Frugal Living

Wang Tong knew that the dog poop was a bad omen. As soon as he finished paying his tuition at the registration office, the admin assistant immediately informed him that all of the dorms were already taken because Wang Tong was late for registration.

The admin assistant put fake regrets on her face, but she could not feel pity for him after seeing his equally fake expression of helplessness. She had eventually agreed that she would try her best to arrange accommodations for him in three days.

With nowhere to go, Wang Tong walked the streets in a melancholic mood.

"What a s*itty school, I paid five grand in credits without event getting a room." Wang Tong wouldn't mind living out in the open since he had done that on Norton all the time, but now he was in a civilized city; he could not sleep just anywhere on the streets.

He asked the price for the hotels around the school, but to his dismay, they were way above his budget. The cheapest one was five hundred a night which was too costly for Wang Tong who did not have an income.

"Curse these greedy landlords, do they expect students to be millionaires?"

To be fair, the astronomical cost of living on earth was not entirely due to greed, it was also because of Wang Tong's old nemeses, the Zergs. Thanks to their extraordinary ability to survive in harsh environments and expertise in guerrilla warfare, the Zergs were practically everywhere. Their complete extermination was extremely costly, if not impossible.

Humans were forced to focus their limited resources on densely populated cities. The housing prices had skyrocketed as people fled into the city to avoid the Zerg army's raid. The increase in prices had slowed down over the last few years thanks to a series of legislations passed by the Confederation, but these new policies still failed to bring the housing prices down.

Wang Tong did not care, nor did he have the time, to attend the school orientation where the teachers boasted about the rich history of the school. His priority right now was to find a place to stay.

He walked on the street until it was done; he stopped at an entrance to a shop that was decorated with bright flashing neon lights. A light bulb suddenly lit up in Wang Tong's mind.

"Yea, I can stop over here for a few nights."

Tong waited outside until midnight so he would be able to pay the discount price for the overnight rate of fifty credits.

This place was called Dream-Heaven. It was not a bar, nor were there any drugs. In the ancient times, people would call it an internet cafe, later it was called the VR entertainment center and many other different names similar to that. In other words, it was a place where people go to enjoy the world of virtual reality. This was where the Blade Warriors originated from.

The specific store Wang Tong stayed at was called the Dream-Heaven, Branch D-187, one of the many under the largest VR entertainment company-DREAM, formally known as Yu Zhan. One of the seemingly ordinary workers from this company named Galber was eventually elected as a Councilor of the Confederation thanks to a game developed by DREAM. Galber remained as the Councilor for three consecutive terms, and many said that his quick ascent to power was largely due to his connection with the Blade Warriors, similar to General Li Feng who also had an intimate tie with the Blade Warriors before he entered the center stage of power. After the great war, The Blade Warriors disappeared from the public, and Galber's descendants didn’t remain in politics, they instead focused on their family business and grew the company DREAM into one of the largest enterprises of the Confederation.

Technology had progressed pretty far since the days of the Blade Warriors and given birth to many new forms of entertainment, but DREAM still invested heavily in the gaming industry, after all, the success of a game relied more on luck than advanced technologies.

There had been no revolutionary developments in the VR industry since the time of the Blade Warriors who had re-defined the entire industry.

History could mean little to the humans who were still alive. Although many great individuals had changed the course of history, their impact was intangible to the living, albeit being real. Memories of recent legendary heroes might still take form in tales and stories, but those who belonged to even older ages, like Confucius or Einstein, memories of these great humans were shapeless and blurred.

Wang Tong wasn’t here for games, neither did he have the interest. He laid down on the sofa and was getting ready to sleep. He decided to go to the school tomorrow again to make sure the admin assistant wasn't slacking at her job. It was his life after all; he could not count on anyone else to be responsible for his own life.

Wang Tong knew that he could afford to revive Charcoal with the savings that Old Fart had left for him, but without any income, Wang Tong decided to delay his plan.

"Kiddo, get up! I know you haven’t fallen asleep yet."

Mr. Wannabe emerged out of the crystal; he had made an agreement with Wang Tong to come out only when Wang Tong wasn't busy with other matters.

"I want to sleep, I’m tired after being busy all day long."

"Well too bad, I am not tired. Do you want me to watch you sleep? C’mon, I want to watch the TV."

"Dear master, this place is called Dream-Heaven, a place for VR entertainment; they don’t call it TV here," Wang Tong said inattentively.

"Entertainment? Wahaha, where are the busty girls? I want one!" Mr. Wannabe turned his head on his shoulders to look around, but to his disappointment, he saw only a tiny white room and no girls.

Wang Tong was speechless at the pervert ghost. It seemed like some things will never change in a man, regardless of whether they’re dead or alive.

"Why are you staring at me like that? I was just kidding, you know that I am only interested in martial arts, it was you who was so easily distracted by girls."

"Well, I wanted to be distracted, but I don’t have any opportunities," Wang Tong said helplessly.

"You are right, it must be hard for you," Mr. Wannabe studied Wang Tong for a second and said, "Look at you, you are poor and ugly, no wonder you don’t have any opportunities." Mr. Wannabe rubbed his chin as if he was reminding Wang Tong that he had been much better looking when he was Wang Tong's age.

Wang Tong felt disgusted after he tried to imagine what Mr. Wannabe might have looked like when he was younger. He didn’t believe that Mr. Wannabe had any better chance than he did then. He decided to go to bed without arguing with Mr. Wannabe about who was more handsome, heated conversations would make it hard to fall asleep, and he needed sleep badly.

Sleeping had become crucial to Wang Tong ever since he started practicing the tactics thanks to its ability to boost the effect of the tactics. While he was cultivating inner energy using the Tactics of the Blade, he would be able to stay up for a few consecutive days. However, this had also made him sleep longer while he wasn't practicing.

"Fine, I will open the VR terminal for you. Watch whatever you want, just don’t bother me." Wang Tong spoke to Mr. Wannabe as he pressed a button. The tiny white room suddenly expanded in front of their eyes into a panorama view of a VR page.

Vibrant pictures of VR games and augmented reality shows filled up their entire vision. VR entertainment, like other forms of entertainment, filled the empty spaces in human's materialistic life thus it had never faded out of history since the day it was invented.

The menu scrolled at Mr. Wannabe's command. He was utterly amazed by the technology that allowed him to interact with the interface despite being an intangible ghost.

"Holly bananas! I can interact with it! This is awesome! Now now, quickly kiddo, tell me how to play my selections." Mr. Wannabe swung one of his fingers at Wang Tong, it was shaking in his excitement.

Wang Tong shook his head and joked, "I knew Wannabe was a fitting name for you, a real Einherjar would be able to hold his marbles at a gimmick like this."

Jokes aside, Wang Tong knew that his life in the crystal wasn't the healthiest form of living, even for a ghost. Mr. Wannabe was lucky to still have his sanity after so many years of imprisonment. Out of pity for Mr. Wannabe, Wang Tong got himself up from the sofa one last time to register a username called "Wannabe Einherjar" so that Mr. Wannabe would be able to play the VR content.

"You can figure out the rest, but don’t wake me up again."

Wang Tong huddled back on the sofa to enjoy his sweet dreams. Unlike a normal sleep where one simply slept, Wang Tong also practiced tactics while sleeping. This was a habit that he had developed while he was on Norton where he really needed more than the usual amount of training in order to survive.

Wang Tong slowly drifted off; GN nodes whirred softly inside of his body. In the same room, Mr. Wannabe's loud roars and battle cries filled up the tiny white room.

What was Mr. Wannabe playing? As an Einherjar, the choice was quite obvious.