Prologue
I have nothing left to live for. I have nothing left to die for.
My life slowly dripping away, as everything slowly fades away.
Inside the Great Society Rehabilitation Center a lone pale faced girl; void of emotions continues to sit and stare at the wall.
The wall sickening clean, continues to provide the feelings of dread as just as it provides protection form the world, it isolates one's self from the world.
Suddenly the only door to the room flings open to reveal a young women with a body most men and women alike desire.
The woman named Cha Eunhee smiled at the girl and proceeded to ask:
“Seoyoon, have you eaten your dinner?”
A stare to the plain white table reveals a half eaten dish that consisted of a piece of steak and some vegetables.
“Seriously....”
A sorrowful look upon Cha Eunhee's eyes pierced the hollow room. Moving along, Cha Eunhee once more asked for the thousandth time,”Seoyoon, will you start talking to me?”.
A pause echoed throughout the room as Cha Eunhee waited for a respond.
Sigh
This isn't working.
I have to somehow help her recover.
Medicine, hypnosis and almost all other treatment were useless.
If only we had another way....wait wasn't there an extremely Virtual game released recently.
What was it called....Royal Road I think. A second start, for those who society cannot treat.....
Maybe, just maybe this time. The cost isn't going to be a problem, her father paid a lot of money on other seemly useless “treatments”.
Well it’s going to take at least a couple days for them to install a capsule in this room.
Deep in thought, Cha Eunhee started mumbling to herself as Seoyoon continued to sit and stare at her.
Why do you....Why do you still care for me. It would have been much easier for you to give up now.
“Anyway Seoyoon, I'm going to start a new treatment for you. It's a game called Royal Road. Ask me if you have any questions about it”.
Seoyoon sat there blank as Cha Eunhee continued to talk to her.
***
A few days later a capsule was installed in the same room. The men continued to waste time, to at least spend one more second in the presence of one exceedingly beautiful girl.
Annoyed, Cha Eunhee went up to one of the men and whispered in his ear “If you continue to waste time I'm going to hang you by your balls”.
Instinctively, the man automatically went to protect his manhood from any possible danger. With cold sweat running down his spine the man said, “Yes ma’am, I'm sorry for any inconveniences”.
As all of this proceeded, Seoyoon sat there, on her standard chair watching the capsule with interest for a while with her emotionless face.
A voice than slowly called her conscience out of the white void. Words such as “capsule” and “Royal Road” echoed in Seoyoon's head until the clear words “get in” caused her to proceed into the capsule.
Once in, Cha Eunhee said, “Remember Seoyoon, you have to stay in the city your in for at least a month in game or a week in this world”.
Cha Eunhee then closed the closed the capsule with the words “Good luck, I hope you find yourself again”.
The world around Seoyoon soon became white with the words and a text box appeared in front of her.
Connect to Royal RoadYes | No
Seoyoon nodded.
End of Prologue
Chapter 1
After Seoyoon nodded, the following words appeared to her.
The scan on your iris and vein has determined that you are an unregistered user. Do you want to create a new account?
“...”
Seoyoon once more nodded.
The name of your avatar has been set to “Seoyoon” on request. Would you like to change it?
Seoyoon stood there silently. What did it mean by the name of her avatar being already set. Seoyoon shook her head once. It did not matter what she was called.
Your gender has been selected as female on request from male, female or neutral. Do you wish to change this?
“...”
Seoyoon shook her head once.
Royal Road has forty-nine races. You may select your race from the primary twenty-nine. Your race has been selected as “human” on request. Would you like to change this?.
Pondering Seoyoon wondered if Cha Eunhee entered this for her. It did not matter. Seoyoon shook her head once more.
You may alter your appearance.
Seoyoon stared blankly and continued staring for a minute. A message popped out suddenly
Due to the user's inability to response to the question, the avatar's appearance was automatically set to the user's appearance.
Please select a city and Kingdom you want to start in.
“...”
Once more Seoyoon stared at the message.
Due to the user's inability to response to the question, the city and kingdom will be the mostly visited city in the past month. The Citadel of Aresbourg, Mostilent has been selected as the starting kingdom.
Welcome to Royal Road.
A flash of light consumed Seoyoon and around her was a city full of life.
***
Cha Eunhee stood there looking at Seoyoon's face as she went in the capsule. As her doctor whom requested the capsule in the first place, Cha Eunhee could look at the progress Seoyoon did in Royal Road. As per request to Unicorn Corps, Cha Eunhee could pre-set the avatar as Seoyoon was unable to.
Still worried, Cha Eunhee immediately checked the avatar creation process and hoped for an early result. Slight disappointment filled her. Seoyoon was still unable to talk even with an AI asking questions.
“Never-mind the early results, the overall results are the most important”
Cha Eunhee took one last look at Seoyoon and proceeded to head to work.
“I hope this works, no this must work”.
The door slit open and Cha Eunhee walked to her work station.
***
Seoyoon stood there in the middle of a crowd silent.
“...”
Checking on her body, she opened and closed her hand and walked.
Who's that”
“Is that a user?”
“It has to be, she appeared just there in the middle of the road”
“That means she's a user right?”
“Yeah but her avatar.... It’s beautiful”
Users continued to chatter around Seoyoon as she walked straight ahead.
The way they're looking at me, are they talking about me?
No, that's impossible. No one loves me anyway.
Now where should I go…
I guess I should just keep going forward. Unni did say that I can't get out of this city for a month.
Seoyoon continued to walk and users slowly gathered and followed her.
“The way she's walking, maybe she knows what to do”
“If I help her maybe she will be friends with me”
The male users stalking Seoyoon looked at each other. Eyes like a predator locked onto Seoyoon as she innocently continued on her path.
Meanwhile the some female users looking at the commotion stared at both the beautiful new user and the gathering males gave looks of disgust.
“She must have changed her avatar's appearance a lot”
“Yeah, it’s impossible to have those looks in reality”
“She must have done so to have the attention of men”
“That's disgusting”
“Yeah I know”
“We should follow her. Naturally she'll give any item those men gave her to us”
Upon hearing this, a certain female looked at the women talking and Seoyoon.
“I have a bad feeling about this. I should follow them just in case”
The female user covered herself under a cloak and slowly followed the pack of users.
***
A hour later, Seoyoon continued to walk around the city grabbing the attention of both men and women.
The small crowd of around ten users slowly increased to fifty and then in the hundred. Noticing the increased of people around her Seoyoon then sprinted away.
Who are those people.
This doesn't look good for me. I should get away.
Upon running, the majority of the male users were startled. Was it their fault that this goddess ran away?
Noticing this some male users had the thought “Now. This is the best chance.” and started towards her. The female users group noticed this and followed behind seeking some money and perhaps some items.
“Hmm.....now what should I do now. This is getting out of control quickly”
The cloaked user followed in silent, watching for any signs of danger for Seoyoon.
Seoyoon continued to run. She had found a slip between the walls that led into an alleyway and onto another street. The majority of the male users, not used to prolonged running slowly dropped out in chasing Seoyoon. Behind them were the female group which faired no differently.
Some of them seem to have stopped.
I should continue to run at this pace.
What is this green bar that's flashing.
It's getting harder to run now.
I should turn to the right now, it should lead me elsewhere.
Having difficulty catching her breath, Seoyoon continued to run at the same pace and turned the right corner. The alleyway was slightly smaller than expected but the exit seemed to be bigger.
At the exit however as a giant enclosed area.
With wide eyes Seoyoon stared at the tall wall that blocked her escape. It was more than ten meters tall which made it impossible to climb.
“She went this way”
With the sound of voices Seoyoon turned around to see the faces of 3 men and 5 women. All almost out of breath. A cloaked person was hidden away from sight in the alleyway she just went through.
This is bad
I have to get away
But the exit has been blocked off.
I should see what will happen first
With great difficulty, a slightly tall man with short brown hair approached Seoyoon and said, “You seem to be lost, will you tell us where you are going”.
“Hey no fair, I saw her first”
“No it was me”
“What are you talking about, it was me first”
“You wanna die or what”
The three men argued on who would talk to Seoyoon first and possibly who will befriend her. As they continued to bladder on the five women seem to have recovered enough to speak.
“Hey you three what the hell are you doing”
The first to speak was a tall woman with hot pink hair tide up in a ponytail. Her armour revealed her thighs and she had a big long stick on her. Two of the women had had bows on their back while another had an unnecessarily large bastard sword. The final woman had nothing but similar cloths to what Seoyoon was wearing.
The three men turned around and noticed the five women behind them. They stared at them for a moment and then looked back at Seoyoon.
“Anyway I was the first to speak so get in line you two” The tall man said towards the other two men.
“What are you talking about? It doesn't matter if you talked to her first. I was the first one to see her.”, the short but slightly handsome and thin man said.
“Are you two deaf, I said it was me who saw her”, retorted the muscular man.
“SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO ME YOU ASSH***S!”
The angry woman's voice resounded around the area.
“SHUT UP ABOUT WHO'S GOING TO FLIRT WITH THAT GIRL AND PAY ATTENTION TO ME!”
The four other girls stood silently while the three men watched her shocked.
“NOW GIVE ME YOUR ITEMS AND GET LOST OR I'LL KILL YOU ALL”
As the 8 people stared at each other, Seoyoon just stared at them.
What are these people doing? Weren't they in the same group.
And what about the one under the cloak?
What should I do now?
Just have to wait and see what will happen.
As soon as Seoyoon thought this, one of the men the muscular one unsheathed his sword and pointed at the women.
“If you threaten to kill us, than you must be prepared to get killed yourself”
After this statement the two other men simultaneously unsheathe their swords and prepared for an attack from the archers and the swordswomen.
The chattering of the city around them continued to sweep into the ears of everyone. Birds chirped and sang as the two groups faced each other waiting for someone to make the first move. To take the blame.
Suddenly, an arrow flew from one of the women's bows and into the leg of the short man followed by a short scream and a curse. The tall man immediately charged towards the other archer the moment the other took the first shot.
I can't let the other one fire as well
His sword plunged into the neck of the shocked archer and out again preparing for another attack. The female swordswoman took her bastard sword up in the air and smashed it to the ground where the tall man was a second ago.
Panicking the unarmed woman, ran towards the other man thinking that he would help her. A quick sharp pain in her abdomen spread across her body and she disappeared in a grey flash. Pulling the arrow out of his leg, the short man charged like a bull towards the remaining archer.
“Fireball”
A single ball of fire few across the battlefield and hit the short man in the face. Trying to stop the pain from spreading the short man fell in the ground met with a bastard sword to his body. He died and disappeared leaving the tall man along with the muscular man facing the archer, swordswoman and mage.
Like a child seeing a new toy Seoyoon looked at the battle with interest. Observing the flow of the battle calmly and waiting for the cloaked person to their move.
The swordswoman swung her sword horizontally towards the two men attempting to buy some time as the archer quickly fired arrows to trap the two men. The mage then was charging up her spell again making the fireball bigger than before.
“Damn it”
The muscular man rolled to dodge the swing of the sword and tried to stop the mage from casting her spell.
As the man was five steps from the mage, an arrow flew and hit the man's shoulder. Stunned for a moment, the man could not dodge the incoming fireball that was going to be released.
Take this, Fireball”
Two large fireballs flew and hit the man twice in the body causing him to die. Noticing he was now alone against three people the tall man said, “Alright, alright I surrender” dropping his sword and putting his hands up.
Looking discontent on how it ended, the man looked at the three women and sighed. The next moment ended with an arrow to his face which spilled blood all over the place as he dropped on the floor and died.
“...”
Seoyoon looked blankly at the place the man died and focused on the sword.
That sword. It’s too small for my preferences.
That sword that woman is holding seems better to use.
With a wide twisted smile on her face, the mage looked at Seoyoon and said, “Well your knights in shining armour have died. Now what will you do?”
Seoyoon stared back at the mage emotionlessly.
Annoyed by the lack of response, the mage taunted Seoyoon “Well you B***h, hurry up and beg for your life now”.
The two behind her snickered at her comment.
Seoyoon stared at the three and the cloaked person at the alleyway.
It seems that cloaked person isn't going to do anything.
I have to kill the three then.
Seoyoon walked forwards and picked up the sword the tall man left behind when he died. As she looked at it a window popped up in front of her.
Worn-out Iron sword: Durability: 13/20 Damage: 8-10
A iron sword that has seen better days.
Requirements: None
Effects: +1 Strength
The three women almost burst out laughing. A newbie trying to fight a group of three people including a mage and an archer. Impossible. Only someone insane would try it.
Seoyoon continued to stare at the sword and swung a down once.
This sword is a bit light.
It should be enough to take these three down
Seoyoon, ignorant of the mechanics of the game believed that a worn out sword as enough to defeat the opponents in front of her.
The three women now started to burst out in laughter.
“Who does this crazy b**** think she is. A hero fighting evil?”
“Are you sure that she doesn't believe that”
“This is a waste of time just watching her”
Seoyoon quickly ran towards the three, her footsteps drowned out by the laughter. Her sword without hesitation went straight through the mage's heart.
Shocked of what happened, the other two looked stunned at the sight of Seoyoon mercilessly stabbing a blade inside of someone.
A fatal hit!
- You have levelled up
- You have levelled up
- You have killed a player.
- Fame has been decreased by 50
A grey flash appeared where the mage was and standing there was Seoyoon looking at the other two with her cold emotionless eyes.
Seoyoon took a second to look at the two stunned women who had no idea what just happened nor what to do in such a situation.
I have to take down one of them quickly now.
But which one who I kill next?
The archer seems to be the best choice.
Seoyoon took a quick step in towards the archer and slashed towards her. The strike narrowly missed and left a large cut on the armour of the archer.
Noticing danger the archer retreated a couple of steps and strung her bow. The female swordswoman with a large shout swung at Seoyoon vertically.
Seoyoon quickly side-stepped the blow and stabbed at the swordswoman's wrist cutting it open.
Bleeding and unable to hold her sword, The female swords-woman took a couple steps back waiting for her comrade to support her.
Soon enough three arrows flew at Seoyoon, aimed at her.
Jumping out of the way, only one arrow managed to grazed her.
At this distance I should....
Seoyoon did what none other would do in almost any kind of situation. She threw her sword at an enemy.
Not expecting such an action and in the middle of stringing her next arrow, the archer was unable to dodge the blade as it plunged into her chest. Coughing out blood, the archer silently collapsed and died.
- You have levelled up
- You have killed a player.
- Fame has been decreased by 50
The last remaining enemy, the female swordswoman now armless fell onto the ground shaking with terror.
“Wha…What are you”
Seoyoon looked into the pitiful person's eyes filled with fear of what to come next. Seoyoon then walked towards to the dropped bastard sword and grabbed the hilt.
“No...what are you goin..”
Seoyoon once more stared at the sword and soon enough the stats of the blade appeared before her.
Sharp Bastard sword: Durability: 28/30 Damage: 20-25
This bastard sword has been made with extreme sharpness.
Requirements: Level 3
Effects: +5 Strength +1 Dexterity
Acknowledging the ability of the blade, Seoyoon looked towards the frightened woman and started to walk towards her blade in hand.
“No..please don't...I beg you”
Seoyoon continued to walk until she was right above the woman, preparing an attack.
You beg for your life but you willingly take the life of others.
It's right for me to kill you.
But it still seems wrong.
That doesn't matter now, there's an enemy that you must defeat no kill.
But still....
It doesn't matter now, you already killed the other two, what's more to that pile.
I know...
Lifting up the blade high up in the sky, Seoyoon prepared to deal the final strike.
With guilt of what she did and now will do once more, Seoyoon closed her eyes and let the blade fly towards the body of the swordswoman.
At that moment, Seoyoon expected the body of the last enemy gone with her blade impaled where the person was. When Seoyoon opened her eyes, grabbing her hand as the cloak person whom watched what happened at the alleyway.
End of Chapter 1
Chapter 2
“My my, you shouldn't be so hasty on ending a life”
Seoyoon looked at the person shocked though it didn't show on her face.
“Anyway I saw the whole thing. Don't worry you'll won't be thrown into jail for this incident. It was the other party's fault anyway.”
Seoyoon still holding her blade towards the woman continued to stare at the cloaked person. Not letting go of her sword, Seoyoon placed the bastard sword comfortably on her back.
Stolen story; please report.
“Good, good now to resolve this problem”
The cloaked person looked at the scared woman on the ground whom at first was relieved the cloaked person saved her but then was worried by her words.
“Than...Thank you for saving me”, Stuttered the woman.
“Not to worry about; now strip” replied the cloaked person.
“Wha, what are you talking about. Why do you want me to strip. Are you going to rape me?”
“No, no, no nothing like that. I didn't mean it like that”.
The woman on the ground looked at the cloaked person confused.
“Then what do you mean?”
“I mean give me your armour now.”
“Bu but”
“No buts, would you rather make me strip you down to your undergarments or just give me your armour”
“Wh why would you do this when you saved me?”
“Strip now”
With great hesitation and reluctant the woman took off her leather armour and gave them to the cloaked person.
“Now will you let me go?”
“Ah, yes but before that”
A dagger suddenly appeared and was stabbed into the head of the poor woman. There was no time for any kind of reaction. That was how sudden and fast the strike was.
The woman's corpse quickly disappeared and Seoyoon and the cloaked person looked at each other.
“Well that took care of business”
Caution at the sudden motion of the cloaked person, Seoyoon immediately retreated a couple steps back and held her sword intending to protect herself.
Upon seeing Seoyoon's reaction, the cloaked person laughed out loud.
“hahaha such an interesting reaction. Normal people would've run away by now”
Still laughing the cloaked person took off her cloak to reveal herself properly.
The person standing in front of Seoyoon naturally didn't compare to her on terms of looks but was still considered a beauty in normal standards.
The woman was an average 165 cm height with a slim body. Her short green hair curled down to her shoulders. With a slightly childish face with slightly larger eyes than normal revealed her bright green eyes. Her lips were still curled into a smile as she looked at Seoyoon.
“Damn your avatar is extremely beautiful. How long did it take you to make it? 3 hour maybe 4?”
Seoyoon continued to stare at the woman now placing the tip of her sword on the ground.
“Anyway I should introduce myself, my name is Claire, nice to meet you”
Seoyoon continued to stand there silent.
“Hmm”
Pondering Claire rubbed her chin. She continued doing for a few moments until blurting out, “Wait are you a mute by any chance?”
In the mechanics of Royal Road, users can alter their appearance which allows the users to possibly play anonymously. One of these features included the restoration of missing limbs and other defects in the body in game. Those who were unfortunate in reality had a second chance in life in Royal Road. However there haven’t been many cases where a mute played and talked in game.
Seoyoon continued to stand their silent, staring at Claire.
“Judging by your reaction, you’re not a mute and you don't want to talk. This makes it difficult to have a conversation with anyone. Hmm”
Claire went back into thinking about the current situation.
“So you have some mental disability...that’s the only thing that comes in mind”
Claire looked at Seoyoon and smiled brightly at her.
“All well, I might as well help you for a bit until you get the hand of things.”
Seoyoon caught the pieces of leather armour Claire threw at her.
“Well get equipped, I got that just for you. Equipping is the same in reality, just put it on.”
Seoyoon looked at the armour and checked it stats.
Leather Armour: Durability: 30/30 Defence: 8
Standard set of leather armour
Requirements: None
Effects: +2 Vitality
Leather Wrist Guard: Durability: 20/20 Defence: 2
Standard set of leather wrist guard. It serves for minimum defence.
Requirements:None
Effects: +1 Dexterity
Leather Boots: Durability: 25/25 Defence: 3
Standard set of leather boots. Its comfortable to move in
Requirements:None Effects: +1 Agility
Looking back at Claire Seoyoon thought: Why did this person help me?
“Anyway for now, will have to do something about your decreased fame...hmm”
Seoyoon stood there silently as Claire was thinking about what to do next with Seoyoon. With a wave of a hand, Claire said, “What about doing some chores. I know a couple of people from when I started out that could help your situation.”
“...”
Seoyoon nodded and left with Claire to find a job for her.
It doesn't matter where I go now. Might as well go with her.
It might be a trap though
But she helped me a bit.
The help involved stealing a kill from you.
True but she did give me the leather armour and she offered a job.
Might as well see how this leads.
While Seoyoon was deep into her thoughts, Claire opened a door to a small house that had vines growing out of the walls. While entering Seoyoon noticed how the room smelt pretty bad.
“Grandpa Piople, I got you a new worker”
“Claire is that you?”
A loud voice resounded throughout the small room. A slightly small old man with more grey than brown hair stood in front of the two. With hands on his hips the Piople with a confidence voice said,
“Well Claire you brought another poor soul to this house. Do you think this one will succeed in my challenge?”
“Well, she did kill two people quite easily and was about to kill the third if I didn't interfered.”
“And you looted the poor soul again.”
“....Well I gave her the loot this time round.”
“You gave the last one the loot as well. Then you killed him when he refused to do what you wanted”
“....”
The two stared at get other before looking at Seoyoon.
“Well let’s get you to work. Depending on how well you do I can give you some training in fighting. I am a former soldier after all. Well what are you standing there for? Get started”
*Ding*
Clean The Retired Soldier's Home
As per to the request. You must clean the house of Piople which was in the state of being overflown with trash. Depending on how well you clean up, Piople may teach you some fighting techniques amongst other skills
Quest Difficulty: F
Quest Requirements: Be introduced to Piople
Quest Restrictions: Quest will fail if you don't complete the quest within a week. You will face the wrath of Piople and be his slave for a week.
Quest cannot be rejected
Seoyoon stared at the new window that popped up in front of her. Then another window popped up after a few seconds.
You have accepted the quest
“....”
Seoyoon stood there silently. The person who had interfered with her had given her a quest but the conditions were absolutely horrible.
What should I do now. I can't just cancel the quest now the consequences are disturbing.
Yeah but if I can complete it, I could get some reward.
I didn't come here to get a quest.
True. But it will at least take my mind off things for a while.
Pulling back her sleeves, Seoyoon started to clean up the room she was standing in. Claire looked at Seoyoon apolitically and said, “I'm going out for a bit. You need anything, ask Gramps over there.”
With that, Claire went off leaving Seoyoon and Piople alone. Focused on cleaning up, Seoyoon didn't notice Piople staring at her face.
“I be damn, she's a fine beauty indeed. Though that doesn't mean I'm going to spare you if you fail or run away.”
“...”
Seoyoon silently continued to clean up the room while Piople was talking to himself. As Seoyoon moved multiple items, she noticed that these items did not relate to the room they were in at all. She had found kitchenware thrown around the house at random, lamps under stacks of empty canteens of food and most disturbingly was that she had found dried out tissues around the bedroom.
This is....
I better hurry up with is quest or else something important will be taken away....
Or I could just kill the old man and run away.
But his seems a lot stronger than the other girl and she easily stopped by swing.
This just leaves me to finish up cleaning.
***
After a day, Piople came back from his trip to the bar. When he opened up the door, he saw that house as remarkably cleaner than when he left. Turning his head to the right he saw Seoyoon continuing to move, dust and wipe various areas of the house that she had deemed in her mind as unclean.
As a person who had lived in a luxurious house than a perfectly clean hospital room, Seoyoon's definition of clean was certainly different than most people.
The once almost muddy walls were perfectly clean as they could be, almost sparkling. The furniture that were scattered around the house were now in proper place where they should be though they weren't as cleaned yet. The piles of junk were nowhere to be seen and most importantly, the room didn't smell bad now.
“What the...”
Piople walked to the centre of the room and examined the handiwork of Seoyoon. Pondering, Piople inspected each of the room and found that the majority of the rooms were mostly cleaned out.
“To think a person could be so dedicated to cleaning.”
Piople looked at Seoyoon with admiration.
However Seoyoon did not clean the rooms all by herself. After Piople left for the bar to drink, Seoyoon also went out to collect the materials needed to clean the place properly. As she was heading down the street a person ran up to her.
“You are the person who just came out of that house right?”
Seoyoon nodded at the question presented to her. She was somewhat calmer compared to before when a number of people was chasing her for unknown reasons. As such an open question didn't actually disturb her at all.
“I bet you came out to collect some things to help you clean right?”
Seoyoon nodded once more.
What is this person trying to get at?
“I can help you, I have the required things right here let’s get back into the house okay.”
Now slightly more disturbed, Seoyoon walked back with the man to the house until another man that was bald stopped the both of them.
“I can help you as well.”
“Tch”
Both men stared at each other for a moment and the first man smiled and said, “Well thank you but I can handle this by myself.”
The bald man then said, “You underestimate your ability to clean the place. I've seen that house causing many users to fall into depression.”
The two men once more stared at each other and then looked at Seoyoon. Feeling a bit guilty in wasting her time with bitter arguments, the two men came to an agreement.
“Fine, you can come along as well”
“Good now let’s go in the house”
Seoyoon entered the house first and noticed the strange faces the two men were making.
I have a bad feeling about this.
I better keep by guard up.
I can't trust these people.
As a result, Seoyoon started to clean up the place with the tools and hands of the two men. Both were still staring at Seoyoon as they worked.
At one point, one of the men entered the bedroom and found the pieces of dried tissues off over the place.
“What the hell is this!”
Shocked at the site, the man quickly put some disposable gloves on and piled the tissues up. He then took out some flint and rubbed it over the tissue.
Soon enough the pile was on fire and was burning quickly.
Noticing the smell, Seoyoon and the other man entered the room saw the fire. The bald man said with get anger, “What the hell are you doing!”
Noticing the presences of the other two and epically Seoyoon, the man said with a smile, “I'm just burning a couple of things.”
Shocked by such a pathetic excuse the bald man shouted, “What do you mean burning a couple of things. Are you trying to burn the house down?! Are you trying to make the quest fail!? Huh!? Answer me!”
Startled by the man's anger the other man timidly said, “But there was a lot of tissues on the floor and...”
“That doesn't mean you could just burn them, what were you thinking of doing you fool!”
“Fool, you’re calling me a fool? You just had to barge in when I had a good position”
“What good position, you just ran up to her like a starved dog, wagging your tail like an idiot”
“Now listen you...”
The two men continued to argue as Seoyoon silently stood there and watched the fire. While they continued to argue, the fire died out and left a black stain on the floor.
Annoyed by the stain and the two men talking Seoyoon took out her bastard sword and swung horizontally towards the two men.
“gah”
“ahh”
With sudden pain and confused face, the two men died and left an item each on the ground. Seoyoon picked up the items and examined them.
One of them was a knife while the other item was some sort of piece of bread. Staring at the knife, eventually a window appeared to Seoyoon.
Short Knife: Durability: 20/20 Attack: 2-5
Short but very fast. This blade cannot pierce metal or harder material.
Requirements:None Effects: +1 Agility
This items weren't as good as the weapon she currently had but had more flexibility and she could use it to cut open some food or wood. Seoyoon then looked at the piece of bread.
Barley Bread: Durability: 30/30
A piece of baked Barley bread. It is hard to chew and taste bad. But it still fills the stomach.
Effects: Fill satisfaction metre up a bit
Upon looking at the Barley bread, Seoyoon's stomach rumbled.
This feeling....I'm hungry?
I should get the piece of bread...I wonder how I get more of them...
When Unni was explaining stuff she did say that Royal Road had a system for those who couldn't speak. She said to do a particular motion...
Seoyoon moved her hand in the motion described to her and found a window that showed Seoyoon has ten more pieces of Barley Bread and a Canteen filled with water. Seoyoon then proceeded to put the Barley Bread in her hand in her mouth and started chewing.
Ah, it’s hard to eat.
But it'll do since I have nothing else.
I wonder how long it's going to take me to clean the place up. The other two did most of the work and the majority of the house is mostly cleaned already.
It doesn't matter, I just have to clean. It'll keep my mind preoccupied.
After Seoyoon finished the Piece of Barley bread she noticed one of the bars that she could see was filling up. The bar was the satisfaction bar which automatically decreased on a rate depending on the activities you were doing.
Noticing she was also thirsty, Seoyoon then took the canteen from her inventory and drank a portion from it.
Feeling somewhat less uncomfortable, Seoyoon continued to clean the house for the next couple of hours. However the pace was much slower than compared to when the two men were working with her.
Occasionally, while Seoyoon was cleaning up, a window popped up as well indicating the increased of a stat.
***
Another four days later, Seoyoon had finished cleaning up most of the house. Claire occasionally popped up to see the progress Seoyoon made with her quest and to teach Seoyoon how to play the game properly upon researching on the various methods to open certain windows.
At one point Seoyoon had finally opened up her Status window.
Status WindowNameSeoyoonClassN/AHealth150Mana100Level4TypeNeutralFame- 200Strength11 + 5Agility12 +1Wisdom10Intelligence10Stamina12Vitality10 + 2Leadership0Offence23Defense13Magic ResistanceNone
Claire looked at the status window that Seoyoon shared with her and said, “Ah finally you can open and close windows at will. Remember, you have to think of opening the window, doing the motion just helps with the process. Anyway you have 15 points to spend on your avatar now. I recommend yo put 10 points in strength and 5 in agility since you use a heavier sword.”
Seoyoon did what Claire instructed and allocated the unspent points on Strength and Agility. After some more explanation on various other topics, Claire eventually left once more to do something again. Seoyoon once more started to clean up the remainder of the house.
Now I know how to navigate those menus.
Yeah now I can get stronger properly.
But cleaning this house comes first.
Another day passed by and on the sixth day of cleaning the house, a window popped up suddenly in front of Seoyoon
*Ding*
Quest Complete: Clean The Retired Soldier's Home
As per to the request. You have cleaned the house of Piople which was in the state of being overflown with trash. Due to the cleanness you are known to the villagers to be a diligent cleaner.
Fame has been increased by 100
You have leveled up
With that Piople appeared in front of Seoyoon impressed by the effect she had put into cleaning his house and said, “Congratulations, you've cleared quest I gave you. Now I'm going to teach you can skills and techniques as I promised since you did such a good job.”
“...”
“Still not much of a speaker are you? Let's go to a more open area.”
Piople lead Seoyoon to an open area that was similar to the area she had been before. (The one where she slaughtered the two women remember)
When they reached the middle of the area Piople instructed Seoyoon to take her blade. Seoyoon calmly reached out and pulled her sword off her back and titled it towards Piople on a slight angle towards him. Upon seeing this Piople laughed out loud.
“Hahaha. You seem to have some talent in the sword young lady.”
With that comment Piople drew out his own sword which was no means bigger than Seoyoon's but had a much sharper feel to it. The sword had a length of about 0.7 meter compared to Seoyoon's 1.7 meter bastard sword. With the difference of about a meter, Seoyoon obviously had the advantage.
However, Piople suddenly kicked off flying towards Seoyoon preparing to slash at her. Seoyoon immediately reacted and swung her blade downwards towards Piople's body. The moment Seoyoon's blade almost touched Piople's body, his blade had somehow moved towards it and deflected Seoyoon's strike.
Stunned for a brief second, Seoyoon flew back a bit before a second strike from Piople instantaneously moved towards her body. Seoyoon quickly moved her sword in that moment to block with the flat side her sword.
In that moment Piople twisted his body and kicked Seoyoon in the leg causing her to fall down on the ground. Seoyoon lay there, trying to get up quickly but was stopped when she found Piople's blade in front of her neck.
Piople looked down at Seoyoon and started smiling and laughing out loud before moving his blade away.
“Seriously, are you actually new to fighting? You movements tell me that you are not hesitant in attacking or defending but your judgement is still lacking”.
As Piople said, Seoyoon was not new to fighting as she had trained under Cha Eunhee for some self-defence and she had some martial arts experience as a result. But all of that training could not have prepared Seoyoon for live combat against a veteran.
As Seoyoon got up and stood there silently, Piople started to ramble on about what he should teach her. After examining Seoyoon once more Piople said, “Okay, I'm going to teach you a couple of things you would need if you want to survive.”
End of Chapter 2