Chapter 13

Hiro checked his android bracelet intending to change his mode back to ring mode, and he was surprised when he saw a pile of notifications of messages from the same sender.

[You have 37 new messages from Liberty.]

“Huh? Just what did she do? Sending me this many messages… is she in danger?”

All messages sent by Liberty contained only one sentence, which made Hiro even more dumbfounded.

[Hiro, where are you?]

Hiro massaged his head after he finished opening all the messages Liberty sent containing the same sentence. He didn’t miss anything.

However, the last notification buried below made him leap with joy.

[Your item, [Garden Golem Weapon Card], has been sold to Natalie.]

[3,600LSC has been added to your balance.]

“3,600USD in just one night? Unbelievable! What easy money!”

Hiro checked his account information to see how many LSC he currently had.

[6,225LSC]

‘I can’t wait to buy a lot of stuff from Kira’s supermarket. He’ll probably think I won the lottery or something.’

“I should be able to use it since it’s listed as a legal cryptocurrency,” he happily muttered to himself.

Unable to stand it anymore, Hiro tried to contact one of the online customer services on LSO’s website to ask when he would be able to withdraw his LSC to a local bank account, which was mentioned to be ‘coming soon’ on the game guide.

However, before he could do so, a loud banging suddenly sounded on the door of his room.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

A fat woman with a friendly face was standing in front of his door. This woman was the owner of the apartment building he was living in, Aiko Nakagawa.

“Good evening, Hiro. Sorry to bother you this late at night. Have you had dinner?”

“Good evening, Mrs. Nakagawa. To what do I owe the pleasure?” Hiro politely asked with a smile. He was already swallowing his saliva, afraid of being billed for his incomplete room payment.

The woman smiled and handed him an aluminum lunch box.

“I prepared dinner for my husband, but he called me that he’ll be working late at his office tonight. Would you like to eat it instead before it goes bad?”

“Ah, sure. Thank you very much. I am so lucky to have you, Mrs. Nakagawa,” Hiro genuinely thanked.

He regretted suspecting the woman and thinking badly of her.

Free food for dinner is such a blessing, especially when it looks so delicious. He hadn’t eaten nutritious food in a long time.

After the angelic-hearted apartment owner left, Hiro immediately devoured the food he had just received. It was so, so much better than eating his instant noodles.

Ding!

[You have a new message.]

Liberty and the same question again. It was only when he saw the notification that he remembered he forgot to reply to the girl’s message.

However, because he was happy after receiving delicious nutritious food, he decided to reply to the girl’s message this time.

[I’m having dinner in my apartment, what’s up?]

[…]

[Your apartment? Where is it? I’m going there]

[I’m bored]

Hiro really couldn’t understand what the girl wanted, so he simply ignored the message again and went to visit Ninecent’s website one more time.

[Online Customer Service]

[Good evening, may I know the date for the direct transfer system update of LSC to the local bank center?]

[Customer Service: Typing…]

Hiro waited for a reply while holding his breath. He did not expect that the response from the customer service would be so fast.

[Good evening, NightFall. Our deepest apologies, but the information you’re requesting is currently unavailable. Please wait for the update later when the game launches. However, please be at ease. We’re currently working on it, and LSC will soon be a next-level cryptocurrency that everyone worldwide can accept.]

Hiro felt relieved after reading the written closing sentence. Without thinking twice, he asked the second question, the question of what would happen to the items he already had after the game launched.

And the answers provided made Hiro even more excited to become a privileged item hunter.

[All collected legendary items, all purchased items, all rare items, and LSC balance collected during CBT will stay in the owner’s inventory and can be claimed later in the official server.]

Ding!

Another incoming message from Liberty appeared.

[Are you ignoring me? (◣_◢) I just found an inaccessible cave, any idea how to get in?]

“…”

“A cave, huh?”

“…”

‘It’s definitely a hidden dungeon!’

“Legendary weapons and armor, here I come!”

Hiro immediately put on his full-dive VR device, laid down on his bed, and adjusted his body to the most comfortable position before entering the game.

[Connection Check]

[Synchronizing player information, please wait…]

[All set.]

[System linked.]

[Welcome to Last Shelter Online: Closed Beta Test Version.]

…

The atmosphere in the town square of Beginner Town was still as quiet as the last time Hiro played the game. There didn’t seem to be any new players even though hundreds of thousands of LSO VR equipment had been sold on the internet.

It seemed that they couldn’t access the CBT version, unlike Hiro, and who knows how many players had registered for the CBT version. He still couldn’t find the list as if their identities were kept secret by the system on purpose.

Hiro contacted Liberty via direct dial. It worked just like a phone in the real world, but he didn’t need to take out his cellphone or anything. He could hear Liberty’s voice inside his head as if he was telepathic.

“Hiro! Why did you just ignore my messages and disappear!? I thought you got eaten by a giant slime and died!”

Hiro frowned. Liberty shouted in a very loud voice.

“I was busy. Besides, the giant slimes in this game are really weak, I doubt they’ll be able to eat me alive.”

“What do you mean?”

He felt that arguing with her was pointless. How is she so clueless?

“I’m on my way to your location. Wait a bit.”

“Eh? But how-”

Hiro cut the call unilaterally after realizing that Liberty’s name was still in his party. Hiro had been logged out for so long because he had fallen asleep, yet the party was still there.

[09:45 AM Server Time]

Since she was still in the same party, Hiro could track Liberty’s whereabouts by looking at the information about the girl’s current location coordinates on the girl’s game avatar.

Still, the western part of Beginner Town indeed had its own strategic values ??for Hiro so far. Because of that, he decided to put that area into consideration before buying a regular plot.

Hiro ran toward the location coordinates, entering a forest with a fairly dense canopy, like a tropical rainforest. However, just a kilometer into the forest, Hiro heard a commotion from a distance further into the forest.

From the gaps between the trees, he saw a player in heavy-looking armor running out with a pale face while carrying a sword and shield in both hands.

Behind him, nine grizzly bear-like monsters were running amok, chasing after the man in armor.

“Run!” the player shouted from a distance.

[Level 13. Jacob. Knight. First-Year Student]

‘Another silly player, huh? Did he accidentally provoke those monsters?’