5 Shift

     I woke up after the sun pierced through my eyelids, it's rays nearly blinding me. I rolled over and shut the blinds to get rid of the light. Placing my feet on the ground, I stood up and scratched my head. A yawn traveled through my body and was released, relieving the build up tension in my body. 

     Mornings are always the same at my place, the sun being my alarm clock. I never bothered to buy one since there's a natural one right there on the other side of my window. I don't cook either, so I just get microwavable breakfast stuff to eat. It's not like I can't cook, I'm pretty decent at it, I'd just rather get things done faster. I walk into the kitchen and open the fridge. It's cluttered but I can maneuver through the mess to get what I need. It has your basic stuff like soda, milk, orange juice, tea, packaged meat, vegetables, and some fruit. My freezer is the home to things like ice cream, packages of chicken tenders and french fries, and the microwavable breakfasts. It's either a breakfast burrito or a breakfast bowl. 

     "Damn. I can't choose." I said to myself. It might have been a simple choice for some people, but this is a mental battle every day. I shook my head and grabbed a breakfast bowl and put it into the microwave above the oven.

     While that's going for a bit, I usually start a mini workout routine. It just consists of 20 pull-ups on the bar I have in the hallway, 25 push-ups, and I even dabble with the weights I have in the corner of my bedroom. By the time I'm done with the pull-ups, breakfast is ready. 

     I sat down on the floor, next to my mat which I use for my push-ups. The bowl itself is pretty standard with scrambled eggs, cheese, bacon, and hashbrowns. Despite its simplicity, it's good. After I drink a bit of my water and finish up breakfast, I begin to do my pushups. 

     At school, I was pretty decent at the physical activities in the gym. Push-ups are the easiest for me. If I wanted to, I could go for 50, but I had other things to do, so doing half of that was good enough for me. I don't rush these, though. Doing that would just make me run out of stamina, making it harder to push myself back up. Not long after that, I go back to my bedroom and grab the weights, and I start lifting them a couple times. I honestly just go for as long as I can with that arm and keep going with the other until that gets tired. 

     "Should probably do this a little faster. I gotta meet with Veronica soon."

     While I made my way to the bathroom, I pulled out my phone and texted her. All I said was when and where we'd meet. Since it was 8:30 in the morning, I just said to meet at around noon and near the park beside my apartment building. I went into the bathroom. 

     Before I get into the shower, I brush my teeth, floss, and rinse with mouthwash. I undress and walk into the shower. It was a simple one. It had white walls, a snow white porcelain sink, toilet, and bathtub. I had to step in the bathtub which had the shower head above it. 

     I turned the knob over and allowed the water to get hot enough to my liking, then pull the lever up on the top of it to have the water shoot from the shower head rather than the faucet. 

     As I'm in the shower, I start thinking back to what happened last night. 

     "I easily could have died even if that thing just grazed me. It's definitely not something Veronica and I need to come back to as soon as possible. Without the proper equipment, all we can rely on is our skills. At least we know the weakness."

     "I wonder if enchantments are possible… that's something I'll have to look into. But right now, I need to discuss with Veronica. We need a gameplan. I'll definitely be playing later today, but I need to know places for us to grind out levels. Last I checked, my level was raised to 3 after completing the quest. Like all RPGs, the EXP it takes to level up gets higher and higher. But it drastically raised when I got to level 3. It started asking for 1,000 experience. Now it makes me anxious for what I need to get to level up."

     I finished up showering, got out, and dried myself off. My hair ended up being a mess as always but I took a brush to it to make it look a little nicer. The steam that was produced clouded up the mirror. I finished up everything and walked out with a new outfit consisting of a black t-shirt and jeans. Right in the living room is my PC. It was a simple dual monitor setup with a pretty good PC I can use to play pretty much anything without much problem.

     "It's been a bit, so I should start finding some forums talking about where to go for grinding. Maybe finding some good quests? Whatever I happen to come across, it should be worth it." I thought. I put up a document for taking notes. All I did as copy and paste the things people said that I found interesting. 

     Outside of the city, there is this hotspot a large amount of the player base had found. A lot of low level monsters and a couple decently high ones spawn there. There were even a few starting quests people found useful. "Huh… you unlock skills as a reward for some quests." People even reported on getting the same skills. "Huh… could there be a class change system? You can only have one character unless you delete it. I could only assume that there was such a system. I'd have to wait to even get a class until I'm level 5. "I should ask Veronica if she got the same option." 

     The longer I delved into it, apparently reports of an "earthquake" happened during the game for no reason. Even a few people posted screenshots of an area in the sewer with a hole in the wall. "Wait a second. . ." 

     "Quests permanently affect the area?" 

     That is some crazy level of realism. I never expected something like this. No one mentioned anything about the Ogre, which made me nervous. "Dammit. It escaped." 

     I got up from my desk and printed out the document. I folded it and stuffed it into my back pocket. I took too much time researching so it was already almost noon. I grabbed my phone and walked out of my apartment and immediately ran downstairs. It didn't take long for me to get down to the ground floor and walk out the front door. The park was just down the road. 

     "Okay. Lead up with something like 'Hey, how's it going', or 'Sleep well'? No." I was struggling to find something good to lead up with. After countless attempts in my head, I was practically playing the scenes out in my head, I just stopped after realizing I walked past the park. I immediately retraced my steps. The park itself was for people of all ages, with playgrounds galore and beautiful scenery consisting of flower beds, hedges cut to take the shape of bears, deer, and birds. After a bit of looking around, I found Veronica sitting on a bench in front of the fountain in the very center of the park. She was sitting with her hands in her lap, wearing a dark blue jacket over a gray shirt with a matching dark blue skirt to compliment her jacket. Her orange hair was tied in a braid that went over her shoulder. I tapped the top of her head since her eyes were focused on the ground by her feet. She was startled at first but smiled and stood up, then she wrapped her arms around me and gave me a hug. "T-this is… a little sudden, don't you think?" I asked, tripping over my words. "Nope! We're friends, aren't we?" My eyes widened at that question. I was surprised and confused.

     Why was I getting happy all of a sudden? I shook my head and couldn't help but smile for some reason. I nodded and said, "Yeah." It was simple, but it got a reaction from her. Her smile got ten times bigger. 

     "So. What'd you wanna talk about?" Veronica released her tight hold around my body and sat back down. I sat next to her and pulled out the piece of paper. 

     "I got some ideas."