The top thousand

Mahn Li waited for the VR rig to turn off completely. After a few moments of weightlessness, the sensations experienced by his real body began to register in his brain.

Taking off his helmet, he sat up on his bed, feeling heavy and lethargic. His back and neck ached. His clothes and the mattress under him were damp with sweat.

He sighed. A proper ergonomic gaming chair with good ventilation and automatic massaging motors cost at least 7 grand. In his old life, that amount was chump change, but now it was a fortune. He would just have to endure it until he had money.

His stomach growled. The clock on the wall shows 7:28 a.m. He had played the games for almost fifteen hours, only taking a two-hour break when it was night in-game and his avatar was sleeping. Time in the game progressed twice as fast as real life. Manco had been in existence in the Shiorai Mor'roinn Continent for thirty hours. Right now, he was sound asleep with Brennda in his arms.

Mahn Li stood up slowly to get used to his real legs. Looking down, he chuckled and says "Oh, wood morning!"

That "Matured adventurer" subscription really caught him off guard. He had all but forgotten about it. Two grand in exchange for virtual hanky-panky was too extravagant for now.

"I need to get laid," he said with a chuckle. His voice felt hoarse because of his dry throat.

When he felt ready to move about, Mahn Li walked to the "kitchen" corner. Grabbing the water jug, he drank in big gulps. His thirst slaked, he made some instant noodles and fried some packaged sausages.

As he ate, he turned on the computer and checked the web.

As expected, the Early Access launch of Epoch of Liberty had made news on tens of thousand of websites and social media outlets. The home page of Immersive Interaction, the company behind EoL, was frozen from the sheer amount of access.

With 12 million Early Access keys given to players all over the world, the game peaked two hours after launching, at 11.8 million concurrent players. Right now the number was hovering between 8 and 9 million.

Mahn Li logged on to several of his favorite gaming forums to check how other players were doing.

The EoL threads were flooded with both enthusiastic gushing and angry complaints.

"…basement was creepy as SH*T. Almost P*SSED myself when this spider landed on my neck. Ran right out and say 'F*ck you and your rats!' to the bar owner."

"…lol p*ssy"

"…you try that before mouthing off. Dumb*ss!"

"…WORTH EVERY PENNY! Realer than real life! Gotta go back in! Be jealous of me bitches!!!!"

Many complaints were about how difficult it is to level.

"…Twelve hours for 5 levels? Wtf??!"

"…What are you complaining about? I'm only level 4!"

"…What's the deal with those mobs? They keep running away!"

"…This game's creature AI is soooo broken! I want my money back!"

…

That was to be expected. The game basically pulls the rug under players with the creature AI. They tended to act more like real animals. Most predators did not stand around idly until players aggro them. Instead, they had their own routine of hunting, feeding, sleeping. They only attacked if they felt they can win and would run away if threatened by a big group.

Each type of creatures had a different habitat, but most did not stay in wide open plains. Instead, woods, forests, jungles, swamps, savannas, biomes with difficult terrains and multiple hiding places were their favored home. Tracking skill was often needed to find them.

…

"Can't find any decent quests. Just some crap fetch quests with lousy xp. WTF?"

"You too? So it's not just me?! This game SUCKS!"

…

Quest givers did not just stand around with a big question mark on their head. They had their own lives and routines. Sometimes, players only had to show up in the right place at the right time to receive a quest (as Manco did with the "Helping hand" quest), but most of the time, they needed to actually have conversations with NPC and find out what they need. As an effort to make NPCs' behavior more lifelike, they would not suddenly entrust important tasks to a stranger. A decent reputation and good rapport with an NPC were needed before players could get a quest that's beyond the usual "kill x animals" or "bring this spoon to that person".

…

Mahn Li shrugged. Those loud-mouthed whiners are not the ones he needed to look out for. His true targets were the Beta Testers. Many of them already had a build planned out down to the leveling spots. Aided by the unique 'Beta Gears' they would be a force to be reckoned with.

He opened the level ranking. Sure enough, the first one thousand spots immediately stood out above the rest.

Rank - Player Name - Level

#1 - IAmNumberFoar - 12

#2 - ReignOfFire - 12

#3 - Jeepers_Creepers_23 - 11

…

#1021 - Overload - 11

#1022 - BlackDeath - 9

#1023 - KillStealer69xxx - 9

…

Those one thousand players were most likely Beta Players or people associated with them. Many of them might even be forming parties with each other, boosting their strengths even more. Of course, there could still be players who were either lucky or observant and found good leveling spots.

Mahn Li did not bother trying to figure out who was behind which character, as the names could be easily changed, and the players would only settle on their famous monikers after several months or even years.

The vibration of his phone caught his attention. The caller ID said: Mom.

After hesitating for a moment, he picked up.

"Yes?"

"No, I'm at home. Studying."

"What day?"

"Next week… I can't. Got a part time job. What do you mean take a day off? Can you send me money then? Don't talk nonsense!"

"Yeah yeah, I know. You too. I'm hanging up!"

He hung up the phone and found tears flowing down his cheek.

It had been years since he heard his mother's voice. He never realized how much he missed her.

Yet in the conversation just now, he was rude to her, lied to her twice, and refused to go home and visit his family.

He just acted exactly as he did ten years ago.

He wanted so badly to apologize to her, to go home and see his family. His old, ailing mother, his bed-ridden father, his precocious and smart younger brother.

Yet he pushed them away.

Why?

He was terrified of losing them again.

Even without him spending loaned money on the VR rig, his father would not have made it. He knew it was a heartless thing to think, but it was true.

He might as well gamble it all. Go big or go home.

That was why he pushed them away.

So that if he failed this time, it wouldn't hurt as much.

"But I won't fail!" he muttered, his fists clenching.

…

"Will I?"