The Changing Society

"Cough, Just like I said, I only worked at the capsule, not the game itself. Sometimes I got information about the game content, but of course not all," Claud retorted.

Ace still felt something was wrong, but he couldn't debate his mother in law, right?

Sofia sighed, she then said, "Now… Now… It's not urgent to know about that, right? We will know when we saw him next time. Let's check the pearls out. They seem to be interesting. Their name is granite ant's heritage. Each of them could add a property to a piece of equipment."

Everyone's attention was drawn by Sofia's saying. Ace then tried to analyze the pearl.

[Granite ant's heritage]

Function: add a random attribute to a piece of equipment.

"Huh?! like enhancement?" Ace asked.

"Yes. But not like general enchantment, they will give set effects if more than one piece of equipment that have been enchanted with them are equipped. An enchanter is needed to install it, so they are no use for us for the time being," Sofia explained.

"They are definitely useful later when we make some equipment. However, let's focus on leveling up for the time being," Ace said.

***

Alex's family had a new routine after the game was launched. In the morning when George was in the school, the rest were busy with their own offline businesses. Alex and Vira had to finish their house chores like cleaning, washing, shopping, and cooking before noon, so they were pretty busy. 

As for Nicole, she was in charge of taking George to kindergarten. She usually stayed there gossiping with other parents until the school ended.

Frank usually stayed in his room to do daily report to the Union. He also did daily checking on security devices around the house. At first, he also followed Nicole to the kindergarten to ensure her security, but after getting help from the sanctuary's police department by increasing the block's security level, so more security arrangements were done, he could do other activities.

After lunch, they would go online to play, as the time in the game would be night, so they were hunting at that time. They only went offline to have dinner and then came back online until dawn.

Not only Ace and his family that were adapting to their daily lives after the launching of the desolate world. Other white citizens' lives also changed gradually. Most of them stopped being idle and playing desolate world diligently. 

They did quests or hunted some monsters around their villages in the game and sold some dirac coins that they had gotten to the system.

On the 7th day the game launched, the dirac transaction was opened. The value of dirac soared directly after the opening. The dirac transaction was opened at the rate of 4 dirac coins per credit for selling. The next hour, the rate became 2 dirac coins per credit because of the massive demands. And at the end of the day, the rate became 1 dirac coin per credit. It was then affecting the increase of the buying rate to 1.2 dirac coins per credit. 

There was no indication of decreasing transaction. It made all players who sold dirac in a festive atmosphere. With the increase of the dirac rate almost five times, their daily income soared.

On the opposite, the other businesses in the real-world suffered a devastating blow after the launching of desolate world. The other game companies, casinos, nightclubs, traditional sport games, and many others were facing a sharp decrease of customers in a few days. Many of them hoped the desolate world fever would end soon. If not, they would be bankrupt.

However, the other business owners who had insight knew that the trend of desolate world wouldn't end anything soon. On the opposite, it was just a beginning. So, they sold their business decisively and gambled to invest in the game.

***

In the early development of the game, all human settlements started with small village size. Even many NPC still lived in tents. Most of them were refugees that just arrived, or were saved from the wilderness.

Just like the scenes in the prologue, many people evacuated from their hometown because of the invasion of other races or monsters. Some of them saw the light towers that shone on top of the barrier that covered the villages, so they walked towards the light tower. 

As for people who were too far away from the villages, they didn't see the light tower, so they could only wander in the wilderness struggling to survive.

***

Besides hunting monsters, doing quests was another activity that could gain experience. So, many players took quests to level up. Many thought that doing quests was a way easier to gain experience, as the risk of being killed was lower. 

At first, many players selected fighting jobs because, in their opinion, desolate world as a game was related to fighting monsters, doing adventures, and seeking treasures in ancient ruins. However, after entering the game, they realized that the majority of the quests in the village were production, construction, and aiding missions. Only a few gathering and hunting missions were available.

As for more advanced quests needed level 11 above as the requirements. So many players chose to restart their character and chose production jobs. However, not all jobs had to be chosen by restarting the character. Jobs such as farmer, fisherman, miner, merchant, butcher, lumberjack, and many more could only be accessed by doing some quests or particular activities repeatedly. 

***

Looking at the emerging society in the game, many business owners chose to invest their capital to build a business in the game. One of them was Troy. Before, he was an owner of a pub in a sanctuary. In a few days after the game launched, his business was hit hard. Most of his daily customers who were white citizens who hadn't jobs usually came to his pub to waste their time. However, it changed drastically after the game was launched. All of them didn't come anymore. Only one or two bronze citizens came after work.

Some of the white citizens were his friends, so he called them to ask what was happening. He then found out that they were busy doing quests in the game, as they could earn credits from their activities. It made him feel depressed. On the other hand, he was also curious about the game. He has indeed listened about the game, but because of his busy life as an owner of a pub, he still didn't have the opportunity to enter it.

He then bought a capsule and entered the game. He chose to be a warrior at first. Like other combat players, he took a hunting quest and hunted blue tusks hogs, monsters that were common around his village. 

At first, he thought the level 2 monster was a small fry until he fought it. Having greater speed and HP twice of him, the hog played him. Its skill 'rush', dealt not too severe damage to him. However, it was quite cunning. It never stopped running around him. 

After successfully dealing damage to Troy with 'rush' skill, it attacked him some times aggressively. It made Troy panic, so he swung his sword a few times at the hog. After exchanging damage for a few seconds, the hogs retreated.

Troy then assessed his condition and found that his HP bar was 50% left, as the hog only lost about 25% of its health. It made him feel powerless. He knew he would be killed sooner or later. And the hog didn't betray his expectation. After his skill cooldown was over, it used 'rush' once more. 

He had used his red potion once, but the hog was cleverer than he thought. It didn't stop after using 'rush', but made distance after that. He couldn't deal damage in a situation like that, as the hog's speed would be multiplied when using 'rush'. Most of his attacks were missed. He experienced the taste of death in the game for the first time after a few attacks of the hog.

Troy realized that he couldn't face the hog alone, so he joined a party to hunt it. And he was right, the hog could be defeated with their teamwork. However, as a close combat player, he suffered more losses than his party peers. First, his clothes' durability decreased much after killing some hogs. Second, the healer of his team couldn't support him efficiently, maybe because she still hadn't gotten used to her new job, she often healed him either too early or too late. It made him annoyed as he had to use a red potion that he had.

After finishing the quest, the only thing that he got was experience. As for dirac, he got 10 dirac coins. However, this amount of dirac could only cover his loss before. He could only sigh.

It took him 3 days to realize that fighting was not his stuff. He had hunted with his party several times, but he couldn't get better at fighting. When he saw other warriors that could dodge hog's attacks easily or parried its attack, he knew that he, who could only receive attacks, was not suitable as a close combat player.

He parted with his friends that evening in a gloomy mood. He wondered if there was the right job for him in that game.

After offline, he realized that it was still morning. As a pub owner, he usually opened his pub before noon and closed it at midnight. So the morning was his rest period.

After having a shower, he had breakfast while browsing a forum that was dedicated to desolate world. It became his new routine if he didn't have anything to do when offline. After browsing for some time, he found an interesting title of a post.

[A guide to getting a merchant job. 100% works]

***