The First Clue
Dusk began to settle over Belio City.
Orange light spilled between the stone buildings as the residents began lighting lamps outside their homes and shops. After making sure the area around the city was relatively safe, Reina and Tanaka decided to visit a bar not far from the town square.
However, just a few steps from the entrance, Tanaka realized something.
“We don’t have any coins. How are we supposed to buy anything?”
Reina looked at him.
“Every player who came to this world is a new player. If we don’t have any coins, who exactly are you planning to ask?”
“Then what do we do?”
Reina opened her inventory and took out several items she had obtained while fighting Happy Mushrooms in Pilon Forest.
“We sell these.”
Tanaka examined the items.
“Junk items?”
“They’re not very useful to us, but merchants will still buy them.”
They sold several drops from the Happy Mushrooms to a merchant. They weren’t worth much, but the coins were enough to buy a simple meal.
Reina didn’t waste their money on anything expensive. She only bought some food that could help speed up their HP recovery and growth.
After eating, the two returned to the town square.
Night was beginning to fall.
That was when Tanaka suddenly remembered an old mechanic that had existed in Cosmic Online.
“Reina.”
“Hmm?”
“Where are we going to sleep?”
Reina stopped walking.
She had only just realized it herself.
Cosmia didn’t have inns that players could use like those found in most MMORPGs. Instead, where a player slept—and what they were given to sleep with—was determined by their Reputation.
Reina immediately opened her status.
Reputation: Peon
Tanaka did the same.
Reputation: Peon
“That’s right!” Tanaka looked surprised. “I forgot our Reputation went up.”
Reina nodded.
The ten side quests they had completed earlier had not only rewarded them with EXP, but had also increased their Reputation.
Most players who had only just arrived still had the Beginner reputation rank. At that level, the system provided nothing more than sheets of newspaper to sleep on.
Players with the Peon rank, however, received something slightly better.
A blanket.
It wasn’t luxurious, but at least it was better than sleeping on newspaper.
Reina and Tanaka eventually chose a spot near the walls of Belio City. Several other players were already lying along the base of the wall, trying to get some rest.
As Reina lay down, a faint light appeared beside her.
A moment later, a blanket materialized out of thin air.
Tanaka stared at it.
“So that mechanic still works.”
“Looks like it.”
Reina pulled the blanket over herself.
But before closing her eyes, her gaze drifted into the distance.
Four figures were lying not far away.
Riz.
Mina.
Yux.
Han.
All four were sleeping on sheets of newspaper, using them as both bedding and covers.
Reina remained silent for a moment.
Then she sat back up.
“Taka, wait here for a bit.”
Tanaka, who had just been about to lie down, looked over at her.
“Where are you going?”
“To see them.”
The four students immediately woke up when Reina approached.
Rian was the first to sit up.
“XOXO?”
“You haven’t done the side quests in the city yet, have you?”
They exchanged glances.
“No,” Mina answered.
Reina let out a small sigh.
“Get up. Come with me.”
“Now?” Hana asked.
“If you want to sleep with blankets tonight, then yes. Now.”
That was enough to get all four of them moving.
Reina took them to the Beginner Guide, the NPC who had previously given her and Tanaka the chain of side quests. From there, she showed them the most efficient order in which to complete each request.
They ran from one resident to another, delivering goods, collecting items, passing along messages, and returning to pick up the next quest.
QUEST COMPLETE!
LEVEL UP!
Mina, Yukio, and Hana, who had still been Level 1, began gaining levels at an astonishing rate.
Rian was different.
Because he had already reached Level 3 through combat in Pilon Forest, some of the earliest quests were no longer available to him. He could only complete seven of the ten requests.
Even so, by the end of the quest chain, all four of them had reached Level 10.
Their Reputation had changed as well.
Reputation: Peon
Yukio stared at his status with satisfaction.
“So we don’t have to sleep on newspapers anymore.”
“That seems to be the part you’re happiest about,” Hana said.
“At least I won’t freeze tonight.”
Mina let out a small laugh.
For the first time since waking up in Cosmia, the atmosphere between them felt a little lighter.
After finishing all the quests, Reina sat on a bench near the town square.
Rian came over and sat beside her.
For a while, neither of them spoke.
Belio City, which had been bustling earlier, was beginning to grow quiet. Most of the players had already found places to rest, while the people of Cosmia continued with their nightly routines as though the sudden arrival of hundreds of strangers was no longer something worth worrying about.
“XOXO.”
Reina turned toward him.
Rian lowered his head.
“We really are living inside a game world now, aren’t we?”
Reina didn’t answer immediately.
“I don’t know if this place can still be called a game.”
Rian looked down at his hands.
“I was excited when I first realized what had happened. It felt like something that could only happen in a story.”
A faint smile appeared on his face, but quickly disappeared.
“But after thinking about it... I’ve started missing our world.”
Reina listened.
“Mina and Hana have cried a few times already. Yukio gets really quiet whenever he isn’t around us. I think they’re all just trying to act like they’re okay.”
Rian sighed.
“We don’t know how to get home.”
Reina looked up at Cosmia’s night sky.
She understood that feeling.
They could hunt Mostro, raise their levels, obtain items, or complete as many quests as they wanted.
But none of those things answered the most important questions.
Why were they here?
And how could they return?
“For now, there isn’t much we can do,” Reina said. “The most important thing is to stay alive while gathering information.”
Rian slowly nodded.
“Excuse me...”
An elderly voice suddenly came from beside them.
Reina and Rian turned.
An old beggar stood a short distance from the bench. His clothes were ragged, and his body was slightly hunched.
Reina recognized him.
An NPC that new players had often ignored in the old days.
Rian immediately reached into his pocket.
“Sorry, sir. We don’t have many coins to give you.”
The beggar shook his head.
“I did not come here to ask for money.”
Rian stopped.
The beggar looked from one of them to the other.
“I have heard about your arrival.”
Reina began paying closer attention.
“Hundreds of strangers appeared in Belio City, yet no one knows where you came from. It seems even you yourselves do not know how you came to this world.”
Rian immediately stared at him.
“Do you know something?”
“I did not say that.”
The beggar gave a faint smile.
“But perhaps I can show you the path toward finding the answer.”
A transparent window suddenly appeared before Reina and Rian.
[QUEST AVAILABLE]
Reina’s eyes widened.
The beggar turned away.
“Meet me tomorrow morning. I will be waiting in front of the bar.”
“Wait!” Rian called after him.
But the beggar merely raised one hand without looking back.
“Get some rest. You still have a long journey ahead of you.”
He walked away, slowly disappearing into the streets of Belio City.
Reina and Rian looked at each other.
Neither spoke for several seconds.
Then, almost simultaneously, they nodded.
They would meet the beggar tomorrow morning.
Before returning to where the others were resting, Rian stopped Reina.
“XOXO.”
Reina turned around.
“What?”
Rian hesitated before finally asking.
“Why do you keep helping us?”
The question made Reina fall silent.
Rian continued.
“You saved us in Pilon Forest. Then you came back just to help us raise our levels and Reputation.”
He looked at Reina curiously.
“And one more thing... are you really the original XOXO?”
Reina only smiled.
“Go to sleep. It’s late.”
“That’s all you’re going to say?”
“Tomorrow morning, we’ll meet that beggar together.”
Reina began walking away.
“We’ll form a party. That way, whatever quest he gives us, we can complete it together.”
Rian remained where he was.
“XOXO!”
Reina didn’t turn around.
Eventually, Rian gave up and simply watched the blue-haired Rogue walk away.
He still found it difficult to believe that she was truly the legendary player he had once read about.
After all, the original XOXO belonged to a generation from decades before his own. It was difficult to imagine such a veteran player behind the female character now walking away from him.
But there was one thing he was beginning to believe.
Whoever XOXO really was, that player was clearly no beginner.
Her knowledge of quests, the Reputation system, efficient leveling methods, and even her combat ability all pointed to experience far beyond anything they possessed.
Rian looked at the quest notification still floating before him.
[QUEST AVAILABLE]
Perhaps, for now, XOXO’s true identity wasn’t what mattered most.
If that mysterious beggar truly knew something about their arrival, then tomorrow morning they might finally obtain their first clue—
a clue that could lead them back to their original world.