《Teaching as a NPC (Dropped)》 Prolog - Alone at school Day 17 Board. I am board. How board am I? I¡¯m so board that I decided to use this journal/dairy that Tim left me. 17 days ago I was turned into a NPC at the cost of my real body. Which, considering I was in a hospital and expected to die within a year, wasn¡¯t too bad of a deal for me. And as an added bonus, the game I am going to live in has magic. But the problems started after I entered the game. I thought that I was going to become one of those NPC¡¯s in the background that gave some side quests. Instead, I¡¯m stuck in this stupid school as the principle for five in game years. The first 6 months of which I¡¯m supposed to spend without students so I can study and get to know the material that will be taught. I guess that¡¯s what I get for signing that contract without reading it. I would¡¯ve been fine with being alone in the real world. The reason I¡¯m not fine with being alone in this world, is because I can¡¯t use the internet. I¡¯ve spent the last 2 weeks (weeks are 8 days in this world) reading the textbooks Tim gave me. I¡¯m supposed to give these books to the teachers I hire. On the 5th day I started mediating to pass the time and build up my magic. Because I had a lot of time to pass. And I mean a LOT. These ********* turned off my basic needs. So I¡¯m spending my days without sleep, food, drinks, or even the need to go to the bathroom. I can¡¯t even leave my office to look around the school. And now I¡¯m board of writing. Won¡¯t write again until I¡¯m board of being board of writing. Day 53 Didn¡¯t get board for a long time because I was playing with my magic up to beginner level. I¡¯m not going to explain magic in this journal/diary because then I¡¯d just be copying from the textbook and that¡¯d feel like homework. My current aura level just reached intermediate level 1 and I¡¯m having trouble choosing which 3 mixtures I should start with. I mean, this system is super unfair. There are 145 mixtures of magic and I can only choose 3. On the bright side I should still be able to use the other mixtures up to beginner level. Day 56 After spending hours deciding which three I should choose, I ended up choosing clone, intelligence, and ink. I choose clone so I¡¯d have someone to talk to. But the results weren¡¯t what I wanted. At beginner rank I could clone parts of my body but couldn¡¯t separate them (ex. give myself 4 arms). And at intermediate rank I could finally make a whole body separate from me. But the clone was disappointing. Instead of having his own conscience, the clone was more like a puppet. And on top of trying to control him, I still had to control myself. It was like playing a game where I had to control someone with the arrow keys and another with wasd while simultaneously using two mice. Only much harder. That is why my second choice was intelligence. I learned from a textbook that the intelligence mixture isn¡¯t used to increase mana but has other fun uses. One of the intelligence mixture powers allows parallel thinking. And while I could use parallel thinking before it became intermediate, I couldn¡¯t use them at the same time until they became intermediate. With these 2 mixtures I created a clone and was able to pretend that he has his own personality. That¡¯s why for the 3rd mixture I choose ink. By taking this mixture I¡¯m able to pretend that my clone is a new teacher that I¡¯ll hire. One of the classes focuses only on the ink mixture and how to create spell circles. After creating my clone and giving him the textbooks he¡¯ll need, we saluted each other and I had him leave. As I¡¯ve said before, I can¡¯t leave my office. That doesn¡¯t mean my spells can¡¯t. When I open the door to my office and try to leave there¡¯s an invisible wall that stops me. I got angry one day and tried to throw spells at it to break the wall. But all the spells went through the door without any interference from the wall. So by creating a clone I can now go outside and explore the school (even my clone wasn¡¯t able to leave the school and enter city). Probably won¡¯t write in here for a while. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Day 81 After 2 months (months are all 40 days) Tim (the guy who offered me the contract for this new life) told me that I need to make a school plan. As in which classes will be taught when, where, and by whom. He gave me mountains of portfolios so I could look for teachers as well as a list of suggested course with some marked as required. My skills with the clone and intelligence mixtures have grown so that I can now control 2 clones as well as my own body. I also reached intermediate level 2 with my aura and pick up the enchant mixture. I thought that the writing system would be similar to the one I learned for spell circles. I was wrong. The spell circles use Japanese kanji. The enchantments use symbols from the zodiac. Even the method of using the 2 mixtures is completely different. On the bright side I only have 4 more months until players enter the game. On the down side I still have 4 ******* months before players come here. Day 121 My aura reached intermediate level 3 and I picked up the tattoo mixture. But who cares!? PEOPLE!! There are ******* people in the school! I¡¯m no longer alone! Apparently going through the mountain of portfolios was well worth it. Tim had me separate the portfolios into 3 categories promising, possible, and no way. After submitting all 1347 of them Tim told me that those in the promising and possible categories would visit me at my half way mark. And they¡¯re here! I can finally talk to someone other than myself. ¡­Wow that sounded depressing! Day 125 I¡¯m starting to think I liked it better alone. ¡­Well, maybe not alone but with just Me, Myself, I, and Him. These are the temporary names I¡¯ve given my clones, which I¡¯ve gotten better at making. None of the people I¡¯ve met want to have a normal conversation. When I try to talk to them it goes like this: Me: ¡°So what¡¯s going on in the real world?¡± Them: ¡°This is the real world.¡± ¡°No idea¡± ¡°The reasons I should be hired are¡­¡± And to make matters worse they don¡¯t even seem to see me as a person. I¡¯ve disguised my clones and had them mingle with them, but most of the candidates seem too snobbish to talk to. Thankfully there are hundreds people to choose from so there should be some good apples in this bunch. On a side note, I¡¯ve decided to hire Me, Myself, I, and Him as teachers. Day 161 With only 2 months left, I¡¯ve yet to choose all of my teachers. Turns out some of the snobbish candidates were just over nervous and are good people. On the other hand some people made it very easy to get rid of. I¡¯m now down to 43 candidates and only have 30 different classes planned for the first year. I guess I¡¯ll just hire the extras as substitutes and assistants unless they can think of more classes I should add to the schedule. Guess I won¡¯t need to hire Me, Myself, I, and Him after all. Also Tim turned on the basic needs so I have to get used to sleeping and other things again. This will probably cut into my meditation time. It also reminded me that I need to include a cooking class. Can¡¯t believe I forgot what hunger feels like. Day 162 Some of the candidates didn¡¯t like the idea of being assistants. I¡¯m down to 34. Day 168 I lost 7 more candidates because they couldn¡¯t teach what they wanted. Now I¡¯ll have to hire Me, Myself, and I as teachers. I¡¯ll also make Him a janitor so I don¡¯t feel left out. Day 240 All the teachers have gone over their material and are ready for the students. Most of them even made it to intermediate rank with their auras. I¡¯ve gotten to level 5 and can¡¯t believe I¡¯m going to say write this but¡­ I¡¯m looking forward to school tomorrow. Chapter 1 - Schools out Tim: ¡°The program¡¯s cut.¡± Ryan: ¡°What program?¡± Tim: ¡°The school. The GM¡¯s are closing the school due to a lack of interest.¡± Ryan: ¡°¡­Huh?¡± Tim: ¡°Oh yeah, guess I never told you. Basically there are 72 GM¡¯s and 12 of them are the head GM¡¯s. When the idea of a school was voted on the head GM¡¯s had a vote of 6 to 6. So they decided to start the project, which was the job given to you so that none of the GM¡¯s could influence the project. ¡°And once the beta ended, players voted whether they would want to go to school or not during the official release. Of the 10,000 beta players only 71 said yes. Because so few people said yes the head GM¡¯s had no chose but to scrap this project. So you¡¯re now free to do whatever you want.¡± Ryan: ¡°B-but¡­¡± Tim: ¡°Hey man, I¡¯m just a delivery boy. If you have any problems take it up with the GM¡¯s. In this world the head GM¡¯s are the 12 gods and goddesses and the other GM¡¯s should be their followers. Have a nice life.¡± And with that, Tim disappeared in a ray of light. Ryan was left standing on a stage with all the teachers sitting behind him. He was planning on letting the first day of school be an introductory. After giving a speech as the principle, all the teachers would come up one at a time and give a brief description of the class they were going to teach. Then the students could spend the rest of the day exploring the school. Ryan had used his abilities to add some impressive ¡®enhancements¡¯ to the school that he was sure would cause the students to question how they work. But none of that matters. The school¡¯s done for before it even started. With a forced smile and a twitching eye, Ryan turns around and addresses the would-have-been-teachers. All of which were just as surprised with Tim¡¯s announcement. Ryan: ¡°It has been a pleasure working with you all and I hope that we may meet again. But if you¡¯ll excuse me, I need to spend some time alone.¡± Ryan then walked to the nearest school wall and sat down. The teachers all started to get over their shock and started making their way to the school gates to see what the city is like. All the teachers, that is, except for three of them. Those three just continued to just sit there in stunned silence. Once only three teachers were left Ryan dispelled his magic and the three teachers disappeared. Ryan: ¡°****. Bunch of ****. That ******* wasted two ******* hundred and forty ******* days to tell me this. Those ******* ******* and ******* at that ****** company don¡¯t even ******* apologize. They just send **** for brains down here to tell me ¡®Hey, you know that thing you¡¯ve been working on for over 200 days? We don¡¯t want it anymore so **** you.¡¯¡± Ryan then takes a deep breath and yells at the top of his lungs. The five stages of grief are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and finally acceptance. Ryan skipped over denial and went straight to anger. Ryan had no reason to deny what Tim said, so he didn¡¯t. And after Ryan gets over his anger he¡¯ll skip bargaining due to there being no one around to bargain with. Ryan¡¯s stage of anger lasts for the rest of the day. At first he¡¯s just letting his rage out through shouting and cussing. Then after 3 hours, at noon, he gets angry at his stomach for making noise and beats himself for the next half hour. After which he spends the next 2 hours tearing down the school with only his hands. Then he demolishes the rest of the school with his magic for 6 hours with breaks in between where he used his hands while his mana charged. During this time he didn¡¯t eat but would drink from a lone water fountain he left standing next to the track. And when he had to go to the bathroom, he simple went on the remains of the school. Normally Ryan wouldn¡¯t fall asleep at 8 PM, but rampaging really took it out of him. In the end he fell asleep next to the water fountain he left intact. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. - When he woke up the next day he was confused. But after looking around him and seeing the charred remains of the school, he remembered what happened yesterday. Looking around himself again, he didn¡¯t feel any of the rage that he had yesterday. Instead, he felt depressed. *Grrrr* And hungry. He also felt hungry. Sighing to himself he slowly took a seed out of his pocket. After his reunion with hunger the first time, he¡¯d taken to carrying seeds around for emergencies. He then used magic on the seed and had it turn into a tree with fruit. The tree he grew stood at 3 feet tall and had white fruit in the shape of a tear drop. Ryan continued to eat the fruit and lean against the water fountain for the rest of the day. Other than feeling depressed and moping, Ryan didn¡¯t do much that day. - On the third day after receiving the news, Ryan decided to at least look at the city. But he was still too depressed to want to leave. So he created a clone and sent it to the city. But something happened as it left the school gate. It stopped. Ryan: ¡°Huh?¡± With his curiosity peeked, Ryan ignored about his depression and headed over to the gate. When he got to the gate, he saw that his clone hadn¡¯t fallen over but was standing still outside of the gate. When he tried to move the clone he didn¡¯t have any problems. The only thing that seemed wrong with the clone seemed to be the lack of a controller. Normally when he creates a clone, Ryan will always use his parallel thinking skill so that he can control multiple bodies at the same time when he does this he puts the controller¡¯s mind into the clone¡¯s body. But when his clone passed through the school gate, the train of thought that was controlling the clone was cut off. After spending about 10 minutes experimenting. Ryan came to the conclusion that the link is only cut when the clones walk through the gate or try to pass the school wall without using a form of teleportation. Therefore by using the teleportation, portal, or swap mixture he could easily pass the gate. And even though he can only use these mixtures at beginner level, they are still powerful enough to get pass this obstacle. Ryan dismissed his clones and teleported out of the gate. During his 10 minutes of experimenting, he became worried about what might have happened to the other teachers. Once outside the gate Ryan wondered if this barrier was why the school was located in the forest instead of being part of the city. He thought that the GM¡¯s probably put the school in the forest so that no one would notice the school just in case the project failed. After walking down the path that lead out of the forest, Ryan looked down the different paths to his left and right. To the left was the city about 2 miles away. The right led to an opening in a hill about half a mile away, most likely a dungeon or a dwarf village. As Ryan started walking towards the city, a beam of light came down from the sky and reviled Tim holding a clipboard. Tim: ¡°Hello and welcome to Gaia¡­¡± Looks at clipboard. ¡°¡­ Jeffery Zander. Due to a bug in our system your new life has started later than planned. If you run into anyone that talks about events from the real world that you don¡¯t know about, then it is most likely due to the time skip you have just experienced. ¡°For information about this world you just joined I suggest that you head to a temple and ask the head. If they can¡¯t answer your questions they can at least point you in the right direction. Have a nice life.¡± And with that, Tim disappeared in a ray of light. Again. Leaving Ryan to just stare at the spot where he disappeared. After a minute, his head made sense of what Tim had said. Ryan: ¡°****. Those ******** tried to wipe my memories.¡± Chapter 2 - The city While he walked towards the city, Ryan thought about what he should do. One of the first things he planned to do was go to the temple and talk to the head there. Tim made it sound like going to the temple was an option. But before Tim thought Ryan was mind wiped he also explained about GM¡¯s and how some of the GM¡¯s would be the gods¡¯ and goddess¡¯ followers. This led Ryan to believe that if he didn¡¯t go to the temple and ask for help, someone would start to look into the matter. And if someone were to look too deep into the matter then they¡¯d find out that he still had his memories from his time at the school. Ryan also realized that he would no longer have a stable job and would need to make money in this world. This issue could be solved easily. He could either become an enchanter, a tattoo artist, a skill producer, an adventurer, or even look for a job as a teacher. Heck, with his cloning ability he might even be able to do all of them at the same time. Except for adventuring, his clones had a range that they had to stay within and adventuring would be too far to do the other jobs at the same time. But before he starts a random job he needs to inspect the economy to make sure he doesn¡¯t try to sell a stupid enchantment for too much or sell an op enchantment for dirt cheap. As Ryan approached the 50 foot tall walls, he was stopped by two guards wearing armor. The entrance into the city was a pair of 15 foot tall and 5 foot wide wooden doors. Left knight: ¡°Halt. This gate has been ordered to remain close until the bug in the area has been fixed. State your name and purpose for coming to this gate.¡± Ryan: ¡°My name is Jeffery and I¡¯ve come from this direction because of the bug.¡± Tim referred to him with his original name so Ryan thought it¡¯d be better to use it till he talked to the head of the temple. Right knight: ¡°Ah, you should be the last one. Does this mean that they were able to fix the bug?¡± Ryan: ¡°Sorry, but I just got here and don¡¯t know what¡¯s going on. Tim said that I should talk to the head of the temple.¡± Right knight: ¡°That sounds like what we were told. To get to the temple take your first right and it¡¯ll be on the right, you can¡¯t miss it.¡± Ryan: ¡°Thanks.¡± Entered through the door the left knight opened. Right knight: ¡°Have a nice life.¡± As Ryan entered through the gate what he saw shocked him. The city looked like a ghost town. There were buildings and roads but Ryan couldn¡¯t see anyone. Before the gate closed again he turned back and addressed the knights. Ryan: ¡°Where is everyone?¡± Left knight: ¡°Ask the head.¡± Slams door in Ryan¡¯s face. Ryan: ¡°¡­ Rude.¡± Ryan followed the right knight¡¯s instructions and found the temple. He was surprised that even though the walk to the temple was short, he didn¡¯t see anyone. The temple was surrounded by a stone wall that had an open space for people to enter through. After passing the wall it was a short walk up to the temple which had big wooden doors with huge brass knockers. Ryan grabbed one of the knockers and knocked on the door. After a short wait, Ryan was greeted at the door by an unexpected site. The person who answered the door was a beautiful blonde woman with an abundant chest. This in itself wasn¡¯t surprising, but she was wearing a business suit with glasses and had her hair up in a bun. This unexpected site left him stunned. Business woman: ¡°Hello and welcome. My name is Sarah and I¡¯m the head of this temple how may I help you?¡± Ryan: ¡°¡­¡± Moves his mouth up and down but can¡¯t find his voice. Sarah: ¡°Hmmm? Is there something on my face?¡± She then reaches up and touches her face. But instead, she hits her glasses. This startles her and causes her to jump back in surprise. She then seems to notice the glasses on her face. Her eyes widen in shock and she looks down at herself. ¡°Eeek.¡± She then retreats into the temple and slams the door in Ryan¡¯s face. Ryan, not knowing how to respond, just stands there dumbfounded. After a minute he shakes his head to clear his thoughts and knocks again. Sarah: ¡°Hello?¡± This time instead of opening the door all the way she just opened it a crack and peeped out. Ryan: ¡°Hello. My name is Jeffery. And Tim told me to talk to you if I have questions.¡± Sarah¡¯s eyes widen when she hears his name and she opens the door a little more. Sarah: ¡°Really?¡± Ryan: ¡°Yes, why would I lie?¡± Sarah: ¡°Ohhh thank you thank you thank you.¡± This time Sarah flung the door open and gave him a big hug. Ryan was left dumbfounded again. Not only was he not expecting the hug but somehow Sarah had changed from her business suit in less than a minute. Sarah now had her hair down, no glasses, and was wearing a white robe. Once Sarah had realized what she had done, she quickly pushed herself away from Ryan and looked at the ground while turning red. Sarah: ¡°Sorry.¡± She then motioned to the open door. ¡°Um, won¡¯t you please come in?¡± Trying to suppress his confusion, Ryan simply smiled, nodded, and walked in. Inside the temple stood 12 statues, 6 to left and right. Both sides had the statues separated by 2 pathways making the statues be separated into groups of 2. Straight ahead lead to a raised platform. Sarah: ¡°Follow me.¡± She then walked down a hallway and into a room that lead to what appeared to be an office. After taking a seat behind a desk she gestured for Ryan to take a seat across from her, she made some gestures into the air indicating a touch screen. She then took a deep breath to compose herself and looked Ryan right in the eyes. Sarah: ¡°First things first, welcome to Gaia. As a new resident of Gaia, you had the option to change your name. You may have forgotten this part due to the bug but your name has already been changed to Ryan and you have yet to choose a surname. Would you like to choose one now?¡± If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. Ryan: ¡°Sure, let¡¯s make it Tenzin.¡± Ryan had spent a good deal of time looking through textbooks with information about words and their means because he couldn¡¯t think of a good surname when he first entered and got crazy board with nothing to do. What he found was that Tenzin means ¡®upholder of teachings¡¯. At this point he¡¯s forgotten the meaning but remembered the name he wanted. After typing the air in front of her Sarah responded. Sarah: ¡°Nice to meet you Ryan Tenzin. So what is your first question about the world of Gaia?¡± Ryan: ¡°I¡¯d first like to know why you hugged me.¡± This caused Sarah to turn red and find the surface of her desk interesting to look at. Sarah: ¡°T-that¡¯s¡­ Um¡­ I just¡­ When I¡­¡± Deep breath in, deep breath out. ¡°When you saw me in my business attire I thought I was going to be in trouble. But because you aren¡¯t registered as an official citizen yet, I felt relieved that I wouldn¡¯t get in trouble and¡­ hugged you.¡± Although she was able to calm her voice enough to say what she needed to, she was fidgeting and staring at her desk the whole time. Ryan decided to be polite and change the subject. Ryan: ¡°So where is everyone, the city was empty?¡± Sarah: ¡°Ah.¡± Sarah lifted her head and looked at Ryan. She stopped fidgeting but there¡¯s still some hints of red in her cheeks. ¡°That¡¯s because of the end of the beta phase. 3 days ago it was officially announced that the beta phase has ended and that the official release will happen in 8 real world days. With the conversion ratio, that gives us 32 days.¡± Ryan concluded that if the school had gone through, it would use this time to give the NPC¡¯s a slight lead over the players Sarah: ¡°We were then told that during our first 2 weeks alone, all monsters are going to be frozen. The reason for this is to give the NPC¡¯s a chance to get legendary resources so that there can be higher quality items among the more common ones. So everyone in the city has left to see if they¡¯re lucky enough to find a dragon or something.¡± She said with a shrug. After taking a minute to process this information, Ryan continued with his questions. Ryan: ¡°If all the monsters are frozen, then why were there guards at the gate that I entered?¡± Sarah: ¡°They were there because of the bug. Once the last person effected by the bug, that¡¯s you, entered the city, they were released from duty and able to go help the others.¡± Ryan: ¡°You said that I¡¯m not registered as a citizen yet. How do I register?¡± Sarah: ¡°Because the game is still in its¡¯ starting phase the city hasn¡¯t gotten to the part where it¡¯ll collect taxes or charge you for property. So if you want to register all you need to do is claim property somewhere in the city. If you wander around the city and see a place you like all you need to do is say ¡®I wish to claim this property¡¯ and a message box should guide you through the rest. Or you could choose a specialized building such as the smithy or training grounds. If you choose a specialized building you¡¯ll be given different pros and cons.¡± Ryan: ¡°I think that¡¯s all the questions I have for now. I want to explore the world and see how it works for myself for a while. If I have any more questions is it okay if I return?¡± Sarah: ¡°That¡¯s fine. Don¡¯t forget to return here if you¡¯re hurt.¡± Ryan: ¡°Huh? Isn¡¯t there magic for healing?¡± Sarah: ¡°There is but only followers of the church can use it for now. The current known magic only consists of the 4 elements water, fire, earth, and air. With enough time players should be able to figure out how to use the healing spells.¡± Ryan is shocked. For the past 6 months, he¡¯s been studying 145 mixtures with 12 different elements. And now he¡¯s told that everyone else only knows 4 elements. On top of that he knows for a fact that one of the mixtures he learned specializes in healing. Ryan can¡¯t tell if he should be mad at the people who refused this knowledge, happy that he was still able to remember, or sad that he can¡¯t use his full power in fear of being found by the GM¡¯s. In the end he was only able to stare at Sarah in shock and whisper Ryan: ¡°Only 4?¡± Sarah: ¡°Don¡¯t worry, there¡¯s more than the 4 elements. The beta testers were also able to discover that you could combine some of them to make more magic. In total there are 12 different types of magic discovered.¡± Ryan got up and started to leave. Sarah: ¡°Ah, wait.¡± Ryan was walking through the doorway on his way out of the office. He¡¯s still in a bit of a daze but stops none the less. Sarah: ¡°The inventory system in this world is a bit different so you might want to play around with it. To access it simply say ¡®inventory¡¯. Also due to the bug you may have been rewarded items as an apology, so don¡¯t be surprised if your inventory is full.¡± Ryan: ¡°Thanks.¡± So that¡¯s how they explain the items I ¡®forgot¡¯ about. ---------------------------------------------------------- This is where I need direction. I''m not sure what I want Ryan to do next. I mean he could: I write in Word then just copy and paste into here, so there might be some errors that I missed. Please leave your opinions, suggestions, and comments below. Thanks. Dropped due to lack of response.