Coins

Rin felt like a human being after cleaning himself up. Even though the well seemed to have a lot of water, Luke only let him have two buckets to clean himself up.

Well, they were going to be dirty every day, so it was better not to waste water while they could.

Besides, there were three folks; Luke and Rin would do with two buckets each, but he was not so sure about the girl. With the trouble Elise had with blood, she will probably need more. A lot more.

The sun would reach the horizon in about an hour or so, and as for this place, it relatively seemed safer—as Luke had told. They found no sign of zombies near the farm, but there was no reasoning for those godforsaken things.

Rin was faintly aware there was no easy mode to this game. Well, he should have been cleared on that when he felt pain for the first time.

It was still better to sleep under a roof, surrounded by walls that could give some warning before anything wrong could happen. That reminded him he still had to sleep. Virtual gaming wasn't an alternative of real sleep.

As Rin finished bathing, he found Luke approaching him with some old leathery clothing in his hand. He probably found them in the farmhouse as there were clearly some cowboy vibes about them.

Luke threw the clothing at him before taking a stand on the side.

"This game has terrible hygiene issues," Rin commented, examining the leather shorts Luke gave him. His old pair was now wet, it was filled with blood, so Rin cleaned it off before tying them up in a hanger.

"Yeah," Luke said, looking towards the farmhouse. "I guess this is how people used to survive before the advancement of civilization."

"They sure did," Rin said and wore the shorts, finding it was not that bad. "You know, back then the average lifespan was between 35 and 40. Can you call that survival?"

"Luckily for us, it is only a game."

Rin considered for a moment, looking at the claw marks on Luke's chest and leg. His most heavy injuries were mostly healed by the ring, but he didn't suppose his friend had access to such a ring either.

"Do you have any medicine here?"

"As a matter of fact, we do," Luke answered. "There was almost everything essential here, and in relatively good condition as if they were left for us."

"That's a relief," Rin sighed.

"Considering you, perhaps five days to a week," Luke laughed, "So, how did you get those scars in the game?"

Although most of his cuts and injuries were closed, they left behind marks all over him. Along with his original surgical scars all over his chest and arms, Rin looked quite menacing.

"Wolves," Rin answered. "Zombie wolves. Got unlucky and found myself in the middle of a pack. There were only one or two less than a dozen, and unlike these dead men, the wolves are agiler. And a lot more ferocious, too."

"Jesus," Luke said as his eyes were drawn towards the greenish mark again. "How did you survive?"

"I killed them all, of course."

Luke clicked his tongue.

"You haven't heard the end of it yet," Rin snorted. "There was that one thing called Shred. It was basically the boss version of these deadmen, and man, it was disgustingly powerful."

Luke frowned. "I suppose that green mark on your chest helped you out of that trouble."

"I would have been out of the beta without this," Rin said, touching the green mark. "Or my ring, or Rollan the Contractor."

"Who?"

"A cool NPC guy, you'll meet him later, I guess."

Luke raised an eyebrow. "So what is that mark exactly?" he asked, coming back to the topic.

"This is a mark," Rin answered. "A mark of awesomeness."

Luke snorted again. "I guess it was one of those origin marks, but I can't tell what it does. I have seen you doing some fine acrobatic actions during the fight, was that it?"

"Awesomeness," Rin repeated.

Luke shot him a flat look.

"It's something I got from the lottery. I'll fill you in later," Rin said, dressed in lousy leather clothing.

The two of them started to walk as Luke started on how he met the girl. It was only after a couple of hours they were dropped here. It was actually he who rescued her and found she seemed a lot different from a normal human. Well, she looked and talked the same, but her body was sturdier, and she seemed to have some special abilities. An early adapter.

"She probably got something in the lottery too," Rin proposed. "Did she mention anything about it?"

"Not anything concrete, but I don't think she understands it properly."

"Have you ever tried asking her?" Rin mocked. "Or act just like the dashingly handsome gentlemen after rescuing a damsel in distress?"

"Oh please, she's stronger than you saw."

"Apart from the vomiting issues."

"Yes," Luke agreed. "Apart from vomiting issues."

"Anyway, what get anything useful from the Lottery?

"I got this," Luke said and tossed a coin from his pocket.

Rin caught it and found it was a gold coin with a runic pattern embedded in it, however, it had more similarities to the ones he found in the notebook than the coin he got.

"Cool, coin," Rin said. "Hold on, I got one too."

Rin searched his body to find that Avalon coin. He found the coin in the inside pocket of his new cowboy jacket which he never had worn before.

Rin held the emerald coin for Luke to check.

"How did it get in there?"

"Magic," Rin said, flicking his fingers exaggeratedly.

"These coins seemed something special in this game. Do you know what these do?"

"That is what we have to find out." Luke sighed. "I hardly got any inside news of Apotheosis even after expending all our resources. I did notice many suspicious movements, but nothing to conclude anything.

The two of them reached the entrance of the farmhouse and Rin stopped. "Suspicious, how?"

"Conspiratory. I can't give you more details here."

Rin nodded, understanding the privacy issue.

"Anyway, another thing I'm curious about," Rin said. "Elise, why she doesn't seem to recognise us?" Rin looked suspiciously at his overly handsome friend. "I don't know about you, but I'm pretty famous."

"Rin, our Virtual Skins are famous, not us," Luke said in his ever-so-serious tone.

"Dude, there used to be posters of us on almost every block? It's almost a heresy if people don't know us."

It was almost close to the truth. In this day and age, every youth or even old folk knows what was going on with the game. You know what happens when your daily life becomes too boring; you try to find adventure in social media, and Avalon simply took over it.

"Well, Elise knows about our existence. I think she has many other things on her head to be awed at your presence."

Luke said as he opened the door of the farmhouse, which clearly wasn't only a farmhouse from the looks of it.

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Read the AUTHOR NOTE below.