now that he was 15 cm taller, that wasn't true anymore.
They made pancakes and started serving them at the table with syrup and butter.
When Josh smelled the pancakes, he opened his groggy eyes and went downstairs to eat his breakfast.
"Good morning…"
He sleepily greeted his wife and son before sitting down on his chair.
When Helen gave him some pancakes and coffee, he thanked her and looked at Finn, wanting to scold him for not eating dinner with them.
But he was forced to swallow his words when he saw what his son looked like.
"Honey, I must still be dreami-"
His wife suddenly pinched him to wake him up.
"OW! Okay, okay, I'm not dreaming… Jesus! No need to be so-"
"So what?"
Helen smiled at Josh. It was a kind-looking smile, but with her eyes narrowed and her eyebrows furrowed, it looked extremely threatening as well.
"Ehm… Beautiful, is what I wanted to say. How do you get more beautiful each day I see you."
"Oh darling!"
She kissed him and hugged him.
'HA! That's what I call a save!'
Josh thought he was in the clear but he suddenly felt his wife's hug get tighter.
"I'll let it go this time. Okay, darling?"
She whispered into Josh's ear, and he felt like he was hugging the grim reaper.
"Yes, I'm sorry."
Like a timid rabbit, he nodded while apologizing to his wife for raising his voice at her.
"Anyway, what happened to you, Finn? You look… different."
Josh asked after being released from his wife's hug.
"Well… I work out these days."
Finn said as he drank his orange juice.
"Yeah… workout… sure…"
Josh sarcastically repeated what Finn had said as he looked at him with a disbelieving gaze, but with one glare from his wife, he quickly corrected himself.
"Oh! So, you work out? That's good, before you were already a girl magnet, but now I know you'll hurry to give me grandchildren, right?"
With his father's last comment, Finn choked on the orange juice that he was drinking and started coughing after some of it got stuck in his throat.
"*Cough* What do you mean, grandkids?! I'm not even twenty yet!"
"The sooner the better, darling."
His mother spoke with a kind smile from the side, also wanting to see her grandchildren.
"Not you too, mom!"
---
After his breakfast, Finn contacted Leo and James and told them to meet up at a nearby café.
James was still playing Second Life, but when he received Finn's message, it showed up in his game, so he quickly logged off and went to the meeting place.
Leo was in the middle of his martial arts training, so he just took a break and went to the café as well.
They were sitting around one table in the café, and as the café was normally frequented by girls, they were attracting a lot of attention.
"Finn! What happened? You are taller than when we last saw you."
James commented on Finn's change as he sipped his strawberry mocha.
"I drink a lot of milk, so I just grew up overnight."
Finn was wearing a hoodie so he wouldn't have to explain his new body, and he just went with the overnight growth excuse for his new height.
"Anyway, I wanted to talk about meeting up in Second Life. There are a lot of big cities, but I was thinking about going to Iliados. What do you guys think?"
It was a city that was pretty far from his starting village, but Finn knew this city like the back of his hand because he used to work there in his last life.
"Sure! It's the city that is the closest to me, so I don't have a problem with that!"
James agreed, excited to finally be able to play with his friends.
"Okay, it's not that far from my village."
Leo also agreed, looking forward to the strong opponents he will be able to face in the big city.
But he suddenly sipped his iced water and dramatically leaned forward.
"You guys saw the world announcements, right? Do you know where I can fight that Chained Trickster guy?"
Finn was surprised to hear that Leo wanted to fight him, but he wanted to add Leo and James to his friend list in the game so they would know his name sooner or later.
Nonchalantly leaning back, he looked at Leo.
"Oh yeah, that's me."
James turned to stare at Finn with his mouth agape, but his shock soon turned to joy at the thought that his friend was the strongest player in Second Life.
"So that was you, Finn? Nice! I didn't know you were this strong."
Leo remained silent as he eyed Finn, which made him sweat a little while waiting for what he was going to say.
"Friends shouldn't fight… but! Let's have a friendly spar once we meet each other. I want to see your strength with my own eyes.
Finn chuckled at his battle junkie friend, but he also wanted to know how he would fare against other strong players, so he accepted.
"Sure, but don't cry after I beat you up."