The next morning, Ethan opened his eyes slowly as sleep sluggishly washed away from him, the conc smell of old straw.
For a split second there he thought he might be back to his old apartment, perhaps all that experience was just a bizarre dream born out of sleep deprivation and worry… but that thought didn't last, his room didn't smell like a farm barns.
'What do you know?'
He sat up, feeling hos body move strangely but oddly familiar. He felt a few sharp aches assault him as he straightened himself from sleeping in an odd posture the entire night, how he even managed to sleep, a mystery.
Surprisingly, even suspiciously, the pain gradually disappeared.
"Still here," he muttered to himself.
As he heard his voice, he noticed how it was deeper than his own voice, though only a little, but seeing as this was a younger body, it was surprising.
He sat there for a moment, thinking about his situation. Now that he was still hear after waking up, he had at least confirmed finally that this wasn't some temporary situation, but permanent.
He stood and walked to the small window of his room, looking down at the town that was slowly walking up. Finally, the festival had ended, and now people were going about their normal routines. He could even spot some fishermen heading towards the docks, no doubt to fish.
Well, for himself, he could have sat there and mope about how his old life was gone, his apartment, his computer, his world and all modern convenience—all of that stuff, but even he knew he would just be wasting time and accomplishing nothing.
He felt a strange clarity settling over him. He'd wasted thirty-eight years being reactive, passive, letting life happen to him, always taking the path of least resistance, always choosing the comfortable numbness of games over the hard work of building something real.
Well, not only did he have an opportunity to change that now, he didn't even have the luxury to sit idly by. Knowing the story progression alone, if this was too be real life, then he really only had two choices: Remain in a small town like Salt Fish Town and become a fisherman to get by, or grow stronger to survive the coming days.
Then again, he was now in a world he had spent years roaming and mastering, this was like home turf.
The clear option was the second one, to grow stronger and thrive, and if he was going to do so, he needed to use every advantage he had.
Of course, that was knowledge.
He closed his eyes, sifting through his memories. Lost World Online had been his life, he'd come to know spawn tables, optimal skill rotations, hidden quest chains, secret hunting grounds. He'd read almost every wiki entry, watched guide videos, discussed strategy on forums until 3 AM, even played over several times on burner accounts.
All of that seemingly useless information—useless in his old world—was suddenly the most valuable thing he possessed.
Luckily for him, because he frequented new accounts for different reasons, he had played the starts of beginner towns a lot, so the information wasn't lost in his mind.
There had been several categories: time-limited quests that only appeared within specific windows after launch, level-gated quests that disappeared once you hit certain levels, and location-specific quests tied to beginner towns.
The level-gated and location-specific ones could wait. Those would still be available.
Apart from that, he focused on the beginning of the game, those early days after launch. There were particular secret quests that could only be done once and gotten once.
There were a few such quests, but thinking on it, only one was doable and nearby for him. Then again, out of the maybe five or six time limited quests at the start of the game, he could only remember two.
The first was in the neighboring town—Millhaven, if he recalled correctly. It triggered on the fifth night after the game's launch and only that night. Miss it, and it was gone forever.
The second was in a town much farther away. In the game he would just run there or use a mount, or the traveling system, but this was no longer a game, the only viable route of transport for him was the transport system, and seeing how this was real-life, it sure wasn't going to happen in the blink of an eye, no horse is that fast, not even a dragon. There was no way he could reach it in time.
But the first one… that was doable.
The quest itself had been infamous amongst players because of the difficulty and reward. He even heard that the reward was what took the player who did the quest to the heights he was in. A few people triggered the quest on that fateful day in different servers, but only one person got it right. The secret of how he managed to do so was no secret, that was why Ethan was so confident he could do it.
Though he wasn't sure, it was possible the quest had to be completed before one reached level ten.
Well, that didn't matter much, not when he knew how to go about the quest.
He headed downstairs. The common room was mostly empty by now, after all, it was still too early for the lunch crowd.
"Leaving already?" Grom asked from behind the bar, raising an eyebrow. "Paid for breakfast, you know?"
"I'll take something to go if you have it."
Grom shrugged and disappeared into the kitchen, returning a moment later with a cloth-wrapped bundle. "Bread and cheese. Not fancy, but it'll keep."
"Perfect." Ethan accepted it and headed for the door.
"Hey, lad," Grom called after him. "You look like you're heading somewhere with purpose. Be careful out there. Lot of dangers for someone your… level."
Yamamoto paused when he heard it. Had Grom just assessed his level?