When Orion woke up after a few hours of sleep, he felt much better. He was slightly sweaty due to the thick school clothes, but being in an attic with such excellent heating provided a little satisfaction.
He rolled around in the bed for a while and stood up. The air was dark, and the room was black except for the light coming in from outside, which made him start to feel afraid.
He was less anxious thanks to the sleep. He searched for the light switch for a few minutes until he found the chain under a giant wall light on the opposite wall and pulled it, turning the light on. With the light, he explored the room and discovered the other light sources. There were lamps in the corners and on the walls, not on the ceiling.
The mechanisms and pipes behind them suggest a central gas system. But I really couldn't care less about the logic.
Waking up in an unfamiliar, unlit environment was a more frightening experience for Orion than he had anticipated.
Once his heart rate slowed and he calmed down, he looked for the toilet.
To get to the bathroom, he left the bedroom, turning on the lights on the walls as he walked.
He finally entered a bathroom the size of a giant room and immediately rummaged through the cabinets, which were already filled with bathrobes, towels, and various scented soaps. He grabbed one of each and looked at the enormous bathtub with a crooked smile.
Nah. My heart can't handle bathing in a bathtub. I'm not ready for that kind of experience yet.
He had no idea how to bathe in a tub, apart from what he'd seen in movies. He shook his head to himself, fighting his internal demons, even though no one was around.
The idea of taking a shower initially started as a joke. He had only come to the bathroom to use the toilet. As he peed in the commode, he was lost in thought, examining the ostentatious bathroom.
Only a minute later, he was considering that taking a shower might not be such a bad idea.
Besides, warm water soothes the nerves...
He moved to a simple spot next to the giant tub. This small area was set up as a nice shower, where water flowed from a pipe in the wall. In the modern world, there would be plastic walls or a curtain to prevent splashing. But due to the construction here, the water only flowed to the wall or downwards.
After fiddling with a strange panel on the wall and scalding himself a few times, he managed to get warm water running. He washed his whole body under a strong stream of hot water for about half an hour.
He touched the abs he'd never had in his life and the biceps on his arms. At one point, he considered trying more erotic things, but he wasn't in the mood.
He left the bathroom in the bathrobe and explored the other parts of the dorm room.
He passed a room where clothes could be washed and dried and checked out a place that looked like a dining hall. He stared at the silver cutlery sets with his mouth open for a full minute.
Weren't these supposed to be in cabinets or something?
He didn't even enter the giant kitchen, which housed professional equipment, and returned directly to the bedroom.
This enormous bedroom and the huge living area in front of it were built in an open-plan style. When you included the massive balcony opening onto the side view, it reeked of luxury.
There was an incredible night view, where he could see the entire school campus through wide, wall-to-wall windows. He put on his daily clothes, leaving off only the school robe, while admiring the scenery.
Orion hung out in the room for another half hour, and when he finally got bored, he decided there was no exit button in the game system. The system, which he had examined every inch of, still didn't show "log out" or any other settings buttons.
"Where's the exit button, you fu*kers?" He cursed out loud and studied the school buildings in the distance outside the window, memorizing the route he needed to take.
He left the room, carrying the file given by the dorm administrator and the other papers he received from Samuel.
Today, he was going to take care of the last two things that might help end the tutorial.
I'll do this so-called physical check and choose a protector for myself. They will probably let me leave once I complete these two parts of the game's introduction.
Probably.
..
Cringe couples, go die!
In game...
Orion left the mansion and didn't encounter anyone until he passed the giant garden gate. Except for the garden lights and a few streetlamps, everywhere was quiet and dark.
But as he approached the school's centre from the isolated area around the dorm, he could see couples holding hands or whispering on the grass or under the trees.
Go study you brats!
He grumbled crankily like an old man and thought about his real world home, where his own age was still considered young.
Thirty years old was not very old, actually. But due to a life full of unemployment and failures, he had never had a girlfriend.
Or maybe he was lying to himself. And he'd struggled to get close to women just because he was a frightened wimp. After all, to have a significant other, you had to open your mouth and talk to women in the first place. At least "poke" someone on social media apps.
Great. Now my inner voice started criticizing me.
He passed the part of the school with the flower gardens and saw a building that from the outside screamed, "I am a library." Looking inside here would be a waste of time for now. He didn't know what the game developers had filled the library with, but he left it behind for the moment.
As he walked, his foot caught in a pothole in the ground, and he stumbled. He immediately checked his surroundings. He relaxed when he saw that no one was around and continued walking.
He was still worried about what other people would think when he did something embarrassing. This reminded him that he was in a game.
Why am I worried? I'm not in a place where I need to be embarrassed or scared. Just let it go.
He remembered his cousin's wedding, which he was supposed to attend, and his loneliness at home before he found himself in this game.
He was going through a very lonely period right now. He didn't even know how he was doing psychologically because he had dedicated all his time to shutting down his brain.
He had frozen all social media accounts that reminded him of his own life and cut off contact with all his friends.
He had turned into someone who didn't talk to his family unless necessary and who was quietly dancing with depression in his own way.
Things were bad and he knew it too.
Books, random comics, American romantic-comedy movies from early 2010's, and TV series that lasted at least 5 to 10 seasons. He was consuming everything he could get his hands on, spending his entire day shutting off his brain.
It was definitely not healthy.
Recently, he had some pocket money from giving private English lessons to a few small children, but otherwise he was unemployed.
He would sit at a quiet cafe he regularly went to, drink tea, spend time on his phone, and then come home in the evening and immerse himself in his computer.
His brain didn't have time to focus on his own life. He would constantly listen to music or podcasts even on the road or in the shower.
Right now, this was perhaps one of his first phone-free and music-free walks in his last two years of depression.
This was why he felt even more restless when he saw the couples spending time with their love and dreams.
Remembering who he really was was disturbing.