Everyone was already sitting on the living room sofa. Seeing me walk over with a beaming smile, Xu Lin immediately asked with a grin, "Xiaolin, how does it feel? How is the game treating you so far?"
"The game is fantastic!" I gave a thumbs-up and continued, "I picked up a few small quests and have been leveling up in the woods outside the beginner village. Can't say I've achieved much yet."
"What? You managed to get a quest? Where did you pick it up? The perverts helping me level said quests are really hard to come by—most of them were already snapped up by veteran players. You're something else, kid~" Xinyu leaned back charmingly against the sofa and shot me a wink. She was still in her pajamas, her twin peaks heaving invitingly.
Xu Lin looked equally surprised. "You got a quest? That's awesome. Oh, and did you drop any gear we can use?"
I calmly replied, "I got a green longsword for myself, a pair of green greaves for myself, and um, a magical robe with +4 Intelligence. You and Lu Xuehan can figure out between yourselves who wants it."
"What? A piece of clothing with +4 Intelligence?!" Lu Xuehan's pretty mouth fell open, looking utterly alluring.
"What's wrong?"
"You know, someone in the beginner village I'm in is offering five hundred RMB in real cash for gear with +3 Intelligence or higher! And you actually dropped three pieces of equipment? Oh my god, are you related to a game administrator or something?"
Was +4 Intelligence really that impressive? If I told them my two pieces of equipment gave a +6 boost to Vitality, I shuddered to think what they'd say.
Xu Lin thought for a moment and said, "We can deal with the gear once we're out of the beginner village. Equipment drop rates are terrible right now anyway—nobody in my beginner village has even seen a green item yet. No rush to sell anything; we need to focus on grinding our levels up first. By the way, Xiaolin, which beginner village are you in?"
"Wild Dog Village, one of the eight beginner villages to the right of Hurricane Capital City."
Lu Xuehan smiled and said, "What a coincidence! I'm in Wild Wolf Village, which is right next to Wild Dog Village~"
Xu Lin nodded. "That works out perfectly. The rest of us are scattered in more remote villages. Xiaolin, why don't you go over and bring Xuehan to your village later? Give that Intelligence-boosting robe to Xuehan; that way her Priestess self will be much safer."
"Right. Oh, what talents did you all end up getting?"
Lu Xuehan widened her eyes. "Talents? Mine seems to increase mana regeneration speed by 1%."
Hmm... pretty useless, but still better than nothing.
Xu Lin looked a bit envious of Lu Xuehan and grumbled, "My talent actually increases accuracy by 1%. Good grief, I have no idea what use a 1% accuracy boost is."
I quickly comforted her. "You can't say that. Stats in games are accumulated bit by bit. Even if that 1% doesn't look like much right now, once you factor in gear and skill bonuses, the effect might become obvious pretty quickly."
Xinyu nodded in agreement and said, "My talent is Perception—it gives a certain chance to sense hidden creatures within an 8-yard radius!"
Damn, that was practically the nemesis of my Stealth! If I ran into Xinyu, my talent would be completely useless!
"Xiaolin, what's your talent?" Xinyu shook my arm, her full breasts rubbing against my shoulder.
"Stop sexually harassing me! My talent is Stealth—basically hiding in the shadows..."Xinyu burst into a wanton laugh, her snow-white breasts heaving up and down so violently it made my eyes hurt. After a long while, she finally calmed down, wiped away her tears, and said, "I'm telling you, the two of us are truly destined to be together. Even our Talents completely counteract each other. How about you just submit to me tonight? Sister here has been feeling a bit pent up these past couple of days..."
"Damn it, go find a gigolo on the street, there are plenty of them!"
"Don't you have to pay for a gigolo?!"
"I'm even more expensive!"
"But I like..."
"..."
Just as I was left speechless, Xu Lin said to me, "Xiaolin, what level are you now?"
"Level 5. Why, you guys?"
"Goodness, Level 5? How did you level up? I'm only at Level 3 so far!"
"It's probably because of taking on quests. There are many quests that can be repeatedly accepted by multiple people. You can go talk to the NPCs around the village more; you should get some results. Anyway, everyone try to change classes as early as possible. Once you have class skills, leveling up will be much faster. Oh right, Sister Lin, how did your Mage level up? Surely you weren't beating monsters with a stick?"
Xu Lin blinked and said, "No, before changing classes, my physical attack and health were the same as yours, so of course I hacked away at monsters with a broken sword just like you."
I suddenly realized, "Almost forgot, that's indeed how it is."
Turning to Lu Xuehan, I said, "Wait for me at the village entrance in a bit. I'll come pick you up, and then we'll go together to level up in Wild Wolf Valley behind the mountain. There's basically no one there right now."
Lu Xuehan nodded, and a blush actually flashed across her delicate, snowy face. What a shy girl!
Xu Lin pointed at the bread and milk on the table and said, "All right, everyone hurry up and eat breakfast. Once you're done, log back on to keep leveling. If you really can't hold out, go get some sleep. The next meal is at 7:00 PM. If you're starving, you can look for something to eat in the fridge."
"Understood!"
After quickly finishing breakfast and exchanging our game IDs, everyone went their separate ways, and Lu Xuehan and I entered our rooms one after the other.
After putting on the helmet, I reappeared on the hillside near Wild Wolf Valley. The grey wolves I had just killed had already respawned in large numbers. Lu Xuehan should be waiting for me at the entrance of Wild Wolf Village by now. Just then, my communicator rang again. I opened it and saw it was Qingcai Keke: "Lin Fan, I'm waiting for you at the village entrance."
I immediately replied, "Okay, I'll be there in ten minutes!"
Hehe, even Lu Xuehan's text messages seemed so gentle and lovely!
A "beep beep" sound came through, but this time it was someone named "Green Vegetable Temptation" sending me a message: "Little lover, how are things going with the little beauty Xuehan? When are you coming to keep sister company?"
I swear in the name of God, this definitely had to be Xinyu, that delicate-looking yet flirtatious girl!
"Big sister, I beg you, stop harassing me! I'm getting ready to go carry Lu Xuehan!"
Xinyu pressed on relentlessly, saying, "No problem, but accompany me for a walk after dinner, how about it? I'm so bored..."
I froze for a moment. She gets bored too? In my mind, she shouldn't feel bored even if she were just playing with her own little kittens, right?
After thinking for a moment, I replied, "Okay!"
A smiley face came from the other end: ":)", and then there were no more messages.