As Draco began his countdown, the fellow felt his heart constrict. If his regret could be quantified, it would be enough to drown an ocean. His mind was whirring at abhorrent speeds, thinking up ways to defuse the situation.
Unfortunately, Draco's cold voice counting down the seconds robbed him of that hope.
"5… 4… 3… 2…."
Panicking, he made a gesture pointing at his constricted mouth. Realizing his mistake, Draco let him go and stared at him darkly, waiting for him to state his decision.
While coughing and gasping for breath, the fellow hunched over on himself. To the collective shock of everyone present, he glared fiercely at Draco while giving him a rude gesture.
"SEE YOU IN HELL, LOSER!!!"
His body started to dematerialize as obviously, the fellow had used those few seconds to begin the log out procedure. Even if Draco may hunt down this account, nothing stopped him from creating a new one later. After all, Draco couldn't waste precious leveling time chasing him down for such a small issue.
Unfortunately for the fellow, he noticed his logout procedure was interrupted as he was put into a stunned state. Unbeknownst to mainstream players, there were ways to prevent other players from logging out by forcing them into combat. This would stun them, as logging out was rationalized as casting a spell within the world of Boundless.
Draco grabbed a tuft of his hair with a derisive sneer on his face. He didn't even need to say anything for the fellow's heart to enter the 7th level of hell. Even those onlookers felt fear on his behalf, similar to how one would worry if they saw a toddler jump in front of a moving vehicle. If his regret prior was as boundless as an ocean, now it could coalesce to form a new universe.
"Ah, forget it. There's not point giving you an option for one or the other. I'll just make you go through both, preferably at the same time."
Draco's words made everyone's expression change, as they were treated to a gruesome sight. Draco began by breaking his arms and legs at their main joints, so that he couldn't even move should he wish to.
Amidst the fellow's begging, he began carving him out bit by bit. As a Control expert, Draco was more than aware of the anatomy of the human body, even more so than a doctor with a PHD. He first blocked the fellow's Naohu acupoint, which was the door to the brain. This would prevent the fellow from going unconscious, no matter what happened to him.
Next, Draco focused on his various crucial acupoints and subjected him to enough pain while keeping him alive. Naturally, the AI of Boundless was astute enough to deal damage based on how effective Draco's torture was to his victim's health, but not stopping it.
Boundless was a game that proposed freedom in its truest sense, especially to explore a new world. The AI's directives were to not limit players through its own actions, but through the world itself. So even if the AI found that a player was carrying a viral bomb that would destroy the world of Boundless, the best the AI could do was to issue an emergency quest with great rewards. It couldn't step in directly to delete his account, unless through a contract.
The amount of assaults, torture and r.a.p.es that went on in the world of Boundless in Draco's past life… that was a topic for another day. If Rina knew this, she wouldn't dare to flirt with random passersby at her current low level.
In fact, in his past life she…. Draco didn't want to remember that event because even as inhumane as he was, his blood lost all its color remembering what was dealt to her.
Remembering that event made Draco lose his boiling anger and he ceased his gruesome acts with a dark look on his face. He took a step back and look at what he had wrought with an indifferent expression. He didn't enjoy nor did he hate it. It was what it was.
At least, that was what Draco wanted to tell himself. His expression become one of a grimace when he saw the fellow's pathetic shape and his wailing cries.
In his past life, he had justified every goddamn evil he had committed to his hatred and thirst for vengeance. 'The end justifies the means' he told himself. Even though he had bottom lines, he occasionally crossed them if the situation called for it.
But here, there was no hatred nor any excuse for his actions. His main motivation now was to climb to the top and doing so didn't warrant petty evils like this.
For the first time in both timelines, Draco felt a bit of disgust towards himself and his actions. No person in the world could remain the same. Everyone's mannerisms, personalities and ideals changed over time according to stimulus.
It was at this point that Draco began to change from what he formerly was into something new… something unique. Naturally, he didn't recognize it, as most people failed to notice changes in themselves unless people pointed them out.
"Get lost. I've lost my mood."
With a sigh, Draco left those words before heading into Ursa's Cave with his now silent party, who followed him mutely. Today, they had gotten a taste of their boss' darker side and once bitten, twice shy. They were now more fearful than respectful towards him.
When they entered the dungeon, the game notified them that they were in a separate instance dungeon for a minimum 10 man team. The area was a well tunneled cave with torch brackets containing lit torches along the walls, providing light to those who spelunked its depths.
Before they delved deeply into the tunnels, Draco turned towards his party. They abruptly stopped as wary expressions were displayed on their faces. It was as if Draco were a spider that had bared its front legs, ready to leap into attack.
Sighing internally, Draco faced Rina specifically.
"You saw what happened out there. This game doesn't protect one from torture, abuse or ****. If you continue fooling around, your fate will be miserable."
Draco's blunt words made her face pale and the fellows beside her became dismayed. Ever since they had entered the game, they had been secretly marveling as to how realistic it felt. If the game didn't protect them from such things, wouldn't being abused here feel no different than real life?
It was like a ball of ice taking root in their chests as they swore to be vigilant at all times, especially Rina. She had assumed there would be a report function or something of the sort, but Draco clearly broke down that train of thought.
That meant if he weren't here and Rina had continued as before… Her heart clenched tightly.
Draco was satisfied with their reactions, especially Rina. At least, he could prevent that tragedy from happening in this timeline. Even though she had recovered and remained somewhat frivolous after – after all, anything experienced here wouldn't be carried to your body in the real world – her damage was obvious, especially her eventual misandry.
"Now, let me explain how we'll be clearing this dungeon. This place is like a maze that stretches on and on. It is a level scalable dungeon, meaning it can be replayed at any level. There are two Lieutenant Rank monsters who serve as mini bosses before the main Captain Rank boss at the end of the dungeon.
"The dungeon is filled with Private Rank as well as a few Specialist Rank monsters, with Sergeant Rank monsters serving as leaders for them. This dungeon's average runtime should be about 2 hours, but it'll take longer for us since I plan to let you all get a hang of what you're doing."
With Draco's explanation delivered, they immediately asked a few pertinent questions about rankings, strength difference and habits of monsters. Draco explained the game related aspects to them, but stated that for certain things like attack habits, they be better off finding out on their own.
"Alright, since you all have a general gist of what a dungeon is, let's proceed. First, you will observe me fight the different types of monsters before each of you will fight individually. When I'm sure you won't stab yourself in the head, we can begin pairing you together."
Draco took off down the tunnel, which were wide enough to admit twenty people walking side by side. They were many branching routes, some which led to dead ends and others that led to treasure chests, albeit of the common and/or uncommon type.
Draco first pulled a dozen Private Rank black bears, four Specialist Rank grizzly bears and one Sergeant Rank Ursaling. The Ursaling was essentially a brown bear that stood on its two feet and seemed more humanoid than the others.
｢Name: Black Bear – Private rank monster
Level: 3
HP: 400/400｣
｢Name: Grizzly Bear – Specialist rank monster
Level: 6
HP: 800/800｣
｢Name: Ursaling – Sergeant rank monster
Level: 10
HP: 1500/1500｣
The monsters had more health than those of their Rank, for obvious reasons. Bears were tanky animals, with strong bodies and exemplary defensive potential. Unfortunately, this also meant that they had a powerful attacking ability.
However, all things must be balanced in the world. Bears had outrageous physical attack and defense, so as a result, their speed and magical defense were absolute trash.
Draco chose to kite the Ursaling directly, attacking it while avoiding blows from the other monsters. In actual fact, taking care of them would be exceedingly easy, as one round in the Nightingale's Cry had more monsters than this.
But Draco was a teacher now, so he must move at a speed where his five generals could observe his movements and responses. The five of them were also riveted to Draco's form, watching as he deftly played his enemies to death.
It was a beautiful dance of sword and man, the poor instruments of play being the wailing and suffering monsters. Soon enough, the Ursaling fell down and dropped a few items as well as a silver coin, leaving Draco the menial task of clearing out the others.
The rest didn't really drop anything and on the off chance they did, it was a few copper coins here and there.
"Amazing, handsome boss! You move like some movie character! Oh, I think I wet my panties a bit~"
Rina's bootlicking was met with disgusted looks from her fellows. Draco however, smiled. At the end of the day, Rina was still Rina. She would find all manner of ways to flirt and ass-kiss those she set in her eyes.
"That was enough for you to see. Now, it's your turn to prove your versatility. Rina, you will go first in the next engagement."
Draco's words made her shrink back a bit and for good reason.
"Boss, I hope you don't expect this cute and chaste little girl to fight a group of monsters all by myself?"
Rina's pitiful voice would evoke the need to protect in any male who heard her. Unfortunately for Rina, the fellows with her were immune to her nonsense.
"No. You'll only serve as an ant for them to squash out of boredom. You'll start by fighting a single Private Rank bear."
Draco's words soothed her fear, although it brought up a question.
"Well Boss, how do you plan to bring a single enemy over? As far as I can see, they're all huddled together in different squads."
Draco simply smiled in response to her words and began walking to a pack of monsters nearby. When he got close to them, the beasts immediately entered attack formation, readying to rip Draco to shreds and prevent his soul from entering the wheel of reincarnation.
"You f.u.c.k.i.n.g shitbag dog animal, do you dare to fight This Daddy here alone? It's understandable if a cowardly species like you chooses to gang up on me, but I'll forever laugh in Valhalla knowing how much of a p.u.s.s.y you are."
Draco words were followed by a sudden slap to the head of the Private Rank Bear he was disparaging. He also added a demeaning kick to its front leg, making the monster yelp in pain as it leapt back.
His action stunned both the monsters and his allies, making them wonder as to Draco's sanity. Some even wondered if they themselves had taken something special which caused them to hallucinate like this.
One thing should be noted was that Draco had many strong points. His intelligence, his willpower, his looks, his skills. But one thing that Draco possessed in abundance was the ability to make people go mad from anger.
"F.u.c.k! I knew it! One kick and you run away. F.u.c.k.i.n.g cowardly shit bear. No wonder that fellow from the other squad managed to steal your woman and cubs away from you! Trash!"
Draco's words had so much of an effect on the monster, it coughed up a wad of blood from indignation. It had no idea how Draco knew its woman and child had been filched by that bastard from the other squad, but he dared not retaliate on that fellow, because he was a Specialist Rank bear. It could only swallow its indignation and try to become stronger.
Now, Draco had come forth to rub not salt, but raw hydrochloric acid into its wounds.
Its eyes reddened as it roared and rushed at Draco with the force of a tram. Draco himself stepped back and laughed, dodging its initial charge while giving the Monster a slap on the ass.
"Ha! Did my words anger you? Do you feel hatred? This Daddy here is willing to take on your wrath, as long as you dare to unleash it!"
The Bear's charge was once again avoided with a taunting remark. Draco did this for a while until the Bear lost it sanity and was frothing at the mouth, swearing its soul into the hands of any God out there as long as it could get the chance to rip Draco and his loved ones to shreds.
Thinking along those lines…
The Bear's eyes fell upon Rina, who stood there with a bewildered expression on her face. Its face revealed a malevolent, toothy smile as it charged towards her with gusto.
"No!!! Not her!!"
Draco's pleading voice made the Monster feel like its decision had been the right one. Patting itself on the back for being the great entity it was, it burnt more stamina to add more power and speed to the charge.
Rina's expression changed drastically as she leapt back and began chanting a spell. When she saw the act between Draco and the Private Rank Bear reach this point, she realized she was being played with, almost as bad as the monster itself.
"Fire Magic: Flash Flame!"
Her incantation completed as she cast the uncommon fire magic skill, Flash Flame. This was a speedy implosion of heat energy at a certain point. The energy in a fixed area combusted in and of itself, functioning like a small explosion. That was the essence of this spell.
And the Private Rank Bear got to taste what it felt to be in the trenches during World War 2 as a common foot soldier. The explosion sent it flying into the air, blood and charred flesh spraying all around.
-150 health in one attack!!
As it landed on the ground heavily, it struggled to return to its feet. Its gaze at it stared at Rina was a mix of shock and fear. As its mouth twitched rapidly, it thought back to the events that occurred to now.
Even a Private Rank monster like it could tell that it was being played with, like a toddler's toy.
The worst part was that it couldn't even do anything other than be played with. Such a fate made it fall to the ground while wailing like a child.
Was it the fate of a monster to be played with like this????