Lv. 13 - After the Battle

The clouds in the sky are still in their place, accompanied by the unbearable warmth of the sun and the falling cherry blossom petals.

All he could feel was calm until he realized he had been in an unusual place. As far as the eye could see, he could only remain silent by narrowing his eyes.

"This… where? It's strange, but… what is this feeling? A familiar, yet unusual feeling, what is this? Why did my body become a child?!"

Arka was silent for a while, but by thinking rationally, he concluded. "It seems I'm dreaming, and it's certainly not an ordinary dream if I'm aware of this. A lucid dream…? I guess not, I can't manipulate anything."

"Aa-kun!"

"Arka!!"

"Who are they– my voice...? What happened?"

Realizing when his lips froze and his voice wouldn't come out when he was about to ask a question, he could only stay silent and let out a useless question in his heart, hoping that someone would answer it.

Arka couldn't help but stare at the two silhouettes of little girls rushing over to him. His chest tightens, it feels strange.

Arka didn't know who they were, but he knew he was thrilled when he saw the two of them. It was as if the long yearning he had been experiencing had been healed, and the hole in his heart was slowly filling up again.

"Mou~ Arka, why are you not responding?"

"Aa-kun, what's wrong with you? Are you sick?"

Arka became more and more curious about the identity of these two little girls. What is his connection with them?

"A-"

Wanting to answer them, Arka suddenly felt that his mouth had returned to normal, and his voice was also not in the throat.

"No, I'm fine. It's just that somehow…."

Arka slowly stopped his words and stepped forward towards the two of them. Then, without a warning, his hands grabbed the girls' shoulders and tightly embraced them.

"A-a-arka! W-w-why suddenly?"

"Aaa-kun, I'm still not ready–"

When Arka let go of his embrace, without realizing it, his cheeks were already wet. The tears kept flowing from his eyes.

The two girls were suddenly surprised and looked confused about how to calm Arka down. Both of them even wiped Arka's tears and gave him a hug.

"Arka, is there a problem? You can tell me if there's one."

"Aa-kun, is your body really not sick? Should I call a doctor?"

Aware of the two girls' worries, Arka tried to calm himself and showed them a smile on his face. He even gently patted the two girls' heads and stroked them.

"Sorry, I made you guys worried. I'm really fine, thank you."

"Is that true?"

"Is that true?"

"Yes."

"Really?"

"Really?"

"Of course."

Arka chuckled silently when he saw how compact the two girls in front of him were.

Seeing Arka who had completely returned, the two girls looked at each other for a moment, then they grabbed back Arka's arms and slowly led him in a certain direction.

"Wait, where are we going?"

"Of course, we're going to—"

"Of course, we're going to—"

Like time stopped suddenly, Arka felt everything around him stop moving, and slowly crumble and disappear into darkness.

….

"Wha-"

Waking up from his sleep feeling tired, Arka tried to get up from his position and then process what he had just experienced in his dream.

"That felt too real… who were they- UGHH!! W-what the hell is this?!"

The excruciating pain in his head made Arka pale instantly. His breathing was uncontrollable, he even clutched his own head even tighter.

After a while, the pain that Arka felt slowly faded away, and he was instantly thrown back into a sleeping position while slowly catching his own breath.

"Shit, I thought I was done with this…"

Enduring the sudden headache, Arka felt he could faint at any moment. Looking at the clock, which still showed 3 am, Arka thought about going back to sleep, but suddenly his eyes opened wide again.

"Wait, how could I forget the faces of those two? Ugh!"

When the pain in his head faintly returned, Arka decided not to think too much and closed his eyes.

"I think going back to sleep is the best decision for now..."

….

Back with Arka, the pain he was experiencing earlier had completely disappeared when he woke up in the morning. He also decided not to think too much about his dream, as he suspected it caused his headache.

One week had passed since the day Adventure World was released, on the seventh day, the first event appeared.

Then now, after he finished his housework, Arka was resting himself in front of his computer. As usual, he would enter the official Adventure World game website, to see if there was anything new.

"Oh, I didn't expect this at all."

What he found was, it turned out that the raid on the goblin horde he had previously taken part in was one of a series of events that was taking place.

In fact, there were three other events taking place in the other three starting towns. Then, the most surprising thing was, all of those events were recorded by the game system, and broadcast live when they happened. The live broadcast has even been uploaded as a replay video, where the number of viewers has reached hundreds of millions.

''It's quite surprising, and interesting. But, why are they recording secretly? Or… did I miss some kind of notification? Well, whatever....''

Arka continued to watch. In the fight with the Goblin General, he was surprised at how many players were criticizing the Chiba team's reckless actions.

O²: too reckless, too rushed, bad team combinations, yep, they are dumb

Bebeh: lol, watching them suffer is quite fun

Yvie: let's fucking GOOOOOOOOO!1!1!1

Aren: oh shoot, this fight gives me goosebumps

Rein: wwwwww, nice fight!

Connie: ewwwwww!!!! hell nah.. that was disgusting

Vell: whoever came up to put dynamite in the goblin general's mouth, I'll admit he's a psychopath.

Seeing some of the comments, Arka couldn't help but chuckle lightly. Especially at the last comment, he felt embarrassed for no reason. Because if you think about it, the idea he gave was indeed strange, and terrible.

"In the end, the important thing is to win, right? No matter what, the method we used is also quite efficient."

Return to the main video menu. Arka had seen some footage from events that took place in three other towns, and… well, the three of them ended in a more normal way than he had expected.

"Hmm, I've seen quite several video tutorials here– ahh… looks like that's what triggered some players to make videos."

In the main video menu, there is a small announcement. It was said in the announcement, if a video uploaded by a player gets a rating with a useful category, the company will directly pay them based on the number of raters and their own reviews.

"I wonder why there are so few tutorials on the game itself. It turns out that they really want players to explore the game themselves."

Having had enough with the video tab, Arka turned to the main page, and there he found a menu that had attracted him from the start.

"Trade Market huh, let's see what's in here."

Trade Market, as the name implies, is the place where trading activities occur.

Here, players can freely sell in-game items that are in their inventory. Determining the price, the number of goods, and the buying and selling process, everything is directly regulated by the player. The website only works as a supervisor and security guarantor.

"It's only been a week, and they've been very active in buying and selling. Well, this is indeed a way of hoarding Zist. Even though the money exchange system hasn't been released yet."

From what Arka could see, on average there were three types of goods that dominated sales. Among them are crafting materials, equipment, and potions.

As for potions, the comparison of the quantity demanded, and the items are truly like heaven and earth.

In the world chat feature, it can be seen that there are a lot of players who really want to buy potions, creating many requests, even some players are deliberately setting a high price.

"Well, recently, the potions in the in-game shop are running out quickly, especially HP and MP potions. Then waiting for new stock also takes quite a while. No wonder many players are after it."

Arka suddenly remembered something, and an idea popped into his head.

"Hey, I can try that too."

….

The sun had fallen from its highest point, signaling that it was time for Arka to work.

The calm atmosphere, classical music playing, and the authentic aroma of coffee fill the room, these three things are another attraction of this cafe apart from its eye-catching interior style design.

This cafe is not too big or grand, but because of the comfortable atmosphere, it is not uncommon for loyal customers to always come.

"Boss, what table is this order for?"

"That's... for table 4, the girl over there," replied Arka's boss while pointing slowly at Arka's destination.

"OK."

Arka has always been a flexible worker in this place, he can deliver orders, help in the kitchen, take orders, clean, and so on. That's what makes his boss and coworkers consider him reliable.

Slowly, Arka approached the table pointed out by his boss. The customer this time was a lone woman, with an appearance that was quite eye-catching.

Even though her face was not visible due to the hat and mask, her blonde ponytail hair didn't stop to attract Arka's attention, as it reminded him of someone.

"Excuse me miss, here is your order, strawberry milkshake and strawberry shortcake. Anything else?"

"No, thank you."

"Enjoy, then."

As Arka slowly stepped away, suddenly a voice came from behind

"Wait, wait a minute!"

"Yes? Is there anything else that you need?"

The girl did not answer, but took off her hat and mask. When Arka's gaze met the gleam of two sapphire beads, he said nothing, but fell silent with a surprised look.

"Can we chat for a bit?"

"You...."