The four of them chit-chatted in the cold drink bar for three hours and dispersed at noon. Roland rode his bike back home against the scorching sun in the middle of the day. The first thing he did after he came home was set the temperature of the air conditioner to minimum and let the cold wind blow at him.
After he cooled down, Roland turned on his computer and logged in on the forum again, only to discover that his personal mailbox was filled with private messages. Roland was puzzled to see the ocean of notifications.
Taking a deep breath, he read them more carefully. Most of them were tipping notifications. At first he thought it was a system error, but after checking a few messages, he discovered that he had indeed been tipped, some with one forum coin and some with dozens.
On this forum, the forum coin equaled to money in reality. Every forum coin was about one buck.
All the tips were from the same source, "Roland's Experience on Inferior Fireball," which he posted not long ago. He reopened the Spellcaster Section and saw that his thread was stickied, highlighted, and recommended.
He clicked the thread, and everybody was praising him.
"I admire nobody but the author of this post. These two forum coins are my gratitude."
"Analyzing spells with mathematical models is truly genius! I've memorized your self-detonation nodes in your last attempt and will try it tonight. Here are five forum coins."
"Inferior Fireball turns into a self-destructing bomb. You're definitely a promising bomber. I don't have much money, but here are two forum coins to show my support."
There were a lot of similar praises. The tips ranged from one to twenty. Of course, most people did not tip and were only here for fun.
Some Warlocks came in and tried to derail the topic, but their sarcastic remarks did not raise much attention and were soon drowned by the praises.
Roland returned to the account center. He held his forehead after a quick glance, because he had more than fifty thousand forum coins and the number was growing. Exchanging those coins into real cash, he would earn about fifty thousand bucks even with the commission charge.
That was his salary for a whole year, and he had spent it on the game cabin. Little did he expect that he could earn the money for the game cabin back by posting his experience in the game.
It meant that thousands of people had tipped him on the forum. Those who could afford a game cabin were generally not poor. After all, the game cabin, which cost fifty thousand bucks, was not cheap.
Roland was happy to make some money, but he had a lot of complicated feelings after the incident. He was not a professional player, and he never thought to make a living by playing games.
He exchanged the forum coins and soon received the money. Reading the text message that informed him of the payment of fifty thousand bucks, Roland chuckled and had lunch downstairs. Then, he rode his bike for a while, and when he was back, he was calm again. The excitement of his bonus was gone.
He played other games for a while, but after experiencing the immersive world, he had lost interest in other games. Even his favorite games couldn't appeal to him right now.
Time had never moved more slowly for him.
Finally, it was around 21:45. He put on his pajamas and crawled into the game cabin. The cabin was automatically closed, and a green light glimmered before his eyes. He closed his eyes and soon fell asleep.
When he was awake again, he found himself back in the game. The world was still monochrome, and Falken was still rising next to him.
Roland could not move, either. He waited patiently. Soon, the world was colorful again, and Falken stood up. He had no idea that Roland had left this world once.
Hunched, he slowly turned around and said to Roland, "You can't be familiarized with magic overnight. I suggest you find a job in the town and save some money first. By the time you grasp the spells, you will have saved enough money for you to make other plans."
Roland realized that it did make sense, but he shook his head after thinking for a while. "I can't speak your language yet. I don't think I can find a job, can I?"
"I got a job for you," said Falken with a smile. "There's a mine at the back of the mountain. All you need to do is dig for minerals. No conversation is needed. There's free food, and the pay is decent."
Mining was indeed a good way to grow rich in other games, but it was hard to say in this one. However, since Roland did not really have a choice, he eventually nodded and said, "Thank you, but I'm afraid that I don't have enough strength. Mining is hard labor, after all."
"Professionals are far stronger than regular people." Falken smiled. "Even the spellcasters are much better than regular men in terms of body build. I could knock down a couple of brawny men bare-handedly when I was young."
Roland was not convinced, but he could tell that he was a lot stronger in this game than he was in reality although he was merely a spellcaster.
Falken led Roland to the town. When they passed the trail next to the lake, a lot of villagers greeted Falken, and Falken greeted back politely. Roland could tell that Falken was very popular here.
Ten minutes later, Falken brought Roland to the foot of a hill to the west of the lake. There was a cave here, with turquoise stones heaped outside. Further away lay a big stone house that was probably a warehouse. A dark middle-aged man was taking a nap on a desk outside of the warehouse.
Falken walked over and tapped the old wooden desk.
The middle-aged man was immediately woken up. Seeing that it was Falken, he said fawningly, "Master Falken, what has brought you here?"
"Galen, I've brought a worker for you." Falken patted Roland's back and said, "He's a rookie, but I'm sure he won't disappoint you."
The middle-aged named Galen sized up Roland for a while and hesitated. "Master, this youngster seems too soft and civilized for heavy-duty work."
Falken sniffed and mocked, "You think he'll work here for long? Also, you don't know who he is? You haven't been to the town recently, have you?"
Red Mountain Town was not a large place. Most news spread throughout the town very quickly. It was rather strange that Galen did not know of Roland.
The middle-aged shook his head. "I came from Round Wood Town this morning. It was exhausting and I've been napping since. I overheard that something happened in the town, but I don't know the details."