MMORPG : Ancient WORLD

“Brother,” “Big Brother, wake up.”

“You have forced me to do this,”

“He, He,” A little girl dressed in school uniform smiled, holding a bucket of cold water, and without hesitation, she emptied the bucket on the man soundly sleeping before her.

Alex felt extremely cold and was jolted awake from his deep slumber, and at first, he felt anger and confusion, but looking at the smiling girl standing beside the bed, he calmed down his emotion as recent memories flooded his mind.

‘Why did Sophia pour cold water on me, and why does she look so happy? She never does such pranks,’

‘Why is my whole mattress soaked in water,’ Alex thought, confused by the current circumstances.

“Big Brother, You have been sleeping for two days, and Mother and Father are worried sick about your health,” Sophia said, making Alex sit upright with a surprised look.

‘I was asleep for two days, and why is Sophia talking in slow motion?’ Alex thought, but before he could make any sense of his current situation, his room door swung open, and four individuals walked inside with hurried steps.

“Alex,” Alex’s mother hurriedly ran up to him and embraced him with a relieved look.

Alex felt clear distress from his mother and saw his father sigh in relief, making him realize that the situation was bad for his father to look this worried.

Alex recognized the two individuals dressed in white clothes and green vests standing beside his father as paramedics belonging to the emergency medical services.

“Kathleen, let the doctor check Alex’s health,” Alex’s father came forward and said, making his mother take control of her emotion and stand to the side with her eyes turned red and filled with tears. 𝚋𝚎𝚍ｎ𝚘ｖ𝚎𝚕.𝚗𝚎𝚝

The medic holding a suitcase approached Alex and asked him a few questions about how he felt, to which he replied he felt hungry and a bit cold but hid the fact he was seeing and hearing everything in slow motion.

The medic took a blood sample, placed it in his futuristic suitcase, and then put a bracelet on Alex’s Rist while the second medic walked toward his VR capsule and started checking it.

“Both sets of nutrition fluids are, and they were emptied sixteen hours before the last session ended, but other than that, there are no recorded errors about any vital abnormality,” The medic said after checking the VR capsule.

‘This is not strange, I checked the nutrition fluids before my last session, and they were enough for at least a month,’ Alex thought, startled by the medic comment, but he kept his thought to himself.

“Sir, Your son’s blood sugar level is very low, which is normal, seeing he hasn’t eaten anything for three days and is surviving on what little nutrition fluids the VR capsule had to offer,”

“All the results of his vitals are mostly fine while eating a meal, and spending some time in the fresh air will make his condition normal,” The medic said as he injected Alex with some medicine.

“The reason why Alex stayed unconscious and didn’t wake up even with your efforts was because his brain shutdown itself to recover from the mental fatigue built over the last few weeks,”

“This is uncommon, but players who spent weeks doing raids in the game experience constant stress and mental fatigue with little to no breaks will experience such blackouts once every few months,”

“I will not recommend you to spend more than three days in the game without taking a twelve-hour break at maximum and also keep your capsule nutrition fluids in check,” The medic said as he closed his suitcase.

“You should visit the hospital for a detailed health check,” The medic said as he stood up, ready to leave.

The two medics left the room escorted by his father while his mother stared daggers at him, and Alex just kept his head down, knowing a lecture was coming.

“Mother, I was just mentally fatigued by the long dungeon raid in the game and slept for longer than normal, so you should just pour some water on me to wake me up,” Alex said to break the silence even though he could see that his clothes and the whole mattress were drenched by water.

“You think we didn’t?” Alex’s mother said as she sat next to him.

“Alex, After you didn’t wake up, I got extremely worried and thought that something happened to you and you have entered a state of coma,”

“It was a horrible feeling that I never want to experience again,”

“I know you are dedicated to the game because you like it, and it is a source of income and enjoyment for you, and even though money is good and could solve many materialistic problems, what good is it if you are incapable of using it,”

“Son, I know You didn’t intentionally sabotage your health, but from now on, you are not spending more than two days in the game without taking a break,” Alex’s mother said, and Alex kept his silence, knowing nothing he could say to make his mother changer her demand.

“Take a bath to get fresh, and then eat breakfast with us before going to the hospital with your father for your health check,” Alex’s mother said as she stood up and left the room with Sophia.

‘Why do I feel exhausted,’ Alex thought as he stood and walked toward the washroom.

Alex was under the shower with closed eyes, trying to make sense of what was happening to him, when his dark vision started to get filled with small white dots of light particles around him, which baffled him.

‘I must be starving to start imagining such absurd things,’ Alex thought as he raised his hand to touch the floating white dot before him.

Alex touched the white dot, and like a drop of water touching a sponge, the dot vanished into his finger, instantly making him open his eyes, filled with shock and doubt.

‘It felt like Mana. No, it was a Mana particle.’ Alex felt baffled by his chain of thoughts, but he didn’t dwell on them for long and closed his eyes back, trying to sense the mana around him as he did in the Ancient world.

Alex’s dark vision slowly filled with white dots, very few and dull in luster, with a much smaller size compared to what he was accustomed to seeing in the Ancient world but similar nonetheless.

Alex touched and absorbed tens of dots, confirming his belief to be correct, making him extremely happy, and without hesitation, he relaxed his mind and tried to attract the white dots toward his body.

At first, it was a struggle with no movement to the mana dots, but after a few minutes of struggle, mana slowly began to get absorbed into his body, starting with a few slowly turning to tens of mana dots every second.

After a few minutes, Alex opened his eyes, feeling better than a few minutes ago, and then he closed his eyes again, trying to sense the mana inside his body.

After a few seconds, he succeeded, seeing a small concentrated light source in the center of his heart while a thin stand of mana flowed upward with the blood toward his brain.

‘My brain is using mana which should be the reason I am seeing and hearing everything in slow motion, but more importantly, I can’t believe now I can use Mana,’ Alex thought, feeling his heart rate reaching newer heights.

‘I will explore this later, but for now, let’s get to take care of eating and the health check to ease my parent’s worries,’ Alex thought, as he stopped the mana flow to his brain, and as he expected, the flow of water turned to normal.

Alex quickly got dressed and went down feeling all excited and somewhat anxious as tens of questions filled his mind.