Long Island

Chapter 6: Rabbit and.....

Please Note: Statements between % something in italics % are game system messages. 

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Swamy was in a fix. And a fix in which he seemingly had no options to choose.

He had just opened the Long Island forums hoping to find news and updates on the other players progress. He had expected that some people would have learnt the language by now and would be moving on to do different things. He had also expected to find people getting quests.

What he absolutely didn't expect to find was that almost everyone had already learnt the language and were posting about the different quests they received. What he also didn't expect to find was that some people learned it in 1 day flat and did not bother to post about it, till today.

'In 1 day? How? Seriously how many hours do they play? Do they play all day???!!!' were just some of the questions bothering him. Swamy had heard about people, gamers by profession, who make their living off games, selling game items and converting game currency. They spent most of their time in the game. What he couldn't understand was how they could make money when the game had not even reached a level where anyone would be buying stuff. And what things could you sell, certainly not food.

'Have they started hunting already?!' was a suspicion which took a deep root in him. Swamy knew that the age restriction on the gates could be changed as it had been for him. Playing for so many hours, they very well could have discovered ways to get the stats and were being silent like before.

In short, Swamy was slowly being caught up to and possibly overtaken. He simply did not have more time to spend on the game. After a hellish time yesterday, having gone through virtual sickness literally, and before when he spent most of the time asleep in class, he made a decision.

He could not play all night. He needed the time to sleep or he simply couldn't function in class. If he failed, his parents would bury him alive. If he didn't get an 'A' his parents would still chew him out, discovering his playing, and in all likelihood confiscating it. He had thought of skipping classes and covering it later on. And had discarded the idea on the premise that his Aunt would notice leading to his parents finding out. Pretending to be sick was an even worse idea, his parents would hop on the next bus here! Living just one hour and ten minutes away had its disadvantages.

In order to look at this problem with an objective perspective, Swamy made timetables. He jotted down every hour of his day, in his college and home. He had about 14 hours after college ended. The 15 min commute to and fro from college could not be avoided. After all he wasn't driving the Ekishaw. He doubted even a Ferrari could cut short that time in morning or evening traffic. Taking 20 mins to get ready for college, another 20 mins for dinner (and hearing his aunt speak), it left him with almost 12 hours 50 minutes. He also had to make sure he slept atleast 5-6 hours leaving him with 6 hrs and 50 minutes. Even on a good day the most time he could spend was only seven hours. If he slept a bit less, he could probably make it eight. That's like only one day in the game for every two days he would miss. He could spend more time on weekends but he couldn't skip his job. He still had to earn enough to pay for monthly fees of the game.

Of the people who could devote their whole time to the game, he was definitely jealous.

'Life is difficult' Swamy sighed. 

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Raka had a discussion with Lady Altia about his problem. He could only appear for one day and would have to disappear after, for two days. He also couldn't be sure of the exact time of day he would appear, it could be day or night. He apologized profusely but he explained he had no choice.