Second Life: Welcome to Gaia

Ye Yan logged off from the game and opened his eyes. He was feeling strange after staying for so long in the game and was having a difficult time adjusting to his own body in real-life. After about one minute later, he sat on his bed and took off his game helmet, shaking his head to wake up and dispel the weirdness he was feeling. He stayed one more minute staring at nothing before get up and store the game helmet in his closet.

He loosened his muscles a little and went to the kitchen to make breakfast but found the fridge almost empty. There are only ingredients to make congee, so he started cooking right away because it would take more than one hour for the food to be ready to eat.

Ye Yan let the rice simmering and went to do some morning exercise in the live room, mostly push-up and squats. He is used to training every morning since before stopped using diapers because his father always took him to his dojo to teach him how to fight. At that time, as a child, he thought his father was just playing with him and only later he understood that he was doing training in fighting. His father was a martial arts master, so he wanted his son to be as strong as him or more. That's why Ye Yan become so powerful today and remains undefeated until now. In the beginning, his father had wanted Ye Yan to replace him in the dojo one day but gave up on the idea because of his son's personality.

When he finished his exercise, the congee was ready so he took a portion to eat and left the rest for his friends. Ye Yan didn't mind cooking for them, at least, since they wash the dishes for him. That's endless working, no matter how much you wash them, always there is more.

Only after Ye Yan finished his breakfast, his friends began to appear. They have been in the game for more than fourteen hours and now they became like famished wolves eating in a desperate way.

"What you were doing online until now? It is too dark to kill monsters outside of the city and it's not good to stay lying down for so long and remember, there's a time limit that we can be in the game. " To be fair with the night works, there are quests that become available only in the night period of the game, like exterminate ghosts, explore haunted houses, catch thieves, and the like. But they wouldn't have time to do those quests because they have been in the game for a long time now.

"I was looking around in the city. There are many shops, and the NPCs look so real. But I'm not doing it anymore. I've been robbed by a street urchin NPC and now I only have 18 coopers." Tang Yunfan said feeling indignant.

"18 coopers? But you should have, at least, 110 coopers after completing the quests. You have spent so much?" Ye Yan asked curiously.

"I didn't complete the quests yet. Those slimes are too fucking annoying and difficult to kill. Wait! Did you finished them?" Not only Tang Yunfan, but Qian Zhong and Hu Ling looked at Ye Yan with a mix of amazement and curiosity.

"Yes. I have found out that if we use our reflex and reaction speed, it became easy to dodge them." Second Life is a virtual reality game, but the players are chained to their ways of think so they can't just start to use inhuman reflexes and abilities just because they were in a game.

"Fuck! Why I didn't think about it before. I was standing there like a target for those slimes to hit." Tang Yunfan said.

"Me too. But I have the excuse of not knowing how to fight." Hu Ling said looking down on Tang Yunfan.

"The same here, but in my case, it was because the target is bigger." Qian Zong said patting his round belly, making all of them laugh.

"So what are the names and races that you guys have chosen? Asked Qian Zhong curious. "My in-game name is Fox Demon and a chose the spirit beast race. It was so cool in the beginning..." Qian Zhong sighed. As Ye Yan's three friends always change their character names, and just chose one when needed, they decided to discuss names and classes only after the release day.

"What happened?" Tang Yunfan inquired.

"Well... The spirit best race has the special ability to change into the animal they chose in the character creation. I chose to be a fox, they are so majestic, but after I started playing I discovered that my fox form is a puppy. A fucking cute puppy! I am so manly, how can I become a fucking puppy?" Qian Zhong said enraged.

"We are just novice now. The fox form will probably mature as you level up." Ye Yan trayed to calm his friend while muffling his laughter. Tang Yunfan and Hu Ling didn't even try, they just laughed their ass off.

"Laugh now! You will see when I become stronger and kill all of you in PvP (player versus players). Shit! But what can I do now? Ask the monsters for a pet?" Qian Zhong was indignant, even more so with his friends laughing at him like that. "Enough! You didn't say your in-game names yet."

"I chose the human race and my in-game name is Jun Xie." Ye Yan was the first to answer because the others were still trying to calm down.

"Really creative! You just used the nickname given by others. No imagination at all." Hu Ling said teasing Ye Yan that just look back at him with a serious face.

"I'm an elf named Spell Bound. I will become a mage later. You could help me leveling as you can kill the monsters easily." Hu Ling has been acting as a healer, using [First Aid] in a random party before, but the experience that he could get like that was really little.

"I choose to be a half-orc and my in-game name is Conan." He liked the Conan movie version of 2065 very much so and as he intended to make a barbarian-like character, he chose this name.

"You and those American action movies..." Hu Ling said shaking his head.

"You didn't say what you were doing until so late yet. I bet that Little Ling had met a beautiful chick in-game." Qian Zhong gave Hu Ling a meaningful look.

"Hey, why do you call everyone but me brother? It's always Little Ling. You should call me fourth brother." They have been calling each other brothers since high school. Tang Yunfan is the oldest one, so he is the First brother (not the elder brother). Qian Zhong, even with his baby face, is the second in age, so the second brother. Ye Yan is the third brother and Hu Ling is the youngest among them, so fourth brother but they are used to call him Little Ling because when they were in the first year of high school, he was very little and looked more like a child than a teenager.

"There are seven years we call you like that. You should just get used to it." Tang Yunfan didn't intend to change the way he names him. "And you didn't answer."

"I have been talking with some people I meet in the game and one of them was desperate like you two." Hu Ling said pointing to Tang Yunfan and Qian Zhong. "He told me that the best place to know pretty girls in the game is the restaurant. Many girls are going there to eat their belly full and, as one of them said, they can eat a lot and have no regrets later because you didn't get fat in the game, so no diet is needed."

"Hey! What is the problem with a little fat? Look how I am so fatlicius. Humpf. And why did you point at me and First bro and not Ye Yan?"

"Ye Yan problem is not that he cannot get girls but he always becomes shy and portrays a serious face that those girls just think they don't have a chance with him." Hu ling said and turn to Ye Yan. "I really wonder what passes in your mind when those girls approach you. That gangsta-like face you do is hilarious when we know that you are only being shy." the three of them laughed at Ye Yan making the tip of his years become red.

"I will go to a game restaurant tomorrow. Will you go with me, first bro?"

"You are just giving an excuse to tasty the game food, right? You are a foodie after all."

"The word is gourmet."

"Forget about him. Ye Yan will carry us today, right?" Hu Ling asked but not asking Ye Yan.

"I got a quest to do that looks to be difficult. Maybe if you three go with me, it would be easier." The four agreed to meet at the East Gate after they log in later today.