Prisoners of VR

"We officially have our first child charging at the ranks!" Lace shouted, "Show the kid some love, everyone!"

"All the best, kiddo!" A middle-aged man from the crowd shouted.

As the crowd cheered, a teenager took position before the lever. By this point, many enthusiastic gamers had volunteered for service.

Two users with the Leaf Wing Skill began to create more cylindrical trunks. One of them quickly tied up a large wall of bamboo and planted it next to the platform. He made grooves to slide in placards that were made from bamboo bark.

There were ten grooves in total, ranked top to bottom. When someone scored within the top ten, their name would be written on the bark and updated on the table. They just broke the tip of one of the Bamboo Spikes Rahu had created and used it as a pen to make inscriptions.

It was crude at best, but that was enough to get the crowd hyped. Now that there was an official scoreboard, people were only getting more enthusiastic.

Originally, Trot was in first place. But by now, he was already pushed to fourth. As people observed the sport more and more, they were already thinking of methods to make the process more efficient. That was the essence of a speedrun.

'Mom, Dad, your daughter is famous!' Lace made a dramatic pose as she shed a tear. Followed by a twirl, she began the countdown for the teenager. Her throat was slightly sore from all the shouting, but she was having too much fun to stop at this point.

'Trot, Woof, please gather lots of Skills.' She prayed and continued her job of making the sport a spectacle.

By now, the concerned duo had already walked far away from the Grass-Faced Monkey Dungeon.

Slung on Trot's shoulder was a strap leading to a thick bamboo cylinder. A section of it had been cut to act as a container. Stored within it were a bunch of fruits, enough to serve as food for three meals. The cylinder hung at his back, making it less burdensome to carry around.

Hanging around his neck was a loose rope made of bamboo. It was connected to a bamboo cylinder barely bigger than a fist. It was meant as storage for Invoked Crystals. Finally, held in his hand was a sturdy wooden branch.

Its sides had been slightly scraped using a Leaf Wing to make it smooth to hold and wield. Rahu was similarly equipped. He held one extra item though, and that was a sharp piece of rock.

For every twenty trees they crossed, he would inscribe onto a tree trunk an arrow mark indicating their walking direction. He also numbered them, with the one closest to the Grass-Faced Monkey Dungeon starting from the number one and so on.

This way, even if they get lost, it'll be easy to determine their position thanks to the numbering and direction.

Only in a dungeon could they farm for Skills. Currently, the Grass-Faced Monkey Dungeon was in a volatile state. If the Monkeys charged out with reckless abandon, Larkrood Village would collapse.

Therefore, to strengthen themselves, they had to find another Dungeon. Even if Rahu was reckless in another Dungeon, it wouldn't matter, as they would be far enough away from the village. The consequences won't reach them.

After every hour of the journey, Rahu would return to reality and spend a minute there. He would browse the forums to see if any news regarding Dungeons was posted there.

There was some information about Dungeons, but nothing in Larkrood Village's vicinity.

"What the...?" He was surprised during one such return to reality, seeing the forums becoming agitated. Every Beginner Village was located adjacent to a Dungeon, just like Larkrood Village.

Every Race had its respective Realm. And every Realm had three Beginner Villages. With seven Races in total, that implied 21 Beginner Villages.

Currently, in the Yellow World Realm, home to the Lizardmen Race, Namphur Beginner Village was being raided by the Silver-Tongued Iguanas. The Lizardmen Race users there were overwhelmed as many were killed easily.

Currently, it wasn't possible to record the events that happen in Worldcraft, as that function wasn't available. So, people could only text their observations.

The users that were killed in Namphur Village were complaining on the forums about the unfairness of Worldcraft. Some gained sympathy, some were attacked, and the rest were mocked.

Many users began to boast about their exploits that prevented such a crisis in their village. In the forums, the commenters had their Worldcraft name by default. Moreover, they were colour coded based on their race, so it was easy to identify their position.

Rahu soon focused upon the green commenters, those from his Elven Race. There was one name that was being praised during the discussions repeatedly. As it was a clash of egos, every race flexed its side's fortune.

And those from Larkrood Village were no exception, forming a surprisingly large chunk of the flexing populace. Rahu saw his name pop up a couple of times as the one that killed the Dungeon Boss. But he wasn't the highlight.

It was Lace.

As she was the one that anchored the sport constantly watched and cheered by hundreds of people, her name was brought up all the time. It was thanks to this sport that many users from Larkrood Village gained a Skill.

Therefore, they flexed that Larkrood Village was the fastest at present in terms of growth and had the greatest number of users with more than one Skill.

Lace only carried out Rahu's plan, but he wasn't concerned about her getting all the credit. She did execute the plan spectacularly to the extent so many people were hooked. That took real social skills.

"She'll be surprised once she returns to reality and checks the forums." Rahu laughed.

"Did something good happen, Sir?" Deepika asked, seated on a chair near his berth, resting.

"Are you seeing the forums?" Rahu asked.

"Yes," Deepika nodded.

"I'm having fun in Larkrood Village." Rahu made a subtle boast.

"That's pretty lucky." Deepika snorted.

Rahu calmly observed her expression, 'She's trying to hide her irritation. Considering her state of distraction, it's not because of me or work.'

He laughed, "Are you from Namphur Village?"

Deepika grunted in response. That was enough confirmation for Rahu as he laughed, "Well...good luck?"

"You can ask me for advice..."

"I'll be fine, thank you." Deepika was only a step away from plucking her hair out in frustration, "Once my stats recover, I'll kill those lizards."

"Have fun." Rahu nodded and closed his eyes, intending to return to Worldcraft.

"Sir, you have an appointment in an hour. Please return before then." She said in a hurry, her tone turning calm and professional. It was as if a switch was flipped.

"Didn't I finish today's work in advance?" Rahu tilted his head.

"We have an appointment with the Nanmangalam Reserve Forest Department at 6:00 PM. We need to depart by 5:00 PM to reach on time." She said, "Considering the distance, you won't make it on time even if you start on your cycle now."

"Did you purposefully wait until now to say this?" Rahu frowned, "I don't like using..."

"Nope, this just came in," Deepika spoke without a change in beat, "We'll also transport your cycle in our specialised van, Sir. We're constantly disguising it for every mission to ensure no one knows it's you inside."

"Even the boarding process will be done securely, outside the office premises."

"Alright, do as you please." He didn't wish to argue with her. Considering the distance, he would be exhausted by the time he reaches the destination. So, he'll be ill-prepared to tackle the problems.

At least when he was in Delhi, his jurisdiction was only the capital city. So, even if it took a lot of time, it was traversable on his cycle. But after being posted as the Chief of the Chennai DOVA Branch, he was in charge of an entire state.

It'll take him more than a month to cycle from one end of the state to another, so Rahu had no other choice but to compromise.

"Also, please don't mentally exhaust yourself." Deepika said, "The forest department hasn't figured out the source of their problem yet, but judging by the tone of confusion in their voice, things seem serious."

"I'll conserve my strength." Saying so, Rahu closed his eyes, counted to three, and logged in to Worldcraft. Deepika resumed her task by segregating the documents that arrived from time to time, planning the itinerary for the next day. She had one eye on the Worldcraft forum, clicking her tongue every time someone posted about the worsening situation in her village.

"If only I killed the Dungeon Boss..." She sighed, "It was too much, so I logged out to escape."

Remembering the sea of explosions that surrounded the Dungeon Boss as she and the other Lizardmen Race users fled the scene, Deepika sighed and clutched her trembling hand, "It's too terrifying."