Introduction Arc: Chapter 7.
It was already early morning and it was the weekends. This was a time when a student would study and do some self-training. However, the weather outside was gloomy.
The rain poured as the wind howled, and any time for extracurricular activities had to be canceled. Lyle Cass woke up, darting his eyes to the window.
(It's raining. I wonder what rain feels like here.)
Lyle Cass yawned, approaching and opening the window. He stretched out both his hands, drenching them in the rain. Then the wind intensified, causing the rain to directly pour inside the room.
"Ah, shit!"
Lyle Cass instantly shut the window, sneezing.
(There's nothing to do here anyway. I think I will go eat lunch in the real world.)
"Log me out now, I have to eat."
⟐⟐⟐
Lyle Cass instantly collapsed to the floor, shocking his three dormmates with a loud thud. The three of them hurriedly approached Lyle's body, worried.
"Lyle!"
The body of Lyle Cass was devoid of any life, his eyes and skin were pale. Then in an instant, the body sprung to life. Taking a huge breath and jolting awake.
"Lyle! Are you okay!?"
⟐⟐⟐
Jing Hoo took off the virtual reality headset and looked outside, he spent five days in the simulation but in real life he spent only more than an hour.
(My head kinda hurts. Where is that virtual reality sickness medicine.)
Jing thought, spotting a pill on the nightstand.
(Virtualerine. Virtual Time Dilation stresses the brain and this medicine can help me recover. If only this wasn't generic, the branded ones are too expensive.)
After popping a pill, he went downstairs and cooked himself a meal.
⟐ Later that night...
Jing Hoo was lying down on a couch, reading the manual for the
"By default, simulation time runs 1:1 in real-time, with no pause upon exit. When using the Augmented Virtual Personal Computer, time accelerates at an 84:1 ratio—168 hours (7 days) in simulation = 2 hours in real-time. Temporal acceleration only activates during headset utilization."
Jing Hoo slowly read the manual's written instructions, confused for a moment.
"If I am not using the headset, that must mean that the simulation is progressing in real-time. If that's the case, what's happening to my avatar? Does it move around like an NPC?"
The repeated dings of the microwave diverted his attention, his dinner was ready.
⟐⟐⟐
Lyle Cass stormed off, leaving the dorm and his dormmates. However, he had difficulties leaving the school since he had no proper reason. After almost fighting the guard and mouthing off the school's head administrator, he was eventually let go.
The head administrator was confused, he had never seen someone that zealous and so believing in their own words. It was as if the student was mad.
However, possessions do happen from time to time and Lyle Cass was eventually given a medical and spiritual leave. The administrator referred him to the best spiritualist in the city.
"Please call Madame Cassie Cydonia, and inform the teacher that I am looking for her and I wish to speak, concerning a certain student under her."
The administrator and also the headmaster of the school ordered his assistant who then promptly left. The vast office was covered in several artworks and portraits of past headmasters, there was a hint of magic in the air since several defensive magical enchantments were active.
In a few minutes, Cassie Cydonia arrived and approached the headmaster. The two of them maintained a professional expression until the head administrator clapped his hands, closing the windows and locking the doors.
"Is this really business or pleasure?"
Madame Cassie Cydonia smirked, caressing her neck and seductively sitting on the desk.
"Business. There was a matter with one of your students, one called Lyle Cass."
The teacher straightened her posture, interest piqued.
"What about him?"
"He was here earlier, mouthing about some ghastly possession. I had to grant him the permission to leave school and head straight to a spiritualist."
The teacher, Cassie, furrowed her brows. She was attentive to her students and she didn't notice any ghostly possessions. Already thinking of how this would negatively affect her performance ratings.
"This is the first time I've heard this. Was he truly possessed?"
"It was inconclusive. The head nurse can neither confirm nor deny the existence of a bodily possession. That was why I referred the student to a spiritualist in the city."
The head administrator added while glaring at Cassie Cydonia's figure.
"If he was truly possessed then it will be removed. If not, he will be placed on a psychological watch."
The head administrator added, approaching Cassie Cydonia and rubbing her things. The vibrant illumination then faded away as the two embraced each other's company.
⟐ Lyle Cass.
"Spiritualist, spiritualist, spiritualist, spiritualist."
Lyle Cass muttered almost a thousand times by now. The stress and anxiety consumed him. He was still dressed in the school's uniform since the previous controller of his body didn't bother to change. It was also dirtied and muddied because of the harsh early morning weather.
However, he paid no attention to it.
Despite the various looks he attracted, he paid absolutely no mind to it. To him, the most important priority was removing the great evil inside him.
Lyle Cass knocked the door upon arriving at the spiritualist's place. The door was only halfway opened when he barged in, shocking the spiritualist's assistant.
"Hey, what's wrong with you!? You're wetting the floor!"
The assistant spoke out, grabbing the white-uniformed student.
"Ah!" The assistant grunted, the student's eyes were glaring with a mixture of despair and hate. Their whole body trembled as they chanted the word 'spiritualist' repeatedly.
The assistant then hurried to call the spiritualist.
⟐ Jing Hoo.
Jing Hoo was seated in front of a computer, browsing the wiki for World Journey: First Edge. The lore was wide and there were so many things to explore and see. The excitement coming back again.
He read multiple fan fiction and interviews, trying to gain a new perspective or information he may have missed. The novel had a lot of arcs and mini-arcs but he didn't have the time to reread and instead, skimmed most of them.
"Now, the most important part. Who is this Lyle Cass."
Jing found a page for the character and to no surprise. It was almost bare.
"Lyle Cass, 18 years old, white potential, one unknown talent, and was one of the students removed from the school during the potion proliferation arc."
"What?" Jing Hoo was surprised as he continued to read the character page.
To summarize, Lyle Cass's father was caught by the School's Student Militia. An emergency student militia decreed by the King due to the lack of manpower because of the ongoing great war.
Lyle Cass's father was one of the several hundred people caught during the student militia raid, causing him to drop out of the school along with several others. Lyle then disappeared from the story.
"So that's my fate. No wonder I came up with that 'my father frequents your establishment' bluff earlier, it was already in the back of my head."
Jing Hoo stared at the monitor, tapping his finger.
"Welp. Time to change fate. I'll have to stop the potion proliferation arc from happening and I think I have an idea. Time to get on to prepare."