Endless Evolution As A Skeleton In A Game-Like World

"H-how much?" Eva nervously repeated her question, which caused the woman’s already sour mood to turn even worse.

"Are you deaf? I asked how much you have made."

Eva’s shoulders slumped as she stared at her ledger. She did not know the exact amount of money she had made that week, but she knew it was definitely not enough to satisfy her senior.

"Miss Stephanie, can I have a few more days?" She pleaded. "I promise I’ll fill the quota if you give me more—"

"Did I ask you for an explanation?" The woman suddenly grabbed the ledger and yanked it out of Eva’s hands.

She roughly flipped through the pages, her disappointment growing with each turn.

"Ten thousand credits?" She tossed the book back at her face. Eva failed to catch it, so the ledger fell, scattering the papers all over the floor.

Eva stared at the mess and felt like crying. This was her genuine hard work... she had only been hired two weeks ago...

Unlike she expected, being a guild receptionist was difficult.

A lot of players saw natives as second-class citizens, so they were not the nicest, especially to newbies who didn’t know the job well...

They had to work fifteen-hour shifts on a daily basis since Eden did not sleep, so she was often sluggish throughout the day.

She would have quit, but a tower had recently appeared right in the middle of their village, so one of the major guilds evacuated them all to the city.

They were given temporary accommodation, but they had to deal with their food themselves.

But they were elves...

They were not used to the big cities, they were farmers who relied on their forests for sustenance. The noise was too loud for their ears, the sun too harsh on their skin... yet, they had to work.

To survive, they had to work...

Even though she had never worked in an organisation before, she had done her very best, and yet—

Eva felt her heart throb as she bent down to pick up the papers, only for the woman to step on them.

"What is the point in picking up that trash?"

The woman jeered. "My monthly allowance as a player covers that, and I will still have change to feed your family for weeks!"

"Please, ma’am, can you take off your foot?"

"What?" The woman’s face contorted with rage. Her cat ears stood still, and her tail straightened. "Did you just talk back at me?"

The woman laughed, then said something in an earthen language Eva did not understand.

Eva tried to pick up the paper when the woman stepped on her hand.

She was about to scream, but in an instant, the woman grabbed her ear and tugged it back, her feral eyes boring into her own.

It felt like Eva’s ears had been set on fire. She whimpered, but she did not dare scream.

"Listen to me, Miss Ears..." Her tone grew cold and aggressive. "I need you duds to rack up enough money for me to have a happy retirement, do you understand?"

Eva’s eyes blurred with tears.

"Look at the other team my friend is leading. Her newbie made twenty thousand credits in such a short time!"

Her eyes became wilder. "Are you really that useless? Do I have to re-educate you each and every day?"

Eva shook her head, tears rolling out of her eyes as the woman’s nails dug into her tender ears.

"I-I’m sorry... please, forgive me, senior."

The woman stared at her for a second longer, blood dripping down from her fingers, then she hissed.

"Useless." She got up and glared down at her. "Clean up this mess before the vice guild comes in, and go buy a health potion below your ears."

"If I smell even a whiff of blood, you’re dead."

Health potions were expensive. Just one bottle was enough to feed her family for a few days, and yet, Eva had no choice.

It was better than losing her job. She gathered the papers and stood to her feet under the glare of the woman.

But when both of them stared at the entrance of the guild, they saw a skeleton dressed in black robes staring at them.

Beside him was a lamia and a harpy staring at them. The harpy was about to step forward when the skeleton raised a hand to stop her.

The woman hissed before walking away from Eva’s counter, and moving towards her own at the other side of the room.

Ark watched her go before walking to meet Eva.

Eva smiled brightly. "You guys actually made it!" She said excitedly. "Thank Evnyra for your safe return, I thought something might have happened..."

None of them said a word. After all, how could they share her excitement after witnessing what had just happened?

Racism against natives was as old as Eden. The strong always dominated the weak, that was the way of the world.

A few wars had even occurred because of this, but the natives were nothing against the guilds. Quelling them had been child’s play...

"How long has this been happening?" Ark asked in a reserved tone, barely holding back his anger.

He had noticed how nervous she had been when they first met. Was it also because of that woman?

"What do you mean?" Eva asked in a pleading tone. "I’m fine, nothing has been happening..."

She said this as blood clearly drifted down her ear. Ark saw her hand tremble slightly.

Eva was likely so afraid that she had not reported this to the higher-ups. Even now, Ark could see from the way she looked at him that she wanted him to let it go.

"Eva!" Olivia said angrily. "You can’t let people treat you like this!"

"Oh, you misunderstand, she was only correcting me." She said in a depressed tone.

"Eva..." Olivia was left speechless.

Ark stared at the blood for a few seconds before he turned around and began slowly walking towards the woman’s counter.

Thalia was going to follow, but to her surprise, Olivia held her back. "It’s best we stay here. Skelly is almost never angry. This won’t be pretty."

Olivia knew that if they were to accompany him, then they would eventually have to hold him back.

Because although Ark was normally kind, well, kind enough... he had a tendency of letting a certain darkness slip out of his heart.

Eva, on the other hand, was worried sick. Although her senior worked as a receptionist, she had just entered the bronze rank recently. Ark was still a newbie...

She wanted to stop him, but she knew nothing good would come out of interrupting a confrontation between players.

Many natives had died that way.

Ark arrived at the woman’s desk and casually rested his hands on it.

"Good morning, miss..." He read the name on her tag. "Stephanie. I would like to buy a health potion."

’A skeleton?’ The woman thought as she eyed him. ’No wonder she keeps making garbage in sales.’

She remembered a kobold and lizard man used to patronise her as well.

"What type of health potion?" The woman basically sneered. What could he even afford?

"Hmm, what do you think would be enough to heal an ear bleed?"

"I’m not a healer. If you need one, you can fuck over to the nearest temple."

Ark’s expression remained as stoic as it always was. "Sorry, I meant no offense. I guess a C-Rank potion would do."

"C-Rank?" She scoffed as she picked up the potion and shoved it towards him. "Can you afford it?"

"How much?"

"15,000 credits." She smirked. "Are you going to spend your entire salary to get on the good side of a native?"

"How I spend my money is my business." Ark said calmly. He placed his hands into his pocket and pulled out the money, placing it on the table.

Stephanie stared at the coin and frowned. It was a one-credit coin.

Ark cocked his head to the side, and said in a cold voice, "Give me change."

Stephanie furrowed her brows out of confusion. "I said fifteen thousand credits—"

Thwack!

The back of Ark’s fist exploded into her jaw, rocking her head to the side. Her eyes blurred with hot tears as blood dripped down her nose.

Ark pulled out a piece of cloth from his pocket and wiped his hands, his fiery eyes growing more intense.

"It seems you do not understand what is going on right now. Give. Me. Change."

The entire adventurer’s guild grew silent, as everyone stared at the two of them.

They had watched Eva get bullied without doing a single thing to stop it, so now that the tables were turned, they had no justification to make a move...

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