Chapter 3: 3 – Ping

“Aaaagh…”

The VR of today wasn’t perfect. It could only stimulate your vision and hearing, as well as read your movements to replicate them in-game. But anything more, like the sense of smell, touch, or… the weird pain of using a healing potion on your injured fingers, none of that was in the game.

“Ahh…”

The weird sensation finally ended and I was left with both of my hands healthy.

Yup, the healing potion I’d brought over to the real world… or rather, over to Earth, worked, no problem.

Still, just the fact that I could smuggle game items in here… Could I possibly make millions selling healing potions? No, that would definitely put a target on my back. Ugh…

But it would be such a waste to keep it all to myself…

Maybe I could anonymously donate a potion to some research facility? Would humanity make a breakthrough in medicine? Would it even be taken seriously? It would probably just be disposed of as some dangerous chemicals…

I sighed.

Let’s shelve that thought for now.

There were so many things in the game world that didn’t exist on Earth. Like magic. Unlike other games, RLO didn’t use mana for its magic system. Instead, there were runes and enchantments that enabled people to use magic. The teleport flower, for example, had a specific enchantment that teleported you to the Golden Woods.

Would the flower work even here? Could I teleport from anywhere on Earth to the game world with it?

So many questions.

I glanced at the portal again, laughing to myself.

Just a few minutes ago, I wanted to rip and tear these purple cracks apart. I wanted them to disappear and leave me alone. And now? I was enjoying having it around. Sure, getting shocked still sucked, but the possibilities this thing held were insane.

With my hands healed and plenty of time left till Mom returned to work, I logged into RLO again, teleported to my bank, picked out several potions and magical items, and then used the flower again to get back to the Woods.

I rushed back to the same spot.

…

But this time, there were people. Players. They were staring off into the forest. Right in the direction of…

I whirled around to look through the portal. My eyes locked with one of the guys ducking at the clearing, seemingly trying to get a better look at me.

I threw the chair aside as I stood up, rushed to the portal, grabbed it, and forced it shut again, ignoring the pain.

“Oh god…”

They clearly saw me. They saw the portal… my room.

…

That was… bad? Was it? They probably couldn’t see my face or my room all that well. Maybe they would think I was some kind of rare portal-creating NPC?

Maybe…

Either way. They had definitely been watching me. That confirmed that other people could, in fact, see the portals. Or at least, the player avatars could. Hmm, could they see the purple rim as well? I could check with my own avatar.

I grabbed my poor chair I’d knocked over and put it back into place before sitting on it. When I looked at my screen, I was already surrounded.

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“Hey did you see that?!” the knight with a scar on his face asked.

“Some crack in space? And then that dude closed it?” his companion in robes continued.

…

The players. Right. My avatar was right next to them. And they were talking to me in-game.

“She AFK,” the last person, a tall man with deer antlers, said.

Oh. Yes. Definitely. I was AFK. Dealing with portal nonsense.

“Hi…? What’s up?” I typed.

“Did you see that crack in space there?!” the scarred guy pointed in a direction.

I turned my camera to look, but I couldn’t see the purple rim at all. I probably had to use my own real eyes to see it then…?

“What? I don’t see anything. What crack?” I tried acting dumb.

“I think it’s a teaser for a boss or an event! Some interdimensional magician! Hell, it might even be an ARG,” the robed person speculated.

“I have no idea what you are talking about.”

“Well, whatever! I’m gonna check the forums. I bet there will already be something about it. See ya then cutie,” the scarred one said and they all swiftly left.

…

Jeez. Cutie? You shouldn’t say that to me just because I had a girl avatar.

Sighing in exasperation, I waited for them to be out of sight before continuing my smuggling mission. I triple-checked if there were any nearby players and dropped everything I’d brought.

Then, I turned around, approached the closed portal, steeled myself again, and grabbed it before ripping it open.

Still the same place in the forest. Good.

I dashed through the portal and made my way to all the goodies. My avatar still stood there whilst staring into space.

First order of business, I opened one of the potions and washed my hands with it to heal my fingers. One moment of weird pain later, I was good to go again.

I grabbed everything else into my arms and rushed back through the portal. I put everything on my bed before turning back to the portal and forcing it closed for the time being. I didn’t want any more people to notice this.

My fingers hurt, but it was nothing a bit of healing potion couldn’t solve.

Everything still felt surreal, but I couldn’t remember the last time I was having this much fun. To think the most hated objects in my life would bring me this much joy…

With my fingers healthy again, I looked over all the loot I smuggled.

Now then… There were still a good few hours before Mom came back. I was going to enjoy my home alone time as much as I could. This is going to be awesome.

I couldn’t stop the grin on my face anymore.