Pride Online

“Come with me.”

He had not finished yet when she grabbed his hand again. He grasped as he was being dragged out of the store with its owner sighing in relief that they finally left.

They were back to the central fountain again. Wisana threw himself on a bench, still confused as to why she brought him here since the girl did not say anything along the way.

“So, you really are a new player. right?” The soft voice asked.

“You still doubt that after I almost got swindled in there? I thought I was so smart to sell my items at a potion store, well, joke on me.”

She laughed at his answer before joining him on the bench.

“Yeah, almost. You were lucky that I had to go to the shop for a potion to go into a dungeon, or else he would have robbed you blind.”

Wisana let out a dry chuckle.

“Yeah. Thank you, a lot.”

“You're welcome. I’m happy to help new players.”

The girl said with a friendly smile. It was the moment that Wisana could see her close enough to notice that she had light grey eyes. Her long black hair was let down, layered by cheeks, making her look quite adorable and cherishable.

“My mane’s Maysa, but you can call me May. I don’t mind.” The clear voice said to interrupt him staring.

“I’m Wisana. Nice to meet you, May”

“Me, too”

They shook hands as Maysa grinned.

“And don’t sell that treasure for a cheap price again. Okay?”

The young man chuckled, then remembered that he needed to ask her something.

“Well, speaking of it, how much is it worth, actually?”

Her forefinger was touching her mouth, her eyes looking up as she was thinking.

“Around this much.” She held up five fingers.

“Fifty thousand?”

"Five million."

!!!

Wisana choked on his own saliva. His eye almost popped out of its sockets, for the third time today. He gasped as he was trying to find his voice to speak.

“Five million?”

“Yup.” Maysa smiled so sweetly. “Gold star treasure randomly drops items from rank S to SSS. You need a specific key to unlock it, though. It can be found in the market for something like 500 thousand coins. And the items dropped from this treasure can be worth around,”

She held up more fingers.

“Eight million?”

“Eighty million!”

!!!

Wisana choked again, feeling more like on his blood this time.

“Are you serious?”

“Yes, I am. That’s the minimum of Golden star treasure’s worth.”

“And why the items from it are worth so much more than the treasure?” Wisana asked, not composing with himself yet.

“I think it’s because there’s only a 50 percent chance that it’ll drop those S ranked items and another 50 that it’ll drop nothing. However, the treasure has always made a good sale, 5 million is its standard price.

Wisana suddenly got up as she finished, looking like he was ready to run off somewhere. Maysa grabbed his wrist to stop him.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to burn that old man’s shop down!” He yelled. “Damn that fraud! Forty thousand my ass, I’ll end him!” Maysa’s laugh instantly broke out, before she pulled the man in front of her back to his seat. Then, she patted him on the shoulder to calm him down, which helped nothing.

“Come on, don’t be so mad. The uncle already promised that he wouldn’t do it again.”

“I would’ve drop-kicked him if I knew this earlier.”

Wisana’s voice was raised in frustration, sending Maysa burst out another laugh.

And the frustrated man who just learned the worth of what he had nearly lost gridded his teeth and went on causing. That was so close! How could the uncle try to trick him with a straight, innocent face?! ‘I’ll give you forty thousand, two times more than other shops do,’ his ass!! You could not trust anyone these days. Even in a game, they were still trying to cheat you!

He could even upgrade Jinnie to be able to speak more than 1,000 languages with this treasure alone!

“You’re funny,” Maysa said after she could bring herself to stop laughing.

“Yes, I am. That's because people always take me as a joke!” Wisana said sarcastically. “Good that you were there to save me.”

“Hahaha. no problems,” she replied cheerfully.

“So, that’s why you dragged me out of the shop so hastily? You were afraid that if I found out about the actual price there, I’d beat the old man up?”

“No, I wasn’t.” She waved her hand. “Well, who would have thought of that. I just wanted to talk to you.”

“Talk to me?” He repeated aloud, pointing his finger at himself.

“Yup.” She smiled broadly. “I saw you since you walked in the town. You looked so awkwardly slow and clumsy but were so quick to dodge that quest courier. So, I was kind of impressed.”

“Quest courier?” He repeated, sounding confused. Oh, she meant that dino-motorpuck? Wisana scratched his cheek, thinking.

“You’re impressed just because I’m good at dodging a dinosaur?

“No, it’s not just that.” Maysa’s smile was even broader. “I’m good at perceiving people, you know. And you’re the type of person that has some hidden talent. Believe me, you might be a noob now, but you’ll be unstoppable, soon.”

Wisana started playing with his hair as he felt embarrassed by her compliment.

“Besides," she continued.

“What?”

“I already know you’re interested from just one quick glance.”

She said as she moved closer to the man, before poking him on the nose. He blushed as he pulled away, leaving the cute girl smiling brightly in her seat.

“What’s with all this praising? I don’t have anything to offer you.” Wisana looked away. A cute girl just complimented him unexpectedly, so yes, he was embarrassed!

“That’s not true. You do have something to offer me.”

“Huh?”

“I want you.”

“Huh??” the listener raised eyebrows.

Seeing him be like that made the girl giggle. She spread out her hands.

“What are you thinking?” she smiled. “I mean I’m asking you to join my party, Wisana.”

Wisana let out an ‘Oh,’ he remembered his best friend, Tunwa explaining that ‘Party’ meant to group up and play as a team. It also meant that he was misunderstanding something for a second. He scratched his head, looking at the smiley girl’s eyes in front of him.

“So, what would you say? I think it’ll be fun playing together.”

Maysa said. Wisana's face was bitter.

“I would say, No, you better not.” He spoke.

“Why?” Maysa frowned.

“Well, how should I phrase this?” he shrugged. “I’m not good at playing games. I suck, to be honest. As you can see, I almost got scammed. So, count me out. You don’t want to carry me.”

“Aw... I thought it was something else.” Maysa grinned, patting Wisana harshly on the shoulder a couple of times. “You don’t need to worry about that, brother. It's ruining the fun if you worry that you’re not good enough, so you’re not going to do certain things. It's just a game. We play games for fun, right?”

“But,”

“Also, I don’t have many friends. My previous parties always turned out to be untrustworthy people, not like you, Wisana. Are you still going to say no to me?”

Seeing Maysa blink slowly to look pitiful, Wisana could not really say no to her. He could only give a dry smile, awkwardly looking left and right like he did not know what to do.

Then a pink transparent window popped up. It was a party invitation. Wisana looked up to meet with a wry smile and a pair of bright grey eyes that Maysa used to ask for his sympathy.

“You’re not tricking me, are you?” Wisana asked.

“Well, what kind of person do you think I am?” May said. “I didn’t help you just so I can scam you myself. Besides, you already know about the treasure’s price, how would I trick you again? Also, even if we’re at the same party, I still can’t mess with your items.”

“...” Wisana was speechless.

“You can ask your AI.”

Wisana looked at Maysa who was still giving him those pleading eyes.

“Is it true, Jinnie?” he asked.

“Yes, it is, master. Other players do not have authority over your inventory without your permission.

“See?” she said with a splendid smile.

Wisana looked at her beautiful big, round eyes, thinking. It was true that this girl had just saved him, and he truly appreciated that. But now he was not sure how sincere she was toward him, whom she had just met for the first time.

Besides, he still had his mission to look for Warunya!

The more he thought about it, the more his head hurt. Looking at the bright eyes before him made him sigh... and yield.

“Fine. I’ll join you.”

“For real?” She yelled. “You can’t take that back now/”

“Yeah, for real. But just temporary, okay? I have things I need to do in the game, too.”

Hearing that from him got Maysa bouncing.

“YEAH! That’s great, Wisana. Now I have a quests party!”

Not just bouncing, but she also got up to grab his arms and shake them. She was overjoyed like a kid who just got her new toy. Wisana tried to hold his laughter as he tapped on the accept button to join her party.

“I can assure you that you won’t be disappointed with me, Wisana.” She spoke. “Let’s go. I’ll help you improve your levels to par with mine, so we can do party quests.”

“Yeah, sure. But first, would you help me find a ram? I need to upgrade my AI.”

“A ram? Sure. I know a place with a reasonable price, let’s go.”

She said as she started dragging his arm again, smiling. Wisana was getting used to her smile already, a sweet, bright smile that made him feel surprisingly lively every time he looked at it.

Well, whatever.

He was not going to find Warunya by today, anyway.

He also needed to repay Maysa.

Today, he was just going to try opening his mind to an online game, ...and to be honest, he actually started to enjoy the game.

“You don’t have to pull me, May. I can walk by myself!”