Chapter 11: Lucky bastard

I wake up and stare at my ceiling. How much time have I spent in VR? I think I should take another rest day, my body feels really heavy and I kind of just want to lay here.

“Phillip, you awake?” Cecilia pokes her head in to my room and asks this with a voice quiet enough that I would hear it if I was awake, but it wouldn’t wake me up if I wasn’t.

“Nope, I’m still sleeping.” I slowly sit up in my bed and stretch.

“Well that’s unfortunate. I made you breakfast, it’s on the table.” Cecilia smiles as she walks back to the kitchen, probably to clean up.

I stand up and move my legs a little. Why am I so stiff today? Is it because I’ve spent too much time in the VR pod? I think I should do a workout today, see if I can get rid of the stiffness. I make my way to the kitchen and I sit down at the table. On the table was a stack of pancakes and a bottle of maple syrup beside them. On the maple syrup was a piece of paper stuck to the outside.

‘I went out. I will be back later. I noticed we didn’t have any good food for dinner. –Cecilia’

No, we had plenty of good food. You just wanted to make me say that your food is better than the restaurant we went to last night. If it is, I might ask her to marry me on the spot. I can’t let someone who can make meals that good leave me.

[I’m sure that’s her goal you know.]

Shut up. Hey, where have you been anyways?

[You do know that I have a game to manage over, I am not just your personal goddess.]

Huh? I was sure that you were. Considering you want to take over Cecilia’s body to be with me physically.

[No, you seem to be misunderstanding. Let me put it this way, if my affection for you was on a scale from zero to ten. My affection for you would be a six. Seven would be considering a relationship, ten would be obsession.]

Just one more point and you will want to be with me? Aren’t you selling yourself a little short? You are a goddess and I am a puny mortal. How could affection level already be at six? Did you fall for me when you first saw me? I strike a pose, even though it is pointless.

[A six is good friends.]

Friend zoned already? I laugh as I start to eat my stack of pancakes. You are a cruel goddess.

[So some have said.]

I look at the forums for Forged Path on my phone, see if anyone else even plays the game still.

‘I’ve gotten stronger in real life!?’

‘I’m not fat anymore!’

‘I died in the game. I reset my character and people still recognized me from the previous character.’

‘Anyone leave the beginner towns yet?’

‘You need something called an ‘Assistant’ if you want to get anywhere.’

I sigh as I click on the forum post titled, ‘Anyone leave the beginner towns yet?’ and read through all the posts. I looked at the consensus, no one had successfully left any of the beginner towns. I start to type one handed on my phone as the other continued to feed me delicious pancakes.

‘Hello everyone. I was unlucky enough to make it out of one of the starter towns in the forest. I used my time wisely and read up on the world in the library. If you are in the town of Ravenwood and feel like learning something useful, go to the library and find an old lady, her name is Brianne, tell her Phillip sent you and she will help you out if you have any questions.’

This was a live forum, apparently, as another post comes up immediately.

‘What is the next town’s name? How’d you get an Assistant?’ I type quickly, enjoying the fluffiness of my pancakes.

‘The second town is named Innisgrale. I have also found player controlled slaves in the city, but slaves are not given much information, so they had no way of knowing, unless they spent a lot of time in the slave trader’s store. A player in charge of a large group of people once led a group of people from the starting coastline city of Galewater. After an unfortunate accident in the city, they were cast out and somehow made it to Innisgrale. However, the player that led the charge caused an incident, forcing all of the players at the time to become slaves.’

‘I can confirm this, I’ve quit, but I made it to a second level city. Neato.’

‘I was also there, on this forum we refer to the retard that enslaved us all as ‘Blond righteous retard’ BRR for short.’

‘BRR also restarted after he was killed, no one has seen him since.’

‘Up 4, you said you were in Innisgrale? How’d you get this information?’ I start to type again, finishing up the pancakes on my plate.

‘I got it directly from the source! The man BRR argued with was actually Sir Arthur Cunningham of the royal guard. He has taken me in as his apprentice after seeing my glorious act of running for my life from a Devil Bear at level four.’

‘Isn’t the Devil Bear a level fifty creature, how’d you outrun it?’

‘Yeah, I agree with up 1. There’s no way you could have been able to outrun a Devil Bear at level 4’ I sigh as I start to type.

‘I have a sneaking suspicion it was enjoying chasing me T-T. Anyways, as I neared the gates, Sir Arthur had jumped in to save the day, and more importantly, my ass. He checked my Assistant that I got from completing a quest at the guild, and offered to train me. All I had to do was spend half a day organizing books alphabetically for the librarian in Ravenwood. Back to the main topic, Arthur saved me as the Devil Bear was getting tired of chasing me and the city guards had a force prepared to deal with it as they were gearing up to go and kill the Devil Bear that was chasing me.’

‘You are either the greatest bull-shitter alive, or you are the luckiest man alive. For the first, kys, for the second go buy a lottery ticket.’

‘Agreed with up 1’

‘Also agreed with up 2’ I cry silently as I look to the empty plate in front of me, and then start to type with both hands on my phone.

‘Thank you. I have already bought my lottery ticket.’

‘To up 1, I just logged in to Forged Path and I found out that he was telling the truth about Brianne, the old librarian! She will gladly answer any question if you mention the name Phillip! I’m on my way to get my Assistant now! Logging back in, I’m going to play for a week without rest and grind me some delicious EXP’s!’

‘To up 2, I am a slave within Innisgrale and I have heard the name Phillip floating around as the apprentice of the strongest royal guard!”

‘Holy shit! People confirming already!’

‘Amazing!’

‘Holy shit!’

‘Same, up 2! Unbelievable’

‘People of this forum, spread this news to other threads!’

‘On it up 1’

‘Already started, up 2.’

I sigh as I close the forum post. Good deeds today, plus one. I stand up and wash my plate and put away the maple syrup in to the fridge.

I sit down on one of the chairs in the kitchen and look at my transaction history. Damn, Cecilia used my card to buy ingredients for dinner, they weren’t cheap ingredients either! Oh well, if it makes her happy. My phone starts to ring and it comes up as Cecilia’s number.

“Hello? Something wrong?” I answer the phone with that question because Cecilia rarely calls me.

“You know how I listen to the local news while I am out and about.”

“Yeah? Something big come up.” I sigh as I stand up from the kitchen table and prep my jacket to go out.

“Check the lottery tickets on the fridge.” Cecilia takes a deep breath, “They say that the winning ticket was sold in our city.

“There’s no way it was us. The city we live in is large, it isn’t a main city, but it is large enough that we can’t be the only people to have bought lottery tickets. I guess I can check them though, do you have the numbers?” I grab the tickets in my hand.

“Yeah.” Cecilia starts reading the numbers and my jaw drops further and further as one of the tickets has all of the same numbers. “Phillip? You there?” Cecilia stopped talking I don’t know how long ago, but I ask her to repeat the numbers and she does. “Phillip…”

“Hey Cecilia, are you sitting down?” I swallow my saliva nervously as I sit down at the table holding a single lottery ticket in my hand.

“I am now, I’m almost home. I’m sitting in one of the benches in the park across the street.” I can hear nervousness in her voice. “Did we win…?”

“Yes. We won! We won the jackpot! Whooohoo!!” I shout in to the phone with the largest smile on my face that I’ve ever made!

“No way! You’ve got to be kidding me!” Cecilia laughs happily, “Oh my god, I’m running home right now!”

I run to the front door and I see Cecilia running back quickly with two bags of expensive ingredients… who cares they are worthless compared to what I just won! I open the door as soon as Cecilia stops in front of it. I can’t have her running directly in to the house!

“Welcome home Cecilia.” I greet her with a large smile on my face.

“Hey there, Mr. Lucky bastard.” Cecilia quickly sets the ingredients on to the kitchen table and runs at me, jump hugging me. “Oof!” She makes a strange noise as she hits me. “Have you gotten stronger?” Cecilia tilts her head.

“Maybe you’ve just gotten weaker!” I hug her back, “We just won the lottery! Actually… I just won the lottery!”

“Ha! Who’s the one that told you to go buy them!?”

“Who’s the one that pays for your, food, hot water, internet, and other expenses?”

“You win this time.” Cecilia glares at me, her eyes looked so very convincing with a huge grin on her face. She leans her head on my shoulder, “This is the first time you’ve hugged me in real life since the day I cried for over an hour.”

“Yeah, it is, isn’t it?” My smile softens. “It has only been four or five days though.”

“Only?” Cecilia laughs, “That’s a lifetime for a woman in love.”

“Oh, you’re in love?” I grab her head and pull it away slightly, “Well, I’m in a good mood.” And I kiss her quickly on the lips.

She backs away at a frightening speed. Her face a bright red.

“You…. You just kissed me!?” Cecilia stutters as she uses the table to keep distance between myself and her.

“So?” I smile, “I’m in a good mood? I just won the lottery! Whooo!!” I raise my arms in triumph.

“You didn’t have to kiss me!” Cecilia stays on the other side of the table from me like an angered animal.

“Come on, just be honest, you and I both know that isn’t the first time we’ve kissed. Plus, you tried to kiss me so many times on the date we had in VR, I stopped counting. You just couldn’t work up the courage to actually do it.”

“Just because you know, doesn’t mean you have to say it!” Cecilia sighs as she rubs her face, knowing that she is blushing.

“So, you want to go redeem this winning ticket?” I grab the ticket from the table. “Just be glad that you didn’t make a meal better than the restaurant yet. I would have proposed right here, right now if you did. Oh, and I mean if we won the lottery after you made your dinner, it’s too late now.”

“You shouldn’t tease a woman like that, we aren’t even dating.”

“Really?” I tilt my head, “Considering the number of gifts I’ve gotten you, the amount of time you have lived in my house… I’d say we’ve been dating for a while. No?”

“Yes?” Cecilia tilts her head. “Can we just go get the money…?” Cecilia tries to change the subject.

“Of course,” I stand at the door already in my jacket and my shoes on, “You ready to go?”

“I was ready to go when you said we won!” Cecilia runs towards me.

“The ingredients?” I point to the table. I see Cecilia spin a hundred and eighty degrees and watch her almost throw things in to the fridge, “Let’s go get some money!” I point out the door and Cecilia and I leave. Of course, I remember to lock it as we leave.

---Later---

Remaining balance: $2 184 267 198.56

I check my bank account with a smile. One long discussion with my bank about where all the money came from and two press interviews. I start to walk home.

There was so much money in the pool because no one had won it for a long time, and many people were buying tickets for the lottery, so the number just kept rising.

Almost two point two billion dollars… I’m going to cry.