Level Is Everything

"Hey, have you played the game? I'm level 3 already. My ID is: 982082871 add me later okay?"

"Are you serious? I am in the beginner's village no. 3320. What? You're in the same village too? Let's party up and aim to have the highest level in the class."

"What was your class again? Florist? Low battle capabilities? No worries, this father here will power level you up girl. As long as you keep your promise to hang out with me later."

"The game is amazing right? I can't believe that it was only a game. The 99.99% realism sure is wonderful."

"Have you tried eating the food inside the game? It was super delicious."

All the way on the road towards the school, all the thing that becomes the star of the conversation is about the new game Aaru. Ryou is silently listening to them while pretending not to hear anything. Sure enough, no topics other than the game is being discussed even by the students of the school when he arrived there. Of course none of his classmates is talking to him about it and he quietly took his seat while hearing them.

It maybe some useless chatter but Ryou found out a few things from that. Firstly, the average level of his classmates are level 3. It can be considered quite good remembering the large amount of player that is occupying the monster hunting grounds. Secondly, most of the player are still trying to figure out how the game works and some even choose lifestyle class which doesn't have a lot of skill for combat and have lower damage output due to stats distribution. The world of Aaru itself giving a lot of freedom to the players so some players are using the freedom to discover the wonder of the game rather than levelling up.

It was clear that Ryou was treated just like air and no one in the class bothered to pay any attention to him except for one person. It was Sakura, the one who instigated the class to ignore Ryou and the only one in the class that is allowed to talk to him.

"Heh, so it is Ryou. How are you feeling? Usually, you may understand what's going on with the class conversation but today you finally realized that we lived in a different world isn't it?"

Without even needed to take a glance, Ryou knew who is talking to him and didn't even bother to reply before he takes out a textbook from his bag.

"Hey you! Don't ignore me!"

The princess was ticked off to be ignored by the 'peasant'.

"Oh, you are talking to me? I thought it was a mosquito buzzing around."

"Y-y-y-ou!"

*ding dong ding dong*

Fortunately for Ryou the bell rang so Sakura need to return to her seat. When the bell for lunch break comes, Ryou immediately run out of the classroom as to avoid Sakura once again. It was also the same when the school ends, Ryou didn't give any chance for Sakura to blabber nonsense again.

When Ryou arrived home, he practices his archery for a while, taking shower, eating dinner and preparing to logged in to the game. Ryou's habit never changed for a long time. It was physical exercise in the morning before breakfast, going to school, and archery practice when he comes back before finally studying in the evening. Now it was changed little by little when he decided to play the game.

---

It was Ryou's third death today and it was actually happened every time whenever he levelled up to level two. It was also caused by the same monster, 'Tempest Wolf'. When Ryou searched the game forum, he found some information about the monster.

It is actually the boss for the beginner's village field area. It appeared whenever it saw a lone player entering its territory. If by a rare chance it encountered a group of players that is wandering around aimlessly, it also will eliminate the group because its strength was overpowered. Some players have sent complaints to the company saying that it was a bug but the reply from the company was: "the monster stats itself doesn't have any issue and we detected no anomaly from the AI script."

Due to that some players are thinking that the 'Tempest Wolf' are actually some kind of proxy created by the game company to make players realized a few things. Firstly, as Schneider have said countless times, level is everything. A player should level up facing monster around their level first before finally hunt the 'Tempest Wolf' which is currently way above their level. Or it can be said that there will be strength in numbers, if one player isn't enough then finding a party member will help you to hunt monster faster and more efficient if everyone plays their role correctly.

「Taking into account killing a wind wolf took 10 arrows, I only have enough arrow to kill two more wind wolf. I should first buy more arrow and repair my equipment too. 」

The monsters in the beginner's village drop no coins upon death. It was another kind of tutorial which encourages player to find money using various means. One of them is by selling the monster material that is dropped upon death or by completing request in the village. Ryou sold the wolf pelt and tooth at the item NPC and bought some arrows. He can actually earn more money if he finds an NPC that hands out quest that need the wolf pelt and tooth as the quest item but it will take more time. The wolf pelt sells for 20 copper coin and the tooth sells for 10 copper coin. He earned 240 copper coin which he spends 100 copper to buy 100 wooden arrows.

By selling the item and earning coin, Ryou learned that there are four kind of coins in the game. Copper coin which is the lowest and 1000 of copper coin equal to a silver coin. 1000 silver coins equal to a gold coin and 1000 gold coins equal to crystal coin. The game itself doesn't have the option to buy in game money using real money implemented. Although some player can be seen selling them through personal trading in the forum, the game company itself didn't sell in game currency. The principle behind it that the amount of money you earned from the game is defining your strength. A large gaming guild will have to depends on their member strength to gather the guild funds rather than depending on their financial strength to collect in game coins. Although you are allowed to do so by trading coins from other players, it will also depend on how much the guild are willing to spend and whether it will exceed the speed of the guild's member gathering the coins by themselves.

Ryou also spent 40 copper coins to fix his wooden bow and cotton shirt. Although they are still low on quality, if the durability falls to 0 the item will be destroyed and can't be used anymore. If that were to happen then Ryou won't be able to hunt monsters before he managed to buy another wooden bow which is priced at 500 copper coin.

Ryou also realized one thing, to play the game he need to be extra careful not to die again and again. If the same thing keeps happening, he won't be able to reach a high level and finally lead him to stuck on this never ending cycle of level 2 returning to level 1.

「Should I change my hunting grounds? Or should I be more careful after I reach level 2? Finding a party member isn't a bad idea too but it will slow down my leveling speed due to the experience gained need to be shared to party member. What should I do? 」

While Ryou is thinking about what he should do, he heard a familiar voice from behind.

"Sakura, your "Heal" is amazing. It definitely better than any potion and increase our party hunting speed by several folds."

"Hehe~ you flattered me too much. I am merely healing from the behind, you guys are the amazing ones to have defeated the monsters so quickly."

"Ah, we're just telling you the truth. Since you come into the party our hunting has become much easier."

Ryou turned his head to see a familiar figure, it was Sakura, his classmate. He quickly turned his head again to make sure that Sakura didn't see him. However, he silently followed the party while listened to their conversation from afar.

Sakura's party has reached level 8 and it can be considered one of the highest level party around at the moment in the beginner's village no. 1302. When their party reached level 10, they can finally head to the real map of Aaru world and start to play the game for real. Today they will go to the fields to hunt a level 8 'thunder wolf'. The party itself has encountered the 'Tempest Wolf' for several times and each time they managed to flee safely even though it was filled with hardship and casualties. However, since Sakura joined the party, her "heal" managed to keep the tank of the party stay alive before ensuring the rest of the party member flee.

(tank: in gaming terms, a tank is a player that is tasked to basically tanking all the damage from the monster. By doing that, the rest of the party can safely deal damage to the monster without the fear of being attacked in the process.)

Knowing that Sakura's level is higher than himself, it caused Ryou to be a bit annoyed. Even more so seeing her attitude that is portraying the 'weak beauty healer' which is full of hypocrisy of how bad her actual personality is.

「It's making me sick. I wonder what can I do to make her shows her true color? I bet those guys will be shocked to know how unruly she was. 」

Looking at Sakura's party that is walking out of the village to the fields, Ryou suddenly got a sudden flash of inspiration.

"Hehe, I got an idea." Ryou then followed the party from behind with an evil smile on his heart.