“I’ve heard you’ve been playing for almost two years of in-game time, but you’re still doing the same thing.” The disbelief and skepticism in Malik’s voice was obvious as he spoke, and Lucas knew that many other people felt the exact same way. “Is that all you want to do? To spend your days eating and drinking in a virtual game? It doesn’t sound like a fun future to me.”

Lucas looked at him and then at the ground, sighing and brushing off the comment. “The simulated buzz is just as good as the real one.”

“If you say so . . .” Malik shook his head, obviously not convinced. He walked up beside Lucas and continued, saying, “But, personally, I think spending all of your life lying around doing nothing doesn’t sound like much fun.”

Lucas gave him a sideways glance, not sure what had prompted this miniature lecture. Then a status message popped up on his screen to let him know that he had leveled yet again.

Congratulations. You have reached Level -68.
You now have 30 stat points available to allocate.

“Sorry,” Malik said. “I don’t mean to pry. Just hoping you play the game so that we can do the whole noob island quest chain with maximum experience. We have healing, tanking, and damage covered. You can pick anything, and it’ll fit fine.”

Lucas thought about responding, but in the end, he chose to just ignore the man. That type of gentle encouragement was the same type Yu Hua had often used to try and get him to come out of the house and do stuff with her, and once it started, it never stopped. The only way to get such people to stop pushing was to blow them off altogether. If he said “maybe” or shrugged it off, they’d just keep pestering him.

Nick and Valerie cleaned up a group of the most incompetent minions to ever appear in a video game at the far end of the long stone hallway, and Malik and Lucas arrived to find that they were still at each other’s throats. The door required all four of them to switch classes yet again.

“Will you let me kill at least one already?” Nick snapped. “We’re halfway through the dungeon, and I still haven’t fought anything!”

“It’s not my fault you’re so slow at the game, Mr. Greatest Spell-Staff,” she snapped back.

Malik gave another apologetic glance and then began switching gear. “I’m going to take the Mage this time,” Malik said, looking over at Lucas to see if he was okay not playing the class once more.

“Then I guess I’m the Fighter,” Lucas concluded.

“HEALER!” Valerie eagerly called, which meant that Nick was left with Rogue, the only remaining class.