Chapter 37. University (?)
"Are you confident in passing your exams?"
Lu Fei asked his sister while they were eating dinner.
As the high school entrance examinations would begin in some months, he was getting worried about his sister's performance in them.
"Yes, I'm confident of getting into a good high school. What about you brother?"
Lu Xiaomei asked, lifting up her small face and looking into the confused eyes of her brother.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean the national college entrance examinations. Aren't you aiming for a good university?"
Lu Fei shook his head when he heard that question. He had no intention to attend a university whatsoever.
"No, it would just be a waste of time."
For Lu Fei, even high school was a waste of time. If not for his mother's last wish, he would have already dropped out of high school.
"How will it be a waste of time?"
Lu Fei frowned when he heard that. He looked at his sister and calmly explained.
"First of all, attending university costs money and time. We can't afford it, and you know how bad my grades are, even if I went to do the college entrance examinations, no universities would accept me."
"I think there would be some who would accept you."
His sister was still acting stubborn. She was even pouting her mouth while looking at Lu Fei.
"What's with you today?"
"I just want you to go to university. It's hard to find a job with just a high school diploma."
"I will earn money by playing games and doing part-time jobs."
His sister grumbled when she heard that, but she still continued to argue with him.
She was young, but her attitude was getting more and more stubborn. Lu Fei couldn't do anything about it as it was inherited from their parents.
"You should focus on your high school entrance examinations. You want to enter the First high school, right?"
Lu Fei quickly changed the topic of discussion.
"How do you know that?"
Lu Xiaomei had never told her brother anything about the high school she wanted to enter.
"I'm your big brother. You can't hide anything from me."
Actually, Lu Fei had accidentally heard her sister's call with her friend.
They were talking about their desired high schools, and that's how he had come to know that his sister wanted to enter the First high school.
"I want to enter it, but I already gave up on it."
"Why? If you studied hard, you could easily pass..."
"It's not that!!"
Lu Xiaomei raised her voice as she interrupted her brother. Then, she lowered her head slightly and let out a small voice.
"I don't want to burden you more."
"What burden?"
"I'm not a child now. I know how hard it is for you to earn money, and the fees of the First high school are too much for us."
Beijing First high school was the most prominent high school in Beijing. Only geniuses and the children of wealthy people would study there.
It was tough to pass their entrance examinations.
More than that, the fees of the First high school were not small. Lu Fei himself knew that he couldn't afford that much amount of money.
But he couldn't say that in front of his sister.
"You don't have to worry about that."
A man shouldn't look weak in front of his family, and Lu Fei knew that well.
"How can I not worry about it? I don't want to trouble you more. You are already working too much."
"I can work more."
"You obviously can't...!!"
Lu Xiaomei roared that and stood up from her seat. With tears in her eyes, she left the dinner table in the middle of the meal and locked herself in her room.
Sigh!
A sigh leaked out from Lu Fei's mouth.
'She's getting more mature and stubborn every day.'
Lu Fei thought as he looked at the leftover dinner left from his sister. His sister was not a kid anymore, but in Lu Fei's eyes, she would always be one.
He knew that she was just worried about him, but he couldn't let his desires come before her dreams.
"I have to work harder."
Lu Fei muttered that as he finished his dinner silently, but there was a fire burning in his eyes.
* * *
After getting back to his room, Lu Fei quickly opened the item transaction site and posted the images of Leverill's mace and other items to sell.
The mace was a rare grade item with a skill. Just that would make it a hot item on the item transaction site.
Lu Fei was estimating that it would sell for at least 10k USD, but that was not the end. He also had various armors and weapons of the Lizardmen he had killed in the hidden dungeon.
Usually, in any VR game, the prices of lower-level items would decrease with time.
It was because lower-level players would gradually level up. Then, the value of lower-level items would naturally decrease too.
But it was not the case with Ark.
Every day, hundreds of players would enter Ark. One could see players spawning every day in the starting points of Ark.
That's why the demand for items was always increasing.
It could even be said that both the demand and price were increasing.
'I will at least receive 15k USD.'
Lu Fei thought in his head.
Although the item transaction site would take 10% of the money, he would still be left with a considerable amount.
15k USD!
It was not an amount Lu Fei had imagined to earn just by selling an item in a game.
Although it may look easy at a glance, Lu Fei had fought to the death to get that item, so he would never think that it's easy to earn money.
'Moreover, it's just a drop in the ocean.'
15k USD was a huge amount, but it was just a drop in the enormous amount of debt he had. He would have to work hard to fill the ocean and pay back his debt.
"I should start to save money for Xiaomei's high school."
Lu Fei muttered as he closed the item transaction site. Then, he opened up a community forum.
More specifically, it was the official forum of Ark, Ark life forum, or ALF community for short. One could find various types of information about Ark here.
Lu Fei had entered the forum to search for information about Karios.
He quickly typed the words Karios, but there was nothing. He then began to search with other keywords like 'Healer who conquered death' or 'The entity Karios.'
But in the end, only a sigh could leak from his mouth.
'Maybe, I can ask about it in a post.'
Lu Fei was about to make a post about it, to ask for any information about Karios from the players, but he stopped his hand.
"I should do it anonymously."
It was dangerous to do it from his main account. So, Lu Fei quickly made an anonymous account and began to type the post.
* * *
Today, when I was in a battle, I suddenly started hearing a strange voice in my head.
The voice was of Karios, the healer who conquered death. He told me to look for him and release him, but before I could ask anything more, his voice disappeared.
After that, a quest opened in front of me.
Here's a picture of what the quest is about.
If anyone has information about Karios or any clue about the healer who conquered death, please let me know.
* * *
Lu Fei checked the post two times before posting it. It would take some time for the post to get some hits and become popular.
'I should go sleep.'
Lu Fei couldn't stare at his old computer for hours. That's why he closed it.
He then looked at the time. It was just 10:23 P.M., but he was already feeling sleepy. It was because of the fight with Leverill.
Giving your body rest was also an essential thing to keep playing VR games. That's why Lu Fei went to sleep without wasting any time.
He didn't know that his post would come on TV at that time.
* * *
-Welcome to GBC's new program, 'Forum talks.' I'm your host Guan Zhou and accompanying me is the face of GBC, Ms. Ling Yan.
-Hello everyone, I'm your favorite host, Ling Yan.
-Ms. Ling, I thought I was the favorite host.
-You sure know how to joke.
Two broadcasters were talking with each other in the program called Forum talks.
It was a new program that appeared on the GBC public network, which was one of the television stations which focused on VR games or, more specifically, Ark.
In this program, both the broadcasters will talk about interesting posts in the ALF community.
It was a program with a new concept, and it was still in the testing phase, but the viewers' response was good till now.
The show's concept was simple.
Both the broadcasters would talk about the latest post on the ALF community, which had gotten popular or had some buzz around them.
The main focus of the show was that, but the two broadcasters were the backbone of the show.
They were reasonably popular broadcasters, especially Ling Yan.
-Just last week, the Silver wolf guild made a post saying that they had conquered the Simon castle located in the Torn kingdom.
-They are one of the top guilds in the Torn kingdom, and I heard that their guild leader has even received the title of Viscount by the king.
-It's really rare to meet the king of a kingdom.
-Yes, it's really rare to meet the king, but the more extraordinary thing is to meet the emperor.
-By emperor here, you must be talking about the emperor of the Althiem empire.
-Yes, recently, there's a rumor going around the ALF community that the bow princess, Rachel is in the empire.
-It's a reasonably new rumor, and it's getting a good amount of popularity, mainly because Rachel is known for not leaving any traces.
Like that, both the broadcasters talked about some more posts in the ALF community or some rumors going around in the forum.
After that, they started their new segment called 'Ridiculous posts.'
It was a segment in which they would talk about some ridiculous posts in the ALF community, which made no sense.
These posts are mostly posted by attention seekers, and the audience really loved this part of the whole show.
-So, let's start with our first ridiculous post, which is called 'Hearing voices in Ark.'
It was Lu Fei's post, which the broadcaster Guan Zhou picked first.
He then proceeded to read out the whole post, and Ling Xiao laughed when he ended.
-It's pretty evident that it's just for attention-seeking. Who's the poster?
-It's an anonymous post.
-Ohh! Maybe, the poster was scared that he would get roasted by the people.
The male broadcaster Guan Zhou shook his head and laughed while saying.
-People are already roasting this post.
Guan Zhou then proceeded to read the comments on the post. He didn't read all the comments but only the most hilarious ones.
-The user 'Avatar head' says that the poster would surely be on steroids while writing the post.
-Another user called 'Little loli' says that if the poster can hear voices in his head, then she could change into a spirit.
-Another user Ronii shows his concern and advised the poster to look for a mental hospital. He even wrote down the address of a psychiatric hospital.
Both the broadcasters laughed at that and continued to read more comments.
It was not like that. No one believed his post, but countless people were trying to seek attention in the ALF community.
It was hard to distinguish between an attention seeker and a person who was telling the truth.
Although Lu Fei had posted the picture as proof, it was just not enough for the majority of the people to believe him.
Most people would just think that it's a fake photo, and no one had time to clarify it.
-Let's look at the other ridiculous posts now.
Like that, the two broadcasters continued to read out more posts, and the show continued.
At that point, Lu Fei was still oblivious to all of the situation. Yet, when he would come to know of this, he would inevitably spew out some curses at the broadcasters.