Noob Player

Shen promised to take Eunha to the kindergarten, and he still had fifty minutes before the promised time. Instead of taking a shower, Shen continued his workout for another thirty minutes before taking a shower.

Coming out of the shower room, Shen went toward the wardrobe. He was about to take the training pants, but his hand stopped midair. "Should I wear something decent?" He did not want to embarrass Eunha by wearing the training clothes. His hand changed direction and took the blue jeans instead.

After rummaging his wardrobe for five minutes, Shen stood before the mirror. The blue jeans, black jacket, and white shirt underneath. "Not too formal, but not too shabby either." He nodded his head before checking the time on his phone. It was seven-fifty-three, and he still had seven minutes to walk to Uncle Wen's shop.

When Shen arrived at the shop, Eunha was not alone anymore. Lin Lin was with her, waiting for him in front of the shop as they were chatting and laughing together. It seemed they were talking about last night's trip to Aquas.

"We are ready, Brother Shen." Eunha noticed his arrival and looked at him with a wide smile. Shen was surprised by how happy Eunha was. He was just taking her to the kindergarten, but she was this happy. 'I have to do this more often. The kindergarten is not that far too.' He made a mental note for himself that sometimes, something simple was more meaningful than a planned thing.

Shen glanced inside the shop and saw Uncle Hou was chatting with Uncle Wen. He waved his hand to Uncle Hou, and the latter immediately came out. "Can you take Lin Lin with you too, Shen? My wife and I have to get the Ma La Tang's ingredients from the supplier."

Shen raised his right hand and made an okay gesture. "It's okay. I am going to take Eunha to the kindergarten anyway." While he was not that close with Uncle Hou compared to Uncle Wen, he knew a little about Uncle Hou's situation. They had to get the ingredients from the suppliers by themselves instead of getting delivered to save some money.

"Thank you, Shen. I will treat you to a free Ma La Tang if you come to my shop tonight or any night." Uncle Hou smiled widely as he was relieved his daughter was in the right hand. Shen grinned ear to ear when he heard the promised free food. "You can't take that back, Uncle Hou. I will come to your place tonight."

After a short conversation, the two little girls said goodbye to their fathers. Shen held the little girls' hand, walking on the side street. There were not many cars traveling around here, relatively safe, but Shen still held their hands, but better safe than sorry. Also, he did not want Eunha to run around.

The kindergarten was just a fifteen minutes walk from the shop, and they walked as they chatted. Shen asked the two little girls what kind of kindergarten it was, how many friends they had, and things like that. The two little girls had many friends, and they said no complaints about the kindergarten.

'That place is indeed good.' Shen was relieved that he heard no complaints from the two little girls. When the kindergarten came to their sight, he looked down and asked. "Do you want me to pick you up later? When do you finish?"

Eunha's round eyes brightened as a wide smile formed on her face. "Can you? But don't you have to work, Brother Shen? You don't have to force yourself to pick me up." She then shook her head. Eunha felt that she was happy enough with this.

"Hmm, I can pick you up after lunch, or I can pick you and have lunch together. I have to take a break too, you know." Shen smiled. "So, when do you finish?"

"We can't have lunch together because we will have lunch with our friends and teacher together. We finish the class at four." Lin Lin was the one who answered that. She knew that her best friend wanted this Brother Shen to pick them up, so she spoke for her friend instead.

"I see." Shen just realized that kindergarten nowadays was a full program day. He then remembered that the children also had a nap period, but he did not remember if it was after or before lunch. "Then I will pick you two at four, okay?"

After the promise was made, they arrived in front of the kindergarten, and a teacher greeted them at the entrance. The teacher looked young, at least, young for a teacher. In her late twenties? Or maybe around twenty-seven. She had a sweet smile on her face as she greeted Eunha and Lin Lin. "Good morning, Eunha and Lin Lin~" A sweet voice flowed out from her mouth.

The first one she greeted was the children instead of the adults. Not that Shen was offended as he felt that was a great attitude. That meant the teacher prioritized the children.

After Eunha and Lin Lin greet her back, only then does the teacher look at Shen. "Are you Brother Shen?" Teacher Ling was what the two little girls called her. Shen was surprised when Teacher Ling knew him.

Teacher Ling smiled. "Eunha often talks about her Brother Shen. You are indeed good-looking, like Eunha said."

The compliment was unexpected for Shen as no one had ever complimented him about his look openly like that. Those were two unexpected combos, and he did not know how to react to this. Shen opened his mouth, but he closed it again as he did not know what to say in response.

"Alright then, I will bring Eunha and Lin Lin inside." Teacher Ling waved her hand at Shen as she brought the two little girls with her. They waved their hands at Shen. He subconsciously waved his hand back at them, but his mind was somewhere else.

'Stupid Shen, you are embarrassing yourself in front of Eunha.' Shen thought to himself while shaking his head. 'You could, at least, say thanks in return.' He turned around while looking down.

Shen returned to his apartment, changing into short pants and drinking some water before logging into the game. By the time he logged into the game, everyone had finished their run. Everyone was sitting on the table in front of the spawn spot, waiting for their food.

"You are late, Shen." Dale was the first one to greet him. "It's so unusual of you." Everyone looked at him, waiting for his answer. Shen was usually the first three people who logged into the game.

"I was taking Eunha to the kindergarten first," Shen shouted as he ran toward the backyard of his house. "I am late. See you later, guys~." His routine had changed now, and he was no longer running as much as before, as sparring against Master Yosu was his top list for his training.

By the time he arrived in the backyard, Master Yosu was waiting for him while holding the wooden sword. "You are late!" The old man's stern voice rang, and it was clear that Yosu was displeased with his late arrival.

"I am sorry, Master. I have to do something before I can come here." Shen did not know how to tell his real-life situation to an in-game character. There was no way that Master Yosu understood kindergarten and stuff, especially for those things that did not exist in this game.

"I see," Fortunately, Master Yosu was understanding of his situation and suggested a change of schedule. "Then, let's start sparring at this time for tomorrow and onwards."

"That's perfect." Shen immediately agreed as he took out the sword from his inventory. Holding the sword with his only hand, he opened his mouth. "I am ready!"

Yosu made an evil smirk. 'Do you think I overlook your tardiness that easily?' The old man thought to himself. He did not say anything and made his move.

First, Shen barely saw Yosu's movement. Second, he was not prepared for the attack as usually, Master Yosu would give him a signal to start the sparring. Yosu struck Shen's back without holding back.

Shen's face paled as he fell forward with his face first. Yue told him to increase the pain tolerance to 3 as she said it would help him in something. However, he had not experienced that help yet, and instead, the hit from Master Yosu had gotten even more painful. Despite the pain in his back, he immediately got up and turned around.

Master Yosu was right in front of him, swinging the wooden sword toward his chest. Shen immediately raised his sword and placed it horizontally in front of his chest. He thought he managed to block the wooden sword, but Master Yosu changed the direction. The wooden sword twisted in a strange way and struck toward his left leg.

"Urgh!" Shen grunted in pain as he fell on his left knee. He was about to stand up again, but Master Yosu struck his right leg. Just like that, Master Yosu took him down easily.

Shen knelt and looked at Master Yosu. The latter had an evil smile on his face, and he felt something bad was about to happen. Sure enough, Master Yosu raised his right knee and struck him on the chest.

Shen clutched his chest in pain as his body flew backward. 'What? I thought he was teaching me swordplay? Why does Master Yosu use his knee?' He was surprised because this was the first time that Master Yosu used something to attack him aside from the wooden sword.