Book 4, Chapter 9

Infuriate

           "Give us the loot. We want thetreasure not your lives. WE were the ones dealing with all those monsters, nowwe can"t just let you take it for free. Hand them over or we will take themby force!"

           The speaker is a wizard-like player wearing black robe. He seems willing to talk but... Maybe he"s just planning about how to take usdown inside his mind.
　　
　　    That"squite a big group behind him, about 500 people. From their broken weapons andragged clothes, they are those unfortunate guys who were fending off themonsters on the other side.

            We were just trying to head back to the city so Ialready un-summoned everyone except Phiona, who is now standing on my shoulderas a small aurora bird.

            "Are these guys the ones you mentioned?"
　　
　　    "Yeah.But there were several thousands of them back then."
 　　
　　    Iasked Hawk to get closer and whispered to him: "So they brought thousands ofpeople here and now this is what"s left of them, which means they don"t havemuch supply on them now. We three, plus my companions, should be enough to takecare of them." 　　
　　    "Buthe was true, we can get the treasure because they helped keeping monsters away.We should at least give them half of the loot, and hopefully settle thiswithout a fight."
 　　
　　    "Um, if you say so."

           Hawk is quite the honest guy it seems. Well, he chose to be aPaladin anyway, I guess honor is important to him.
　　
　　    Hawkspoke to the wizard: "We didn"t know you were here, and we openedthe secret entrance too. It was pretty tricky one, I don"t think you would havemade it. How about this, we"ll share half of what we got, let"s consider thework done as a team."
　　
　　    Theblack robe began to consider. But a warrior beside him yelled: "How do weknow how many items you took? You can just tell us a fake number and give usless stuff, am I right?"
　　
　　    Thewizard silenced him. "To tell the truth, we wouldn"t have made it up here. Thosemonsters suddenly stopped coming, I guess that"s because you opened the secretroom. I believe you, we"ll accept half of the treasures."
　　
　　    Hawktook off his ring and stretched his hand towards Elfy. 

            "What?"
　　
　　    "Givethem the bow."
 　　
　　    Elfyheld it tightly and shook her head. "No! Why should I? It"s mine!"
　　
　　    "Elfy!"
 　　
　　    "NoI won"t!"
　　
　　    "Listen, we aren"t really justified here, we should at least give them what theydeserve."

            Now that"s the first time I saw some anger from Hawk.
　　
　　    Elfylooked at Hawk"s serious expression and decided to comply. Though unwillingly.

           "Fine..."

           She looks about to cry. Sadly there"s nothing much I cando in such a situation.
　　
　　    Hawkthrew the bow and his ring over to the wizard. "Four items in all. I gavea bracelet to my friend, and an egg, already hatched so we can"t give it backeven if we want to."
　　
　　    Thewizard looked at the items. "I"m [Fate Revenger], master of the Black Moon,our guild. We have several branches now, among most major cities. Come visit uswhen you have the time. I appreciate your honorable decision. Let"s at leastbecome allies. If your girl friend over there really wants the bow, you can cometo our auction sale next week. We usually sell our loot this way and share theprofit for everyone. As their leader, I can"t break that rule. But still, I can make anexception this time and ask you only 90% of the bidding."
　　
　　    Hawkanswered politely: "We did take your advantage, I should apologize. Thatbow is indeed valuable to my friend, we will be there."
　　
　　    "Farewellthen."

            Fate began to lead his men off the mountain. Not everyone followedhim though, we saw a small group left behind.

            Fate noticed the out-standers andturned back. "Mr. Loong?"
　　
　　    Awizard wearing blue robe stepped ahead. "You Black Moon can leave now sinceyou got no more business. Don"t forget to give us the share for the items. Wegot something else to do."
　　
　　    Fateturned to Hawk: "Careful brother, this man is far from the kind type. Wecan"t help you because of...our agreement. Be on guard."

           Then he humphedand left with his members.
　　
　　    The"Mr. Loong" sized us up for a bit.

           "Huh. Fate is anidiot but I"m not. I believe you are all smart guys too so let"s get thisstraight. The black outfit you"re wearing, friend, is also one of the reward Ia.s.sume? We won"t ask much...sell it, and we"ll share the money seventy-thirty. Wetake the seventy of course. How about it? You can get thirty percent out of itwithout even lifting a finger, just call it free. I know I"m always thenice guy."
　　
　　    Well,if anyone can see my face they would notice I"m extremely p.i.s.sed off right now.I immediately saw what he was going to do when he stayed, and I planned to giveup the bracelet too. He"s going to sell it anyway, the worst case is I can justborrow some money from father and buy it back. Elfy is already the pegasus"master so even the system would not have the right to take it away.

           What I"mnot expecting is that the b.a.s.t.a.r.d wants my armors! I don"t know how much itwould sell and I don"t care. The two months" worth of effort is already enoughto make it surpa.s.s any treasures we might find on this tiny mountain tip.
　　
　　    "...Ha-hahaha!"I really feel like laughing to let off some of my anger. "Just tell usstraight if you want dead! Of course I"ll help you with it."
　　
　　    "What"chasaying huh??" A minion came up but Mr. Loong dragged him back.
　　
　　    "Nownow my friend, do you know you should never take your words too far? Your voice...soundslike someone just went over the age of 10. Do you want me to teach you therules of the world out there?" Then he dropped his att.i.tude. "Yourequipment won"t help you fight against 200 people. How long can you stand ifwe attack you together? Now be clever so you don"t suffer too much."
　　
　　    Ididn"t respond, cause I don"t know what else I can say to this moron. Oh well, timefor some actions.

           I raised my hand to my shoulder. Phiona jumped on it. ThenI threw her into the air (a little more gently).

          She turned into her true form whilecreating a hot wave around us, cause several people in the front of the groupto stagger.
　　
　　    "Aphoenix!"
 　　
　　    "Blackphoenix!!"
 　　
　　    Thegroup scattered. That"s what I expected would happen when someone who don"teven know about companions see a real one. Hawk and Elfy are well-knowledged and they still tried to climb atree.

           Someone in the groupare already taking out their recall scrolls.
　　
　　    Mr.Loong shouted and stopped their movement.

           "STOP IT! It"s just one phoenix, andit doesn"t look a real one! Use our advantage and kill the player so hiscompanion will just disappear! Stay in your positions!"

           The group is stilla bit chaotic but is under control in general. However, Mr. Loong"s face is notreally "under control". He must have realized something is not going to proceed as he planned.
　　
　　    Theturns of his expressions look quite fun. I wonder what will happen if I givehim some more surprises.

            I stretched out my right hand, a giant black portalappeared beside me. A mighty roar came out of the portal and caused a visibleair shock, knocking some people down.

           I rubbed my ears. I did tell him to "makea show". But I should have opened the portal a little far from myself. Nowmy right ear is ringing.
　　
　　    Luckyshot himself out of the portal, gliding close the ground and swept past theirhead. He also caught two very unlucky people in his claws, who gave out someterrible inhuman screams out of fear, which caused the other people on the groundto shake.
　　
　　    Peoplelose their intelligence when stressed or terrified, that"s what"s going on infront of me--someone forgot they are still playing a game and began to beg fortheir lives.

           "I DONT WANNA DIE!!"
　　
　　    Luckythrew the yelling madman into the crowd with some force. The falling human bombcrashed into something solid head-first and caused some blood splashes. Some female playersfainted. Good. I don"t really enjoy scaring girls. Now they"re out cold so theydon"t have to see what"s coming next.
　　
　　    Ipointed towards the sky. Loong"er appeared around me and slowly floated upwardswhile recovering to her full size. Mr. Loong seems helpless at how to controlthe situation. His men are crying like Christians who are meeting with Jesusface to face. (*)
　　
　　    Isummoned Rosy. Now I"m going to jump scare them for good, even give some peoplea heart attack, if I can.

           Several thick plant vines emerged from under theirfeet and brought some people down with them. More yelling.
　　
　　    Mr.Loong"s face has turned into the color of purple.

           I"m not satisfied though, I asked Phantom tofind someone unconscious and control him.

          The poor guy"s body suddenly stood up."NOOOO! I CAN"T TAKE IT! DEVIL! IT"S THE DEVILS!" He screamed inhysteria and clawed at his own face. He did it so hard that he now looks like aliving zombie. The man has no idea what"s happening since he"s not awake at all.But those people around him aren"t aware of the fact, what they saw is one oftheir comrade just went insane.
　　
　　    Itook the chance when everyone has lost their mind and shot my dragon cords atMr. Loong. Now I"m pretty good at it after all these days" practice. Thecords only become sharp when I inject my MP into them, otherwise I can just usethem as really strong ropes.

           I caught the man"s neck like throwing a la.s.so andbegan to retrieve it. The cord wrapped around his neck firmly.
　　
　　    I attached the other end of the cord onto my saddle before I shook Hawk and Elfyback to their senses. They have been staring at the scene with their mouthsagape for a while now.

           "I caught the prey! Now run for it! Ahoy, NightShade!"

           Night Shade bolted away, with Mr. Loong hanging behind us who justrealized what"s going on. He pulled on the cord around his neck in order tobreath a little.
　　
　　    Hiscondition is of no concern to me so I just asked Night Shade to gallop as hewish. I also tried to choose the most painful routes--whichever path with themost th.o.r.n.y plants or ragged rocks.

           When we left the mountain range the onlypiece of cloth left on the unfortunate dude is the unbreakable underpants usedto hide his embarra.s.sment. His equipments are no where to be found.

           Hawk andElfy caught up from behind. Elfy glanced at the now dying Mr. Loong. "Ziri,let him go. That"s enough revenge."
　　
　　    "Notgonna. This is the first time someone tries to pull that off on me.  Iwon"t stop before I get rid of all the bad mood. You two can get back to the cityand have a rest, I"ll be there when I"m done with him."

           Without waitingfor an answer, I asked Night Shade to charge faster and left the couple behind.
　　
　　    Aftera while, I felt a weight go away, and the cord retracted itself. I turnedmy head to see a white light. So I finally dragged away Mr. Loong"s last point ofHP. Hmm. I could have done worse if I finished him off using my Revenger and take2 levels off him instead of 1.
　　
　　    Iopened the chat. "Hawk, where are you? Let"s have some fun in the city!"
　　
　　    "Youdone with the guy?"
 　　
　　    "Notreally. He just died on the ground."
　　
　　    Elfynudged into the screen. "You looked scary! I thought you were going toeat him or something."
　　
　　    "I"mnot a monster! I was just a bit over my head, did I do anything bad to you?"
　　
　　    "No.So we"re going to the city together?"
　　
　　    "Yeah.I"ve always wanted to see what"s inside a city, now"s the chance to lift up thespirit a bit. I got a close friend called Wayne who"s been blasting about allthe fun in various cities beside my ears all day long. I think he"s doing it onpurpose!"
　　
　　    "Alright.Which city"s on your mind?"
　　
　　    "TheBright City!"
 　　
　　    "BrightCity? That"s not really a big city. There are a lot of bigger ones to have more fun."
　　
　　    "Notfor fun this time, my gf is in jail. I need to rescue her from the Bright Cityand it"ll be best if you can help me with it."
　　
　　    Hawknudged back into the screen. "Um, I do want to help but, you know thoseguards will just kill us in one hit right? You will need at least ten or twentythousand of people to attack a city!"
　　
　　    "I"mnot asking you to fight the NPCs."

           Ugh. It"s best to explain this indetail in front their faces, so I used my Star Gaze ring to detect theirlocation and just teleported there, which of course, startled them.
　　
　　    "You--"They stared at me as if an alien has come to visit.
　　
　　    "Askquestions later!" I showed them my new bracelet. "Now this thing, willhide my red name. I need you to take this bracelet to my girlfriend so she canjust walk out of the prison like taking a walk in the afternoon."
　　
　　    "Goodidea!" Hawk took the bracelet. "Tell us what she looks like in theprivate chat so we can find her."
　　
　　    "She...isnot on. A second, I"ll go call her."
 　　
　　    "Bequick!"
　　
　　    Ilogged out the game and called Rose"s phone. Her roommate answered it.

            "Can I speak to Rose?"
　　
　　    "Shejust went into the game. I"ll tell her you called."
　　
　　    "Nonono,I"m hoping she would do that."
 　　
　　    "Ah,good for you. See ya then!"
　　
　　    I appeared in front of the pair again. They"re leaning on eachother, enjoying the scenery.

           I"m hurt! Must they show off their love at such atime??

           I called them to join Rose"s private channel.
　　
　　   Rose"s beautiful face showed up in the group chat. I pulled off my helmet and tried to speak but Rosetook the initiate.

           "Hey dear. Welcome back! I was just--ehhahaha--ahh don"t--HAHAHAHA!Hey wait--AH!"

           The screen shook violently, I see the figures of severalgirls in there. A nice looking girl came up to the display.

           "Hey you! So you"re Ziri?"
　　
　　    Ifrowned. "Who are you?"
　　
　　    "You don"t know me? Which rural part did you come from? You don"t know this vicemaster of the second biggest guild in the whole game?"
　　
　　    "Ohexcuse me ma"am. I don"t even know about the chief master of the first biggestguild."
　　
　　    "Whyyou--!"

            Ohh this is fun. I see smoke coming out of her head.

            "I"llonly tell you once: I"m from the G.o.ddess Alliance. Join us now. I give you 30 seconds,or you won"t like what I"m about to do to Rose!"

            Rose"s screaming camefrom the screen. "No! Ah!...Urf!... Stop it!"
　　
　　    "Whatthe fuc is this all about?" 　　
　　  

            "Itold you, silly. Join our guild. I heard that you got some really niceequipment. Oh and your Luck would help us a lot too."

(*) This reminds me, apart from being offensive to certain nations, the author will make all kinds jokes against some religions and various G.o.ds from other cultures too. Example, Shiva from Hinduism, Anubis from Egypt. I think he even tried to turn Lady Liberty into a Boss or something.

     Though you"ll only see such content in later stages.