Second Life: Welcome to Gaia - Chapter 39: Rewards

Ye Yan logged out of the game and went to the kitchen to eat something. He looked around, but there is no sign of his friends. Hu Ling usually takes a bath after log out every day and, as he has a date later today, he will stay in the bathroom for hours before eating his breakfast. He is vain, or stylish as he prefers, and takes more time to get ready to go out than his mother when she had gone shopping in the past.

When Ye Yan finished his breakfast, he sighed and washed the utensils he used because he understands Hu Ling’s temper well enough to know he should have asked the others to not help him with the dishes this time. After washing everything, he returned to his room to do some exercise.

After his bath, he lay in his bad thinking.

He feels happy, really happy (except for the fact he had to wash the dishes before). There is so long since the last time he felt like that. After the death of his parents, he felt lost, like something was missing, and never finding true satisfaction in the things he did. But now, he feels complete for some reason. When he was playing with his friends challenging the dungeons, he feels right, like it was exactly what he should do. He feels like a weight has been lifted off his chest. The feeling of helplessness and anxiety is gone now. He likes how he is in the game, fighting and striving to become strong.

He had the goal of becoming the strongest player in the city before, but now, he feels it is not enough anymore. He has a guild now, it is still small, with only ten members, but he wants to expand it, to grow strong together with his friends. He doesn’t want to be the number 2 in the Yan Empire, but the number 1, and gain glory to his country when he will visit other places in the future. He wants to make his guild be recognized by everyone, this is his new goal, his ambition.

His mother always told him that when he needs to do something, to needs to do the best, not do things to the best of his abilities. If his goal can be reached simply using the best of his abilities, he will not have to exert himself much for him to reach it, but if his goal is something considered unreachable, it will force him to break his limits time and time again.

He will make his guild into the best one, that is his goal. He just needs to outline strategies to help him achieve it.

While Ye Yan was thinking about the steps he needs to take from now on, Hu Ling was in the kitchen looking at the sink and smiling because Ye Yan had washed the dishes, which he hated to do.

In truth, he didn’t mind using the washing machine, but at the time, Tang Yunfan couldn’t pay the same amount as the others for the rent of the apartment. Ye Yan hates washing dishes, Qian Zhong is lazy and he doesn’t want to do this kind of work, so he came out with this idea, leaving the house shores to Tang Yunfan for him do not feel bad in paying less than the others. If he tells the truth now that he is paying the same as them, it would hurt Tang Yunfan’s pride, so he prefers to wash the dishes than seeing his friend sad because of this.

Hu Ling might look futile and shallow but he has a good heart and values true friendship very much. Many people try to get close to him but he knows it is only because of interest, which makes him give even more importance to true friendship. No matter what happens, he knows that he can count on his friends. And when they fight like before, it never gets too serious. Ye Yan punched him in the game because he knows it wouldn’t hurt him at all, he never would do such a thing in real life.

Hu Ling smiled and thought about what he should do next to Ye Yan. His objective is to make his friend learn to relax more and be more sociable. He grinned and started to eat his breakfast.

At 6 p.m., Ye Yan logged in the game again and wait for Spell Bound, so both of them could enter the shop together.

Both of them entered the shop, which now looked different from before. The floor and walls were fixed, the door and the balcony looked new, and they couldn’t see a single spider web in the entire shop.

“You came!” The old man said. “I showed my prototype to one of the rich merchants of the city and he decided to invest in it. I don’t need to worry about money and materials anymore. And I could get it thanks to both of you. As a token of gratitude, I will give one copy of my creation to each of you. Here.” The old man was smiling from ear to ear while taking the items from his space bag.

“A bicycle!” Ye Yan and Spell Bound said at the same time. They never thought it would be a bicycle. They looked at each other and smiled. The day before, they were complaining about the fact they had to walk everywhere. It isn’t a mount but it will be very useful.

“Bicycle? Hum, it’s a good name. I had named it a two-welled mount before, but the name bicycle looks better.” The old man gave one bicycle to each of them and asked them to help him advertise his invention to their friends. He will start to sell the bicycle tomorrow in the shop for 1 gold. The bicycle is expensive to players at this stage of the game but it is very useful because it increases the movement speed of players from 100% to 300%. And the decrease of movement speed by excess weight has no effect while the player is riding a bike. Players can only get mounts after level 20, so this increase in speed now is very useful.

Ye Yan put his bike in his space bag and thanked the old man before Spell Bound and he leaves the shop.

They used the communication stone to speak with their friends and agreed to meet with them in the Adventurers’ Guild near the West Gate.

Ye Yan and Spell Bound mounted on their bicycles and went to the agreed place. Everyone on the streets looks at them with wonder while they passed. This is the first time the NPCs saw a bicycle and were curious. The players widened their eyes and almost blocked their way to ask where they got the bikes from.

Ye Yan is riding slowly because Spell Bound’s movement speed is less than his. That, plus the fact his friend is showing off, waving at people on the street, was making it even slower. Some girls, and one guy, waved back at him, which inflated Spell Bound ego even more.

When they arrived at the Adventures’ Guild, the others were waiting for them in front of the guild. They looked at them curiously and started to complain.

“Where do you got these bikes from?” Qian Zhong asked a little angrily. He felt abandoned by his friends.

“Why you two didn’t tell us about the bikes?” Conan complained like a little bullied wife, making everyone laugh. His behavior and appearance do not match, creating a funny picture.

Spell Bound told them about the shop. They will go there tomorrow and Spell Bound will finance the bikes for them using the money exchange.

They entered the guild and were led upstairs to the room of the same elf that lectured them before. In his room, they become extremely well behaved, making a line, shoulder to shoulder, looking at the elf sitting behind his desk.

The elf adjusted his glasses with his right hand and with a serious face, started to speak.

“So you are the group that made a great contribution to our city. I never thought the rioters who provoked disturbances in the guild yesterday would have such achievement.” He said seriously.

Ye Yan and his team kept quiet. As the saying goes, Silence is gold.

They waited for the elf manager to say everything before speaking.

“Your help in exterminating the goblins in the White Birch Mountain Forest enabled the city to gain access to the mountain again, so the guild decided to reward you with 20 silver coins, and 1 ring each. In addition, the guild posted your names in the Hall of Fame, increasing your reputation within the city. Congratulations! But remember, with great power comes great responsibility[1]. You are famous now and became an example to many people, so act wisely or you might lead others to do wrong things.” He emphasized the last part as a reminder of what happened the day before.

System: Your reputation in the City of Ji has increased by 10 points. You gained charisma + 1. Your name was written in the Hall of Fame of the City of Ji.

The Hall of Fame shows every great achievement of the players in the game. Each city has its own Hall of Fame with achievements at the level of city, country, and world. Certain dungeons and quests are only recognized by the city’s region, others are big enough to be acknowledged by the country or even the world.

Every team member received a little silver box with a random ring and was “invited” to leave afterward. The elf manager doesn’t have the patience to speak with them for long. They do not even have time to open the little box.

They left the guild and opened their silver box. Each of them received a different ring that suited their classes. Ye Yan received the Fighter’s Ring from the box.

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[Fighter’s Ring] (Silver, Ring)

Description: A ring made of silver with no ornament.

STR +5

Critical Chance +5%

Player: Jun Xie

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Ye Yan readily put the ring on, improving his character’s strength. The 5% boost in the critical chance will improve his damage a lot.

After putting the ring on, everyone decided to go do their own things. Ye Yan will go to the coast to get the items for his quest, Hu Ling will stay in a VIP room of a restaurant waiting for the players that chose to apply for their guild, and the others will do a guild quest they got in the Adventurer’s Guild before they met today.

When Ye Yan was readying himself to leave, he got a system notification.