Chapter 6: Dawnâs Twilight
After randomly grabbing a few novice quests and raising herself to level 20, Shen Jingbin spent 5 silvers at a coach station to hire a carriage bound for River City.
River City was one of the capital cities within the game that boasted an endless stream of traffic. With its strategically advantageous position, it flourished at a level incomparable to Evening Sun Village, to the point where Shen Jingbin felt faint at the sight of it.
Inwardly, she weighed her chances of success in finding her way to someone she could apprentice herself to on her own, versus getting someone to lead her there. In the end, she decided not to waste her time.
Opening her control panel, she added a player into her friends list: Dawnâs Twilight.
Searching, player found, sending friend request.
There wasnât a single break in the entire process, how convenient.
If one were to explain why Shen Jingbin decided to play >, they definitely had to speak of Dawnâs Twilight.
The person behind Dawnâs Twilight was called Shen Jingchen, Shen Jingbinâs brother and her sibling.
Shen Jingbin was the type of person with a repressed nature. Sheâd regularly encounter situations that made her want to barf on the inside, but maintained the same stoic expression on the outside. Due to this, Shen Jingchen loved provoking her. What he enjoyed seeing the most was when the emotions in her heart distorted themselves as they appeared on her face. For the sake of teasing her this time around, he quietly took her secret stash of money and bought her a virtual gaming pod. In the end, not only did this fulfill his wish of making her angry, she even gave him a vicious punch.
The pod wasnât cheap, and neither could it be returned, so she had no choice but to make do with it.
Before entering the game, Shen Jingchen had very proudly proclaimed that he was a famous expert within it. He told her that she should set her heart at ease and boldly rely on him for any help.
Shen Jingbin couldnât be bothered with him. She threw him a supercilious look before closing the lid of the virtual gaming pod, isolating herself from his cocky expression.
She originally had no intention of looking for Shen Jingchen, or at the very least not so soon. However, after thinking about it again, wouldnât she be an idiot if she didnât make use of the free labour available?
That guy was probably bored out of his mind anyway.
Besides, no matter what type of resource it was, it still had to be properly utilized.
Shortly after Shen Jingbin issued her friend request, a pigeon sent by Shen Jingchen arrived in front of her with a letter in its mouth.
She took the letter from the pigeonâs mouth and opened it. The second she did, Shen Jingchenâs infuriating voice could be heard as it exploded out in her mind.
To allow for more realistic forms of communication, mails between players came in both audio and standard text based varieties. However, audio mails were more expensive, so most players avoided using them.
"Hahahahahahahaha!!! Nutjob! What kind of weird ass name is that! Little Jingjing, have you really given up on special treatment? Hahahahaha, let me get my fill of laughter first."
Gnashing her teeth in anger she replied, "If you keep laughing Iâll hand over your secret stash of money to mom and dad."
Sure enough, the other party immediately become a lot more sincere and said, "Iâm sorry, I was wrong. Please forgive me. Where are you, Iâll come over and find you?"
"Iâm at the coach station in River City. Come over and lead me to someone I can apprentice myself to, I donât know the way." She revealed her lack of knowledge without concealing even the slightest bit of truth. Shen Jingbin felt that she really was honest to the point of being cute.
"Haha... Eh, I didnât laugh! I really didnât laugh! Wait for me, Iâll be right over."
"... Iâll give you two minutes. If youâre not here by then you can say goodbye to your secret stash."
"F*ck, youâre definitely not my little sister!"
Not bothering to reply to him, she turned to look at her surroundings. In the end, she sat next to a coachman and waited for Shen Jingchen to pick her up.
There were many players in River City, especially with the number of coachmen around. She didnât know why, but people around here seemed to enjoy hurting their eyes. All of the passersby couldnât help but cast their gazes at Shen Jingbin who was sitting below the eaves and looking so ugly, she managed to open up a new frontier. These looks directed her way had caused her hair to stand on end. She only felt the number of eyes on her only slightly decrease after she lifted her sleeve to cover her face.
Thankfully, Shen Jingbinâs response had been quick enough. Before long, she heard a cry of alarm from someone in the vicinity. Pulling aside the sleeve that covered her face, Shen Jingbin tilted her head in the direction of the sound. The first thing that entered her eyes was Shen Jingchen and his overly beautified face, and beneath his buttocks was an eye-catching...dragon?
"Quickly, look! Itâs Dawnâs Twilight from Jade Sea Pavilion!"
"Iâd previously heard that he was very handsome, but I never expected him to be this handsome! If I knew it earlier, Iâd definitely find a way to get into Jade Sea Pavilion even if I had to force my way in!"
"Thatâs right, and the top fifty experts on the leaderboards are mostly from their guild! Iâd be satisfied with any one of them!"
"It looks like Quiet And Steadfast, the number one Lich in the game, is their guild leader. Rumour has it that he looks pretty good and is rich in real life, which practically makes him a male god! Doesnât entering Jade Sea Pavilion mean we get to associate with an influential person?"
"Forget it. Do you guys really think that any Tom, Dick or Harry can just get into Jade Sea Pavilion? Jade Sea Pavilion enforces a very strict criteria for anyone who wishes to enter. Do you see that dragon heâs riding? Thatâs a Celestial pet! Only an existence as awesome as he is can enter Jade Sea Pavilion."
"Sigh, Iâd really like to be in the same faction as him. That way, we could be together everyday. Just think of how blissful that would be!"
"Tch, doesnât he look like that because of his Beautification? Whatâs the point."
"Even if it was because of Beautification, he definitely had to be of a certain standard before that. You went through Beautification too, but I donât see you looking any better!"
"...F*ck! Letâs end our friendship!"