The whole group sat in a circle around a campfire, however, this time, there was no fire, only embers. They had learned their lesson from last time — the old city was not safe anymore. Orcs patrolled the streets. Generally, Fang and Nissa were very prudent, but they underestimated the orcs and blundered. They were able to avoid disaster simply because of Nissa’s and Damien’s sharp senses. They got lucky. That’s it.

“Aren, do you understand what you have?” Fang asked. “Do you know how reputation works?”

Aren shook his head. He frankly had no idea. Cassandra and Damien were beaming with happiness. Cassandra’s accent and Damien’s quiet nature had an impact even in their virtual lives, and they were distrusted by everyone, including NPCs.

“Aren, it takes months, in some cases even years, to build up a reputation with someone to the level of Beloved,” Fang explained matter-of-factly. He didn’t make Aren feel stupid or anything; he really had a knack for teaching. “There are a few levels above Beloved, but they are special cases, like becoming blood brothers or marrying.”

Aren blinked. “You can marry NP—”

Fang held a hand up. “Don’t say that word. We call them denizens.”

Right, to keep up the illusion of a second life, using words like NPC was strictly forbidden, except in certain mediums like group chat. There were quite a few rules, like not using someone’s real name, using acronyms or various other things. One of the few exceptions was when talking about magic, where terms like buffer, macro, and alias were common to the point that even denizens used them. The official statement was that using such terms would teach the LAGI running Singularity bad habits, and no one wanted that.

“But yes, yes you can. Plenty of people have done it,” Fang explained. “There’s nothing strange about it anymore. All the denizens around here are as real as us — adventurers. They have hopes, dreams, personalities. Most of them, anyway. Even monsters.”

There was a time, in the beginning, when Aren felt foolish for harboring tremendous affection for a non-player character, but over time, he came to the same conclusion that Fang just described. Priscilla was as real as he was. Eventually, he stopped thinking about what she was, and enjoyed who she was.

“Basically,” Fang continued. “In order to receive good prices, be entrusted with more important tasks, run for office, start an alliance, and so on, requires high reputation. Some places won’t even give you entry unless you are well respected. Do you understand?”

Aren nodded. Oh yeah, he understood. He knew why Nissa was so happy when she heard the news.

“You could literally walk into the Royal Bedchambers, if you wanted to, and sleep in the King’s bed; and you know what? The King would take the guest room. That is how well received you are right now,” Fang said, holding up his index finger to drive in the point.

Aren didn’t really think of that scenario, but he was becoming well-aware of how mechanically broken this perk was. “And likewise, he would also entrust us with the most important of tasks?”

“Exactly,” Nissa chirped happily.

Noticing Nissa’s excitement, Aren couldn’t help but ask: “Why is that so important? Does it pay that well?”

The group had to collectively have a double-take at Aren’s words, full of disbelief. “Don’t you know?” Fang asked. “Your success here directly translates to the quality of your life there!” Fang pointed at the sky, as if that was where the real world was.

“We could be famous. Or rich!” Nissa almost burst at the seams with happiness. “Or rich and famous!”

“But more importantly,” Fang continued. “It is the second advantage that is truly remarkable.”

“All paths open for me?” Aren asked to confirm, and Fang nodded.

“There are a number of dungeons, towers and places that have been closed for a number of years. Some have been inaccessible throughout the entire history of this world,” Fang explained. “If we were to conquer some of them… well, remember how they sang about you in the tavern when you killed the Scar of Rakab? It would be like that, for all of us, except a thousand times more meaningful. We would become undisputable champions and heroes of this world and that will tremendously improve our fortunes in both worlds.”

Aren had to lean back as he completely wrapped his head around the concept now. A mythical First Clear of a dungeon that has never been done before would generate so many merits that it was almost unthinkable. Back in the golden age of Singularity, when the top clans and alliances pushed the limits of what they could do, their fame was such worldwide that they became household names.

Now, it seemed like that age could come once again. For them.

“Not only that,” Fang continued. “But the exploration of the Unknown Lands has been stalled for years. It requires a tremendous amount of rapport with a large number of factions to make exploration possible — a monumental task that not even the top alliances can pull off. Not yet, at least. But you,” Fang said, pointing a finger at Aren. “For you it would be as easy as walking up to them and asking ‘Hey, do you want to go travel the world?’.”

Nissa snickered. Even Damien, the quiet one, belted out a single ‘ha’ before he pulled up his shawl and narrowed his eyes.

“When do we start? What do we do?” Aren asked, also becoming hopelessly excited at the prospect. “Dungeons first? Legendary quests?”

Fang dismissed the thought with a gesture of his hand. “Not yet,” he said. “We have to keep your favor a secret.”

Aren tilted his head. “Why?”

“Think about it. All those top alliances would kill to have someone like you as their member. They would no doubt offer you top positions, more treasures than you’d know what to do with, and a salary in the other world,” Fang explained.

“They’d proba’ly kill e’eryone ya love too if ya refuse,” Cassandra added.

At first, Aren didn’t believe Cassandra’s words, but then he remembered some stories and rumors he heard. People took Singularity extremely seriously — some did, at least. To them, this world was the only world. Their fortunes were tied to their fortunes in this world.

Aren nodded, expression grim. Aurora’s favor did not sound that appealing anymore. Even though, in real life, he was in a secure facility — of military nature most likely — he could not say the same for the others, or his parents, or his childhood friend.

“Ok, so, what do we do?” Aren asked.

“All four of us have agreed to keep your perk a secret,” Fang said. “We will even call a Binder, form a clan, and put Limiters on our ability to talk about your perk outside of the clan. That is for your, and our, safety.”

Aren nodded. “All right. Then what?”

“Then we will raise your rank in the Adventurer’s Guild to Platinum,” Fang explained and Aren almost choked on his tongue.

“Platinum!? That is like… isn’t that extremely difficult?” Aren learned about the ranking system a long time ago. Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Mithril and beyond. In relative terms, the Silver rank was equal to a Sergeant in a real world military. It was a tremendous task. Aren knew that Fang received his Silver ranking mostly due to his success in the Arena. Fang was very famous — he was even featured in a magazine once. But what about Nissa? How did she get it?

“With your reputation, it would take no time at all, so long as you can complete the tasks. They won’t be easy,” Fang explained. “We need to teach you how to fight properly. As for the shadowblade, I will put forward my savings — all of us will — and buy you a decent one.”

Aren licked his lips. He was intimidated by Fang’s determination. This was the quality, no doubt, that the ladies found so appealing in him. Or perhaps it wasn’t just Fang’s determination that intimidated Aren — it was everyone’s, because they all nodded in unison and agreement. They were all ready to put their futures on the line in hopes of helping him — a useless newbie — climb the ranks. Could he live up to their expectations?

“We will keep an eye out, search the libraries, and do everything we can about learning how to obtain the lightning blade you require,” Fang said. “By the way, I told them about that too. They can be trusted.”

They nodded once again. Aren had half a mind about asking Leviathan to perform another analysis, but how would he even go about doing that? Would he be able to communicate with Leviathan with his thoughts? Did he have to ask out loud? Could he even communicate?

“So, what is the actual plan?” Aren asked.

Finally, Fang smiled and Aren could tell that it was time for the dessert. Fang has been putting it off until now, making Aren squirm with questions — basically trying to sell Aren on the entire plan. After all, Aren had the choice of refusing and going to a big clan or famous alliance. Maybe that was also why Fang told the other two about Aren’s Unique Class. They knew his secret.

In reality though, Aren doubted Zhang Wei, Anya Braum and the other two, knew how important Aren’s secret was, or what it was for. Aren did not care about his fortunes in the real world. He would be a worthless pauper if that is what was required of him, as long as he could see Priscilla again. As long as he could keep his promise to her.

“First, we are going to clear out Rakab of orcs,” Fang said.

“All of them?” Nissa asked, surprised. It seemed like she wasn’t in on the plan.

“All of them. That will build up our reputation,” Fang explained. “For you and me, it will probably mean Gold Rank, maybe even advancement in the Army. Most importantly, it won’t seem that strange if we receive top tasks from the adventurer’s guild when we start building up Aren.”

Nissa snapped her fingers and nodded. “Nice thinking.”

The others agreed with a nod.

“Next, we will build our Clan Holding here, in the ruins of Rakab,” Fang said, with a devilish smirk. He seemed to have been waiting for the obligatory ‘Why here?’ but by then the others had learned that Fang was a devious schemer and a forward-thinking strategist. Almost disappointed, he continued on when no one reacted. “I know for a fact that there is one dungeon here, the Catacombs of Rakab, that has not been explored in years. But I also know that in the Catacombs is a door that has not been opened… ever.”

“Ever?” Nissa asked.

Fang calmly nodded. “It is guarded by a phantasmal slayer. Years ago, it took the cooperation of two top alliances to kill,” Fang explained. Nissa whistled in surprise, the others were equally shocked and surprised. “The door, however, would not budge, even with the guardian dead. No one knows what’s behind it. Some suspect it is the Old Empire’s Treasury, others that it’s a portal to another continent. No one really knows.”

Cassandra tilted her head. “But ‘ow do we go ‘round the guardian?”

Fang grinned, showing a row of perfectly pearl-white teeth. “The guardian is a follower of the Light Pantheon.”

Everyone looked at Aren, eyes glimmering with glee.

“Why, Aren and the guardian are practically best friends forever!” Fang exclaimed and roared in laughter, in true Chinese supervillain fashion.