9. DON'T BE BANDITS KIDS

"Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work, one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

After tirelessly battling the undead online, Paul finally logged off to replenish his energy with a well-deserved dinner and sleep. His exhaustion was a testament to the relentless grind he had endured throughout the day.

After climbing out of his Wombat 64, he decided to make some pasta with oil and shredded cheese, a basic meal that was not particularly balanced, so he grabbed some frozen chicken egg rolls and put four in the air fryer to get some extra protein and a small amount of vegetables.

While waiting for the foot to cook, he went on his NERD (National Energy Regulation Directory). With the advent of what could broadly be described as full dive capsules, the world went into a time of energy starvation. The servers to run the games and the cabins themselves draw a ridiculous amount of energy to run, and infrastructure and production could not keep up.

NERD, a crucial establishment, was established to regulate everyone's power usage. This was a necessary measure in the face of an energy crisis when the world was grappling with the excessive energy demands of full dive capsules and the inability of traditional energy sources to keep up. 

With the average daily energy allocation, the Wombat 64 could run for about 8 hours, which Paul had slightly exceeded; we could do this because of energy credits, something everyone who lived in the country legally could sell in exchange for money. 

This solved various societal problems by curbing the draw of power and serving as a form of universal basic income so that people who didn't have jobs due to the widespread emergence of AI and technology in the workplace would not be pushed into unemployment. 

Someone could sell their energy credit for a day for $40-$50, depending on the time of year, and that was enough to eat for the day.

This did not mean that if you sold your energy credit, you would sit at home with no power; it just meant that you could not "draw excessively from the grid," which could mean having the AC on too cold during the summer or the heater too hot in the winter, and of course, using immersive capsules.

For a government program, it was surprisingly flexible. There were partial credits that could be added up, and there were options to use them automatically when you reached your daily limit. 

Seeing that he had gone over for the day, Paul saw this screen saying that he had gone over the allotted amount of energy and had used a purchased energy credit. 

The credits help alleviate power issues because if you used a purchased credit, there was no rollover; you could play for 16 hours instead because the credit is gone at midnight, unlike if you are saving your credits with the intention of selling them.

Seeing that he essentially wasted around $40, he felt slightly sad. His parents gave him some money when he was in college, but $50 was still quite a bit for him. That was half of his weekly grocery bill. 

After eating and going to bed, he decided to set a timer and get out before he reached the limit unless there were special circumstances. 

Shortly after daybreak, Paul woke up and began his morning routine from the future, which consisted of doing stretches and some basic bodyweight exercises before breakfast and then taking a shower before logging in.

He soon felt the familiar sensation of falling before finding himself back in the cozy elven town, once again surrounded by players. 

Unlike the night before, around 30% of the players were now at level 20. 

He would most likely not get the level 30 achievement gilded, not that he was particularly concerned; he was more concerned about the long game and setting himself up to get a large number of golden achievements. 

With his plan of action clear, he instantly went to the local carriage station, which Aurorin thankfully had, letting players travel to specific predetermined locations; upon picking his destination, Elynduil, a city on the southern coast of the continent, 1,000 of his 2,000 thalor disappeared into thin air. 

After mourning his wallet, he entered the carriage and disappeared from the nearby players' view, swiftly traveling across the Emerald Enclave's territory.

At one point, Paul suddenly heard horses making loud sounds and screaming; it seemed that bandits were attacking his carriage.

Ignoring the NPC driver telling him to run, Paul began the fight with the group of rough-looking humans outside; seeing that they were all level 26-29, he shouldn't have fought them, but without much thought, he charged at them without any hesitation, using the breath amulet and radiant sweep. 

After seeing the amount of damage it did after the duration, Paul cursed. Even to the weakest of the bandits, his combo only did around 5% of their health.

While cursing, an arrow hit him square in the forehead, bouncing off his metal helmet and doing a full 4% of his HP even though it bounced off.

Instantly prioritizing the archer, Paul ran toward the lone bandit in the back, dodging arrows and avoiding being cleaved in half. 

Afterward, he felt a gust of wind and noticed one of the bandits with a sword was casting some crowd-control spell to stop him before he got to the archer.

Rolling to the side to avoid a large man with a shield charging at him, he used Purifier's Embrace to instantly cleanse the negative effect from himself before Arcane Reaver when he got within range of the archer. 

As the wide-arcing sword strikes hit the archer, they disrupted his shot and instantly robbed him of 15% of his HP. While Paul got within range to use his one-handed dagger and sword, he began doing a skill called basic attack weaving, where he began starting his attack as a basic sword swing and, upon the damage being delivered, activating his ability and slightly overswinging his blade, meaning one slightly longer swing would deal the damage of the primary attack and the ability. 

In the future, this would be an indispensable skill for anyone trying to do damage optimally and his ability to do it flawlessly with a multi-hit ability. At the same time, duel-wielding was the equivalent of scoring a hat trick. 

By basic attack weaving, his next Arcane Reaver did 25% of the archer's health, but now the rest of the bandits had caught up to him. 

As they all got into melee range of him, Paul suddenly summoned a small sun in the middle of the group. This was his ultimate Stellar Collapse, which had been partially charged before the battle. 

Instantly, Paul rolled out of the radius and cast Vitality Surge on himself to heal the damage Stellar Collapse had dealt since he had used it on top of himself. 

Instantly, all of the bandits lost 20% of their HP and, while in the radius, began losing 4% per second until they got out of the area of effect.

Seeing them all grouped up, Paul used the breath amulet and radiant sweep again to wipe away their health slowly. 

After the burning effect ended and the Stellar Collapse dissipated, the archer was finally dead, and the rest of the bandits were under half health. 

Despite being low on mana, Paul quickly picked off the lower-health bandits before finally wiping out the tanky shield-bearing one. 

After picking up their look, which was better than what the undead had dropped, he returned to the carriage where the NPC swooned over him, offering to give him 20% of his fair back as a thanks.

The fight was not worth the mere 200 thalor; thankfully, the bandits dropped some armor and weapons he could deconstruct to begin the journey into crafting.

With that, he resumed his journey and safely made it to Elynduil in around 2 minutes of playtime. 

While looking at the large white stone walls of the beautiful coastal city was a breathtaking sight for many, for Paul, it simply meant that he had arrived at the area he would be working out of for the next two weeks.