As he walked in the village’s direction, he opened up the last thing that he still needed to keep up to date. His skill list.

Skills: Propel, Ignite, Mana Siphon, Mana Skin, Enhance Weapon, Soul Steal, Intimidation Shout, Piercing Shot, Spirit Summoning, Spirit Melding, Shield Bash

Passive abilities: Mana Lobe Lvl 2, Mana Control Lvl 2, Perfect Mana Sense, Mana Breathing Lvl 1, Body Cleansing Lvl 2, ???

He was using ‘Spirit Summoning’ and ‘Spirit Melding’ a lot, so he max-leveled them directly.

Spirit Summoning:

Level: 1 -> 5 (Max)

Mana cost: 100 -> 250

Duration: 5 minutes -> 10 minutes

Exp Share: 0 (Min)/100 (max) -> 25 (Min)/100 (Max)

Spirit Melding:

Level: 1 -> 5 (Max)

Duration: 2m30s -> 5 minutes

Cooldown: 5 minutes -> 10 minutes

Stat Gain: Summon stats + 0 -> Summon stats + 5

Astaroth stopped walking, his jaw hitting the floor. The qualitative changes to those spells were the biggest he had seen yet, but they were also the best for his current situation!

He was just complaining about his Exp, and now his summon would no longer eat up any of his points! He had thought about how he would like the transformation from ‘Spirit Melding’ to last longer, and there it was!

This was a gift from heaven! His luck stat was zero, but he felt so lucky!

ƥαṇdα-ηθνε|·ƈθm

‘What does the luck stat give?’ He wondered.

It was a question for another time.

He resumed his trek towards the village, fully intent on making it there before sundown. He needed to disconnect that night without fail.

Else his body would start failing and he would either be forcefully disconnected, or he would die. He wondered if there was a function on the helmet, to make sure players didn’t abuse the game to the point of putting their lives in danger.

As he thought about that, a notification popped in front of him.

*Ding!*

*Warning! Critical body functions detected. ‘Malnourishment’ detected. Please log out soon.*

‘Well, it would seem there is at least a warning about it.’ He thought.

Which meant there was probably a fail-safe to go with it too. It wouldn’t matter too much to him, because he intended to log out soon, anyway.

He reached the village entrance after around an hour of walking, and he walked towards the river to freshen up. Then he walked into his alcove.

He pulled out one slab of meat he got as loot from the wolves and dropped it in the corner for Genie. He realized it was cannibalism and was about to take it back, but she had already started feasting on it, with seemingly no care in the world.

So he lay down on the cot and logged out.

He woke up on his bed, feeling weak and dizzy. His stomach was rumbling like a magnitude 7 earthquake and his whole body was shaking just to hold him up.

“Well, I will not stay in that game that long another time. I feel like crap.” Astaroth grumbled out loud.

He walked to his fridge and pulled out one of his frozen meals and shoved it weakly into the microwave. He stayed standing next to it, for fear of not being able to get back up if he sat down for even a second.

After the five-minute reheating time, he pulled out the meal and straight up ate it in front of the counter and microwave. Once he had fed himself, he went to sit in front of his television and opened it.

He wanted to give his body time to process the food. When he opened the television, it opened up to the last channel he had been on, ESN Canada.

And on it was a report on how many players of ‘New Eden’ had been exaggerating their playing time lately, because of the announcement of the first tournament. The reporter was in front of the Evo-Gaming headquarters.

The reporter was talking about incidents happening where players had played for many days in a row without logging out, resulting in forced logout from the game.

The helmet was loaded with safety measures, forced logout, many warning notifications, and even a ‘Call Emergency Services’ function.

It only activated the last one during forced logouts and was there because if the game forced you out, you were past the point where you could care for yourself.

‘Hmm. Handy.’ Alexander thought.

He would prefer not having to deal with that altogether though, and that was why he had logged out every night in-game to take care of his needs.

Of course, he would also love to pass more time in the game, but that meant putting his health at risk, and he wasn’t a fool either.

The report continued for a while, talking about cases where people had to be brought into the ER, but such cases were rarer, most just being cases of emergency responders giving nutrients to the players and leaving with a strong warning.

After a while, the reporter brought his hand to his ear. He nodded and announced that Evo-Gaming had just responded to the ongoing phenomenon by pushing out a new product.

The reporter sent the channel to an ad break, showcasing the product. The product was an oval-shaped pod, like a nap pod, and it opened up to a gel interior that acted as cushioning for the players.

The pod came equipped with needles that would inject IV solutions into the bloodstream, to keep players hydrated and full of nutrients during extended sessions.

Of course, you had to replace the IV bags when they were empty, but it still enabled long sessions of uninterrupted gaming and reduced the risks to the players’ health to a minimum.

The product presenter rambled about how this was the highest innovation and the future of gaming. That this new product would revolutionize the gaming industry.

The ad concluded with the web link to order the pods and a very steep price. Most households wouldn’t be able to afford it, as they priced it starting at fifty thousand for inferior quality to two hundred thousand for best quality.

Alexander immediately opened up the web link on his phone and went to the order section. He tapped on the highest quality and entered his bank account information.

He still had close to three hundred and fifty thousand saved up, from the sale of his parents’ house and his own savings combined. He pressed ‘confirm order’ after checking the ‘same-day shipping box’.

The cost was up by another ten thousand dollars, but he didn’t care. That would solve his biggest issue, time. He wanted that pod yesterday!

To him, that was an investment, not a waste of money. If he could spend more time in the game than out of it, he would rapidly overtake the other, less fortunate players, and rush to the top of the leaderboards.

That would surely secure him some sponsors, he thought.

‘Innovation is the best!’ He thought, pumping his fist in the air.