Second Life: Welcome to Gaia

Today when Ye Yan left his bedroom, he discovered that his friends were up already and talking in the living room.

"What happened for you guys to be up so early today?" He asked curiously. Even before Second Life's release, his friends were used to wake up late, except Tang Yunfan when he had to go to work.

"Did you forgot that we have stayed more than 12 hours in the game two days straight? If we didn't log off early today, we would be punished and become unable to log in to the game for more than 8 hours a day, during five days straight."

"Hum. I have been logging out of the game about 30 minutes before completing twelve hours of gaming every day, so I don't need to worry about it. But you have to remember to do some exercise too because staying lying down for so long isn't good for your health." Ye Yan was used to sleeping for 8 hours, but now that he started playing Second Life, he began to stay longer in bed.

"Yeah, we know. Now, go get some food and join us." Hu Ling said pointing to the kitchen like a king ordering this vassal.

Ye Yan got the fried dough and sour milk that his friends left for him and went to the living room while eating.

"We are discussing the job change. How long you will take to finish the quest? Some people already got their new classes. We need to hurry or we will be left behind by them." Qian Zhong looked like he wanted to go back to the game right away.

"What? How is that possible? They can't get to level 5 so fast. Do they found some kind of glitch?" Ye Yan couldn't believe that some players could have leveled up so fast like that.

"You should explain things better." Hu Ling slapped the back of Qian Zhong's head. It looks like the merchant class has an advantage that others don't have. In the merchant quest, the players need to earn money, and if the speed that you can get it is fast enough, the NPCs of the Chamber of Commerce will recognize their skills and sell them a certificate proving that they have the qualifications to become a merchant and enable them to exchange money for experience until they get to level 5. As the players that chose to be a merchant normally are people that don't play like the others and stay in the cities selling things and the like, it's not that unfair that they can get this shortcut." Hu Ling explained the situation. "But we can't relax because those game addicted are leveling fast now. They stayed almost 18 hours a day for three days straight, so they could level faster than others in the beginning, even with the punishment later"

"Maybe we should st..."

"No. We can't exchange our health for little advantage or it would be worse later on." Tang Yunfan cut off Qian Zhong right away. "We need to focus on leveling and job change as soon as possible. We have to recruit more people for our party and future guild too." Their plan is to form a strong guild so they could have an easier time making money in the game while enjoying the game.

"In 4 days the money exchange between the game and real-life will be opened and I will have enough money to pay for the guild registration, so we need to prepare." Hu Ling is the Mr. Money Bags of the party and will be the treasurer of their guild. He made a deal with his father that if he could administrate well the guild, he wouldn't be forced to work in the family's company now that he had graduated. He didn't like to work there and having to go twice a week while he was studying was already his limit. "Now I know why they didn't enable this function from the beginning, if they had, it would be even easier for the merchants." The players that chose this class probably would invest money in the game, so they could have an almost instant leveling now and reap huge profits later on because of the advantage that could get now.

Hu Ling looked like to have remembered something amusing and said to Ye Yan that has finally stopped eating to take a breath. "Oh right, today I got to recruit some people to join our party. Do you remember the Xiao brothers?"

"How could he not remember? The oldest of them kept following Third Brother everywhere, so much that we even thought that he wanted to be more than friends with him, at least until we found out that he just wanted Ye Yan to teach him how to fight. Hahaha." Tang Yunfan said laughing.

"They will join us? Great. And is their sister playing too? I remember that Second Brother had a crush on her." Ye Yan is happy that their party is starting to take form. He is used to be the leader of their group but he is not a really social person, so the responsibility of invite others was put most on Hu Ling that is a social butterfly.

"Yeah, she is." Hu Ling said while laughing so much that tears come out of his eyes. "She will the healer of our party."

"What's wrong?" Ye Yan couldn't understand his friend's reaction.

"She chose to be a dwarf. From a cute girl, she became a bearded woman. It was so funny when Second Brother saw her that I can't help but laugh only by remembering that."

"Cough." Ye Yan disguised his laugh. "Which classes the Xiao brothers have chosen?"

"The older of them is a fucking Dragonborn! I didn't even know it was an option because I chose the half-orc and didn't even look at the other race's subtypes. His in-game name is Dovakin and he chose to be a mage. Xiao Zhan's in-game name is I love Skooma, he is a werecat and will be our party's thief. And Xiao Feng's in-game name is Mad Dog, he is a wolfman and wants to be a swordsman. Now we will need only one more healer and a dps." Tang Yunfan was happy that their party is almost complete. A standard party for dungeon normally has 10 players.

"Good. When everyone gets to level 5, we can start challenging dungeons. It's the best way for us to get good equipment and make some money." Ye Yan wants to job change fast so they can really start the game. Until now everything was more like a tutorial, except the job change part.

"Finally! I need to make some money, I have almost run out of it." Tang Yunfan started to rub his hands in excitement.

"I will try to recruit two more people, but it has to be two sexy ladies to beautify our party this time because the only woman in the team now, hurt the eye just by looking at her." Hu Ling said.

"I will help to recruit. Maybe my puppy form can be useful." Qian Zhong said smiling. The puppy form really suited him, because now if he was in his animal form, he would be shaking his tail.

They continued to talk about the game and each one started to do their things later.

.....

During his walking to Tuvas, the Village that asked for help, Ye Yan kept killing the monsters on the way. They were between levels 1 to 4 and gave him a good amount of experience, which he needs so much now. Currently, he has 420 exp of the 3,840 that he needs.

The village is large and old, but the houses are well-preserved e resistant. Very few people were walking on the streets and most of them looked like they just left a tavern because the smell of liquor can be felt from afar. The village is at risk but these people drank so much that they can't even walk straight, even more, hold a weapon.

"Yo beggar! Hey, I'm calling you. Go away! We don't have money here, we are all fucked up already." The drunkard shooed Ye Yan away and started talking to anyone in particular. "Those devils will come back soon and I prefer to be too drunk to see what will happen. And maybe I will be drunk enough to not feel pain when I die. hehe."

He never imagined that he would be looked down on by a drunkard. He needs to get new clothes for walking soon or it may interfere with him getting quests. He changed his equipment and looked much better, like a soldier with simples clothes, a wooden piece of armor, and leather shoes.

"Commander Xia sent me here to help." He decided to talk to him.

"Oh! So you were in disguise so the devils wouldn't know about you. Smart!" He is speaking fluently for a drunkard, but if there are even studies that say people can improve their ability to speak in foreign languages more fluently under the effect of a glass of wine[1], why this one can't speak better too?

"Please tell me what's happening in this village." Ye Yan only saw these drunk people in the streets, the sobers were already gone long ago, so he can't help but ask him.

"On a night last month, those devils appeared in our village and started to kidnap people. We tried to resist at first but they have the ability to summon others and if even one is too strong for us to defeat, confront many are suicide. So we tried to hide from them and they soon were gone, but the relief didn't take long because they came back one week later, and that's when we send the letter asking for help. There is one week since then, so they should come back again today or tomorrow. And seeing that you are alone, I think you should try to hide if you want to survive."

"What about you? Don't you want to survive?"

"Me? I don't have anyone anymore. They took my wife and child last week and I can't do anything about it but drunk until I drop dead." The drunkard sounded depressed.

"Don't you know anything about what happened to them?"

"No. They came and go with the wind. There is no way for me to know where those devils took my family." Suddenly the drunkard looked at Ye Yan like he just had an idea. "You were sent from the city so you should be strong. Can you look for them? Please! You are my only hope now."

"Ok. I will do it, but... what if they are already dead?" Even if it is an NPC, talk about the probability that his family was killed made him uncomfortable.

"They were taken by devils, I don't have much hope already. If they are alive, I will be the happier man alive, but if not, I want revenge for them. Please help me kill those devils. I don't look like it but I have money and can pay for your services."

System: 'The unknown drunkard has a quest for you. Do you will accept it?"

"Don't worry, I will help you."

"Thank you! You can find me in that tavern later. And I will try not drunk myself to death before you came back with news about my family." The man staggered away after speaking.

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Quest: [The last hope of a hopeless man]

Description: Even a man without hope can wish for a miracle.

Objective: Kill the Devil and look for the drunkard's family whereabout.

Requirement level: 4

Difficult: A

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As it is still early for the devils to appear and the village is desert now, Ye Yan decided to look outside the village for monsters so he could farm some experience until before dusk.

[1] That's true! At least about the research of the effects of alcohol on speaking fluently. Hard to believe, but it's true. Maybe the researchers want an excuse to drink a little. Who knows?