Whistling, Tang Gon left the cave and started to explore the surrounding forest. It was finally morning and the sun was high up in the sky. The weather seemed normal enough with the occasional breeze pa.s.sing through. But none of this mattered to Tang Gon right now. It seemed the experience of being alone for the past few days has finally gotten to him. There was both a lack of focus and care for his actions. Even in his past work experiences, he still had people checking up on him from time to time. Usually every hour after his regular mealtime to check upon him. Whether it was the cleaner, his advisor, or the restaurant owner next door that took care of him.
The cleaner would come by every so often to help maintain the cleanliness of his place. The advisor was the person that usually sends the cleaner and also the person that helps maintain his schedule and overall health. The restaurant owner, however, had no direct connection with Tang Gon. Tang Gon always thought that the food left on his doorsteps was usually the work of his advisor as it was always him that texted the arrival of the food.
These were the major people in his life back on Earth. It wasn"t that he wasn"t close with his family or that he was a workaholic, this was simply the way it turned out. Eventually, over time, a sense of dependency on these people grew, but that was not to say he couldn"t take care of it himself. Unlike other game developers, Tang Gon took his schedule and deadlines sincerely and almost sinisterly. In most cases, Tang Gon would finish projects day or weeks before the deadline is due, resulting in a bonus lasting him enough time to not take another project for a while.
There was this one time while rushing to finish a project, Tang Gon ended up working overtime. Yeah, that was pretty much it. Even the most interesting aspect of his life prior to the system wasn"t that important to him or anyone else. But this was the type of thing he went through. No great development or major fall in life.
...
Currently, Tang Gon was standing at the exit of the cave. Surrounding him was a new location of greenery. Shrubs and medium-sized trees of varying discernable heights surrounding the plain of gra.s.sland he was at. The ground was wet and seemed to have rained the night prior to his journey of exploring the cave.
Similar to the forests back on Earth, the birds would chirp, bugs would buzz, and other animals would be around. Occasionally, there would be loud impacts of noise here and there every few hours or so, but for the most part everything was quiet and calm in nature.
Openly strolling through the forest, Tang Gon completely ignored his surroundings. Mainly because the system would warn him of any dangers that would come his way. A bunch of new functions seemed to have been unlocked after his tutorial, it was only that he had to actively search and test out their functions.
While aimlessly walking, Tang Gon went through the system, making sure that there was nothing else the system was hiding from him. As there seemed to be nothing of importance, Tang Gon took his time as he walked around his surroundings.
While one could say he paid no attention, he did try to remember the paths he took after the cave. For example, there was indeed a small brook he crossed before exiting the forest and entering a small river littered with giant pebbles. But then again, there were several of these rocky banks in the forests.
The sense of adventure in a world that he never explored is what now motivates him, this and the new amazing food that is beyond what he expected in any circ.u.mstance. The pure motivations of people is what boosts them and other time confuse them.
Unsure of his next actions, Tang Gon continued to fiddle with the system. Before he knew it, there appeared a visual setting containing a variety of perspectives of how he wanted to view things. This in a way gave it a more of a fantasy-like feel.
With a press of a b.u.t.ton, the Visual Functions would turn on.
Everything looked like it was working, but Tang Gon still couldn"t get used to controlling the system with his mind. It still felt natural using his hands to control everything, so it might still take some more time for him to get used to using his mind to control things.
But because Tang Gon, despite being a developer was never truly a gamer, he left it off. He was the type to enjoy simplicity in life. Other times, he was very extravagant, but this was simply his personality. One that was very contradicting and would often switch from one to another rather quickly.
One might call him an eccentric, but the reality of the matter was that Tang Gon did what he wanted with little care for others. Sure, he did go out of his way to help those in trouble, but as it was more troublesome than it was worth, Tang Gon spent the majority of his time getting by in life.
Anyway, Tang Gon turned on the Numerical Value, which appeared after turning on the Visual Functions.
Tang Gon was unsure of what both of the settings did as there were no messages or notifications that appeared to teach him, so he just kept it on, waiting to see if anything happens.
He waited for a few minutes expecting something to happen, but seeing that nothing was happening, Tang Gon went back to digging around the system some more. Other than what he already knew and found, Tang Gon had also discovered a second version of the status bar.
When he turned that on, a red heath bar and a blue stamina bar appeared directly above his head. Both were full and there was no sign of anything dropping.
Believing that was the last thing hidden by the system, Tang Gon, satisfied, got off from the systems interface and started enjoying the peaceful surroundings. And because he was feeling rather simple today, Tang Gon turned off the two additional settings in the system.
But before he could do anything further, a loud rustle from the other side of the bank was heard. It was slightly adjacent to the area where Tang Gon was sitting down. A dense bush hid him from whatever was coming out.
Taking small steps back as to not attract any attention, Tang Gon safely retreated without any harm. Moving the leaves in front of him, Tang Gon took a peek of what was in front of his line of sight.
Only now did he notice that the system had rung earlier. Recently, his train of thought and his actions of daydreaming seems to have stopped him from paying attention to any alerts offered up by the system.
Just as he was about to get in the right mood to enjoy mother nature, the system had to suddenly ring, completely breaking his rhythm. This was his way of putting it, but as he was lost in his thoughts again, Tang Gon could only blame the system.
Three figures soon appeared out of the underbrush, all three judging solely on their height appeared to have been men. As they wore dark coverings that covered the entirety of their face and any other discernable body parts, Tang Gon couldn"t see anything.
The three men were dressed in some sort of green coverings that matched the shading and shadowing of the forest, enabling them to better hide and cover within the surroundings.
One had almost noticed Tang Gon. Luck, however, was still on his side as none of them appeared to have made any move in his general direction.
Two rushed to the stream and went to fill up their canteens, the other one in the meantime kept watch of their surroundings. After they were done, they would switch. The small showing of communication without actual communication was proof enough that they were trained.
After finishing, they left as quickly as they appeared.
Tang Gon finally seeing some sign of human life, quickly followed them. He ended up taking a detour around the stream in order to not attract any other attention.
The three that he had seen seemed to have been a part of some bigger party as there was no reason for people in tracking suits to just wander around.
There was definitely something going on and Tang Gon was happy to follow them and find out who they were and what was going on.
As the main mission of the System was currently shrouded in question marks, Tang Gon could only make his way by following major developments. This based on the amount of secrecy the three kept was more than enough reason for him to follow.