"Don't worry, I'll take you home," Tel said. The kid looked up at his face happily and rejoiced as he tried suppressing his tears.

"Thanks, sir! Err, my name is Lok," he said. Tel stood up and faced me.

"Give me 3 hours and I'll catch up with you, Captain," he said emotionlessly with an androgynous voice.

"You sure? That's pretty damn fast," I told him, very much doubting his ability. Tel nodded. He carried Lok on his back and bolted forwards with an Olympics-tier speed, but the real crazy thing was that he was consistently running with that speed, placing him far above Olympics-tier, almost anime-tier.

"You heard that, guys? Off to the Outer Rim as quickly as possible," The rest nodded, and with that, we were on to our first ever mission. Now, all we did was run towards the big ass mountain chain in the horizon while swatting of different low-level mobs.


13:45 PM

Grasslands, foot of the first mountain in the Great Akamaru chain, Mt. Remon

"So we meet again, dumb rock," I mumbled silently as we approached the foot of the massive mountain, or more technically, a cliff that led to the rest of the mountain chain stretching far beyond our peripheral view. It was a steep 90-degree ascent that would surely require some sort of training equipment. At the foot of the cliff, around a hundred meters away, there was an old shack inside. As we approached the shack, an old man greeted us welcome. It was a mountain-climbing shack, much to our joy. The walls inside the shack were lined with several shelves holding mountain climbing tools such as extremely long ropes, hooks and pickaxes and a bunch of other things.

"Welcome, welcome, weary travelers! What can I interest you with?" the man said as he smiled widely. He had a wide slouch hat on his head, giving him the appearance of an old cowboy prospector. His facial hair completely covered his mouth and grew until the bottom of his chest.

"Uhm, we need a really long rope and a hook," I told him. He was, at least, two heads shorter than me. He looked up at me and asked me something else.

"How long do you want the rope to be?" he asked simply. I pondered the question before answering.

"How high is this cliff?" I asked as I pointed upwards with my hand next to my head.

"I guess, 932 meters high," he replied. He now rested both his arms on the counter and rested his chin on top of them.

"Well, in that case, I'll have a rope that's 933 meters long," I stated proudly as I pointed at a large wheel that stood upright by a wall. The wheel had a large roll of rope

inside. The rest of the group were just dumbfounded by the request.

"That'll be 10,000 col," he said as he was rubbing his hands together at the prospect of such an amount of money. I suddenly realized that we were broke from the night before. We rented the inn and drank the tavern dry. We obviously spent too much money. After hearing this, I signaled the merchant to wait a minute before gathering the members of the division and holding them shoulder to shoulder as if on a strategy meeting.

"I've got 500 col in my pocket right now. Let's pool in all our money," I told them. There was a moment of awkward silence before somebody 'contributed'.

"No can do, Cap'n. I spent all my money on booze," Tetsu admitted.

"All I've got is 200 col, but the sake sure tasted good," Hakurai admitted too. I soon realized just how unprepared we were.

"I've only got a thousand, but that's just cuz the booze tasted like horse piss," said Jax the comedian.

"I've got three thousand col on me right now for emergency money in case I run out of food," Fet contributed. Alright, we're almost there.

"Sorry, chief. We spent all our money on some cake last night," one of the twins said, effectively answering for the both of them. Another bout of awkward silence occurred from Vinsmoke's ominous lack of input.

"Uhmm... guy's, I'm broke," Vinsmoke finally said. What did we expect? That he would be able to dish out 5.3k col after last night? We all sighed after he said that. I quickly searched my inventory before finding some gems that were buried deep inside.

"Well, all I've got are some few gems that we could barter with. Don't worry, guys, captain's got this," I said. I collected the cash and presented it to the merchant. He quickly lost his bright smile which was replaced by a dogging stare.

"This isn't even half what I asked for. I ain't lowering the price, times are tough, ya know!" he yelled as he slammed his fist onto the counter.

"We've got Dragonite crystal, and a bunch of other types!" I said. He quickly regained his smile and said what we all wanted to hear.

"Show me," he said as he rubbed his hands together in a vile manner. I spawned the gems in and showed it to him. He looked up at us smiling and told us to come with him. We followed him over to where the tools are.

"Aight, ladies. Mountain climbing's pretty damn perilous, y'all know that, right? Unfortunately, my shack doesn't do no 'safety'. Can't afford the equipment. I'll get my cannon out. It'll fire the rope with the hook up to the top of the cliff. Now it's up to you to climb there safely," he said. "You wait outside for me. It'll just take a few minutes,". We continued outside and waited for him to bring out his so called cannon. In the meantime, I coordinated my subordinates.

"The heaviest one stays at the bottom, alright? I stay at the top and the lightest one comes below me," I said. This earnt me a mouthful from nearly everyone. Everyone except Fet, who nibbled on his rice crackers, raged on.

"Don't gimme that shit, you don't get to stay at the top just cuz you're leading us!" Tetsu yelled as he was grabbing me by his collar.

"Lemme at him too! Dumbass who the hell do you think you are?!" Hakurai yelled as she pushed herself onto me, effectively grabbing my collar too. Can't say I was displeased by that.

"Chief, we do not want to die like this! Do not fail us, Chief!" the ever-faithful twins said.

"Aw hell naw, you ain't going first. Not with them heavy ass weights, you ain't!" Jax said. This explained everything as I suddenly came to realize how heavy I am. I quickly swiped the air and opened my inventory. I quickly unequipped my weights before telling them.

"Guys, guys. It's alright. I removed the weights. No need to get so physical," I told them. This loosened most of their grips except for Hakurai's. She was still yelling at me for an unknown reason.

"What's wrong, dammit?!" I said as I tried shaking her off me.

"Put me at the bottom. I'm not sure I'll be able to handle all those people looking up at my... YOU KNOW!" she yelled. I tried suppressing a laughter after hearing the reason for her anger.

"Don't worry. You'll be above me to have the highest chance of survival," I said, trying to get a good spot as we were climbing. She stopped talking for a minute before she realized what my true intentions were. After the realization had struck her, she slapped me really hard.

"Screw survival. I know what you're after, captain, and I'm not allowing you to see anything," she replied, and let go of my collar. "If anyone asks, I'm below Fet, and there ain't no one going below me!" she stated loudly, making sure that the entire group heard her. After that, the old man came out of his shack with an ancient-looking mortar that was connected to the rope reel. There was a hook at the tip of the rope that made sure that after the rope fired, the hook would hook onto something in order to make the rope climbable. The man brought the mortar a distance away from the face of the cliff before lighting the fuse that was going to fire the mortar. After a few seconds, the fuse burnt out and the rope was about to be launched, was it not for a mechanical issue that resulted in the destruction of the mortar. The device exploded after the fuse burnt out, thus blowing the old man back a few yards.

"Old man!" Tetsu yelled. He ran to him as he was the closest. The man, however, was just lying on the ground coughing, dusting his clothes before standing up.

"Oh lord. It seems we have some technical issues here. Now unless you can throw the hook rope over the ledge of the cliff, then I guess you won't be going anywhere, unless you take the detour, that's at least 5 miles east of here," he said as he looked up at us, still smiling. Wait, throw the hook rope? That might not be such a dumb idea...

"It's fine, old man. We're still gonna ascend this cliff," I said. This earnt me some murmurs from the crowd.

"How are you planning on that, Captain?" Vinsmoke asked blankly.

"I'm gonna hurl it, what else?" I told them without looking at them directly. I was too busy scanning the length of the cliff and the weight of the hook rope.

"Yeah, tough luck, dumbass. Ain't nobody that can do that on our current level," Tetsu scoffed. Hakurai quickly came and nudged him lightly before whispering to his ears.

"Don't take the captain too lightly. You saw it too yesterday. The strength that managed to bind 50 people together into a single guild in the span of ten minutes," whispered Hakurai. Tetsu quickly realized that his comment might not be as factual as he thought it was.

"Fet, get over here. I want you to throw the hook rope as high as possible. You've got most points invested in STR, anyways," I said. I quickly received Fet's attention as he approached me. He took the hook rope that I handed him with his right hand. He took a step forward with his left leg. The leg came crashing downwards with a force so strong, he actually dug his foot half an inch in the soil. He did the same to his right leg as he raised it before making it crash down with an extreme force too. This anchored him nicely to the ground. He then arched his back backward, with his arm stretching behind him before letting it come up with an extreme velocity. The hook rope flew extremely high, almost reaching the halfway point before giving in to gravity and returning. Just before it hit the ground, to avoid any damage to the hook, I caught the rope.

"Nicely done, Fet. I wasn't aiming to get the hook rope up through you. I was just using you as a benchmark. Don't worry, you did well," I said, patting the docile man-child on his back. "Oh, by the way, how many points do you have on STR?" I asked him before he returned to where he was sitting.

"I've got 45," he said. 45, huh? That's cute.

"Alright," I told him. This time, I was the one preparing for the throw. I put my left leg in front of my right and arched my back before letting my arm go with an amazing speed. I threw with all the might I could muster as well as a large application of Ki on my back and arms. The moment I threw, dust dispersed from where I was standing and my feet dug themselves a few centimeters in the soil, evidence of Newton's third law of motion. The hook rope managed to get past Fet's highest point in a matter seconds. The hook rope continued on a lot longer than that.

"You don't mean..." Tetsu said as he was awestruck by my showcase.

"You can't be..." Jax stated as he was awestruck by what he saw. The rest kept quiet and watched. After what felt like an eternity, the hook landed on the ledge. I tugged on the rope to make sure that it was fastened nicely. After confirming that it was tightened using the weight of Fet, we finally felt it safe enough to climb on.

"Alright, then. The lightest one goes to the top and heaviest stays at the bottom," I said. This earned me a cold stare from Hakurai.

"Uh-oh, no-can-do, cap. I'm at the back whether you like it or not," she said.

"No. That's a safety risk and I'm not about to risk your life," I said in the most serious tone I could muster.

"C'mon, Haku. It'll be great! You'll have the highest chance of survival, you'll be the first to get to the top, and you'll motivate us to continue going no matter how tired we get!" Jax added in hopes of convincing her.

"Do it already, ya moron, we ain't waiting for ya forever," Tetsu added. Hakurai finally conceded.

"Well... okay," she said as she gave in to the demand.

"Alright you stay first, then I follow, then after that, Kuro and Shiro, then Jax, then Tetsu, then Vinsmoke, then Fet," I said, hoping that my team members wouldn't catch on to my true intent.

"Hey... wait a minute... something's not right, here! Captain must be at least as heavy as Vinsmoke, yet he put himself right behind Hakurai?!" Tetsu yelled. This earnt me the suspicion of everybody.

"Hey, hey, hey. Guys, I'm the captain so I decide what's best for the group, alright?" I said. Now Jax, Tetsu, and even Vinsmoke were on my throat.

"GUYS, PLEASE! I JUST WANT THIS OPPORTUNITY ONCE IN MY LIFE!" I pleaded as I struggled to keep the testosterone driven savages away from me.

"Ya hear that?! Horny ass pervert!" Tetsu yelled. That did it. I snapped and threw everyone that were currently on me far away due to my abrupt stand.

"That's enough!" I said as I stood up. "Listen up, kiddos. I'm gonna be behind Hakurai whether your asses are okay about it or not, ain't nothing you assholes can do shit about, got it?!" I yelled. This made Tetsu, Jax and Vinsmoke sit on their knees while they kept their hands on their knees while looking down.

"WE'RE SORRY, CAPTAIN!" they yelled in unison. I calmed down enough to reply.

"Good, now let's get moving. We're burning sunlight.


14:30

On the face of Mt. Remon's Cliff

The mountain is exhausting. I feel like letting go of the rope anytime, but there was one thing that kept me motivated to continue living. It wasn't Arisu, nor was it Karma or Murchada. It was the two guiding lights in front of me. My balloon-shaped muses beckoned me to continue no matter the cost. I was determined not to let go. Hakurai's behind would never let me. I was enthralled by it.


15:20

On the ledge of Mt. Remon

It was a long and winding journey. Terrible was a good word for it, almost flattering, for that's how horrific it was. We had neither harnesses nor did we have any form of safety equipment. The only thing we had was rope and our own two hands. The game was hyped for its lifelikeness in the replication of human anatomy in certain aspects. Perhaps this was the reason why most of our hands were scraped and riddled with blisters and scraped skin. I had the fortune of ki which I used to coat my palms throughout the journey, but it was short-lived. I only had so much ki to spare and I eventually ran out. My comrades on the other hands suffered the worst fates as their hands were done for. They were also extremely tired, save for me, Jax the welterweight, Vinsmoke, and the twins. The rest were gasping for air in this new-found thin atmosphere. I was already accustomed to this air so it was all the same to me. When we arrived at the top, we all simply sat down and either appreciated the view or dealt with oxygen shortage. I was simply looking around, assessing my surroundings. Mt. Remon still had a few hundred meters on it until the peak. Right in front of us was a large black cave entrance which sure gave me the heeby-jeebies. I simply looked away and waited for my comrades to regain their lives. It took a few minutes before everyone came to, and that was my cue to speak.

"So, how was the climb?" I asked almost teasingly in hopes of getting a few laughs. Everyone moaned and some yelled 'Don't ask'. Fet had the worst of it, since he was the heaviest climber. His face still had a tinge of blue from his oxygen deprivation.

"Alright, alright, I get it. Now, since we're here, let's refer to our map," I said as I activated the map in my menu. "According to this map," I said as I pointed around at it. "We're in front of a dungeon. Ya see that big entrance over there? That's gonna take us a maximum of like three hours to complete," I stated, half-expecting a grown or two from my motley gang of weirdos, which I received. "We still aren't sure what occurs inside most dungeons, alright? We ought to stay close to each other," I finished. We stood up and took some stretches before replenishing all our stamina. We were then ready to go.


15:30

Inside Mt. Remon's Dungeon: The Misty Cove

The cave was extremely eery. There were torches aligned on the walls on ten-meter intervals, which gave the areas in between each torch a horrifying air. We continued walking through the pathway that was fairly wide, not cramping us up at all. We had been walking for what almost seemed like ten minutes before the torches stopped appearing on the walls. The path, however, was very much there, but now there was no light to illuminate it. I stopped everyone before we entered into the darkness.

"Hold the person next to you's hands. We have to connect so we won't lose each other," I said. I felt after Hakurai's thin hands and grabbed gently so as to prevent her to connecting to someone else. After a few seconds of holding hands, we finally all connected. It was an awkward cluster with little mobility and maneuverability. After a short while of walking, I could feel the ground sloping ever so slightly. What I didn't expect was how abrupt it was. I accidentally tripped due to my inability to measure the distance between the ground and my leg. I brought down the whole gang with me. Once we were finished tumbling down the stone slope, we were met with a giant wooden door with spikes protruding from metal beams that supported it that was illuminated by four torches that were lined on the sides of the door. It was stereotypical, to say the least, almost like it was ripped off from nearly every MMORPG in existence. Me being the geek I was immediately realized what this is. They, however, were not that well-versed in games. From what I once read from a survey, a large number of the people that were buying the game were first-time gamers that haven't touched any other game. Most of the gamers were either delinquents, martial arts enthusiasts or actual professional martial artists. A small portion, i.e my sister and I, were actually just there for the fun of it. We never FullDove for the fighting.

"That, my friends, is what we call a dungeon gate. Once we open that door, we might not be able to leave the room inside it until the boss inside there is dead," I warned. Most of the people with me sighed. I approached the gate and pushed with some effort into it. The door opened with a loud scrambling and scratching of the ground, giving me a severe case of goosebumps. The door opened to a large hall with a skeletal figure in a robe and a crown on his head sitting on a throne. He had a group of around thirty sentinels stationed in front of him. These were all skeletal but had gloves on them lined with spikes. They wore metal helmets that covered the upper half of their skulls and they wore nothing. Once we entered inside, the entire room illuminated into a blue light which allowed us to see the entire spectacle with our own two eyes. The Skeletal boss was called the Skeletal King Lucius. Immediately as I saw his name, I noticed the four health bars stacked on top of each other. I knew he was a boss at that time. His level, however, took me completely by surprise. He was a level 40 boss. Since I just leveled to level 18 recently, I sure as hell was scared of what might happen. By the time the skeletal king saw us, he opened his mouth and uttered words. This sure as hell surprised me that a boss enemy could talk.

"What brings you hear, lowly mortal?" The king asked in a booming voice which allowed him to seem a lot bigger than he actually was, which was around 7ft.

"We want to go to the outer rim. To do so, we have inadvertently stepped into your realm. We beg for your forgiveness," I said in a formal tone. This might have been the first time I was actually this afraid to lose anything in a game. I knew that with a little struggle, we could bring him down, but it could cost the loss of one of my subordinates' life.

"Do you, now? You mortals are so simple when meet with the prospect of loss. You certainly are different from the other mortal that visited me. He had a strange name, PoH. He came to me in search for an alliance, but I cast him out of my dungeon after he killed a sizable amount of my men in a flurry of rage due to his rejection," he stated. PoH? I sure hope he doesn't give me any trouble. I was mystified by this new presence, PoH. He did not sound like someone to joke around with. "Ah, but I digress. You wanted to run away like a coward, yes? Running away from a crippled army?" he asked mockingly. I hated myself for conducting myself so cowardly in front of my subordinates, but it couldn't be helped. I didn't want to lose anyone, certainly not because it was my fault. I swallowed my pride and continued talking.

"It is because of that that I don't want to fight you. You're hardly at full strength. Killing you will be nothing but a cinch," I said provokingly. If this NPC was a king, then certainly he would conduct himself as one and know when not to fight, but he had a strange aura around him. It was like a hidden wrath burning like a pot with its lid on, only letting residual heat through it.

"Oh, really? I do not refuse to fight when there's a chance. Men, kill them," he ordered straightforwardly. It was so straightforward, the fact that we were originally talking so nicely with each other, only for him to turn a complete 180 on me. I am stupidly Naive. The sentinels ran at us in a quick pace, more than enough for my subordinates to mobilize without my word. It didn't matter, now, for now wasn't the time to act war-commander. Vinsmoke leaped forwards in a fly-kick sort of pose, digging his foot through the skull of a sentinel, killing it instantly. Just as another sentinel was about to strike him, he threw himself on his back, catching himself before falling on a handstand. He grabbed the offending sentinel with his legs and snapped its neck, killing it too. Before he could look behind himself, another sentinel was about to attack him, had it not been for Tetsu's jumping knee-kick that shattered its skull. This gave Vinsmoke enough time to stand on his legs again. Tetsu and Vinsmoke were back to back, making up for each other's fumbles. Kuro and Shiro were already a terrific team in their own right. As they immersed themselves in the battle, they attacked with swift strikes to the opponent's ribcage, cracking most of them. Their hands were both almost invisible as they attacked with such quick movements. They were also back to back, but their teamwork was impeccable. It was like they were telepathically connected because I never noticed any of them talking to each other. It was surreal to say the least. Hakurai's fighting style was extremely surprising. She was using Judo, which was made for heavier people. She lured her enemies into coming close to her, which she took advantage of by flipping them over, completely shattering their ribcage. Fet and Jax were fighting close to each other. Fet used his strength to lift the skeletons in the air like punching bags, which Jax used to train his skills by pummeling them to death. They discontinued this joke full tactic once they were being attacked on all sides. Fet then used his massive power to slam his enemies back with his palms, sending most of them flying, dying on impact. After around a minute of this chaos, the last sentinel headed towards me, running rapidly with an arm stretched far behind him, ready to release an extreme punch. Before he did so, I jabbed him on his face, a boxing technique that I learnt from observing Jax. The skull shattered upon impact due to the force behind it.

"Well, well, well. I guess my army has been vanquished. Time for the king to step in," he said as he stood up. He jumped off from his throne that was raised on a high platform. The impact from his landing raised dust where I stood. He stood up slowly and assessed my division. "A motley bunch, indeed. Let me not lie to you, mortal. I know that my existence will cease this day. I will, however, still fight you in my full strength," the king told me. I realized how tragic this entire thing was.

"A ruler of nothing does not deserve to be a ruler," I told him in an attempt to dishearten him.

"I know that. My army is gone. There is little I can do to raise a new one. I am no longer a king, but a warrior," he told me proudly. He approached me until he was around five meters away from me. He looked down at me due to his height as I looked up at his empty eye-sockets. "Now, we fight," he said as he lunged towards me in a quick dash. He charged up a punch before releasing it to me. It was too quick to evade, so I tried guarding with ki. Although the ki took most of the brunt, it still hurt like hell. The stone ground I was standing in was shredded by my feet due to the force of the push. I remained upstanding, however, so all was still well.

"Still alive, are we? This will be good," the king stated with what sounded like the voice of a grinning man. I shook the shock off and approached him cautiously. He was also moving slowly, looking for any opening to attack. I was too. The king was fast, but I was agiler. His large stature prevented him from striking accurately. I had no such weakness. As he went for the initiative again and threw a punch, I managed to grab a hold onto the forearm and pulled him downwards towards me before punching him in the side of his head with enough strength to crack his skull a little, making a fissure run through it completely. He was blown back by the impact. As he stood up again to attack, I got there quickly with a dash and side-kicked him in the skull, cracking his neck by a little. I checked his healthbar and I already dug through the first one and made some damage to the second one. I jumped back to replenish some stamina. He stood up, this time uninterrupted.

"Tsk, tsk tsk, it's bad to strike an opponent on the ground," he told me. I didn't really care for chivalry at this point, so I believed that everything was currently permissible. He dashed towards me, this time feigning a punch. He instead hook-kicked me, sending me thudding to the ground with force enough to make me dizzy. I check my health bar and see that I've only got three quarters of health left. Three more strikes and I'm out. I picked myself up quickly and brushed off my dizziness. I look him in the eyes before unleashing a flurry of punches targeting his abdominal area. Most of the strikes were blocked, but some got through. I was straying from my martial art at that point, so I reverted quickly to perform a low kick on his shin, so as to debilitate his movement. Stunned by the kick, I kicked backwards to have a better view of him. I run towards him quickly and jump to perform a hook kick with added force from the jump. I manage to hit his skull so badly, a chunk of it flew away and the stone floor cracked at his force. Before he could stand up, performed a straight kick at his chin, roughing him up a little. As he stood up, he managed to grab a hold of my leg. He pulled and I lost balance. He stood up, holding me upside down while he lectured me.

"You fight like a coward. You are so afraid of anything bad happening, you choose to omit any sort of chivalry," he told me. Pretty spot on actually. I just don't like the feeling of guilt. I've already got enough of that for an entire lifetime.

"I don't like feeling responsible for someone's death, sue me," I told him cynically.

He let go of my leg in mid air, before kicking me with such a considerable strength, I lost my breath. It was extremely surreal. My eyesight was failing me and I was seeing tiny white dots in my field of view. Perhaps this is what people call "seeing stars". I wouldn't know. I've never been beaten to that extent. I got up slowly and saw my health. It was dangling above the red zone, making me feel extremely uncomfortable. I tried accessing my inventory but the game-system did not allow me. The inventory option was grayed out. I look at his health bar and he's down to the last one. He's also in the yellow zone in that health bar, so I was happy.

I tried gaining concentration by shaking off all of my fatigue and pain. I was barely able to stand, but after a few seconds, the pain abated. I was ready for one more round. This time, I looked at my ki bar. 600/1200 it read. I've already used half of it during all of this. Time to give the final push. I allocated my ki onto all bodyparts, focusing mostly on elbows, knees, fists and feet. I started to emanate yellow. Before I knew it, I saw my opponent also emanate something. It was a black haze of... ki! He also knew how to use it. Now was not the time for thinking, though. My ki was dropping rapidly and I only had ten seconds left of being in this state. I ran towards him, my ki-hardened body-parts boosting me considerably, and inadvertently got on to all four like a monkey as I ran. I didn't question it at the time, it just felt natural. I lunged at him with my entire body, my fist retracted before releasing a burst of force, all of the ki concentrated in my fist. The skeleton king could not handle all the force. His arms that were guarding him were pulverized by the punch and his ribcage disintegrated. He fell down, completely helpless, but not dead. He was just on the brink of dying. I went down to my knees, vapor escaping from my fatigued body. I was completely exhausted. I looked at my opponent. He was lying there, completely lifeless, before I saw his jaw move.

"You... you really are nothing like that animal PoH," he told me. I simply nodded as I stared at the ceiling.

"I need to make a request of you, mortal. What is your name?" he asked quietly.

"Ryuuma," I answered between gasps.

"Ryuuma, I need to make a request of you. I want you to kill him," he asked. This caught me offguard, but I enquired further.

"Who?" I asked.

"PoH. I want you to kill Prince of Hell," he stated. I raised my eyebrow slightly while looking at him.


WELL, I FINISHED IT FINALLY. I FINALLY DID IT. IT TOOK ME SO LONG. SO MANY HOURS OF REWRITING DELETED SHIT ;-; I did it tho. I feel so relieved.

Please favorite, follow or review this chapter or story if you like it. It gives me so much more motivation to continue when I know that there are people reading my story.