Pillars of Quests (No, I don't have a thing for pillars. )
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San Zhu led Chang Xiu to an inner alcove not far from where the Qi Pillar Island was located. Two ferocious lion statues stood on either side of the wall marking it as the entry way into something.
San Zhu inserted his Guild ID into the mouth of one of the lions. The eyes of the lion glowed and the wall between the statues disappeared.
Inside was a long golden corridor with high a ceiling and many glowing pillars that had inscriptions on it. In front of one of the pillars stood a long line of players.
Cheng Xiu looked around her in awe.
"This is where the Players get their work," San Zhu said. "How long have you been playing The Other World? you seem really taken with the Mission hall."
Cheng Xiu turned to him grinning. "Yesterday morning!"
San Zhu almost fell. "What!"
Cheng Xiu frowned. "Why do you seem so shocked?"
San Zhu walked to a secluded part of the hall and motioned for her to join him.
Cheng Xiu stood in front of him, suspicion in her narrowed eyes.
"Sister Cheng-"
Cheng Xiu put her hand over his mouth. "Call me Sela here!"
He blushed and looked down to his feet. She backed away from him. "Sorry. Sister Sela, Veritas is not a beginner's village!"
Cheng Xiu looked at him in confusion. "Sure it is. Do you think the AI made some kind of mistake and I was supposed to be at some other Veritas?"
San Zhu shook his head. "No. Sorry, that came out wrong! I meant this is a Beginner's village but it is an S-Rank beginner's village with a potential to turn SS-Rank or even SSS-Rank at any given notice."
Cheng Xiu sweated. "The system did not say anything about ranks in villages!"
San Zhu shook his head. "The ranking system was compiled by the expert players in the Players Forum. It's not official. But it makes sense. The villages, towns, and cities of The Other World follow the general convention of power in our own society. The lowest are F-Ranks, followed by E, then D, then B, then A, then S, then SS, and finally SSS. Many believe that they are ranked in this way because it is where people with those Qi potentials could go. With me so far?"
Cheng Xiu nodded, her eyes teary. Her luck was bad.
San Zhu felt like a monster for doing this to the girl. She was a Qiless like him who clearly worked hard to get ahead in society and he felt responsible for this junior of his who showed so much potential inspite of her background. Now he was the one who was destroying her ideals in a game that she must be playing to relax and enjoy and escape reality.
Cheng Xiu ducked her head, her eyes unseen. She imagined Lu WenXian pinned to that map of The Other World that she saw and throwing those darts at him instead of on the board. One in each hand and legs. One in his heart. One on his head. And one on his unmentionables.
"To Qiless like us, villages of this level are only accessible when we reach level 5 and can teleport over. In fact, many don't do it even then because of the danger a village of this rank could pose to the Qiless. It's a surprise that a Qiless beginner would gwt Veritas as the Starter Village. There must have been a reason this happened."
Her bad luck, Cheng Xiu wanted to say.
Cheng Xiu frowned, remembering how the village looked when she got there. "But when I came here, there were a lot of people who were complaining about the low rewards for high - risk Quests that this village had. Shouldn't an S-Ranked village be more rewarding? And there were a lot of people complaining about there not being enough quests."
San Zhu smiled. "Those must have been civilian quests. In a danger prone village like this, the rewards that civilian NPCs can give out is bare minimum. If you want higher rewards you have to take those that are given out by officials and important people of the village or go monster hunting."
Cheng Xiu leaned her head against the wall. "Why is this village so despondent?"
"Vixia Kingdom is under great duress right now. It is flanked on two sides by the Goan Kingdom and is at war with them because all its trade routes by land have become inaccessible. It only has the sea route to trade now and is facing constant attacks from pirates. There are two other trade route of course, the ones that go through the Viridian Forest. Once the people started to step into the forest the beasts started attacking almost all Vixia borders. Basically waves of Moster's at regular intervals. You will see the occasional high level players at the places because of this. You might have seen some in Veritas too."
Her mind went to WenXian's face. Damned bastard.
"Is that why Veritas has become S-Ranked?"
San Zhu nodded. "Almost all missions are E ranked and above because the chances of Veritas existing for a long time is slim. I'll miss uncle Dian when that happens but the AI already has plans in motion after all."
Cheng Xiu stared at the ceiling in a daze.
San Zhu felt guilty at putting upsetting thoughts in her mind. He should have waited to give her this information. Her poor feminine heart must be aching.
Damned WenXian. Screw you!
"Let's get that Quest, Sister Sela!" he said, trying to get her out of the funk. "This kind of information is not really that important since we're already here and it's not like we have the Chosen One quest that uncle Dian cons people into. Those poor fools have to work extra hard now."
Cheng Xiu felt an arrow through her heart. She wanted to curl up in a corner and cry.
Brother San, did you have something against me that you are attacking my ego so much?, she thought.
San Zhu stood in front of one of the glowing pillars. "Sister Sela, come here. Select one of the E rank quests from these lists and then touch the pillar with your Guild ID. It will give you all the necessary information."
Cheng Xiu looked through the number of quests. Cleaning roads, fixing tiles, washing clothes,...killing slime, helping merchants, escorts, cleaning a river,...the list of missions went on and on.
Cheng Xiu selected 'Killing Lemon Monsters' which was ranked E. She wanted to get a feel of the Quest mechanics before doing something too crazy like hunting feral wolves. She touched the pillar with her ID.
[Ding!]
[Player Selafia Veritas has taken the quest to be The Chosen One and has achieved 100% understanding of True Qi Cultivation Method and gained fame of +2000. Player is not allowed to take Quests that are below your station.]
Cheng Xiu swore at the AI. 'I decide what my station is. Screw you, Maya.'
Maya did not respond.
Cheng Xiu selected 'Deliver palesgrass x10 to Beginner Witch Loo'.
[Ding!]
[Player's 100% comprehension of True Qi Cultivation Method makes her a being who is considered powerful in the magic users community. You can not interact with those who are below Apprentice without it being seen as a declaration of war.]
Cheng Xiu hurriedly selected a high E-ranked one this time. War it said! Yikes!
She chose 'Escort Farm Manager to the Farm.'
[Ding!]
[Player's status as someone without any prior Quest logging makes you ineligible to Escort missions.]
Cheng Xiu groaned.
[Ding!]
[Player has chosen 3 Quests that were inappropriate for the Player consecutively for their first Quest. The system will now choose a random mission from the appropriate tier for Player Selafia Veritas.]
NO!
[Quest Chosen!]
[Kill the Rats climbing the clock tower in the Viridian Forest.
Rewards will be based on Player Performances.
Happy Gaming!]
'Maya! Damn you, Maya! You are a broken AI, I want a refund!'
[Host has not yet spent money in The Other World. Players can only unlock the System Market after completing at least one Quest.]
Cheng Xiu finally lost it and cursed aloud.
San Zhu spun to her in shock, wondering what had caused someone as sophisticated as Cheng Xiu to cuss.
"Sister Cheng? What happened?"
Cheng Xiu blushed as many players looked over.
She cleared her throat. She took out her ID and showed it to San Zhu.
San Zhu cursed. "f****, why did this happen!"
Cheng Xiu shrugged. There was no way she was going to say she was one of the fools with the Chosen One quest.
San Zhu sighed and wanted to complain about it but seeing how miserable Cheng Xiu felt changed tactics.
"I guess this is just bad luck. Let's go, sister Cheng. A Quest in Viridian Forest is tough to handle but it is the most rewarding. We should leave now before it's too late," he tried to reassure her.
Cheng Xiu gave him a pained smile. Did he think she couldn't see how irate he was?
Cheng Xiu followed after him, her head bowed. Damned WenXian. He really screwed her over.
A/N: Thank you all for the love and support.
This was supposed to be the Quest Chapter but it became a character + game mechanics chapter instead.
Thank you for all the collections. Welcome to the TOW family. We tow things.
4th Wall Theater:
Maya: [Is WenXian going to be the ML?]
Me: "Maybe! It's a secret!"
Maya: [You have no clue do you?]
Me: (sits in a corner, crying and drawing circles) System is bullying me.
Maya: [I can see you trying to hide the bottle of glycerin.]
Me: Thank you, folks. See you soon.
Maya:[Idiotic Author.]