Raven

The moment he arrived in Raven, Jack disregarded the fact that he was still naked and instead made a beeline for the city gates, and after begging the cards for a bit, they reluctantly allowed this naked and clearly crazy player to leave the safety of the city.

Jack did not stop and instead ran straight towards the forests nearby, and climbed up a tree while waiting for the monsters of this area to appear so he could kill them. After all, it was already approaching the end of the day, and it was about time for him to wake up and go to school.

However, he decided to make use of a bug in the system to quickly make some money, however, in order to do that, he needed some starting funds. How ironic was the world, to make money, you need money.

And Jack would gain this starting fund from killing a few monsters.

Soon enough, the monsters surrounding Raven finally appeared. It was some sort of cross between a goblin and a bird, a disgusting abomination with grotesquely abnormal black feathers which seemed to resemble that of a raven.

'Huh, so that is how this place must have gotten its name…'

Jack did not waste any time as he threw his spear before hiding within the foliage of the tree. His spear had the 'Bleed' function, which meant that he could just leave the creature with the spear embedded in it, and considering that it had wings and no hands or nails, it would almost be impossible for this creature to remove the spear, causing the 'bleed' effect to continuously deplete its health until Jack could finish it off with a single hit.

[Miss!]

Unfortunately, Jack forgot that he was back to his original 10% hit rate, meaning that for every 100 shots he hit, only one of them would hit. Thankfully, Jack had a spare, but this time, he did not throw it, since he would essentially be throwing away his last weapon, and instead climbed down the tree to face the creature head-on.

Or at least, that was what it thought. As soon as it came close enough to Jack, Jack simply threw his spear in a straight line. Being just half a meter from Jack, it would be incredible if Jack actually missed from this distance, and true to his predictions, it finally hit the creature. The spear punctured the mouth of the creature and pierced straight through, and out the back, creating a rather odd-looking kebab.

Jack did not waste any time as he quickly reached out for the other spear he had, and began repeatedly stabbing the creature, causing multiple 'bleed' effects to be created, slowly causing the creature to lose its health until Jack landed the final blow at its head.

[You have killed Lv 4 Ravelin]

[You have gained 40 Experience]

[You have gained Ravelin Crown feather x 1]

The only reason Jack had been able to defeat the creature which was Lv 4, was due to the 'bleed' effect which essentially made his attacks cause continuous damage. And the more times he successfully hit it, the faster the creature would die. But such a tactic would only work on creatures who could not heal and creatures who had bodies of muscle and blood.

Seeing that his tactic was useful, Jack decided to hunt at least two more. Unfortunately, he could only find a single Lv 4 Ravelin, which he swiftly deposed of. It had already taken too long, and Jack decided to return to the city.

[You have killed Lv 4 Ravelin]

[You have gained 40 Experience]

[You have gained Ravelin Crown feather x 1]

[You have levelled up]

[You have gained 5 Unassigned Stat Points]

It was unfortunate that in this game, there was no such thing as an inventory, and you would need to carry whatever you wanted in your hands o bags. Of course, items like spacial rings existed, but only in the mid to late game would they be revealed. For now, Jack returned to the city of Raven alive, much to the surprise of the guards, and asked them where he could see monster parts.

Being the only things that the Ravelins dropped, these crown feathers had to be worth something.

"Welcome! Which monster part would you like to sell?" Asked the NPC.

"Ravelin Crown feathers" Jack replied before waiting for the NPC to understand what he meant before accepting the two feathers he was carrying in his hands.

"Here. 12 gold." Said the NPC before handing Jack a small pouch of gold coins.

The currency in Tether was incredibly simple; Gold. It was the base currency, as well as the highest currency, unlike some fantasy VR games which made things irritating by adding bronze, silver, gold, and sometimes even platinum into the mix.

Accepting the gold, Jack left the monster parts shop and made his way to the inn of the city. Along the way, he came across a few players who were just as naked as him. Thankfully, the game censored certain parts of the human body, but that was only if the player wanted it to be so. Already, there were a few male players and astoundingly a female player as well who removed the censor and opposed themselves completely.

[Storm Inn]

That was the name of the only inn in the city. Jack entered it and deposited his 11 of his 12 gold into the safety vault of the bank, which offered a 1% per day interest value, with a minimum period of 5 days.

Of course, the only reason Jack wanted to use this vault was not due to the interest rate offered, but the bug which would be fixed in a few days' time. Anyone who deposited their gold into this bank, as long as it exceeded 10 gold, would lose all their money.

To compensate for that, 'they' would give 100 gold to anyone and everyone who lost their money, no matter how much it was. Using the one gold he had, Jack bought a one-night stay at the inn. Unfortunately, due to Tether being a universal game, it did not have the concept of night and day and instead worked on time systems of 24 hours. The weather of each region was different, with changes appearing due to various reasons like events.

Due to Raven being an incredibly small city, the price for using its inn was also equivalently low. In the capital, the price would b around 20-30 gold. On the other hand, if Jack went to the capital of a large-sized kingdom, the price would skyrocket to nearly 200 gold per night!

After depositing his gold and paying for the night's stay, Jack went to his room before logging out.

You could log out in the wild, and it would not have any disadvantages, however, there was a secret feature which was discovered a few days later. Unfortunately, along with the fix of the vault deposit, 'they' also removed this very feature; which involved any player who stays at an inn receiving a boost in luck by 5%. This was on top of the +100% hunger satisfaction that came by default and would remain forever.

[Logging out]

[Successful]

After exiting the game, Jack took a quick shower and changed his clothes before leaving for his school. Although he had already begun playing the game, he still needed to go to school so that his parents would not get suspicious of him.

…

[United Human Calendar Year 4702, 5th of December]

"So, what exactly did you do yesterday?" Ava asked out of curiosity. Although she did not ask yesterday, her curiosity got the better of her today. She too was a seventeen-year-old child after all.

Jack pondered for a moment before whispering to Ava and Max,

"I'll tell you after school"

…

*Riiing*

After the closing bell, the school was over and after dropping Freya and Max's sister home, as well as meeting Jack's parents for a bit to confirm he was perfectly fine, Jack took Max and Ava to their secret spot under the bridge.

"So?" Ava asked, while Max just looked at Jack expectantly while stopping to take a sip of water from his water bottle.

"I bought a VR capsule and began playing 'Tether'"

*Ppvksooow*

Water was blown out of Max's mouth and nostrils, and everything in between, directly onto Jack.

Ava, who was just as shocked, burst into laughter at the sudden turn of events.

"You wasted all the money you borrowed from us to buy a VR capsule, instead of something important?" Ava asked after she finally stopped laughing.

"I returned the money though." Jack shrugged.

"…" Ava was suddenly rendered speechless as Max stepped up to ask the burning question.

"So, where did you get the money from to buy the Capsule? The cheapest one should be around 50,000 credits!"

"Wrong, the cheapest one should be around 500,000 credits by now, and within the next few days it should rise to 2 million due to the release of Tether. But don't worry. I bought mine for much cheaper than the current price."

"It still would not be anywhere near the 6,000 credits you had borrowed from us."

"Yeah. About that. I figured out a way to make some quick money, and after making how much I needed, I bounced, then returned your money, then spent the rest on the game. My suggestion is that you two also begin playing. Unfortunately, I cannot give you guys my location in-game, but you two really need to begin playing the game."

In his previous life, Max had played a bit of Tether, but ended up not being very good at it or something. Jack has already lost contact with Max when he had tried playing it for the first time, and so he was not sure what happened. Ava, on the other hand, simply never entered the game. He did not know why, nor did he ever get to ask her, since she never met him in real life. Well, perhaps she was in the game, but never bothered to meet with him, since he was already Lucky Jack just a few weeks after entering the game.

This time around, he wished for the two of them to play the game, and make some money out of it. That way, they could live decent lives this time.

"Ha. You want us to play that 'Tether' which was announced by God's voice?" Ava questioned sarcastically.

God's voice was what the voice who originally introduced the game to the world. However, things changed when this voice mistakenly mentioned the name of his race, before vanishing. A new voice spoke to the universe to replace the original. This one was a lot more authoritarian and harsh, forcing all creatures not to give 'them' names, in fact, it instructed all creatures to never mention them in speech ever again, even in thoughts.

Of course, not too many people took that to heart, and so, some began purposely saying 'their' name. Just a single day later, each and every one of them went missing. Vanished completely, along with every trace of their very existence, from government systems to personal accounts. All gone. This was a much stricter ending compared to the three leaders who died peacefully in their sleep, and so it inserted dread in the hearts of the countless living being in the universe, including Jack, which is also the reason he never took their name.

"Well, in about a few days, you will understand. But by then, the price of VR capsules will be too high for you to afford. Well, it is your choice anyways. For now, I need to return to the game." Jack said before running off.