I open my eyes and wake up to see an unfamiliar ceiling.

'Huh?'

Looking around, I see that I was in a white room with Mrs. Lane sitting at a chair next to me reading a book. There was an IV connected to my right arm that's sending dextrose into me.

'This is?' confused at what was going on

She notices me looking around.

“Oh Thank goodness, you woke up! Wait here for a minute while I go get the doctor” relief could be seen on her face, huge eyes bags could be seen under her eyes, as she rushes out the door

‘Doctor? I’m in a hospital? Why am I here in the first place anyway? I can’t remember anything that’s happened that would put me in here’ as I was rattling my brain, thinking of what could’ve happened

Mrs. Lane then comes in through the door with a doctor tagging behind her He inspects my face for a few seconds before asking about my condition

“How are you feeling right now lad? You gave Mrs. Lane here quite a scare when you didn’t wake up for two whole weeks”

“TWO WEEKS!?” exasperated, I raise my body from the bed to ask the doctor

Mrs. Lane nods and to answers my question

“Yes, two weeks ago, Tala went to fetch you for dinner, but when she came close to the door she heard a beeping sound that grew louder and louder. She called me up and saw that there were words appearing on the glass of that machine. It said ‘Warning: Ejecting occupant’ and then the glass door opened with you, unconscious inside of it. We tried to wake you up, but you just wouldn’t, so we carried you into you’re room"

'Eh? I don't remember anything like that happening...' focusing hard, trying to remember

"We waited for five hours, but you still didn’t wake up, so we called up an ambulance and went here” rubbing a tear drop from her right eye

I feel a pang of guilt, as I see Mrs. Lane sad, even though I knew nothing of what happened

“We CT scanned you, but we didn’t find anything out of the ordinary. Your life wasn’t in any danger, but from what I gathered from Mrs. Lane’s story, your condition may be due to over stimulating your brain through the use of virtual reality. It stressed your mind too much and your body just couldn’t handle it, so it went into a coma like state to let itself rest. Make sure to not play for long durations, as it may not be dangerous for now, but the strain on your brain will accumulate” said the doctor

'Does that mean I'm banned from playing for a while?' not taking the doctors warning too seriously

I'm a kid, I see everyone else having fun, then most likely I'd want to as well. It's not being irresponsible, it's just staying true to what my fifteen year old self wants, to fit in and have fun. And that's what matters, staying true to who you are... I think? Don't blame me, blame my philosophy teacher for it. He's the one who put that thought inside my head in the first place.

“Can he go home now, Doctor? Or does he have to stay here for a few more days of check-up?” asked Mrs. Lane

“Oh, he can go home now. But, if he feels anything strange or doesn’t feel well, headache or sudden dizziness, please return him here for a check-up”

After a few more minutes of Mrs. Lane talking with the doctor, I was discharged from the hospital.

'This feels weird, very weird' forcing my feet to move

Mrs. Lane called a cab to bring us home, because I was using a wheel chair, due to my legs being too weak right now and Mrs. Lane insisted that we do so.

'How am I supposed to frolick in the fields like a stupid boy if I can't even move my toe'

We arrived at the orphanage, where the kids greeted us when we entered through the door. Barraging me with questions, if I was okay or if I’m feeling anything bad.

I answered their questions with ‘I’m fine, just a little bit tired’. It was ten in the morning of Saturday, my friends from school delivered my homework and any educational materials that will help me catch up.

'Two weeks worth of homework... first thing after being discharged and this greets me'

Not wanting to delay it any longer, I read the materials and did my homework in the living room. Alana was sitting next to me, staring at my face with her big round eyes. She was tasked by Mrs. Lane to help and keep a close eye on me, if anything ever happens.

'Heh~ this makes me want to do something' I griin deviously

“Argh, it hurts” making a pained face while I tried looking hurt

Teasing the little girl beside me, making her panic.

“Wawawa, Laney, Laney! John is huyting!” she runs around the house looking for Mrs. Lane

I smiled as I looked at her frantic state

'Hoh, she finally pronounced my name right'

After she did that for a full minute, I started laughing at her silliness

“Ahahaha” holding my sides and tearing up a little

Mrs. Lane comes in through the hallway

“Everything alright here?” she asks

“John said owie! He huyting!” pulling Mrs. Lanes hand, as she tugs her towards me

“I was just joking around, nothing wrong here” patting the little girls head

She gives me a hard stare

“Hmm, ok then. Don’t tease her too much” she bends down

“Okay, sweetie, good work. Keep a close eye on him again. Go fetch me if something happens, okay?”

“Okie!” as she stands straight up

Mrs. Lane then goes back to what she was doing and I continue to do my homework with Alana now sitting in front of me and starring.

'Should I?' thinking of doing it again

'Nah, next time' I give her a smile, while she stares at me

A few hours later, I finished my homework and studies. After dinner, with nothing left to do, I asked Mrs. Lane if I could use the gift machine again.

“Isn’t what caused you to be in a comatose for two weeks because of it? And you're saying you want to go back in again?” looking at me with an incredulous look

“I’ll be only using it for an hour, I want to talk to my friends inside the game and catch up with what’s happened when I was away” I pleaded, making big round puppy dog eyes

“It’s just to ask them stuff about school. I can’t contact them, because they’re still playing inside the game and it might take them a while before they'd see my message”

Mrs. Lane doesn’t know that one hour in real life is equivalent to six hours in the game, I’ll just keep that a secret from her for now.

After a few more minutes of hard pleading, I finally got her to say ‘Ok, but only for an hour. Remember that’.

Hook, line, and sinker. Maybe I have a future in advertising?

Please buy my product, you're the only one I can count on. Then add in the puppy dog eyes for the additional pitiful effect...Let's be real, I'd be homeless if I did that, sleeping on one of the benches in the park, while I fight the dogs for scraps of food in garbage cans.

'Ahhh, it's nice to be living the dream' sipping water from a can that I found on the sidewalk

She carried me up the stairs and asked Tala to carry the wheel chair up. Mrs. Lane then helped me lay down inside of it, inserting the black chip in the slot.

“Really now, be careful not to stay in there for too long, okay?”

“Okay, I won’t. Just one hour and zip I’m out” I said, as she closes the glass

I then felt a tingling sensation on my neck and I fell asleep.

I woke up inside a coffin in the room where I fought Mutatio. It was empty this time with no monsters in sight

"Nice, I killed it!" fist pumping at the achievement of killing the monster

Multiple windows popped up in front of me.

Congratulations for clearing ‘Mutatio’s resting grounds’! One of ‘Idleans’ Challenges’ has been completed! 9 out of 10 remain The title ‘Mutatio’s Savior’ has been bestowed onto you For slaying ‘Mutatio: The Immortal Morpher. Key Item: Mutatio’s Core has been received For Completing the dungeon. Miscellaneous Item: Slime of Creation has been received

“Ten ‘Idleans’ challenge’? So there’s nine more of these places left, huh” I muttered, while reading the notifications.

I opened my inventory to check the items that I received.

Mutatio’s Core – The core of the ‘Immortal Morpher’, it’s made with condensed miasma and the essence of life from mortals.

Gel of Creation – Miasma infused gel, which gives off a burning sensation when touched. It can easily change its form and retain it under any pressure. Can be used to craft specific equipments by a blacksmith.

I could use the Gel of Creation to make an equipment. Maybe a new dagger would be good. But, I have no idea what to do with Mutatio’s Core.

After reading the descriptions of the items I opened my stat window.

Status Level 20(150/29700)

Name RedGender Male

Class CookSubclass N/A

Affiliation Grand Crimson EmpireRaceHuman[/td4]

State Mutatio’s Savior: Vit+20%, Str+20%, Dex+10%, Agi+10%

Physical attack 58Magical attack 13

Physical def 18Magical def 1

Evasion 0%Critical 2%, +41% added to damage

Resist None

Status Points30

Str 27+5Vit39+8

Agi 38+4Con18

Dex 33+3Luk 5

Wis 1Int 14

Skills Basic Human Necessity( First Aid, Disassemble, Camp, Inventory, Improvised Cooking), Mixed Cooking, Butchers Instinct lvl9, Knife Sharpening, Knife Finesse lvl19, Culinary Expertise, Poison Treatment, Julienne lvl13, Insatiable Hunger

“Holy shit, that’s a lot of bonuses!” I exclaimed, as I see the stat bonuses I got from the title

I leveled up three times from my fight with Mutatio, and my skills leveled up quite nicely too. I distributed my points to agi, dex, and int equally, since my vit and str already got a lot of bonus from the title.

"It looks so good now" putting a smile on my face as I see the numbers rising

It's not that I have an obccession on getting bigger numbers, but it make everyone in the world happy if they have something in large quantities. Except when it's coloured red in the ledgers. Now that would make anyone cry.

With that done, I looked around the room, searching for where the exit was. I see a glowing brown door at the back of the room.

"Why is it always a door anyway? Can't it be something more fictional, like a portal on the ground or something?"

I walk through the door and I found myself in the plaza next to the fountain.

'I missed you fountain' sitting on it's side, while I open a window in front of me

I check my friends list to see if Karen or Lorelein were online,

I see that both of them were online and messaged Karen where they were. There was an immediate reply.

‘You feeling ok now? Don’t push yourself into playing the game, just take a few more days of rest. By the way, we’re at Hallow Ridge right now, it's four cities away from Loam to the west’

‘I’m totally fine, just wanted to check how everyone was doing. By the way, what level are you guys now?’

‘We’re more or less at the lvl 75 range now. Jim is the highest at lvl 79’

'That’s 50+ levels higher than me!’ amazed at their progress

‘Well, sleeping beauty. You were in a comatose for two whole weeks and we played almost every day since then. Don’t worry too much though, since it gets harder to level the higher you go, so you can still catch up. We can’t really leech you to our level though, since there’s a 5 lvl gap exp sharing restriction.’

‘Okay-okay. I think I’ll go level for a while then, I’ll see you all at school in a few days’

‘Yeah, we’ll see you soon. Good luck leveling’ was the last message I received from Karen before I went to the guild building to get some requests.

As I enter the guild, I saw a crowd gathered around four players at the lounge. Some of thier appearance looked unique. One had hair growing out of his body from head to toe like a werewolf, a person who had leaves and vines growing out of her back, another whose body covered in stone with a red gem at his forehead. Lastly, a person with pale skin, short yellow hair, red eyes and protruding fangs sticking out of his mouth stood in front of the three.

'So we got teenwolf, poison ivy, the thing and a blonde Edward Cullen on one team' I thought while I criticized their appearances

“Good day to you all, we received a rank violet extermination request from Lt. Colonel Eleanor and are currently looking for people to aid us in the ‘Arachnid Queens Nest’. Raid dungeons allow up to four parties of twelve to enter it. The recommended number of people to clear the dungeon is forty-eight of lvls 25 and above. The meeting spot will be at the plaza near the fountain, same time, four game days from now.’ said the vampire looking man

'At least this one ain't sparkling'

“What if there’s too many of us and we exceeded forty-eight people?” one of the people in the crowd asked

“It’s first come, first serve. We won’t hold any reservations for those who ask, but we will prioritize finding support classes first. If you really want to join in, then be early.” the man and his companions left the guild lounge, going up the stairs.

'A raid huh? Let’s see if I could level up to 25 before the appointed time'

After the people dispersed, I went to the quest board. I look at the available quest, but couldn’t find any that is above brown ranked.

'Monster genocide it is then'

I then went to the counter to ask for information about monsters and to get the reward from the last request.

“Excuse me, miss. Can I still get the reward for completing the ‘Sewer Extermination’ request and also to ask where the monster spawns for monsters lvl 20 to 30 are” I said to a red haired female clerk

She hands me 1 gold coin and I receive the exp. Checking my guild card, I see that my rank didn’t change and was still yellow

“We received the requestor’s acknowledgement of completing the request. You can still receive the reward for it even if it’s already been a while”

She also took out a book from under her desk and turned the pages, using her index finger to trace the words that were written on it.

“There are a few spawns outside the city, to the north and to the east after the forest. There’s also the sewers for level 20 monsters.” She said as she closed the book.

“Do I need to pay anything for the information?”

“General information is free, the only information that needs to be paid are those that are deemed confidential by the guild administrators”

“Okay, thank you miss” I said, walking away from the counter

As I walk outside, I hear my stomach grumbling

‘Oh, I forgot I haven’t eaten anything yet since I was inside the dungeon’

I went to the local market and bought a couple of boar meat and spices. I put everything in the pot and used Mixed cooking, after a *ding* sound I open the lid and took out a char grilled boar meat

‘Weird how you put something in a pot and it comes out grilled’ I thought while I giggle

After eating, I went to the north of the city, passing through the area where the venus fly traps where.

Walking for about five minutes I see a blue-green frog four feet tall, croaking.

'Giant frogs...did they come from giant tadpoles?'

I used Knife Sharpening before going anywhere close it.

*Croak*

It looks at me and lashes its long tongue with a frightening speed. I rolled to the right and dodged the bullet like tongue.

'I forgot, everything here can kill me'

Getting up fast, I dashed towards the frog. It quickly retracts its tongue and fires it again at me. I duck my body and let it go past me, as I activate Butchers Instinct, seeing red lines on its tongue and body. I use Julienne twice on the out stretched tongue, eliciting a piercing shriek from it.

It then retracts its tongue and jumps ten feet into the air, aiming towards where I’m standing. I dive to the right evading the thing, as it makes a small crater where it landed.

"Do't you get tired of doing that?"

It jumped for a whole minute trying to crush me, but I evaded every time. When it stopped, I charge at it and used Julienne four times to kill it.

I open my stat window and saw that It gave me enough exp equivalent to 3% for the next level.

"It's good enough. Now, where's my next target..."

I close it and tried to find another one

-----------------------------------------------------------

"Finally, I'm done"

After five hours of hunting, I finally leveled up to 25, killing more than a hundred of the things. With some occasional turtles before they start to hole up in their shells.

Those turtles where ten feet tall and seven feet wide. They released a jet stream of water through their mouths when provoked, destroying the landscape all around them. Their shells were so hard that even when I used Julienne on it for ten times, it didn’t even made a dent. After a few bouts with the turtles I learned that I needed to cut them down fast enough before they could hole up in their armored exteriors.

I distributed my stat points into ten str, fifteen agi, ten vit, ten dex and five int.

"That's enough for today I guess"

After using Disassemble on the last enemy, I then went back into the city to logout, but before that I went to the tailor near the plaza to tailor me some clothes using the fur that I got from the red wolf.

'I look like a total noob. I need an outfit change'

I was still wearing the shirt and pants when I first started, so I decided to commission a tailor and make new ones. I deliberated on whether I should get heavy armor or a light one, but I decided that the heavy armor would just be too bulky that it won’t fit my play style.

'Don't have materiials for a heavy armor, and it cost's too much to buy a pre-made one'

The cost of my new clothes was 1 gold and 30 silver, just enough for me to buy a little bit more of supplies before running out of money. Half of my inventory space was full of food ingredients.

'Definitely not going to get hungry again'

I didn’t want to sell any of them though, as I was planning to save them up for the time that I get hungry and needed to cook, If ever I get trapped again.

You see, I did learn things while inside that hellhole.

I pressed the logout button and everything turned black. I open my eyes and opened the glass door.

"Up we go"

I lifted myself up, using the metal hand bars on the side of the gift machine and pulling myself into the wheel chair. I then went to my room and sat myself into the bed, going to sleep.

The next day, I woke up and tried practicing to stand on my own, Mrs. Lane and the other kids watching me as I struggle not to fall down. Cheering me on, as my knees were shaking. Falling a few times in the process, I finally was able to stand for a few minutes before I sat down again due to exhaustion.

'Hah...Rehab is hard work'

We played board games after my feeble attempts of standing up. The classics were still the best when it comes to passing the time. Snakes and ladders, word factory and lastly monopoly, which took up a whopping five hours to finish. With Didy being the only one left, she really had a knack at knowing which property to invest in and trying to get as much as possible from a deal. A future business woman in the making as she smiles happily, teeth bared, holding her monopoly play money. While her brother was sulking to the side for being the first one to go bankrupt.

'Don't worry too much. When you get yourself some huge debt, you can always turn towards your sister and ask for some financial support' I thought, while patting his back

With nothing left to do, I asked Mrs. Lane for permission to use the gift machine again. This time I asked for three hours.

"What? That's too much"

With a little more pleading and big puppy dog eyes, she said yes.

‘I learn things from Alana too you know’ I thought, wearing a happy expression as I pat the girls head

Going into the game, I wake up in the plaza. I see people already gathered around the fountain, it was the group of four before in the guild building with almost thirty people surrounding them. The vampire looking man then looked around and yelled.

“Everyone listen up! Form two lines, one for a damage oriented class and one for a support class. I’ll ask your class and what they do one by one”

'I'm a support, right?'

I move towards the support line with only six people. He then asks each person for his or her class. I heard some of the classes being said were knight, alchemist, priest, gunner, tamer, magician, musician and others. Then it was finally my turn to get asked

“It’s cook. My class is a support that cooks food, it will give bonus stats or effects to anyone who eats it” as i explain what my class can do

“I see… do you have enough for feeding forty-eight people?”

Counting the number of ingredients inside my inventory.

“I think I have enough to last us up to a day if everyone eats for 3 times”

“What’s your name?” he asked, as he calls over the woman with vines and leaves growing out of her back

She then opens a window in front of her.

“Red”

She nods her head and a window appears in front of me, asking me if I wish to join her party. I accepted it and they moved on to the next person.

After all forty-eight people gathered and got invited to their respective parties. The vampire looking man then introduced himself and his companions.

“So my name is Drake and I’ll be the one in charge of this operation. This woman to my right is Sol, she’ll be in charge of the support party” pointing at the green haired woman to her right, who was the leader of my party.

He then points at the hairy looking man

“This is Lupin, he’ll be the leader of the scouting party and he’s Bedrock, he’ll be the party leader of the tanks”

“We will set off in thirty minutes, so go get your supplies and any essentials that you’ll need. I’ll be explaining the details later when we set off” dismissing us with a wave

I then went to the tailor and got my new outfit. It looks like a red and black coat with a red hoodie and black pants. I didn’t have any materials for footwear, so I just used the flip flops from when I started.

I looked at myself in the mirror inside the fitting room. I was wearing the red and black coat with a white shirt underneath it. I used my Appraisal scrolls and checked the stats of my coat and pants.

Red Howlers Coat – a coat made from an alpha howler’s fur, it gives off a feeling of intimidation.

Def + 30, Agi +10

Black pants - pants that are made by a tailor from scrap materials

Def + 2

“Nice, now I don’t look like a total noob anymore” mouth forms into a smile