Ren, seeing the argument escalating, threw his hands up and yelled,

  “Hey guys, I’m glad everyone’s excited to get in the game!”

  Folo immediately jumped in, “Yeah? Then give me the helmet!”

  Kanuka snapped back, “No way, let me jump in!”

  Ren laughed, shaking his head.

  “Wow, it’s actually cool to see. Before, I had to convince everyone—hell, I even promised to sell my kidneys.”

  Everyone laughed, even Folo and Kanuka, breaking some of the tension.

  Ren kept going.

  “We’ve got a schedule for a reason, guys. We need to use this for maximum time, and we can’t just have people jumping in because their shifts got cut.”

  Kanuka grumbled, “That’s bullshit.”

  Ren raised a hand.

  “Look, if next time someone can’t make their scheduled shift, then we’ll bump someone in. But Folo’s right here. Obviously, he should get his turn.”

  Kanuka didn’t look thrilled, but even he couldn’t argue—it was written right there on the battered cardboard taped to the wall. Like a bible for the poor and desperate.

  “Besides,” Ren said, “use this time to study the lore. Figure out what you want as your second profession. Reed’s going to be a tailor, and I’m an alchemist. Write it down on the cardboard so we don’t overlap.”

  He tapped the makeshift board for emphasis.

  “Remember, this isn’t just a game. This is our chance to get out. So think seriously.”

  Ren turned to Folo.

  “Alright, ready to go?”

  “Yeah,” Folo said eagerly, throwing himself onto the bunk and jacking into Towerbound.

  Inside the game, Folo chose the ranger class.

  He was outfitted with basic starter leather armor and a cheap wooden bow.

  It wasn’t much, but it was enough to get him rolling.

  For his secondary profession, he picked Hunter with Skinning skills.

  Exactly what they needed.

  Finally, they could get more than just rabbit horns.

  They could skin for meat, hides, and ingredients.

  But there was a problem.

  Skinning wasn’t free.

  He needed two things: a basic skinning knife and a Level 1 Skinning blueprint.

  The knife was easy enough.

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  Folo went straight to the general vendor and bought one for four copper coins.

  But the blueprint?

  That was harder.

  There were a few available at the auction house, but it cost two copper coins—and Folo only had one left after buying the knife.

  Profession started at level 10, so technically he wasn’t a real Hunter. But because of the free-play mode, he could use his real-life butcher experience—if he could prove it. However, butchering a fantasy rabbit was nothing like slicing up the same thing in real life. The blueprint for skinning? That was the key. That was what would push him over the top.

  Ren pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed.

  “Folo. Log out real quick.”

  “What?” Folo ripped off the helmet, glaring.

  “We just started!”

  “I’m not cutting your time,” Ren said. “We need Kanuka’s extra coins to buy the blueprint.”

  Folo groaned but did as he was told.

  They both appeared back in the dormitory, and after a quick explanation, Kanuka nodded in understanding. He logged in just long enough for Ren to grab the coins from him, then logged right back out without a word.

  They both appeared back in the dormitory, and after a quick explanation, Kanuka reluctantly took the helmet from Ren and logged back into the game. Same as Reed and Folo before him, he stood in the starter village for a second, quietly stunned by how real everything looked.

  But before he could even take a step, Ren was already in front of him, hand out.

  “Coins,” Ren said bluntly.

  Kanuka scowled but opened his inventory and dropped his remaining copper coins into Ren’s trade window. “Fine,” he muttered. “But I better get my full six hours later.”

  “You will,” Ren replied.

  With that handled, Kanuka logged back out without another word. Folo immediately grabbed the helmet again, plugging himself back into Towerbound. With the extra coins secured, he rushed to the auction house and snagged the Level 1 Skinning blueprint.

  Finally, they were ready.

  No more wasting rabbit corpses.

  No more lost loot.

  Ren leaned back against the dorm wall and let out a slow breath.

  They were moving.

  Piece by piece.

  Rabbit hide by rabbit hide.

  ***

  Now it was time to grind again.

  “Back to the herb fields!” Ren yelled, throwing a fist in the air.

  Folo grinned, practically vibrating with excitement as they made their way back through the gates and out into the wilds.

  The moment they started spotting rabbits hopping around the hills, Folo went wild, pulling out his bow and letting arrows fly.

  In Towerbound, players could choose between free play mode and auto mode.

  Ren, of course, had been playing in free play mode.

  Because he actually had some practical real-life skills—handling ingredients carefully, memorizing plant shapes—Towerbound’s system had logged those skills automatically.

  That’s why he didn’t need the basic gathering skill book most newbies had to buy.

  The game simply treated him like someone who already knew how to properly harvest herbs.

  Folo, however, was a pure newbie.

  He had no idea how to handle a bow properly.

  If he had selected free play mode, he would’ve missed every single shot—badly.

  So he kept himself locked onto auto mode.

  With auto lock-on, the game assisted his aiming within a certain recommended range.

  Inside that range, the system would automatically correct his shots so long as he pointed vaguely in the right direction.

  Outside that range?

  The arrows wouldn’t even fire.

  The bow would just refuse to shoot.

  If you had real-life archery skills, you could turn off the lock and use your instincts.

  Olympic-level talent would actually transfer over beautifully.

  Unfortunately, Folo was no Olympian.

  He was a slum kid who’d never even touched a real bow, much less fired one.

  Still, he was grinning ear to ear, happily plinking rabbits out of the air, every kill earning tiny bursts of experience points.

  And every time a rabbit corpse dropped, Ren hurried over to gather the herbs around the area, while Folo eagerly skinned the carcasses for hides and meat with his brand new knife.

  He uses real life butchering experience plus the skinning books teachings to get a pretty good result. It wasn't perfect, but it was pretty darn good.

  Folo had started working the street markets when he was thirteen, running deliveries for vendors too busy to haul their own supplies. It wasn’t glamorous—lugging crates of vegetables, cheap electronics, or bags of frozen rat meat—but over time, a few of the meat vendors let him help out behind the stalls. Skinning poultry, trimming fat, even breaking down the occasional rabbit. It wasn’t professional training, but it was enough to give him a feel for a blade and the rhythm of butchering. Just enough to matter now.

  Piece by piece, kill by kill, the two of them ground forward.

  Not fast.

  Not flashy.

  But steady.

  Exactly what they needed.

  ***