“DAMN IT! I LOST SO MANY LEVELS AND STUFF BECAUSE OF SOMETHING SO DUMB?”
James continued swearing out loud, uncaring of the fact he was already back in real life as the pod eased its hold on his body.
“Grrrr… not only did I lose a shit-ton of loot and levels, I’m also probably not going to be able to complete the quest anymore.”
He continued stomping around the house raging about the ridiculousness of his death for a long while before flopping on his coach.
‘… One full day before I can get back into the game, what should I do to fill up time till then…’
*RING RING* *RINGGG*
“Hey James, just to remind you we are saving a seat for you in church this week as well! Try not to come late this time, see you in a bit!”
James picked up the phone only to be delivered marching orders… by Leena’s mom who didn’t even give him a chance to respond before she hung up.
‘… Well I guess there’s that. Might as well head over and catch up on some sleep.’
Booking a cab with a few taps on his smartphone, James headed off to wash up and prepared to leave.
“Zzz… Oompf?”
James blinked his eyes blearily and looked around to find what disturbed his rest only to see his girlfriend “subtly” nudging him in the ribs and gesturing over at her mom.
‘Oh shit. I think she caught my napping… Better just act innocent and attentive.’
“… rely not on your efforts, let go and let God. Sometimes all you have to do is rest in His finished work…”
Wiping off the drool rolling down the side of his face subtly, James showed a face of intense concentration… for about five minutes before his head begun to droop onto Leena’s shoulder.
…
“Psst, pastor is ending his sermon already. Dude. Ew did you just drool all over my hair.”
Leena complained and borrowed James’ shirt sleeve to wipe her hair off.
“Huh? Wha? Oh. Oops? So… what do you want to do after this?”
“Let’s grab a meal and go to your place to chill out! I want to watch you play! Can’t wait till my pod arrives, the company salesperson said it should be arriving within the next three days!”
“Can’t. I died remember?”
James answered with a disgruntled face which was quickly noticed by Leena.
“Oh yea… How about let’s just snuggle and play some mindless mob smashing game like Dynamic Warriors or something then?”
Leena nuzzled up to him affectionately, an action which brought a tiny smile onto James’ face as he was reminded why Leena is such a great girlfriend and his best friend at the same time. It really rocks to have a gamer girlfriend!
“Ngghh.. Where are you going?”
James mumbled incoherently as he rolled over to blink blearily at Leena’s silhouette dressing up.
“It’s Monday silly, I have to go to work unlike you lucky bum! … Didn’t you say you needed to get up to rush off to see if you can still complete your quest though?”
Shooting upright at her response, James checked his phone time and saw the re-spawn countdown timer he set was already ticking down to thirteen minutes.
Hurriedly getting ready and dropping Leena a quick farewell kiss as she left, James quickly jumped back into pod and let it close over him.
James blinked and was greeted with darkness again as he entered the game, with only a blue window visible.
Re-spawn Countdown
Time Left: 00:00:07
Impatiently waiting as the seconds ticked away, James blocked out the rather disturbing sensation of having no physical body and feelings at all.
‘Wonder if this is how sensory deprivation feels lik-‘
A sudden blinking light filled his vision and he felt an immense pulling sensation and the world twisted around him…
*Thump*
“Ow.”
Landing face-first with a soft thump on the grassy ground, Feng pulled himself up to look around himself expecting to see the grassy plains bordering the Black Forest… Only to notice something odd as he heard and saw people passing by and buildings surrounding his location.
…
“I’m back in Tyward’s Town Square?”
Feng said disbelievingly as the overwhelming evidence stared him in the face.
“… YOU MEAN ALL I HAD TO DO WAS TO DIE?”
A heartbeat later, Feng exclaimed aloud in frustration, causing the folk nearby to look at him funnily and shy away muttering about crazy Travelers.
Feng sighed and decided to get a move on having less than two hours left, taking off at a swift lope, he quickly bypassed the church and made his way to the library, noting the signs of work completed on the exterior as well as the small square outside.
Opening the doors to the library, Feng slipped in and saw a dozen gazes fix on his entrance belonging largely to players from his quick scan before a blur rammed into him and knocked him onto the ground.
“FENG! I was so worried!”
A teary-eyed Rania looked up at him with her cat ears folded down cutely and clutched on to him tightly sobbing only to calm after much reassuring (petting).
“It’s alright. I’m back and fine.”
Leaping off Feng’s body after she came to her senses and realized their position, Rania blushed brightly and avoided his eyes and quickly pulling him to the private rooms in the back away from the curious players.
After fully updating Rania on what happened and the reason for his delay… with the exception of his accidental death, Feng watched as Rania examined the teleport stone carefully before speaking up.
“Well. It’s a teleport stone. Looks like a one-use. Other than that, I have no clue but an enchanter might be able to interpret the runes and tell you more.”
Nodding at her words, Feng retrieved the teleport stone and handed over the monster core for her to examine only for Rania to take a single glance and reply instantly.
“It’s a monster core… You know stuff that grows inside strong monsters? Dad said something about mana crystals or some such before but to me they are just useful for cultivation and equipment enchanting.”
“Alright, thanks Rania. Can I check on the progress of the plan and if we are ready to open the library by tomorrow?”
“OH! Your plan was a great success, so many Travelers agreed to help out and we got the library cleaned up two days ago and have been working with the merchants sent by Steele to set up what you discussed with the merchants. We are ready at any time and the Travelers are only doing the final refinements for the merchants.”
Hearing that his plan has mostly come together, Feng rubbed his hands together gleefully as a shark-like grin spread across his face and decided to initiate the final part of his plan.
“Rania, we’ll be opening the library tomorrow, can you contact Steele and tell him to get his men to spread the word about it and hire some ringers to come early on the morn. If possible, ask the merchants to launch with an opening discount and get the Travelers to help them set it up like a small festival. I’ll be going to set up the final piece for tomorrow’s launch.”
Rania nodded enthusiastically only to grow worried when she heard that Feng was leaving alone and clutched on to his cloak tightly questioning him frantically.
“Where are you heading to? What if you get ambushed again? It’s not safe, why don’t you just get one of the Travelers to do it for you instead?”
“Don’t worry. The enemy probably doesn’t know I’m back and I’ll be careful. This work can only be done by myself so I’ll have to go. I’ll see you tomorrow!”
Scratching behind Rania’s ears lightly as he replied, Feng felt her grip slacken slightly and quickly made his escape.
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“… Wait!”
Rania made a grab at Feng only him to deftly slip past and out of the door and stealthily vanishing into the crowd.
Curious townsfolk passing by the square outside the library noticed that the previously quiet and empty square was mysteriously filled with odd-looking merchant stalls overnight… on closer examination; it is revealed that they were previously bookshelves! Some has been sawn into small racks; others have been flipped horizontally and sawn apart to make smaller bins and containers.
Unseen to Tyward citizens, the merchants came previously to claim their preferred display types and the group of Travelers directed by Rania had moved them out from the storage rooms to the outside square while the merchants brought their goods and put them on display.
A few townsfolk was standing around seemingly looking around and talking to all the merchants displaying their goods and gradually more people gathered to check out what these people are interested in… The crowd gradually grew through the day aided by the word spread and people slowly streaming in from the nearby crowded cathedral square.
Time soon drew closer to the appointed opening time of noon, but Feng was still nowhere in sight. Steele had also arrived to attend the proceedings and was pleasantly surprised by the success of the merchants who were doing a booming trade as the normal crowds gathered around the church slowly drifted towards the growing hubbub in the library square.
Rania stood outside the library, peering around anxiously looking for signs of Feng as she had no clue how to start the opening and there was supposed to be a speech that everyone was eagerly anticipating after the sly words spread by the merchants at the square to all their customers.
Luckily, Rania soon spotted Feng walking in… only with a blonde girl in tow and pulling a small covered cart behind him while the girl was also toting a medium-sized pack.
She made a beeline to Feng, but to her surprise, he avoided her and quickly waved over some of Travelers nearby and passed them the cart and pack with some instructions and watching them enter the library to carry out his instructions before finally turning her attention to her.
Feng was accosted by a pouting and teary-eyed Rania, cutting an impossibly cute figure with her twitching ears as she expressed worry about Feng that he might have gotten kidnapped or something again with his delay.
Feng simply patted her head reassuringly and told her that it was time and walked up to the front of the library where a large crowd had been slowly gathering.
Waving at the Travelers to help gather the crowd, Feng stood silently on top of the small makeshift “stage” which was simply a table dragged out of the library placed next to the its entrance.
‘… Damn. I just realized I forgot to prepare the speech… Oh well, time to wing it.’
Feng noted the gathered crowd with at least a hundred of NPCs and players combined all staring at him with expectant gazes before waving at them simply and projecting his voice hoping it will be loud enough to reach the entire gathering.
“Thank you for gathering here today, ladies and gentlemen! As many of you may know by now, today we are gathered to re-open our beautiful city’s library which has sadly fell into disuse over the years. However, thanks to the Travelers’ assistance and support from the Merchant Guild and all the merchants here, we are happy to announce that the Library will be officially re-opening from this day forth for all.”
Pausing for a moment for a few scattered cheers and to maximize the impact of his words, Feng smiled as he saw people wondering if that was all, building up their curiosity before continuing his speech.
“However, that’s not all… we are happy to announce that the first floor of the library will now be free and open to all… For adventurers and travelers, you will be pleased to know that books offering basics skills are also in the very same first floor!”
Feng waited for a few moments for the resounding whoops and cheers from the players accompanied by polite claps from the general population to die away before spreading his hands wide and springing his next surprise on the NPCs who looked somewhat disappointed thus far.
“Of course, most of you might be wondering how does the library have anything to do with you, after all, we common folk hardly get the chance to learn to write and read… Unless we manage to save up the exorbitant fees to pay the priests or through great fortune scrape together some learning for ourselves.”
With another small pause to allow mutterings of agreement between the townspeople, Feng shook his head, sighing as though empathizing with them before he continued speaking.
“As one of the fortunate few, I believe that basic reading and writing skill should not be limited to only the nobles or the wealthy! So together with Rania, we have decided to offer free writing and reading classes for all!”
Putting his hands quickly in a stop motion as loud cheers erupted from the common folk excited by this opportunity especially those with children, Feng gestured at them to quieten down and said.
“Not just that, but we believe knowledge is not limited to only books and as a library promoting the exchange of knowledge, we intend to host classes across a wide spectrum of skills. Anybody will welcome to teach at the library and of course, as teachers should be compensated for their time and hard-earned skilled, students will be required to pay a small fee.
However, we understand that many Travelers have only just arrived and have little in the way of money, hence we have decided that Travelers can waive this fee by contributing their time to help in classes teaching basic reading and writing skills as long as they are qualified or through other tasks.”
Towards the tail end of his speech, Feng was almost completely drowned out by the loud cheering and applause by all the gathered people as they excitedly chattered with each other about the unexpected opportunities available.
After nearly a minute of their excited cheering, Feng took a step forward and waved at them all to calm down and regained their attention as the excited shouts of volunteers for teaching jobs as well as those interested in signing up for reading and writing classes for themselves or their children slowly died down, eagerly anticipating further good news from him.
“I’m also pleased to announce that besides the re-opening of the library, with the help of Alicia, resident Alchemist and forgotten knowledge from the library archives, we have managed to develop a new line of healing potions effective on simple illnesses and injuries that costs merely thirty coppers!
We hope that this new product will enable you to no longer worry about having to save up your silvers to get healing spells for your family or you and enable everyone to be as healthy and happy! And… to celebrate the occasion just for today we will be selling these potions at twenty coppers only while stocks last so tell your friends and family to come quickly!”
As he spoke, Feng gestured widely and finished off by jumping off the stage and opens the library door with a flourish and gestured towards the just set-up booth within the library manned by Alicia with filled with vials and vials of the mentioned healing potion.
The entire crowd stood still for a moment to digest his words before a mad rush as everyone hurried over to purchase a health potion at the ridiculously affordable price, with the players interested in the easy health regeneration to aid their hunting and the NPCs interested in the cheap replacement to the increasingly expensive healing spells even for common sicknesses and small injuries.
AN: Finally, the grand reveal of Feng's plans after so many chapters! Hope you guys enjoy the story thus far, once again reviews and feedback (particularly if I made any mistakes) will be greatly appreciated! Thanks christon for your review!