Infinite Realm

It didn't take long for Sato and Xue Yan to make it to the entrance. There was a small stage that held a teleportation array here that allowed them to depart from and arrive into the hall rather than following the original route Sato and Xue Yan had discovered. The duo then waited beside the teleportation array for the others. This too didn't take too long as approximately 2 minutes after Sato had received the mail, a brilliant flash of light burst from the array on the stage for a few seconds before a few silhouettes appeared.

"My beloved Sato~"

A somewhat sweet voice greeted the duo as a figure ran towards them.

"Get away from me." Sato used his right foot to stop the individual.

"Ouch." As the person was approaching at a high speed, they were not able to stop in time and crashed into Sato's foot, falling to the ground.

"Is that how you greet an old friend?" An aggrieved voice spoke from the floor. Following that, Fudo's oppressed face became visible to the duo.

"You're talking as if we haven't spoken in years. Get up." Sato's face twitched at Fudo's antics.

"So, how was it?" Seiichi asked the question that everyone else wanted to know.

"It was alright. I completed the Trials so you could say I'm half an owner of this place." Sato said plainly.

"Ooooo. That means we get to take and do whatever we want right? Haha. With these statue dudes, we can move unbridled throughout the entire game. We can even destroy a few super guilds." Fudo hurriedly stood up and rejoiced.

The others also had looks of astonishment and overhearing Fudo's words, their thoughts also began to wonder about.

"Hehe. Let's go rob a few Super guilds right now." Lu Zhen grinned like a miser.

"Didn't you guys hear me? I'm just half an owner. Apart from granting me entry to anywhere here and a few other privileges, I can't do much." Sato poured cold water on their dreams.

"Huh? But I thought the reward was the inheritor of this place? What kind of sick joke is that?" Fudo grumbled as if he was the one who was affected by it all.

"The game system would surely pursue balance. It obviously wouldn't give out such an unfair advantage to you this early in the game so it makes sense." Seiichi nudged his glasses as he et out his thoughts.

"Correct." Sato nodded.

"Then what's the use of all this?" Fudo complained.

"At least we now have a base that can't be rivalled by any other in the game, as of now." Yato looked at the bright side.

"Tch." Fudo snorted.

"So, how did you guys do?" Sato asked.

"You should know how difficult levelling up in this game is. Even after all my efforts, I still haven't reached level 10." Fudo shook his head as he sighed.

"There's just not enough level 8 monsters much less level 9 and 10 for me to take on. So I just leave them to the others."

"Same. I'm still a bit far from level 8." Yato said while Katsuo nodded, implying that he experienced the same issue with him.

"I'm a bit close to reaching level 9 but unless I take on a few level 9s on my own, it would take me 3 or 4 days grinding level 8s." Seiichi said.

"Don't look at me. I just entered level 9 less than a week ago. It will take me a long while to make any massive improvement." Lu Zhen said once he noticed Xue Yan's eyes look his way.

"What about you Sato, what's your level?" Fudo suddenly asked.

As they heard the question, the others immediately turned towards Sato with interest. They were all wondering what Sato's new level was and since Sato had set his display to be hidden, none of them knew what it was.

Currently, in Infinite Realm, there were 2 major ways of levelling up or rather, gaining Experience points. The first was field hunting and the other was by completing missions. There existed a third method mentioned in the game's introduction which was dungeon running but no dungeon had been discovered yet so this option was currently unavailable.

Of the two existing methods, field hunting was said to be the fastest as it depended on one's efforts. As for taking on missions, this was extremely time-consuming and taxing to the human body. This could easily be seen from the mission Sato had accepted, which took him almost 5(IGT) days to complete.

While missions did give a large number of Experience points, sometimes, the time spent doing them could be used to gain more Experience points in the fields so players usually preferred field hunting over completing missions.

As the crew stared intensely at Sato while awaiting an answer, none of them noticed the mischievous smile on Xue Yan's face.

"Level 14." Sato smiled wryly.

"... that's it. I'm quitting this game! Bye-bye everyone. Bye-bye grey statues Bye-bye world." Fudo yelled.

"Ah!!! The heavens are unfair. Why you of all people??!!" Yato dramatically cried.

"Damn. Just while we were all working our asses for a few points, you went ahead and grinded the exact amount of days you were gone in levels." Lu Zhen sucked in a cold breath. Sato had been gone for almost five days and in turn, he gained 5 levels. Lu Zhen was wondering what kind of blessed luck Sato had that he didn't.

'Is it because he's more handsome than I am? I knew it, this game favours good-looking people!'

"What about you, Snow Bird?" Seiichi ignored the overacting duo and asked Xue Yan. Considering that Sato gave them such a shocker, Xue Yan's wouldn't be much worse.

In the group, only Sato and Lu Zhen addressed Xue Yan by her actual name, though in private. The rest had to call her by her IGN as they weren't so close with her.

"That's true. Don't tell me you are the same crap that this farm animal did?" Fudo pointed at Sato as he said.

'How am I a farm animal?'

"Not really. I'm only level 11, much worse than he is." Xue Yan shook her head with an expression that made her seem sad and pitiful.

'Hey, what are you acting all sad about? You're way better than us!'

While they all thought the same, no one bothered to point out this fact. This was because Sato's revelation had already given them a big knockout that they felt Xue Yan's level was acceptable, forgetting the fact that she was 2 levels higher than even the best players in the world.

"That's enough." Sato said.

"I called you all here cause we need to plan out our next move from here on. We still haven't helped Snow Bird complete her quest yet. We still have a world-class BOSS to kill."

"If you had said this to us without letting us know your level, I would have thought you had gone nuts in the head and will let you have a taste of my fireball." Fudo commented.

"Same here, but he would have tasted my sword." Yato nodded.

Sato suddenly had the urge to face-palm seeing the two still misbehaving.

"Knowing that the two of you are now above level 10, with some proper planning and the right gear, I think we have a shot at this." Seiichi, one of the few serious players in the team, said.

"Exactly. That's why we need to discuss our next line of action." Sato replied.

"Ah yeah. I remember now." Fudo suddenly face-palmed.

"Today's supposed to be the official day of the raid."