Eversilver

Evan jogged his memory from last night. He and his party had all gone back to Cobblestone and met up with Lord Brickwell. The usual guards gave way immediately this time. The fear of provoking guard captain Markos was fixed deeply in their minds.

'Hmm. So, three Heroic Merits from the Wargoyle. That puts me and Mille at six Merits each. Sightseer and Facebasher are also well above the minimum three with their five Merits.'

At the breakfast table, the Cleverly family once again ate their porridge while Thale tapped through the boring early morning news channels.

"Hey, mom, dad, I've earned some money from the game lately. I converted half of it into Crowns. Here's the SBO card of the transferred money."

Evan handed Lisa and Thale a fancy-looking card with Soulbound Online written on it. He had exchanged 2000 of his Aerth coins into Crowns through the auction house and bought an SBO card that was valid anywhere in Eloria. In total, he had spent 2100 Aerth coins since the SBO card had cost 100 coins to acquire.

Because the current exchange rate was 100 to 90, Evan was left with 1754 Crowns from the original 2000 Aerth coins after calculating the three percent that went to Bell Incorporated.

This was a far better exchange rate compared to what players from Weloria were offered.

People always wondered how Bell Inc could turn in-game coins into real currency. The answer was manifold.

Firstly, they had plenty of external investors, big shareholders, and sold plenty of game-related components such as advanced hypersleep pods, premium Vizors, and other gadgets and trinkets that the marketing teams had pushed through several advertisement enterprises.

Secondly, the game Vizors themselves sold way above the price of any other VR game. This allowed Bell Inc to invest in the players. In turn, players that weren't cut out to be among the top players would have a more difficult time earning Aerth coins.

Ambitious rich people that purchased the Jade label and high-end hypersleep pods, believing that these advantages instantly turned them into pro players, would have to think twice.

It was this kind of money-splurging that benefitted players with actual game knowledge and skill. No amount of money could buy gaming ingenuity and creative gameplay styles that categorized the wolves from the sheep.

Millions of rickety players were struggling to level up efficiently. The rankers had already left ordinary players in the dust. In fact, the dust had already settled and the ordinary players could no longer see the topmost rankers in the trails left behind.

Also, due to Soulbound Online's growing worldwide popularity, players would invest their exchanged Crowns back into the game. At least that was the case for the top rankers that wanted to continue to excel and gain the edge over other rankers.

As intended, this, in turn, circled the money that went in and out of the company.

The reason director Adley wanted to increase the profits from the exchange rate to 15 percent wasn't completely unsound from her perspective. It would allow Bell Inc to secure a higher expansion capital.

Consequently, with higher finances, the additional money could be spent to further develop the game with a higher leeway for errors.

On the opposite side of the expanse, the CEO of Bell Inc and a few of his backers believed they had no use for such leeway and that the company would manage just fine with the three percent exchange rate returns.

Unbeknownst to players like Evan, this was a beneficial outcome when it came to their future goals in mind– acquiring a hypersleep pod would be slightly easier to obtain.

Furthermore, Evan had set up his own SBO card account, separate from the one he gave to his family. Sadly, the cheapest hypersleep pod cost 75.000 Crowns!

It took Evan three months to earn enough money for his Amber Vizor worth 40.000 Crowns while providing for his family. And that was while working double shifts!

He needed to earn at least 100.000 Aerth coins before he could possibly dream of getting a hypersleep pod. That could take years now that he went back to single shifts.

Though playing Soulbound Online could potentially turn those years into months.

"It's not much, but it should cover Lauren's medical expenses for a couple of weeks– maybe a month. Plus, I'm getting my paycheck from work soon." Evan spoke.

It would be the last paycheck that included earnings from his double shifts. From here on out, he'd have to rely on his skills and continue to pioneer the world of Aerth.

Lisa gave Evan a motherly hug while Thale proudly patted his son's back.

"Were not worthy to have such a fine boy." Lisa expressed and turned her head toward Ken, staring at him with eyes that said, 'you better not fuck up at school.'

Ken choked on his porridge. Evan gave Ken a smug smile over his mother's shoulder.

On Thale's 3D Holovision, the running news program transitioned from political quarter to celebrity news. Thale immediately lost interest, but Ken insisted on keeping the channel running after he saw a stunning beauty appearing on the Holovision.

"That's Camille Eversilver!" Ken spouted while gulping down another mouthful of savory porridge. "She's a super famous fashion queen– or maybe fashion princess– I heard she's quite young."

Evan showed no interest whatsoever. He was too busy in his mind, thinking of ways to get to level 15 in less than two days. He worked seven days a week and had absolutely no time for a social life or interest in some celebrity.

Lauren, on the other hand, was pretty caught up in the celebrity news.

"She's so pretty. I heard she's from our city. I wish I could meet her someday." Lauren gazed into the Holovision with stars in her eyes.

At the other end of the Holovision, Miss Eversilver just entered a car and the chauffeur drove her away from the scene.

"Where to next, Miss?" The chauffeur asked.

"School, I guess." Eversilver replied drowsily.

She'd spent a lot of effort while she had appeared live on the morning news, talking about her latest brand sponsor and showcasing their latest perfume.

Once again, Camille had been compelled to do another live interview for one of her sponsors.

She'd been exhausted from her busy daily life lately. And she had to appear well-behaved on the big screen. This wasn't really her. Not at all.

The sponsors didn't allow her vociferous personality to emerge, afraid of any backlash from an opinionated media's perspective.

She wished for her day to end so she could log back into Soulbound Online– a place she could openly be herself with no one judging her, playing as a character that was an accurate representation of herself: Mille the Healer.

In the beginning, Camille only decided to play Soulbound Online as an outlet for her accumulated stress and built-up tension from all the work she'd been doing lately as a rising starlet.

Then she got hooked. The world of Aerth was so much more than she'd ever expected. This was the case for thousands of other prominent individuals. They'd come to learn what 95% immersion really meant. Some celebrities had even decided to become streamers instead!

As Camille's chauffeur drove through the busy streets of Nightland city, she contemplated doing the same. 'I'll become a streamer!'

"Hahaha! Yeah, I like the idea!" The scarlet-haired fashion princess chortled loudly. "Screw my sponsors."

Other than some minor tweaks to her character's appearance, Camille indeed looked quite similar to Mille's character. Sadly, Evan never had the time to notice.