Mercenaries are players who are hired by beginners and experienced gamers alike to assist them with various tasks in the game, such as hunting monsters, gathering materials, and leveling up their characters.
Sora and Akira are among the most renowned mercenaries, known as the "Legendary Mercenary Siblings." They are highly experienced players and offer services related to gathering and leveling. However, their true expertise lies in tanking and magic DPS. Sora, despite being a woman, has chosen the tanking role and became a Paladin. Upon reaching the next class tier, she selected the Iron Fortress class, known for having the highest HP and defense values in the game. The trade-off for this formidable defense and HP is a reduction in attack power, which means she can't operate solo.
This is where Akira plays a crucial role as the primary DPS. He began as a Magician and progressed to the challenging Archmagus class. The Archmagus excels in AOE magic and burst magic skills, making it the ideal class for quickly dispatching groups of monsters. What's even more remarkable is that Akira invested all his stat points into INT and DEX, resulting in an exceptionally fast casting speed. Most of his spells have a maximum cast time of 10 seconds, which would normally require 20 or more seconds, with a minimum of 3 seconds. However, his Achilles' heel is his lack of defensive stats; he's essentially a glass cannon.
The reason they've achieved legendary status is their remarkable synergy as partners, effectively covering each other's weaknesses and disadvantages. They've also accumulated wealth over their long gaming careers. Interestingly, I realized they were the same people I'd encountered in a previous timeline. When I was struggling against a challenging boss and had left a guild that continually hunted me for EXP, Sora and Akira came to my rescue. They even helped me level up for free, which allowed me to restart my gaming journey. I owe them a great deal for my fresh start.
Now that they are still relatively young and not yet fully immersed in the game, I thought about helping them become even stronger sooner. With the public release of the gaming console for the Alternate World still six months away, what if they started early? Could they achieve even greater success than in the previous timeline?
"Say, are you two interested in playing video games?" I inquired.
The two were taken aback by my question, but Akira responded promptly.
"If we ever get the chance to play one, we would definitely do it. But due to our current state, I doubt we can still enjoy playing one," Akira answered nervously, but he still responded normally.
"I see. Then I will allow you to play one soon. If you two are ready, come to this address tomorrow, and I will wait for the two of you," I said and handed them a card with my address and phone number written on it. The reason I have a calling card like this is for occasions when I want to hand them something like a calling card. I have been doing it in the past, so it became a habit.
"Okay then!" Akira enthusiastically took the card.
I don't know why Akira easily trusted me, though I can easily understand why Sora is still not trying to speak to me and continues to hide behind his brother's back. For me, it's a better reaction Sora has shown to me since I'm not someone they should have trusted immediately, but, eh, who cares now; it has been accepted.
After finalizing all of the expenses and paying for the mansion, I finally owned the mansion for five hundred thousand yen since it was being sold cheaply by the owner. I was ecstatic about it since I got the thing at a reasonable price without paying a very large amount of money. Renovating the place would also be easy since there is already an existing foundation; it doesn't need too much effort to restore the place.
Of course, this purchase was a secret from my parents. They have no idea I have already bought a house in case the situation gets a little bit worse. That way, the scammers won't have any knowledge about this.
When I returned home, my father called me on my old phone and started bombarding me with questions.
"Son, did you send me the money? The only people who ever send money to my account are your mother and you. How did you come by such a substantial amount? Are you involved in selling drugs or engaged in some illicit activity we're unaware of?" Father's tone grew increasingly aggressive as he spoke on the other end of the phone.
"What the hell, Dad? I would never involve myself in illegal activities, and I certainly don't want to risk going to jail for the sake of money! I earned that money through entirely legitimate means!" I retorted.
"Then how in the world did you amass that sum? Did you sell a kidney or something?" Father persisted.
"DAD!"
"Alright, alright, seriously, son, how did you come into this sudden windfall? I'm completely in the dark about how you acquired it," he asked.
"It was a prize pool from one of the games I've been playing. I managed to secure the grand prize, and that's the money you see in your account now. No matter what's going on over there, you can now use it to cover Mom's expenses without working overtime. Please, use it for her," I explained.
"You played games that earn money? Are there still games that do give prize money if you win? Shouldn't that be a long time ago?" he was puzzled.
"Nah, there are still some games out there doing that. It's pretty much a normal thing. You just didn't know about it."
"They must be too generous if they decided to give this much money then. Are you sure you are not lying to me? Because if you did, I will grill you for answer more."
"Yes, yes! Don't worry about it!"
"But seriously, Son. This is your money, shouldn't you be the one who should spend this money on yourself?"
"I would rather have Mom get a good use of that money than me. She needed it more than I do. I can manage."
We continued our conversation, and I inquired about my mother's condition. Thankfully, my mother was recovering well and would wake up after a few more days of rest. Everything seemed to be stable on their end, allowing me to breathe a sigh of relief, knowing my mother was in a stable condition.
After a lengthy call, I said my goodbyes to my father before hanging up. With everything settled, I cleared my schedule and checked the internet for updates. To my surprise, the first guild, the Burning Dragon, was planning to conquer the Lesser Purgatory. Seeing this infuriated me. Were they trying to steal my first clear? Well, I was determined to make it clear that I wouldn't let them get away with it!