Arang is on his way to the gaming hall when he recalled his talk with Seri and Lisa earlier in the gathering hall after he informed his situation in the game without telling what he had done and just mentioned his stats in comparison to other cadets and how the evaluation didn't really fair to him since it's only evaluate the character level, number of skills and level of skills.

"I can't help you with you with the game itself, but maybe I can help you to make a report about this issue. Don't put your hope up though. This evaluation system was coming from the central government, so it might take a while to reach them and for them to make a change, if there will be any change, which I doubt." Seri just coldly responded to Arang plea to make an adjustment to the evaluation system without any interest about his stats or how he achieve it.

"I don't know anything about the game, and I doesn't really agree with the decision to include gaming session in the military training. You should just try to raise your levels, catch up with everybody else. That would be your best option if you want to avoid the bottom rank. Maybe you can talk with your roommates? Ask for their advice and experiences in the game." Seri give some advices to Arang, he is part or her team after all. She needs to take care of him somehow.

"If I'm not mistaken, you guys should still be in the starting village and unable to leave, right?" Lisa suddenly joined the conversation.

"Maybe I can help you if you want, I already played the game since the server opening day. Just give me your IGN and I will add you later so you can ask me through whisper if you have questions." Lisa feels sorry to hear Arang's situation, on the other hand she also curious with Arang stats at level 0. "(I need to find out his situation and how he achieve that. It's good that he didn't mentioned how he achieve it. Less people know about this will be better, I can slowly have him tell me his secret and Seri won't say anything too since she doesn't understand and care about it. If I can do the same as him it will be very helpful for me, maybe I can also catch up with the top players.)"

"My IGN is Rimba, but, uhh, what is the whisper that you mentioned about?" Arang scratching his head while asking the question shyly to Lisa. Lisa was suprised to find that Arang didn't even know what whisper is so she started to explain some basic terms of the game for Arang, which Arang is very grateful for.

"(This guy is very ignorant about the game, but that will make it easier for me to get him under my control). My IGN is Taliana, just accept it when my friend request arrived so I can help you." Lisa informed Arang and then leaving with Seri while Arang started to clean the gathering hall. Reaching the instructors dormitory, Lisa just say goodbye to Seri and went to her room, she can wait to play and learn how Arang raise his stats without leveling or doing any quest. She knows that people can raise stat through repetitive actions like mining, fishing, skinning, and other activities, but that kind of activities also provide experience so it won't be possibe for Arang to stay at level 0 if he was doing it. She was sure that Arang must have a secret method.

Player "Taliana" sends you a friend request

Accept/Reject

Rimba is greeted by the blue window when he entered the game.

Meanwhile in the outskirts of Terang Capital, Lampu Kingdom, Taliana is on a killing spree against the poor Kobolds while grumbling. Her level 63 Knight character is facing the 5th group of Kobolds she met and slaughtering them with ease. The Kobolds in the outskirts of the capital are weak, somewhere between level 30-40ish, since the Kingdom army went out to exterminate any big camp of stronger Kobolds regularly, leaving the smaller and weaker camps as training target for the recruits and players. They still posed a threat though when they managed to gang up on you.

"How dare this guy ignore me for so long. I have sent him the friend request 2 hours ago and he still hasn't accepted it. How long does he need to clean the hall?!" Taliana keep muttering while her shield and sword moving to block and strike the Kobolds. She can face around 5-6 Kobolds easily by herself as long as she stay focused and don't let them break her stance. Suddenly she got the notification that her friend request is accepted, startled by the blue window appearing in front of her face she lose sight of her target and allowed some attacks from the Kobolds to hit her and break her stance. Panicked, she struggled to regain her dominance against the remaining Kobolds. Her health is only about 10% left when she finished them all. Feel scared that she is almost end up dead and losing experiences, she move back closer to capital wall and take a rest to recover while sending whisper to Rimba.

"Where have you been?! Why did you ignore my friend request for so long? I waited an hour for your confirmation but you are not responding at all so I went to hunt Kobolds, I even almost dead when you suddenly accepted it." Taliana bombarding Rimba with her furious remarks through the whisper.

"Uh, I just logged in after finishing my maintenance duty. You know that the game runs 4 times faster, right? I finished my maintenance duty and logged in around half an hour after you and Seri left." Rimba talked cautiously. He knows woman can be unreasonable sometimes. He already reached Olaf's place and started his routine dummy hitting with the magic rod.

"...... I don't care! Where is your starting village? I will try to visit you and hunt around there, then we can move together when you finished your protection period. Taliana just ignored Rimba's excuse and focused back to her goal learning of Rimba's secret.

"Uh, I'm at Suram village. It should be somewhere in the northwest border of Lampu Kingdom. I don't know any other information about the location. Where are you now?" Rimba answered while continuing hitting the dummy, after weeks doing it he started to try various ways of hitting using movements he derived from the close-quarter combat training he had in the real life.

"Lampu Kingdom? Great, we are in the same Kingdom at least, I am at the capital. It would be easier to reach you, let me check my map." Taliana is relieved to hear that Rimba is in the same kingdom, she won't have to pay expensive transportation portal fee or travel a long time if he is in another kingdom. She checked the kingdom map she obtained when she changed her class to a knight. During the class change she can choose to become a knight employed by the kingdom or a free knight.

A kingdom knight got salary and equipment support from the kingdom but have to join regular knight training and assigned various task by the kingdom, the free knights didn't get any support but free to do their activities as long as they followed the law and chivalric codes of the knight. Taliana is a free knight but as a knight based in the kingdom, she still have a duty to protect the kingdom lands when required and the map is for her to know the lands.

"Uh, it says the village is require at least 3 weeks of travel from the capital. I also have to pass some areas that are dangerous for travelling solo at my current level. I guess I won't be able to visit you anytime soon." Taliana regretfully informed Rimba.

"That's okay, I understand. So can I ask you how to raise your level during the protection period? All I have so far is training in the training field at the village to raise my stats and learn some skills. I didn't see anything else that can give me experience, it makes me curious how the others done it." Rimba a bit disappointed since Taliana won't be able to come, a beauty company is always welcomed. He is back to his main concern of leveling to catch up with his fellow cadets.

"Huh? Training? In the training field? You mean all you have done in the game so far is training? And it gives you stats?" Taliana is a bit dumbfounded when Rimba so easily sharing his "secret method" to her.

"Yes, training. Well, not all the time though. I also visited the orphanage here in the afternoon, accompanying the night watch group during the night and also take a walk in the morning with the training instructor around the village. That's basically what I have done so far. Is anything wrong? Don't you guys also do the training in the village?" Rimba is slightly baffled by Taliana's response and started to become suspicious. He always thought that what he have done were the normal things, until the evaluation was conducted and he found out about the other cadets situation. Now Taliana's response just confirmed his suspicions. He realized that what he have done might actually uncommon and unknowingly he gained advantages compared to other cadets and players.

"No wonder you didn't get any experience, you should try to talk with various people and getting quest from them. Doing those quests will give you experiences so you can level up. How long did you spent time doing the training to gain that much stats and what kind of training you have done?" Taliana provide the answer that Rimba is looking for, and asking his training method.

"Well, I think it's about 12 hours a day in total every day? 8 hours when I just logged in, another 4 hours after I visited the orphanage and before going to the watch tower. All I have done is hitting the dummy, at first it was a bit boring after a few days, but then I started to develop various movements to hit the dummy more efficiently and harder by utilizing the close-quarter combat I learned in the camp and it become interesting again." Rimba thought for a bit and aswered. His movements are not stopped at all and Taliana can hear the sounds when his magic rod hit the dummy.

"(Damn, turns out it another boring repetitive kind of training. Considering the time and efforts required it doesn't make sense for me to follow his method. I think at most he can get the stats gain equal to 10 levels if he continue doing it during the protection period. I can easily gain 10 levels through hunting monsters in much less time.)" Taliana started to lose her interest when she found out Rimba's "secret method". She just told Rimba that he can continue training if he want, and she already give him the answer to raise his level during the protection period. Now she doesn't even want to visit Rimba anymore.

Taliana cuts off the connection with Rimba and went inside the city wall, she remembered there is a quest issued by the kingdom for the free knights to join the monsters' camp exterminations with the kingdom's army. She hopes that she can meet and maybe join the same team with Shinso, a leading player based in Lampu Kingdom.