Afterlife Dream

Yeah, I was level fifty-two.

I just finished the tiresome second job advancement. I had not even had the chance to taste the fruits of my labor yet!

I had not joined a single raid yet!!!

My blood started boiling as soon as I remembered my untimely death. The character that I painfully built was lost just like that. Sob.

Kitty did not understand why I looked gloomy. Never mind. I did not wish to spread the tale of my bad luck. She still ended up asking out of curiosity.

"So how did you die?"

"I uh... I was sick."

Kitty shot me a look full of pity. I was so used to being at the receiving end of pity that I would be surprised to not be pitied for once.

Lingering on past life was not fun, so we decided to move on with our new life in this fantasy world with an adventurous spirit.

After creeping our way safely through three maps, we finally arrived at Dai City. When I first played Afterlife Dream and took a look at Dai City, I thought that the city was quite dirty. After I was reincarnated into the game and managed to walk through the city myself, the messy environment appalled me even more. Trash cans were full to the brim. Empty soda cans, pizza boxes, and food wrappings were lying in every corner. Some vandals had sprayed graffiti all over the walls and insolently stuck chewed bubble gums on the surface as a finishing touch.

Disgusting.

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I was used to living in a clean environment due to my poor immune system. Every day, the maid came to clean my bedroom. While I was moved to a different room, she replaced my bedding with new ones, vacuumed every corner of the room thoroughly, and wiped every surface with lemon-scented soap water. The dirty bedsheets and blankets underwent two cycles of rinsing and one cycle of disinfecting. My bedroom smelled like a mixture of lemon, flowers, and disinfectant.

Dai City was full of people. All of them were lining up in a long queue as if they were waiting to buy the most popular cupcake in town.

"Anty, look at that."

Kitty had decided during our walk that the ID Antares was too long for her. She started calling me "Anty" instead.

I squinted at the NPC and knew right away what these people were lining up for. It was Dai City Party Quest Dungeon, available for level 5 to 15. At low level, it was important to level up as fast as possible. There were a few reasons for that. One, to unlock features. Two, to get into dungeons and fight bosses. Three, to craft and wear better gears and weapons. Party Quests gave loads of experience to level up until the player reached the highest level for the Party Quest. In this case, that would be level 15. After that, the experience gain was something like 0.1% per Party Quest. Not worth it.

In Dai City, those at level fifteen acted as if they were level 120. They announced with loud voices that they finally reached level 15 and could finally go to the next city. I smirked at that. These people would come back crying to Dai City soon enough. The quests in the next city started at level 30, and grinding in nearby hunting grounds was too difficult.

In Afterlife Dream, players depended on quests and dailies to gain experience. At a lower level, those activities sufficed to get a level every hour maybe, but then the rewards could no longer sustain continuous leveling. That was where grinding became important.

I instructed Kitty to go with me and do the daily quest. It was not much. If anything, it was very boring. NPC Sena was a little girl who had a bunch of chores to do every day, and she always cried for help. It's usually picking some berries or buying groceries or killing some low-level monsters for drops. This part had not changed much, save for the fact that Sena became rather creative with the daily tasks.

"Please clean the graffiti at the wall of Mr. Simpson's ice cream shop."

"..."

As I scrubbed the graffiti off the ice cream shop wall, I could not help but curse at the vandal. Next to me, Kitty was picking up trash from the street. By that time I understood why no one bothered to do the daily quest anymore. It was too tiring!

Kitty reached level 5 earlier than I did, but she did not want to do the Party Quest without me. As soon as I hit level 5, we went to stand in the queue with everyone else.

The NPC in charge of the Party Quest kept babbling by himself.

"Enter in a party of four."

"Be careful inside, for a lot of monsters are hiding in the darkness."

"Work together to solve the puzzles!"

It said to enter in a party of four. Those who stood in the queue line were grouped in parties consisting of four people. Kitty and I were joined by two other people. A warrior girl named HellWitch and a bowman named Lazarus. The warrior girl was level 14. The bowman was level 10. Kitty was level 6 and I was level 5. I could see contempt boiling in the eyes of the warrior girl. She clicked her tongue impatiently as Kitty and I walked behind her into the dungeon.

The Dai City Party Quest consisted of four missions that must all be completed within 20 minutes. In the first mission, four players must kill 40 red bubble monsters while avoiding the green ones. If anyone killed a green bubble monster, two more would spawn and crowd the map. After repeated mistakes, the map would be too crowded with green bubble monsters and it became impossible to finish the mission.

The warrior girl by the ID HellWitch quickly told us not to move any finger. She wanted to go solo for the first mission. We complied and she jumped down the safe platform into a bunch of bubble monsters. At level 14, she had completed a few rounds of the party quest. She knew what to do. We watched her picking red bubble monsters carefully over the green ones. I took the time to explain the rules to Kitty. After HellWitch was done, she climbed back up. I noticed that half of her HP bar was gone. Panting, she walked toward the door to the next map. It opened as soon as the 40th red bubble monster was killed.

"Wait," I said when she walked past me.

I handed her a bottle of HP potion.

"Recover your health first."

HellWitch stared at me. She took the potion from me.

"Thanks. You carry potions with you? Most low-level players don't bother with potions yet."

I grinned at her.

"I like to be safe," I remarked.