...…

After the first stage of the Shadow Ranking Cup ended, Shin was immediately teleported to his room at the Mayor's Residence of the Calderock Town. And the moment he appeared in the room he was immediately greeted by a pair of familiar voices.

"Yo! That was a good fight. I am not expecting that you are going to improve that much after taking your Awakening Quest. Tell me, what kind of skills did you have?"

"Tsk! I am pretty sure that it is pretty much related to his Class Fighting Style since he keeps sheathing and unsheathing his sword in that battle earlier."

Shin turned his head to the source of the voices and saw Leonard and Arthur occupying a sofa each. And when he saw their leisure attitude, he couldn't help but say at them. "D*mn you guys! You didn't warn me that the difficulty of my Awakening Quest will rise depending on the types of Legacy Skills that I had."

The two were taken aback when they heard what Shin had said, making both of them turn their heads at the latter with a confused look on their faces. It took them quite a while before they managed to recover themselves and asked simultaneously.

"How many series of Legacy Skills did you have?"

"What is the difficulty of your awakening quest?"

Shin paused for a moment before replying to them. "I have 3 series of Legacy Skills. As of the difficulty of quest-…"

"…-Chaos Difficulty." He trailed his words a little as he couldn't help but feel bitter for himself. Now that he thought about it, almost all of his specialized quests had this level of difficulty.

Meanwhile, the faces of the duo suddenly turned stiff after hearing those words from Shin. Whether it was about the series of Legacy Skill that he had or the difficulty of his Awakening Quest, both of those answers were quite a shock for the both of them.

The corner of Arthur's mouth kept on twitching as he looked at Shin wearing an expression that was full of disbelief. He had already been playing at the Virtual Gaming World since he was a kid, so he was pretty much familiar with how things work out in the game.

Learning that Shin already encountered a Quest with Chaos Difficulty, Arthur could already picture out the path that his brother was taking while playing the game. And to clarify his suspicions, he could help himself but ask. "Shin, be honest. Have you already encountered some other Quest with the same Difficulty?"

Shin looked at him with a confused look before giving his reply. "Yes. I got quite a bunch of them since I got that unreasonable quest from the Beginners' Village."

This time, Arthur couldn't control the twitching on the corner of his mouth as he was suppressing the urge to smack Shin's face with his fist at the given moment. And while he was trying to control that feeling, he asked yet another question as if he was trying to confirm something. "And you happened to clear it, right?"

And when he saw Shin nodded his head as a form of confirmation, Arthur finally lost his mind and suddenly exploded. "F*ck! I was racking my head on thinking how did you manage to have that kind of insane speed of improvement, but it turns out that you are actually ripping off all of the hard work that I put on my entire gaming career!"

Then he suddenly walked on a corner in the room and sat with his knees while muttering to himself.

When Shin saw that, he suddenly knitted his brows and turned his head at Leonard before asking. "What's wrong with this guy?" while pointing at Arthur.

Leonard suddenly started chuckling when he heard that and said. "Don't mind him. He did the same thing when I managed to catch up with him when I played my first VR game while using some of his tips that he has given me."

"He seems to be feeling down on the surface that we manage to catch up with him that fast. But in fact, he was actually feeling too proud of himself since we gained our current strengths with the help of his tips. He is feeling that he is the greatest gaming master of all as if he managed to grow two powerful players himself."

The corner of Shin's mouth suddenly started twitching the moment he heard those words from Leonard. Then he turned his head at Arthur with a weird look on his face while releasing a helpless sight. "This guy really loves to be the protagonist of everything."

After that, he shifted his look at Leonard and asked. "So, what's with your reactions earlier when you heard the Difficulty of my Awakening Quest. Is having a Chaos Difficulty for a quest that amazing? Actually, almost all of my personal quest is set in that difficulty."

Leonard suddenly smiled bitterly before replying. "Of course, it is amazing. Not only can you get some bonus rewards with that kind of quest difficulty, but you can also improve your strength, play style, and game senses while doing those quests."

Hearing this, Shin couldn't help but agree with him. "Now that I think about it, I did improve a lot due to those quests. I feel that my strength is shooting up with a great margin every time I leave a specialized dungeon after clearing those quests."

But after saying that, he suddenly became confused with the topic and asked. "So, what is the relation of those quests with Arthur's tips?"

When things reached this point, Arthur finally 'recovered' himself and immediately cut in the conversation. "Hahaha… If you are thinking of yourself as someone with a heaven defying luck for encountering those quests, then I am sorry to tell you that your idea is completely wrong."

Then Arthur suddenly put both of his hands on his waist while smugly saying. "Have you ever heard about the 'Philosophy of Luck'?"

Shin suddenly got a confused look on his face and said. "Stop acting as if you are some sort of sage, Bro? Luck is Luck, nothing but some sort of coincidence."

"Ah~ah~! That is where you are wrong, oh~ so smart brother of mine," said Arthur while waving his index finger at Shin. And after a slight pause, he quickly added. "Let this amazing expert give you some wisdom. Do you know why the old dudes are always saying 'Luck is also a part of strength?'."

He didn't wait for Shin to give his reply and immediately continued. "Luck is not just a pure change fell upon you, but it is the accumulation of 'coincidences'," while emphasizing the last word.

"For example, have you ever stepped upon a dogshit while walking on the street? It is the worst experience, isn't it?" reaching this point, Arthur paused for another time and looked Shin as if he was waiting for the later to imagine what he had said.

And when he thought that Shin already had the picture of the idea, he quickly added. "And only afterwards that you notice that there are actually a lot of dogs wandering on that street. And when you tried to look around, you saw that there were actually quite a number of shits on the ground. And it was already too late for you to realize that."

"However, you can actually avoid that from happening if you already know about the dogs and their shits beforehand. You can even choose not to walk on that street if you already know about it."

Feeling that he was quite superior this time, Arthur further proved his point. "Let me add another question. What if there was a very hard question in your exam papers that can give you enough score to pass the test, but unfortunately, you don't know how to solve it?"

"And when the exam is over, you take out your book or lectures, trying to look for some answers regarding that question. Then you suddenly discovered that that certain question is actually a given example written on either of those two."

After saying all of those, Arthur asked as a form of conclusion. "So, tell me, are those situations really counted as you having bad luck or just you being inattentive?"

Shin was suddenly struck dumb after hearing those words said by Arthur, especially when he given that question in the end.

And when Arthur saw that look at Shin's face, he immediately struck while the iron was hot. "It is the same for everything as well as inside the game. If you only pay enough attention to the things, no matter how big or small they are, before taking advantage of those details and information that you got, then the Goddess of Luck will always be smiling upon you."

"At the same time, you can further increase your luck inside the game, if only you already know how to solve the problems beforehand. And that is where my tips come in."

"From what I can guess, you actually followed my tip and stayed in the Beginners' Village for as long as you can while also exploring that place despite knowing that your Class Promotion Quest will become even more difficult."

"Furthermore, you also happened to step upon a dogshit on that place and managed to find a Specialized Class Promotion and Race Conversion Quest. Have you ever thought that you would not be able to get your current Class and Race if you chose not to follow my tip and went on to the nearest Major City after reaching Level-10?"

Shin's face suddenly turned weird after hearing this. He wanted to refute all of the bullshits that Arthur was spouting but he couldn't find the correct words for the rebuttal, especially when the latter's words were actually within reason.

While Shin was still having that internal struggle, Arthur was still continuing at what he was saying. "And since your level at that time far surpassed the minimum requirements for a Class Promotion Quest, the quest difficulty is definitely going to be set at a very high level."

"And when you manage to clear that quest in high difficulty, the snowball effects are starting to pile up. There was an unspoken rule on most of the virtual games that were released from these past few years, and that is the difficulty of your future specialized quest are going to be set close to each other. And that rule was further strengthened by the 'Fame' point of this game."

"So, if you keep on clearing a quest with a high difficulty, all of the preceding quests that you are going to get are meant to be set with similar difficulty; especially if those quests are related to the previous quest that has already been cleared."

After saying all of those, Arthur couldn't help but feel even prouder for himself before saying to Shin. "Now you know that you will not be able to stand here if not for my tips."

But the moment Arthur took a look at Shin, he suddenly saw the latter looking back at him with a strange expression on his face. "What's with that look?"

Then Shin immediately gave his reply. "You know, it is going to be better if you at least put some of your in-game efforts at studying. I am pretty sure that Auntie Jane will surely become proud of you with that kind of bullshit reasoning of yours."

And before Arthur could react, Shin immediately put more oil on the fire. "You can even write some good thesis papers if you are at it. I am pretty sure that you can even make those panels or judges completely speechless with that sweet tongue of yours."

This time, Arthur failed to contain all his anger anymore, especially when he realized that Shin was actually making fun of his words. "You god d*mn b*st*rd! Come here so that I can beat you up!!!"

"After I put all the effort explaining all of those, this is the reaction that you are going to give me? Come, let me beat you one more time!!!"

....