Races: Online (VR Smartphone App)

Chapter 4: Welcome to the Rocky Cliffs

' Welcome to the Veiled Continent, Han the [ Human ]. You begin at the Human Kingdom of Yegarian... '

The screen first displayed a billowing wisps of white clouds that suddenly gave way to a deep blue ocean and several mainlands, before zooming in to one of them. The change of perspective continued until a proud kingdom appeared, moving past lofty and ancient architecture and finally stopped at a small settlement at one of the cliffs. 

'As a simple man with humble beginnings, you are but one of the many peasants living under the rule of the Kingdom. Welcome to [Rocky Cliffs]'

Han Jing muttered something about the unoriginality of the game name before he saw his character displayed outside a small hut overlooking the edge of the settlement. It was a 3D space that heightened the surreal experience, everything was so crisp and clear that he could even see the individual straws of his hut's roof.

'Please use the controller to move your character around and interact with objects and people'

At the left bottom corner of the screen was a joypad for him to use. It reminded him of an RPG Game, but there was no fault in that. He began to move around.

He moved to the edge of the cliff and was greeted with precipitous slopes and raging blue torrents that filled his vision. The fall was no doubt a terrible one, and he could see some sharp silhouettes in the waters.

Han stepped back and turned to his hut.

He walked into a small room filled with a wooden cot, a small table and a wobbly-looking chair and an old chest. 

'Han's Residence' was displayed above his home in a small bar. He had to hand it though, at least this space was entirely his and not a shared room. Moving towards the chest, he opened up to see a display

Inventory:

A pair of clothes

Three copper coins

A spool of thread

A water pouch

He felt his face scrunched up, he really was a Peasant but where was his [ Special Inventory Gift Box ] or something? Assuming that the simulation required him to interact with something else beyond his own home, he left the hut. A dirt trail led him to a small village square.

An old man was standing outside a small wooden house, actually bigger than his own hut. Han approached the character to interact with him.

'Old Man Joe Light'

]Converse

]Mission

]Trade

"Hello there boy, a wonderful day isn't it! I can hear the birds chirping"

And skip to Mission. 

"Why don't you help this old geezer with his farming? I'll make it worth your time!"

]Alright!

]I have better things to do

]No thank you

Now it reminded him of the dating visual sim games he used to play. Deciding that it'd be best to start with a mission, he chose the first option.

"Atta boy! Follow me." The old man began to move through the village and Han followed suit, passing other buildings and villagers, they made their way past them and into a clearing.

"It's hard to grow things here at the cliffs, but we managed to make a small patch and make it work." Old Joe Light declared, nodding his head.

Like in his old farming game, numerous plots of land were available, a beautiful sight of lush wheat, corn and other vegetation were present.

"My back isn't as good as it used to be, in my better day"

[ Mission: Harvest Crops ] 

It was easy enough.

"Now choose your weapon." Old Man Joe Light laughed.

Weapon?

A screen displayed a list of farming tools to choose from.

Hoe

Hook

Rake

Shovel

Scythe

He was going to harvest, so no doubt he'd use the Scythe. The tool materialized in Han's hands, a wicked looking blade.

[ Harvest The Crops! ]

A sound of rumbling emanated around him, Han Jing saw Old Man Joe moving out of the way.

Grains of wheat blasted from the line of crops and knocked Han back by a few blocks. Han Jing watched as the crops became more alive. Miniature creatures popped out from the fields and drew to his line of sight.

[ Wheat Archer ]

[ Corn Clobber ]

[ Berry Bomb ]

"Awww, they're so cute." He fussed over their animations. They reminded him of a movie he watched and that old vegetation vs undead game he played before. So this was their idea of 'harvesting' the crops? He had to defeat

A berry blasted beside him and caused his character to hit back against a large rock.

No apparent change displayed except for a few burn marks to his character's appearance, but Han Jing was sure it depleted his health points or something by a huge chunk.

Han got up and ran towards the crops, swinging his scythe at them. He moved out of the spray of wheat and berries thrown his way and attacked the Cob of Corn.

The weapon slashed at the creature, stray kernels dropping. He then moved back and avoided the wheat arrows that aimed at his back.

As he had the bird's-eye view, he managed to avoid it with relative ease. The combat system appeared to be a real time combat instead of the older turn based RPGs.

It took him a couple of minutes, some [Grape Grapplers] and an [Orange Deranged] arriving to help, but in the end Han won against them.

They dropped loots of themselves, the safe consumable kind.

Han has picked up the following:

10x Wheat

10x Corn

10x Wild Berry

10x Grapes

10x Oranges

He approached the old man sitting underneath the shade of a tree.

'Old Man Joe Light'

]Converse

]Mission

]Trade

"Ah! Thank you for harvesting the crops for this old git, I'm no longer light on my feet as I used to be. Funny since I used to be an adventurer but my back hurts and this lightning scar on my shoulder blade still scorches my"

[ Han has received 100 XP and 3 silvers ]

[ Han has levelled up! ]

So it did have some levelling mechanism.

Old Man Joe continued talking. "Now boy, I think you ought to say something to Becky, I heard she needed milkin'"

Han Jing looked at the available responses:

]Milk her what?

]I'll talk to her

]I think I'm done for the day

"Just head over there and ask her yourself! I'd go there myself if I had the chance."

THIS CHAPTER UPLOAD FIRST AT NOVELBIN.COM