VRMMORPG - Chapter 8 (Patreon)

Note: Unfinished chapter

Suri and Aurelia eventually came back with a few sets of clothes. They seemed eager to see Hugo in them, but he rejected their advances to help him dress, disappearing into a room and throwing what he chose on.

In this game world, there were players who became tailors and created all kinds of exotic clothing. Some even produced clothing from Earth, but the fantasy clothing was still the most worn. Not many people wanted to bring the real world into the game, instead indulging in the foreign realm.

So naturally, Hugo’s clothes were a set one would easily find the natives of this world wearing. Only, some sets were much nicer than normal. It seemed Suri and Aurelia wouldn’t settle for less than luxury.

But Hugo chose the more modest clothing. He didn’t want to stand out. After all, he didn’t come to this game world to flaunt any kind of status. Where was the fun in that?

With that, Hugo left the room in a presentable wardrobe.

After that, everyone gathered around a few couches. The executives of Archive could finally discuss their plans.

“Alright, I’ll lay out my plans clearly.”

Hugo spoke first, as he should being the head.

“I didn’t come here to be boosted to the top. I want to fight my way up and better myself along the way. I’ve come to explore this world, to make friends, and have fun while doing it. So until I at least reach your levels, I likely won’t be asking for any kind of help. Although, intelligence is more than appreciated. I’ve been reclused for a year. I don’t know very much.”

“We can definitely help you with that. But we also don’t want to just dump you into the hunting fields.”

“Well, that might just be what I have you do.”

Hugo smiled at Aurelia’s concern.

“But I still might have you help me in other ways. For example, my Celestial Knife obviously isn’t from this continent. I may need to travel to the Celestial Continent and I can’t do it alone. I would need Alexander to take me.”

“About that, boss.”

Alexander chimed in at that moment.

“We’ve talked about the same thing, and until you reach Level 50 and get your class, we feel you shouldn’t go anywhere. We can decide what to do once we figure out what your class is.”

“That’s reasonable. Then that’s what I’ll do.”

“So until then, you have nothing to do other than hunting and doing quests. In that case, we should give you a few things and set you free.”

With those words, everyone suddenly started pulling up their status menus. Because they willed it, Hugo could see what they were doing.

After a few commands, huge maps appeared on their screens.

“First, accept all our friend requests.”

[Alert: FireFox (Suri) has requested to be your friend.]

[Alert: GameMechanic (Tanya) has requested to be your friend.]

[Alert: Major (Moses) has requested to be your friend.]

[Alert: Queen Bee (Aurelia) has requested to be your friend.]

[Alert: Sophos (Alexander) has requested to be your friend.]

[Alert: SurferDude400 (Garet) has requested to be your friend.]

Hugo received notifications from everyone and quickly accepted them all. They received notifications as well.

[Alert: Hugo (Hugo) has accepted your friend request.]

Everyone looked at him weirdly.

“Really? No cool user name?”

“You could've named yourself anything else.”

They snickered a bit, causing Hugo to point at Garet.

“Hey, at least it’s better than his.”

“Huh? What’s wrong with mine?”

“Nothing, SurferDude400. Your user name is perfect.”

Alexander pat Garet’s shoulder, causing him to roll his eyes.

“Alright, alright. Share your maps with Hugo.”

Saying that, the maps that were in front of everyone flashed. Hugo received a flurry of notifications.

Then, he opened his own map.

On it was a view of dozens of landmarks from major cities to hidden dungeons. There were tons of data on these maps, much of which couldn’t even be bought.

And it wasn’t just on one continent. Hugo had map data from the other two continents as well.

All this data was definitely very valuable. It even had personal notes placed by everyone, detailing things like good hunting grounds or dungeons and their boss loot.

Hugo was very satisfied with this. Technically this was all stuff he could find online, but it would take a lot of digging and a lot of compiling.

He had saved many hours of work with this map alone.

“Thank you everyone.”

“Of course. Now you just need to decide on your weapon of choice and start hunting. You should be able to hit level 50 pretty quick. No more than two weeks with the right guidance. Oh! I could bring you to my guild’s low level hunting grounds. They’re one of the best.”

Suri brightened up while thinking of fast ways for Hugo to grind up his level.

Guilds had their own hunting grounds, all of which were claimed through force. Naturally they were some of the best hunting grounds in the game, and there were precise methods that they had their low level recruits use to increase their level quickly.

Suri, being a part of a big guild, naturally knew all these places and methods. She could easily drag Hugo over there.

And nobody objected, agreeing that Suri’s method was best.

Hugo nodded as well.

“Alright. I’ll follow your lead then. As for my weapon, I have no idea. Hey Child.”

Hugo called, and amazingly, the Child appeared in front of him.

The little girl tilted her head while standing before Hugo.

“Yes?”

“What weapon fits your martial arts?”

“Technically any weapon would work. But I recommend the knife. Here.”

Suddenly, a knife manifested within the Child’s hand. She tossed it to Hugo.

Hugo caught it, and the child disappeared.

Aurelia gawked.

“The perks of being the boss…”

“Well, I have my weapon. I’m resting before doing anything though. See you all later.”

With that, Hugo quickly logged out. He was fatigued from the torture earlier in the day and wanted actual rest.

The others understood, so they didn’t disturb him.

The group of executives stayed around for a bit and discussed some things before getting some rest themselves.

………

……

It was only two days later that Hugo returned.

After taking a day to rest, Hugo also took a day to refresh his body with an excruciating workout. By now, his body had been so conditioned that not working out felt worse than working out.

Thankfully, he could still spend the majority of the day within the game. This was thanks to a few special serums.

Each Artifact had other functions besides allowing someone to play The Ascent. As people were within the game for upwards of 20 hours a day, there had to be special serum dispensers that allowed them to receive nutrients even while playing.

One major company, Pharma Co., was the largest manufacturer of serums of all types. Their serums ranged from standard nutrient serums to recovery serums like what Hugo used during and after workouts.

Their nutrient serums had many different grades and types, but regardless, just about every Artifact was equipped with dispensers that belts of these serum canisters could be loaded into, allowing a player to remain within their Artifact for as long as their bladder allowed.

But it went even further than that! There were specially made suits that allowed one’s body to automatically dispose of waste, meaning they didn’t need to take restroom breaks during their game.

And if that wasn’t enough, Pharma Co also had sleep serums that basically cured sleep. Though, completely bypassing sleep was something only the best serums could achieve. The others simply allowed one to go several days without sleep, the better ones maxing out at about a week.

Of course, most people didn’t have access to these serums, so sleep was something they either had to plan for or face the consequences of when in game. This meant that dungeon raids were quite a bit more perilous if they took longer than a few days.

Food was also factored into the game. For example, one’s body would only get a dose of nutrient serum if they ate in game food. Of course, if it got dangerous, the Artifact would dose them anyway. But that point would only be reached after a player was feeling like a starved beggar. Basically, they needed to eat, and they would feel real feelings of satisfaction by eating.

It was a very effective system that made the game feel even closer to reality.

It was these serums that allowed Hugo to spend a majority of his time in game while still working out. He could spend 21 hours in game and the other three hours of the day working out, repeating this cycle without sleep.

He had used the sleep serums during the torture too since he was only allowed to exit the Artifact for a couple of hours each day.

Now…

Hugo was outside and preparing to start hunting.

The knife he was given by the Child was a basic knife, nothing more than a blade forged of iron. As the Child wasn’t one to let Hugo have an easy time, as evidenced by the week of torture he had to withstand, she naturally didn’t give him anything good. The knife would probably lose its edge after killing several monsters. A cooking knife would be better than what he had.

But what Hugo liked most about the knife was its status screen.

Iron Knife

Grade: Common

Damage: Tier 1

The product of an apprentice Blacksmith’s daily warmup. Worth more as scrap metal than as a knife.

Hugo naturally didn’t like the words about how worthless this knife was. Instead, he finally got a glimpse into how the game classified its items.

Each Item had a grade. Common, Uncommon, Rare, etc.

The item's grade determined how well it was made and the power contained within. Naturally, Common grade was the lowest and meant that the Iron Knife was hardly worth anything.

But what was interesting was how the damage was classified.

Not all damage was equal. As this game was no different from reality, damage couldn’t be expressed purely in numbers. Therefore, damage had Tiers that it was graded by.

Each Grade, like Common, had their own Tier list. For example, a Common weapon could have either Tier 1 damage or Tier 10 damage. An Uncommon weapon could also have Tier 1 or 10 damage.

The Tier represented how good that item was within its grade. Naturally, the higher the better.

But the Iron Knife was at the bottom of its Tier, meaning that it was the worst among common items.

Just seeing the status screen was more valuable than this knife. Perhaps only a slice of bread was worth less than this blade.

Regardless, Hugo was going to hunt with it. Perhaps then he could get the money in order to get a better weapon.

“Perks of being the boss my ass.”

Hugo grumbled while making his way to a hunting ground.

After he walked beyond the city walls and into a forest marked on his map, he quickly encountered one of his executives.

“Hugo!”

Suri waved in the distance.