Chapter 1185 The Night After
Chapter 1185 The Night After
"…Haah."
After successfully making the last group of players to visit the shop leave for the day, Valyr let out a wide sigh of relief as he decided to rest by the shop's entrance.
"Who knew managing a shop would get this hectic?" Muttering these words to himself, the young man let out a slight chuckle as he recounted what he went through for almost the entire day.
Considering that it was the first day Greater Beyond was released to the players, it went without saying that Valyr did not make any sales whatsoever.
At most, the players more or less did what Belial and Tianshen did when they visited his shop, which was perusing around the store for items and promising that they'd buy those items in the future.
Then again, Valyr was already expecting that to happen, deciding to approach the players from a long-term perspective.
'As long as word of this shop spreads throughout the player base, then I've more or less achieved what I set out to do by coming here,' thought Valyr to himself, letting out a slight chuckle as he glanced at the orange sky.
With the sun beginning to set, the young man went ahead and began to close up the shop for the day, deciding to limit the amount of time the shop was open after his experience with the players.
"For about the first few hours, talking to them was fine," said Valyr to himself as he double-checked through all of the items on display. "But after that, the number of players in the store grew to a point where I couldn't really interact with each and every person."
"Fortunately, it didn't seem like they minded," he continued with a faint smile, recalling how his usage of [Superior Analysis] caused most of the players to focus their attention onto it.
"Alright." After making sure that the shop wouldn't be intruded during the night, Valyr let out a sigh of relief as he decided to make his way to the village's only restaurant. "Time to reward myself for today."
'Aside from that, I should probably use this time to tie up some loose ends here and there,' thought the young man to himself as he walked along the village's streets. 'Though the players have finally appeared in Veldanyr, there's still a lot that's left for me to do.'
'It's one of the reasons why I decided to disable my disguise skill now that the players are around.' As this thought came to mind, Valyr took a brief look at his current appearance, recalling the conversation he had with William sometime earlier.
Though he led William to believe that his current identity was a different identity he made to hide the fact that he was Ylvar, Valyr decided that he'd gradually stop relying on [Thousand Polymorph] due to the fact that it would confuse the players.
Although he could lean into the skill's properties and make the players think he was some mysterious and enigmatic NPC, the young man only picked up the skill in the first place because of the issues that lingered around his original identity as Valyr Zeihardt.
However, now that his level of strength even went so far as to allow him to fight against Myth-level beings one-on-one, he felt that now was the perfect time to make things right.
As long as the opportunity arose, he would confront the Zeihardt clan, as well as the Nicholas clan, and make sure they treated him not as the person they sought for their own goals…
But as a person they should think twice before messing with.
'The supportive and the rebel faction…'
Briefly thinking about how the two factions of the Zeihardt clan looking for him became the main reason why his journey to power turned out as it did, a wry smile appeared on Valyr's face, remaining there until he arrived at the village's only restaurant.
Surprisingly, once he was there, the restaurant was filled to the brim with around half of the people living in the village, causing his eyes to slightly widen in surprise.
'I wonder what brought them here?' As this question popped up in his mind, the young man moved around the restaurant to find a vacant seat, listening to the conversations happening around him all the while.
By the time he found a seat for himself, Valyr more or less got the gist of what the people were talking about, prompting a bitter smile to briefly appear on his face.
"To think they gathered here because of the players." Muttering these words to himself, the young man went ahead and ordered a hearty meal as he continued to listen to the discussions that were happening all around him.
"You know, for beings protected by the system, I thought they'd be more… unique. The system kind of made it seem that way to me."
"Well, it seems like they're still adjusting to their surroundings. From the looks of it, they've been thrown into this place all of a sudden."
"Imagine my surprise when I found out a lot of them began to vomit on the ground the moment they appeared. Old Michael is gonna have a field day keeping the village clean."
"Although it's scary that a lot of them have appeared in our village, I find the guys quite nice to work with. I gave them a quest that would've taken me over half a day for me to do on my own, but they accepted it without hesitation."
"Yeah, having those guys work on other things definitely frees up my time to do more things. The village leader definitely has some sort of foresight for this."
"Hahaha! He definitely does. Then again, I'm pretty sure he's the one working the hardest out of all of us right now. After all, they're now a part of the village."
'…Guess they're more receptive towards the players than I thought.' Faintly letting out a chuckle at the conversations people were having, Valyr eventually got the meal he ordered a couple minutes later.
Continuing to eavesdrop into their conversations, the young man silently enjoyed the meal he ordered, only to be slightly taken aback by the explosion of flavors the moment he took his first bite.
With that, he ate the entire meal with gusto, leaving the restaurant more than satisfied with his meal around half an hour later.
'I should find the time to ask the chef how they cook the meals sometime.' Deciding to make his way back to the shop before proceeding with other errands, Valyr watched from afar as more and more players appeared in the village.
Seeing a portion of them continue to succumb to the nausea and vertigo caused by the first startup, the young man could only faintly smile as he began to roughly count the number of players that appeared.
"…Oh damn." Though, by the time he was done counting, the young man began to slightly shudder, realizing that opening the shop the following day would force him to interact with a lot more players than he did earlier.
Thinking about what he'd face tomorrow for a bit more, Valyr eventually shrugged his shoulders at the thought before continuing to make his way back to the shop.
'It's bound to happen, anyway,' thought the young man to himself.
'Especially with how I interacted with some of them.'
Though Valyr decided to add Belial and Tianshen to his friend list in preparation for his plans to establish an organization, the young man eventually realized he could make greater use of the function, deciding to add each and every player that caught his eye.
With that, a considerable portion of his list was now filled with players that would either grow to gain a reputation similar to the Five Leviathans, or reach a level of power that would put him at ease once he set his plan in motion.
"I guess it's only a matter of time until I become a hot topic because of it," said Valyr to himself with a slight chuckle, briefly taking a look at the forums almost everyone now had access to.
Though some of the threads talked about his existence and how there were a chance for him to add them as a friend, the young man ignored them for the meantime, instead focusing on the other topics that were being talked about in the forums. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
"The Cave of Beginnings, huh… not surprising that some players have already gotten to that level."
In the end, Valyr continued to go through the forums until he arrived at his shop, only to find a familiar face that looked to have been waiting for him all this time.
"You're finally back." Watching Valyr appear in his field of vision, William began to look at him with a relieved smile. "I was wondering where you went."
"William?" Not expecting to see the man at this time, it took a while for Valyr to respond, closing the screen he brought up as he looked at him with a slightly curious expression. "What brings you here?"
"Nothing much." William softly laughed. "Just wanted to thank you again for giving us a heads-up on the Players."
"You don't really have to." Seeing as the man was sitting by his shop's entrance, Valyr decided to sit beside him as well. "Then again, I didn't want the village to be caught fully off guard."
"Which is why I'm thanking you," replied William with a smile. "In any case, it seems like you're not surprised at the number of Players that appeared in the village. Were you expecting something like this to happen beforehand?"
"More or less," said Valyr with a chuckle, deciding to use Scho'doxa yet again as an excuse as to why he knew. "Though, if I were you, I'd be prepared for the following day."
"The following day?" Looking at the young man in slight confusion, William's eyes soon widened in realization as he understood what he meant. "Wait… are you're telling me there's more?"
In response, Valyr could only nod at him with a bitter smile, causing the man to let out a long sigh as he looked at the ground.
"Well then… more work for me, I guess." Staying silent for a bit, William eventually decided to part ways with Valyr after that, wanting to make sure the village was ready for the next influx of players.
With him thanking the young man once more, Valyr watched as William slowly disappeared from his field of vision, forcing the young man to briefly look up at the starry sky above him.
Then, after a bit of silence, the young man stood up just like the man before, seemingly having made up his mind on something.
"…I guess it's only right that I work through the night if the village leader's working as well."
With that in mind, he swiftly activated [Flash of the Azure Dragon], allowing his body to be enveloped with the silhouette of an azure dragon as he flew out of the village.
Briefly taking a look at the various groups of players continuing to fight against the beasts outside the village's walls, Valyr soon headed straight towards a certain direction, wanting to make sure he wouldn't be disturbed whatsoever.
"Next stop…"
"The inheritance."