BONUS Chapter 1/3
—–
As time passed, Sumeri and Nikolai said their goodbyes to Ren and Leonel. They live a few floors from Ren’s unit. They’re currently occupying Silvia’s room for free, which got Ren thinking of how nice it was to have a billionaire’s daughter as a friend.
Ren and Leonel stayed in the Restaurant for a few more minutes until Leonel couldn’t bear sitting on the chair any longer.
“Aren’t we going to enter the game and rack some money?”
“Why are you in such a hurry?” Ren asked, though his attention was on a particular lady in white.
“I need money, okay? I need to get back what I spent on this single dinner, or my nerves will tear me apart!”
Ren only shook his head. “You can go ahead if you want. I’ll stay here and drink some more.”
“Drink my ass. You and I both know that you can’t handle your liquor. You just wanted to look at your pretty classmate.”
Leonel wiggled his brows and flashed a suggestive wink in Ren’s way. “No wonder you’re so cold at Saya. Spring got early to you, I see.”
Ren rolled his eyes. “It’s not what you think?”
The corner of Leonel’s lips twitched. “Really? No wonder that you kept looking at her since she appeared.”
Then something struck Leonel, and his eyes widened. “Wait! Don’t tell me that you chose this place because she’s working here. No wonder you wanted to eat here, looking like that.”
Ren almost choked before he cleared his throat and stood to his feet. “Fine! Let’s go back,” he growled and hid his embarrassment behind an assertive attitude. Leonel might be idiotic, but he was perceptive to this kind of thing for some reason.
Leonel only laughed while looking at Ren’s reddened ears.
At the Restaurant’s entrance, Ren was baffled because he couldn’t feel Leonel’s presence. He looked behind him only to find his friend talking to Evie.
Ren let out a hard gasp, and his eyes stretched to the limits. He swore that if Leonel told Evie something ridiculous related to anything romance, he would slap him silly and kill him off in the game numerous times.
After a minute, Leonel skipped on his steps as he went to Ren while Evie resumed her everyday work.
Ren pulled Leonel to the side and asked with gnashing teeth. “Leo, what on earth did you tell her? I told you it’s not what you think! She might misunderstand!”
“Relax. I just ask where she lives so we can escort her back safe and sound since it’s already dark and all.”
Ren paused, and he blanked out. All his misgivings and discontent vanished in thin air. He then asked with a nonchalant but urgent tone. “So . . . what did she say?”
Leonel caught Ren’s eyes, and the former flexed and wiggled his eyebrows, repressing the gales of laughter that soon followed. “Ahahaha. Did you actually believe that? Of course, she didn’t tell me. You should have seen your face.”
Ren elbowed Leonel on the stomach before he turned and went back to his room. Leonel stalked him from behind while still laughing.
“I did say that we should escort her home since you’re his classmate and all. But she only looked me in the eyes with a blank expression and said with a dead voice, ‘I can manage,’ before she didn’t speak anymore.”
Leonel laughed again when he remembered it. “Man, she’s colder than you. Good Luck, Ren. I think you need it.”
Ren ignored Leonel while the latter said, laughing, “You both are like ice and have poker faces. Your kids would be colder like popsicles if ever.”
Ren slapped Leonel’s head before he growled again, “I told you it’s not like that!”
—-
Later that night, Ren and Leonel entered COVENANT to check if things had died down already. One week had already passed in the real world, and surely almost a month of playtime would calm things down.
And they were right. Players were getting used to PvP, and almost every guild had a base of operations in the game. So things have indeed calmed down a little.
Some who didn’t have enough money to hire an architect to design their guild could customize one using a feature available once they purchased a land and sent it to the developers.
There was only one problem. After the busy week, the guilds were now preparing for the Guild Wars, which happened every month.
But you were greatly mistaken if you thought Guild Wars only fought between guilds. It sometimes involves challenges, fights, or even games, depending on the Developer’s mood.
And in these wars, there were rules to follow, but the constant feature would always remain, and that was . . . Guilds were given a week to prepare for the war after the Developer announced the theme of the month.
And there were usually empty SLOTS by default on every guild. A SLOTS was like a backup that they could bring into their fight. This was usually filled by non-guild players or even an NPC until the required limit was met.
Usually, starting guilds only have around 1000 SLOTS as a backup. But this didn’t mean 1000 men. It meant the overall ATP of a player minus the equipment. More or less, the guilds could bring around two or three non-guild members with them or an NPC whose overall ATP was only 1000. It was why it was popular to employ someone with a high GS score but low ATP so they could bring in more none member players to fight with them.
And the more the guild gained Prestige Points, the more they could upgrade their SLOT. These Prestige Points could be used to convert into gil, exchange items, upgrade the Guild House or add a feature in the guild like a farm or a processing plant to earn extra income for the guild. It was popular back then.
But of course, if you have the money, you could already incorporate these features in the Blueprints of your Guild House before submitting them to the developers.
Though none of the guilds thought of it and instead incorporated it later in the game.
Leonel and Ren both decided to meet near Spring Breeze Hill. It was a beautiful place with a lot of scenes and scenery like flower meadows, forests, mountains, and lakes. A lot of rich Guilds bought lands there for that exact reason.
Their plan was to offer their services for the upcoming guild wars in exchange for real money. However, things didn’t go well with Ren and Leonel.
Despite having high ATP, the others only looked at them from head to toe before shooing them away, laughing that they didn’t need outsiders to win. Some wanted to recruit them into their guilds, and most ignored them. In contrast, others were still busy setting up their guild to even spare them a glance.
Leonel sighed as he looked over at the bright sky while lying on the grass, chewing a piece on his lips. “What should we do? No one wants to employ us.”
“It’s because we’re still nobodies,” Ren said calmly.
He was checking the items he auctioned and was in a very good mood. The [Spell Book] cost more than 2 000 000 gil. The [Phantom Revenger] auctioned up to 100 000 gil, and the [Basilisk Shield] was sold for almost 50 000.
Ah . . . it was a good day to be alive. He paid all his debt, and he could finally buy his unit in full with a lot of money to spare and invest.
Ren then stood tall while his gaze was far beyond the horizon.
He expected this outcome about the guild, but he was still hopeful that someone would hire them. But he guessed that not everyone would spend money right now after they had just bought land and erected a guild house.