---Third POV---
Sarah stood dumbfounded, staring at the dilapidated church in front of her.
She had just followed the group of new players and listened to the strange skeleton's speech.
As the skeleton in black robes left, the church came back to life with bustling activity.
"I saw a skeleton talking!"
"Ha! Clearly, you weren't paying attention. That's called an undead!"
"Whoa, you can actually summon a game panel? Is this really a game?"
Someone boldly clicked the "Exit Game" button.
The next second, they collapsed to the ground, legs giving out.
Garble helplessly rubbed his forehead. "Another skeptic bites the dust."
On the first day online, earning a lump on the back of your head was practically a rite of passage. By the time the wound healed, the itching would drive you crazy.
His eyes scanned the new players.
The rewards for the welcome quest were excellent and could strengthen his team.
He had high hopes for these newcomers but needed to carefully consider his choice.
"Hm? A female player?"
His gaze landed on a white-haired player who stood out from the rest of the crowd, surprise flashing in his eyes.
Sarah, still dazed, reached up to touch her face.
"So warm!"
It felt so real—just like actual flesh! Her brain hadn't caught up with everything yet.
All she'd done was watch a video online and play a mini-game.
How had that led to signing up for a new virtual reality game and even getting selected for a beta test?
Before putting on the game's tacky-looking VR helmet, she'd thought it was all a prank...
Now, as the crowd began to disperse, three existential questions popped into her head.
Who am I?
Where am I?
What am I supposed to do?
There was no newbie guide in this game, and she didn't even know how to walk around properly.
Just as she was about to follow the flow of people out of the church, Garble approached her.
"Hey! Want to do the welcome quest?"
He smiled warmly, but not overly eagerly.
Sarah froze.
She recognized this guy! He was one of the "Four Idiots" who fought the worm in a video on Platform A!
So... the video was real?!
Right on cue, a quest invitation popped up in front of her.
[*'?￥#…&%! has invited you to join a quest!]
Reading the quest details carefully, Sarah's eyes lit up with joy.
She had no idea what to do, and now someone she sort of recognized was here to help. What luck!
Even if she'd only seen him in a video, it still felt like half a connection.
At least, the video showed he didn't seem like a bad person. That was enough for now.
"I'll do it!" She nodded decisively.
Once she clicked to accept the quest, the choice was set for both of them.
Garble led her out of the church.
"Just call me Garble. Right now, the quest spot is probably packed with people, so I'll take you on a tour first."
"Okay. My ID is... uh... FastingMidLane."
Sarah recited her ID, her face turning crimson with embarrassment.
If she'd known she'd have to say her ID out loud, she would have picked something normal!
How was she ever going to live with this name?!
Internally, she was screaming like a groundhog.
Garble didn't seem bothered, though. He laughed heartily.
"Alright, how about I call you Lux?"
Sarah breathed a sigh of relief.
At least it was better than being called "Fasting" or "Mid."
After a brief exchange of pleasantries, they were officially acquainted in the game.
Garble took Lux on a tour of Honeyvale's key buildings.
The main player hubs were the quest spot for collecting items, the warehouse for turning in quests, and the church for learning skills or logging off.
"The NPC at the quest spot is alone, so it's always crowded there. If we go too early, we'll just have to queue. Let me show you the riverbank instead."
"You have to queue for quest items? That's so realistic!" Lux exclaimed.
"You'll see after playing a couple more days. Other than the game panel we can summon anytime, this game is almost indistinguishable from real life," Garble explained as he led the way.
"If it's not like a second world, can you really call it a virtual reality game?"
"A VR game that needs mini-games to attract players?" Lux muttered under her breath.
What a strange game company.
They had the funds to make a VR game but couldn't afford proper marketing?
Garble walked too quickly for Lux to think further, so she hurried to catch up.
At the riverbank, rows of spider silk hung drying in the breeze, like a maze of threads.
Lux gawked in shock as she entered the spider silk array.
"Did you guys do all this?"
"We hired some players with coins to help set up the stakes midway, but they didn't stick around long without experience rewards," Garble explained.
In terms of progress, though, most of the work had been done by their four-man team.
At the far end, they found ProGamer_Daddy and Hedgehog washing spider silk.
"You're back before me? Not out guiding newbies?" Garble asked, surprised.
Hedgehog looked up from the silk.
"It's all that LootGoblin guy. He hoarded a bunch of newbies himself. No one left for us, so we came back."
It wasn't that they couldn't compete.
Thanks to the viral video of their epic first battle with the worm, the Lucky Stars Team had a big advantage.
But honestly, Garble would've preferred not to have that fame.
ProGamer_Daddy sighed. "He's too ambitious."
He turned his head and caught a glimpse of a stranger behind Garble. He almost mistook her for someone else.
"Whoa! A female player?"
He gaped. "Where'd you find her?"
LootGoblin had snatched three players, yet he'd missed this one standing next to Garble?!
"At the church. She was standing off to the side, so I didn't notice her at first," Garble said.
It wasn't until the crowd dispersed that he spotted the confused Lux.
Hedgehog whistled as he glanced behind Garble.
"White hair, too! Dude, your character model is pretty sharp!"
Most players had brown or chestnut-colored hair.
Besides Hedgehog's red hair, Lux's white hair was the most eye-catching.
No woman dislikes compliments about her looks, even in a game.
Lux's lips curved into a smile.
"Thanks."
Garble found a stool for Lux.
"Take a rest here for now. I'll tell you more about the game basics. You probably got drawn in by the mini-games, so you haven't seen the official website's illustrations or forum guides."
"I'll take you to the quest spot in half an hour."
Those labor-hungry players at the quest spot wouldn't go easy on her just because she was a woman.
"They're probably fighting over people right now!"
"Exactly. If you have any questions, feel free to ask us!" Hedgehog said, pounding his chest.
Lux gave an awkward smile, not daring to say anything.
She had seen the forum guides—she'd just thought they were fake.
Who knew there was an actual virtual reality game?!
---
After settling in the newcomers, Garble skillfully picked up the spider silk from a bucket and passed it through three wooden basins with varying levels of clarity.
Lux asked curiously, "What are you doing?"
"Cleaning the spider silk, then using it to make clothes," Garble explained the uses of spider silk in detail to Lux.
Lux's mouth formed an "o" shape. "Even the starter outfits for players have to be bought from you?"
Aren't beginner gear supposed to be indestructible, unbreakable, and basic divine equipment? This is ridiculous!
"You even know how to weave fabric?"
"Yup, the small batch over there is ours," Hedgehog replied, nodding toward a pile behind them.
White vests and skirts fluttered on a wooden pole in the breeze.
Lux took a deep breath. "That's what you wear?"
If she remembered correctly, most of the players in the game were male, right?
A white vest and a white skirt…
Imagining the scene, she got goosebumps. It was like a weird mashup of medieval and a rural village square.
She rubbed her arms. "Do people actually buy these?"
"Of course! Ours is the only store in the game. If they don't buy from us, they won't have anything to wear!" ProGamer_Daddy said matter-of-factly.
"If we didn't care about leaving a good impression on you guys, you'd already see players walking around wearing these," Hedgehog added.
Lux felt increasingly dazed. "I…can't even imagine."
Save me! What kind of game is this?!
Seizing the moment, Garble spoke up, "The main issue is that we don't know how to make other types of clothing. If someone could make long-sleeved shirts and pants, most players wouldn't be stuck with this vest-and-skirt combo—it would look more normal."
Choosing Lux to guide the newcomers wasn't random; he had his reasons.
They had tried finding other players to help.
But Honeyvale was so heavily skewed with testosterone that there wasn't a single player who could make clothes.
Their hope now rested on this new female player.
"Sewing clothes?" Lux's eyes lit up with understanding but quickly dimmed. "Unfortunately, I can't do that either."
Sewing skills were far too niche to be practical in the modern world.
She could sew a pocket, but making proper clothes required knowing various patterns and cutting techniques—far beyond the abilities of someone without a fashion-design background.
The three veteran players looked visibly disappointed.
Sigh, hope dashed again.
"But," Lux continued, "I think my sewing skills are still better than yours. How about hiring me as a temp worker?"
Those finished vests and skirts had stitches so large you could see daylight through them.
She didn't consider herself skilled at sewing, but she could at least make the clothes last two to three times longer.
They wouldn't immediately unravel at a loose thread, forcing players to run around naked.
That would be a sight.
"Sure!" ProGamer_Daddy was overjoyed. "We're short on hands anyway!"
Balancing their other tasks, the four of them had been washing spider silk for ten days and still hadn't finished.
What looked simple was a huge hassle to process.
Garble hesitated. "But we can only pay in magicoins. Are you okay with that?"
Lux nodded firmly. "I'm fine with it!"
Earlier, the three had explained the uses of experience points and magicoins.
Unlike others, she saw way more potential in magicoins than in experience points.
Even if players reached level five, forming a team to fight a single non-magical worm would still be a massive ordeal.
But magicoins were different.
If the in-game shop eventually sold mana potions or magical gear, wouldn't she be able to use her coins to gain an edge?
Female players had less physical stamina than male players.
Focusing on an economic strategy was the best way for her to level up!
After hearing her ambitious plans, Garble's mouth twitched. "If that makes you happy..."
He doubted the game would be generous enough to let magicoins become a cheat code.
Buying god-tier equipment with money? Who knew how long that would take.
In any case, Lucky Stars-Weaving Mill gained a temporary worker!
With the conversation wrapped up, he guided Lux through the process of completing the tutorial tasks.
---
After working all day, Lux was utterly exhausted.
She ended up lying under a big tree at the edge of the town, eating with the three other players from the team, except for NeverShowOff, who was away.
As she panted heavily, she complained.
"Why does a game task have to be so realistic? This game is so inhumane!"
"You're just not tired enough yet. Once you push past the pain threshold, your body will stop feeling it," Garble reassured her.
"Really?" Lux's eyes widened in surprise.
ProGamer_Daddy confirmed, "You'll just get a 'Sluggish' debuff that makes walking and actions slower."
"Oh, that's fine, as long as there's a solution! I almost thought I'd be stuck as a laborer in this game!"
Revived, Lux rolled up her sleeves.
"For my next task, I'll gather stone materials. Let's see if I can break through the pain threshold faster!"
---
Nearby, Viktor, who had just returned to town, overheard.
He understood the logic, but the execution seemed way too brutal.
No wonder player efficiency had skyrocketed recently.
"I just hope they gain enough strength to handle the monsters before they ruin their bodies," he sighed.
Players might have forgotten that to revive with a new body, they had to collect magical materials themselves.
He shook his head silently.
Avoiding the players under the tree, he walked back while checking everyone's status.
This time, the trip outside town yielded no new stranded workers like Alyanne.
Nor did he find Edgar or locate the goblin nest.
It had been a fruitless search.
He stared at the lone cloud in the sky.
"We'll just have to wait..."
A goblin nest wouldn't have fewer than 100 goblins and could easily house thousands.
Charging in recklessly without scouting first would only worsen their situation.
The best scenario was to wait for Edgar to return, let all 41 new players reach level five, and then handle the goblin nest.
But that plan required too much time.
Not all players were grinding enthusiasts. Only a handful could match the online hours of players from Team LootGoblin and Team Lucky Stars.
Overall, it wasn't realistic...
Various thoughts churned in his mind, ultimately melting into a long sigh.
"Let's focus on finding the goblin nest first."
At that moment, he heard an exclamation from the players behind him.
"Holy crap! Where'd this goblin come from?!"
Goblin?
Hearing the keyword, he froze.
Turning around, he spotted NeverShowOff holding a struggling, familiar creature.
"A goblin?!"
---
Under the tree, five players formed a circle, staring at the bound creature like visitors at a zoo.
The goblin, accustomed to roaming jungles, emitted a foul odor.
Its ragged clothing barely covered its essentials, and its wide face with a sunken nose and bulbous, amber eyes was particularly hideous.
---
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50 advance chapters!
[email protected]/Malphegor