"Oh boy! It seems Barret could not stand his ground for more than sixty seconds. That means Ian gets to face off Harley in the finals. I know everyone's burning with excitement for our 9th season's long awaited finale, so stay tuned for next week and see you all in... Splash! Ou-" *bzzt* "On more news about the case of Kanera City's stolen merchandise, the Public Security Bureau managed to swiftly find and raid the warehouse where the robotic servants where located, as well as the gang known as the Galvanic Wolves were arrested in the same location. For more information on the field, we have the reporter Nina Foster. Nina, could you please provide more information-" *click*
"Nothing good on the Tv and it's almost closing time as well... Why can't I have the same amount of customers during the afternoon be the same as my morning shift's?" Soren murmured his complaints, as he stared at the 18:58 displayed on the clock, while staring at the empty shop in front of him and cleaning his counter and machinery. As he was engaged on finishing his work and preparing to close down the shop, three people suddenly entered the shop. Specifically, two men and a woman and Soren saw the blond man Logan amongst them, with the other man having dark red hair, dark brown eyes and a tired complexion, while the woman had black hair tied to a ponytail and a pair of round glasses, which covered her light hazelnut eyes.
"Sup chaperrino Sorerino! I'll have a-"
"Your head on a silver platter with a side of your intestines." Soren responded vitriolically to Logan's greeting, despite staring them with a casual expression, before following them and sitting on the same table as them.
"As usual... You shoot me down before I make my jokes..." Logan commented dejectedly, as he hanged his head low in a comical manner.
"Good to see you two in your usual mood. *groan* Think you can make me something good Soren? Those coffee coolers or whatever they're called may be convenient, but good lord their coffee tastes like sh*tty bean water and you can barely take two sips, before throwing that paper cup into the garbage can." The woman requested tiredly, as she was completely unfazed from Soren's and Logan's antics.
"Same pal. Just get me anything to get off this murky taste from my mouth." The man pleaded as well, as his turned pale from the sheer mention of the coffee he drank.
"Got your orders Pan and Roland. Do you need anything as well Roland?"
"No thanks. My batteries are still charged, like a freshly activated Mars Rover III's battery." Logan shook his hand, as he saw Soren going back into the counter and moving forward the conversation. "So, how's everyone's progress? How far did you guys managed to get through?"
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"It depends... Do you want to know about quests, stat totals or how well equipped we are?" The red-haired man, Roland, asked while leaning back on his chair.
"Anything's fine by me, but I'd like to know what magic everyone's picked up first." Pan asked, as she adjusted her glasses.
"Bless." "Earth." "Ice." Soren, Logan and Roland answered respectively to Pan's question.
"Good. At least we don't have overlapping elements. Mine's Water by the by. Now, what weapons have you guys picked up?"
"Sword." "Bow." "Axes." The three guys answered in the same order as before.
"Good... Wait, who's playing tank?"
"Either me or Soren. *sip* Hoo... Now that's some quality coffee." Roland answered calmly, as he grabbed and drank the espresso Soren brought to the table with a satisfied expression.
*sip* "I never said anything about being a tank. I only said that I'm interested in playing the specialist category they mentioned. Speaking of which, do you guys have info on that? Gimme the dets already." Soren explained, as he drank a latte, while giving a frappe to Pan and taking his own seat on the table.
"I don't know much either about the whole position thing. I'm still doing solo quests and haven't even managed to activate the Communications tab yet. Besides, from I've heard, the position thing only becomes relevant on dungeons and you need a Stat Total of 40 for them." Roland explained casually, before being followed by Pan. "I'm on the same boat as well. We don't even know how to begin with our tab, let alone think about positions and dungeons."
"C'mon guys... We've talked enough about things out of our control. Let's talk progress guys. How's everyone's doing?" Logan asked curiously, as he focused everyone's attention on easier topics to talk about, such as their progression and their current level of their skills. Surprisingly for Soren, he found out that everyone else chose blacksmithing and none of them had more than 13 Total Stat points and none of their passive proficiencies had hit level 5 or higher, since they could barely play for no more than a couple hours, because they had to wake up early for their own jobs. Not only that, but depending on the size of their starting village, the amount of players in them changes, with reports of starting villages housing over ten thousand players at times, while other barely could hold no more than ten. During this time, Soren kept completely quiet for the events that transpired and only answered with similar experiences as the others.
Time slowly passed and before they knew it, it was almost nine in the evening, before they decided to stop their conversation, so they could rest and prepare for tonight and leaving the Resting Ground. It didn't take long for Soren to arrive back into his own apartment and sitting on his couch, while closing the door behind him. Unfortunately for him, his rest was interrupted prematurely, since he heard a knocking on the door.
*sigh* 'Who the hell's knocking on my door this late? It hasn't even been a week since I've paid my rent.' Soren thought to himself, before slowly lifting himself up from the couch, so a to open the door. Upon opening it, he was met with an unfamiliar couple, a tall man with hazelnut-colored hair and piercing blue eyes and a woman with long hair and similar hair color, but dark brown eyes and their expressions had a piercing cold stare that nearly caused Soren to shiver.
"Umm... Can I... Help you with something...?" Soren asked nervously, as he received no response from the couple and was considering to close the door immediately and call Public Security, for a potential robbery.
"No, but maybe we can help you..." The man answered with a deep and almost seductive manner.
"Urgh... I have something to do, so how about we-"
"No." The man stopped Soren from closing the door, before forcefully entering the door with the woman and taking out a familiar item from his dark gray jacket.
"Wait... You two are..."
"Lucas Vascand and Nora Lerentis." "AT analyzer and technician and nurse respectively. Mister Harold sent us as per contract's orders." The man and woman spoke respectively, as the man put down the AT-0 helmet on the table.