9 Gains

Pro Player was just a professional player in name. His original name was Anthony Profitt. He was the heir of the More Professional Club and son of Mark Profitt, the owner of the club. Mark was a 60 year old man with a strict personality. He fully supported his son's actions, whether it involved virtual harassing or real life harassing. Basically he pampered his son so much that his son didn't had common sense. Although Anthony didn't had common sense, he had some cunningness and his mind worked in vicious ways.

As soon as he logged off after ordering his lackeys to find those 5 players, he called another one of his lackey from his pool of lackeys. This lackey was basically his bodyguard who was his hands in real world. He made him do all the bad work for him.

A burly voice came from the other end of the speakerphone, "How may I help you sir?"

"I want to find real identities of the 5 people who made it to Hall of Fame. Once you find their real life information, visit them and invite them to our club. If they refuse, just kill them. Less competition for us." said Anthony in cold voice.

"Yes …" Before the bodyguard could even reply he cut off the call. He thought that either he should get the gold mine or no one else shall have it and laughed like a madman.

The party didn't distributed the loot after killing the boss as they were too shocked at that moment, so it was decided that they will distribute in the morning. They didn't just got Rare grade loot, they also gained a level. They all were at 10% from Lvl 5 other than Qi. Qi was already Lvl 5 with 30% filled. That Rare grade boss surely gave a lot of EXP. The EXP was actually not that much, but they all were Lvl 3 and 4 so the EXP they obtained mattered.

After Qi logged off, he went downstairs and met his Mom. Qi told her what happened in the game while having dinner. Although his mom didn't played the game, she understood his excitement and felt as if she was there in place of him. They talked some more and then they retired to their rooms to go to sleep. After Qi went to his room, he took his cellphone and called someone.

The screen showed the name 'M1'. M1 picked the call. Qi didn't had any expression on his face while talking to M1. Although M1 was one of his real life friends, M1 was also with Qi during his earlier days. If someone scanned Qi's memories, they would find what horrible past he had with all his so called 'friends'.

"Hey brother, what do you think about Shou game?" asked M1.

"I doubt it is as simple as a human created world. It felt too real. Although I played it like a game, I felt that those people there were really in trouble. I felt that this 100% reality is just bul****t created to mask some out of the world stuff."

"I should join you after we get out of beginner village. If it is true whatever you said, then it basically means that we have more possibilities to find out why we have all these abilities." M1 exclaimed with a trace of happiness.

Any creature with consciousness and rationality would want to know their origins. Without it they would be lost forever and would just perish faster in the passing time. No one can withstand the passing of time. So after hearing that they had a chance to find their origins, M1 asked what are they going to do and how.

"First we would need lots of money. The Shou World is quite big, bigger than Earth. It can fit almost 50 or more Earths in it. Do you think that Humans are even capable to maintain this big of a planet, even if it is virtual? This world is so different from Asura. Here there is no attack time limit. It is basically based on one's ability of how fast one can attack. Moreover all the reflexes are totally based on your instinct. You also played the game so you should know better what I am trying to say. My point is that if that world is real, then there should exist some forbidden knowledge past the system that controls us for now. We follow the system for now and see whats up. We would also need to find where they keep the servers and investigate them and see how they actually work."

"I get it now. I will call the others and inform them about our plan. But Qi listen, don't tell her about any of this. She did so much for us, now it is time to pay her back by finding our origins."

"Her… I wonder who she is and why did he saved us. She is so secretive that even our network who has infiltrated the highest places in superpower governments, couldn't find his real identity."

"We will eventually know. Let's keep all this aside. I will talk to you later." M1 abruptly cut the call. He didn't wanted to talk about 'her' as many nostalgic memories were etched in their minds. Blood. It was as if she and blood were correlated.

Qi didn't pondered much. His eyes showed a hint of sadness. He pulled the blanket and slept soundly throughout the night.

The next morning after taking bath and breakfast, he logged in the game. He found that Ani and Gadovi were online already. He asked them, "Where are the other two?"

"No idea. Maybe one is in gym while the other… it is anyone's guess." Ani said with a chuckle.

In just few minutes Reinhard and Shuugo showed up.

"Why are you two late? You guys don't want Rare grade stuff or what?" asked Gadovi.

"Opps. I was at gym. Gotta take care of this abs you know. Girls fall for that stuff easily." Reinhard tried to justify.

"Git Gud gym at your service!" Shuugo joined in the sarcasm and tried to avoid giving any justification.

No one pushed it as everyone knew what was going on.

Qi told them the location where they needed to meet in morning. They were on the East side of the village, just outside the forest which had those venom snakes.

"So about the distribution. I already distributed the money yesterday. I will post the item's description in the party chat and we will decide who needs it the most. If no one needs it then we will sell it and divide the money equally. Any objections?" Qi explained the distribution process and asked. It was a typical way to distribute loot. This type of distribution came into play after VRMMOs came into market, and from that point it is famous. But not all used this method, as there were tyrants too and those Pro Clubs. Pro Clubs gathered materials for the top players.

The cycle for the Pro Clubs was simple. Lower players got the equipment, higher players used that equipment to obtain victories and focussed on leveling. Basically extortion in the name of the glory of the club.

But this didn't affected Qi and his group. Qi posted the first item's description in the party channel. Everyone gasped.

[Equipment Name: Angal's Body Armor (Locked) Grade: Rare

Stats:

Level: 10

Defense: +50

Fortitude: +5

Critical Defense: +10

Damage Reduction: +10

Durability: 50/55

Note: Some stats are locked. They will be activated after the weapon is unlocked.]

It was a physical armor meant for melee class players. It was basically for a tank. There was no tank in their group yet. The main thing was not the additional attributes, but the Damage Reduction part. Damage Reduction meant that no matter how high the attack power is, there will be 10 Damage reduction. It didn't mattered much as Qi didn't focused on defense much so he decided to give it up. And next in the line was the Destroyer, Gadovi. He took it happily. Who wouldn't take a Rare Grade equipment early in the game?

There was a Summoner's staff with Intelligence +6 which was given to Ani and there was a Sword with Gloves which had +5 Strength. It was given to Reinhard. Qi got the most valuable item from the loot, a ring.

Equipment Name: Angal's Ring (Locked) Grade: Rare

Stats:

Level: 10

Strength: +15

Durability: 79/95

Additional Skill:

Bear Growl: The user growls like a bear. The enemies within 30 meters will have their attacks reduced by 100. Can use once every 5 minutes.

Note: Some stats are locked. They will be activated after the weapon is unlocked.]

The additional skill was the most OP thing a normal player can get at this stage and it went to Qi. How could he not be happy?

After distributing the loot, they went inside the forest.

They all got a Rare grade skill books. Obviously, all of them learned their respective skills. They might have received too many shocks but they still had some sense left. They wouldn't want to lose them as a drop if they were somehow killed.

While going inside the forest, Qi thought about his newly acquired skill. Qi got an amazing skill book. Although it cannot be said a high level skill, it was still a very convenient skill.

[Skill Name: Hard and Soft Grade: Rare

Level: 0

Description: This skill has two parts. Its effects can be changed instantly. While in Hard mode, the user will gain invincibility for 2 seconds. While in Soft mode, the user will gain an additional damage increase of 30% for 10 seconds. This skill can be used every 22 minutes.

Note: The skill can be upgraded by skill points. The skill points needed to upgrade changes as per the current level of the skill. To upgrade this skill to Level 1, 1 skill point is needed.]

It was just awesome, 2 seconds of invincibility every 22 minutes was not bad at all. It will be very hard for players to get invincibility skills in future. It was actually his good luck that he got this skill. Although this skill was just a Rare grade skill, it had effects like a Celestial level skill. Qi upgraded this skill twice. It needed 2 skill points to upgrade to level 2. And to level up once again, he needed 4 skill points.

It seems like the needed skill points rise exponentially. I better start saving these skill points.

The damage increase at level 2 was 44%. The time didn't changed for the damage increase, but the time changed for the Hard skill from 2 seconds of invincibility to 4 seconds of invincibility and the cooldown decreased from 22 minutes to 18 minutes. It was just amazingly OP skill. Although Qi had 1 skill that he learned, and 2 skills from his equipments and the weapon, he was satisfied.

"So what rare grade skills did you guys got? I will show mine in actual combat. It is too awesome!" asked Reinhard excitedly. He added, "Now I can show off all the others in our friend circle."

"We all will show it in combat. Won't that be better to show off? By the way did you all heard from our other friends? I heard we are going to start a guild sooner or later?" inquired Ani.

"Yea we all are thinking about it. We should invite Qi if he wants to join us. Hey Qi, would you like to join our guild when we establish it?" asked Reinhard excitedly. Who wouldn't want this OP man in their guild?

Qi was in his own thought when he realised that someone mentioned him. He asked again and the question was repeated.

"Oh sure, but I will bring few players over if that is fine?" Qi accepted on a condition.

"Holy molly. You can bring over your entire squad if you have one. Damn he accepted." They all went mad with happiness but they didn't showed from outside. Their face expressions did all the dancing.

"So is it decided who will be the guild leader and all?" inquired Qi.

"We will talk it over. Do you want me to contact you while we discuss?" Ani replied and added a question.

"That will be perfect. Call me and I will enter the conference call."

"Nice… But… Can someone tell me why we are here?" Shuugo asked.

The forest was quite dark from inside. There were swamps inside the forest and the trees were wild as ever.

"We are here to get venom sacs from Venomous Snakes which are found in this forest." Qi replied and readied himself for battle by taking out his Trishula. It was a forest and no one could tell when they will be ambushed.

Seeing Qi ready himself, everyone else did the same. No one would want to die without a fight.

"Beware guys, these snakes are Lvl 7. There will be other monsters too, but we will try to avoid others as we are short on time. We need to reach Lvl 10 fast. If we are lucky we might even see elites and maybe a boss too." Qi warned and informed about his short term goal.

Just as Qi finished his sentence there was a hiss from his left side. It was very dark so no one could see from which monster did the hiss sound came. But they all guessed that it was from a snake. Soon enough a head of a snake came out into their dim vision. The snake's face was as thick as a fist. The snake slowly came into full view. It was around 3.5 meters in length. It was dark green in colour and had green-purplish aura. The aura told that it was poisonous as well as was affected by the same magic that affected all the other monsters.

"Attack?" whispered Shuugo.

"Wait, there is more than one. Around 7 or 8." Qi whispered back.

Soon enough 8 snakes came into view. They were basically in the middle of the encirclement. What will they do?