Chapter 59

“NightFall!!!”

The arm wrestle spectators in Jack’s tavern had switched to Hiro’s side. After he defeated two other muscular men, the crowd began cheering for him.

They were more than entertained as they watched Hiro bring them one surprise after another. No matter how strong the opponent seemed, he always managed to defeat them all with ease.

It was as if he had a special cheat for it.

“What’s your secret, pal?”

“C’mon, tell us! We also wanna be strong like you!”

“Please make me your disciple!”

Hiro was still sitting on his wooden seat when several people began scrambling to talk to him, quickly draining the oxygen around.

Even though it was only a virtual world, the system created was very much like the real world. Because of this, Hiro quickly felt the temperature around him rise and he began to sweat.

A confident smirk was on his face. Hearing the questions thrown at him, he thought of something that could bring him a lot of profit.

“My secret is the land I bought.”

“Huh!?” The crowd looked at each other with confusion. Among them were the three men he defeated to the point their arms seemed broken and required a cleric’s aid.

Some of them quickly voiced their disbelief and accused him of making things up because he didn’t want to tell them, but Hiro didn’t respond to them.

“Regular plot area number W2801. There are a ton of monsters that can help you train and become strong like me.” He did grind there, so he wasn’t completely lying.

The crowd once again became noisy.

“W2801? Have you seen it?”

“I’ve walked past it before, but it looked really empty.”

“Yeah. Really empty.” The man speaking emphasized the word ‘really’.

“Can the monsters there really make us strong fast though?”

Hiro still had the same confident look.

“Of course. I can guarantee it. You can grind there to get a lot of EXP and level up fast like me. With a level above the average, you guys will be far stronger than most people. You can even get useful drop items.”

“Like this.”

Ding!

[Garden Golem Weapon Card has been shared]

The players who truly wanted to become strong like him had bowed a little to check the card Hiro was showing with the transparent panel in front of him.

“Whoa! +5% attack speed!?”

“My job class is rogue, I need that card!” a tall and slender man in the crowd exclaimed with bright eyes when he saw the card description

“Garden Golems. There are a ton of them in W2801. Not only that, but there are also other monsters with useful drops there.”

“Thanks a lot, pal!”

“I’m going there right now!”

“Hey, you guys wanna party up?”

“Great idea!”

“Hey, NightFall, can I add you as a friend?”

“Me too!”

“Yeah, I want to have a strong guy like you as a friend.”

Hiro didn’t expect that the people who previously berated him would suddenly curry favor with him. Before he could even say a word of response, his HUD system rang several times.

Ding!

Ding!

Ding!

…

[You have 11 friend requests]

He wasn’t interested in having many people on his friend list at this moment.

So far, he had mostly chosen to become his brother’s right hand every time he played games and had even been a little antisocial.

In most cases, his brother would create a guild or a squad and he would be invited to join.

Like his brother, he had always been able to conquer games. However, unlike Yuujin who was used to being in the spotlight, Hiro wasn’t.

Now that his brother who had always shone much brighter than him was no longer here, it seemed that the time for him to be in the spotlight and shine on his own had come.

Perhaps it was indeed time for him to be independent and build his own power.

“Confirm.”

Hiro was still sitting on his wooden seat when most of the players in the tavern had begun to scramble out to find the location of the plot he mentioned. They couldn’t wait to become strong.

Ding!

[You received a new message from Nyx]

[Nyx: Dear Adventurer! We are happy to announce that within 2 days, there will be a special big event that everyone level 20 and above can join. Please be online and ready at 9 PM server time. Don’t miss it!]

[Set a reminder for ‘Special Big Event’?]

Hiro read the content of the message to read more about the kind of event Nyx globally announced.

‘The Haunted Maze’.

The event was quite a major one. As if it was intentionally made to seem mysterious, the event rules weren’t explained at all, and Hiro didn’t comment on it either. It was indeed more interesting if it was explained only when it started.

Moreover, the event was held as an opening for a new feature that would be activated upon reaching world level 20.

The ‘Pet’ feature.

And with the opening of the feature, the main reward of the event was a legendary pet, [Juvenile Flying Black Dragon].

The only reward so far that was able to instantly tempt Hiro so much that he wouldn’t allow himself to miss the event.

Just its name was already cool. It definitely had promising additional stats, and he had to get it no matter what.

The in-game clock showed that it was already 23:45 PM server time. 15 minutes left until today’s daily quest would end and become inaccessible until the next hour.

Hiro felt that he had to stop gaming for a bit and log out to check his real body’s condition before something that could ruin his well-arranged plan happened.

[System Logout]

It was already afternoon outside. Despite it not snowing yet, the sun still didn’t seem very bright this winter.

Ding!

[New chat from Love Room]

[Anonymous: So, did you find any information about WynterRain?]

Hiro frowned when he opened the incoming message. Anonymous was always on standby to keep tabs on him through his android bracelet’s camera. He even knew that Hiro had logged out of the game, right on time.

He was too lazy to raise his head from the pillow, so he used the text-to-speech feature in his android bracelet.

[You: Not yet, it’s still the first day. I was busy with my progressive stats.]

[Anonymous: What for? Didn’t I tell you to look for information about WynterRain??]

[You: Are you stupid or what? If he were really the real WynterRain, I need to be stronger than the rest on the server to attract his attention. If he’s real, he’ll come to me on his own. He’s always been interested in strong players.]

Hiro suddenly felt extremely sleepy and tired.

[Anonymous: All right then. As long as you don’t forget your goal by playing that game.]

[You: My goal is to make as much money as I can to stay alive, pay my rent, eat good food, and go to university.]

There was no response for a while.

[Anonymous: Your main goal is WynterRain. Do you not care about your brother’s fate at all? What an ungrateful little brother.]

Hiro ignored Anonymous’s last message. His last sentence stabbed his chest and suffocated him.

Was that truly the case? Was he really an ungrateful little brother? Did he really not care about Yuujin’s fate at all?

Hiro looked up at the ceiling of his empty room while raising his right hand.

“Yuujin, I don’t think I know anything about you now.”

“Am I a bad brother?”