Rivalry: Infinite Buff

Chapter 49 Mysterious Fruit

“What? Farmer?” Leo and Claire both looked astonished.

What kind of occupation is that?

“Yeah, I never expected to become a farmer. Only a few minutes after I entered the game, an old man claiming to be a village chief cornered me and said he would like to help me transfer. I was overwhelmed by his hospitality and then suddenly became a peasant farmer. On a positive note, he gave me many seeds and five hundred gold coins,” Jim laughed.

Hearing Jim telling about his experience, Ivan determined that Jim was apprenticed to the chief of Ginkgo Village. He was just surprised that the chief was generous enough to give Jim the money that he took from him.

“Jim, it seems inconvenient for you to be living alone. How about staying here with us? We can play Rivalry together then,” Leo offered.

However, Jim looked around the run-down apartment. He tried to hide his dislike when he said, “I prefer my home in Counterland.”

Jim and Edwin were getting ready to leave after they ate, in spite of Ivan and Leo’s urging them to stay. The only offer they accepted was that Leo could drive them back to Counterland.

Edwin told Ivan before he left, “Bro, I need to work for at least two months. Once I earn enough money I will buy a Rivalry helmet. We can play together then, just remember to take me under your wing.”

Ivan responded speechlessly, “Now that you’re going to some Ivy League school, you should concentrate on studying and not gaming.”

“My high IQ permits me to study and play at the same time,” Edwin said confidently.

“Alright,” Ivan replied. He knew Edwin would not accept money from him even if he offered to buy him the helmet. Plus, he was in debt himself so he quietly walked Edwin to Leo’s car.

Ivan and Claire cleaned up the apartment and logged on to the game after Leo and the others left to go to Counterland. Multiple messages popped up in the chat window as soon as Ivan logged on. They were from Left-handedLove and FallenAngel.

Ivan was amused and flattered to see that FallenAngel sent him approximately a dozen messages a day. He looked through them one by one to find out they were only idle chatter, “What’s up?”, “Why are you offline?”, “You’re not playing anymore?”

It was nice to see that she cared about him, so he checked to see if she was online but she wasn’t. Ivan sighed and left her a message, “I am back!”

There were also messages from strangers but the one that got Ivan’s attention first was one from the first guild leader, SwordPrince. Ivan was a star with two pieces of equipment in the ranking list, a great number of groups were flattering him. Ivan grinned but did not reply, he was intent on reviving the Pursuer Group and in no mood to join another guild.

Out of curiosity, Ivan checked the ranking list. A lot of changes had taken place and there were three guilds- Swordplay Guild, Maniac Guild and Walker Guild. The Realm Group and the Sovereign Group were trailing behind, they hadn’t established their guilds yet; Ivan assumed it was because of the lack of Guild Establishment Tokens.

He saw that very little had changed in the estate and equipment rankings. On the contrary, the level rankings were competitive and had significantly changed.

Lightning—Level 30

SwordPrince—Level 27

ChicWalker—Level 25

RealmZenli—Level 25

DemonCoach—Level 24

Plague—Level 24

Magnuszx—Level 23

MoonWitch—Level 22

Left-handed love—Level 20

Lightning was really gaining momentum, reaching Level 30 in such a short period of time, and was still three levels in the lead. During Ivan’s absence, SwordPrince passed Mad to gain a second place, it made sense because he was the first one to establish a guild. On the other hand, he might have been handsomely rewarded by the system or found people to kill creeps and level up.

There were only minor changes to the other ranks but Ivan glared at the ID TinyMoon with interest. Judging by the name, he was guessing that it was a female player and if so, the only female in the top ten.

Unexpectedly, in the last place on the list was Left-handedLove. Ivan immediately opened the Friend List and messaged him, “Nice! You have made it onto the level rankings!”

“My goodness, you’re online at last. I thought you were gone for good,” Left-handed love replied instantly.

“Oh no, I rely on gaming to survive.”

“Where are you? I’m coming to you.”

“In Leaf Town.”

A few minutes later, Left-handed love found Ivan. “Is it done?”

“Yes.” Ivan nodded. “But the money I owe you…”

“It can wait.” Left-handed love put up a hand to stop him before he got any closer, “Something odd happened when you were away.”

“Oh? What happened?” Ivan asked with intrigue.

“I heard it from some novice players. An orchard suddenly appeared in the east of Ginkgo Town. There aren’t many fruit trees, but they are loaded with fruit. Some players stole the fruit and ate them. You will never guess what happened to them!”

Ivan rolled his eyes. It was inconceivable to him that such a dashing swordsman such as Left-handed love would gossip. Besides, he hated to be kept in suspense and really wanted to say he wasn’t interested in the orchard, his only goal was to possess Holy Artifacts and slay bosses. However, he pretended to be surprised and asked, “What happened? Was the fruit poison?”

Left-handed love cast a sulky glance at Ivan and said, “Of course not. The fruits were just like state potions and enhanced their attributes!”

“What? Something like that exists?” Ivan suddenly became interested.

“Do you want to go and take a look?” Left-handed love laughed.

“Let’s go!”

The two turned toward Ginkgo Village without delay. With their levels increased they could move faster so it only took about an hour to reach the village. They began to search the east side for the mysterious orchard but could find nothing.

Ivan fell down to the ground in frustration.

“It’s supposed to be here. Why can’t we find it?” Left-handed love looked at Ivan’s suspicious eyes and smiled in embarrassment.

Just then, an old man with a hoe over his shoulder appeared in the distance. He was wearing homemade clothing that was covered with mud. As he approached them, Ivan could clearly see his face.

“Holy cow! Isn’t that Jim, the dormitory caretaker?” Ivan said to himself when he saw him.

This old guy is indeed a lover of gaming. He probably logged on to the game as soon as he got home.

Ivan checked his ID, his name was PeasantMan.

So, that was the reason the chief of Ginkgo Village made him an apprentice?

Ivan burst into laughter.