Chapter 302: A New Deal

After eating lunch, Zach and Victoria were washing dishes together on the backside of the church.

"This kind of feels like we are married and doing house chores together," Victoria said with a smile on her face.

"That would have been the normal life you yearn for, huh?"

"It will happen once we get out of the game."

"…" Zach watched Victoria with a calm look on his face but didn't say anything, or rather, he didn't know what to say. There was no point in giving false hope.

'Can we leave this game? I am not sure. The gods said we can, but they are gods. They won't easily give up. There has to be a twist they are planning.'

'But… is there any need or reason to leave this game?' Zach wondered. ‘The only reason I want to go back to the real world is that mother, Zoe, and Siesta. Victoria is already here.'

'Only if mother had her powers, she could have taken Zoe to another safe realm of one of the father's friends.'

'Oh! I forgot about our real bodies. Just like how we die in the real world if we die in the game, if we die in the real world because of some circumstances, we will die here too.'

Their bodies were defenseless in the real world, although they were safe.

"Yeah." Zach finally broke his silence and said, "We need to clear this game and go back to the real world."

After washing the dishes, Zach went back to his room and jumped on the bed to relax.

He looked at his gloves and took off the gloves from his right hand.

"I have noticed this before, and even though it was only my second time using phoenix's mode…" Zach opened and closed his fists a couple of times and said, "My hand feels numb. Not only my hand but also my head and mouth."

He curled to the side of the bed and muttered, "Even though Victoria made my favorite dish, I couldn't taste it because of the numbness."

'It should automatically go away, but this is the side-effect of using the blessings. If I want to use my blessings freely, my soul needs to get strong, a lot stronger.'

Zach closed his eyes and meditated for a few minutes before getting up from the bed. He wore the gloves and opened the portal to the magic shop dimension.

Xie Lua was at the booth, but she was resting her head on her hands, and her eyes were closed. Seemingly, she was daydreaming again.

"Ahem!" Zach cleared his throat to make his presence known.

Xie Lua's ears twitched after hearing that, and she slowly raised her head to see Zach standing in front of her.

"…"

They stared at each other for a few seconds, creating tension in the atmosphere.

Zach was about to open his mouth to say something, but he stopped when he heard Xie Lua sigh.

SIGH!

"…?" Zach was confused and anxious after hearing Xie Lua sigh after seeing him. ‘Why did she sigh after seeing me? I thought we were lovers now?'

Xie Lua took a deep breath and smiled cheerfully at Zach before saying, "Welcome, dear~ What would you like first~? Food, bath or~ Me~?"

"…."

Xie Lua Lua groaned and puffed her cheeks as she said, "Come on~ You are supposed to choose me like you always do~"

However, she was still in a playful manner.

"What… in the world are you doing…?" Zach asked with an awkward smile on his face.

"Huh?" Xie Lua's face turned pale when she saw Zach speaking. "Don't tell me…. This… you are the real Zach…?"

Zach facepalmed himself and muttered, "So she was truly daydreaming."

"Wait! Why are you here again?!" Xie Lua hissed with a flushed face. She covered her face with her hands and said, "You never come two times in a day, so I was sure I was daydreaming."

"It's okay. There is no need to be embarrassed. And of course, if you ask me to choose between food, bath, and you, I would always choose you," Zach said with a grin on his face, seemingly trying to tease Xie Lya even more.

"Shut up!" She gritted her teeth and asked, "Why are you here?"

"I was missing you, so I came here to meet my dear wife, who is obviously lonely without me," Zach replied in a neutral tone.

"I can tell that was a lie since the expression on your face didn't change. Now, what's the real reason?" she asked with a judging look on her face.

Zach told her about his plan to use MP potions as an incentive to get players to join his religion.

"Originally, I came to inform you about that since you are the one funding me with the materials, but then I remembered that the potions are non-transferrable, and I can't give them to anyone other than you."

After a brief pause, Zach said, "So they will have to buy potions from here at a 50% discount, which is also 500 coins. But I don't think they can summon the magic shop whenever they want a potion. So… can you give me a token like you gave me to summon the magic shop whenever they want?"

"I am sorry, but I only had one token, and I gave it to you," Xie Lua said in a low voice.

"I can give them my token, but then I would lose the ability to meet you every day, and I don't want that."

After a brief silence, Xie Lua held Zach's hand in her hands and said, "How about one of them comes and takes potions in bundles every week?"

"That's possible, but I don't have any player I can fully trust, and NPCs can't enter here."

"How about… you do it?"

"Hmm?"

"You can sell me the potions and buy them from me. That will make them transferable and usable," Xie Lua suggested, "Of course, I will give them to you for free, but I can't do a transaction without a trade, so you will have to give me one coin, at least."

"Oh!"

***

Total players in the game- 1,482,560

0 new players logged in.

6 players died.

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We just hit 300 chapters! Congratulations to you all!