At the entrance street of Hightown, a carriage came to a stop, and a group of black-cloaked figures with insignia of three-headed dragons on their backs stepped out.
“He is here, huh?” Arsenal asked as he lit up a cigarette. “This huge crowd doesn’t make the search any easier.”
“Voices!” Rainman shouted and spun around before looking in the direction of one of the inns. “I hear a familiar voice!”
“Yeah, yeah, shut up, lunatic.” SweetieHell pushed the shouting Rainman to the side and looked at their leader. “Where is Andromeda?”
“She should’ve accepted the quest by now.” Cerberus sat on top of the carriage’s wheel and pulled open his interface. “Give me a moment, and I’ll send her a message.”
“Remember guys.” Glowstar pulled out his wooden puppet and said. “To transfer Ambrose’s mind to this puppet, we need fresh blood, a hair strand, and a piece of his clothing.”
“Yes, yes, we remember.” Mizuchi said with a sigh as he still sat inside the carriage. ‘This traveling is getting annoying. I can’t spend the whole day playing anymore because I have kids to take care of!’
Bluecore, the slightly overweight man with a black bobcut, nodded with a nervous expression.
“Yaaawn!” AnarchyCat, the short and cute-faced man, let out a cat-like yawn while stretching his limbs.
“She will meet us in the Quest Building.” Cerberus said and closed the interface. “Let’s ask directions from someone.”
After they all nodded, Cerberus caught sight of a man, wearing a wide-brimmed hat, walking through the foggy streets and thought about asking him for directions.
However, as soon as he took the first step, his body froze, and cold sweat drenched his back.
His instincts were telling him to look away!
‘I-I have never felt something like this before!’
Unwillingly, he turned away from him and closed his eyes as if he had seen a boogieman and, like a little kid, thought that closing his eyes would make him disappear.
“Cerberus?”
“Cerberus?”
His eyes then shook open, and he saw others looking at him with concern.
“Uhm…” Cerberus held his head and waved his hand. “Go ask directions from someone.”
They nodded with strange expressions and went to look for directions to the Quest Building.
‘What the hell was that?’ Cerberus thought with a throbbing headache. ‘A monster!’
…
On the outskirts of Hightown.
Sitting on top of a small, broken rock wall that seemed to belong to an old castle but had long since crumbled to ruins, Olympos scratched his arm as he had been bitten by several mosquitoes earlier in the evening.
“The quest starts tomorrow.” Beehave, the top 99-ranked streamer, said. “Any plans for how to deal with those pests?”
89John shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t really care about the rewards as long as I get over a million viewers.”
Olympos glanced at them briefly before replying, “Well, I’ve been grinding for hours to level up my character, so I’m ready for anything. Perhaps I will try for the top reward.”
89John glanced at him with a sneer and asked. “Right, about the upgrade token you have. Any chance you will sell it?”
“Sell it?” Olympos shook his head. “No, it’s reward for capturing Ambrose. If you want it, go capture him.”
89John threw his arms up in the air and laughed. “All this time and effort, just because you lost to him. Sheesh.”
Beehave closed his mouth and looked away, trying to muffle his laughter.
“What the fuck you said?” Olympos looked at 89John, rage flaring in his eyes. “I didn’t lose. He tricked me!”
“Yeah, yeah.” 89John laughed.
“I didn’t lose!” Olympos grabbed him by the collar and tried lifting him off the ground, but to no avail.
89John’s smile faded away as he looked into Olympos’ eyes.
“Haha, I am sorry.” 89John innocently raised his arms in surrender. “I was just playing with you.”
“Hmph!” Olympos let go of him and crossed his arms in anger. “If he were now in front of me, I would kill him with ease!”
“What about…” 89John lifted his finger. “When someone finally captures him, you have a proper one-vs.-one fight against him with stream open, of course.”
Olympos paled and laughed humorously. “What is the point? Just to humiliate him? Haha.”
“You lost your face when you los… because of the video.” 89John smiled. “Many have lost respect for you. If you defeat him in a proper fight without any tricks, your fame would become even higher.”
Beehave glanced at 89John but kept his mouth shut as he didn’t want to take part in the scheming.
‘If Olympos loses, all his respect is gone; he will lose tons of face, and his ranking will drop. He might even drop off the top 100, which would help John, but it would also help me…
‘However, if Olympos wins, his rank will increase, and because we are his friends and frequent partners in his stream, our popularity can also grow.
‘It is win-win for us anyway.’
Olympos looked at his friend and let out a strained laugh. “Of course, that sounds good… I am not afraid of him.”
“Nice, I’ll make an announcement.” 89John smiled and clapped his hands. “Many will be excited.”
Olympos smiled, but inside, he was far from laughing.
After all, last time he lost, and he wasn’t sure how strong Ambrose had become.
However, he was also confident, as after grinding for some time, he had reached level 45!
‘I’ll beat him; I have to!’
…
‘A very cold day.’ Serenity thought as he departed from the temporary housing of Silver Heart.
They managed to rent a house from a nice family while they were leaving for Amaterasu for vacation.
They didn’t want to stay in Hightown because the number of refugees had overwhelmed the area and made it unsafe.
‘Where is that blacksmith place?’ She wondered as she began trotting down the foggy streets in search for the blacksmith.
She planned to enhance her weapons, as they wouldn’t last forever and often needed some repairs.
After all, her swords weren’t made of the same metal as Ambrose’s, which was sharper and more durable.
Thus, she occasionally visited some blacksmiths.
Soon, she arrived at the market and planned to walk straight through, but then her nose caught a sniff of a delicious scent.
It attracted her to a nearby stall, where a vendor was selling freshly baked pastries.
She walked over to the stall and was about to ask the vendor for the price, but at the same time, another young woman arrived at the same stall, asking the same question.
Their voices overlapped, and they then turned to look at each other, surprise flashing past each other’s eyes.
“Ah, I am sorry.” Bella smiled. “I didn’t realize someone else was interested in the same item.”
“Is it the only one?” Serenity asked in surprise.
“Unfortunately, it is the last one.” The vendor sadly smiled. “My business has been booming under these unfortunate circumstances.”
Serenity nodded, not surprised that the vendor’s business was doing well as there were hundreds of more customers than before. 𝗈𝗏𝐞xt.𝞸
“You can have it.” Bella said and was about to go look for another stall, but then Serenity shook her head.
“No, you can have it.” She said. “I am not hungry, anyway.”
“Are you sure?” Bella asked, curiously looking at the silver-haired beauty.
“Mm.” Serenity nodded with a small smile, wondering whether the red-eyed young woman was a player of NPC.
It was rather unique to see anyone with red eyes other than NPCs, but she had some player characteristics about her.
“Thank you.” Bella smiled and nodded at the vendor. “I’ll buy this.”
The vendor smiled and put the fresh pastries wrapped around the tinfoil on the counter for Bella to take.
“I hope he will like these.” Bella thought out loud as she paid for the pastries.
“He?” Serenity looked at her with a curious look. “Who are you buying these pastries for?”
“A friend of mine.” Bella said while putting the pastries in her handbag. “I once tasted these back in Yatagarasu and couldn’t forget their taste. I want him to try these too.”
“Ah, lucky guy.” Serenity said with a smile on her face. “I am sure she will appreciate them coming for you.”
“Ah.” Bella shyly smiled and thanked her one more time before continuing her shopping.
Serenity looked at her as she walked away and then left the market to find the blacksmith.
She still had a hunch that something was going to happen today, so she didn’t want to be unprepared.