Flash!

“Looking for strong tanks to join the party!”

“Did you hear about how church members keep disappearing?”

“Selling leather and metal armour! They’re mostly undamaged and give bonuses!”

“Anyone hunting in the Northern Plains?”

A collection of noise assaulted Godou as he appeared in a town square of some sort. There were people everywhere. Truly, it was a crowd that rivaled Tokyo during its peak hour... except the crowd consisted of all nationalities and everyone seemed to be cosplaying...

It was a slightly disorienting feeling.

“So this is Virtual Reality. Its more realistic then I expected.” Godou remarked quietly to himself.

He looked for a suitable place to sit so that he could get used to this feeling. Finding an unoccupied bench in front of a pub, he sat down and took up the task of observing the people in the square.

Unlike most beginners, Godou was not heavily affected by the culture shock of suddenly appearing in a new world. He attributed this to his past experiences travelling overseas. As a child, Godou had been mostly raised by his travel-loving charismatic grandfather and now deceased grandmother.

Godou’s grandfather used to be a professor in folkloristics and had the talent of mingling with foreign communities like a native. Back when he was still in active research, he had been able to integrate himself into isolated village communities quickly, built good relationships with the villagers and even acquire a few village secrets which are usually not told to outsiders.

Godou had often accompanied his grandfather on overseas trips and was also often been accidentally (or so he hoped) abandoned by his grandfather without food, water or money and a language barrier for a few days. Thus, Godou had been forced to inherit his grandfather’s skill in this area.

Soon Godou realised that people in the game could be divided into two categories: players and NPCs. At first, Godou hadn’t realised this as he hadn’t expected the artificial intelligence of the game to be so detailed. It was almost as if they were actual people.

While he was observing, Godou also started experimenting with the system commands Amakasu had told him, adjusting the settings to suit his preferences.

One of the commands had shown him his current inventory which contained a canteen and 10 pieces of rye bread which Godou had assumed was food.

Another command had given him a pop up message of his character information which read:

Character Name:GodouAlignment:NoneLevel:1Class:ClasslessTitle:NoneReputation:0Health:100Mana:100Strength:10Agility:10Wisdom:10Intellect:10Leadership:5Luck:5Attack:3Defence0Magical Resistance:None

“Playing a game might actually have its benefits. In a game, things like magic and special powers are well known and available to everyone. Ridiculous powers like what I have in reality are common place in a world like this so I can finally be ‘normal’.” Godou couldn't help but mutter to himself.

Thinking back on this, Godou thought that it was kind of sad that he could only achieve normality in a virtual world where everyone has powers.

“Well time to go exploring” Godou said, throwing irrelevant thoughts away and standing up. Amakasu had told him that new players were confined to their starting town in the first four weeks of game time. However, it never hurt to know the geography of the area.

“It would probably be useful in case I’m suddenly challeng-… I hadn’t realised that this mindset had rubbed so deeply into me already” Godou couldn’t believe that he had actually almost said that but he really couldn’t help thinking that way.

Ever since obtaining his powers, he had rarely gone through a month without getting involved in a conflict of some sort. And often, that conflict had resulted in something important being destroyed...

Doing his best to forget his resurfacing memories, Godou took a step forward. First he would have to find out where he was and then he would–

“Hold on a second lad”.

A gruff voice called out to him from behind. Godou turned around and saw that it was the bartender of the pub behind him who had called. The bartender gestured at him.

“Come over here”

Godou complied and walked up to the counter.

“What is it Ossan?”

“Why don’t we play a little game? As you can see we’re a little understaffed here so I’ll roll these two regular dices and if the total of the numbers on the die is less than 5 then you’re free to go, but if it’s more then you have to work here until the end of the day.”

“Wha-”

Ding!

The Desperate Bartender’s Unreasonable Request

Defeat the bartender’s dice challenge by obtaining the total sum less than five on two dices.

Difficulty: F

Restrictions:

Somebody who doesn’t look busy

If you refuse the bartender will forcefully abduct you and force you to work anyway.

Rewards:

Being able to leave

+10 Luck

+ 1 FAME

Penalties:

If you lose then you will have to work for the bartender for one day.

A bit taken aback by the sudden request, Godou couldn’t see any way out of it unless he agreed.

“Yeah… Okay”

The barkeeper rolled the two dices. It was a one and a three.

“Looks like I’m free do go”

“Hang on! Best out of five!” the barkeeper hastily added.

He rolled the dices again. Revealing a two and a one.

And again. A one and a one.

“Well, since I won three out of the five matches I can go right?”

“No! You have to win all five matches”

The dices rolled again. A two and a two.

And again. A one and a two.

Ding!

Luck has increased by 1 point

You completed the Quest!

EXP was gained

Luck increased by 10 points

Fame increased by 1 point

Godou was surprised with this. He hadn’t expected his ridiculous luck from reality to still apply in a game.

“What the hell! What kind of punishment is this!!” exclaimed the bartender as he dropped to his knees.

“I can’t believe someone was actually able to win this sort of game” remarked one of the other customers in the bar.

“Yeah that was ridiculous”

“Umm actually I don’t have anything to do right now do if it’s just for a day then I think I’ll be able to fill in for you” Godou said, pitying the bartender.

“Really?” The old bartender suddenly looked up to him with puppy dog eyes. Godou suddenly felt a strange chill crawl up his back. It was an indescribable feeling.

“Yeah…” Vaguely, Godou saw a resemblance between the bartender and his eccentric classmate friends who were also known as “the Three Idiots”.

Ding!

You have accept the temporary job at Mark’s Pub

Pay: 15 coppers per hour

“Thanks you’re a real life-saver, frankly I wasn’t sure what I’d do when part of my staff when missing” said the bartender, looking professional again. “The name’s Mark by the way”

“I am Kusan... I am Godou”, almost forgetting that he was currently playing a game, Godou stopped himself form blurting out his surname out of habit.

“Well Godou, let me teach you how to work the machines and then I can get you working”

“Ah… actually I’ve done a similar job to this before” Godou piped, recalling the bar he had worked in as one of his many part-time jobs in real life.

“Oh really, that makes things easier then. You can show me by taking the next order then.”

After he had made sure that Godou’s skills were up to a satisfactory level, Mark joined him and helped.

The rest of the day passed quickly for Godou. From the gossiping of the customers, Godou had deduced that he was currently in Tellap town in the Kallamore Kingdom. He had also learnt that the Kallamore Kingdom was a small kingdom surrounded by the Senbain mountains.

Apparently, beginners like himself were rare in Kallamore as it was a precarious place to start as suffered from assaults from large hordes of monsters on a weekly basis and newbies would often die very easily before they could become strong enough to defend themselves. The only reason why Kallamore still existed in the face of all the monster raids was because it’s strong military.

It also turned out that Kallamore’s pubs very popular places for the defenders to hang out. A pub was a place where you could boast about having fought with no regret and to unfold your tensions, or simply get a drink before going off to the next defending battle.

The pubs were the most attended spots for those that defended Senbain to release their experiences. As a result of this, pubs were very competitive with each other which explained why Mark was so desperate to recruit a helper. Pubs were also, to Godou’s surprise, a gambling hotspot for the defenders. Through the defenders were only allowed to clip in small amounts of money, gambling turned out to be another method the defenders used to relieve stress.

From time to time during his shift, Godou himself had been challenged to matches by customers, both players and NPCs who had witnessed his victory with in the dice challenge and sought to prove that it was only a fluke. However, Godou’s tenacity for victory could not be denied and he won every single match based on pure luck.

At first, they thought Godou was cheating but after winning without so much as touching the dice and standing him 5 metres away from the game legends of his unrivalled luck were beginning to spread. Conversely, these matches also served to further increase Godou’s luck stat. Though, Godou was now worried that he might be forced to become a participant in gambling marathons by people determined to break his winning streak like in the Kusanagi family gatherings.

Near the end of his shift, an interesting person came in. Instead of the usual armour that the other customers had worn this one wore white robes with a symbol on it and looked like a priest. Nevertheless, Godou felt that there was something quite wrong with this person but he couldn't quite place his finger on it.

“Oh, there’s a face I haven’t seen” The priest remarked when Godou served his order.

“Yeah, Godou here saved me from a tough spot by joining in”, Mark affirmed, “I really can’t thank you enough!”.

“It’s rare to see you thanking someone” said the priest.

“Well it’s rare for me to find someone worth thanking. Oh that reminds me, new adventurers like you, Godou, are not allowed to leave the city until you get used to it. Do you have any plans on what you want to do in the time you’re stuck here?” Mark asked.

“Not particularly.”

“Okay, then how bout giving him the basic training and education he needs then, Lexus?” Mark said, talking to the priest. “This his luck and personality he’d make a fine paladin or priest, Freya knows you need new recruits with all the men your losing.”

The priest, Lexus, seemed surprised. “That’s the first time you’ve ever recommended someone for me to train.”

“Lexus, here, is a scouter for the church of Freya” Mark explained to Godou who had been confused by the proceedings. “And at the very least, Godou could become one of the staff at the church”

“Are you sure Mark?”

“I’m sure, he’s polite and mingled with the customers perfectly, no complaints from the customers about him whatsoever. Plus he’s lucky.”

“This is a dangerous place. Luck can only take you so far”

“Test him then”

“Okay, sorry for leaving you out, Godou, even though the conversation was about you,” Lexus said pulling out a coin, “Let’s test you luck then. Guess which side the coin will hand on.”

Ding!

The Scouter’s Test

Seeing is believing so upon hearing about your wondrous luck, Lexus wants a live demonstration. Correctly guess the face the coin will land.

Difficultly: F

Restrictions:

Recommendation from the Mark

Rewards:

+1 Luck

+1 fame

Penalties:

None

Godou wondered why all the quests he got so far had something to do with gambling.

“Okay Lexus-san then I’ll go with heads”

Lexus tossed the spinning coin up high in the air nearly brushing the roof.

“Show off", Mark muttered under his breath.

The coin landed on the counter, bounced a few times and rolled, finally falling over to reveal…

Ding!

You completed the Quest!

Level up!

+ 1 Luck

+1 FAME

“Oh, wow it actually was heads. Even, though I biased my throw so that it would land on tails.” Lexus unabashedly admitted.

“It was like that for every game I saw him play in” Mark said.

“One must have the blessings of the goddess to achieve such miracles”

Or the luck of the devil... Although that thought emerged, Godou thought it was best not to voice it.

“Well, Godou, what do you plan to do when you can leave town?”

“I’m not sure, I’m probably wander around and explore” Godou was fairly certain that adventuring was the whole point of the playing a game.

“Do you plan on joining any large organisations?”

“Not really”

Truthfully, Godou didn't have any idea what direction to take. Perhaps he would join an guild or something in the distant future but that was something he would consider when the time comes for it. The fact of the matter was that Godou had only tried out Royal Road because a certain someone had forced him to. Unless something major happened, he didn't intend to approach the game seriously at all, at best it would be a casual hobby or a time-waster for when he had nothing else to do.

Oblivious to Godou's thoughts, Lexus had continued speaking.

“The world is a dangerous place. Especially around these parts if you’re by yourself. Would you like to receive your basic training and education from the church of Freya? In return you’ll have to work for us at least until you're able to leave.”

“Okay” Godou didn’t know much about this world, but Lexus’s offer seemed advantageous to him either way.

“Meet me at 9 o’clock in the morning in front of the church of Freya. Mark, you can tell him the way right? Now I have to go back and notify the church that they have a new worker.” With that, Lexus downed the last of his cup and strode out of the pub.

“You know, I used to be an adventurer like you when I was younger, until I was injured fighting monsters. Now I’m just a bartender in a pub. ” Mark said as he stared at the door. “Take care on your future travels Godou and make sure it doesn’t happen to you.”

-------

Who thought I was going to say arrow to the knee? {[999aak}]