Second Life: Welcome to Gaia

Chapter 62: The Beach Boys

While Ye Yan and his team were celebrating their new achievement, another party was not even a bit happy about it. 

The Beach Boys guild's main team had finally managed to defeat the Gigantic Wicked Turtle on Hell Mode without being wiped out and were going full of hope to the next part of the dungeon when they heard the system announcement. 

They were advancing slowly through the dungeon because they have only one chance daily to challenge the Hell Mode, thus caution was necessary.  But they have never thought that someone would steal the first clear from them.

It was a big blow to their party. They had been doing this dungeon for days and they got the first clear on Nightmare Mode today, but when they started to challenge the Hell Mode, someone was faster than them and got the first clear, becoming famous in the entire region.

This is not easy to swallow. They feel like shipwrecks swimming to get to a beach and when they finally could see it, they felt a cramp and drowned. 

They normally are friendly and don't look for trouble with others, but this time they really want to beat the hell out of the other party. 

The Beach Boys' main team feels that losing the achievement is unfair to them because they deserve it after everything they passed to get where they are. That's why they decided to challenge the other party because if they defeat the members of Immortals, they can, at least, get a little fame to help them recruit new guild members.

They just want to know who the members of Immortals are.

They didn't think the party they want to challenge is Ye Yan's team because they had just started to do the Underwater Tunnel Dungeon.

And as they don't know the Immortals guild's emblem, they are clueless about the fact they have met the other party before.

They were hiding the fact they were fighting for the first clear from others, even with their names written on the boat, and Ye Yan and the other didn't tell them their objective in the dungeon as well.

The system announcement is a sound message the players heard or, in the case of deaf players that decided to not change in the game, they can see it through their communication stone, which vibrates to show the message.

Because of this, they will need to get back to the boat to see the details of the Immortals' team, as their achievement is written on the boat's floor now.

The Beach Boys' members decided to give up the dungeon run and went back to the boat, tearing the Return Scroll they receive from the soldier on the boat. They aren't in the mood to continue dungeoneering now.

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On the boat, they look at the names of Ye Yan's team with hateful eyes, wanting to summon Immortals members on the boat for them to beat them up.

When most of them were fantasizing about a scene full of blood and black eyes, the wolfman member of their team named Lust Boy recognized the Immortals Guild's emblem. He remembered that Ye Yan and the others had that symbol on their chests. 

He remembers it very well because he had been ogling Harpy's boobs when they met the other party. He was so amazed by it that he felt the urge of writing the message 'amazing chest ahead' on the floor.

The Yin-Yang symbol with a flying sword in front of it is the symbol of Immortals Guild, which means that Ye Yan and the others are the people they start to hate so much.

When Lust Boy told his findings to his teammates, they went silent for a minute. 

They knew that Ye Yan and the others just started challenging this dungeon today. If they just needed one day to get familiar with the dungeon and clear it, that means they are very strong players and not easy to beat.

Now, they started to wonder if they should challenge the other team or not. They analyze that they have about a 10% chance to win, but they don't want to give up without a try. 

They just hope that the Immortals' team is good in PVE (players versus monster) but bad in PVP (player versus player).

In the end, they decided to give it a try. Even if they lose the fight, at least, they will have vented a little. Thus, they rush back to the city and went to the Adventurers' Guild nearer the city's Teleportation Hall.

As they only know Immortals team members' names but not their contact information, they have to proceed with the challenge through the Adventurers' Guild. 

They also could convince an NPC from the Adventurers' Guild to give Jun Xie contact information, however, to do this, they need a high amount of charisma to convince him or bribe him or her using a higher amount of money than the required to challenge the other party. 

They paid the Adventurers' Guild and the guild publicized the challenge. In this way, the Immortals' team will be almost obliged to accept their challenge or they will be known as cowards in the city.

After the challenge was publicized, many players and NPCs inside the Adventurers' Guild started to discuss it. 

After the Immortals team got the Hell Mode of Underwater Tunnel Dungeon first clear, they became famous among the players in Tientsin City. And now, with this challenge, everyone became excited about it because they want to see how powerful this guild is.

Now, the Beach Boys members just need to wait for them to accept the challenge.

...

While everyone was discussing the challenge, Ye Yan and the others were in the Bank depositing the items they got from the dungeon runs, oblivious to what was happening.

When they left the Bank, a courier appeared and handed a white envelope to Ye Yan, leaving soon after. He was the one who received the letter because he is the team leader.

Ye Yan opened the envelope and saw the letter of challenge inside. He read the letter's content and showed it to his friends.

The letter was very clear about the challenge. If they didn't accept it in the next 48 in-game hours, they would be known as cowards by the NPCs of the city, decreasing their charisma by 1 point while they are in Tientsin City.

The penalty for refusing the challenge is high, thus only teams of similar status can challenge each other, and the higher their status and influence in a city, the higher will be the amount of money need to issue a challenge.

As the Beach Boys got many first clears (from Normal to Nightmare modes), even if it wasn't announced by the system, they have enough status in the city to challenge them.

Ye Yan and his team members decided to accept the challenge but they want to schedule it for tomorrow. This way, they can take advantage of the free advertisement to increase their fame in the city.

Not every player wants to take part in a guild yet and some don't even know what a guild is or its importance in the game. That's why it is paramount for guilds to increase their fame among the player population. They need to attract players to increase the guild's power and enable them to do more things that are impossible with few players.

Hu Ling is trying to contact some idols in real life and invite them to their guild because they can increase the guild's fame and attract the fanbase of these idols to their guild.

This is one of the strategies that Ye Yan and Hu Ling have thought while they were discussing how to increase the guild's popularity.

As the time in-game is short compared with everything they need to do there, Ye Yan has been discussing and deciding things about the guild outside of the game to make the most of the time in the game while still working on the guilds issues.

Being in the management team of a guild in a game like Second Life while having to be strong to support the growth of the guild is a work that takes the entire day. Luckily, the time in Second Life passes slower than in real life, or they wouldn't be capable to deal with everything.

Now that their guild is taking form, Ye Yan can't be idle while in his home. As the guild leader, the responsibility on him is higher than on the others, except by Hu Ling that need to help the guild become profitable or his father will force him to slave himself in their family's company.

When they entered the Adventurers' Guild, they went to speak with one of the NPCs on the second floor about the challenge.

They accept it but schedule it for the next day in the arena on the north side of Tientsin City. Soon the guild entered in contact with the Beach Boys' team through the communication stone and confirmed the time and place of the duel.

To issue a challenge, they need to send a formal letter, but to confirm, the guild just needs to make a call to them.

After the NPC told them the duel was confirmed, Ye Yan asked Mage of the Cold Nighs to post about the duel on the Tientsin City forum, because she looks to be good at writing. He only doesn't know about what she is used to writing.

He would ask Hu Ling to do this, but he is in the City of Ji, thus he can't access the forum of Tientsin City.

After they finished dealing with the duel, they went to the room of one of the guild managers to get their reward.