Chapter 31- Invitation (Part 1)

For the rest of the morning, Arthur took time to actually do some research about Divinity Online. Although his name was plastered on every single corner of the internet, once he actually looked deeper, he found many people talking about the game and what they discovered.

Most of the forums he went into were mainly players sharing the items they found, their progress when it comes to making their build, and a lot of pictures… A whole lot of pictures. Most of them were just beautiful scenery the players captured using one of the in-game features that allowed for screenshots.

"I get that the game is beautiful, guys. But damn, there is nothing about the lore? Did nobody discover anything yet?" Arthur frowned as he rubbed the back of his head. He was looking for more information about the towers, the gods, and perhaps quests that he could do in the first step village.

However, surprisingly, nobody seemed to have discovered much about the world and its lore. There were several NPC quests that gave interesting items and that was basically it. Nothing special has been discovered yet. "Well, except for some theories people gathered from talking to some NPCs. There are no actual facts yet. Maybe it's a bit too early to find such things. I should wait a little bit more."

Although Arthur felt like he knew more than most players, he still had a lot of questions to ask and even more things to discover.

"Ugh, what should I do now?" As he scrolled through the internet, he quickly came across something that caught his attention. In the news section of Divinity Online's main website, the developer announced that the marketplace was going to be unlocked tomorrow.

"The marketplace, huh? If I'm not wrong, this is one of the ways to actually earn money from the game. I can sell my items for real currency. I thought they might take longer to unlock this feature but I guess with how many people are playing and the sheer number of investors, nobody can really wait to start earning money."

Arthur was aware of how many massive corporations had already announced they will be investing into Divinity Online way before it's release. They were as eager as everyone else to get a piece of the pie and they probably couldn't wait to start earning back what they invested.

"Those money-hungry hogs are something else I swear. Even Divinity Corp can't ignore their endless greed. But, I wonder how I can really dip my legs into this. Or should I just wait for the other methods of earning money that will eventually unlock?"

Although there were no information about these methods, Arthur was aware that there were many ways to actually get money. One of them was simply to join one of those corporations and become a player under their flag. There are already countless companies offering these jobs to players who they deem capable.

They would receive a salary just like an actual job and depending on the size of the company, other amazing bonuses aren't out of the question.

"Hm, well, if the number 1 would step up and ask for a job offer, I don't think anyone can say no to me. But, the problem is, if I do this then my identity will be revealed and I can say goodbye to my peaceful life. Is it truly worth it?"

If Arthur becomes a player for some gaming company then he is certain he will earn a ridiculous amount of money. He would get countless sponsors and revenue even from people that purely wanted to watch him play. He can even live stream himself playing and garner a massive fanbase.

"The life of stardom, huh? I wonder if I ever imagined myself being like that. It sounds certainly interesting, but I don't know if I can really handle such a life. I'm not that interesting of a person either way so people might get bored quickly."

Sighing, Arthur rested his back against the old sofa as he stared at the laptop screen with a frown. The more he thought about it, the more he grew frustrated. One side of him didn't want that, and yet logic said that he couldn't simply live the rest of his life in such a poor state.

He knew sacrifices were in order if he wanted to grow and improve. But, was he truly ready for such a massive step? Yesterday at the same time, he wasn't even planning to play the game since he had no money to afford it. Yet, in just a few hours, he was now somehow ranked one in the world.

His world had shifted so fast and what was just something he wanted to experience for fun, is now slowly becoming a life-changing decision.

"Ugh! I hate overthinking too much! I hate it!" Rubbing his head wildly, he decided to stop. "It's still just day one, let's just do what we can and see where things will go from now on. I can't just be this reckle-"

As he was talking to himself, however, he heard a knock on the door. That stopped his trail of thought and made him look up. Then, he stood up and walked to the door before he opened it. He was not expecting any visitors so the boy was naturally confused.

There, he saw a very tall man clad in a black suit and black glasses standing at the door. Arthur's neck arched up to look at the man with shocked eyes. 'W-What the hell is this?! How tall is this guy?!'

Immediately, the boy felt intimidated by the man. His stoic expression and blank stare made him look like a monster rather than a human.

"..." The two stared at each other for a second before Arthur finally asked. "Can I help you?"

'The hell can I even help this guy with? He can probably throw me around like a sack of potatoes if he wanted.' He mused secretly.

"Are you Arthur?" The man finally opened his mouth and spoke in a very deep tone.

"I hope so. How can I help you?"

The man ignored Arthur's question and handed him what seemed to be a white letter. Then, without waiting a second, he turned around and left swiftly.

"Hey, wait! What the hell is this?!" Arthur called for him. But, the man ignored him and vanished quickly. The boy stood there, flabbergasted beyond words. 'Now, what is this? No, what is actually happening these past two days?! Am I being toyed with or something?! First the capsule and the serum, now this guy and this letter? Who the hell is doing this to me?'

Arthur didn't know whether to bash his head against the wall or not at that moment as things were really starting to irritate him. He felt like someone was playing with him and he didn't know who it was or why they were doing this in the first place.

Looking down at the white letter, he flipped it around, only to see a particular logo on the back of it. It was a dragon soaring through the sky before twisting around itself like a snake with its large arms forming a sphere.

The logo was that of Divinity Corp.

A//N: Hand me all your PS!

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