( Leo's POV )
The first few hours after leaving Silverpine Village were completely uneventful for Leo.
The scenery around him was beautiful and he kept himself occupied by making objects out of tree branches in his mind, but there was not much else to do.
Most VR games on Earth followed a scale where a real world kilometer was akin to 10 to 100 meters within the game as this made the overall map of the game relatively smaller to play and distance between uneventful places minimal. However, Terra Nova Online did not seem to follow that norm.
The distance between places were as big as they would be in the real world and Leo quickly realized that at the rate he was going, he was going to most likely waste 2-4 gaming days on just walking towards the nearest city.
While the other players would be leveling up or doing quests near their beginner village, Leo would be wasting his time walking and would have no time to improve before the first assessment at the end of the week.
"ARGGHHH, I MESSED UP" he said, falling to his knees and pulling on his hair as he suffered a short mental breakdown in the middle of his journey.
He had already wasted a few hours on walking away from Silverpine Village and if he decided to turn back now, not only would he have to ditch the Virex mask but also waste the same hours going back that he wasted going forward.
"I should have been more prudent…. I'm a fool" Leo said as he banged his fist on the ground below and let his despair take over him.
Usually he was a very happy go lucky guy who would have liked nothing more than to walk from town to town enjoying the natural beauty of the world, doing nothing but just idling in a VR world. However, because of his actor class he felt like he was under constant duress.
The ankle monitor on his real body was constantly monitoring what he said and how he acted and Leo had no doubt in his mind that should his secret ever be revealed, he would die an electric death just like Harry.
Not only did he have to constantly improve within Terra Nova, he had to constantly put up an act in the real world as well as he practically had to become an actor in and out of the game.
"It's too much….. the pressure is too much" Leo murmured before gritting his teeth and pulling himself together as he decided to take a break from walking and decide calmly on his future plans.
"Alright-, I can do this! I am the boss" he told himself as he hyped himself up and took a look at his stat panel just to feel good about himself.
Looking at that level-24 when most players had no idea on how to level up, Leo felt a sense of calm wash over him as he realized that even if he did waste a few hours, he probably had a safety net that could afford it.
"Mmmm…. I'm good" he told himself reassuringly when suddenly he heard rustling of leaves from a busy nearby.
As Leo turned to look, a wild deer jumped out of the bush and onto the walking path created by man and closely behind it was a wild cat looking thing which seemed to be chasing the deer as prey.
Leo watched silently as the wild cat lunged to bite the deers rear leg, however instead of jumping forward like it did uptil now, the deer suddenly maneuvered sideways dodging the wild cat expertly.
*Slide*
The wild cat, upon missing its target, slid on the dirt path but did so while posing to lunge once more as although it missed once, it wished to try once more thinking that the deer could surely not evade it twice.
*LUNGE*
The wild cat made a second lunge, an even more committed one where if it missed once more it would most likely land headfirst, however, while it made a good bet, it ended up losing the gamble as the deer who took its first step sideways now made a slight feint and jumped to the opposite side now, sending the wild cat in the completely wrong direction before zooming away.
*CRASH*
The wild cat crashed head first and rolled once in the dirt.
When it got up, it already knew that its prey had escaped so it did not even try to pursue it, but rather just walked away slowly as if nothing happened.
[ System Notification:- You have witnessed the move 'Feint Steps', do you wish to use the unique skill 'Mimic' to recreate this movement? ]
A system notification popped up on Leo's screen as Leo felt surprised to see its contents.
Pressing 'yes' Leo stood up and as he tried to dash he automatically maneuvered in the same mystical way as the deer did to evade the cat as his body seemed to automatically move without instructions from his brain.
"COOL!" he exclaimed in excitement as he finally got an idea of how the 'Mimic' skill worked and it seemed like a truly useful skill now.
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/// A/N - Bonus chapter for hitting the PS target for last week! Let's keep it up guys ///