Student pass

Leon took a few moments to adjust the weight of the wooden sword to make it feel more comfortable before he started his training. He closed his eyes to try and remember what he felt when he shared his sensations with the mannequin.

He could still vividly remember what he felt but the moment that he tried to imitate the movements it felt a lot more clunky. The mannequin's movement looked incredibly simple but in truth they were so perfect that it was hard for Leon, who had never seriously swung a sword in his life, to imitate them.

Even if he managed to perfect his sword mastery skill it would probably take him a few years to reach the same level as the mannequin, the lack of waste in its movement was something far deeper than just knowing how to swing a sword.

Even if he knew that Leon still tried his best to fix whatever he could. He completed a single set of swings while focusing of his own movements, trying to find exactly which part was different from the mannequin's swings.

The knowledge that came with the sword mastery skill helped immensely in finding his mistakes. The biggest one was his balance, the fact that Leon wasn't used to his new height and strength made things even harder for him so he had to manually balance himself instead of letting his muscle memory do it for him.

It wasn't easy and it took him a few tries but soon enough his movements started to look a lot better. His balance wasn't perfect but it wasn't exactly a problem that he could fix in one day so instead he focused on other mistakes.

Controlling his strength was a little bit harder, using too much force in his grip made his strikes rigid but it was hard to relax his grip while still swinging his sword as fast as he could.

He was scared of putting too little strength in his hand, if the sword slipped out of his grip it could easily break something or harm someone. In the end he had to go back into the simulation of the system to try things out.

The simulation of his sword mastery skill had an entire example on how to grip a sword, how to relax his hands and how to find the perfect amount of strength to use when he swung. When he tried it in the simulation it was a bit better but the moment he tried it out in the real world his swings were once again too rigid.

As it went on it became slightly better but even after completing the 100 set of swings he still felt unsatisfied with the result. He looked at his progress in the sword mastery skill, feeling a bit better that the number went up.

[ Sword mastery

Comprehension: 24% ( initial understanding achieved)

A skill containing the basics of sword fighting. This skill will serve as a foundation for any other sword related skills, making it easier to comprehend them.]

He went from 3% comprehension at the start to 24%. For a single day of training it was pretty good. He finished with the stretches that were basically aimed at making him more flexible, which he really wasn't.

He struggled a bit to endure the 10 minutes of stretches but once he did he felt a small tickling sensation in his brain. He finally understood what he was doing wrong with his grip and sure enough once he tried swinging his sword it felt a lot more fluid.

His comprehension of sword mastery only went up by 1% thanks to the system's reward but to Leon it felt like a revelation. He quickly stored his training sword in his inventory before going back to take a quick shower. Once he was done he went straight to his bed for some much deserved sleep.

His sleep was erratic to say the least, images of the earth blowing up or the feeling of being about to take his own life constantly replayed in the form of nightmares. He couldn't count the number of time he had woken up.

When his parents had called him to eat dinner he had been sleeping for 6 hours already but he didn't feel rested at all. The lack of proper sleep only made him hungrier so he had nearly devoured his food, he ate surprisingly fast considering that he was usually reserved when eating.

Despite that none of his parents questioned it, nor did they question his sudden change of appearance. His increase his charisma made his face look more manly while his body now seemed more toned due to the increase in stat, all of his injuries had also disappeared.

Those were all changes that even an acquaintance could notice so it was weird for them not to. It was most likely because his parents didn't even bother to glance at him during the entire dinner. It was nothing new for Leon, once he was done he simply went back to sleep without caring about them.

This time it went a bit better for him as he slept 9 more hours, waking up at 2 in the morning. He quickly did his daily training for his mission before taking a shower. Once it was done he made his way toward the gaming center.

Tales Eternal had came out at midnight but the gaming centers only opened up at 5 A.M. so he still had to wait a bit. He was lucky that the Azur company, the creators of Tales Eternal, had decided to create these gaming centers in order to reach a more casual player base that didn't want to invest 2,000 dollars in buying a VR pod to play a game.

Leon arrived at 4 A.M. yet there was already a small line in front of the building. There was 7 people in front of him and within the next half an hour a dozen more had appeared behind. Considering that this place didn't sell any VR pod it was clear that they all had the same idea as him.

Tales Eternal was the first true VR game which featured graphics similar to that of the real world with NPCs that acted as if they were alive. Before it had even came out it had already earned more money than any other game by simply selling the VR pods.

To say that it was projected to be popular was an understatement. The entire world was talking about it so the Azur company had invested quite a bit into making gaming centers around the world.

When Leon entered he saw walls filled with holes which had VR pods inside of it. Despite the place being medium in size there was more than a hundred VR pods to be rented.

As he waited in line for the others in front to buy their own passes Leon glanced at the prices that were stuck everywhere on the walls.

Renting for a single day was 20 dollars, the 1 month pass was 250 dollars, the three months pass was 400 dollars, the six month pass was 500 dollars and for a yearly pass it was 700 dollars. All of the options included a subscription to the game for the same amount of time.

It was a shame that Leon didn't manage to save up a bit more money, the yearly pass was clearly the best one to get but he only had enough for a 6 month pass. He could only hope to make some money during that time.

It was quickly his turn, he arrived in front of the clerk, a young man that was clearly not used to waking up so early. His eyes still didn't look focused but he was still forcing a polite smile on his face.

" Welcome. Do you wish to pay for a single visit or do you wish to buy a pass?"

He still sounded like a professional despite his fatigue. Leon smiled at him to show that he appreciated his effort.

" I will take a 6 month pass please."

" Very well, please answer the questions on this paper. There is some pens on the table over there, once you are done you can hand it over to my colleague."

The clerk handed over a piece of paper that Leon took with a polite nod. The paper was asking for the basic information like his name, his birthday, his phone number and his address. He quickly filled it with his information before going to the second clerk, this one was a middle-aged man that seemed more awake.

" Welcome, what pass are you hoping to buy today?"

The clerk quickly scanned the paper while asking a question.

" The 6 month one, please."

The clerk nodded before frowning a bit.

" I see that you are still only 16 years old, I assume you are a student correct?"

" That's right?"

Leon was a bit confused by the question, or rather by the way it was asked. From what he had read he was old enough to play the game and this place didn't have any special law against minors.

" Since you are a high-school student your access to the gaming center will be restricted during the weekdays between 7 A.M. to 4 P.M. however this make you eligible for a 50% student discount, are you fine with those terms?"

Now it was Leon's turn to frown. Those terms were perfect for him since he had never planned on skipping school, yesterday was an extraordinary exception, but he had also never heard of the discount despite looking at the site of the gaming center multiple times before.

" I don't remember seeing something like that promotion anywhere on the official site of the company, is there a mistake?"

the middle-aged man gave him a polite smile in return.

" It's not exactly a company promotion, it was a law passed a few years back by the government to reduce truancy from high-school students so legally we cannot charge you the normal price and we legally cannot give you a normal pass.

Companies also cannot promote the law's discount or it would be false advertisement considering that it doesn't exactly count as a discount since your access to the service is restricted."

The man had no reason to lie so Leon accepted his explanation. He wasn't about to complain about saving money.

" Then I would like a yearly pass."

" Very well."

Leon happily handed over the 350 dollars for the pass. After taking a quick picture of Leon the clerk finished making the pass in an instant, with this nothing could stop him from playing Tales Eternal.