Faking the level

"And that's how I see the entire thing," Tom said before releasing a huge sigh. 'To think that all of this happened just recently,' he thought while shaking his head.

"That was indeed a long story," Marvin muttered while rubbing his chin. "Now, at least I won't regret bringing some people with me... By the way," he turned his eyes on Tom, "where did the uncles go?"

"I can't really tell you where they went," Tom said before forming a smile and looking towards the dome, "but I believe you can guess just where they are at right now," he added, staring blankly at the massive building.

"You really pushed all of your actions forward, didn't you?" Marvin chuckled before reaching with his hands towards his friend. "Help me out, will you?" he asked, instantly pushing Tom into action.

But rather than helping Marvin to walk around, Tom only helped him get up. Marvin was too prideful to walk while resting on someone else. Even though only one-half of his body was fully functional, he still preferred to use his walking stick instead.

"As you know, time is of the essence," Tom seemingly changed the topic before shaking his head and adding, "that's why I had no other choice. Well, either way, you guys won't be implicated with it. Worst case scenario, you will just collapse the tunnel and play dumb," Tom actually changed the topic before looking behind himself.

"Well, speaking of time, it seems my break is close to being over." Tom suddenly announced, sending one last glance towards the dome before looking back at his friend.

"Marvin, over the last two days, I told you everything I know, everything I guessed, and everything I'm worried about. But I cannot stall for any longer," Tom's face soured. It was clear that talking about this topic wasn't easy for him.

"Yeah. Judging from the chaos inside, I believe they should be done by now," Marvin smiled. Even though Tom wasn't sure about this, there was still a huge chance that Tom's friend actually figured out everything even before Tom revealed his knowledge.

Over the last two days, Marvin just allowed Tom to do whatever he wanted without asking any questions. Whether it was his inner decision or something he came up with past their first, honest discussion, Tom didn't know. But thanks to his silent approval, everything was now in its place.

And this was the one reason why Tom still decided to spare some time, sit down with Marvin, and just tell him everything.

"Right, before I go," Tom suddenly turned around before closing in on Marvin's ear. "I believe the abilities of our avatars... Well, I'm not really sure about it, but it seems like we can sometimes and somehow use them in real life as well," Tom dropped yet another bomb, right as he was about to move out and enter the car.

The car was waiting for him for nearly half an hour by now.

"I see," Marvin didn't turn the moment into the discussion. 'I already took too much of his time,' he thought while looking at his friend. "Well, take care, brother. We will hold the fort for you, here," Marvin smiled and changed his hold over his walking stick so that he could push his hand forward.

"Let's hope everything will go smoothly," Tom replied, grabbing Marvin's hand and shaking it.

From that point, the reality around Tom seemed to be disturbed. One moment merged into another, making him feel as if he was just floating through time.

Moment by moment, Tom could see the images passing through the window of his car. In the next moment, he was already walking down the main hallway of the Online Hub.

Tom managed to shake off this strange, miss-present state of his mind right as Peter walked out of his office to greet him.

"Tom, welcome again," the middle-aged man said in a cheerful voice, inviting Tom inside with a wide swing of his hand. "I have high hopes for a good show!" he added as the group entered a small room just beside Peter's office.

"I hope you won't mind if we take a look at what you do?" Peter asked with a fake concern on his face.

'Just what does this guy know?' Tom asked himself before sending a smile back to Peter, a smile just as fake as was Peter's concern.

"How could I? I just hope I won't find my secrets and tricks spreading out on the wiki later on," Tom said in a jokingly manner. At first, only the two of his escorts laughed, yet Peter and a group of his own people quickly followed suit.

"Come on, I know the atmosphere was rather informal so far, but don't doubt our professionalism!" Peter suddenly shouted before patting himself on his chest. "Online Hub big and small, the staff for their hardest all the same!" he announced, clearly reciting some kind of motivational slogan from the company manual.

Past that point, Tom's strange lethargy returned. As if he was sleep-walking, he took off most of his clothes and laid down in the open-casket type of capsule. While the liquid covered him all the same, what happened next was different.

Instead of a lid closing off above Tom and shielding him from the light so that he could establish connection uninterrupted, it appeared as if a thin, black veil floated on top of the liquid, cutting the supply of light all the same.

Soon, he was back in the dungeon. And just like always, he stepped through the corridors.

With his trusty spell and high statistics, Tom managed to clear two rooms in a matter of minutes. Given how every single monster on such a low level would fall after just a single hit, Tom didn't really exert any of his strenght.

Still half-conscious, Tom mined the stones from the first floor before deciding to go for the second one as well. The plan was to exit the game as soon as he would clear a single floor. Sadly, the haul from the first floor turned out to be the worst out of all the possible outcomes.

With a single stone embedded into the dungeon's wall, Tom had no other choice but to go and clear one more floor. Thankfully, this kind of blunder wasn't big enough for Tom to have any trouble explaining it later on.

With seven stones of the minimum grade in his pouch, Tom finally returned to the lobby.

It was at this moment when he forcefully shook off his half-awake state, instantly taking the reins of his mental effort to suppress his level.

"Sir, would you like to cash out or to raise your level?" The AI maid, the only character within the lobby that was dressed, asked.

"I want to raise my level," Tom responded while handing over the stones. Then, a strange, thrilling feeling traveled up his spine. In an instant, Tom released his strangling hold over his own power, allowing the experience transfer to merge with his level raising.

Those two things happened simultaneously. With his concentration pushed to its limit, Tom managed to pull his trick off flawlessly.

'I did it...' he thought, moving his eyes from his hand to where the skill notification window should appear. He then smiled and logged out.

'I did it... But why does it feel like something went wrong?'