World Online

Jake looked away instinctively.

Once again, he felt no resistance. He could feel his neck move, his feet wiggle, and his eyes squint.

He had control of his body once again.

The black glare slowly faded away and he was no longer blind.

What he saw wasn't the forest though.

He was on tile. Tiles neatly laid out on the floor that he was lying on.

"You are finally awake." A male voice came from Jake's left.

He immediately turned to see who it was that spoke. Jake recognized the voice a little, but couldn't place it.

But when he saw the voice, he remembered. All the small little details of what had happened the last two days immediately came together.

"Sword master. You are alive." Jake could barely bring together a whisper. He was way too tired to speak normally.

"You are weak. You should rest. This is time for you to get a break. We can talk tomorrow." Ganshin smiled as he snapped his fingers.

[You have been forcibly logged out. You cannot log back until eight hours passed.]

The next moment, the Jake's eyes went dark. He couldn't see anything, for the third time that day.

"I was logged out?" Jake muttered as he forcibly moved his hands, removing the clasp that bound him to the VR pod.

He fluttered his eyes open to glance at his bed.

Home sweet home.

He got out of the VR headset and jumped onto the bed.

Jake slept the day before, within the game itself, but for some reason, he felt mentally exhausted. Like he had been in the game for all of a week.

He clutched the sheets and draped them over him, closing his eyes.

"Ah! It feels like forever since I slept." He muttered as he slowly drifted away.

——x—————

"Where is this guy? He just disappeared for a week!"

An angry man, fuming, was walking around a spacious room.

He was clad in a yellow, leather robe, thin and fitting for a well built man like this one.

"What is wrong with him? Doesn't he know that he has a whole guild to run? There are so many people waiting to meet him and he just disappears. I can't even message him." He cursed.

"Vice Guild Master! There is a problem with the room allocations! There is a fight among the guild members about who gets the corner room!"

At this moment, someone ran into this spacious room, panting.

"You have got to be kidding me. I have ninety nine problems going on, and just so conveniently, you guys have to start fighting among yourself." the yellow robed man shook his head.

The woman who burst into the room looked down, not saying a word more.

"And who the hell even told them that they can get their own rooms? So what if there are hundreds of free rooms? Doesn't mean that you can just claim one for yourself. Nothing can be confirmed until the guild master himself comes here." He grunted.

"When is the guild master going to come, vice guild master? There are a few rumors going on…" the woman bit her lip.

"Rumors. I don't know where the hell he is, but if you are going to believe those rumors and if you think that he abandoned this guild, then you guys can go ahead and leave." The yellow robed man scoffed.

"You are in a mansion, with all the resources that you can ask for. The guild master disappears for one week and all of you scurry. Didn't we give you a mission? To get to the second tier? Who is even preparing for that?" He shouted.

The woman didn't respond. She just bit her lip, staying motionless.

"Nothing is to happen in this guild until the guild master comes back, or until some of you actually get to the second tier. Got it? Now I have to prepare to enter my own tier ascension quest. I just have to wait for the guild master to return so that I can do that." He said.

"I mean, if I leave you guys alone, who knows what kinds of trouble you will get yourself into? Where is faceless darkness? He is a guild elder right? He is a good leader. He wouldn't have allowed all of this to happen." He asked.

"The guild elder also went out to try and complete his tier ascension quest." The woman said.

"I am the only one left to hold the base?" The yellow robed man shook his head.

"And that Kierch. He only comes and goes whenever he wishes, or whenever he wants some custom item made." the yellow robed man shook his head.

"At the least, he contributes a few materials to the guild though. How are the grinding sessions going? Is the average level of the guild staying above the average? We need everyone to get to level thirty so that everyone can attempt the tier ascension as fast as possible." He told the woman.

"I will inform everyone to keep grinding." The woman nodded as she turned around to leave.

"That Shadow King. Once he comes back, he better have a good reason for the days he missed. A freaking week. Just gone. Not one message about where he has gone, or what he is up to." He muttered.

He walked over to the single desk in the room and slumped into the chair.

"And I have my own tier ascension to prepare for. So many things to do. I hope I can get to the second tier faster than he got to. Even his freaking younger brother is leveling up faster than I am, with grandfather fostering him like that." He muttered.

He glanced at his messages.

The one open tab was the one to Shadow King.

Hundreds of messages went out, but there was not a single response.

The yellow robed man was about to close the tab, when in the corner of his eyes, he caught a green light.

At the top of the window, there was a green dot in front of Shadow King's avatar.

"He's online!"

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