Chapter Seventy
A blank slate can often be folly. No prior information means you make mistakes, you take detours. But without prior knowledge, you could be creative, think and follow different routes. It may or may not help in reaching destination but the journey would be certainly special and unique.
The often talked and hyped game of the century
Call it fate or fool's luck, Artha somehow fulfilled few requirements of the game. Or else why would he get SSS level talent. But Artha didn't know much of the game, a good thing and much of gaming community, a bad thing. He had this bad*ss weapon but he didn't know how to use it. He had such a wonderful talent, he could decide fate of few hundred to few thousand players but he didn't know how.
Just see what he was doing while others were grinding in the maps, fighting the monsters to gain XP.
He tried to sneak into training rooms after donning cleaner protective garments and his trusty black cloak to start a new stint as cleaner. He truly didn't believe his cleaning garments would allow him entrance. But he didn't have the badge to denote apprenticeship to enter the training rooms boldly.
He had a wacky idea when he was mindlessly murdering those monsters in the map. The food items, scraps collected and handled showed items which could be reused, after some tinkering. Which he was yet to learn, but the path was there, he needed to take the steps.
The question was would he be able to collect and use , or reuse the useless portions thrown by apprentice potioneers? The food items with bonuses were new things, so even a tiny bonus could be converted into lots of coins. The potions...what can you expect from scrap of scraps? It would be as useless as wearing sunshades in night or watering garden plants during rain. But imagine if these things could be levelled up...the imagination stopped there because Artha really could not imagine further.
Be it real life or here in game, he never followed prescribed, preformed routes. He made things more difficult. He could have gotten admission in top college, but no, he had to try for Saint Augustine. He could have just studied enough to get a degree or diploma certificate, but no he wanted to complete 4 years of studies. He could have attempted to get few part time jobs. No time, just ask for more student education loan. Okay, just finish 4 year studies. Not enough, need to try more, do more. High risks, high gains. While others wrote few papers of three hours duration with few days break in between and gave practicals exams few weeks later, he spent hellish month. Each day he attempted 5 to 6 papers. Thank God the practicals happened in VR mode, else he would be just tired running here and there.
Come to think of it, VR experience he had was mainly from Saint Augustine's. He attended lectures, took exams, explained his dissertations in VR mode.
So this game is really baby steps for Artha. No wonder his mind wanders in weird directions. Others grind and hunt monsters, he turned around and picked up garbage. What a way of thinking! What a waste way of thinking!
Keini, a probably middle aged handicapped woman was the manager of the training rooms. This NPC could cuss enough to even make sailors blush. After listening to her,Artha could understand the feeling. She was prominent warrior leader of the village. She got hurt while saving some villagers. No instant heals for NPCs though. So even after taking precious medications, she was struck inside the village while her squad was roaming around and patrolling.
Being a manager of the training rooms was a thankless job. Each day, each day, these maggots of blessed immortals would plant themselves in front of her to request a room and request all sorts of nonsense. She was literally counting days before she could go back to her regular job. Thank goodness her handicap was temporary.
Artha just had to wonder why, just why he felt close to ladies who were blunt. Be it Zoya or Keini. Then suddenly he had epiphany. They resembled his sister Sama. She had gotten into lots of scraps in the school because she spoke bluntly and without filters. Those were the good times. The times when all the siblings came home covered with bruises, clothes stained with foot prints or torn at places. Obviously, the time and society beat her till she practically measured her words before speaking, so only her family could see unfiltered mouth occasionally.
Call it kinship, call it nostalgia. He felt closer to these ladies. So ofcourse he would help them. No need to give it as a task.
He said, "Look, I have a teeny tiny doubt. Because I am still weak blessed immortal, my thinking is not that good. I took the cleaning job in the inn. I can understand that the garbages would be generated a lot after the entertainment in the evenings and you people would be too tired to sort it out completely and correctly in dim light of night. I think that is the reason. Maybe it's different."
Keini just nodded. She didn't say if it was due to reason he mentioned or different one.
Fine, you badass warrior soldier. You won't talk about things other than what you feel.
"I just wanted to know if I took over someone's job," he continued. That was totally not what he wanted to know.
"Oh, don't worry, little boy," Keini replied. The little boy comment stung. His gaming avatar was young adult brimming with youth and promise. Compared to gray haired lady, he was little too young but don't you feel patronised when someone says little boy? He had to pacify himself that she would use such endearments to people she felt close with. Whatever floats your boat, Artha.
"The clean up job is least paying job with lots to do. So, no one really wants to do it. We take turns and do it. Really, most of the time, we would clean up most of it by default. How much garbage could few hundred people make in day to day life?"
The answer was a lot. But yes, if you clean up after creating garbages and waste, it won't be much.
She went on to explain further.