“Yes, I need a phone.” Yuki was a bit excited. She had never had a chance to get a phone before. Although these kinds of things were common and the service was free, the phones themselves could not be used by anyone who didn’t have their bio data imprinted into the phone. If someone were to try to overwrite this or reset the phone, then the phone itself would actually fry the chips inside. So even if she had found a phone on the side of the road, she could never use it.

“What kind of phone are you looking to get? The newest model, the X-627 Ai Phone, is our newest product and has many functions plus a virtual assistant with the latest smart A.I. It can even connect to the new Soul Fusion Online game’s marketplace. Allowing you to buy and sell gold from your account without needing to log in game. It is an exclusive feature to the Ai Phone.” The sales clerk, a young woman in her early twenties, gave her sales pitch very smoothly.

As the young woman went over all the other features of this new Ai Phone, Yuki was already basically sold when the young woman talked about Soul Fusion Online. “I will take it. How much?”

“You will? Good!” The young woman said happily. She, of course, would be very happy since she gets a percentage of the sales for each phone she sells. “This model is 2,000 crowns. Will you be paying cash or credit?”

“Umm, cash… ” Yuki bit her lower lip, thinking of how she was spending 2,000 on a new phone. But… She knew it would be helpful in emergencies. After paying the money, Yuki had to go through the process of setting the phone up so that only she could use it. If down the road she wanted to add someone, she could do so easily with a simple drop of blood from the person.

After she was done, she went straight home and pulled her laptop out. She began searching for how to figure out when an NPC has a quest. When she entered this in the search bar, the first link that popped up was a forums board. Yuki read the link and wanted to smack herself when she realized that it was the Soul Fusion Online official forums. “Ugh… If I knew this sooner, I could have posted so many of my questions!” She truly felt stupid. But then again, she never really used the computer except for when she was doing homework. “Let’s see here…” Yuki looked at the threads already created, and one with a big fat bold print caught her eye. “Where is Heavenly Crafts!?” This was the title for the thread.

Yuki clicked on the thread link and began reading it…

@BraveSoul: What happened to Heavenly Crafts? After the last batch of potions, no more has been placed on the marketplace! I am willing to pay 2000 gold per stack!

@GreenHat: Are you crazy!? 2000 gold!?

@BraveSoul: You do not seem to understand. Those potions are perfect for dungeons or when you are out on the field.

@GreenHat: But still… you only get 10 potions…

@WhiteLotus: GreenHat, you are just jealous that others can buy them while you can’t!

@GreenHat: Damn it, sheboy! Don’t come trolling me as soon as I post in a thread!

@WhiteLotus: Who are you calling a sheboy!? I am a full pledged girl from head to toe!

@GreenHat: No nudes = full pledged sheboy. Take the extra baggage you have between your legs and take a hike.

@BraveSoul: How did my thread become a place to fight between the well known married couple…

@GreenHat: Whose married to this sheboy!?

@WhiteLotus: Who would marry this poor boy!?

Yuki chuckled at the conversation as she rubbed her chin. “I gathered a lot of materials while traveling through the forest. I can make about 50 stacks. This person wants to spend 2,000 gold per batch, so I will set buy out at 5,000. Even if they do not sell at that price, I might still get some rich idiot… I should make some for Chi as well… I also need to improve the formula and try to make them medium quality. Anyway, this is something for later. “Yuki went back to the forums home page and typed into the search bar: “How to find quest NPCs.”

A bunch of threads came up under this search. Not all of them had anything to do with the quests, but the top three did. Yuki clicked the first link and began reading. After scanning the thread, she got lots of information. “Look for NPCs that seem troubled by something. These NPCs will normally have quests to give and are quests that anyone can take. Sometimes these quests will be chain quests which will take a while to complete. Then there are unique quests that come by chance. You basically need a lot of luck to get unique quests. It is only known that one person has gotten a unique quest.”

“Eh, but… I got unique quests…. Well, it was a unique quest that, once completed, turned into a unique chain quest. Maybe I just have good luck…” Yuki pondered for a bit before reading on.

“The main thing about quests is how you talk to an NPC, the choices you make, and the actions you take. Each one of these things can result in a hidden quest that is not obvious to others. It is best when entering a new town to search for the NPCs that look troubled. Normally these quests will be within the same area, allowing you to knock them out as you do other quests at the same time.” Yuki’s bookmarked the page in case she needed to refresh her memory on things. Only then did she look at the clock on the side. “Almost 7… I should eat and then get ready to log in. I do not want to make Chi wait for me.”

In another apartment not far from Yuki’s, Trisha’s eyes were glued to the clock. She wore a long soft pink shirt that went down to her mid thigh area and had pink fox slippers on her feet. She sat back on her bed, hugging her pink fox plushie, her VR headset sitting next to her. She pursed her lips as she looked at the clock. “Why is it going so slow!? I want to tell Ryu that I might be making my first real friend tomorrow! Stupid Ryu, why is he making me wait until 8!” Trisha kicked her slippers off as she pounded the bed with her feet in frustration. As for the one causing her frustration, Yuki, she was currently blowing on a fork full of instant ramen. “I really should stop eating this stuff… Maybe I should add an egg or meat…”