Races: Online

"Han Jing?" His mother greeted him when he came home, she was on their dining table along with his sister who was dressed up for school. "Welcome back, you left so early this morning." 

"O-oh, I just woke up early and decided to drop by at the convenience store." He held up the small bag of his bought snacks earlier.

His mother shook her head, "If you had been hungry, you could have cooked something for yourself. Come on, join me and your little sister for breakfast." Unlike his earlier prepackaged Sushi Triangle, the food on the table was stir-fried rice with omelette and vegetable mixed in it.

Han Jinjing was eating her food until she saw his plastic bag. "What did you buy, big brother?"

It was enough to remind him of the incident earlier.

He sighed and slumped over one of the chairs, dumping his bought snacks on the table. "I got chocolate wafers and some oolong tea, do you want to take it as your snack? It's yours now."

His sister made a face but took the bag. "Thanks, I guess."

A plate filled with their breakfast meal was placed in front of him, "Better eat up Han Jing, I'll be bringing your little sister to  her school."

"Oh by the way, I got a little something from one of my jobs." Han Jing got an equivalent of $80 from his wallet and gave it out to his mother. "I hope it helps a bit, Mother."

"You really don't have to do this Han Jing, you could be saving up the money." His mother sighed as she reluctantly accepted it. "Without any stable job, you really need to think more about your future."

"I'm fine." Han Jing began picking around his food. "It's not like you want to kick me out of here right? Or does father want me to move out?"

His mother's voice sharpened, "Han Jing."

"This work I have right now is kind of a short-term contract, so I'll be able to save a bit." He answered, inwardly sighing. It was sort of true… the left over from the $1000 was a good amount. He began eating his breakfast, shoving morsels of rice into his mouth.

"Good, good. I'll see you later, Han Jing." His mother smiled and bade him goodbye with his sister after a few minutes.

After they left, Han Jing finished up his meal, cleaned up and also took a shower. Leaving the bathroom all refreshed and clean, he sat back on his bed and grabbed his phone.

"I asked the Moderator how to log out... But I'm not sure how to log in?" He moved to a more comfortable position in his bed. It made sense that when he left his body to go to the Avatar, he should at least leave his body in a relaxed position—who'd want to return with body aches and cramps? "Do I still even need WiFi or mobile data to connect with the server and game?" He asked himself and kept his precious mobile data untouched for a moment.

Opening the app, he didn't get sucked into the phone or something like that. Instead…

[ Welcome Back To Races: Online! ]

The loading screen started with its usual logo and played the same ambient music…

[ Play via Mobile or Play via Full-Reign Mode ]

"Huh, so I can still play without necessarily transferring my consciousness huh?" Han Jing half-smiled. That would make it feel like he was playing a regular offline life simulation game then? He appreciated the option but clicked for the other mode.

And there he re-opened his eyes once more.

'Welcome back, Han the [ Human ]. You are currently inside the Enchanted Forest, Territory of [ Wood Elf ].'

The previous female narrator during his character set-up voiced over him. He simply glanced around his surroundings, he could recall that it was nearly night time when he had arrived at the Enchanted Forest—but now it was bright as day.

The Elf was nowhere to be seen as well.

"Huh, so time continually flows over in this world..." Han mused to himself. "Did I materialize back here or did this body of mine simply stand over like some mannequin until I returned?"

No one was there to answer him. 

Well, he could postpone his questions for later. Han stretched his limbs for a moment and prepared himself for another sprint. He had half a mind to check out the chat group that he got himself into… but for now? He wanted to see how everybody was doing back at his village.

Han began to ran, back to the village and people who were surely waiting for him.

.

.

.

They were bored. Truly truly bored.

What else could they do? 

Infinite power, magic and mana all in their hands? 

It got too old far too quickly.

[ Han the [ Human ] is now Online ]

A wicked smile curved up on their lips, "Finally."