Chapter 6: A Small Cooking Break

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When I logged out, I found myself alone in my home and it must be around 5 PM so my daughter was about to come back  soon. I needed to quickly go cook something for her!

I quickly sat down over the bed as I sighed, my body felt heavier than it felt in the game… Ah, I will have to get used to the difference in weight that there is between reality and game.

But I already missed those beautiful trees and the cute squirrel.

“They were really so cute weren’t they?” I said aloud.

But there was no answer.

I smiled ruefully as I stretched some more and then I moved outside my bed. I  suddenly missed talking with the guide That little orb was there for anything I ever wondered about. He was almost like a friend.

However  in reality, I only got this weird automated A.I. that was seriously not person-like.

“Ahh… I am so hungry…”

I walked outside of my room and ran into the kitchen and turned the TV on. I started to  take out some ingredients from the freezer.

“Hmm… Minced meat, onions, garlic… How about some pepper? And rice… I am going to make mommy’s special homemade hamburger! My dear always like these…” I sighed.

As I used the TV as background noise to not feel alone, I began putting the things over the kitchen table and then I checked my phone. I sent a message to my dear princess.

[Elena, my love, are you already out of the school? Come quickly so you can eat with mommy]

[Elena is writing…]

Oh, she read it fast!

[I told you I was going to Anna’s house. Why do you always forget everything?]

Ah…

She was so cold… I had forgotten because I ended up spending too much mind energy in the game.

Right… she was going to spend the rest of the day in her friend’s house, and probably pass the night there too as it is already the weekend.

I guess I’ll see her tomorrow morning…

I sighed. I will be all alone today as well, I guess…

I quickly sent her another text apologizing for forgetting.

[Okay… Sorry… Take care. I love you. Tell Anna that I am grateful for her and her family to welcome you in their home. Make sure to always be polite with the people there, okay?]

[Ok]

Ah… She always responded “ok” all the time… It was so hurtful! Why couldn't she just say “Okay mom” at the very least? Sigh…

And like that, I ended up all alone.

I put some rice in the rice-maker, and began to cut the onions, garlic, and colorful pepper into tiny pieces, which I mixed with the minced meat.

I added some salt, black pepper, and a few other mixed spices into it.

“I wish Acorn could taste this hamburger…”

I began mixing the meat until my hands ended shrouded in the scent of the spices, the onion, garlic, and pepper. After that, I made tiny hamburgers and covered them in some flour.

“I guess I can save some in the freezer and fry them tomorrow for her… That’ll do! I will wrap them with some plastic foil first… And then put them in the freezer…”

I quickly did as I said and saved the rest of the hamburgers. Meanwhile, the oil was already boiling, so I put three small hamburgers in there and they began to slowly fry.

They’re more like croquets than hamburgers, but my grandmother who was Mexican always called them “hamburguesas” and not “croquetas”… I guess it was her way of making them, so I cannot blame her, they’re tasty, nonetheless.

I sat down over the chair. After I washed my hands, I opened my laptop and began tapping the keys, searching for any basic info about New Life Online I had missed. There were a lot of things I had not bothered researching before I began playing…

I found a lot of new info as I researched in the official forums. There was apparently a special town where everyone  teleported into, named Beginning Town, which was accessible through the Game’s Menu. In that town, I would be able to meet with many players right away!

But would I be able to find my daughter there? I don’t know…

This town was a special town that was often used for the game special events, Christmas events, new year events, Halloween, and so on, it even changed in appearance depending on the events going on. The forum said  I could buy interesting items there in the market, where people from all over the game sold what they made for gold coins.

It seemed that the game lacked normal shops where you could constantly buy items from NPC,. The NPC themselves also made the items and they didn’t  magically produce them infinitely, so you had to find really well to locate a good shop, and sometimes it even ran out of items.

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Interesting… it had a lot of realistic aspects.

Also, there were a lot of Classes and Races! There were the normal Classes such as Human, Elves, Dwarves, Beast-kin (Wolf, Bear, Fox, Cat, Sheep, etc.), and Giants.

Even Giants had variety, they could be three different kinds, Ice Giant, Fire Giant, and Mountain Giant… but each class comes with advantages and disadvantages, there are no true all-rounders that can do everything without difficulties.

But there were also other classifications of races, such as the Mystical Races namely Spirits… I am a Dryad, so I was  cataloged as a Forest Spirit, but there are also Fire Spirits named Fiere, Water Spirits named Nymph, and so on.

So I really was a Spirit! I needed to check my Skills when I got back to the game… And… there was another thing, the Monster Races, which had more categories and one of the biggest ones were the Undead.

Monsters races came in all shapes and sizes, there were werewolves, vampires, ghouls, zombies, skeletons… wow, were they really similar to a human body? There were the Dragon-kin too. Wait, weren't these more like demi-humans? It seemed like it was all just mixed up.

There were Goblins, Orcs, Oni, and even Trolls and Ogres… Wow, there was just everything, wasn't it? I might one day find a player with a weird race, and I might even think they’re a monster!

And Job Classes… too many, I couldn’t really list them all… But there were indeed some very weird classes, such as the Machinery Engineer, the Buccaneer, Bandit… Wait, bandit?! There was  a bandit class! What was this?

I thankfully took the Farmer Class, it seemed like it was exactly what I wanted to do in the game, it came with the basics for a lot of Production-based Classes and its Job advancements always improved the quality of life. I could even settle down in the forest and make it my home, while I also traveled around the world of the game and teleported back home from time to time.

I could even raise sheep and become a shepherd! That sounded fun.

Frrssshhh…!

“Ah! The croquets!”

I quickly took them out, but one of them ended up a bit too burnt… I was going to eat it anyway. I didn't like to waste food. I served myself some white rice, and then I cut some tomatoes and lettuce, and I was ready to eat.

“Hmm! Food always tastes better when you’re very hungry…” I sighed happily.

I ate everything in just about ten minutes and ended up completely filled.

“Hahh… I think I ate a bit too fast though…” I sighed.

I went to the bathroom and then took a warm bath to relax. I don’t think I’ll be leaving my room until it was very late for dinner, and was probably just going to eat some instant noodles since my  daughter won’t come home to eat.

With all said and done, I continued researching a bit more over my bed, and found out there was a Cash Shop in the game where one could spend real life money.

Ah, so there was indeed monetization stuff, so unfair! So the rich could get anything they want, huh?

But as I read it more. I was wrong. Actually, they couldn’t get everything they wanted. All things in the cash shop didn’t really give advantages to people in terms of levels, stats, and other things.

They were mostly cute clothes, weapon skins, monster pet eggs, food, and other utensils. They also sold territories?! And you could even buy a house in the game in certain areas! Oh… Maybe I could use some money to purchase an area for me? But I needed to save it for my daughter’s college… I better stay as a free to play player.

Though I remembered that my friend said that one can make money in the game… How come?

I researched and it seems that you could grind gold and sell it by the billions for some hundreds of dollars, and then there was a more advanced market where you could sell special rare items that could only be crafted with special items and by only very experienced crafters, alchemists, and more…

Wow… I wonder if I could make one of these legendary-looking items and sell it off one day? The most common and easiest to make-looking item that was being sold is named “Spell Trace” which was something made by alchemists, and it was a piece for a spell scroll that were used to enhance items and give them bonuses randomly…

By using 20 of them, you could create a spell scroll and enhance an item to give them random bonuses… I see… that’s a bit of “random”… I don’t like it as much. But they sold like hot cakes.

Well, if I ever learned how to make some, I was going to find a way to sell them off. Maybe I can get some extra money that way? It wouldn't be bad.

There was then some stuff about a metagame or whatever… Mostly very hardcore players that talked about PvP matches. “Bossing” which was simply heading off to kill boss monsters every day for some reason to get loot and accumulate money to keep growing stronger, and stuff like that.

I didn’t really care about anything of the sort, the game really looked way too realistic to care about weird things like those in my opinion. I was already  happy with interacting with the NPC and helping them out to be honest… How could these people not care about all these people and all this world? The only thing they were obsessed with is dealing millions of damage to a Boss monster…

…Yet they can’t even defeat the new World Boss yet.

Anyways, enough researching for today, I quickly put on the VR headset and dived into the game once more after making sure everything was fine outside.

…

When I opened my eyes again, I found myself inside of the Elder’s house, Acorn was sitting over a chair reading a book about alchemy, it seemed.

“Ah! Lady Planta, you’re back! That was quick, you only took an hour like you said.” Said Acorn. “Did you eat?”

“Yes, I did, now I feel fine… Let’s go search for the items then! What is the closest to here?” I wondered. “I hope it is not killing Dark Beasts…”

“Oh, no, Dark Beasts are scattered everywhere so we’ll have to search for them for a while… But I know where the mushrooms are, please, follow me!” said Acorn.

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