The group continue to ride back home, Jack is just quietly thinking about the situation he was involved in, it was the first time he had done anything like that including killing that bandit that tried to sneak attack. He didn’t feel any injustice towards killing the person and looking at Jessica who is still within his lap, he feels that he made the right decision.

Jack tightens his arm around Jessica while keeping one on the reins, Jessica grabs his hand and asks “Will that dog be ok?” she asks with a concerned tone, Jack starts to chuckle out loud as he didn’t expect her to ask about that dog. He was concerned about killing a person and the person who he’s concerned about is asking about a random dog.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine” Jack says to reassure her

“Good as I thought up a good name for it, Bubbles Chocolate Doggy”

Jack starts laughing at this name, Jessica can come up with some ridiculous names but it’s just innocent fun. He is unable to see her face right now; she is blushing but has a relieved smile on her face as though she was worried before he started laughing.

The group proceed down the road, no one stopped them but there were certainly a few that noticed the horses. Jack doesn’t want to give us Sleipner as his main transportation but something has to be done soon about it. He thinks about it and other things as the day turns into dusk and the group set up camp away from the main road.

Drakon lead the two cavalries in some drills while patrolling the area leaving Jack and Jessica alone, they both look at each other deeply, they can each feel their hearts speeding up and Jack reaches out to Jessica but a peeping sound can be heard coming from Jessica’s chest area.

This brings the two of them out of their almost trance like state as Jessica turns around and looks down her top, Jack smiles bitterly he almost got caught up in the moment but right now isn’t the best time for anything like that.

The dusk has turned into night and Jack is tending to a camp fire they have made, the demonic sheep is bleating about as Drakon hasn’t recently knocked it out. Luckily it hasn’t launched any fireballs but it is retrained far away from the campsite.

Jessica comes over to the campfire while holding the little sack of skin that is a little baby bird, a chick. It looks quite ugly but as she’s holding it, it’s quite happy while trying to take in all the of sights. Jack upon seeing the little chick curses to himself as all of his moments are interrupted by animals, even ones that he doesn’t know about.

Jessica lets the little chick that is unable to stand still, onto the ground as its wriggling about quite a lot. Jack remembers that the little snake hasn’t been out in some time, it has been stuck in the White Dragon – Phoenix sword this whole time. He summons it out where it crawls onto the ground, inspect the general area while yawning.

Jack wants to also use this as a sort of test, if it’s just a snake then it will want to eat the chick. It flickers its tongue a few times while looking at the chick on the ground but it doesn’t do anything and buries into the ground for some reason.

This surprises Jack as he thinks that it’s trying to run away but it reappears shortly not far away holding several colourful worms in its mouth, its holding them in its mouth while looking at Jack, he reaches down on the ground where the snake leaves the worms in his hand while crawling back up to his bicep and promptly falling asleep.

Jack inspects the worms with the system:

[Five Colour Heavenly Worms] Grade: SS Description: Worms that have absorbed massive amounts of Heaven and Earth QI allowing them to mutate and divide prolifically over the years.

Looking at the wriggling worms in his hand, Jack honestly can’t tell that they’re anything special apart from being slightly more interesting to look at, Jack wants to drop them back onto the ground but as though sensing the worms, the little chick lets out some peeps to indicate that its hungry.

Jack passes the worms over to Jessica to feed it, where it happily gobbles them up with each time a slight glow comes from the little chick’s body indicating that its body is absorbing the qi contained within these worms. The worms are finished quickly but the little bird won’t stop making noises as it tries to crawl over the ground using its legs but its unable to stand.

After a few minutes of noise from both the sheep and the chick, things settle down and things return to peacefulness. The little chick is staring at the camp fire and slowly falls asleep, Jessica scoops it up and cradles it a bit.

“Where’d you get that little thing?” Jack asks her, he doesn’t know where or when she obtained the bird so he’s curious.

“It came out of that Phoenix statue near the city heart” Jessica replies while explaining how it appeared, she’s not really sure either as it literally just appeared out of nowhere within her hand when she was touching the statue.

Jack simply nods his head after listening, he can’t explain it either but that’s not the only weird thing that he can’t explain so he can only accept it for what it is for now. Perhaps the answers will be found in the future, looking at the little bird as it’s being bundled up to be put away again Jack feels some lingering attachment and would like to touch it but restrains himself.

Drakon returns and the first thing he does is knocks out the sheep yet again causing the sounds of nature to return, the crackling of the fire can be heard as the group sit around the fire and enjoy a small meal of game meat. Jack and Jessica retire to their tent early while everyone else stands guard but it’s an uneventful night.

The sounds of morning can be heard and the camp site is quickly packed up and they’re off on the same road back. The road isn’t busy and as they don’t want to stop because of their horses, they don’t chat with any of the merchants.

Before too long, they come across the area that they killed the demonic sheep. It’s still littered with the corpses with the area around the bodies corrupted by the demonic qi leaking from their bodies. The plant life such as grass, shrubs and trees are starting to turn different colours, going from green into a reddish black colour almost blood like developing thorns and sharp spines in places.

The sheep tied to the back of one of the horses is bleating and almost going mad trying to loosen the restraints and escape. Jack dismounts Sleipner and proceeds to check out one of the dead bodies, surprisingly they look in good condition. He uses the White Dragon - Phoenix sword to slice off and inspect some of the meat and can see that it surprisingly looks normal, he’s not willing to test it out right now.

Jack then feels the wool that’s surrounding it that is still in great shape, like it was never affected by the various fireballs and bites the stupid sheep were delivering to each other. Jack calls Drakon down to inspect them where he also agrees that it might be worthwhile to inspect the wool further.

Jack then orders for them to collect as many of the bodies as they can to bring back and inspect, Drakon and the soldiers prepare to do that while Jack slices off a leg of one of the dead sheep and feeds it to the demonic sheep that is still alive where it eats the whole thing in one bite including the bone. It starts to carry on again after finishing the meat but it has no change to it, Jack was expecting for it to get powered up or something to happen after eating.

The group quickly tie up 2-3 sheep per horse, Drakon has 4 whereas Sleipner has two. They hide the rest of the carcasses off the road where they can collect them in the future. The carcasses hanging from the sides slow down the group as they continue along the road and come across the village that they passed through earlier.

Jack stops and dirties up his face before they enter the town, it won’t mean that much if someone does spot him according to the poster but some precaution is important. They make haste through the village; several people try to stop them and sell things this time around but they’re ignored. As they pass by the noticeboard again, the poster regarding Jack is still there so Jack makes a mental note of the company involved.

The rest of the trip is uneventful and they rush to Dragon – Phoenix Village, finally arriving at night. There’s still plenty of works going on around the town, many new faces have appeared but Jack doesn’t want to get involved with them and announces he will retire for the evening leaving to the tent.

Jessica also follows Jack into his tent, nothing has changed within the tent and it looks quite romantic, he feels exhausted after the trip but feels that now is a good opportunity to log off for some time, he should need to eat and drink something by this stage. Upon mentioning that he’ll log off, Jessica has a disappointed look on her face but Jack reassures her that he’ll be back later tonight after he handles everything.

Jack then lays down in bed and proceeds to log off, his vision shifts back to the crystal room where the NPC called ‘White’ is standing there with the robotic smile of a service industry worker, “Welcome user, I would like to remind you to collect those metals for the special quest, there is no time limit for the quest but the quicker you finish the greater your rewards will be” she says.

Jack nods his head towards her but thinks up a question that has been bugging him, “Do you know what is causing a block in my mind?”.

“That is most likely because you have access to the personal assistant function that is locked until one reaches Stage 5 within the game world, you haven’t reached stage 1 yet” the NPC explains without missing a beat.

Jack can accept this answer and another question comes to mind, “Are you the one responsible for my sudden personality shifts and power bursts?” he asks the NPC taking in all of the actions it does.

“User, I am unsure what you are talking about, would you like me to log a fault?” the NPC says without missing a beat again, Jack narrows his eyes towards it trying to pressure it slightly but nothing changes and finally shakes his head in defeat, “No” he replies.

“Ok user, goodbye” the NPC can be heard saying as his vision leaves the room but before Jack’s vision shifts completely, he can hear “White doesn’t modify….” but he is unable to hear the rest of the sentence.

Jack’s vision finally returns to his main body, he can feel the instant pangs of hunger and thirst wash over his body as he looks around the room while lying on the bed. He is still within the warehouse that Tom left them in, a big room with two beds and a large tv screen.

John is still on the bed next to Jack, the game crystal can be seen on his forehead but he is surrounded by a lot of rubbish, mostly chips and fast food. Jack can smell some left-over food as his stomach churns, letting out a growl.

Jack stands up, his body creaking as he stretches and walks over to the door, it’s unlocked now so he enters through it and is greeted by an office layout where Bobby is currently sleeping on a desk with his phone blaring some porn. Jack walks up to the sleeping man and kicks the chair out from under him as he remembers what happened the last time before he went into the game.

Bobby is instantly awoken as he is falling but can’t stop himself bellowing out from the ground, “WHICH CUNT IS LOOKING FOR A BEATING?!” attempting to jump back up, Jack snickers to himself.

“GET ME SOME FUCKING FOOD YOU USELESS ASSHOLE, GET OFF YOUR FUCKING ASS AND DO SOMETHING!” Jack yells back at Bobby taking no shit from this guy anymore.

Bobby threatens Jack with a fist which is just met with a snort while Jack turns around and says, “5 minutes, sandwiches, a pie with sauce and some drinks” while he steps back through the door leading into the warehouse, closing it behind him.

“FUCK!” Bobby can be heard yelling out while the door to the outside can be heard opening and slamming shut. Jack isn’t sure why he’s acting like this, it’s the first time he has ever been like this but it’s better than just beating each other down constantly.

Jack turns on the TV where there’s nothing worth watching, some of the 24hr news channels have some information sections on ‘The Secret World Online’ as though they’re preparing older people for the game world, explaining game mechanics and how they can relate to real world mechanics.

One aspect they’re pushing is that, physical disabilities and infirmity will all but disappear when these people play the game using the crystal, they might feel like they’re in their 20s again with interviews from medical professionals admitting that it will be a great benefit to people’s mental state.

Jack looks at the time, he wants to hurry up get back into the game as it’s almost as if his real life and virtual life have swapped places. He has the start of a village going on, he has a small army and he is in a relationship with someone that makes him smile. It’s better than his real life where he has a useless degree in electrical engineering, stuck in a job at a super market that pays barely enough to survive with almost no one significant in his life.

He stops thinking about this and pulls out John’s laptop to check out a couple of websites and chat messages. The chatroom is essentially the same, people trying to make money and a lot of people spamming about joining the ‘son of Heaven’ faction.

David has sent a few more messages to Jack letting him know what he has been doing, he has managed to take over his own little village and is bragging about it, as though a farming village with a guardian beast Goat is anything special. Jack sends a few platitudes to him congratulating him.

The Russian girl has replies to Jack as well, she is somewhere in the Northern Continent where the temperature is rather warm and tropical. She has gotten involved with a player faction that started up within her region and is looking at opening up a fashion player store, she would like to find some investors and asks Jack if he knows anyone. He mulls over if he should give her money but ultimately deciding to not say anything for now, he doesn’t have much money but feels that he’ll shortly have no problems. He has always had a crush on this girl but their lives never intersected in a major way, he will be cursing himself for not taking this chance.

There’s nothing more that really needs his attention, he decides to send a few messages to his sister warning her about the future and to get in touch with Tom if she needs any help. This doesn’t take too long and he finishes up by reading the private English forums.

There’s a lot of posts about converting in-game money into real money, how to do it and what the best locations are. There are a lot of factions trying to recruit players offering special sign up bonuses in the real world including flying your family to a secure location, Jack thinks that this may be related to how things are going to become more serious over the next two years.

The final topic that catches Jack’s attention is a rough map of the world, there’s minimal information on the central continent where he is but it does have a lot of information on the outer continents but the user wants to charge people for a better quality map, this resulted in a long argument with the first creator just telling people that if they don’t like it, they can find all the information within the library of system cities.

Jack makes a note of that and continues to read various things when Bobby finally returns by bursting into the room, he has a bag full of stuff which he basically just throws at Jack. Jack gets pissed off at this behaviour but doesn’t react, slowly digging into the meat pie.

“How the fuck am I meant to eat this pie without any tomato sauce?” Jack asks Bobby, “Are you unable to listen to instructions?” he adds taking a bite out of the pie then drinking a whole can of red bull.

Bobby has a flame of anger in his eyes and starts to puff up his body but upon seeing this, Jack crushes the can into a puck within his hand and flicks it towards Bobby, “Pick it up!” Jack yells at him after hearing the can embed itself into the warehouse metallic walls. Bobby looks at where the can landed, it’s stuck buried into the wall after being launched with great force.

Jack has a smile on his face as he continues to eat, Bobby is starting to sweat and finally backs off while picking the can out of the wall and placing it into the bin leaving the room without raising a peep. Jack finishes up eating, writing a note for John letting him know what time he’ll be around next in case he wants to talk.

Jack finishes by taking a quick shower, refreshing himself and going back into the game world without delay. The crystal room is the same as usual, the NPC reminds Jack about the quest to which Jack ignores and he’s back in the familiar tent.

He has only been gone about 2 hours but the village is now quiet as though everyone is asleep, he looks over at the bed and can see Jessica is sleeping within it but she has taken his pillow and wrapped herself in the blanket almost like a cocoon.

Jack attempts to wake her up, but she is fast asleep still drooling all over his pillow. He just smiles upon looking over her peaceful sleeping face, sitting next to her in bed and shutting his mind and quietly cultivating, circulating the two types of qi around his body, partitioning off small sections and storing them within his forehead.