I jam my sword into the beast's abdomen. I pull up and I feel the flesh parting away. The wolf lunges for my throat but I back away. I slip on its blood and fall down. I couldn't get the knife out in time.

I grab its upper torso and push it off to the side. I'm on top now and I start punching it in its maw. I feel its teeth crunching under my gold fist.

I grab both of my hands and crush its head in. I'm huffing and puffing. I fall down to the side and wipe the blood on my helmet.

I'm encased in a beautiful streamlined golden plated armor. It covers me from head to toe.

"Get up, bro." Lem grabs my arm and pulls me up. She took care of her pack with relative ease. We'd split up to divide them and take care of them. My golden armor caused more of the wolves to come for me.

"Where is he?"

"Down there." We were hunting for a summoner. I pull out my knife and follow along behind her. This is surreal. I shouldn't be here. I wouldn't have been here. A single moment of a series of coincidences set off a trigger that put me here.

The summoner's been knocked out. I kicked him straight in the gut. He groans, it must've hurt. "Wake up!"

...

..

.

I deposit all of the ores and gems into a sack. My fatigue level is at 4. That's not good. I overworked myself. There's a series of red alerts in the corner of my vision.

[Maximum Gaming Time Reached]

[You Will Be Logged OUT]

It wouldn't work. I'd installed a separate battery and a mod-pack that blocked the forced logout. It was essential for any grinder.

I look at the balance deposited in my wallet. [13 Silver Frags]. "What the hell!? That was 15 grams!" I shout at the collector. He's got oily slicked-back hair. It would look presentable if it wasn't for his balding scalp. The number of times I've wanted to drive a pick through his head is 348000.

"Azulite Crystals are going down in value ever since the dwarven mine raid." He shrugged. "I can't do anything about it. Get the fuck out of here."

"What did you say!?" An icy flame rage engulfs me and I move to smack his head in. A powerful blast pushed me all the way back and I crash into the people behind me. I want to get back up but somebody just grabs my arm. They don't want me to cause any more trouble.

I won't get up anyway. My hp hit 0. I'm logged out. I can't avoid or mod my way out of this.

I wake up with a rush of air. My body is sore, sweaty, and screaming in pain. I try to move my arm and it just flops down. I feel pins and needles all over my body. The worse is the blaring thumps of my heartbeat pounding in my ears.

It takes me 40 minutes to get into a condition where I can walk out of the rig upright. I stumble straight into the shower. I'm not wearing anything anyways. It's because the cooling system fried out a long time ago.

I take a shower with hot water. It doesn't make me feel any better. The water is piping hot and in this weather, it's not pleasant.

I turn on the Magical Frontier Stream on my phone. The screen is cracked beyond repair and it turns off every now and then for no reason. I just don't have money for another one.

"The Streaming King, Jeon990 was spotted in the City of Rakim." The mainstreamer, UpJump was speaking. She had an image of Jeon990 on the screen. He was smiling at the camera.

"No way, is he on the hunt for it as well?" Flount rubbed his forehead. He didn't approve.

"There's no other reason to be down there at all. If you're looking for it guys, be on the lookout. The competition just got intense."

"I thought he would be more level-headed. An item like that just can't exist." The item in question was a Skill Shard. The name of the skill contained within it was Switch Build. It was insane.

"I think it does and whoever gets it is going to be a millionaire overnight. I'm jealous of everyone who started on Server 7."

I plopped down on the floor and rubbed my eyes. If I could just get my hands on that, I wouldn't need to work in that stupid mine for another day.

I look at my balance. 392 credits. That's enough to sustain me for a week. I don't have any skills to speak of. This job is the only thing I have. Childish things like this need to be left behind. I don't have time to game.

I fell asleep without eating. It felt like I fell into a deep cavern. I had the strangest dreams. I was falling and falling while tiny crows pecked at me. They took off each and every piece of my flesh peck by peck until nothing was left and I splatted onto the ground. A heap of dusty old bones.

I woke up with a start and started coughing. it hurts too much for a cough. I look at the time and grab a protein bar. These were the cheapest ones I could find. I start chewing them and look at the only photo on my mantle.

I'm smiling there, my cheeks are fuller, my eyes aren't as sunken in. There's a glimmer of hope in there somewhere. I don't see it in myself nowadays.

I log back in. The time limit is over.