He just wanted to be useful. He wanted to find the answer to the question, "What am I living for in this world?" He just didn't want to be a loser like he was now.
All his friends from the past had achieved brilliant glory. A company CEO, an international-class athlete, a judge, a doctor, a soldier, a hustler, a machanist. He even heard that an old friend had managed to get into the military's special forces. A unit whose true identity would never be known by anyone until he died.
Meanwhile, he was just a guy who work unclearly. Sometimes he joined this supermarket for a part-time job, sometimes work in a food stall, sometimes he delivered packages, shuttled school children, and did all sorts of other odd jobs.
There was only one thing that was his entertainment, that is Aetherion Chronicle.
A game of the MMORPG or Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game genre, an RPG that could be played multiplayer with people all over the world. The game's selling points were epic adventures, unexpected side quests and hidden quests, countless skill developments, and a very long main storyline.
After six months of its release, no one had ever managed to complete the main story, and the game continued to update. Some pro players admitted that after reaching Chapter 11 in the main story, the difficulty became extraordinarily insane, even harder than the famously difficult Eldan Ring game.
Now, the game had reached Chapter 20, and the developers had claimed that it was complete. However, even the best person in the game had only managed to reach Chapter 13.
Cael, that man's name, that loser's name, was now sitting in front of his computer, engrossed in playing his one and only beloved: Aetherion Chronicle. His face was quite handsome with slightly messy black hair and a sharp nose; unfortunately, he had black eyes.
"Cut off its horns!" he yelled, not caring that it was already night and his apartment wasn't soundproof.
His right hand moved nimbly to click the mouse while his left hand pressed the keys on the keyboard to control his in-game avatar.
Five minutes later, Cael's party was still struggling to defeat the dungeon boss. However, one of the party members performed an ultimate move, and the boss was immediately afflicted with the stun effect, or unable to move. That was when Cael's party successfully claimed victory.
"Good job, everyone!" exclaimed Cael, satisfied as he looked at the abundant rewards from the boss hunt. "Our Guild will surely rise in rank for completing this dungeon."
One of the party members replied, "Ah, too bad the event ends in three days. We can only get the reward for the 3rd largest guild."
"That's no problem, we're 3rd nationally," Cael said proudly, as he was the founder and leader of the Aeternis Guild. He chose the name because it meant eternity in ancient Greek.
After saying goodbye, Cael took off his headset and turned off his computer, the only luxurious item in his room.
He then lay down and closed his eyes, praying that tomorrow would be okay.
***
His sleep was disturbed by the chaotic, irregular singing of forest birds. Cael's eyes opened, and slowly, a look of surprise surfaced on his face. He lifted his body slowly; his head was still a bit dizzy as he looked around.
There were only giant trees that looked ancient and mysterious. He did not recognize the shape of the leaves on the grass, nor the small insects clinging to the trees. All of this seemed so strange and sudden.
"Ah, maybe I'm still dreaming?" Cael tried to think logically. He got up and tried to explore the surroundings, just in case he found something.
Trees covered with thick moss, their millions, even tens of millions, of branches expanding to form an umbrella that blocked the sun's glorious light. And the wet ground wasn't slippery but was quite bothersome.
Cael observed his own clothes: a simple black tunic and black pants. He also carried a sword wrapped around his belt and a small bag on his lower back.
Thinking back, all this scenery gave Cael a sense of deja vu. He rubbed his chin while pondering.
"Hmm... it looks like the first summon location for the Assassin class, similar to Sylvant Forest." Cael looked around one more time and became increasingly convinced that what he was seeing was Sylvant Forest in the Aetherion Chronicle game. Assassin was one of the avatar classes players could choose.
"I'll just walk around first. It's only a dream anyway." Cael smiled, starting to feel excited because this dream allowed him to enter his own favorite game.
He ran across the tall grasses and the roots of the giant trees. He looked impressed at the mountains in the distance whose peaks pierced the clouds, enjoying the fresh water of the river in the middle of the forest.
This was truly an extraordinary dream; everything felt so real, even the texture of the grass felt incredibly real, tickling the soles of his shoes. All of this was too real to be called a dream.
Cael lay down on a patch of thick grassy ground, a wide smile on his face.
"Seriously, if this is a dream, I don't want to wake up again," he said. "I'm happier in this game, this game is my real world!" he shouted.
Indeed, it was true: Cael was just a lonely man whose game world was more real than his actual world.
While he was still in such a state of joy, a loud roar suddenly sounded, followed by the earth shaking. Cael immediately jumped up in a panic, ready to run for his life.
A few dozen meters from where he stood, one by one, the trees were visibly shaking violently. Cael couldn't help but swallow hard. What kind of creature was capable of shaking the giant trees of Sylvant Forest?
However, Cael suddenly remembered that this was a dream world. He often had nightmares and knew how to force himself to wake up, which was to concentrate and shock himself. Whether by screaming or bumping into a rock or hitting his face.
"Okay, I just have to wake up. It's a shame, though, because I wanted to stay longer here."
He raised his fist and, fast as lightning, punched his right cheek. The sound was very loud, indicating that the punch was too hard. Cael's body staggered to the left and then fell.
With dazed eyes, he tried to open them. The bed and computer he was supposed to see were nowhere in sight; all he saw were thick grass and the trees shaking in the distance.
"Wait, I didn't wake up?" He began to panic about his condition. "Hey, I'm not waking up?" He tried slapping his cheek a few more times.
However, a black bear snout appeared from behind the trunk of the giant tree in front of him.