Chapter 7

Though Players didn't need to rest since they could simply log out, Taverns and Inns still served a purpose in the game.

Players can rent rooms within these establishments and they will unlock the warehouse option which— as the name itself states, allows the players to store items in a storage.

Every player only has thirty available inventory slots and the only method to expand them is by buying them through in-game currency.

Unlocking the first slot will cost one bronze coin but the next one will cost ten copper coins and the next one after that will cost a hundred copper coins.

The process repeats with another zero being added to the price as the players unlock the next slot.

Only when the price reached 100 Gold coins would it stop.

Because of this costly method, The warehouse became incredibly helpful for the players since it had sixty free available slots.

Players can unlock more storage slots but the process is the same with the inventory.

Nevertheless, those sixty free slots were plenty for new players which was why no one raised a complaint about the prices of the slot unlock.

That was until the a few months after the game's release where farming and grinding monster materials became the norm.

Of course, this was an event for the future which is yet to be seen in the present story.

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"I would like a room, Madam." Jhin said, not minding her dumbfounded expression.

The elderly woman on the other hand, remained in daze, not knowing how to react when an unconscious child she knew was being carried by a mysterious stranger.

So in the end, all she could do was blurt out some of her thoughts.

"I-isn't that... Lily?" She pointed toward the unconscious little girl carried by the man.

Her words caused the room to become tense as all the NPCs in the establishment looked towards the man in hostility.

The atmosphere became so tense that it was as if the atmosphere grew several times heavier.

But the man himself remained indifferent as if he couldn't even perceive the strange atmosphere in his surroundings.

Jhin didn't find it surprising for the old lady to recognize Lily.

"I suppose you know her."

The old lady's brows furrowed. "Of course I know that little girl! Everyone in this village does!"

Meeting Jhin's gaze, she glared and her voice grew hoarse as she asked interrogatively, "What did you do to her?!"

As if by cue, The movement of several chairs resounded throughout the room as some of the seated NPCs stood up and glared menacingly at Jhin.

Some were cracking their knuckles with dangerous looks plastered on their faces.

Jhin on the other hand, didn't fazed in the slightest as he continued to speak to the elder woman with the same nonchalant tone.

"If you know this little girl, then is it alright If I leave her in your care for some time?"

The elder woman glanced past Jhin which made the approaching NPCs stop in their tracks. Her gaze returned to Jhin once more. "What do you mean by that?"

Her tone sounded apprehensive but Jhin ignored it.

"Exactly what I said. I'll pay for her meals and any kind of treatment you can do for her."

The elderly woman narrowed her eyes. "And what do you intend to do with her? In the first place, why does she look so battered and exhausted? And why is she unconscious?!"

"Well believe it or not..." Jhin then proceeded to explain the previous events starting from his meeting with Lily until now.

Jhin's explanation was short and precise which made everyone understand and have a clear picture of the events. However, some of them were still doubtful of Jhin. This included the elderly woman.

Jhin didn't intend to waste his time trying to make the skeptical ones believe him so he simply asked, "Do you have any room where she could use? Or are you alright with her staying in the room I will be renting?"

The elderly woman made a dubious expression for a moment before coughing and replying, "She can use my bed."

Jhin nodded. "Lead the way."

The elderly woman left the counter and proceeded to walk towards one of the corridors of the Inn. In the same time, the NPCs sat back in their own chairs after hearing the conversation between the man and the owner of the Inn.

Jhin was led to one particularly small room with a single person bed and a small cabinet beside it. Various belongings were left on top of the cabinet but all in all, the room looked neat and clean.

"This is where you sleep?" He asked the elderly woman who is presumed to be the owner of the Inn.

The latter nodded and gestured for him to place Lily on the bed.

Jhin didn't say anything and gently put her in the bed. After that, The owner of the Inn gave him a key.

"Your room is in 203."

Jhin accepted the key in exchange for ten pieces of silver coins.

The elderly woman looked at the coins in confusion before looking towards Jhin's face with a questioning look.

"This is too much-" The elderly woman wanted to say but Jhin cut through her sentence.

"I know. In addition to my room, I would like to pay for her treatment and if you can, prepare some clothes for her as well."

After hearing Jhin's explanation, The elderly woman studied his face for a while before agreeing. "Very well."

Jhin nodded blankly and turned to leave the room.

However, before he could step a foot outside the door, the owner of the Inn asked him a question.

"Who are you?" She asked with furrowed brows. "And just what do you want to do with our Lily?"

Jhin glanced at her and said, "I believe I had already offered an explanation earlier."

The owner of the Inn scoffed.

"You know that isn't the explanation I'm asking for."

Meeting her sharp gaze, Jhin released an exasperated sigh.

"I do not understand why you people are suddenly concerned." Jhin then turned his gaze towards Lily with a solemn expression. "The little girl brought me to where she lives and.... quite frankly, I'm surprised she manages to live alone in a house that is quite far from the village.

She explained that, although the villagers were friendly to her, no one was willing to take her in.... which makes me even more curious..."

He then began walking towards the elderly woman with a cold expressionless face.

"....The village clearly cares about the little girl..." Arriving in front of her, he leaned closer to the point where he was face to face with the elderly woman. "...but why are you isolating her?"

"You..!" The elderly woman was clearly shaken and subconsciously took a step back, but anxiety was clear in her face.

"How dare you make such claims?!" She snarled.

Jhin only blankly stared at her for a few seconds before closing his obsidian black eyes leaning back.

"...That's all the confirmation that I need."

Then, he turned around and began walking towards the door.

"If you are unwilling to tell me anything, then I do not feel obliged to explain to you. As for the little girl, let her do what she wants."

With that, Jhin completely left the room, leaving behind a pale faced elderly woman who was looking at Lily with a uneasy expression.

Jhin then arrived at the Inn's lobby once more and his arrival immediately caught the attention of the NPCs, quieting down the rowdy atmosphere. Most of them were looking at him with curiosity, wanting to guess what he had talked about with the owner of the Inn.

Ignoring the stares of the NPCs, Jhin made his towards the wooden stairs and reached the second floor which led towards two separate corridors.

He searched around the corridors and eventually found his room.

Using the key, the door unlocked with a cluck.

The interior of the room was slightly bigger than the room of the owner of the Inn. It had a considerably wide bed which would be able to fit two people.

Other than that, there is also an empty wooden cabinet and a small wooden table placed beside the window on the middle of the room.

There was also a large wooden chest which would serve as the storage. Players could open it to view the storage window where they could deposit or withdraw items.

Walking towards the window, Jhin observed the view outside for a while before eventually sitting down on the bed.

Once he sat on the bed, a game notice appeared in front of him.

[Set as spawn point?]

Jhin tapped on the "Yes" option and the game notice disappeared briefly.

This means that every time he will log in or respawn from death, he will always appear in this room instead of the middle of the town where the large spawning circle was.

After that, he tapped on his profile bar on the top left corner of his vision and selected the Log out option.

[Logging out in 5... Tap to cancel]

Jhin let the timer reach 0 and soon after that, his vision darkened.

Moments later, his senses returned to his real body where he was laying on the bed inside his room.

Snap.

Jhin unbuckled the Head Gear's strap before taking it of completely, revealing his sweaty head.

On the window, warm sunlight shined through and provided light in his dark room.

He took a second to look around his room before reaching for his phone and checking the time.

[7:48 A.M.]

"Hmm... Just in time for breakfast."

He got up from his bed to complete a light exercise to stretch his stiff muscles.

After doing so, he took a brief bath and went downstairs where his family has already gathered around the table eating breakfast.

"Morning." His father greeted.

His mother looked at him and smiled. "Good morning, son."

Meanwhile, his sister only glanced at him before pouting and looking the other way. It seems that she was still dissatisfied about what he did yesterday.

With a teasing smile, he shrugged in response to Mia's hateful glare before taking his seat.

A meal was already served on his seat so Jhin simply began eating, but not before saying his thanks.

As he was eating, Mia acted as if she remembered something and faced her brother with an excited look.

"Jhin! Jhin!"

"Yes, I am Jhin."

With sparkling eyes, Mia leaned closer to her brother and said, "Well? You played the Ascended Order game, right? How was it? Is it really true? Is it an entirely new world?"

He was mildly taken back by her sister's enthusiasm.

Her face was so close to him that Jhin could practically feel her morning breath.

Naturally, this made him lean backwards while thinking of the correct response.

If he were to say yes, then his sister would end up feeling jealous and ask for a turn. But if he said no, then his sister might say that since he doesn't appreciate it, she might as well take a turn and experience it herself.

He was in a dilemma where either option would end up letting his sister borrow the Head Gear.

'Valaeze's skills as well as other special skills and equipment that cost in game money should start appearing in the forums. This should start picking up the value of in-game coins.' Jhin decided to check out the market value before logging back into the game.

If the exchange was considerable, then he was fine with exchanging up to five hundred silver coins so he can buy another console.

Of course, he could just reject his sister and explain his plans of earning money in game. However, he didn't want to make his sister sad and wait for too long.

Besides, he wasn't in any need for coins at the moment since his objectives should still be hoarding the achievements and leveling up.

Especially since he also knew special achievements that rewarded with gold.

Additionally, it was also better for his younger sister to start playing the game earlier as she would grow stronger and even party with him.

"It's alright." Jhin replied nonchalantly to Mia.

"Alright?" Mia scoffed and sat back in her chair. "What do you mean 'Alright'? It was literally dubbed as the Second World by everyone and even the 90% of the reviews were positive."

"My classmates also had hyped up reactions, you know?" In the end, she sighs while looking at the half-finished meal in front of her.

Jhin who resumed to eat his meal, heard his little sister whisper.

"I wish I could play too..."

Her voice was so low that neither his parents heard it. He also would've failed to hear it if he wasn't paying attention to Mia.

Jhin knows his sister didn't mean to say it as she just genuinely wants to play the game as well but she refrained from asking since she was being considerate of Jhin who received the game console as a gift for his birthday.

Plus, she also didn't want to tell her parents she was well aware of their financial status and another console would be too much to ask for a lower-middle working class family like them.

Realizing his sister's considerate attitude only made Jhin even more determined to get a her a console for herself. Besides, this was also within his plans already so there was no problem with getting it for her a little earlier.

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After breakfast, Jhin returned to his room where he began surfing the forums of the game.

From there, he started searching for posts about the exchange for in-game currency to real life currency.

At the same time, he stumbled upon the popular post section where player Wandering Tree's post remained on the top.

The unbelievable video of Jhin buying from Assassin Master Valaeze and the video footage of Assassin Master Valaeze massacring noisy and stubborn players.

Glancing at the other posts below, he found another one but this one had a different original poster.

It was a video recording of Jhin training Lily in the Training Grounds as well as another post capturing the events of inside the Inn where Jhin entered.

It was even titled, [A Movie-like scene] because of the way the NPCs rose from their chairs to surround Jhin whose face and username wad blurred in the video.

The only reason those posts became famous is because the viewers managed to recognize his appearance from the video where he bought Valaeze's skills.

Although the user protection policy blurs his face and username, his body and figure remains visible.

Fortunately, he had yet to buy any equipment as he wore the same ragged clothes like every other players.

'Guess I'll have to buy equipment as soon as I get back in the game.'

After deciding on that, he resumed searching for currency exchange.

Fortunately, he didn't have to look for too long since there are many posts from rich players who are not only looking for an exchange between real life currency into game coins, but also buying coins for overpriced money.

There were many posts which meant that Jhin had multiple options. He made a patient search which took him over an hour to find the most creditable ones.

Eventually, he stumbled upon a new post was made in the category.

[OP: The Bavellion Family

Title: Currency Exchange

The Bavellion Family is looking for a currency exchange from real-life currency into Ascended Order coins.

The exchange rate will be 10 Copper Coins for 1 USD.

To those who are interested, contact user <Sir GreatButler> in the game. ]

Out of all the posts, this one was that has made a generous exchange. Jhin had a vague remembrance of the Bavellion Family but seeing as how they remained vague in his memories, he figured that they may not have any significant impact in the game.

He decided to search on the internet about the Bavellion Family. From there, he found out the Bavellion Family is a rich and prominent business family which owned several international tycoons from across the world.

Seeing their net worth and business properties, Jhin understood how they were able to offer such a generous exchange.

'But even so... if they were this rich, then they should have been quite memorable for me.'

'...But why is it that I can't seem to recall anything about this particular family.'

Jhin felt slightly bitter about the fact that he had lived for over thousands of years and he did not have the perfect memory to remember everything.

The best he could do is vaguely remember the important events of the game as well as a few remarkable players but aside from those, he failed to remember more.

The feeling is similar to when you are a twenty five years old adult trying to remember all your classmates in your kindergarten days.

No matter how hard you try, you cannot remember their names and only vaguely remember their faces.

'Nevermind.' Jhin shook his head to shake off his failed attempts in trying to remember.

In the end, he decided to choose to trade even though the exchange rate wasn't up to his standards. He could wait but that would take approximately a month or so for the value of the in-game coins to raise even more.

He really wasn't in a rush but he also wanted to get the console for his little sister so that she could also start leveling up her character this early in the game.

In his previous life, they weren't able to get a console for his little sister and so he had to share it with her which he didn't really mind since he was more focused in his studies rather than the game.

His mindset at the time was experiencing the game once in a while is already good enough for him.

Anyway, now that he knew which one to contact, Jhin didn't delay anymore and wore his Head Gear.

He laid in his bed once more and booted up the console.

After a few seconds of booting up sound, Jhin spoke.

"Game Log on."