"Good for you," Yara spoke from beside him.
"It's also good for you," Lorn replied.
Yara paused. "I guess."
"You don't seem so excited."
Yara shrugged. "I don't really care about it all that much. I know the game's going to be something big and all, but… eh."
Lorn didn't want to ask about her past. Who among the beta-testers had pleasant things to talk about?
"Well, at least you wouldn't have to worry about money with this."
"Money, huh," Yara chuckled. "It's not like I need it. I'll be with the salary I receive from the research center. If I live frugally, maybe I wouldn't have to work till I die."
The statement felt odd to Lorn. A part of his brain realized that it shouldn't feel odd, as what Yara said was the case for most people, but it still felt odd.
"You don't have debts to pay? No big scary uncles chasing you around?"
"Sorry. I'm not under crippling financial pressure like all the cool kids these days. I'm just a boring old high-school graduate."
"Then why are you in the experiment?"
"I dunno."
"?"
"Some people from the One Country came to my house and asked me if I wanted to beta-test a game. They were acting pretty sus with all the NDAs and secrecies, so I thought it might be interesting. After all the legal stuff was done, they revealed what they were working on and I flew here to the One Country."
"Huh."
"Well, 80% infliction rate doesn't really mean much. And besides, for these kinds of things, if you just participate willfully, you don't really have nothing to worry about. God rewards bravery, after all."
"…"
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Nothing."
"Yeah? Well, whatever. Let's see if they posted anything else interesting here."
The two scrolled down the site and searched for posts about Spirit Bonds. There was none, and the two sighed out in relief.
Lorn then just casually glanced through the forums.
The guys who were arguing about the One World's geography had finally made a map. And the post was pinned.
Surprisingly, it was something of a triangle. There was one giant landmass in the middle, with three smaller continents located to its south, west and east. The northern part was most empty except for the few islands.
Vox was on the western smaller continent, sharing borders with two countries names Kallad and the Sun Land. These three countries were very similar to Europe, considering the people that lived there and also the culture.
On the eastern end of the world was Shin, a large country who had the entire continent to themselves. Their culture sounded entirely Asian.
The southern continent, though, was denoted as the land of monsters. Few was known about them. And no one had spawned there either.
The Central continent was also a mystery for the players. Like the South, no one had actually spawned in the central continent, but from what they could gather from the NPCs, it was a collection of Duchies and Counties that were constantly at war with each other. It was the center of the world, so the people inhabiting it were from all over the world.
And although they all fell under the One Emperor's rule, they were free to wage war amongst themselves. And the Duchies with the biggest territories could receive many benefits from the Empire. In fact, the whole world fell under the Empire's grasp, but they acted like an independent country for the most part.
It was an impossible state of affairs for Earth, but since there was an absolute immortal monarch with godlike powers, apparently this mess of a political rule was possible.
Lorn finished reading the post about the geography of the world and decided to ask Sybil about them later on.
"There's this guy again…" Yara muttered.
Lorn looked at what she was pointing and saw a familiar name, Indra.
He was the guy who was one of the first to make a post, asking for others to join him. The last time Lorn saw the forums, he was trying to create an Undying only guild or a clan.
Apparently he succeeded, though only partially. They did make an Undying only guild, but they could only do it by borrowing an insane amount of money from the residents. Many of the established guilds and clans owned a part of this 'independent' guild.
Lorn didn't mind something like this. In fact, he hoped Indra became successful and everyone else starts copying him. If the players and the residents keep differentiating between each other like this, the likelihood of them discovering the benefits of spirit bonds would be low.
Lorn noticed another big post.
The creator wanted to compile all the info they had on the monsters in the game and make a bestiary and asked everyone to cooperate. Others commented about the monsters they encountered or heard about… but many of these accounts were wrong.
Lorn could only describe it as a huge mess.
He went on.
There were many posts that looked suspicious. Posts of people claiming to have recreated drugs, tobacco, nicotine, alcohols, and of course, many, many quick-and-easy methods to learn to use skills.
Obviously, it wasn't all scams. There were some players who were actually successful in recreating the luxuries of reality in the One World. They were quickly building their own brand in the game.
Though, they did say that they needed to possess these abilities in the form of skills, at the very least as an Innate Skill. If they got it as an Obtained skill, they could also add countless other magical effects to their creations. It was in line with what Reina told him.
Lorn thought of his list of Innate skills. There wasn't anything that helped him get a production-type side gig. Lorn gave up and read on.
There wasn't really anything else.
Yara stayed on the computer to play some games. Lorn went to his room to catch up with social media and the world.
He spent some time watching new videos, before he noticed something on the news.
[The ninth son of the Cross family reported dead. The president of the United States, Harold Cross, invites his siblings to attend the funeral in the Cross estate.]
***