Lucio sat in front of the fire gloomily as the others laughed. Mark was narrating how he had won the fishing bout and how Lucio was humiliated after his grand declaration of war.
Lucio sulked as everyone around him laughed "IF YOU WANT A WAR, THEN A WAR YOU WILL GET!!" shouted Han as he almost choked on his beer.
Gary, Amelia, Mark, Han and Lucio sat around the fire pit in Han's Garden. Amelia was the one who cooked tonight and the food was delicious. Mark's mother had passed away when he was born due to excessive strain and blood loss.
Luckily, Gary was not left alone as Mark and Amelia filled his life with joy and happiness. Amelia was charming and beautiful while Mark was impressively strong for his age and Gary was very proud of him.
"You guys should stop making fun of him." Amelia said sternly as Han covered his mouth in an attempt to stop but he just couldn't stop laughing. Mark was grinning proudly and Gary was just eating happily.
They finished their meal and went back inside to sleep. Han lit up the fireplace for warmth and slept. Lucio quietly lay down and opened his admin system.
[ADMINISTRATOR SYSTEM]
NAME : Lucio Tiano
SPECIES: Homosapien
OCCUPATION: CEO of Zen Obscure
(Shop) --- (Staff) --- (Oscuro)
He opened the shop like always and looked at all the functions and things available. There was no major changes and he still had one 1-star free purchase ticket and a 3-star free purchase ticket.
All the different tiers had the same prices. Tier one to five starting from ten gold and being multiplied by ten for each progressive tier.
Tier 1: 10G
Tier 2: 100G
Tier 3: 1,000G
Tier 4: 10,000G
Tier 5: 100,000G
Looking at the numbers in front of him he felt a headache. He had a lot of money but was used to living like a normal average person. Seeing the expensive prices, his heart bled.
"At least it'll help me make more money…. Yes… do it for the passive income." He convinced himself before asking the system a few questions.
"Do I have to buy lower tiers before buying the higher tiers?"
A robotic voice sounded in his head "The Host is not required to buy the lower tiers if host has enough resources to buy the highest tier directly"
"Hmm… that's good. What happens if I buy them progressively?"
"The cost of the higher tiers will be reduced. This also includes using the free tickets."
"Nice. Since I'm the admin and these features help improve the gameplay, am I allowed to edit the features in any way that I want?"
"Yes, but the adjustments should bypass some limits. If it does, the function will just stop working."
"Alright, Tell me the exchange rates between the currencies of both the worlds?"
"The exchange rates are as shown on the screen." The monotonous robotic voice replied and a screen appeared in front of his eyes
[Exchange Rates]
The value of ONE bronze coin is ONE Dollar.
The value of ONE silver coin is TEN Dollars.
The value of ONE gold coin is a THOUSAND Dollars.
Lucio felt excitement bubble up inside as he asked his final question that would either help him make the so-called passive income or destroy one of his easy ways of getting rich.
"Can I change the exchange rate of the currencies of both worlds?"
"Yes. Host will receive the extra resources if the rates are increased but the host has to pay if the rates are decreased."
"Why in the hell would I decrease the rates." Lucio thought as he opened the staff tab to see the same two names on the screen.
The Oscuro tab had the basic details of all the players. Not many were alive and most of the names were greyed out. Out of the hundred players, only thirty four of them remained. Lucio sighed as he knew the place where the Koreans had spawned.
It was a nameless area which had a lot of hills and rivers but also a lot of tribes. Tribe wars were too common and the life expectancy was as low as thirty five. The area was very large and almost the entirety of Asia could spawn on the same place.
"At least more than thirty are alive….. It's still better than ten…. Oh, Dojin is alive… that's nice." Lucio thought as he closed the admin system and opened his player interface.
[
Name: Samael
Age: 14
Title: The exiled, Son of a prostitute, Street Dog
Job: None
Stats
Strength: 0.6 (Conversion ratio= 1:1000 EP)
Agility: 0.8 (Conversion ratio= 1:2000 EP)
Stamina: 1.2 (Conversion ratio= 1:1000 EP)
Vitality: 1.1 (Conversion ratio= 1:1000 EP)
Senses: 2.3 (Conversion ratio= 1:2000 EP)
Magic: 0.3 (Conversion ratio= 1:10000 EP)
Experience points: 27
(Exp points can be converted to stats. Minimum conversion value is 0.1 of any stat.)
Skills:
Magically gifted: Born with the ability to sense the mystic particles around one's self.
Tenacity: You feel less pain and take less damage from any kind of physical harm.
]
"Hmm…. 27. I have to work harder if I ever want a chance of beating Mark…." Lucio remembered the words of Han and thought 'Talent huh…. What a joke. I've obtained this after years of war and walking on the thread of life that could snap any second.'
Lucio had seen the way Mark moved to catch fishes and if he wanted to have any chance of winning against mark, he had to work vey hard. "Mark is the real talent. Not me…." Lucio muttered depreciating himself but deep inside he wanted to win.
Lucio's eyes slowly closed as he kept thinking, slowly drifting to sleep.
***
It was early morning as a group of ladies walked to the bakery, only to see it open and fires burning.
"Did the new kid come in early?" a relatively young lady asked the women around her and the oldest one of them replied "Maybe he is a bit too eager, such a hardworking kid."
They hurried over, some wanting to check if he messed things up and some, embarrassed that a kid was faster than them.
They saw a scrawny kid throwing wood into the already large fires. He looked a bit too excited to be in the place as he curiously watched the flames dance.
"Oye kid, what do you think you are doing?" The old woman said and he knocked his head hard.
"WHY?! I'm just heating up the oven!" Lucio replied as he threw the log in one of his hands into the fire defiantly.
"You are not heating it up, YOUR'E BURNING IT!!"
Lucio was about to throw another log when he got hit again and the log in his hand was snatched away. "You have to maintain a stable perfect temperature if you want a well baked bread. This is a bakery not a forge, so listen to our instructions and learn."
Lucio simply nodded and walked towards the others as he rubbed his head. The women split into two teams, one consisting of four and the other consisting of seven members including Lucio who was not allowed into the old woman's team.
The small group had the experienced bakers who controlled the temperature and the relatively bigger team had the younger inexperienced ladies and the long haired boy.
Lucio tried his best to do most of the work and the ladies were pretty pleased with his attitude and even called him a "Little gentleman" which made him extremely happy but managed to keep a stoic face.
Looking at the guy work faster, the ladies giggled and Lucio didn't mind it as he needed the motivation and the numbers on his screen rising slowly didn't motivate him enough.
Lucio worked a lot, reducing a lot of work for the ladies who only kneaded the dough. Lucio refrained from doing it as he knew that his strength was below average.
He worked for a few hours before he plopped down against a wall, tired and dehydrated. Most of the work had finished and they were now waiting for the bread to bake.
They were making a variation of bread which they called the "Ball Bread". It was an almost spherical bread which, when cut looked like burger buns.
The ladies did the rest of the tasks and gossiped as they did the other tasks. A few of the ladies sat with him and shot him with a lot of questions which were mainly about his origins.
Lucio answered them vaguely as he wondered 'Am I actually handsome or something? I should see how my looks are….'
The sun soon rose and the villagers clambered near the entrance of the bakery and Lucio voluntarily distributed the bread. He had decided that he would do his best to acquire the exp points as soon as possible and he was doing exactly that.
Lucio planned his daily schedule for the rest of the week. A simple schedule which had a few tasks that would help him increase his points as efficiently as possible.