It had been a few minutes since the ex-couple sat with Zach and the others, but they didn't speak a word.
"…"
"…"
Zach nudged Victoria and asked, "Who are they?"
"They are medical students," Victoria whispered to Zach. "They used to date but broke up because of certain circumstances. And now they met again in the game and ended up in the same guild and group."
"…" Zach looked at the couple and wondered, 'It doesn't look like they hate each other.'
"Their situation is somewhat similar to us," Victoria added.
"No, no." Zach shook his head and said, "This is nothing like us. And for your information, I used to think you broke up with me because you were moving to mars. I didn't know that you dumped me."
"We have already solved this matter, so don't mention it," Victoria uttered in an annoyed tone. "Especially when you are going to marry another girl after this raid."
"In all fairness, you are the one who didn't want to date me again," Zach commented. "But I would still have made moves on other girls even if we were dating…"
"Wow. So you would have cheated on me?" Victoria asked in disbelief. "You know, what? I wouldn't be surprised if you were seeing other girls even when we were dating."
Zach chuckled and rubbed his cheek on Victoria's cheek to annoy her more.
Victoria obviously pushed him aside and said, "Don't do that!"
"But you used to do this to me all the time when we were dating," Zach remarked with a grin.
Victoria's face flushed a little as she heard that. She furrowed her brows at Zach and said, "I will also spill the beans!"
"I don't think there is any bean left for you to spill, though. Aria knows everything about me, and so does Aurora," Zach scoffed.
"Are you sure about that?" Victoria asked with a smug look on her face in a haughty manner, as though she had some real dirt on Zach.
Even Zach was having second thoughts after seeing the arrogant smirk on Victoria's face.
'What could it be?' Zach wondered. 'I have so many peculiar habits, and even I don't know which one Victoria is talking about.'
Victoria cleared her throat and turned to Aria before saying, "You know, he likes being called daddy."
"…!"
"I am already aware of that," Aria sighed.
"Is… that so…?" Victoria glanced at Zach, only to see him smirking at her.
"It seems his shamelessness has no limit," she commented.
Zach rubbed his cheek against Victoria's cheek again and said, "My ears still remember that voice. You looked so cute."
Victoria pushed Zach to the side and stood up to change her seat.
'At least, she is back to normal,' Zach uttered inwardly. Zach was simply trying to calm Victoria down.
Zach had spent enough time with Victoria to know her personally. He could tell Victoria was feeling pressured and stressed because of obvious reasons. He knew that a tiny mistake from Victoria could lead many of the guild members to lose their life. While he didn't care much about the others, Zach was certain that Victoria would have blamed herself for any of the guild members' death, even when she wasn't to be blamed.
Death in wars and raids were inevitable. No one could take responsibility for the lives of all the players.
Zach turned to the ex-couple and asked, "So, who broke up with who?"
Both of them pointed their fingers at each other.
"You are the one who broke up with me!" the woman yelled.
"It was you!" the man yelled back.
"…" Zach turned to Victoria, and she shrugged her shoulders in response.
"What's your name?" Zach asked the girl.
"Doctor Cindy," the woman replied.
"And what's yours?"
"Doctor Munbeta," the man responded with a proud look on his face.
"Drop the doctor from the name," Zach scoffed. "Your degree is useless in this game."
"I know. But what else can I do? I sacrificed our youth in studying. I took huge loans for our majors. I still have a lot of debts to pay, and here I am stuck in this game…" Cindy sighed. "I shouldn't have agreed to play this game with my friends."
"…"
"And what's worse is that I am stuck with this guy!" Cindy added after glancing at Munbeta.
Zach turned to Munbeta and asked, "What's your story?"
"Same as her. But in my case, I played a VR game because my brother asked me to," Munbeta responded.
"Isn't this a good thing then? You two don't have to pay the loans now. And even if you manage to survive and eventually get out of this game, you would already have a considerable amount of money in your bank accounts because of this game," Zach asserted in an annoyed tone. He was annoyed because he remembered something while saying that.
"That would be the case 'if' we manage to survive," Cindy remarked. "And honestly, with no offense, I don't think we are meant to clear this game."
"Obviously, we are not." Zach stood up and stretched his hands in the air as she said, "That's why… we have to beat this game. We are already in the worst state possible. What worse could happen now?"
'But the Gods do realize that they can't screw us over and over again, right? If they keep doing that, eventually, all the players would die, and there would be no point of Gods' Impact. What would they do in an empty world?' Zach scoffed as he thought that.
"You know…" Munbeta looked at Zach and said, "You are strong. So obviously, you will have no fear. It is given that you will survive any and all circumstances."
"Yeah. You have no right to say that. You wouldn't understand what it feels like to be us," Cindy seconded Munbeta.
That would have been true if that was the case. It wasn't as though Zach didn't risk his life and tried his best to become what he was today. Anyone could become as strong as him if they practiced hard enough.
In a way, Zach was prepared for the Gods' Impact ever since he was born. His father trained him and raised him as a weapon to make him the annihilator.
Zach stared at Cindy and Munbeta with a solemn look on his face, as though he wanted to say something in return to shut them up. He glanced at Aria, and she shook her head in return as though she was asking Zach to keep his mouth shut.
Victoria realized the tension in the atmosphere. She stood and clapped her hands loudly.
"Everyone! Get ready! We are proceeding to the next floor!" she announced loudly.
All the players got up and slowly passed through the portal to enter the 51st floor.
"Nice save," Zach said to Victoria.
"You don't plan to one-shot every monster, right? Leave some for the guild members," Victoria said with a grin on her face.
"Don't worry. I won't interrupt you guys now." Zach frowned his face and uttered, "But I will be participating on the boss floors. So if you want your guild members to get more EXP, order them to play accordingly."
"I won't be waiting for them to clear the floors at snail's pace," he added in a solemn voice.
***
Total players in the game- 1201469
0 new players logged in.
22 players died.
====
Author's Note- Are Cindy and Munbeta words valid? Or are they simply blaming the strong players as an excuse for their weakness?