System Ascend

The game chamber

Maxim is a very cunning individual, he loves to hunt down players with low levels. He has two other players as his minions, they work together to hunt down low-ranked players and steal their valuables.

“They seem to be a small guild, Think we can take them down?” One of the minions asks Maxim.

“Didn't you see their name color? It was written in light red, which means their levels are between five and twenty. You two have ten and twelve levels and I have twenty-five. We can take those five people down. That base they have, we can sell it for one million zenny. That guild base is the most expensive one they have. Wonder how those low-ranked players were able to buy it. It doesn't matter, it will all be ours soon. Get ready, we will ambush them the moment they get weak after completing a mission.”

 Maxim says, smirking with satisfaction.“Roger, captain.” The minion, named Jiran, nods his head in understanding.  

Meanwhile, David and Lisa are greeted by the “Kitty Kat” Guild, led by their leader Steve.

“We used to have six members, but three of them left after we failed a mission and our treasures got stolen. Lisa was one of them, we are glad to have her back.” Steve tells the two.

Steve continues, “So anyway, we need you guys to help us out. We are going to participate in the new quest and claim that S ranked Holy sword. You two also want that, so we should work together. We will sell it and distribute the money among us. It might take a lot of days or weeks to complete the quest, we have a lot of competition. More than 15 guilds have already accepted the quest and many solo players are also participating. The greater the numbers, the better chance a guild will have to win it. Large guilds won't be participating as the distributed money will be very significant. Along with you two, we have five members. It is a good number and we have pretty good chances of winning it.”

Lisa smiled brightly at him, “Sure! This sounds like fun! Let's do this!” David just gives Steve an encouraging nod.

Steve and the others start celebrating with food and drinks. They will start working from the next day. It is dark and nighttime in the virtual world. It's usually the time when players log out of their accounts, as nighttime in the VR is daytime in the real world.

David logs out of his account and finds himself in the game chamber, inside the Z-Corp facility.

He is surprised to see all the people surrounding him, including the director of operations Melati. 

“That's some good friends you've made, Welcome back to the real world,” Melati tells him. She is smoking a cigar while pinching David on the cheeks.

David is kind of disappointed after logging out of the VR and seeing the real world. He enjoyed his time in System Ascend.

Melati congratulates David for successfully playing the game and getting to level 5 so fast. 

"There are many people who play the game nonstop but that is not so good for health. I suggest you come here to the facility every night and play for a couple of hours before logging out to keep up with your day-to-day activities.  That way if you encounter any issues during the game, you will know what to do and will have something to fall back on." Melati informs him.

Dave accepts her suggestion and thanks her again. 

“Do I have to come back here every night to access that world?” David asks politely.

“We inserted a chip inside your brain, you can access System Ascend with any other game chamber. But you should come here, we will help you level up and you will help us create a better environment in the VR.” 

David takes her advice and returns to college. It is all dull as usual. The bullies start approaching David and they get shocked to see David is in a completely good condition. They beat him up pretty badly last night, It shouldn’t be possible for all the bruises to go away so quickly unless he got some advanced medical care. David was poor and he shouldn’t be able to afford such medical care.

They again start using slang words to insult David and one of them even hits him on the head. David for the first time in his life successfully dodges one of the punches from his attacker. The bullies think it was just a fluke, so one of them throws another punch at him and David dodges it again. David throws a punch of his own and knocks down the attacker. David acted with his instinct and he was shocked by it. Though multiple people are too much for him to handle and he gets beaten up again.

After they leave him alone, David tightens his fist and thinks about what just happened.

“Did I get strong by playing that game?” David did get strong after coming out of the VR. All the training he did with Lily made his survival instinct stronger. David realizes that and vows to play System Ascend more and get stronger to tackle all of his problems in life. After finishing all the classes, he bumps into his crush while walking.

He chooses to ignore her as he knows that she is with the bullies. She tells him to stop but David ignores her. She follows David to the outside and when he gets out of the university campus, she stops David by holding his hand.

David asks her what she wants and gives her a mean look.

“I am sorry for what happened, I am not their accomplice. I do not support bullying, so I am sorry. That guy with red hair is my older brother, that is why I was with them.” She tells David.

David is surprised and also relieved that his crush is not among the bullies.

“That's some nice older brother you have.” David tells her and continues, “It's okay, I should get going.” David is nervous and his heart is beating faster than usual as he has feelings for her. David leaves and decides to go back to the old man who rescued him and use his game chamber.