2nd Prince - Chapter 7

Yu Wo owns all rights to the characters of 1/2 Prince

Humming the melody of the newest song to himself, Prince studied the lyrics in front of him. Somehow, they just didn't want to stick. He kept putting the second verse in the place of the first one instead of at the correct time. The best way to learn them was to listen to the music over and over while muttering the lyrics to himself.
He stopped when he looked up and saw Lolidragon, still sitting opposite him, definitely displeased that it was taking him so long.
But the elf suddenly remember an issue he had wanted to talk to her about.
"Loli, about the song-"
"I know, I know. We won't play Eternal Love that much anymore, relax...!" the thief interrupted him. "The sales start tomorrow, so there's no need to advertise it in Second Life anymore. Although I'm still not happy with your suggestion of playing it in the evening."
"Um, no. That's not what I was going for..." Prince muttered, but glad that the song wouldn't haunt him anymore. "I just wanted to apologize that I don't now the lyrics yet. Dunno why it's so hard this time... although now that you mention it, isn't there a pre-order bonus for Eternal Love? I don't remember anything being made for it."
The thief looked at him.
"No pre-order bonus. Whoever buys the single gets a poster of the cover." she said bluntly.
"Oh... I see." the elf sighed. "Anyway, that's not what I was going for. Have the monsters gotten tougher recently?"
"Huh?"
"Well with Xiao Lan," Prince started and lowered his voice in case someone was close-by. "I'm having trouble fighting monsters. It takes me way too long to kill a single target, so I've been wondering. Did the monsters get a level-up or what?"
Lolidragon just gave a slight huff and a look at the elf before leaning back in her chair, arms folded.
And so it came that Lan was sitting in class, studying the Second Life manual that came with her set. The bell was still a few minutes away, Min was already positioned at the desk and the class was still filled with a dozen conversations going on, mostly about what people had done since they had seen each other about 12 hours ago.
Leaning back in her chair and tipping slightly, the manual open on her lap, Lan read about some technical mumbo-jumbo about Second Life's 99% realism, the highest realism in any VR-game to date and how it improved on things in previous VR-games like how one's character did not revert back to Level 1, unlike The World. But also about the lack of teleportation spells or scrolls, to preserve the realism of things. Lan already knew all of this, but figured that reading everything might give a hint about the difficulty. After getting through the many pages that talked about the possible races a character could have, just the main races took up 10 pages, she flipped over to the next page and stopped tipping immediately, the chair's legs knocking loudly onto the floor.
"Sell-Out!!" she yelled, smacking the manual onto her table.
"What is it, Feng Lan?" Min asked, taking quick strides to get up to the row her seat was located at.
"This!" Lan snapped and picked up the manual again, holding it open towards Min.
It was opened to the first double page about the job-classes a character could take on. On it, and the following pages, each class was listed alongside its advantages and disadvantages, as well as some general information about the class and a full body shot of a sample appearance of the class. Except that every single class sample's picture was one of Prince.
Granted, it was quite normal and absolutely obvious that Prince was the sample picture for the Warrior class.
But he was used for every other class as well - his 'Mage' attire was a black-golden suit with a ripped coat, he wore white robes and was carrying a gigantic hammer (which, strangely enough, was listed under the 'Mace' weapon family) when he was a 'Priest' and he wore a long black coat over his naked chest when posing for the 'Gunner' class. The less said about his appearance as a 'Berserker' the better, considering it looked like he was merely wearing bodypaint... although it still looked extremely glomp-worthy.
"This is bullshit...!" the girl snapped and stopped herself for a second, changing what she wanted to say. "He probably doesn't even remember these pictures getting taken, these must be used without his permission! And... and... he's even the mascot for every single tip!"
True enough, whenever any of the pages had a little tip or side-note to mention about a feature, it was always displayed as a speech bubble said by Prince. Even the watermark on the last pages about contact information if your Second Life set was faulty, it was Prince.
"Well, that is most likely true..." Min finally said.
It was obvious that, when the manual had first been shown to him, he was staring at Prince slightly and probably thinking how great he looked, which he did. But then he had reverted back to his professor personality.
"However, he is Second Life's spokesperson," he continued. "so it's natural to use his image a lot."
"But this is too much." Lan sat down again. "He's not the only person who plays Second Life, nor the only famous person in the game. This entire thing makes it seem like, without Prince, there is no Second Life at all. Like the game was built around him."
"Well... it's true."
"Huh?" Lan turned to look at the classmate that had spoken so bluntly.
"Well, think about it. If Prince didn't exist in Second Life - like, his character suddenly disappeared - would people still play it?"
The girl's face fell in one of absolute horror, but before she could retort anything, another classmate started to speak up.
And, before long, a lifely discussion was going on about Prince and his relation to Second Life, his talents and his incredible luck, whether it was somehow manipulated by the staff of Second Life to promote him better or just really pure luck.
The bell ringing for the beginning of class was completely ignored.

Breathing heavily, Xiao Lan packed her lance away as the remains of the behemoth disintegrated and then sighed.
There was nothing better to get rid of a bad mood than killing things. It was still annoying her that it took her so long to kill a single monster, but the more she wailed on it, the better she had started to feel. So perhaps it was a good thing, for once. She had leafed through the rest of the manual, always grumbling when she found another picture of her other game character used, and had found nothing that somehow indicated that the monsters got stronger, the game got harder or anything had changed. So the lancer still had no idea why she seemed to be so weak. Although her parameters said otherwise, now that she had achieved level 50.
Sighing again, Xiao Lan decided to just head back to Infinite City, take a bath and then... staying in an Inn wasn't an option, as they were still packed. Thinking of the cloak that was in her inventory, she could easily just spend the night under the stars. The nights weren't that cold, but definitely not that warm, either. Her stomach grumbling slightly, the lancer also decided to grab a bite to eat.
Just a few meters from the city wall, though, she heard a low growl.
"That wasn't my stomach..." Xiao Lan muttered and stopped in her tracks, slowly looking over her shoulder. "...Crap!"
Grabbing her lance, she just barely managed to hold it in front of her before the large red scaley head smacked against it and sent her flying. Landing painfully on her back, Xiao Lan quickly rolled sideways and stood up again, lifting the spectacle to her eye.

Name: Red Dragon
Level: 65
HP: 16.599/16.599
TP: 0/0
Part of the dragon family, specifically the quintuplet dragons.
The youngest of the quintuplets, red will call on his older brothers, if not dispatched of soon enough.

"Family reunion if I don't commit murder fast enough? Oh great...!" the lancer snapped and jumped, dodging the long tail that was swiping at her feet. Jumping another time to dodge again, she sliced at the tail as it passed beneath her.
(Player 'Xiao Lan' has attacked 'Red Dragon' - 1HP)
"What the hell?!" Xiao Lan yelled, momentarily getting distracted and paid with it by getting the tail swiped at her stomach and knocking her back against a tree trunk. Collapsing onto the floor, the wind completely knocked out of her, Xiao Lan tried to reorient herself and slowly got into a kneeling position. The tail was approaching again - its sharp end coming straight towards her, ready to impale her, but Xiao Lan dodged and slammed the blade of her lance into the tail, pinning it to the floor.
The dragon roared loudly in pain, trying to get free again. Meanwhile, Xiao Lan stepped onto the end of the tail and began to ran up its length, pulling the bladed lance out and gripped the hilt tighter. Almost losing her balance when the dragon, realizing its tail was able to move again, almost turned, Xiao Lan jumped and stabbed the lance deep into the dragon's neck.
Another roar, much louder, felt like it was going to burst her eardrums and the dragon trashed around, almost causing trees to fall as it knocked against them. The lance was stuck in too deeply and she couldn't get it out, so Xiao Lan was still on top of the monster, hoping that it'd die soon, although she barely made any damage to it. One strong jerk from the dragon and the lancer felt herself flying through the air a second time, landing on the hard ground.
"Owowow..." she whimpered, arching her back and holding it with a hand. No time to think about her injuries because the dragon roared at her, seeing the source of the pain he was experiencing and went for her. Unable to really move fast or dodge, Xiao Lan instinctively curled up and put her arms over her face, ready to get eaten alive just to reappear at a Rebirth Point.
"Flawless Frenzied Blade-Dance!"
The yell resonated throughout the place and with a final load roar, the dragon died and began to disintegrate. The whole place was quiet again. Trembling, Xiao Lan lowered her arms slightly and saw the remains disappearing, her lance falling to the ground. Slowly, she turned her head to look who had saved her at the last second.
"Are you alri-Xiao Lan!?" the swordsman asked surprised, his eyes widening when he saw her.
"Wicked...?!" she gasped, seeing Gui just a few steps behind him.
Wicked bent down and offered a hand to Xiao Lan, helping her get up on her feet again. The change in position shot a sudden jolt of pain down her spine and the lancer flinched slightly, putting her hand over her back again. It was hard to tell whether Wicked or Gui looked more concerned at her obvious injuries, but Wicked's expression still held a large amount of surprise in it.
"I-It's nothing..." Xiao Lan mumbled, referring to her back pain. Obviously, she was going to have an immense bruise. Despite the pain being only 30% of what it had been otherwise, it was still pretty painful. Trying to ignore it, her gaze went from Wicked to Gui.
"We met up by chance on patrol and saw someone needing help..." Wicked muttered and looked to the side, like it was nothing really worth mentioning, but his gaze quickly went back onto Xiao Lan.
"How are you online? I mean, not as Prince." the PM said when she received it the next second.
"I'll explain later..." Xiao Lan sent as a reply and Wicked nodded slightly.
"Ahaha, I was just on my way back and then that dragon suddenly ambushed..." the lancer started to say, scratching the back of her head and laughing, then her voice drifted off and her mind went elsewhere. "...Aaah!!"
Her sudden outcry caused Wicked and Gui to start and look around, like she had suddenly seen another monster materialize. Nothing was there, though. Instead, Xiao Lan suddenly slapped her fist into her palm and shook her head, sighing.
"So that's why I'm so weak...! How embarrassing..." she mumbled, pretty much having a conversation with herself.
In her head, it had suddenly clicked. She finally knew the reason why she had felt so weak when fighting monsters lately and why it always took her longer and longer to kill one. It was because she had never upgraded her weapon! She was so used to the Black Dao that she owned as Prince, a weapon that leveled itself up alongside its owner, that she had completely forgotten about needing to buy better and better weapons. Sighing again, she wondered how she could've been so stupid and forget about that.
"Are you sure you shouldn't get checked out for that?" Wicked finally asked, nodding slightly towards her back and probably the other injuries she had sustained just a few minutes ago. Luckily, her arm covers were hiding a scratch on her forearm.
"It's okay..." Xiao Lan said, trying to calm him down, then saw Gui looking at her. "Mh?"
"Ah. Xiao Lan - 'Feng Lan'?" the bard finally asked, stepping forward a little. "Your face looked familiar, but I couldn't place it immediately. Nice to meet you." And he took her hand in his and shook it.
"Mh, ah, yes. Same here, Gui-I mean... Professor Min..." she answered, feeling very awkward suddenly, calling him that.
"In Second Life, 'Gui' is just fine." he told her. "By the way, would you like to befriend me?"
Player 'Gui' has offered to be friends with 'Xiao Lan'
Accept/Decline
"Eh? Mh, sure." Xiao Lan eventually said and a ping gave them the signal for the confirmation of friendship between them.
"Perfect." Gui said and smiled. "I befriend all my students - it makes it easier to have spontanious study lessons or pop quizzes."
"Pop Quizzes!?" Xiao Land gasped.

Xiao Lan sighed, feeling her tense muscles relax in the warm water. The bathhouse was much quieter this time around, only a few very tired adventurers taking a bath and not wanting to talk. All they wanted to do was to relax after a hard day's work, which suited Xiao Lan just fine. For a second, she had wondered what to do if another group of talky girls was in there, gushing over Prince.
Sometimes, she really hated that she had let Lolidragon create Prince.
Actually, it was her fault-No, no, no. It was her brother's fault!
Had he not annoyed her, saying women had it easier in games, she would never have asked to become a tranny and Lolidragon wouldn't have gotten a crush on Prince and made him all the more prettier and causing everyone else to fall in love with him. Then he wouldn't have gotten so well known, but merely be this little oddball of a warrior who liked to kill things in brutal and bloody ways.
"Then again, I wouldn't be here right now..." she mumbled under her breath to herself and stretched, feeling her muscles clunk. She got out of the water and headed into the dressing room, drying off and braiding her hair back to keep it out of her face. She was just fastening the belt around her hips when the ground started to shake.
For a second time.
Several gasps and slight screams were heard from the women, but any panic was pointless as it grew quiet after a few seconds. Some women were clutching their clothes or towels in uneasiness, looking around in case somebody was hurt, others looked like they were going to bolt the place within seconds, modesty be damned. The lancer frowned, wondering what the hell the shaking meant. The first time it had barely been noticeable, but this one was something that could almost be called an earthquake.
Hoping that the building wasn't collapsing, she made a mental note to have the others check on that, she finished dressing and then picked up her new weapon. After beating herself up for having not bought one earlier, Xiao had sold her Bladed Lance and barely got any money for it... but she had managed to save up quite an amount and had finally opted to buy a Glaive. It was a red lance that could be separated into three pieces, easier to carry around, and had an attack power of 155! Plus, it could only be equipped by players level 50 onwards, so it was pretty much the perfect weapon for her at that point. And it had cost a bundle for that, too...
"PinPon! Prince is needed!" Lolidragon suddenly called out to her over PM.
"Yeah yeah..." Xiao Lan replied and sighed, leaving the bathhouse and logging off.
Waking up in her bed, Lan yawned and fumbled with the back of her headband for a second before slipping it off. Suppressing another yawn, the pink one was flung to her side with one hand and her other was groping around her other side, looking for the other headband that had Prince as her registered character. Finding nothing, her fingers feeling nothing but soft, warm and comfortable sheet or blanket, her mind went blank and she fell asleep again.