BONUS Chapter for reaching 500 GT!
Thank you everyone!
—-
When the twin moons glowed high above the sky, shining bigger in the dessert like they almost touched the ground, everyone went to their Tent while Harris and Salud guarded the place.
After taking a short walk around the area and seeing nothing but trees and flowers, some tiny little beasts, and weak dessert monsters, Ren decided to take a nap to advance the time.
However, when he was about to fling the curtain of his Tent, he heard voices –– whispers from two girls.
“Are you sure that it’s here?”
“I don’t know . . . I thought that it’s sleeping in here.”
“Where can it be? I saw him without it when he explored the area.”
Ren sighed when he knew whose voices that was, and he also had a clue at what they were talking about.
“What are you two doing in my tent?” Ren asked the moment he entered his camp.
Under the light of the dim [Fairy Dust Lamp], Lily and Kylie were caught snooping around Ren’s shelter. The two girls flinched and let out a yelp from shock.
“Uhm . . .” Kylie didn’t know what to say. Her mind was a mess when they were suddenly caught snooping inside Ren’s Tent. She knew that this was a bad idea, but she just couldn’t let Lily go alone by herself. She feared that something might happen to her with that beautiful face of hers.
Lily wanted to take Pii for herself and Kylie knew that once Lily made up her mind, it was close to zero to stop her, so she went ahead with the girl’s whims.
Due to her angelic appearance, Lily was spoiled by everyone around her, including her family. Just one sparkle of her green eyes or one tickle of her dimple smile, and anyone would bend their knees to her every demand.
It was the reason why Lily often times didn’t care about others. She was dense and insensitive because she knew that everyone would forgive her and give her what she wanted at the end of the day.
It felt like a minute that no one wanted to say anything while Kylie was shrinking from where she stood at the embarrassment swallowing her whole. She felt like her head was expanding because her hair was standing on edge from being caught.
“T-this . . . don’t take this the wrong way!” Kylie was about to explain when Lily beat her to it.
“Pii. Where is it?”
Kylie almost shed tears. “H-hoi . . . Lily.” Why did she have to say that? Now it was obvious that they were here to steal the little creature.
“Are you going to steal Pii from me?” Ren wasn’t angry. He was amused that the two didn’t know that wasn’t possible in the game. They were still thinking that this was the real world.
“N-NO!” Kylie immediately interjected with a guilt-stricken face, raising her hands frantically in the air. She would not be labeled a thief . . . even though that was what they came here to do.
However, Lily didn’t care about what others thought since everyone mostly thought of her actions as cute, and they would give her anything that she asked if she said so, no matter what it was.
“I will take care of Pii.” Lily wanted to take Pii as her pet since she didn’t have the ability to acquire one yet. She thought that Ren would give it to her if she asked like what others readily did at just the sight of her beseeching eyes.
Ren looked at Lily and sensed that something was wrong with the girl’s character. “I can’t give Pii to you. And even if I can, I won’t. Now get lost before I call the two guards.”
At the mention of Harris and Salud, Kylie’s face went white while Lily’s expression remained the same, innocent with the lack of awareness.
“Why?” Lily asked and tilted her head. “I will take good care of it. Pretty please?”
“No,” Ren said with a stern voice. “I’ll count to three, and if you don’t scram, I’ll call those two.”
Lily didn’t give up, and her eyes shook while her face pleaded. “Please?”
“One.”
“How about I treat you to lunch?”
“Two.”
Lily looked at Ren and thought for a moment. She was lost because Ren wasn’t giving in to her demand no matter how she pleaded. It always worked before. And now that it didn’t, she suddenly didn’t know what to do.
A creeping feeling made Lily’s fine hair tingle, and she didn’t like that feeling –– a feeling of panic. Panic that her charms weren’t working anymore.
She even used her ace of threating him to lunch.
Pressed with a hard man to please, Lily decided to use her trump card.
I guess I have to use that. Lily was determined to get Pii one way or another. That little creature and her fate were connected the moment their eyes met.
“I’ll give you my pictures in bathing suit if you give Pii to me,” Lily proclaimed without care, and Kylie almost went out of her skin from shock.
Lily was becoming desperate, while Kylie sensed that Ren was running out of patience.
“Three.”
“Wait!” Kylie urgently pulled Lily by the hand when Ren was about to go out of the Tent. “We’ll leave! We’ll leave right away!”
“But . . .” Lily didn’t finish her protest when Kylie dragged her out from Ren’s Tent. Lily could do nothing from Kylie’s strength but pout as she pulled her away.
Ren took a deep breath when the two left and sighed into the ceiling. There was always trouble whenever he went in COVENANT. The same was true even in his past life.
It was expected since everyone could suddenly do all sorts of stuff that weren’t possible before.
What’s more, there were no police in this world that would stop crimes and other nasty things from happening. So this gives a lot of players the confident to become violent. You could only defend yourself using your own strength.
It was also one of the reasons why players tend to enter guilds because they felt safer in numbers.
It was like a gang. If one member was harmed then the others would declare war and fights between guilds would broke out.
Knowing there was a guild baking your name would make the others have second thoughts of harming you.
Ren massaged the back of his head before he laid on the layers of blanket on the ground. But before he did, he made sure to close the zipper of his Tent from the inside so no one could enter his camp.
The last thing he wanted was to be labeled as a child molester or a pervert.
It was also to make sure that he could sleep soundly without worrying about any form of attack.
[Tents] were available in towns, and it was a handy item during exploration, especially during raids that took days to finish. A [Tent] last four hours, and within that time frame, your HP and MP regenerate at a rapid pace.
The [Tent] was already part of the expenses they paid in Smiling Caravan, costing 500 gil in towns. It was a minuscule some, but buying those for hundreds of players during a raid was enough to empty a guild’s coffers.
Before Ren closed his eyes, he checked his inbox.
Leonel left him questions about the Hidden Boss that he answered himself after a few minutes.
Ren shook his head before he opened Evie’s message, which contained only two words.
[Evie: We’ll do]
“. . .” Would it hurt her to say a few more words? Ren grumbled under his breath before he closed his message box and proceeded to take a short nap.
After a few hours, Ren was startled awake by the shouts outside coming from Hoggy’s frantic voice.
“Its’ gone! It’s gone!”