VRMMORPG: The Other World Online

"You are welcome," Yaksha said to him as though he felt that he had been a genuine help to the blue-robed man.

Cheng Xiu shook her head. "But in any case, we will help you lift the curse."

"We?" Yaksha asked her.

"Won't you?" Cheng Xiu asked him, staring at him.

Yaksha stared at her for a long moment.

San Zhe, the subject of their conversation felt uncomfortable all of a sudden. Were these two going to argue over him? And was Sister Xiu going to be shameless in asking the Bigshot to help him? Why would he? He wasn't a special player like Cheng Xiu and neither was he a pretty girl, there was no way that the bigshot would want to help.

"I will," Yaksha said to her. "Aren't you afraid that I will be interfering with Mr San's gaming experience though?"

Cheng Xiu frowned. She turned to San Zhe.

San Zhe sat up straight and looked deeply into her eyes. He prepared himself to tell her that he did not need the expert's help. That it was his duty to fulfil the Quest alone.

But there was no need for such a preparation. The reason, Cheng Xiu asked a question that was not in the same vein as the one he assumed that she would ask him about.

"How long have you had the Quest for?" Cheng Xiu asked. Though it was just a formality. Because San Zhe was still at Level 6 and has been playing this game since its beginning, she could guess how long it had been. But she did not want to assume things in his stead, and just waited for him to answer her.

"That…" Sun Zhe's eyes flickered with complicated emotion. He was not sure how he should answer that. "It has been five years almost. I entered the Other World VR three months after it was launched for the general public and I got the quest a month later when I was at Level 9."

Cheng Xiu blinked and her phoenix eyes gazed at him with pity.

San Zhe shrunk his neck. Yeah. That was not good at all, was it?

"Did you never think of quitting the account?" Yaksha suddenly asked him.

San Zhe blinked. "Um…I did…but honestly…I cared about this quest a lot…so…"

Cheng Xiu frowned. "Cared about the Quest? Why?"

San Zhe sighed. "Because I got the trident because of an old friend of mine who is…no longer among the living."

"That was a weird way to phrase that," Cheng Xiu said, "But okay…so that is why you won't quit the game account? Because the trident means something to you personally?"

San Zhe nodded his head.

"See what I mean," Cheng Xiu suddenly said to Yaksha.

The man in the black mask sighed. "I do."

San Zhe looked between them in confusion. "See what?"

"You do need expert guidance," Cheng Xiu said with pity in her eyes.

San Zhe pursed his lips under his mask. "You think I am incompetent."

Cheng Xiu sighed. "Brother San, it is not a matter of competence. Think for a moment and look at the facts. You have been playing the same game for nearly five years, and yet because of a single curse, you are not able to progress beyond the Tenth Level. You know what that looks like."

San Zhe bent his head to hide his eyes from Cheng Xiu's line of sight. "I am incompetent."

"No," Cheng Xiu said to him, "You are just poor."

San Zhe blinked, the dark look on his left as he looked at Cheng Xiu. "What?"

Cheng Xiu shrugged. "I am sure there are a lot of items that could have helped you in such situations but there would be conditions that you have to meet, like having the right amount of money."

San Zhe blinked. He felt like he had lost Cheng Xiu's thread of thought already. "Money?"

"Doesn't the Other World have auction houses and System markets?" Cheng Xiu asked Yaksha.

"It does," he answered.

"See what I mean," Cheng Xiu told San Zhe. "There would be solutions in such places but you are too poor to enter. It is not about Competency. It is just about money."

"Some people would consider that a sort of competency too," San Zhe said to her in a low voice. He knew he was just being contradictory for the sake of it. But he just couldn't accept the solution that Cheng Xiu presented to him. He seemed to be willing to believe that he was incompetent than the fact that he was not rich enough. "That can't be the case. If it was, only paying players would have the means to complete the task."

Cheng Xiu sighed. "Maybe the quest was supposed to go to people of higher levels. Have you thought of that?"

San Zhe blinked. He remembered his long-dead friend and realised what Cheng Xiu meant.

"Was the quest also supposed to go to that friend of yours?" Cheng Xiu asked him calmly.

San Zhe nodded. "He was a C ranked player according to the System."

Cheng Xiu nodded. "I see."

"But I ended up getting the trident because…"

"Because…?"

"He ended up in an accident in the middle of the game."

Cheng Xiu blinked. "What kind of an accident?"

"He was playing the game while he was travelling to the US with his parents…their aircraft crashed into the sea because of some kind of malfunction."

Cheng Xiu pursed her lips. "Sorry for digging up your bad memories for you. I seem to keep doing that…sorry."

San Zhe let out a wet laugh as his eyes became red-rimmed but the tears that fell were obscured by the mask.

"Maybe my life is just too full of calamities."

Cheng Xiu looked at him for a moment. "So you gained the Trident in his stead."

San Zhe nodded his head. "He was a trident expert…and I was the arching expert…I used to be obsessed with those when I was younger."

Cheng Xiu pursed her lips. "So you took up the Trident for him?"

San Zhe shook his head. "I am not that traumatized, Sister Xiu. I didn't use the weapon immediately. I wanted to even throw the weapon away after the curse was activated and even went to the volcanos and seas to do so, but I always hesitated at the last moment. When I went through my first Lightning Tribulation, I threw it into the ocean. But it is a bound item that cannot be abandoned. I can only abandon the account. But…yeah…I just tried using the weapon when I ran out of arrows once…I liked the feel of it, and was never able to part with it after that."

"Fascinating," Yaksha said, though his tone sounded uninterested. "But now I am convinced that you need my help."

Cheng Xiu nodded. "It is not destroying your gaming experience either as you had five years to figure this stuff out."

San Zhe felt an arrow pierce through his heart at her words. Wasn't she just saying that he was not incompetent? What happened to that comment? By saying that he had five years already and he didn't…she was implying that he was incompetent!

San Zhe looked towards her with complicated eyes.

"What?" Cheng Xiu asked him at the look he gave her.

San Zhe shook his head. "Thank you, Sister Xiu, for your contribution. And thank you expert for your guidance."

"I didn't agree yet," Yaksha said.

The silence that his declaration brought was awkward and stifling.

San Zhe wanted to dig a pit where he sat and bury himself in it. That was the only way that he would be able to kill this sudden embarrassment.

"You don't need to then," Cheng Xiu said to him. "I can help him myself! I will help you!"

San Zhe gave her an awkward smile that she could not even see. "Th-that-um…thank you, Sister Xiu."

Yaksha frowned at the harmonious picture that the two were created before him. "I did not disagree either."

Cheng Xiu sighed. "Brother Yaksha, you are an expert, don't be so indecisive."

"I will help," Yaksha said to San Zhe.

San Zhe blinked. Wasn't that a bit too quick in accepting?

"And I was not being indecisive," Yaksha said, "I was reminding the two of you not to put words in my mouth."

"When did I ever do it?" Cheng Xiu asked him with a frown.

San Zhe bowed his head in apology. "Sorry, Lord Yaksha! We did not mean to offend you!"

Cheng Xiu rolled her eyes at his actions. He was so brave at times, yet when he met people who were even a bit more powerful than him, he would cower in fear. Where did his bravery go to at these moments?

Yaksha shrugged. "That is fine. Now, get ready."

Cheng Xiu blinked. "Are the counsellors coming?"

Yaksha nodded.

"How many are there? Is it one on one, or are they all together?"

"In pairs."

Cheng Xiu frowned. "There are five of them…"

"One of them is at the back, and is coming along."

Cheng Xiu understood. "So they come in pairs while their leader, who most likely had the power of two of them put together, is coming along?"

Yaksha nodded.

"That sucks," Cheng Xiu said and then froze. She looked towards Yaksha in a daze. "You-you-why did you help when I did not ask for it?"

"Think of this as an IOU," Yaksha said. "There are times when you need information. And this is one of those times. Most players at this level would have some kind of detection item. You don't. I just helped you out."

"How do you know we don't have such an item?"

"Do you?"

Cheng Xiu sighed. "….that….Forget it. Brother San, get ready."

San Zhe nodded and raised his Trident again.

Cheng Xiu had the sword copies around her spin wildly. "Time to meet a bunch of bureaucrats."

San Zhe sighed.. "Let's."