World Bank

While Cyrus still looked on at the quest in shock, Adele finished performing her melody.

The gaze she looked at him with was now softer, and she lightly bowed her head and declared, "I'd be so immensely grateful for that, Traveler Cyrus."

This brought him out of his shocked state, and reality dawned upon him.

Though this quest seemed extremely fascinating and grandiose, he didn't understand the logistics of it.

"Miss Adele, if I may ask, how will we keep contact after I leave Cape Immergroen?"

Adele looked at him with a stunned expression and stated as if she was reciting a common fact, "The World Bank has a postal system."

'The World Bank? The place where players can register themselves as adventurers...?' Cyrus hummed to himself.

He had heard about it.

It was apparently backed by an extremely powerful organization, and this allowed it to set up branches on the entire continent.

'However, I'm not registered yet,' Cyrus now knew where his next destination in the city was.

After that, they discussed a few meaningless matters over the pleasant coffee.

Then, at exactly noon, she stood up and smiled bitterly.

"Traveler Cyrus, I have a performance coming up in some time."

"Goodbye, I hope to hear from you very soon."

Cyrus also waved in goodbye and watched as she left the café in slow strides.

For a short moment, he shut off all of the thoughts about his quests and focused on watching the rolling waves of the sea.

A few gigantic windmills spun in coordination from the light sea breeze and somehow made even the inanimate cityscape feel alive.

The sound of chatter was muffled out from his brain, and the scenery blurred into an Impressionist piece of art.

Cyrus remained in this strange state for a dozen minutes, but as his breath turned heavy, his senses restored themselves to their full potency, and he stood up to leave the café.

He sat on a tool stool inside the dimly lit bar and requested a waiter.

"A customer has already paid for your order, Mister."

Cyrus was at first, stunned by this, but his mouth made an 'oh' shape when he realized who paid for him.

'That's nice of her.'

Cyrus gave a tip to the waiter who served them and exited the café.

The local branch of the World Bank was apparently quite distinctive in its appearance and architecture.

As he made his way to the wide main boulevard of the city, his destination was clear.

A grey, rectangular chunk of concrete.

Unlike the history-rich architecture of the rest of Cape Immergroen, this building looked like it came out of a factory.

The clean edges and brutal angles had their own sense of beauty, but Cyrus vastly preferred the windmills and detailed architecture of the city.

Nonetheless, he entered into the insides of the bank.

'It's as sterile and monotonous as the outside.'

There were a few seats, offices with similarly-dressed women and men, and that was the lobby of the World Bank.

Cyrus lined up in the shortest queue, and it was soon his turn.

The bald woman at the desk indifferently greeted him, "Hello, Mister, how may we be of service?"

"I'd like to know details about the postal system."

The bald woman nodded and searched through a few stashes of paper before she brought a few out, and placed them on the reception desk.

"To apply for the postal system, we first need your identification documents."

Cyrus rubbed his head, and chucked, "Ummm, I don't...have those."

The woman kept an indifferent expression, and monotonously replied, "Are you an adventurer, perhaps?"

"Something like that, yes."

"A solo one, or do you belong to a group?"

Cyrus rubbed his chin and contemplated on that.

He and Chu were de facto party members, and from the looks of it, they would play together for a long time.

Eventually, he nodded his head and replied, "I'm in a group."

"In that case, would we interest you in a few deals?"

Cyrus shrugged, and the attendant brought out another stash of paper.

"We would recommend setting up a guild, as it not only offers an identification insignia to all of the members, but tax cuts, and entitlement to financial assistance from the bank."

She held out the specific document, and let him read it.

His eyes glossed over the document, and the terms were all very great until he saw one line.

'Minimum Members: 50.'

'50 Members?! We're two people...'

"We don't have enough members to qualify for this position."

The woman nodded, but as all savvy business people did, the bank clearly had other offers for different circumstances.

"How about setting up a Union, then? The tax cuts are smaller, and the financial assistance you can receive varies upon the member count, but you get the same benefits as a guild, while also receiving access to the bank's withdrawal, deposit, and exchange funds system, the warehouse for storing possessions, and the postal service."

The list of benefits seemed endless, and according to her, another advantage of a Union was the fact that it could have an infinite member count, unlike a guild, as long as each member paid their fee.

On top of that, every member had access to the postal service, which he would need to complete (Songs of the Universe) quest.

However, reality once again crushed his hopes.

'Minimum Members: 5'

He still needed five people to apply for it, but the fee was also greater than the fee for guilds, being at 1000 Gilders/Person, compared to 700 Gilders, respectively.

Then, he looked through the offers for individuals, and the price wasn't worth it, since he'd have to pay for the postal service, warehouse, and financial services separately.

"Can I come anytime?" Cyrus decided to leave this for the future, as he wasn't leaving Cape Immergroen soon anyways.

"Feel free to do so."

Cyrus nodded and left the bank at a slow pace.

As it turned out, one needed money and friends to succeed, even in a virtual world...

While Cyrus was complaining internally about the world's financial systems, he heard a scream of distress.

"PLEASE HELP ME SAVE MY CHILDREN...!" A man was bawling with his head on the floor.

He was ramming his head against the hard paved road, while passerbies shrugged him off as a lunatic and ignored his pleas.

Blood was spilling down from his forehead and puddled on a small depression in the ground.

Cyrus slowly approached the man with an unclear goal.

When the man noticed his presence, he raised his head.

At that moment, Cyrus clenched his fists.

Those eyes reminded him of himself.

A look of absolute hopelessness, eyes so downcast and teary that they left the man dehydrated from the constant sobbing, and a desperate wish for a miracle to happen.

As he was left alone in this world twelve years ago, Cyrus had the same eyes, except with a childish and delusional clinging to hope.

Fortunately for him, that hope really appeared.

'Uncle...' Cyrus fidgeted around to avoid recalling unpleasant memories, and instead, he softly asked the man, "May I be of service?"