”I guess it wasn’t soundproof after all, or maybe it wasn’t from the inside. Perhaps, they are so much in pain that they are yelling as hard as they could.”
Naturally, Elliott couldn’t take the heat and the feeling of being cooked alive, so he opened the box from the inside.
The box opened from all directions, just as how the wrapper unwrapped from the gifts.
The girls’ skins were burned from various places, but Elliott was unharmed. Seemingly, he used the girls to protect himself from getting burned.
Zach looked at the girls and said, “There is a healer somewhere in the group. Go get yourself healed.”
The girls slowly made some distance from Zach and then started running towards the group to look for a healer.
’The girls haven’t done anything wrong, so I have no reason to hurt them. But if Elliott hadn’t opened the box, they would have died in there. That was the sacrifice they had to make so this piece of shit could die.’
Elliott slowly stood up and tried to run away, but he tripped and fell down.
Zach grabbed his sword and walked to him with a furious look on his face.
”Time to die, motherfucker!”
”Wait, wait! I will free Victoria from the guild!” Elliott promised and begged for his life.
”Oh? Well, guess what? I am still going to kill you!”
Zach raised his sword and slashed it down to cleave Elliott’s head, or he would have, but something unexpected happened.
Shay, who had been watching everything from his carrier above in the air, lowered his carrier to a safe height and jumped down in front of Zach.
”What are you doing, Shay? Get out of my way!” Zach uttered with a furious look on his face.
”Calm down, Zach. You are not thinking straight,” Shay said in a calm voice.
”I said… get out of my way, Shay!”
”Think about what would happen if you kill him.”
”I don’t care! I just want to smear my sword with his filthy blood?!”
”I am sure you know that if you kill the guild master, the vice-captain will become the next guild master. And in this case, Victoria.”
Zach lowered his sword and uttered, “Do? She can just make anyone else guild master and leave, right?”
”You know Victoria better than anyone. And do you think that she would do something like that?” Shay asked with a judging look on his face.
”What do you mean? She wants to leave the guild for me, so obviously, she can leave again.”
”Yeah, but there will be a difference, a huge one.” After a brief pause, Shay uttered, “When Victoria was still acting as a vice-captain, she was in charge of most of the things, and she loved doing her job, not because she was the vice-captain, but because she liked helping other players.”
”…”
”She wouldn’t have been or had left the guild if it wasn’t for you. Obviously, she would choose you over anyone at any time. But that was because there were other players to whom she could entrust the guild too. But now, they are dead. No one is worthy of taking any spot or being in charge,” Shay asserted.
”And if she became the guild master, then there is a high chance that she would want to save thousands of lives over you. She would gladly make the sacrifice and betray her love for you.”
Shay looked into Zach’s eyes and asked, “Do you want to take that risk?”
”….”
”If you are confident, then go ahead and kill him. I won’t stop you. In fact, I am not stopping you even now. I am just trying to help you realize what’s good and what’s best.”
”Why are you…”
Zach still wasn’t aware of the change in Shay’s personality, so he was confused and puzzled as to why and how he was thinking about others’ well-being.
”Trust me, bro, there are many who want him dead,” Shay uttered in a low voice so Elliot couldn’t hear him. “And someone would eventually kill him. You don’t have to stain your hands, or… swords.”
”That piece of shit serves no purpose in this world. Even normal shit has qualities, but he…” Zach shook his head and said, “He is better off dead than alive. And I wouldn’t mind getting a red name tag if I get to kill this guy.”
”Did you hear any of the things which I just said? And if you still want to kill him, then go ahead and do it. As I said, even if he has no worth as a human being or a player, he still serves the role of the guild master of the second-strongest guild in this game. There are over a hundred thousand players in that guild, and the number of members has been increasing by thousands every day. And without him, without the guild, they all would lose their home, friends, money, job, and everything they have invested in the guild.”
Zach pondered for a while and calmed himself down. Then, he glared at Elliott who was covering behind the broken carrier, and said, “Tell him to free Victoria from the guild this instance.”
Shay turned to Elliott and asked, “So? What is more important to you? Victoria or your own life?”
Elliott immediately opened his menu and removed Victoria from the guild.
”Done!”
Shay turned back to Zach and shrugged his shoulders. “There you go. Now enjoy your sweet time with your ex.”
”I don’t believe anything that shit says or does. So can you check and confirm if he really removed Victoria from the group or not?”
”Sure.” Shay opened his guild menu and checked the recent logs. “Yeah. Everything is clear.”
Zach pointed his finger at Elliott and uttered, “Next time I see your face, no matter where I see it, I will kill you. So make sure you stay one realm away from me and Victoria!”
After saying that, Zach turned around and walked away.
A carrier landed beside Shay and stopped.
”Elliott, get out of here,” Shay said.
Elliott got on the carrier and left.
”…”
Shay clenched his fists in frustration and uttered with a furious look on his face, “I am sorry, Zach, but the one to kill Elliott is… me.”
***
Total players in the game- 1,482,993
0 new players logged in.
9 players died.
===
Author’s Note- Thanks, @ali_bac, for the gift!