Alex felt a light tap on his shoulder and the person at his back came close to his ears and whispered, "He's an NPC, not a player".
"What! he's an NPC, then what is he doing in the merchant shop?"
"He's a hunter who came to sell his items," the voice said.
"Hi Kent, what do you have for me today," the merchant said to the NPC.
"I got a big catch today, you know how rare deer skin is around here" Kent smiled.
"Ohh, you got a deer?" the merchant smiled brightly.
"Yes, so how much am I getting for this?" Kent asked the merchant.
All the players in the shop were standing in awe looking at the both of them talk, they were so surprised to see a player interacting with an NPC.
The merchant used his hands to signal Kent to move closer, Kent moved closer to the counter and the merchant whispered something in his ears.
Immediately he smiled and gave the bag containing the deer skin to the merchant, the merchant inspected the bag and brought out the deer skin, and he gave the bag back to Kent.
Kent received the bag and gave the merchant a small purse to the merchant, the merchant bent down below the counter so no one could see him.
He stood back up and tossed the small purse to Kent, Kent smiled and walked away, all the players' eyes were on Kent till he left the shop.
It was Alex's turn so he quickly brought out the items he had and placed them in front of the merchant, except for the blunt dagger and his light orb.
[Sharp wooden dagger - Common]
[Bracelet - Ordinary]
[Work clothes ×2 - Ordinary]
After checking the items Alex brought the merchant offered him 50 blue coins and he accepted, he didn't know how items were being priced but 50 seems right.
He got out of the line and wanted to walk away, and that was when he saw the person behind that spoke to him.
'It's a girl, I thought it was a boy' Alex said inwardly before walking outside.
"Alex" a voice called.
Alex tilted his head and saw Gabriel close to him, he was surprised because Gabriel's hair was now blond.
"Gabriel you have black hair, how did you change the color?"
"I changed it when creating my character, I told the robot girl to change my hair to blond" Gabriel replied.
"Was there an option like that, I didn't know"
"There are other ways you can change your hair color," a voice said behind them.
Alex looked back and found a player behind him, from the looks of it, the player was a knight or a swordsman.
"How can I change my hair color?" Alex asked.
"When you exit the newbie village, there are hair salons that can do that," the player said.
"Hair salons...so Gabriel what do we start with?" Alex asked Gabriel.
"The best thing to do is to level up and then exit the newbie village, then we can plan from there," the player said.
"We...I don't understand, do we know you?" Gabriel asked the player.
"Alex, don't you know me?" the player asked.
"How do you know my name?" Alex asked in surprise.
"It's me, Max, we live in the same building," the player said.
"The high school kid...how did you know it was me?"
"I'm not a kid, I'm 18, and I saw the two of you talking about meeting in front of the merchant's shop, so I wanted to join you"
"Why would you want to join us"
"There is no way any of us can go to the top without joining forces," Max said.
"Why?"
"Well there are different reasons, first I know a lot about this game, I bought my VR helmet 2 weeks ago but I didn't play because I was still gathering information but now I'm done"
"If we work together we can become top players in 3 months," Max said.
"You seem so sure of yourself, do you think the top player would just stand by for three newbies," Gabriel said.
"Tell us more about your plan to become top player?" Alex asked.
"First we need to form a team that consists of two long-range fighters and two close-range fighters"
"Gabriel what's your in-game name," Alex said as he walked away.
"I chose Thundermage" Gabriel followed Alex and both of them walked away.
"Hey, you guys are not listening to me" Max followed and ran after them.
"Kid... your plan isn't so great, even if we form a team, the person who deals the finishing blow gets all the XP, and nothing goes to the rest," Alex told Max.
"I know that, so each time we attack a beast, we'll take turns in killing the beast, because we're a team we would be able to defeat any beast that we attack," Max said.
"We are fine on our own, you can go away now," Alex said angrily.
"Okay..." Max slowly moved away from them.
"I need to level up so we can exit the newbie village and start the real adventure," Gabriel said.
"So what weapon do you have?" Alex asked Gabriel.
"I don't have any" Gabriel answered Immediately.
"Didn't you start with a weapon, what class did you choose?"
"Dark mage" Gabriel answered.
"Huh! you are a mage, then what did you start with, didn't you get a spell or something?" Alex asked.
"No, and I checked around, there isn't a single spell shop in this village"
"Maybe when we exit the village we would find a spell shop"
"So what did you say about killing NPCs, I wanna try that" Gabriel whispered as an NPC walked past them.
"You don't have to whisper, they don't know we call them NPC, and..." Alex stopped as he saw someone.
Gabriel turned around and look toward where Alex was staring and saw an NPC.
"That guy is a level 3 NPC, he's the hunter I saw in the merchant shop earlier, I'm going to kill him and level up"