The Connection (part 1/3)

Manco woke up at about 4 p.m. Leaving the tavern, he retrieved his armor at the smith. A visit to the general store freed him of most unneeded items. He bought a new crossbow, which he would use in the presence of other players. He wanted to hide his signature weapon for as long as possible.

Then he turned to the main task on his agenda: unlocking the next milestone.

'Corpse-eating creatures. Let's see: vultures, coyotes, hyenas...' He pored over his notes: 'None of them spawn in this biome. There are also maggots and some insects, but I doubt it'll be that easy. Finding another bunch of crypt lice would be the best, but they only spawn in crypts and mini-dungeons. Undeads like ghouls don't hang around this parts. Hmm…'

Another option would be to travel to another area where he could find these creatures, which was very risky. He would not only have to worry about the wildlife, but also random players who might target him. He much preferred to upgrade the gun to a "safe" level in this village first before venturing further out.

Then he remembered a few nights ago, he killed a lot of animals, which drew out a lot of nocturnal creatures that devoured all the corpses during the night. Repeating that tactic was probably his best bet. However, this time he would have to actually fight and kill them, which was no easy task. Those creatures tend to be stronger and more vicious, not to mention the poor visibility at night. It would be a lie to say he wasn't nervous about dying.

'No risk, no reward!' He reminded himself. He just had to be extra careful about it.

First, he tried the graveyard near the village and found some flesh-eating beetles. However, a few kills later, the progress bar refused to budge.

'Too easy, huh? Figures…'

His other options exhausted, Manco entered Misty Woods. This would be the second time he spent the night out here, although this time he was on a hunt instead of nesting safely on a tree.

Retrieving supplies from his bag, he began laying down some traps to cover his escape in case he was overwhelmed and had to run back to town. When that was done, he carefully made his way deeper toward the Death Forest.

The journey was uneventful. He was level 22, more than double his level the previous time he was here. The predators offered little resistance and were easily dispatched. He collected their meat and headed toward the area he previously used as the hunting zone.

'Hmm… looks like this is it!' Manco stopped, surveying the area.

He could spot several big trees he previously used as emergency escapes. Now the next step would be…

〕— !!! WARNING !!!—-〔

〕—Connection interrupted—〔

〕—Secondary connection detected. Rerouting… Success! —〔

〕—Secondary connection stability: Poor —〔

〕—Please find a safe place to log out and restore your primary connection—〔

As the dreaded notification rang through his ears, the world around him became a collection of blocky and blurred mess like a painting made by a kid with crayons. His senses of smell and touch stopped working, and the rich ambient sounds were reduced to simple sound bytes.

"Fuck me!" He cursed out loud, noticing his voice was strangely distorted.

After a few moments, the rendering improved a little, turning the scenery around him into graphics made in the early 2000s. Chunky models filled with low-resolution textures. The draw distance was reduced to several dozen meters.

The system had automatically detected the 6G connection used by his phone and hopped on it. Graphics were reduced to the minimum, and most other senses were cut off to minimize bandwidth usage.

'Damn it!' Figuring out the reason could wait. He urgently ran through his choices.

Running back to town was suicidal. He took two hours to get here, and the 6G connection definitely couldn't hold out that long. Not to mention he wouldn't be able to fight effectively with the massive lag and the sensory deprivation he was experiencing.

His only option would be to hide up a tree and pray no beast would find him.

Cursing profusely, he selected a tree and climbed up. It was a lot harder this time as, without the sense of touch, he kept misjudging the stability of his grip. Nevertheless, he made it to a relatively secluded spot. He secured himself to a branch, covered up with a blanket and logged out.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Mahn Li checked his VR rig's cables and found everything secure. The only explanation would be the internet had been cut off for some reason.

Picking up his phone, he called the number of the apartment building's owner.

"What?" an irate voice answered the phone.

"Uh…" before he could speak, the voice continued: "Little Li, isn't it? Called to complain about the internet?"

"Um… yeah. You see…"

"You're two months behind on rent and you have the nerve to complain? If your highness finds the service here unsatisfactory, you can take your ass elsewhere!"

Then the other side hung up.

"Oh fuck me fuck me fuck me!" He cursed. How could he forget about this?

In his old life, after buying the units, Mouse and he stayed in his apartment all days to explore the game. Their enjoyment was short-lived, as they were soon kicked out on account of their failure to pay rents plus the other tenants' complaints about them stinking up the place.

Their next few months were spent crashing at their friends' and acquaintances' houses. They didn't spend more than one week at any place. Internet connection was spotty, and the two of them were too anxious to shut off all their senses in the presence of people they barely knew. After much consideration, they rented a storage unit for the VR rigs and found part-time jobs to save up money.

Eventually, they rented a cheap place in a relatively safe neighborhood where Mahn Li could game while Mouse continued working. It took several more months before Mahn Li began making some real money and both of them could focus on the game.

He still remembered hauling the two heavy VR rigs over long distances, onto buses and trams, all the while nervous about breaking them. He and Mouse had to sleep outside once and almost got mugged a few times. It was a grueling period.

He shook his head and sighed, ashamed at his impulsiveness and lack of foresight. It seemed he was not much different from before. After getting the game, he was too caught up in the excitement to remember his problems.

'What should I do?' Dwelling in the past served no purpose now. He focused his thought on the present.

He considered his options. Borrowing more money was impossible. He already exhausted all sources to afford his VR rig. He thought about finding another place for rent, but a quick search revealed nothing satisfactory. The ones in a decent state all required deposits, while the ones that didn't were all in seedy areas. In the worst case scenario, he would do the same as before: staying at his friends' places. This only solved the accommodation problem and he would have to find a job, which would eat up valuable time. If all else failed, he would have to do this.

"I'll go talk to the landlady. See if I can convince her to let me stay for a few more weeks."

Locking his apartment door, he rode the elevator to the 15th floor. That was where the landlady's apartment was. In fact, the entirety of the building's top floor was reserved for her use.

As the elevator door opened, he was surprised to find a long line of tenants in front of the apartment designated as her office.

Mahn Li stepped out of the elevator and approached the queue. They were waiting and chattering amongst each other. Once a minute, someone would press the doorbell impatiently.

He knew many of these people. Although he never talked to them, he ran into them quite a few times in his old life. The old lady who was a seamstress. The middle-aged man who often sat and drank tea in the hallway. The group of college students (these ones he knew by name - he drank with them a few times). He was a little overwhelmed by nostalgia.

As he listened to the chatters, he realized that all of them had their internet connection cut off. The complainers were mostly young people, while the old ones were just there out of curiosity.

After a few minutes…

"So noisy! EVERYONE PIPE THE FUCK DOWN!"

An authoritative roar came from behind the door. Everyone stopped talking. All attention was on the door.

There was the sound of the door being unlocked. Then it opened and out strode the landlady.

Yuan Qiu, 30 years of age, single mother. A fierce beauty with a fiery temper to match.

It wasn't her temper that made her intimidating, it was the talks surrounding her. It was rumored that she practiced all sorts of deadly martial arts. It was also said that she once single-handedly beat several local bosses into submission, which was why the neighborhood around this apartment building was free of gang activities and vandalism.

He was not sure how much of those rumors were true. However, he once witnessed her beat up two armed muggers and sent them away crying. Two huge men weeping like little kids because they got beat up by a woman should be funny, but it terrified the shit out of him.

From the older tenants, he learned that she had 'mellowed out' in recent years after her son had grown more independent and the stress of raising a child lessened. He shuddered to think what kind of temper she had before.

With a cigarette in her mouth and a surly expression on her face, she was clearly in a bad mood.

As she stepped out, the crowd silently parted to let her stand in the middle of the hallway.

"What's with all the racket?" She asked.

As if someone just lifted the silence spell, everyone began talking over each other.

"…Why is the internet down?"

"…I was broadcasting on MeTube. What do I do now?"

"…I'm in the middle of boiling an egg!"

"…Why the hell do you need the internet to boil an egg?"

…

The noise proceeded for twenty seconds before the landlady had had enough.

"SHUT UP!" She commanded and everyone did as told.

"You!" She pointed at someone in front of her: "What's the problem?"

"Uhh…" the young man withered in front of her glare "The internet's down!"

"I know! Someone's looking at it! What else?"

"Uhm… That's all!"

"Noted! Next person!"

No one else said anything.

"What's the matter with you all? The internet's down and you're acting like it's the end of the world!"

"Sis Yuan! You can't say that! I'm in the middle of a raid!"

"What's that? A raid? Go out and play some sports! You bunch of losers!"

"That's mean!"

"Zip it! And you still owe me rent! So do you, you and you! Pay up!"

"Ah ah, sis Yuan! You look so beautiful today! Not even a day over thirty… I mean twenty!"

"Glib tongued idiot! Go out and find a girl! What are you doing cooping up all days in here for?"

After a while, it was clear that no one had any complaint other than about the internet.

"The network will be up when it's fixed!" The landlady concluded "Now go back to your rooms! All this yelling is bad for my health!"

"And smoking isn't?" Someone muttered.

"Who said that?"

"He did, sis Yuan!"

"No I didn't! That guy did!"

"You traitor! Please, sis Yuan! I didn't mean anything by that!"

"ENOUGH! Leave, all of you!"

Her shout concluded the squabble and the tenants began to head for the elevator. Mahn Li stepped to the side to let them pass.

Yuan Qiu was about to enter her office but stopped when she spotted him.

"Oh, if it isn't little Li!" she said, her eyes gleaming dangerously, "how rare of your highness to grace me with your presence!"

As she said, she strode over to him. She was half a head shorter than him, but something about her that made her seem taller. It was probably her temper. Or her rumored ties to the local gangsters. Or the fact that she could wipe the floor with him without breaking a sweat.

"Uh… Hello, big sis Yuan," he forced out a smile.

Before he could say anything else, a repairman emerged from the room holding a smart pad.

"It's pretty messy!" He said to Yuan Qiu "It'll probably take a week for me to fix all this!"