Chapter 30: Becoming a Renegade!

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Alex arrives back in Cape Town, quickly boards his plane, and returns to his home country without any problems. He spends the entire flight frantically reading the news, but doesn't find a single line about a certain explosion in a certain town...

"Looks like even that incident got swept under the rug too—perhaps by the devil's own heirs," Alex mutters. He can't help but laugh, feeling oddly confident and not regretting it at all.

Despite all the issues his own country has, Alex arrives with a newfound appreciation for it after what he witnessed abroad. "People, including me, should be a bit more thankful for what they have," he now realizes.

Feeling reinvigorated, Alex changes a lot over the next few weeks. He wakes up earlier than usual, goes to the gym at least four to five times a week, and even joins a small MMA club to learn fighting techniques. His basic skills and stats allow him to impress the trainers, who consider having him compete in matches despite his late twenties.

Alex, of course, declines, thinking, "Don't want any attention."

After his training, Alex spends his free time watching movies, playing games, or catching up on anime. That knowledge might change his life, and he's thrilled to have a good reason to indulge. His newest, most visited sites are various "wikis" related to popular franchises. He also hangs out in the Fantasy Realm every day, with the trading hub becoming his second home.

After countless minor trades and a few FC earned here and there, Alex has grown his small stash of 2,800 FC to 6,200.

Alex constantly buys items priced the same as generic ones and sells them for slightly more. He notices that new players enter the Realm every few weeks and usually make bad deals, which he exploits however he can.

Another trick he uses is capitalizing on the sharp rise in the price of recovery items whenever players are called for missions. If multiple players receive mission notifications at the same time, like when 20 players scramble to buy healing items, even generic Healing Potions can suddenly cost a few hundred FC more because the merchants run out of stock.

Using these strategies, Alex turns 2,800 FC into 6,200 FC in just a few weeks.

He smiles, proud of his achievements, until finally, after a little over four weeks, he gets his own notification:

[Player Alex Kerber has been selected for a new Mission. Please enter the Fantasy Realm mission gate near the central hub in 23 hours, 59 minutes, and 45 seconds or face soul destruction.]

Alex spends his last day visiting his parents and grandparents—perhaps for the last time. He finally mans up and quits his dead-end office job, deciding to stop behaving like a parasite. He also spends time in the Fantasy Realm, buying 12 bullets for his new revolver, which he uses in the training corner, another facility within the Realm, to get a feel for the weapon.

His plan is to use his remaining 6,000 FC to buy more healing items, but that plan quickly goes out the window as soon as he spots an intriguing item while strolling through the trading hub.

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