Second Life: Welcome to Gaia

After the old man was done upgrading Ye Yan's folding fan, he looked at it with pride and stretched out his arm with an open hand. 

It was clear that the old man would only hand the fan to him after receiving his payment.

Ye Yan readily put the letter in the old man's hand and took his folding fan. He looked at his upgraded fan full of happiness and was eager to use it. Not only the fan is stronger than before, but now, it has new functions and skills. 

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[Upgraded Fan of the Wine] (Silver, one-hand weapon: Fan)

Description: A all-around weapon with gold outer guards, hidden blades as sticks, and a beautiful blue leaf with a jug of wine painted on it. Appears to be a harmless folding fan until it's too late.

Special Skill 1: [Throwing Needle] (Active) - throw ten needles at the target when activated. Required recharge. Each needle has a base ATK + 30.

Special skill 2: [Ranged Slashing Attack] (Active)- Throw the fan at the target while holding it by a wire attached to it.

Special skill 3: [Evil Bane] (passive) -  Increases damage against Evil beings by 10%. [1]

ATK + 60

DEF + 50

STR + 4

DEX + 3

AGI + 2

CHA + 1

Level requirement: 8

Player: Jun Xie

Durability: 50/50

Weight: 4 kg

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Thinking about the duel tomorrow, Ye Yan gave a wide smile. His new weapon will make its debut in great style. The fan's first use will be taking the blood of his enemies.

Ye Yan is extremely satisfied with the upgrade results. Now he can use his weapon to not only slash, defending and deflecting attacks but to smash enemies as well, using his fan's strong golden guards as if it is a club.

And he can use poisoned needles and bee sting in place of the needles to increase the damage dealt while poisoning the target.

The old man looked at the letter and send the bill to the adventurers' Guild through his communication stone. 

"Stop gawking at the fan and congratulate me for my excellent work!" The old man said to Ye Yan proudly.

"Thank you for your services, sir." Ye Yan said politely. It is better for him to be on good terms with this NPC because he will certainly use his services again in the future.

The old man nodded at Ye Yan, satisfied with the way he acted.

"As you look to be a very promising youngster, like folding fans like me, and is the leader of a guild,  I will tell you a secret." The old man whispered to Ye Yan.

When he heard what the old man said, Ye Yan gave him full attention. Maybe the 3 bonus points in charisma from the new title helped him get a quest from the NPC.

"I have clues about Zhongli Quan folding fan." The old man whispered so softly that Ye Yan almost couldn't hear it.

Zhongli Quan is a Chinese mythological figure and one of the Eight Immortals in the Taoist pantheon.  In Taoism, he is known as "Zhengyang Zushi" which literally means "True-Yang Ancestor-Master". He represented the military man and is often pictured as a Fat Man with his bare belly showing.

In legend, Zhongli Quan wields a large fan that can resurrect the dead and transform stones into silver or gold. Among his many powers were transmutation and the knowledge of the elixir of life. 

The power of each one of the Eight Immortals can be transferred to a tool of power, a kind of a talisman associated with a certain meaning, that can give life or destroy evil. Together, these eight tools are called "Hidden Eight Immortals" or "Covert Eight Immortals".

When the old man told Ye Yan about the folding fan, he knew right away about what he was talking about, because the legend of the Eight Immortals is very famous in China.

"Please tell me." Ye Yan said politely but he couldn't disguise the excitement in his voice.

"I can tell you but you need to do me a little favor." When the old man said it, Ye Yan got a bad feeling about it, even more, when he saw the perverted expression on the old man's face.

"What do you want me to do?" Ye Yan asked while hoping that it wouldn't be too bad.

"As a guild leader, you should have many contacts, so you could introduce a pretty woman to me. I like the big-breasted ones." The old man said with a perverted smile on his face while moving his hand in the air as if he was fondling two big melons.

Ye Yan has a hard time even looking to this perverted old man. He kept wondering why he didn't try entering the Adventurers' Guild because the guild is full of watermelon women.

Even being a little disgusted by the old man's antics, Ye Yan thought that he can't let this chance slip by. It is a legendary item after all. At least, it is in real life, thus in the game, it must be of legendary quality at minimum.

So, for the greater good, My Girl needs to be sacrificed. 

Most NPCs don't know the difference between male/female and cross-gender. They only can differentiate in special cases as what happened with Captain Antonio.

Players can differentiate between genders by the mark above the player's head. Male players have a blue diamond mark, females have a red diamond mark, and the cross-gender mark is purple [2].

The marks are used not only to differentiate between gender but players and NPCs as well. However, sometime soon the system may remove the mark because some people can't play well because of the marks above their heads. The discomfort they feel is so great that it prevents them from playing normally.

Ye Yan thought about using My Girl to get the information from the old man without an ounce of remorse. My Girl likes to flirt with people after all and it will be for the greater good.

"I agree. But we should meet in another place." Ye Yan didn't want to come back to this place soon. 

"Good, good, very good." The old man was almost salivating, thinking about the woman Ye Yan would introduce to him.

"My name is Dai Liuxian." The old man said, showing his communication stone to Ye Yan for them to exchange contact information.

"Just call me when you got the woman for me, and I will go to your location right away." The old man started to rub his hands in excitement.

Ye Yan felt a little bad after seeing the old man's expression. He started to feel like a human trafficker or a pimp. But soon, he remembered my Girl almost rolling on the ground from laughing and the bad feeling flew away.

After leaving the Craftsmen' Guild, Ye Yan went to a tailoring shop to upgrade his gloves. Different from his fan, normal equipment can be upgraded in the popular smithing and tailoring shops that can be found in every street of the main cities of a region.

There is a tailoring shop near the Craftsmen's Guild, thus Ye Yan went there.

Ye Yan is using an Armor Set and the set's items can only be upgraded together or they will lose the set bonus, so he wouldn't choose any of the set pieces to upgrade.

His ring is very strong but it is considered an accessory, thus he can't use the free upgrade and the item is too good for him to risk breaking it.

Among his pieces of equipment, the most suitable for upgrading is his gloves because he also wants to give some attack power to them as he is used to punching his enemies in battle.

The shop has many showcases with leather and cloth armors inside and a very elegant and luxurious balcony further inside.

When one of the shopkeepers saw Ye Yan, he readily went to him. He is the one using simple clothes among them. The others are more richly dressed and look snobbish.

"How can I help you, sir?" the shopkeeper asked him politely.

"I want to upgrade my gloves." When Ye Yan said it, the shopkeeper looked at Ye Yan's hands and used his identification skill.

"This glove needs an associate tailor to upgrade. Please come with me." 

The shopkeeper led Ye Yan to a room in the back of the shop. There, Ye Yan saw a robust female human working on leather armor. 

After the shopkeeper does the introduction, he left the room.

"Spit it out! I don't have much time." The woman didn't stop her work to speak to Ye Yan and just yelled at him to say what he wants.

She wasn't polite to him because not only she is extremely busy, but Ye Yan is a low-level player as well. The only reason she attended him is that he is the guild leader of a level 1 guild and he has made some contributions to the city. If it wasn't the case, she would just hand Ye Yan's things to one of her apprentices.

After Ye Yan handed the items to the female tailor and said what he wanted to be done on his gloves, he left the shop. It would take ten whole hours for the gloves to become ready, so Ye Yan would log out and get it when he logs again later.

Ye Yan is really thankful for his status as a guild leader and the influence he got in the city because an associate tailor has more chance of success than an apprentice. Even if low-level items have less chance of breaking,  I still can break, thus if he can lessen the chances of it happening, the better.

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[1] The fan first appeared in China during the 10th Century AD. Besides Zhongli Quan, one of the eight immortals, using the fan to revive the dead, many other gods also use the fan to drive away evil. From a Feng Shui perspective, it has been said that fans have the power to deflect negative 'chi' (energy) that has been directed your way by a hostile source.

[2] Blue+red=purple.