Evolution Online: I Can Fuse With All Things-Chapter 38: Chores

Lucien stayed up deep into the night, scouring the internet and trying to learn more about the world of Evo. First, he discovered that the forum was already buzzing with chatter about this dude called Player Cien.

People were beginning to craft wild conspiracies—some even speculated that maybe he was a former developer who had been killed unjustly in the future and then regressed back into the past.

Others wondered: maybe an NPC had reincarnated into the world? That would explain why this player kept dropping achievement after achievement.

The Hall of Legends was like a worldwide organization that recorded players’ achievements in the game. There were benefits to having one’s name inscribed in the Hall of Legends, and the higher you climbed through the floor levels, the better the benefits became.

Even the game’s reward system and the reception you received when entering a new city could be transformed by being in the Hall of Legends. Being in the Hall of Legends was simply a way of saying your reputation preceded you.

Each floor level of the Hall had seven tiers, and each tier had three ranks: bronze, silver, and gold. No one truly knew how many floors the Hall contained, but the highest anyone had ever reached was the ninth floor level.

The reason the internet was in chaos was because it had been barely a few days since the community first heard of Player Cien, and suddenly he was now in the Hall of Legends—no one had ever accomplished that before!

Most people currently in the Hall of Legends had started entering when they were level 100+. This sparked other wild conspiracy theories that Player Cien knew the secret to rapid leveling—that he knew how to exploit the brutal level-up system of Evolution Online.

Reading through it all, Lucien couldn’t help but chuckle and mutter:

"These guys really think highly of me. It’s infuriating."

There were also guilds and clans putting bounties of as much as one million dollars on his head for whoever discovered Player Cien’s identity.

The thought of the money was so tempting that Lucien considered revealing his identity and collecting the bounty himself.

But he couldn’t afford such a reckless move. Unfortunately, his whole plan had escalated, and now a single mistake could expose his face as the son of the Vales. A lot of chaos and conflict could stem from that revelation alone, so Lucien wanted to keep it buried.

Thank God he had a mask that could perfectly conceal his face and identity.

Later, he searched for more information about the monsters in Evolution Online. Just as he had suspected, their ranks were: Normal, Elite, Boss, Elder, Guardian, Sovereign, Ancient, and Primordial.

Then there were the Named and Unnamed monsters. Simply put, Named monsters were creatures that had a significant relationship with the game world—meaning their importance extended far beyond just being monsters. This status was usually attainable in two ways:

Through game design, or by developing a deep connection with the game world’s environment. This could involve a place, an NPC, a player, or anything else. But there weren’t many instances where monsters acted outside their programmed behavior. The few times this happened, they were called Deviants.

It was possible for a Deviant monster to not be Named, and it was also possible for a Named monster not to be a Deviant if the naming came from game design. However, if it wasn’t designed that way, they were usually Deviants.

But it was also possible to have a Deviant that remained unnamed because they hadn’t formed deep enough connections yet.

Another thing Lucien learned about were Variants.

Every monster, everything in Evolution Online could evolve. However, there was usually a roadmap of evolution pathways for everything—monsters, buildings, items, and everything else had some sort of skeletal framework guiding their development.

Anything that evolved away from that pathway, that somehow broke free from that norm, was usually called a Variant. And it could be anything at all—a monster, a region, even an item.

This didn’t add much significance, but most of the time Variant monsters were usually found becoming Deviants faster than non-variants. Variants were typically what players preferred to tame for use as mounts, battle beasts, or pets.

After that, Lucien learned more about the lore of the game world and about some popular players before he eventually dozed off while reading about a particular player who had created a Nation of Mercenary Knights.

The next morning, Lucien was jolted awake by a sharp kick. He shot up, frowning with a sleepy face and dark circles beneath his eyes.

"What’s that for...?"

The old woman stood above him with her hands clasped behind her back.

"Come... follow me. We have chores."

Lucien frowned in disbelief.

"Chores?"

He slowly stood up, his drowsy mind still rebooting.

"Chores? What does that even mean?"

He yawned as he asked.

The lady looked at him and shook her head in pity.

"Tsk tsk. Look at you, playing this useless thing all night. At least you know when to come out..."

She turned around and walked out of the room, yelling one last time.

"Follow me!"

Very confused, he followed her regardless. The lady led him to the yard. There, several articles of clothing were already soaking inside wide buckets.

The old lady helped him roll up his sleeves and seated him on a stool. All the while, Lucien’s facial expression remained frozen, his mouth agape.

The woman plunged his hands into the cold, soapy water.

"There... it’s called laundry. You have to earn your keep, don’t you?"

Lucien tilted his head.

"Huh? I don’t remember saying I was going to stay here though? In fact, I could leave right now. I think I was supposed to leave at daybreak."

The woman scoffed at him as she sat down with another bucket opposite him.

"Bah! If you wanted to do that, then you should have woken up at seven a.m. sharp, not eleven!"

Lucien looked away in slight embarrassment.

"Besides, are you sure you want to leave? You could use whatever money you have to renovate that room to your taste, you know. I wouldn’t even collect rent. If you want, I could will you the house—I mean, I could die very soon."

Lucien’s eyes widened.

"Really?! That would be amazing."

The woman tilted her head slightly.

"If I died?"

"Yes! And will me the house. Didn’t you say you could do that?"

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