A Fateful Meeting! 1

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After today's work, Mark came back home rather late, but was ready to play his favorite VR game. Today was sure fun with Elayne. He always have fun with her and often wonders if she'll ever leave the job, because that would really make the entire atmosphere of the job go gloomy like it used to be before she began to work there.

"Hah… Work sure goes fast when she's there." He sighed as a gentle smile surged on his lips. He quickly took off his shoes and then walked to the bath. Quickly taking out his clothes and jumping into the bath. His body was tall and rather well built, he went to the gym three times a week, and it seemed to be enough alongside a balanced diet to have a rather well-built body.

His stomach was already building a nice six pack, his shoulders were broad and his arms strong enough to carry as many boxes as possible. His back was also growing strong, and his legs were flexible and beautiful. Although Mark never really cared much about his body aside from "looking healthy", so he never truly realized he was so well built. Many women in the streets would eye him out. He was young, handsome, and had a very cute smile.

He often never realized that when he walked to his job he always smiled gently, as he was always waiting to meet Elayne, it cheered him up every day to see her there. The two were well known by the other workers as the "smiling pair" by how cheerful, nice, and gentle they were. Indeed, they were the staple of a Canadian citizen.

As Mark walked out of the bathroom and quickly began to dry out his body while sitting in the bed, he began to think about the changes that have happened since Elayne joined the job.

"Hm, now that I think about it, since Elayne joined that our sales had been partially increasing, this last year they had increased by almost two… Are more customers coming just to see her adorable smile and be treated nicely by her?" He wondered. "Well, a person like her nowadays is very rare, everyone is often gloomy in these years, after the Pandemic and then the Wars in Europe… I suppose a person as cheerful as her is rare." Mark thought, as he smiled a bit more as he thought about her again.

"Ugh, I am thinking too much about her again…" He sighed. "I cannot continue like this… I will only be heart broken whenever she finally rejects me… But really, why is she amazing?"

Mark sighed once more as he sat down over his bed. He looked into the ceiling of his apartment for a bit, thinking about what he should do with his future. His parents had been trying to make him meet with one of his childhood friends, a young woman near his age, obviously for marriage. She had always been interested on him, but Mark already had his heart stolen by somebody else.

He looked into his phone's messages, finding his parents once more pestering him about going to meet them soon. And there were also new messages from his childhood friend, which he hasn't meet in around four years since the last time… She was a beautiful country girl with long blonde hair and aquamarine eyes, a beauty who had been lovestruck with him since they were children.

It seems that her own parents are also annoying her over marrying to get them some grandchildren, and she had been rather insistent about meeting him again… Mark began to think that if he were to meet her again, she would probably try to seduce him again. She was a cocky girl all her life after all, and always went around provoking him or mocking him, although his parents don't know her playful and childish nature. It's not like Mark found it bad, he has a lot of patience so he had always let her have her ways.

"Alice really wants to meet me now… Ugh, city life is really hard compared to the countryside but… Why is she still so stubborn about getting with me? We were already once together in our teens…" Sighed Mark. "How can I politely tell her that I love somebody else now?"

Mark ate a sandwich for dinner and drank a coffee, after that, he quickly decided to forget about his problems in real life and get inside the game he loved, Brand New Life Online.

FLASH!

When his eyes opened one more, he found himself in the middle of a new forest. This was the forest the Old Ent gave him info about, apparently he would meet somebody special in here, a Spirit of Nature or something, and he was destined to get a special quest from her or something like that. He had already completed the tutorial on his Ent Forest, after having slain all the monsters and protected the other old Ents, his level was rather high and we was near level cap, which meant that in a couple more of levels, he would be able to evolve his race and upgrade his Class.

"Forest of Beginnings, huh? Let's see…" Mark checked the world map, realizing there was a big Dungeon Icon that wasn't there when he logged on yesterday.

"Huh? This… a dungeon? It just appeared out of nowhere… I had never entered one before. Maybe I can grind some levels here." Mark thought, quickly walking with his large Ent body towards the dungeon entrance.

"Mushroom Dungeon…" He said, reading the dungeon's name. "Well, I might as well get inside and see what's in… I could probably get something interesting, why not?"

He walked inside the dungeon without problems, however, as he stepped forward, he suddenly felt something on his way, and almost tripped over by it.

"UWAAAAH! A-A monster?!"

A little squirrel wearing alchemist clothes greeted his sight in the middle of the stairs.

"A squirrel?!" Mark asked in surprise.

"Name's Acorn! I am not a mere squirrel!" Said the squirrel-kin. "Huh? You're not a monster?

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