Lance was woken up by a knock at his door. Rogue yelled through the door " Still cooking dinner? Mom wants to know or she's just gonna order something and you can do it tomorrow."

  Lance rolled over and looked at the clock. He had only been asleep a few hours and he still felt exhausted. " I'm not feeling well, just tell her I will cook it tomorrow."

  " Yeah we figured, she said you have to do it tomorrow or she's going to cook something else with the meat. Otherwise it'll spoil."

  Lance rolled his eyes and thought. " Spoil? after just a couple days in the fridge?" After a moment he heard his sister going down the stairs, he rolled back over to go back to sleep. Just as he was drifting asleep Spex called out to him from his desk.

  " Lance, you would be happy to know that a recent update has allowed the cycle of downtime to be reduced from every twenty four hours, to every sixteen hours."

  " What? How is it that the initial timing constraints have been changing, in-game is now twelve and the cool down period is sixteen. It's only been three days."

  " The original boundaries for safe use of the console are set to a general human baseline. After all of the information gathered by users, and with the specific information about your brain, calculated measurements have been adjusted for you. As time goes on and the adjustments improve, so will your body, and the restraints will loosen."

  Lance fell quiet and then thought about it.

  "Either people are getting upset and they are maxing out both sides of playtime and downtime. Or the user base has grown to the point where obvious improvements have made themselves known. Either way it's a plus, I just hope not at the expense of my health. Worse though, does this mean some people may have more game time? " He then decided to ask Spex another question. " So when can I play again?"

  " You may use the console. You have already passed the cool down period. There is another feature I may inquire of you. Would you like that the playtime is not as compounded? Or rather the offset. Instead of twenty minutes we can push that up to an hour of standardized time."

  Lance understood where the compromise had come from. " I'm certainly okay with expanding the compounded time window. You may stretch it even further if necessary. When I sit down unless it's necessary or asked for, I would like that you expand the time as needed. I have another question actually, let's say we didn't compound the time as harshly. How much time could you add on to in-game play?"

  " The progress at which your brain will be able to perceive the quote, compressed time, is finite. The current cap on that is yet to be explored however to answer your question fully the answer is simply zero. Without compression of perception or Time as you call it, there is no added duration. You would have to have a unique neuropathy which would allow you to expand your perspective in that regard. Also as time goes on while In-game your body needs assistance in longer durations unless the tolerance for it has been built-up. You would need respiratory assistance, temperature assistance, and a few more devices to do so comfortably. Rest assured that the current model is the most cost effective, and allows for the best quality of use. Iterations and updates are sure to come. "

  Lance sighed. The explanation was sufficient. He would obviously have to wait for future updates to allow himself more time to play and that was universal. Being able to hop on the game now instead of waiting was perfect. It's a good thing it was silent or his mom and sister would be a bit upset knowing he was skipping out on cooking, the meal he asked to prepare, for games.

  Lance sat up noticing that he did feel hungry. " Damnit, I guess I should have got up to make dinner... Spex keep the compression to twenty minutes" Lance walked over to his door, poked his head out and yelled. " Hey! Don't order dinner, just give me like twenty minutes and then I'll come and cook!"

  A moment later his sister Rogue appeared at the bottom of the stairs, she was wearing a nice outfit and had make-up on. She locked eyes with Lance then gave him the finger. " We were going to go and see Jake at Billie's. You're an ass."

  "Rogue watch your mouth! Okay Lance are you sure? We can grab something in that time, if you don't feel well don't worry I can cook that meat tomorrow. We can just grab you a burger or something." Lance's mom said peeking up the stairs next to Rogue. They both were obviously dressed to leave the house

  Lance internalized they were likely not too enthusiastic to eat his food anyways. " Shit.. is my cooking that bad? They are begging me not to cook." he thought. After a second he just played into it. " Yeah you know what I really should just go back to sleep. Maybe pick me up something that will last in the fridge. Thanks for understanding guys."

  Rogue looked over at her mom smiling, then they began to leave. Lance closed his door and hopped in his computer chair. Before logging on to the console, he quickly checked his Viewcube account to look at the numbers his videos were doing. Before he had lied down they had only been viewed a few thousand times over the course of an hour. He began to think his initial launch to popularity had died. To his surprise the two videos he uploaded still had not blown to equal proportionate views as his first but in the few hours of his rest they did both reach almost half a million views. He smiled happily, he had hoped that putting out some more content would keep folks involved with his page, it seemed like it worked for now.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  His two videos differed in one obvious way. His Tavern Quest video that used the surroundings to kill goblins had far more comments with actual conversation. His other video was chalk full of comments that were simple praise or nods to certain moments with emojis and gifs. A consistency of asking for who the new teammates were was also a trend, outside of the troll related comments. The Tavern Quest comment section was full of questions, many of which were all asking questions about where The Dungeon Chef was even at. Some people guessed he must be on a higher level than they were, others disputed that claim by saying they had already passed the goblin territory and hadn't seen this area. Some people began to question the tactics used, Lance hadn't showcased the goblins talking and getting distracted with one another. He didn't have a full understanding of goblin speech and didn't know if anything they said would become an issue, so rather than too much content Lance showcased his moments of triumph over the small creatures. It seemed like a highlight reel at heart but Lance hoped that the underlying understanding of the environment became a centerpiece for thought.

  He gave a few likes to some comments that seemed to understand the ideas behind the videos, aside from the obvious, pinning them to the higher position on the videos. It wasn't until after scrolling for a while that he noticed one comment that stuck out to him like a sore thumb. It was very far down, in the first wave of comments.

  " Sorry we left you guys behind. Hope we see you again. - Jack."

  For some reason Lance tensed up and his heart began to race. It wasn't until a moment later that he realized he hadn't exchanged any real information with them so surely they had no way to really ruin anything for him as of now. He wanted to keep his ambiguity and separate himself from his online personality. There were many reasons for that but foremost for Lance was he didn't want anyone in his way. He was sure to be a target for those who wanted to gain fame, or the contrary, infamy. He stopped reading comments and just checked his overall account in-box which was flooded with inquiry. It was only the third day of the game's launch, the console even. However many online news outlets and other content creators had sent out contact information with either the hopes of an interview or cooperating on some content. Lance shrugged them all off unfortunately with his home life and school schedule these things seemed out of the boundaries of what he hoped to consider. He checked to see how much revenue he had made. When he saw the page that had the metrics and data on his videos, Lance immediately noticed a pitfall. On one hand you could see what the audience tuned in for and which sections were watched, but that could be a double edged sword. Appeasing the majority could lead to the fall off of the minority, and the greater sum was that much more powerful. He had made a whopping twenty three thousand dollars from his videos overall. His jaw dropped. He hadn’t hoped to attain anything beyond spreading the word of the games underlying intricacies. Part of him felt the number had to be fake anyway. How many ads would people have to sit through to even generate that much. Apparently a collective three million at the rate of one per video. Lance wanted to actually check but then stopped out of fear he may be tempted to increase the number of ads. Instead he picked up his helmet and walked over to his bed.

  After getting comfortable and turning on his system he fell into the world of white and floated until he felt a floor at his feet. Without any pause he saw Spex appear from his side, as usual she basically walked from his peripheral into existence.

  " Hello Lance, Would you like to see your new memoirs? You have one from your last play of Wish Legacy."

  " No not right now Spex thank you. But you may increase the playtime from 20 minutes to one hour. Instead please just launch the game, I need to hop in and get to it as soon as possible."

  " Not a problem, please be sure to check in again on your way out." She waved her hand and as if flipping to the dark side of the moon, the blank white space became pure darkness. As Lance stared into the void a line began to be drawn in front of him, slowly the silhouette of a door began to form. After its shape appeared Lance saw its color come into view, he then grabbed the handle and entered with a gentle glide.

  Once again Lance was met with the bar and tables. He looked around noticing Wellyn behind the counter doing dishes at a large metal tub basin full of water. He turned around taking off his apron and gave Lance a curt nod.

  " Hello ladd, how are ya? I've received a package here for you it seems." Lance watched Wellyn reach behind the counter and place a wide box in front of him. The basic brown cardboard was painted with a sigil of a large winged creature above a cloud, something like a feather winged dragon. Lance smiled and opened it immediately. Inside he found his Ork Wok.

  Lance's jaw tightened and his forehead scrunched. After a few tugs, he got it out of the box and onto the counter.

  " What the fuck, Why is it so heavy!" Lance looked up at Wellyn who watched his struggle and laughed at him.

  " Haha, It's of Ork craft, not Eld my boy. You're lucky, s'good work. Durable, hehe. Just keep picking it up. Eventually you'll be able to carry it."

  " What's that supposed to mean? Work out with the wok? This damn thing is an anvil."

  "It's large size and weight's due to the Ork's barbaric strength. Too weak and they break it. The steel is basic and hard but brittle under the cold. Eld's would likely have made something far smaller and ornate and of good quality. The Impkin works vary, sometimes good sometimes not. In good time when you meet the respective folks you will understand. For now suffer through with what you've purchased. At least this bit looks brand new and already seasoned. Note it's deep color and the hint of blue. Someone had at least tempered and oiled this properly."

  Lance looked at the area behind the bar in hopes that he could find a more suitable place for it. He came to the conclusion that the wok would be staying here. At least for the time being.