Chapter 57 - Preparing for the First Dungeon

Richard’s friend arrived for the interview. His name was John, and sure enough, his personality was quite similar to Richard’s.

He was the type of person Arthur would like to have as security.

"You play too?" Arthur asked. "Don’t tell me you also picked Aldora Kingdom and you’re a Cinder fan."

John looked surprised. "What? How do you know? Don’t tell me Richard told you we’re Cinder fanboys."

When he said that, Arthur had to shoot a glare at Richard, who was standing near the door with his arms crossed.

"Hey, we’re not fanboys at all," Richard complained from across the room. "We just think he’s a good player. Skilled and mysterious, that’s all. Fanboys is a strong word to describe us."

It was pretty clear that Richard was in denial, while his friend John had already accepted the fact that they were fanboys.

"And like I told Richard, you two should share an apartment in my building. There’s one for rent."

Arthur explained the details. The rent wasn’t bad, so they accepted.

They were confused, though. Arthur wanted two bodyguards, paid ten grand a month for each, had an office in a rich building, and still lived in a simple apartment.

They didn’t ask.

’In time, I’ll figure him out,’ Richard thought.

As soon as the interviews were over, the two started working. Both walked alongside Arthur as he left the building. The lady who had rented him the room waved and gave him a gentle smile as he passed.

The treatment was different now. That much was clear. He called a car and went to his apartment.

"I’ll give you the number so you can talk about renting the apartment," Arthur said once they got out of the car and stopped in front of the building. "This is where I live."

It wasn’t a bad building. It just didn’t match the image Arthur had given them.

A resident came out and saw him with the two tall men. A drunkard. The kind of guy who always wanted trouble.

He’d come down to take out the trash. When he saw Arthur, he walked over.

"Who are these two? You’re being taken to jail, is that it? They look like FBI agents or something."

The man got close. John stepped in front of Arthur.

"Step back, please," he said.

The man backed off the moment John’s hand touched his chest.

"What’s this? Are you defending your boyfriend or what?"

Arthur didn’t react. It wasn’t worth it.

"Let’s go up," Arthur said. "Ignore him."

"Yes, sir," John and Richard replied.

As they entered the building, the man watched them go, wondering why those two called Arthur "sir." What was he missing? Wasn’t this a building for people with simple lives?

Anyway, as soon as he entered his apartment, a complete mess with clothes scattered around and a pizza box on the dinner table, Arthur went straight to the bedroom to change. He took off the suit. Uncomfortable. He put on something loose to wear at home.

"Much better," Arthur said as soon as he came out of the bedroom. "So, you already know how this works. I usually game for 10 hours straight, and I need security 24/7."

"Richard takes the first 6 hours, then John comes in for 6, then back to Richard. Better than 12 hours in a row. Only downside is you two won’t get to play together. At least not for now. But down the line, I can hire another guard. Or maybe I won’t need one at all."

Arthur was being stalked. Possibly by the same person who killed him in his past life. So yeah, he needed 24-hour security.

Maybe he could scale it back to just his gaming sessions, when he was helpless. He wasn’t sure yet. But for now, full-time security.

Risking death a second time wasn’t an option.

’I can’t believe I get another chance at life.’

Getting one chance already was great, but two? Practically impossible.

Arthur wanted to return to the game. It was already the afternoon, so taking too long to log in wasn’t the best idea.

"I’ll just chill on the couch," John said. "I’ve got my laptop here. Good thing I brought it. And I’ll take care of sorting out the apartment for us."

Richard thanked his friend. "Nice. Do that for us."

He opened the apartment’s fridge and grabbed a bottle of beer.

"Mind if I have a beer?" Richard asked Arthur before he started playing.

"No problem, just don’t get drunk. Keep an eye out for anything weird in the hallways, at the windows, if you spot someone on the street, etc. But stay discreet, so it might be best to change out of those clothes."

They were still wearing the formal clothes from the job interview.

With everything sorted, Arthur went to his bedroom, closed the curtains, and locked the door. He lay down on his bed, put on his game helmet, and entered the game.

Within seconds, he opened his eyes, his body returning to the forest where he had camped with Point Blank.

She was already there, waiting for him.

"Why did you take so long?" Point Blank asked the moment she saw him. "I was getting worried. You always play at the same times."

True. Up until that point, Arthur had been keeping a fixed schedule and logging in around the same time. But with the interviews, he ended up changing that.

There was also no reason to be so strict about it. As long as he got his 10 hours of play in for the day, that was what mattered most.

It was late when he logged in.

"I had to take care of some personal stuff," Arthur replied, without giving many details about what he’d been doing.

He looked around and noticed it was late. By his calculations, it should’ve been night.

"The afternoon?" he said.

Point Blank nodded. "I noticed that too, but apparently the company had to do some maintenance on the game and ended up changing the in-game time."

"Oh? Really?"

Maintenance wasn’t that strange. Arthur had seen plenty of it during his first life playing the game. But it wasn’t that routine, and it certainly wasn’t common for it to happen so early after the game launched.

His memory was excellent, especially when it came to game information. The first maintenance, in his first life, only happened 2 months after the game launched. Which meant something was already changing.

And there was the tournament he’d been invited to as well. The first tournament also took longer to happen.

Could his presence be changing that timeline that much? Was that even possible?

"And what did you do during that time?"

Arthur had no idea how many hours Point Blank had played before he showed up.

"I killed some monsters, but when I saw you weren’t showing up, I decided to log out and come back later. It’s only been about 20 minutes since I got on."

"Smart."

There was no reason for her to stand around doing nothing and waste her precious daily hours of gameplay waiting for him. She did the right thing by logging out.

Anyway, with the two of them back in the game, and now at level 15, Arthur already had his next goal in mind, which was to go to Imra and get the quest that would unlock the level 15 dungeon for them to access.

Well, it wasn’t exactly a level 15 dungeon, but level 20. The first level 15 dungeon would be unlocked near the city of Snow Pine, in the catacombs beneath the church.

The dungeon they were heading to was a secret one that took players a while to find. And it was a dungeon with level 20 monsters.

"Let’s go back to the elven settlement and get the quest," Arthur said as he took down the tent he’d slept in, putting all the items back in his inventory.

Point Blank agreed, and also pulled a piece of meat on a stick from her inventory. She had cooked it for him.

"You’re probably hungry."

Arthur checked his needs bar and sure enough, his character was already hungry.

"Thanks."

He ate that skewer during the walk back to the elven settlement. As soon as he arrived, however, Arthur quickly noticed that the atmosphere of the place felt different. Something had changed.

One of the elves came over to talk to him. It was the same one who had followed him last time.

"It seems the invaders are getting close to our settlement," the elf said. "Are you still willing to fight and defend the place with us?"

"Of course," Arthur replied.

He had already accepted the mission before, and he wasn’t going to run away. Facing those invaders would surely give him good rewards.

The elves who were good at combat began forming groups, each led by a different captain. Arthur was being led by the elf who had followed him that time.

Imra came to talk to him as well, and as soon as she noticed he was at level 15, she mentioned that dungeon, but still didn’t give him the quest.

"I want to talk to you about something later," she said, "but first, let’s deal with the invaders."

And it didn’t take long for a group of soldiers to get close to the elven settlement.

Arthur was excited as hell.

’I’ll be the first player to kill soldiers from the neighboring kingdom. Let the war begin.’