CHAPTER 2

After receiving the quest reward, Jonas thought of leaving the premise and went to other places. He wanted to explore everything and see the image with his own two eyes first. It was really an entertaining pastime for the boy who was alone for so long. 

“Wait, boy. Can you hear what I have to say for a second.” Just as he was about to get out of the shop, Terka unusually sounded demure as he said in a mosquito-like voice. 

“Huh!” Jonas was shocked to silence, he had never seen such scene appearing no matter how many videos he had seen or blogs he had read of people who played this game from various angles. There was never a case where this cultist Terka would stop a player on his own accord, especially while sounding like a demure lady. 

Taking his silence and lack of movements as him agreeing, Terka continued, “Today is 5th of the month, the day I should be somewhere else. But… well, as you can see, I can’t leave the shop unattended. So, here it is, can you go in my stead and deliver this thing to one living there?” as soon as Terka finished, a blue box came to his field of vision with a new quest on it. 

[Quest 003: The Delivery Boy]

[Terka says that he should be delivering something to someone, but he couldn’t leave his shop during the day. Bring the item to the one living on the address whose coordinates are thus(xx; xxx; xxx).]

[Rewards]

- 5 Relationship points

- +50 EXP

[Accept/Deny]

“What the hell?” a delivery quest was never seen emerging from Terka, no matter how many videos he had seen. So, what’s happening here? Although Jonas was curious, he was even more happy as not everything was predictable. An element of mystery and unknown was still maintained. 

“Can you do it, boy… think of it as a payment for those clothes I have provided.” Terka continued without concerning about his lack of response. 

“Accept! Of course, I will accept it! Who wouldn’t do so?” no only he would be getting 5 relationship increase with this cultist, he would also be getting 50 exp points, which were very necessary for him to level up. Currently, the only monsters of his level players could hunt were those wild dogs which the uncle on the east side of village would give out as quests. Not only it was hard to kill them, killing one would only give out at most 4 EXP points. On the contrary, just a single delivery would allow him to gain 50 exp points; equivalent to killing close to 12 such dogs. 

Jonas was very happy at getting such a shortcut. 

His happy mood instantly vanished as Terka continued his explanations after he had accepted the quest. 

“Boy, the path is filled with monsters, not those wild dogs, but real monsters tainted by the evil of the world. You have to be careful to not get caught by them. Also, that pack must be delivered by tomorrow morning, or else there will be a lot of trouble for me. Got it? I wish you luck, believe me, boy, you need it.” As soon as Terka finished with his ominous message, a notification popped. 

[A change occurred to the accepted quest. Now you have to finish the quest within a time frame.]

[The time starts from now. Remaining time: 23h:47m:20s]

“Wha!? Fuck!! Terka, you damn bastard… no not you, GM, you motherfucker…” strings of curses emerged from Jonas’ mouth. He might be only 14, but still, he had a rich vocabulary thanks to the life he led until that accident. He hurriedly opened his quest panel to reject the quest, but to his horror, he couldn’t. Forget about a warning message, he couldn’t even see a quest declining button or prompt on the whole screen. 

“Scam! This is a high leveled scam!!” clutching his head in anger, Jonas rolled around to show his frustrations. He couldn’t beat the NPC as it would lead to a decline of his hard-earned relationship points and getting detention in-game by the city guards. He briefly tried to punch the ground, but as It hurt like hell, he stopped doing that after three tries. It's only after a few minutes that he was able to accept his situation that probably(?) so unique that he might enter the hall-of-fame record of the game. 

“Sigh! Let's do it then… it's not like I am going to get penalties for dying before reaching level 10 anyway. And I also don’t have any equipment which would drop… so…! Huh! Wait a minute… is this quest given taking those conditions into consideration as well?” as such, Jonas was able to somehow made up his mind and started to follow in the path shown on the map after clicking on the coordinates. 

The place he should be going was still marked ?? on the map even with the coordinates given by Terka. The path he had to take was the one which was to the east side of the village, covered in a thick forest named ‘Corrupted Forrest’ which according to Terka, was filled with real powerful high-level monsters. 

Since the game was already running for 1 year, the restriction of newbie players couldn’t leave the village before acquiring their Jobs was long since lifted by the GMs. As such, even a level 0 player like him could leave the village and go to a place unknown. 

Going through the gates of the east side of the village, Jonas looked unusually giddy and expectant to what he was going to experience. With the realization that nothing will happen even if he dies, Jonas had nothing to fear and such ventured into the forest… and died within the first 10 seconds by a slimy monster that ambushed him out of nowhere. 

Respawning inside the village, he tried once again… and died once again this time it took him 15 seconds as he was able to avoid the ambush of the monster and cover some distance while at it. 

The third time he carefully avoided but still died sooner than the first time, at a recorded time of 5 seconds due to falling into a thorny monster’s trap. 

Fourth time… he was ganged up by a group of wolves and killed by ripping into shreds. 

Fifth…

Sixth…

Tenth…

“This is impossible!” shouted Jonas loudly as he again resurrected after dying for the 50th time. His face was flushed with all the setbacks he had been enduring all this time, the variety of ways of death… it was enough to give any 14 years old boy a long nightmare. Thankfully he wasn’t just any 14 years old guy. 

Just before he could rage anymore, a notification came shutting him up. 

[Congratulations player Walker! You have achieved a never before achievement and thus can register your name in the hall of the fame records.]

[You have achieved the record of fastest and maximum deaths on the first day of logging in. your name is now forever recorded.]

[Reputation increased by 1000 in all cities and villages.]

[Note! Reputation is fundamentally different from Relationship as such this will not affect your relationship with NPCs]

[Since you have created a hall of fame record, the first day of logging in, it is in a record of itself. The system is providing you with a Bonus Reward. Have a happy playing.]

“Wonder if I should be happy or sad! I died so many times that it became a hall of fame record of a game that has been running for a year. Sigh!!! Time is also running out… I wonder what bonus I got…” 

With just thought, the status screen appeared on his field of vision, and the inventory box also appeared attached to it. There he saw a brown duffle bag on one of the previously empty slots. Giddily he touched it with his finger as a white light shined from it. 

[You have received a Lower HP potion x10.]

[All your stats increased by 5 points.]

That’s it. 

Until one reaches level 10 and gets a job, each level up will give out 5 attribute points. Which the player is free to assign to any stats he or she wants. By contrast, his stats all increased by 5, which was equivalent to 8 level ups. Even before gaining 1 EXP, Jonas already had 8 level-up worth of stats. And Jonas, as an avid player of games, knew it too. 

“So just by dying this many times already made me this strong?” it wasn’t much of a surprise as what he got was the lowest possible reward to a hall of the fame record holder, but of course, he didn’t know it yet. 

“I hope this time I cover more distance than last…” 

[Time remaining: 20h:41m:01s]