“Ah.. That is..”
Hydra’s face paled as he felt the cold sweat all over his body. As he was still hugging, he wasn’t able to tell what Irina was thinking after he wasn’t able to answer immediately. But it was clear from the twitch like movement that she noticed something was amiss.
‘What do i do?! She’s definitely going to kill me If i tell her Pan died! I just fought for my life and you’re telling me it’s all over now?!’
“Hydra….”
“Yes?!”
“Where… is Pan?
“Ummm well you see.. Pan was working too hard and decided to sleep! Yes, that’s it! When he saw you get hurt he tried to fight the t.i.tan by himself and even managed to play a key role in defeating the monster. Now that it’s over he was too tired and decided to hibernate.”
“Oh is that so?….. Is that what you thought I’d say?”
“No nononono I mean yes.. Wait no… I give! If i tap out now you won’t hurt me right?”
“Oh not even close~”
As the smile on Irina’s face and the glare in her eyes meant two different things entirely. Unfortunately as he tried release his hug, he realized Irina had no intentions on letting him go. As her nails started to dig deeper into his skin window after window appeared in front of him. He started to see a dark aura radiate off of Irina and he could only sit there close his eyes tightly and hope the scary ent.i.ty would revert back to a kind young girl.
———————————
“Hahah. Look at these useless NPC’s. Useless s.h.i.ts can’t even march a fair distance without break.”
A young boy laughed as mocked the NPC’s that were sitting down out of breath and sweating. At this point an army had just finished a long arduous battle, within a cave. They were preparing to siege the [Kobold King] and they had finally arrived at the entrance to the boss fight. But they were unable to proceed any further because all the NPC’s were tired after the fight. Thus the [Shadow Lurkers] decided to give them a break, as it would only benefit them in the long run.
However, the reason they took a break wasn’t so they NPC’s could be mocked because of their low stamina. To foreigners it was a game after all, it would be difficult to get as tired as NPC’s so early on. And feeling tired after playing for only an hour would not be popular amongst the gamers. Thus, Phoenix gave the users superhuman like stamina that allowed them to fight for a long time. In fact the only way for them to notice they were getting tired was their satiety levels. The problem was easily fixed by simply eating.
The remaining few laughed with the young boy as they thought of NPC’s as nothing more than insects. It was then that a young girl walked over in a white robe and small little staff spoke up.
“Umm what do you think you’re doing? Do you think you would even get a chance like this with your pitiful levels?”
“Huh? What did you say girl?”
The young man glared in anger at the young girl, as she slightly stepped back and his unsightly expression. As the young man was his goons were about to take action another girl came forward.
“Ah Rina there you are. Oh? What do we have here. You mischievous girl you, are you cheating on Lockon by any chance!?”
“Lila! That’s not it at all and you know that by looking at their ugly faces. I mean nasty… I mean uhhh mean faces?”
“Haha no need to get so fl.u.s.tered it’s alright. Your big sister will take care of everything~”
As Lila walked towards the young man and his group of goons she only lightly glared at them before speaking up.
“If you want to die by all means continue what you were about to do. But be warned I’ll make sure the moment you resp.a.w.n outside the cave you’ll die 20 times over.”
“Boss… That’s Lila the battle commander… We should get out of here.”
“Who cares who she is? This girl dares to look down on me? I’m an heir of a large corporation you know?!”
“Uh…. That doesn’t mean anything in the game boss.”
“Whatever just kill that b.i.t.c.h!”
“Nope you’re on your own. I refuse to take part on that boss.”
“Who do you thinks paying you to protect me?!”
“You…But we literally are doing our job by warning you not to mess with her.”
Just as the older man and young boy started to argue another person appeared to the racket that was being heard throughout the army camp.
“OH! Is this the super over dramatic, cliché pick on the weak type of young heir to a company scene? I have to record this in my journal. I can’t believe I’m seeing such a development with my own eyes. Truly fascinating. If only Shadow was here, I could watch him beat the c.r.a.p out of these guys with an inch left of their lives.”
As a young man walked through the crowd scribbling notes on a journal, and one in a while he would fix the position of the gla.s.ses on his face.
“Oh Lockon, you heard the commotion as well?”
“Haha.. The whole camp can hear it.”
“Umm… I think this is getting out of hand.”
“Boss.. I swear now that Lockon is here if you make a move you’re on your own regardless if you fire me. I don’t want to quit the game because I lost 20 levels straight.”
“How could they pull that off? That would be 20 straight days of camping the cave.”
“Boss didn’t you know that all of the [Shadow Lurkers] are heirs to companies 10 times larger than your own?”
“…..What? How dare they…”
As the young boy stared at 3 of the [Shadow Lurkers] with envy he grunted as he left yelling.
“This isn’t over!”
“Who cares you’re just a small time bully.”
As Lila shrugged her shoulders at the boy’s response, Rina walked over to the NPC’s and carefully started to cast stamina regen on them. That was after all her original objective until she saw them being bullied.
“Umm I’m sorry about that. We, foreigners aren’t all like that. I hope you can forgive us.”
“No, the young miss doesn’t need to worry about this old man. I thank you for being so kind.”
As the old man being healed by Rina he spoke out for the rest of the NPC’s who all nodded at his response. They were thankful to even get the chance to fight in a battle like this. They were after all not heavily trained warriors and they were almost guaranteed protection because the main force was in fact foreigners. The [Shadow Lurkers] wouldn’t do something as cowardly as using the NPC’s as fodder, instead they used the fact that users can not die to their advantage and threw them as fodder instead!
Rina at his response could only smile and nod in happiness. The smile on her face soothed the old men more than her magic did.
“Oh…. Lockon Rina has another fan club again…”
“Oh…..As expected of Rina.”
—————————
Meanwhile, after the young boy left in anger, carefully followed by his goons as to not agitate him anymore, he couldn’t help but kick at a rock on the ground.
“d.a.m.nit! How dare they make a fool out of me! I’ll get them back for this I swear it on my pride!”
“There’s no need to worry young man. I have just the thing to show the [Shadow Lurkers] up for you. Would the young master be interested in this secret weapon I have?”
Just as the young boy was venting his anger. A man fully equipped with large heavy armor, that was severely worn out. As the armor had punctured holes and dented everywhere, it was the exact look of a beggar or man who couldn’t afford a decent pair of armor. As the heavy armored knight had a face shield on it was impossible to determine who the man was. But the boy didn’t mind this his anger already threw out all reason and the moment he heard ‘secret weapon’ his ears perked up and an evil smile grew on his face.
“Quickly tell me and I’ll reward you 1000 gold right now!”
“Very well young master. Here is the weapon. But don’t be fooled although it looks like a simple piece of bread inside contains an incredible power deep within. But you must promise me young master, if you break this piece of bread the calamity will befall unto you. So when you’re ready just throw this at a group of Kobolds and they will be instantly obliterated!”
“How incredible?! All this for a piece of bread? You must be lying.”
As the young boy had a hard time believing the shabby looking knight he could not help but look at him in doubt. The goons were also staring in disbelief, who could ever believe bread could have such ma.s.sive power?! But the knight didn’t seem to might and only calmly explained.
“Young master. As you know from my appearance, I had some ma.s.sive troubles and fought an incredible arduous battle to acquire this bread. But now, alas I’m left broke and unable to afford new armor. But now seeing a fellow friend in need I came over, and even though I fought for my life to obtain this magnificent weapon, I am willing to sell it to you young master so both of us can be happy!”
“Hmm that does make sense. After all to damage your armor that much would be incredibly difficult. Very well. I will give you 2000 gold!”
“Thank you young master!”
As the shabby knight bowed in thanks the trade was made without any problems. Even the goons had entirely believed the shabby knights story. It was nearly impossible to damage armor like that under normal circ.u.mstances and truthfully they were right.
As the knight walked away he could not help but snicker.
“Now I know how Hydra felt when he gave me that piece of bread. Well as they say share the love share the pain.”
Goliath whose shabby appearance disappeared and he turned his armor into an elegant white armor that glowed with holy light. As he walked away laughing at the foolish boy he had just traded with. He obtained 2000 gold for a piece of bread. Now that was the makings of a true business man.