Prologue

When somebody said, "I play games to escape reality!" I couldn't help but give them a little middle finger in my heart.

Why little, you may ask? Because it's still true that games, particularly, virtual reality games, were like a whole another world from the reality that we were currently living in, and besides having fantasy-like power, freedom, and being able to do the things that we will never be able to do in the real world, like gazing into a lush forest with clear flowing river and huge, tall mountains as the background, we could also be someone else that was entirely different from our real world's identity.

Be it you have an 'unusual' interest such as crossdressing and pretending to be another gender in the game or if you were someone that likes furry animals very much and wanted to be the humanoid version of them, virtual reality games gave you the chance and ability for you to be anything that you wanted to be.

Of course, being a member of this law-filled and ever judging society, I also liked the almost unlimited freedom that those games gave to me.

However, why do I flip my middle finger toward those people that said they were only playing games to escape from reality?

It's simply because instead of trying to run away from the cruel world that we're living in, I play those games exactly so that I could have a better reality.

"Get your legs off of my body, you bastards!"

Looking up above my head, the sun that looked so small yet so bright was constantly giving off its unbearable heat despite being so far away.

Even though I'm currently inside a virtual world, the game developers decided to put a scorching sun that every person who had never touched grass before hated very much, which not surprisingly was the majority of people that played these virtual reality games.

I didn't know what the developers were thinking when they decided to add this feature, but I will definitely say that it was probably a bad decision for their target market.

"You mercenary dogs! Don't you dare ignore me! I will make sure that you all will pay for this a thousandfold!"

Being a mercenary in this virtual reality game was certainly something that I didn't think of before since I initially wanted to become a professional player. Winning tournaments and getting the prize money before later becoming famous enough that I would have sponsors that were willing to pay me millions for just simply wearing their brands.

However, who would have thought that people take this game world serious enough that occupations such as mercenaries were popular inside the game.

From stealing stuff that you want from your enemies, assassinating your rude and selfish friends, or helping rich kids play the game, the mercenary business was filled with many kinds of jobs offered.

And if you were lucky enough with your clients, it would be a very lucrative business where even the money that a professional player earns from their sponsors and winning tournaments couldn't compare to what you would get for completing a single job.

Of course, for someone who comes from the bottom of society where you learn that everything needs money, between a pro player and a high-paying mercenary, I chose to be the latter!

But why did I like money so much you ask?

"You d*mned mercenaries! Don't you dare act all high and mighty in front of me! You're just dogs that were working to get other people's scraps!"

"Rey" I finally said.

Upon hearing my word, Rey, a member of my group who carried a huge halberd everywhere, finally swung his weapon towards the person who had been laying on the ground all this time, spitting curses non-stop.

When Rey halberd finally stopped moving, the man finally shut his mouth up as all four of his limbs had been cut off, leaving the man barely alive with a slim HP that would completely disappear if I threw a rock towards his body.

But the important point here wasn't about his slim HP, rather, it was…

"AHHH!"

"Woah, his scream was pretty loud!" I exclaimed.

With the virtual reality game trying to get as realistic as possible these days, of course, the developers would enable the players to have a realistic sense inside the game, albeit it wasn't 100% the same as the real thing, particularly when it was regarding pain sensitivity.

You could adjust the intensity, but the maximum was 50% since any more than that, the developers might cause many people to receive real, physical trauma to the player's brains from playing their games, which the developers certainly wouldn't want to, considering the lawsuits they would get from doing so.

And although players could keep it at 0% all the time when they were playing the game, there were, of course, some exceptions to that rule.

For example, what happened to that man earlier was due to Rey's halberd that had a trait to inflict pain on his enemies, ensuring that no matter what setting the player chose beforehand, they would still feel the pain from being cut by Rey's weapon.

I was getting quite annoyed by the man and his constant curses, but I still needed him here, so I hope that pain would be enough to shut his mouth for some time until I could finish my business here.

Fortunately, I didn't have to wait for that long as the last member of my mercenary group finally came back, bringing a scroll in hand.

"Calle, I've found the item." The man said while tossing the scroll towards me.

"Thanks, Alex!"

Catching the scroll with one hand before opening it to see its content, I couldn't help but smile and not so quietly muttered,

"So this is the map that you guys were hiding…"

And of course, with my voice not being so low, the limbless man that barely had any HP left jerked his head towards me and shouted,

"THAT… THAT IS… GIVE IT BACK TO ME! GIVE IT BACK RIGHT NOW."

"Hoo… It seems that we don't even need to verify the content of this. It seems that it's true. You guys really have the map to that hidden dungeon." I said as my smile widened even more while looking at the limbless man.

"It's not good to keep these kinds of things a secret, you know? When you get something good, you have to share it! Especially with us."

I walked closer to the man and dangled the parchment right in front of the man's eyes.

It was quite surprising that the limbless man would be desperate enough to get back the parchment by jerking his head forward, trying to snatch the parchment off of my hand using his teeth.

But unfortunately for him, I already expected such a reaction as I pulled my hand backward just a little bit so that the man would barely miss the parchment by the tip of his teeth.

"Whoops! Someone was clearly desperate!" I laughed out loud while looking at the man who stared at me with hateful eyes.

You were probably wondering what I was currently doing here, torturing a limbless man in a virtual world, but if you all remember what I said about my aspiration from playing this game, then you all would have probably known where I was going with this.

"I'll buy it from you." The limbless man sighed.

"Hmm? What did you say? I can't hear it from up here" I said as I put my hand behind my ear as if trying to hear the limbless man better.

The limbless man couldn't see it because he was lying on the ground, but my eyes were probably glowing right now when I heard the man's words.

"I'll buy it from you. No matter how much your employer paid you, I will double the amount, just give that back to me."

Hearing the man's offer, I held my chin and turned my head to the side as if I was thinking hard about it. And after spending about half a minute 'thinking about it' I finally opened up my mouth.

"They paid us 30 BTC for this job though, are you sure you want to pay double the amount?" I asked the man while raising one of my eyebrows.

While keeping a laugh from escaping my mouth, I observed the man who couldn't help but jerk his head a little as he heard the price that I said, but considering the true worth of the item, I was sure that he would be willing to pay that much.

"I'll pay for it. Just give the item back to me and we have a deal," He said.

"No, it doesn't work like that. How would we know that you won't lie to us?"

"Here take this as the down payment. I will transfer the rest after I gather the money." The man said as he chose an item from his inventory before summoning it in front of me.

Grabbing the item to see what it was, I didn't have to hide the smile that crept up on my face as I realized that the item the man gave me was worth 15 BTC in the market.

Then still with a smile on my face, I slowly extended the scroll forward.

I could see the look of disdain the man had towards me and my mercenary group.

He was probably thinking that the mercenary groups that played the game were really dogs that would wag their tails to whoever gave them money.

It wasn't that wrong considering that we really do need and love money, however, he was mistaken about something,

As the scroll was about to touch the man's body, I quickly stored it into my inventory as I spawned something else from my inventory before throwing it at the man's face.

"00:15"

"WHAT IS THIS? WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THIS?" The limbless man shouted as he recognized what the black box that had just been dropped onto his body was.

"I was actually very tempted to accept your offer, but I don't think it would be proper, you know?"

"00:13"

"First of all, who even has enough patience to deal with your dirty mouth? Even though I'm clearly not a psychopath, just imagining my hands ripping your tongue out gives me peace of mind!"

"00:11"

"Second, you insulted my mercenary guild, saying we're dogs? Come on, are you blind? Can't you see who is the one who had their heads shoved onto the ground right now? And although we love money, we have our own integrity!"

"And lastly, let me tell you a little secret. Our job was never to steal the map. Surprise, surprise! We're actually here to kill you!" Calle said as he patted the man's chest.

"00:06"

"It's not personal feelings, it's just business."

"What is it again? Hasta la visa? Hope we will never meet again!" I shouted as I gave the command to back off the area as far away as possible.

"It's vista, Calle," Alex said while he ran beside me.

"Really? I don't know, I'm bad at Portuguese."

"It's Spanish."

"Ah… I see, I'm sorry..."

"00:00"

"YOU F**KERSS!!!I'LL BE BACK AND PERSONALLY RIP YOUR HEADS OFF WITH MY OWN HANDS!" I heard the man's shout, but it was soon concealed by a deafening explosion that reverberated loudly throughout the forest.

Now back to my earlier question, why did I like money so much?

I believe all of you have your own thoughts about money and how much it mattered in your life. But when you come from a place where you feel powerless and helpless without them, then I am sure that you will have the same thought as I have when you finally have your own money.

Money was freedom. When you finally have money, countless possibilities would open up to you.

From being able to live wherever you want with whomever you want, eat a ridiculously expensive dish that could probably feed a family for a week for the same price, wear any clothes that your eyes find interesting, or just simply wanting to give your significant other the best thing life could offer, money gave you that freedom.

And that freedom and the power to carry myself through this bitter reality were exactly what I was striving for.