As Leo logged back into the world of Terra Nova after a two-day break, he felt excited to return to the administrative work necessary for growing the Barony.
Not having to work for two days had left him feeling refreshed and full of creative ideas as although had not realized it before, he had actually built up a lot of mental fatigue from overplaying the game and was in much need of a short vacation.
However, as he returned to Crest-Hill Barony, the scene that greeted him was utterly ridiculous. The local population seemed to have doubled overnight, with numerous players in beginner layman clothing flooding the streets of Berkshire Town.
"Hey, street vendor, do you have any errands that you want me to run for you? Come on now… don't be shy, I'll do them for free–"
"Oh my god, look at these apples! They taste fresh and not like they have been frozen and transported across half the world. Oh my god, this game is ultra-realistic."
"Look! I stepped in the mud, and the mud actually stuck to my shoes just like in reality! This is absolutely insane!"
As Leo observed the flood of new players entering the world of Terra Nova, he felt absolutely irritated by their newbie behavior, even though he had been watching them for less than five minutes.
"Oh my god!!! Look at that NPC! He looks so cool with that mask and those black robes! He is definitely someone super important, because I only see (Lv- ????) above his head, which means that he's someone who is super high leveled," exclaimed a new player as he glanced toward Leo.
His excited words drew the attention of many players nearby, who all rushed towards Leo to try and trigger some hidden quest.
"Hello! Hello! Sir, I'm Will Smith, can I help you with something today?"
"Hey, Big Man, I'm kind of new to this town, want to talk about what's good here over a beer? I'll buy–"
"If you lend me that dagger on your waist, I'll hunt a few wolves from the nearby forest and bring you their hide for sale."
As the new players crowded Leo, he seriously contemplated killing them all for a moment. However, taking a deep breath, he resisted the urge to kill them all and decided to not follow through with that intrusive thought.
"Listen to me…. And listen to me well, because I'll only say this once. I'm not an NPC; I'm a player and I'm also the Baron of this Crest-Hill Barony.
If I see any of you acting like buffoons and heckling local NPCs during their normal working hours, I'll have law enforcement arrest you all, and your gaming careers will hit a dead end before they even begin because I won't let you pieces of shit out of jail for weeks.
I'm the worst sort of bully you can encounter in this game, so please don't test my patience," Leo warned, his sudden threat leaving everyone speechless.
Since the Second-Evaluation was now less than four hours away, this was technically the last day for all veteran players to improve their skill-set before the evaluation officially began. However, with the evaluation scheduled for midday, the players only had a few hours to make the final push.
While Leo did not have any worries about the upcoming evaluation, he did wish to make the most of this half-day by getting some administrative work done. However, with the influx of newbies into his Barony, he found it hard to focus on any other issue.
"Bullshit! This is an RPG game and the servers opened less than 12 hours ago. How did you even become a Baron? Unless….." A newbie player from the crowd said, before realizing mid-sentence, that Leo might be from the Arc Ship that took off a year ago.
"Wait, are you from the first batch of Arc Ship lift-off?" The player asked, as faced with this question, Leo suddenly realized that if he shared this same gaming server with the people of the second Arc Ship round, then there was a very good chance that he could meet his mother inside the gaming world.
"How long has it been since you guys took off?" Leo asked. The man put up 10 fingers and said, "About 10 hours. We were suggested to play this ultra-realistic game for the entire first day. What about you? How long have you been playing this game? Do you have any tips for us?"
The man sought Leo out for guidance, however, Leo stopped listening to the man's words after he said that he had taken off less than 10 hours ago.
'Can I really unite with my mother? Can we really live like a happy family within the world of Terra Nova?' Leo wondered, as he disappeared from in front of the crowd of players and rushed back to his office within his manor.
'If mother is indeed here, then I need to find her as soon as possible–' Leo thought to himself, as he started to devise a plan that would help him locate his mother's precise location within the world of Terra Nova.
***********
( Meanwhile Cervantez )
Cervantez had 'shock' and 'horror' written all over his face when he saw the new players joining the same gaming server as the old ones within the world of Terra Nova.
In his past life, the second batch had a different server to the first one and the rankers of both batches only met once a year during the end of year events and had no interaction to the other ship otherwise, however, this time around something seemed to have changed, as the newbies were put into the same server as the veterans.
'What the hell? This will disrupt my future planning big-time, because I never expected this big of a variable to be introduced so suddenly….' Cervantez thought, as he could see how his future knowledge was going to become increasingly unreliable going forward.
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/// A/N - Guys I have an unfortunate announcement to make.
I have injured my left wrist, and am now forced to type with one hand till my situation improves, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to do three chapters for tomorrow?
I will try my best, to give you all atleast two chapters. But please understand that if i can't it's because it's really difficult for me to type and edit right now. ///