Chapter 3: Ascension (2)
A bus arrived at the stand and stopped there for a minute.
Jiho got in, handed the fare to the conductor, and looked around for a vacant seat. To his dismay, he found none. He resigned himself to standing and clutching a strap for support.
"Aw, this sucks!" He instantly regretted getting on this bus but now he couldn't do a thing about it so he decided to bear with it.
He then shifted his gaze at the people around him, not a bit amazed that everyone was busy on their phones.
As time passed, his knee started to act up again because of standing in one place for too long.
Jiho started feeling tired and was barely withstanding the grueling pain in his knee.
"Dang, should I ask someone to give me a seat?" He thought to himself with a grimace on his face because of the pain.
He had to hurry up and make a decision because the pain would only go up as time passed.
Jiho gathered his courage and spoke up. "Excuse me, brother. Could you please let me sit for a while? My knee is hurting badly and I can't stand any longer."
The boy nodded and smiled. "Of course, brother. Here, take my seat." He got up and offered his seat to Jiho.
Jiho thanked him profusely and sat down with a sigh of relief. He felt grateful to the boy for his kindness. He regretted not asking him sooner, instead of suffering in silence.
He relaxed in his seat and closed his eyes. He felt a gentle breeze from the window next to him. He smiled and thought that maybe this bus ride wasn't so bad after all.
The pain in his knee eased as time passed, making him relieved.
After stopping at another stand, Jiho got off the bus and walked towards his college. He had enrolled in a cheap, low-ranked college because he couldn't afford anything better. As he saw the shabby buildings and the crowded campus, he felt a pang of regret and resentment.
Within the college building, he noticed a cluster of students engaged in a spirited conversation about the Ascension game he had seen previously.
"This is remarkable!" exclaimed one bespectacled boy in the group.
"You're the fortunate one with resources; the rest of us won't be able to afford the headset anytime soon," another guy with long, unkempt hair remarked.
"Hehe, don't flatter me too much," the central figure of the discussion responded gently.
Sighing, Jiho mumbled, "I can only hope to win that giveaway," before making his way to classroom number 18.
Upon reaching his destination, he made a turn and entered the classroom, promptly taking a seat and patiently awaiting the commencement of the class.
Extracting his phone from his pocket, he unlocked it and began searching for updates about the game and the giveaway. After a few minutes of browsing, he stumbled upon a blog post with a captivating title.
{Strategies for Earning with Ascension}
Jiho initially hesitated, suspecting it might be a scam. However, as he scrolled upward, he noticed several other blogs with similar titles. His curiosity piqued, and he decided to explore further, reasoning that it wouldn't hurt to do so.
He clicked on the blog and got redirected to the blog post website.
On top of the blog, the name of the author was displayed in big bold letters. {BanKur}
The name sounded weird but he only had to care about the contents of the blog, not the name of the blog author.
He read each word one by one, taking it slow so that he could understand better.
"Hm-!?" He was shocked after reading a certain line that stated {A player sold good grinding gear for 1000$}.
He scrolled up to learn more about it and to confirm if it was fake news or not, he decided to search for it on the search engine.
"!?" He was shocked after confirming the news was real and no one was lying.
"Ah, maybe even I could earn some money if I had the game." He cursed his bad luck.
Time passed as he kept browsing more and more news and the professor finally entered the class.
"Good morning everyone!" She said in a heavy voice so that everyone could hear her.
"I hope everyone is doing fine." She continued.
"Today we are going to prepare for the upcoming exams…" She looked at the students who were listening to her carefully but Jiho wasn't one of them today.
He was busy thinking about Ascension more than anything.
Time went by but Jiho couldn't get his focus off the game and study and the class was finally over.
He left the classroom and went to the bus stand quickly.
As he arrived at the bus stand which was right outside the college, he took a seat and fell into deep thoughts again.
"I only hope to win the giveaway, maybe there is a little hope." In his lifetime, he had never been this interested in video games but now, he was thinking about a game all day, and at the college at that.
***
After finally reaching his home, Jiho's mom came out and said, "Oh dear, you're back Jiho!" she looked at his face before continuing, "How was your day in college today? Did you go through any problems?" She spoke, caressing his hair gently.
"No, none Mom, it was a great day." He replied and went to his room.
"He is strangely different today…" His mom sighed and went to do the house chores again.
He placed his bag and took out a new set of clothes to wear before heading to the bathroom to take a bath.
He undressed and turned the shower on, perfectly cleaning every part of his body.
After finishing taking a bath, he put on the new set of clothes and headed to the dining room, with a hungry stomach.
His mom and dad s always were sitting at the table.
His dad glanced at him and spoke, "You look hungry, Jiho, eat up!" He was caring for his son and didn't want him to be hungry and get weaker.
"Alright!" Jiho nodded and gobbled up the delicious food prepared by his mother.
After eating his fill, he headed to his room without saying anything and slept soundly, tired of using his brain power all day.
*** (3 days later)
{Bling! You have an unknown notification}
A notification sound reached his ears, instantly waking him up from his deep sleep.
He squinted his eyes and focused on the notification.
"I… won?" he exclaimed in disbelief.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone