Michael kept staring at the reflection for a few seconds before slowly retreating to the wall and began slowly sliding down it.
He sat there for three minutes slowly thinking about the situation. Would anyone recognize him? Would anyone believe him when he said that a game had magically transformed him?
"Dinner is ready!"
Michael's thoughts were quickly interrupted by a sudden shout from his mother.
His thoughts once again sprang wild as he heard his mother's footsteps quickly approaching the bathroom.
"Are you in there Michael?"
"Yeah"
Michael hurriedly blocked his mouth when he realized that he instinctively answered, but the sweet female voice that he just heard earlier didn't come out of his mouth, instead came he heard his normal voice. He hurriedly looked down and saw that he had transformed back into his former self.
"What are you doing in there? Quickly finish up and come eat."
Half ignoring his mother's words he quickly approached the sink and looked in the mirror seeing his normal self. Being perplexed about the whole situation he began wondering if it was something he had imagined. He had heard rumors of people seeing weird things after using virtual cabins for extended periods.
"Are you coming out or not."
Realizing that his mother had begun to get annoyed he hurriedly washed his hands and blamed the earlier confusion on seeing sights from the side effects and hurriedly exited the bathroom not noticing that his brown eyes had become a bit more golden.
He hurried and sat down by the dinner table and began eating. Halfway into the meal, he realized that he would need to inform his parents of the repairman.
"A repairman is going to come and take a look at my capsule."
It was a bit of a sour theme as his father was angry with him for using all his savings on a game and not investing in them.
"What happened to the capsule, did you damage it?"
"No, some bust software, things like that are made to break so that they can make more money."
The dinner continued in silence until someone knocked at the door. Michael then left the table to see if it was the repairman.
When Michael opened the door and it was the repairman, he began leading him to his room where the bust capsule was.
Michael paid immediately and was kicked out of the rooms so that he could not see the "company secrets", but was most likely to stop people from seeing how to repair them on their own.
As Michael had some free time he went to the couch and began surfing the internet on his phone to find something that could entertain him.
He began finding more and more videos from the game as it seemed like people began to release more and more tutorials.
He began watching a few of them, but he found nothing that could interest him. Then he began searching for people that had seen weird things after spending time only finding multiple statements on how safe the fully immersive virtual cabin was and how it had no side effects.
Suddenly the repairman returned down and left, and Michael returned to his room. Seeing the capsule with the newly replaced nutrient dispenser he once again entered the capsule.
After spawning in he immediately got a new notification.
{The player has completed the class advancement and will be teleported to the next town}
As he was reading the notification blue particles once again climbed up him as he was teleported.
When he opened his eyes again, he was in a huge town with mostly two-story houses of stone and paved roads. The streets were buzzing with NPC going on with their daily life as well as newly advanced players.
He quickly looked around attempting to find Astraeus so that he could kick him in the back and then beat him up.
Unfortunately, there he was not around, and Michael instead began looking for another NPC that could give him a quest.
As he looked around, he noticed a beggar at the side of the road that was beckoning him. Michael quickly looked around to see if it was meant for anyone else. As he found no one he began approaching the beggar.
"If you buy me some alcohol, I will give you something good."
Michael instantly became happy as he had heard of things like this in games. That people got hidden rewards and quests from beggars on the streets.
He quickly went to the nearest store and bought the most expensive alcohol that he could find which cost 10 gold coins and returned it to the beggar.
Michael hurriedly returned to the beggar and gave him the expensive alcohol. The beggar slowly stood up as Michael's anticipation rose.
"What on idiot"
Mumbled the beggar between hiccups as he began slowly wobbling away.
{Congratulations, the player has acquired the title: The Fool}
{Title: The Fool:
Given to those who blindly trust the words of a beggar in the belief that would get something if they gave them alcohol.
Effect: As the player has the mental age and innocence of a child long living races will have better favorability with you as you remind them of a child.}
Michael stood there stumped once again over the events that had just unfolded in front of him. It took him a few seconds to fully realize that he was tricked by a random beggar in the streets.
His anger rose to new heights as he blamed Astraeus for it. If Astraeus had just been there, then he would beat him up instead of being tricked by the beggar. He swore that if he met Astraeus again, he would not just beat him up, but also cheat him out of his money.
Thinking this a wicked smile began growing on his face as began thinking of various schemes that he could employ to create Astraeus's downfall.
As he walked down the streets thinking of his perfect schemes, he suddenly heard an old, weathered voice coming from the alley on the side.
"Could you spear some change, young man?"
Thinking that he won't fall for the same trick twice he said.
"SCRAM SCAMMER"
He shouted as he found an outlet for all the anger of losing 10 gold to a scammer.
{Congratulations, the player has acquired the title: The one who rejects a hidden quest}
{Title: The one who rejects a hidden quest:
Given to those who have the mental fortitude to not waver in front of a hidden quest with potentially boundless rewards.
Effect: As the player has such a strong mental fortitude that they won't waver in front of a hidden quest they won't be affected by any mental illusions.}
This time Michael's mouth was almost agape as he read the notification.
"No wait, I will give you some change."
As Michael said this and began running towards the old man, he suddenly disappeared, Michael tripped and fell into the dirt of the back alley.
As Michael stood up, he spits out the dirt that come into his mouth as he stared at where the old man had been in silence.
Feeling regretful he retreated out of the valley back to the street and began walking once again. Thinking that the mayor probably had some quest that he could complete he began walking to the mayor's manor.
When he came to the entrance, he expected to be stopped by the guards that were guarding the entrance, but that never happened.
When he came into the manor, he continued straight to the mayor's office.
As he entered the mayor looked up from his desk and stared right at Michael and waited. After a long period of awkward silence, he finally asked.
"Do you have e quest for me?"
"Yes, I have. There have been sightings of polluted monsters at the edge of the woods, and I have gathered a group of adventurers such as yourself to scout the area."
"Take notice that if you accept this mission you will have to do as the designated leader says or you will lose the quest."
"Do you wish to accept?"
When the mayor asked this question Michael felt a weird feeling that for some reason, he would regret this decision. Not figuring out why he decided to accept the quest.
"Yes"
As he accepted an arrow popped up once more leading him to the mansion's backyard.
When he entered the backyard, he noticed that there were five people there from before.
"Are you the last participant?"
A tall man with a large bow on his back came out of the group and asked him.
"Yes"
{party invite received from Apollo}
Michael immediately chooses to accept the party invite.
{Party:
Leader: Astraeus
Members
- Apollo
- Aphrodite
- Poseidon
- HelloMan
- Eos}