章 8: Chapter 8 - Screw Up

Chapter 8 – Screw Up

Another notification arrived.

[Player Adrian was engrossed in taking care of the lettuce farm for 3 hours. You are given chance to increase your Plants' stats. You will be given nine questions in batches of three questions.

For each batch of questions, if you answer all the questions correctly, you will get 3 Plants points. If you get one wrong, 1 Plants points. If you get all wrong, 0 Plant points]

A message from Future appeared.

[You can get a maximum of nine Plants' points if you answer all questions correctly] Future's message written and there was more.

[It is easy for you because you are the type who can easily focus on your work. If you are the type who easily gets distracted from one work to another, it will take a while to obtain all these points. Also, your Authority Level helps you too]

"Oh~" Adrian nodded. He did realize he can get engrossed with something easily. His parents mentioned that a lot too. 'I am lucky to be able to do this. I wonder if Keith and Ceylon received this much too?'

"Give me the questions," Adrian spoke. The first batch of questions appeared. Since Adrian was growing the lettuce, the three questions were all about lettuce. The questions were basic and Adrian had a feeling as he got more questions about that one topic, it will be harder and harder.

The first three questions were something even kindergarten kids could answer. Color of the lettuce, how it looks like, and so on. The next batch of questions were the same too, basic questions. The last batch was a bit more detailed but it was still easy for someone like Adrian.

[Congratulations, you answered all nine questions correctly. Your Plants' stat increased by nine points. Your Plants stat have reached the maximum limit, the leftover points will be automatically converted to basic points.

Health and Energy increased by 20 points. Endurance and Intelligent increased by 2 points]

"Nice~" Adrian was happy. "So, the Plants stat's points will increase my Health, Energy, Endurance and Intelligent," Adrian nodded. Now that he had higher stats, Adrian felt like fighting the slime may not be that hard anymore.

Adrian sat at the side of his farm resting. He had been working non-stop and deserved a rest. Even Progress rewarded him with many stat points for his hard work, so, he decided to rest.

Since it was Sunday, there was no class and after this, he had a lot of free time. As Adrian was resting, "Adrian~ let's have breakfast together." Keith and Ceylon arrived.

"Sure," Adrian got up and the trio went to the cafeteria. As they were walking, Keith and Ceylon spoke.

"Adrian, how many stat points you receive?" Keith asked.

"How about you guys?" Adrian asked back.

"Hehe~ I got 1 Endurance point! Ceylon is the same too. You are the same too right?" Keith spoke excitedly and he continued, "I never thought I will get a point from working at the farm. Now, I am more excited to do the farm work!"

"…" Adrian was silent. He got too many of them and he felt like boasting if he told them. "I get quite a bit," he gave a vague answer. Keith accepted it without much thought but not Ceylon.

"…" Ceylon felt something was wrong with Adrian's statement. Ceylon looked at Adrian who forced his smile. Ceylon knew that Adrian must have got a lot but Keith would flip out if he knew about it. Keith would curse the game and so on and Ceylon did not want to hear about that. So, he kept quiet about it.

As they were walking towards the cafeteria, they passed by the track court and they could see a few people jogging excitedly and they knew the reason.

Not only that but they saw quite a few students walking around while reading a book. Many sat by the flower bed or the roadside while reading some books. It was not like they have never seen students reading books but there were too many of them compared to yesterday.

"All of them is trying hard to raise their stats… I guess the game indeed helps us a bit. This 'hardworking' scene was never this intense," Ceylon spoke. Adrian and Keith agreed.

The trio arrived at the cafeteria, bought their breakfast, and found a table to sit at. They started having breakfast and Ceylon started browsing the internet to find some info people posted about Progress.

Ceylon found many of them and there were tons of news about Progress. However, 80% of them were complaining about the game.

"It looks like people are complaining that the game is too hard. Many people were defeated by the beginner monsters. Goblins and slimes. We are not the only one who was ousted by a slime," Ceylon spoke.

Adrian and Keith browsed the internet too and found out about the complaints. "Kekeke, there are people who got killed by a chicken. I guess we are not that pathetic after all," Keith was happy. He was not as miserable as the chicken guy.

"I don't see any post about anyone reaching the settlement. I guess, everyone got outed last night," Adrian spoke.

"Yeah, and the journey takes a few days too," Ceylon added. "We will not see any news about the settlement for a few days. Maybe there will be news about it tomorrow."

The trio finished their breakfast and planned on what to do next. Keith wanted to continue playing Progress. Since he raised his stats, he could play the game again. However, Ceylon wanted to increase his stats a bit more before he continued and Adrian felt the same too.

Seeing that both of his friends wanted to increase their stats, Keith decided to follow them too. So, they went to the library and the place was lively with students. They all came to study something to increase their stats. Some students might be there to study but most of them were for Progress.

"By the way, what Special Stats do you guys choose?" Ceylon asked.

"I choose the sword. I used to be a swordsman all the time and I want to do the same for Progress too," Keith replied easily but Ceylon and Adrian looked at him with a surprised look.

"Are you an idiot?!!" Ceylon spoke in a high voice. Everyone in the library heard him and looked towards him. Ceylon apologized to them and looked at Keith again.

"What's wrong? I used to be a swordsman. So, it will be easy to play Progress," Keith spoke innocently.

"Urgh!!!" Ceylon was frustrated. Adrian smiled as Keith seemed like he had no idea why Ceylon was angry. "You idiot, how will you raise your sword stat when you don't even practice any martial arts with swords?" Ceylon spoke.

"…" Keith was silent.

"You think reading books about swords is enough to raise your sword stat?"

"…" Keith was silent again and he started to sweat.

"You think our course has anything to do with swords?"

"…" Keith was still silent and he sweats more and more.

"You think Agriculture can help with your sword stat?"

"…" Keith sweats profusely and he spoke, "Am I screwed?"

Ceylon rubbed his forehead as he felt a headache. The three would be playing together but Keith had screwed up now.

"How about you? What did you choose?" Keith asked Ceylon.

"Spear and Poison," Ceylon spoke.

"… Like you are any better," Keith snorted.

"I know I screwed up too but at least I can find a lot of materials about poison in this library," Ceylon tried to make himself feels better. He realized it when he was tending his farm.

"How about you Adrian?" Ceylon asked.

"I choose Farming Tools, Animals, Plants, Genes and Minerals," Adrian told them the truth. There was no need to hide this.

"You have five special stats?" Keith was shocked and the same with Ceylon. "Your Authority Level, what is it?" Keith asked.

"Urm… I cannot tell you that. Future warned me not to tell anyone about it," Adrian replied.

"He must have a high Authority Level. I am sure there are more benefits to this Authority Level," Ceylon spoke but Adrian already knew a few of the benefits.

"Also, no one talked about it online and I guess that Future block it too," Ceylon added.

"Can we raise the Authority Level later?" Keith spoke. With a higher Authority Level, he would get to choose more Special Stats and would be able to get out of this problem.

"I don't know. My Future treats me like crap," Ceylon grumbled.

"… Mine is the same too. He keeps calling me brat this and that," Keith felt tired when thinking about that.

Adrian saw his friend's helpless' face and remembered Ceylon's gesture of helping him buying one of the VR-Future. He decided to ask Future about it. A message from Future arrived.

[I don't want to help them but since you ask, I will tell you. They can improve their Authority Level if they show improvement in their attitude and life. They need to work hard if they want to increase it. I will give you a tip here that Authority Level has a lot of benefits. Not only in the game but also in real life. Make sure they keep this a secret] Future's message.

Adrian told them about it and he asked them to keep it a secret. Ceylon and Keith were happy to hear this information.

"Adrian! You are the best of the best!" Keith hugged Adrian.

"I am not wrong in befriending you!" Ceylon hugged Adrian too.

"Okay, guys, this is enough," Adrian felt awkward. Other students in the library looked at them weirdly.