Reminiscing The Old Times

"You know, this is my favorite food when I was a child!" Joseph smiled widely as he took a bite on the chocolate cake in front of him.

Dandrik chuckled. He glanced over to the side of the shop and watched how people passed by them.

After looking at the forums earlier, Carter's interest grew wider. He read a lot of comments, and everyone was wondering whether the issue was true or not. He was looking forward to seeing the player's comment too, but he didn't see it.

Carter was 50-50 about the matter. He didn't think that the game's developer would be that dumb to do it in their own game since that would be a big issue.

Although, he knows that it was still possible if the developers wanted to have that money on their own. Carter already has seen those plots in movies or books that he has read.

Everyone will sleep on their morals when it comes to money.

Even government officials who swore to the public were no better. Usually, they're the ones who were ahead of everyone when it comes to exploiting money. What an irony for a public officer to steal from the people.

"This shop sells good pastries. We should go here another time." Dandrik praised. He ordered a cheesecake which was his favorite food to eat when he was still in the real world.

Carter nodded. "I agree on that," he uttered.

Chuckling, Joseph smiled widely when he remembered something. "I have a little brother who loves cheesecake. Now that I see you eating that, I kinda missed him."

Hearing it, Carter's brain suddenly stopped thinking. He remembered his sister as he looked at the cake in front of him. A light chuckle escaped from his lips. He remembered him and his sister sharing a slice of cake, since that's all they could afford.

Pieces of good memories suddenly showed up in his mind. He remembered how Shiela would greet him every morning. The girl would cook breakfast for him before he leaves and proceeded to school.

Now that he thought of it, worry suddenly flashed in his eyes. He remembered his bedridden mother. Will he be able to still see her once he leaves this game? It will almost be two weeks since the start, but it felt like forever.

To whom were they going to depend now that he's here? Sheila was only 17. The girl was still studying in school while working a part-time job to have an extra income for her studies.

His and her sister's income was just enough to last them for a whole month. And now that his sister was left alone, Carter was anxious about where she will find the money to buy the medicine for their mother.

"You look so stressed, Carter. What happened?"

When Joseph's voice sounded, Carter came back into reality. He slightly tilted his head to remove any negative thoughts from coming into his way.

"I wonder, will the government give subsidy to our family?" He asked with a hint of curiosity laced in his voice.

Carter's question both made Dandrik and Carter think hardly. They haven't thought of that at all.

"I think so. Since most of the players join this game for money. And of course, they would need to pay enough money for our lives." Dandrik answered after giving it some thought.

Joseph agreed. "Yap. I think they're giving allowance to our families. After all, it's our life that is in exchange."

Carter breathed out of relief. At least, that was given. He just needs to think now about how he can level up and be the final winner of the game.

Considering the fact that they're on the map called "Abandoned planet", they don't have any idea about who was the people on the other maps. He just hopes that everything will be fine when he saw the other players.

Recalling that, Carter opened up his screen and wondered if he could see the remaining players on the other map. It was fortunate that it was possible to look at it.

[ Abandoned Planet: 79, 720 players left ]

[ Sunken Shore: 84, 983 players left ]

[Twin Lands: 89,023 players left ]

[Hell's Territory: 75, 098 players left ]

[Advanced Valley: 91, 069 players left ]

[Redemption Land: NOT Available ]

[ Total Players Alive: 419,898 ]

[ Total Players Died: 80, 102 ]

Carter was surprised when he saw the total number of players that have not survived. '80,102… that's a lot!'

Well, that was quite given since on the first week of the game, a lot of newbies were still adjusting, thus making it harder for them to survive.

He remembered the statistics that were published on the game's social media platform. It was estimated that only 20% of the players were really veterans. The 80% was all newbies who doesn't have any idea how the game works.

Most of these were the spoiled guys that only join the game because of the prize and of course to boast that they're part of the game. After all, it was a massive event that was waited for the whole week.

Cloak Entertainment was known to be the no.1 game developer in the whole world. Launching 8 games that were known worldwide. And since this was their first VR MMORPG, a lot of players had high expectations.

Unfortunately, they haven't been able to pre-register since they didn't know that a lot of people would want to try out the game.