7 Confusion

The pod door slid open, allowing the cold air to assault my body. I lay in the pod for a few minutes collecting my thoughts.

(I can't believe I just did that and with another woman too!)

As I remove the sensors on my body, I get to my lower half and notice that my underwear is entirely soaked. Having a visual reminder of tonight's incident brings a blush across my face. I step out of the pod and remove my underwear and place them with the dirty clothes.

I grab a fresh pair of underwear and walk into the bathroom. I start the shower to let it warm up as I stare at myself in the mirror.

(I'm not cute like my game character. I can understand why Kaito left me now, I am getting too old.)

I look at the bags under my eyes and some of the wrinkles on my face. Even my hair had lost some of its luster from when I was younger. Of course, I know that the stress and my previous drinking didn't help any.

(Maybe I will have a story like those couples who met in a game that you sometimes hear about.)

Noticing the shower was hot enough, I got in. I started to wash all the sweat I had gained from the pod, off my body. I always hated my big breasts, they still hurt my back, and it was hard to find cute clothes to wear without everyone ogling my chest.

I started washing fluids from my vagina, I began thinking about the bathhouse incident. My hand played with my trimmed mound as my fingers began to travel towards my opening. They eventually made their way inside me and started to pump in and out. I placed my hand on the shower wall to brace myself as my legs begun to quiver.

(I want to play with my dick…wait? Why did I think that? Am I becoming a sexual deviant now?)

Realizing what I had thought, I stop myself and finish washing up. I get out, dry my body, and put my underwear on.

I went back to my room and look for some clothes to wear, and I check the time to see when I should start dinner. I look at the clock for a few minutes wondering why it is just past 11:00 am. I look outside and notice that it is still bright out, and judging from that, it really was around eleven.

(I spent at least eight hours in the game. Why did only an hour pass?)

I quickly walked over to the computer and turned it on. I browse through some of the Rebirth Online forums and found my answer. As it turns out, one hour is equal to twelve hours in-game. In the amount of time I spent in the shower, the remaining four hours went by.

I had done some digging around online, and I found a going theory about the time difference. As to why one hour is equivalent to twelve is that the brain can process things faster while in a dream-like state. There is also a way to track real-time and even set alarms in-game.

(I guess it's too early for dinner then. I'll just have to go back into the game for now. At least it will be easier to earn money.)

I walked into the kitchen and grabbed a light snack. I usually wouldn't walk around in just my underwear, but Yuki was still in the pod, so I did it only this once. After my snack, I made my way back to the pod. Looking inside, I saw some of my earlier mess, so I cleaned that up too.

I connect myself back to my pod and close the lid. I then experience a loss in consciousness as I soon find my self back in my room at the inn. I slowly get up from my bed and realize it is still dark outside. The in-game time shows it is currently just a little after 2 am. After some experimenting with the game menu, I set the alarm for 7 pm real time and show the actual time in addition to game time.

(That should clear any future confusion.)

I do, however, find it weird that I feel more comfortable in this game body than I do my real one. To simulate your characters getting tired, the game places something called a Mental Fatigue debuff on you. I'm not sure what a debuff was, but from what I can understand, I guess its some kind of curse?

Also, sleeping is the only way you can level up both your level and skills as well as put points into your attributes as I just found out. I lay back down ad decide to spend my time sleeping and level up my skills. Every time a skill ranks up, it also increases an attribute it pairs with. So, it just might be useful to learn as many skills as possible. Finishing I decided to go to sleep and set a second alarm for 6 am in-game time, as the game does allow you to sleep in it.

I wake up to my alarm and stretch, ready for a new in-game day. I notice my hunger meter is flashing and is 30% full. I forgot that you also need to eat in the game. I equip my leather armor and head downstairs to the dining area for breakfast.

After eating, I decided to go back to the hunter school and train with Urlgan for a few hours. I spent time running and learning a survival skill. The survival skill will be super useful to me. It gave me knowledge of how to set traps, build camps, track animals, skin and butcher animals, and other things like that.

You have learned a new skill!

Survival [Rank E] (Passive) Grants knowledge on survival-based actions per skill rank. Higher rank also lessens the difficulty of actions.

Around noon I decided to travel to the forest outside of town. I wanted to test some of my skills and hopefully earn some money too. The woods were much closer than the one I first appeared in as it was only about a 30-minute walk.

After arriving in the forest, I started to use [Analyze] and [Survival] to search around for things I could collect or hunt.

Item: x 10 White Lotus – A plant that has an excellent enhancing effect.

Item: x11 Red Ivy – A plant that boosts a body's natural regeneration.

Item: x10 Yellow Cap Mushroom – A mushroom with paralytic properties.

I found some useful items so far, but I need to limit how much I collect as everything has weight. If I exceed my weight limit, then I can't use any abilities that use stamina, and my stamina slowly drains as I walk. Once stamina hits 0, you will collapse until it regenerates, and my max stamina is only 75.

I spotted some tracks to what looked like a small animal. Once I started to follow them [Survival] activated and highlighted the tracks in yellow for a short distance. After some time, I spotted a small boar. I crouched down and started to sneak up on it.

You have learned a new skill!

Sneak [Rank E] (Passive) You are 30% harder to detect.

I really wished I had learned how to use my bow. I drew my sword and snuck up on the unsuspecting animal. Once I was close enough, I used [Power Swing] and saw the words' Crit' appear above the boar as its head fell off.

"Wooo! Awesome!"

I jumped up and down at my first successful hunt. I pulled out the knife from my survival kit and started to skin the boar following the directions from [Survival]. Thirty minutes later, I had some items from the animal.

Item: x2 Low-Grade Hide – Hide from a low-grade beast.

Item: x2 Low-Grade Tusk – Tusks from a low-grade beast.

Item: x5 Low-Grade Meat – Meat from a low-grade beast.

Item: x5 Organic Material – Organic waste from a dismantled beast.

Seeing that it was almost 4 pm, I decided to head back to town and sell some of my things.

I had sold the hide, meat, tusks, organic material for a whopping 100 gold. I had learned the mercantile skill as well.

Mercantile [Rank E] (Passive) 10% reduced buy price and 10% increased sell price.

I also walked around town looking for a place to sell the plants I collected as well. I didn't know where to look, so I asked an old man I found sitting outside of a café drinking what may have been tea or coffee.

"Excuse me, sir. I am new here, and I am wondering if there is a place I can sell herbs at."

"Hello, young lady. Well, there are plenty of apothecaries in town that could buy those from you. But I would stay away from the larger ones as they have a habit of ripping people off. There is one place I have heard that might be good. It is called The Old Apothecary; you might try there."

After giving me directions, I thanked the man and followed his instructions. After a while, I finally found the shop. It was in a hidden alley, and the store itself was small and rundown. I entered the store and was greeted by an elderly man that looked to be in his 80s, at least.