Chapter 32 - A Meal With The Family.

Arthur walked over to Donovan's car, entering the passenger side. They greeted each other and made small talk, giving Arthur time to put his seat belt on before Donovan started driving. The two continued the small talk on the drive home, Donovan wasn't that interested in New Genesis so he didn't ask much about it.

Eventually they arrived home, Arthur exited the vehicle and waved goodbye to Donovan before making his way inside the house. The lights were all off, meaning he was the first to arrive home.

He made his way upstairs, climbing to his room, or more accurately his floor. He walked into one of his rooms, where he was met with several rows of potted plants. This was one of his hobby rooms, specifically the room dedicated to growing medicinal and poisonous plants, one of his previous interests. Arthur made sure to water his plants before leaving, closing the door behind him.

He then moved over to his bedroom, stripping down from his current outfit into something comfortable and loose. The next room he visited was the newest addition to his collection of various junk filled rooms. This room in particular was something he only started putting together after returning from the previous timeline, his own personal gym.

There were many factors of a person that affected how they would experience New Genesis, some factors were uncontrollable, such as a person's height. Whereas some could be adapted and improved, such as a person's physical health and overall body mass.

Your body's mass was something that couldn't be changed through in-game settings, but it did update as your real body changed.

It was also just a good habit in general to take care of your body with exercise and proper dieting. Especially because there was the risk of severe muscle atrophy and other health defects if you didn't take care of your body when you were outside of the capsule.

These issues occurred due to your body being stationary for so long, working out became widely accepted within the player-base, and shortly after some people found that training their physical bodies actually benefited them in-game as well. One of the many reasons was that having a smaller silhouette was more advantageous, as it would directly translate to having a smaller hitbox within the game.

Arthur spent the next half hour performing a mix of aerobic and light strength exercises. He was starting off light due to his body being untrained and unfit, due to his previous aversion to any and every form of physical activity.

As he was finishing off his last exercise for the day, he heard what he assumed to be his sister clambering up the stairs. Eventually Anna peaked her head out from around the corner, proving his guess right. She informed him that food was about to be ready, meaning he should clean up and come down quickly. Arthur finished his exercise, wiping down the sweat from his body with a nearby towel.

After tidying himself up somewhat, he made his way down the flight of stairs, greeting his father who was currently slaving away in the kitchen, putting the finishing touches on what looked to be his father's famous cheesy ham and potato bake.

Arthur took a seat and waited as his father slowly brought a few dishes to the table, first up was the potato bake, followed by a small bowl of chicken Caesar salad, and finally a plate of sweet and sticky pork ribs.

As the family enjoyed their meal, several questions were thrown around. Being one of his company's biggest investments yet, Arthur's father was curious about the experience of the game, especially from his son's point of view. He had heard all the speeches from the developers, but it was important to get the perspective of a player.

Arthur told his father all that he had experienced, while trying to make it seem less violent than it was. He probably wouldn't appreciate hearing how his son was attacked by goblins, stabbed several times and mauled by a wolf. He did however share some things his father would appreciate, such as the scenery and general feel of the game, how it was almost indistinguishable from real life.

His sister started bombarding him with questions, she still had her reservations about his safety and how scary the machines seemed, but since Arthur seemed to have enjoyed himself she put that aside. After dinner, Arthur helped clean up the table before making his way back to his room.

He took a quick shower before getting ready for bed, he spent the next couple hours reading before his eyelids became too heavy to open. When he woke up, it was almost ten in the morning, his father and sister had already left for work, leaving Arthur to his own devices.

Arthur checked up on his plants before going downstairs, he whipped himself up a quick breakfast and went back to his room, spending the rest of his morning reading the current news articles. This was a new hobby he had, reading articles he already knew the climax of was a strange feeling.

He paid attention to a couple news articles, that had come out recently. A couple game journalist websites, those who Arthur had filtered out of the invitation list, started creating smear stories against the game and company. A petty move, but it seemed as though the internet figured out why they were doing it and had started making fun of them for it.

Not long after Arthur had received a message from Donovan, telling him he'd be there to pick him up shortly, it was already time for day two of the beta test to start. He made a quick sandwich and got ready to leave the house just in time, as he just received the notification that Donovan was waiting for him outside.

Donovan drove Arthur back to the beta tester facility, when he arrived he saw that groups of people had been waiting for a while. They formed small groups, each talking about their plans for today's session with childish excitement.

As Arthur walked into view, several eyes locked on him, a feeling he still hadn't gotten used to. He made his way into the facility, walking past those who glared at him. He approached one of the developers, asking for the 3D model of Fluffernutter, the cat of the beginner village. When asked why, he responded with the reason that he wanted to make a large statue of the cat.

He walked over to the briefing room, where he noticed two people sitting next to each other, they seemed to be having an important conversation, it was Maria and Acai. Arthur approached the two, and he overheard them talking about levelling up faster, he felt like he could assist his new friends without being too overbearing.

"Hey guys, any plans for today?" Arthur spoke up as he took a seat next to Maria, they were sitting on the edge, leaving only one seat vacant.

"Heya Merl-- Arthur... We're just talking about ways we can level up faster. It feels like the levelling in this game is too slow." Maria began calling Arthur by his in-game name, before correcting herself, it was all too common of a mistake.

"Right, well you should probably focus down on the main quest of the beginner village, from what I've seen the main quests give more experience than just grinding monsters." If Arthur started lecturing them on advanced game mechanics and levelling techniques this early in the game, he'd be seen as suspicious, and attracting more attention wasn't something he wanted right now.

"One thing I'd recommend is for you two to work together to do the raid quest." Arthur began explaining the Lycoa goblin raid quest, and the difficulties he had to face. He also told them about what equipment to buy, such as an extra torch, or slings as a cheap and easy ranged option.

When asked about how he knew about these things, he just said he talked with some NPCs. This was a pretty easy reasoning to hide behind, due to most people struggling with talking to NPCs in the first place. It may be that some villagers mention a sling being used to fight off vermin, a cheap and powerful option for those who cant maintain a bow and arrow.

Eventually people started to fill the briefing room, Arthur noticed a few familiar faces, such as the guy who got destroyed by the goblins while trying to hunt him. Eventually the morning briefing started. There had been a couple changes, most of which were background updates.

The most interesting of which was the few changes made to Gaia's prediction algorithm, it was even given a reason for the changes, due to it making several major mistakes yesterday when guessing the actions certain players would have taken.

It seemed as though Arthur was already making ripples, but he couldn't afford to stop now.