Astaroth and Violette stayed in the clearing for a few more hours, enjoying the sight of the newly born fawn stumbling around. Astaroth was using his summoning spell repeatedly, just to keep it present.
He wanted the fawn to get used to the outside world, since he hadn’t lived a life like White had. So, experiencing it firsthand was best.
The sun soon started rising on the horizon to the east. That’s when Astaroth realized what time it was.
“I believe we have overstayed our gaming time. Let’s head back to the village,” he said to Violette.
The young girl was slightly pouting at the idea that she had to stop playing with the baby deer. When Astaroth unsummoned Luna, she sighed heavily.
But she knew Astaroth was right. They both had matters to attend to in the real world.
A lot of things happened in the month after the tournament. The day after it concluded, the game went offline for several hours as it launched an update.
Much to many players’ disarray, the game time had been set from a two-to-one, back down to a one-to-one time ratio.
For many players, that meant a drastic change in gaming time and schedule. Not only would they level up slower because of it, but they also lost much of their available free time to it.
It also meant a much steeper cost of operation for the gaming pod, to those that had one. Fortunately, Evo-Gaming started offering a subscription for IV bags, at a much lesser price than buying them privately.
This was another plan of theirs to milk their players as much as possible. Many people complained at first, but it tapered down after a week or so.
Astaroth had been one of the first to subscribe to the IV plan, since he intended to keep playing with his pod. If he could save money from it, he didn’t care who benefitted.
He also switched his gaming schedule to during the night, so he could stay busy during the day. That had affected his levelling speed, since he now played a bit less than before, but he didn’t care.
He had many pressing issues in the real world, for now, to worry about his levelling speed. After reaching the village, both he and Violette bade farewell, and went to their alcoves to disconnect.
Alexander woke up in his pod and went to take a shower. He checked his phone for messages and had none, so he ate breakfast and went about his day.
David had been sending him periodic updates on events to come that he needed to watch out for. One such event had been the crash of almost all other games that were currently in use.
All of them got massive bugs that started appearing, all of a sudden, making most of them unplayable. A lot of players from those games had at first blamed Evo-Gaming, saying it was a scheme to force them to play their game.
David had told him that Evo-Gaming was not responsible, and to keep playing the game. Some whiplash had happened to New Eden because of the accusations, but Alexander paid them no mind.
After his shower, Alexander watched the news for a few minutes, not finding anything strange or worth noting. He then got dressed in sports clothes.
One could see from his body shape that the training was already paying off. Muscle was starting to show through his skin, and what little fat he had around his stomach was all gone.
It had impressed his personal trainer, and he had praised him on his dedication, stating that most people that started such a harsh training regimen usually gave up after a week or two.
Alexander had laughed it off, trying not to show the man any worry. He wasn’t going to tell him that this was necessary for the future just yet.
A time would come when he would start warning people, but David kept telling him to wait. He always said the time was coming soon, but was never concise about it.
His trainer had offered him an extra exercise to add to his regimen after the second week. One that could be useful to his ‘End of the world’ training, he said, chuckling every time.
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But then he remembered a certain day in an alley, and that he killed monsters for hours on end almost every day now. So he said yes to the boxing lessons.
Of course, he wasn’t learning much at first, since he had never fought before. The basics were all he had learned in the past two weeks.
But anything was better than nothing. And yet, little did he know, these lessons were also helping him in-game.
His combat posture had slowly fine-tuned in the game and on the ring, making him steadier on his feet. It had also slowly sharpened his reflexes, even if only by a small margin.
His trainer, Clark, had told him after a session that boxing was something that could be used in everyday life, even when not fighting. It sharpened a lot of senses, and built up muscles less used in the body, giving better overall physical exertion.
Alexander had laughed at the thought at first, but he was slowly seeing a difference in his day-to-day activities. His posture was also getting better.
He had always been hunched because of all the time spent on a computer. But now, his shoulders were squaring up, and his back was straightening out.
He originally cared little, since it only made him less sore over time, but he noticed another difference. His new posture was attracting eyes.
He was building up mass, and with his posture becoming better, he looked bigger and taller than before. The women living in his apartment complex didn’t fail to notice, as he got more and more undesired stares.
‘I need to move out of here,’ He had thought one day, after a girl from across the hall had almost blocked him from entering his own home.
His apartment building wasn’t a bad one, but it wasn’t a good one either. And since he had started living better, getting nicer clothes, taking care of himself, and cooking actual food, people started noticing.
And most times, a better quality of life was associated with more money. And the single women in this building were now acting like seagulls over a fast-food parking lot.
Today was no different, only getting worse. A man had even confronted him, because his wife was staring at him too much.
Alexander decided that day he was going to move.
‘Tomorrow, I will call an agency. I need better lodgings.’