1 year of preparation

This should be the last chapter I'll post today.

The schedule for this work? At least 2 chapters a day.

If I am feeling good, I may go with 3 or 4, but remember, the original schedule was 1 chapter per day.

If you still don't know, this is a repost of an incomplete project of mine, it's being re-edited and improved as I re-read through it.

Once we go back to where it ended, we'll stick with the 1 chapter per day premise.

Tell me what you thought of it in the comments.

Peace!

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/A few hours later/

"ZZZzzz..."

Dale could be seen sleeping in a car together with his mother and father as they made their way out of the hospital.

As his dad looked at the sleeping Dale, he let out a sigh of relief.

"Thankfully, in the end, it was just disjointing sickness from logging out from a high-time dilation too quickly."

The mother agreed as she held a piece of paper in her hand.

"What do we do about this?" She asked with a frown

"They offered to pay for it, so be it." His father replied as he paid attention to the road

"But their product…"

"It wasn't their fault, besides, it only happens in 1 out of 10000, they only asked for a few pieces of data and that was it, they didn't even ask us to keep silent, and as an apology, they will pay us for the damages and even give us a discount on that machine of theirs… He will be very happy." He said as he looked at the front mirror of the car, taking a look at Dale's reflection

"Our son has just passed through a minor calamity and you are already thinking of buying a new machine?" She asked with a bigger frown

The father shook his head.

"You are a bit too tense."

"The doctor himself said that such problems are common and serious after-effects are rare, besides, Dale is already fine, a week or two without gaming should be enough."

"To top that off, we can bring him to the doctor anytime free of charge if we accept this apology of theirs… 2 weeks of free good healthcare is more than enough for this situation, more than that would be excessive."

The mother stayed silent and said:

"Fine, when you put it that way I can't complain."

What they didn't know is that Dale was very much awake, thinking deeply about many things…

…

/A few minutes later/

They eventually arrived at their home and Dale went to his room and lay on his bed. But he did not sleep as he raised his hand and touched the green square in the corner of his vision.

{Initiating}

{Dale Houston (18-year-old)

Body condition: Healthy-7; Stressed-1; Tired-1; Confused-2

Lineology: Mixed race -> North America, South America, European.

Physical Data (Numeric display has been chosen)

-Body: 4.7

-Cognitive: 8.4

-Not named: 0

#Data has been processed by analyzing the average of your species with 3.35 being the average for body and cognitive functions.

Meaningful Abilities: Gaming-3; Close quarters Combat-2; Maintain Emotions-2; Analysis-1; Study-1; Exercise-0.

Overall, comprehensive Analysis: Young, above-average Human male needs to focus more time on exercising in order to remove their extra body fat and stop playing in Virtual Reality. Instead, using his time to sharpen his skills.

Score: 2 out of 10, not 0 since there is still hope for improvement.

#Score is not calculated by current society's values.

}

Dale opened and closed the green square multiple times, but it did not disappear.

From the first time he saw it when he woke up in the hospital to now, Dale was still confused as to what this panel was and what it said…

He thought it was some sort of side effect and he even questioned the doctor about it, being a bit discreet with his explanation just in case.

But when he informed the doctor that he was seeing words from his game panel, the latter replied that, albeit this was an unusual effect, it was not an unseen one.

So he told him that if it kept reappearing, then he should go back and tell him more so that they can prescribe him proper medication.

However, Dale was almost sure this wasn't a mere fluke. And that was because of his lineology.

He had no idea he had European and South American ancestors, but when he checked it, it was true.

Still, this wasn't enough to make him any less skeptical of this situation…

But there was nothing he could do, he eventually learned how to live with that green box at the very corner of his vision. It was annoying at first but he soon became used to it, like a person wearing glasses for the first time.

Dale even tried to log into the game again a few days before the Beta closed but it was unavailable.

Confused, he tried to contact Jelly and he said the game server just crashed a few days ago and that he had been forced out of his machine.

And this made Dale realize...

"So it wasn't just with me…"

'Without a doubt, it couldn't have been a simple crash.'

'If this proves to be a mere visual hallucination of mine, then yes, I could say that it was indeed a crash due to Malware, but if it isn't...'

'What would this signify?'

He wanted to ask Jelly something, but he decided against it.

Inside his Pod, Dale easily found the email from the company and confirmed that it was indeed real after asking some questions, however, only the first part of the email was there, and the second part that he didn't read wasn't there.

This made him suspect things and confirm others, but since there was no way to recover those, and he was too scared to ask the developers for it, he just went straight to Jelly.

...

After creating an online lobby and explaining his situation to Jelly, the latter replied:

"I see… A shame, I wanted to know what would happen after you hit Level 100, but for now, I'm probably going to have to find it out on my own."

"I'm sorry man…"

"Nah, it's okay. It's not your fault if you did something way out of line… Besides, we'll see that soon enough anyway."

They talked for a bit more in the virtual chat before the two logged out.

Jelly felt it was a shame that the Beta ended so abruptly, he still had many things to test and confirm... But based on the things he already confirmed, he could infer a lot.

So in the next few days... Weeks... For months, both Jelly and Dale maintained contact, interacting and exchanging ideas for the future of the game and more.

As for what Dale did in his day-to-day life… Nothing different from the usual.

He had to prepare for University and he had also decided to let go of gaming for a while...

He was still very curious and disappointed with what had happened, but without the tools, what could he do? He was just an 18-year-old High School graduate...

But soon, he would learn of the green box' true value.

And that was when everything changed, and Dale's will was ignited.

…

/Back to the present… Around half an hour before the start of the game.../

/Crunk... Crunk.../

Dale could be seen inside a room next to another person, laying on the ground next to a Pod machine as he tightened a large bolt.

This person was relatively smaller than him but he looked similar to him in a sense.

"Done, it's installed."

"Now we need to wait for it to boot and reset and you'll be ready to game." Dale said as he looked at his brother

"Thanks, I still need to know how to do this on my own but... You know how it went last time…"

Dale interrupted him saying:

"You were too violent with the pieces and you scratched the container, spilling the solution inside the machine and breaking it… Yeah, I remember that fucking day."

His brother cringed as he remembered that.

"Don't make me remember that… Dad already beat me enough… I just started receiving my allowance again."

'Albeit everything goes to my girlfriend nowadays...'

Dale got up and opened the door of his brother's room.

"Once it's done, check the system to see if everything is fine, I'll get ready in the meantime so if something happens just ask me, I'll be in my middle room."

"Sure."

Dale's brother smiled, he seemed pretty excited to play this game.

/Clack/

Dale closed the door with a thin smile.

(Not all brothers need to completely hate each other, right?)

…

/Click!/

Dale locked the door to his room and checked the time.

"Hum… I still have 20 minutes."

'I already have my plan memorized… But in any case, I scanned it and have it on my machine just in the unique instance I need it while playing.'

'Since logging off to read something seems rather counterintuitive.'

'I love that they allowed these small features in this game, most games don't allow these in order to not break immersion… Or whatever the company's reasons are.'

'But considering how much of a bother it is to get inside one of these machines and boot it, letting the players have some quality of life is a must!'

'Still, in those games, I normally just entered the main menu whenever I wanted to do something outside of the game's restrictions, it's not like I need to get out of the Pod if I wish to stop playing to watch some NewTube.'

"Everything is in order… So I guess I can just relax… As fucking if!"

'I've been waiting for a year! I need something to do…'

It was at this moment that Dale remembered about the green box.

It was still there, quietly floating in the corner of his vision, it seemed to flare a little as if calling for him.

Over the year, he had come to understand a bit more about this enigmatic object...

Albeit some things were still unclear to him.

He understood what it could do, but not why and how.

And that was why he was going to pursue the answers to these questions.

...

{Initiating}

{Dale Houston (19-year-old)

Body condition: Very Healthy-2; Excited-5; Confident-1

Lineology: Mixed race -> North America, South America, European.

Physical Data

-Body: 50 (Maximum Gene Chain)

-Cognitive: 25 (Maximum Gene Chain)

-Fucking 0: 0 (Temporary name)

Meaningful Abilities: Exercise-8; Spear Technique-7; Close quarters Combat-6; Gaming-5; Maintain Emotions-5; Analysis-4; Study-4; Spacial Awareness-3; Willpower-2; Knife Technique-1.

Overall, comprehensive Analysis: A young Human male with an overwhelming presence strong enough to make kids cry just by having them look at his back if this can be considered Human.

This young adult doesn't understand the meaning of 'stop, this is enough' and instead opted to achieve the limits of a Human by training every day until his arms bled.

He may have more muscles than brains, but he has shown intelligence by trying his best to make the most of his muscle's power, with decent success.

Score: 6.8 out of 10, you have achieved power but at what cost? Your masculinity is big enough to bend straight guys. But at least you still have your hair.

}

"... I evolved so much… Wait, did the score change?" He asked as he saw the numbers

'It wasn't like this earlier today... What… My what?! Fuck you too!'

As he cursed this evaluation inside his mind, he got ready by putting on the special clothing necessary to play in these newly advanced pods.

It was a type of skin-tight suit similar to diver suits, you didn't expect people to enter inside a pod and get submerged in a liquid naked or with their clothes on right?

The suit had many special circular objects tied to it in multiple key sections of his body, one of which was his neck.

…

/13:40… 13:50… 13:55/

"It's time." Said Dale as he entered the pod

'The game servers will open at 14:30, and at that time players will be allowed to enter the Tutorial lobbies, but I have 10 minutes of a head start!'

Dale closed the pod and started to put on his things, strapping a metal tube to his protective clothing.

/Shush!/

The air inside his clothing from the neck down was sucked, making it stick to his body, displaying his colossal...

"Haaa… I really hate this part."

Dale put on a helmet and connected the neck of his suit with the helmet before pressing a green circle on his pod's glass wall.

/CLICK!/

The machine bonded the helmet to the suit to prevent any leaks from scaping.

[System: Operational]

[Checking user integrity… All systems nominal]

[Elden Throne thanks you for choosing its products!]

[Would you like to QuickStart or…]

"QuickStart, I hate seeing the liquid slowly rising… It gives me…"

But before he could finish, his body went limp.

[Initiating…]

Only the machine sounds were left in the room…

…

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Notes

Sorry for not giving a too in-depth explanation of what Dale thought of the Green Box, it's just that, for me, it's pretty self-explanatory, so instead of spending a few moments having the mc think about it, I thought it would be better to go with the plot first.

In the future, when the time comes, then he'll say what he thinks of it, but by then, everyone will have a great idea of what it is supposed to be, so it'll be more of a confirmation than anything else.