Chapter 65: The Players’ Negotiation Strategy is the Best in the World!
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After Croakatoa shrank in the corner, everyone in the conch house returned to the topic.
“Since you talked about the dry-skinned that attacked us, then you should know something right?” The village elder asked, his cheeks puffed as he stared straight at Vela.
“Those people that attacked you are the bandits of the Society of the Secret Eye. They found a sea route, and want to conquer this tidal flat to change it into a harbor to allow them to smuggle their way to the Western Continent.”
It wasn’t cla.s.sified information in the first place, so she told the elder the information about the enemy.
“We are the adventurers from the town outside the Valley of the Tragic Dead. We’ve had some small conflicts with the Society of the Secret Eye too, so we can help you.”
“It isn’t like you dry-skinned to be so generous.”
The village elder didn’t rush to agree or decline, seeming to understand the psychology of humans quite well. He didn’t believe that Vela and party would help them battle against their own race for some ‘small conflicts’.
It was true that in this era before education was widely spread, most humans didn’t have the ability to see the big picture and acted mostly on their urges. And so, most demi-human races looked at humans as the most selfish and greedy race in the world.
This was a world led by deities and G.o.ds after all, and leaving aside the deities that weren’t bound by mortal laws, most church leaders like popes and archbishops as well as the monarchy that were at the top of the pyramid didn’t want any insurgents popping out from the commoners that could affect their rule. And so, they all worked together to restrict education and make the commoners foolish and easy to control.
This was also the reason why in a world of magic and divine arts, with much greater development potential than Earth would maintain in such a medieval era after so many years.
As Vela was thinking about how to make the frogmen trust her, Joe who had been sitting on the floor until his legs were numb shouted indignantly. “Enough of all this chat, just say what we have to do for you to believe us! Is it enough if I kill myself for the cause?!”
“Heh, you’re just a cowardly dry-skinned, you wouldn’t kill yourself…” Croakatoa who was picking at his toenails with a conch spear at a side croaked and laughed out.
Hearing the frogman say this, Joe jumped up from the floor, and ignoring the kelp around his wrists, he ran over to Croakatoa and s.n.a.t.c.hed away his conch spear.
Croakatoa was so terrified that his deep green skin became pale, but his first reaction was to block the village elder from any harm.
Contrary to his expectations, Joe didn’t attack Croakatoa or the village elder, instead stabbing the conch spear into his chest without any hesitation, spurting out blood from his mouth as he scoffed. “This is nothing! I’ll die for you right now!”
After he said this, he pulled out the spear and blood spurted out from his wound like a fountain, splashing all over the place. The extremely gruesome scene even scared the two frogmen guards next to him.
Not only the young frogmen guards, but even the village elder that had lived an extremely long life was shocked by this action of his. Since when did humans become such a courageous race?!
Everyone in the room waited for a while to realize that Joe still hadn’t died, and his wounds even seemed to be closing up and healing.
“F*ck, my HP is too high, lemme…” Joe realized the reason why he hadn’t died yet. Even though he impaled his heart, this attack of his that would have definitely killed a regular person didn’t make him die under the protection of the laws of the game system. Even though it was a critical hit because it hit his vitals, he still had a lot of HP left.
And so, under the petrified gaze of the two frogmen, he cursed and attacked himself with the spear again, spearing himself through the throat this time.
“F*ck, I can finally die…”
After saying this, Joe died with an extremely satisfied expression on his face.
For a while, the entire conch house was filled with an ominous silence.
The players and the frogmen looked at each other for a while, before the silence was broken by Gou Dan, unable to stifle his laughing anymore.
“Hah!”
Gou Dan’s reaction was quick, however, and he immediately acted as if nothing had happened, looking around at the scenery. Granted, there was nothing much to see in the room.
Croakatoa looked at Gou Dan with an appalled expression. This dry-skinned must have borrowed many salted fish from the one that died and was severely in debt, or else he wouldn’t laugh after his own comrade died!
He had guessed that these dry-skinned were acting dead to trick them, but Joe’s chest and throat had definitely been impaled thoroughly by the spear, and his heartbeat and breathing had all stopped. From every sign, it was clear to see that he was dead, but Croakatoa felt as if something was wrong…
“Fine, we accept your sincerity.”
Seeing that Gou Dan was trying his hardest to hold in his laugh, Vela quickly talked with the village elder, trying to seal the deal. “Let’s talk about how we should work together.”
“Uhm, shouldn’t you take care of your comrade’s corpse first?” The village elder asked, confused by the entire situation.
Seeing his reaction, he already seemed open to the idea of working together with the players. After all, Joe had already sacrificed himself to prove their honesty, so he was scared that if he hesitated any more, the party of humans would all kill themselves in a heartbeat.
Those enemies of the Society of the Secret Eye had already been a lot for the frogmen to handle, so if these humans that called themselves adventurers that could even kill themselves without any hesitation attacked them too, the frogman tribe would probably go instinct…
“Ah, that…” Vela didn’t know how to deal with Joe’s corpse either.
Was she supposed to tell them that the corpse of the players would naturally disappear after a day if no revival spell was cast on them?
“Why don’t you unbind us and let us drag him out?” Edward immediately spoke up, seeing this situation.
It was actually alright to let the frogmen drag him out, but first of all Edward wanted to test out how much they cooperated with them, and second of all….They all really wanted to laugh.
And so, Croakatoa took the conch spear that Joe had used to kill himself to cut the kelp around the players’ wrists, unbinding them.
Under the supervision of Croakatoa, the party dragged Joe’s corpse out of the conch house, while Vela stayed in the room to converse with the village elder about how they should work together.
Seeing that Croakatoa was there, the other frogmen didn’t think much of the players’ actions.
Once Croakatoa went back to the conch house, Edward and Gou Dan burst out in laughter.
“Bwahaha Joe is such a dumb*ss! I almost died holding in my laughter!”
“Don’t laugh, he used his own life to pave the way to a peaceful future…Hahaha, sorry, I can’t continue anymore, it’s too funny!”
The merry laughter coupled with the brutally killed corpse attracted all the attention of all the frogmen in earshot…