Vasen Lak Orazen said, “Is there a problem? I only helped because it looked like you were in trouble.”
Margo, the Pangolin, said, “Oh my… Well, I am in a difficult situation… I am grateful, but…”
Margo hesitated before continuing to say, “Master is the supervisor, and if this gets out, I would be dead… You should also run away…”
Vasen threw away the rock he was holding and dusted his hands.
“If I put you in trouble, I should take responsibility. Tell me the details.”
“Details…?”
Margo observed the stranger, wondering if they could trust him or not. However, after looking at their unconscious supervisor with a bleeding head wound, Margo seemed to have decided that they had no other choice and began to tell Vasen more.
Pangolins had been living here for a long time. There was a lot of food around the area, so it wasn’t difficult to feed a tribe through hunting and gathering; therefore, there wasn’t much conflict. The Deep Ones did pose occasional threats when they came from afar via ships, but most of the Deep Ones only wanted to trade for food.
‘Don’t Deep Ones also trade for slaves? Hm, I guess they could have thought that these Pangolins weren’t valuable.’
Then one day, Rakshasas invaded the land. Pangolins had been leading a secluded life as they were easily frightened, so they hadn’t been aware that the Rakshasas were the dominant tribe in the dense tropical rainforest. Even among the Rakshasas, there were lots of internal conflicts as there were several tribes, so they rarely attacked other species. When a tribe called Ashurada unified all the other Rakshasas, however, things changed.
The Ashurada tribe began to pillage neighboring tribes and took them as slaves. Then the leader of the Ashurada tribe demonstrated their power and began to construct a temple for the guardian of the tribe, Ashurada.
“Wait, a guardian?”
“Yes…”
“Do you also believe in a god?”
“God? Are you talking about ancient evil?”
“No, I’m talking about the new gods.”
“I don’t know about them. But we do have a guardian”
Vasen decided to change his question.
“So Ashurada is the guardian of those Rakshasas, and you guys have another guardian?”
“Yes. We had Katuru.”
“What happened to Katuru?”
“Katuru is currently locked up in the temple we are building. They said Katuru will be offered as a sacrifice to Ashurada.”
“What do Katuru and Ashurada look like?”
“I’ve never seen Ashurada, so I’m not too sure… But Katuru is entirely covered in thick fur, its snout is very long, and on its four feet, it has nails as big as us.”
Vasen thought that the guardians Margo was talking about seemed more like beasts, monsters, or mystical creatures than gods.
Margo continued to say, “Katuru is a good friend, but…things have turned out this way… There’s nothing we can do.”
Vasen seemed to think for a moment before he said, “Margo, I didn’t come to this land alone.”
“What?”
“We came from a distant continent on large ships similar to the ones that the Deep Ones you saw occasionally would have used. There were five ships in total, but they all took different routes, so not all of the ships would have gotten caught up in a disaster. If the other ships are found, I think we might be able to help you guys.”
Margo blinked and replied, “I don’t think a few people on a few ships would be enough…”
“Is the Rakshasa force big?”
“Overall, they’re quite big…”
“How many warriors, or I should say, fighters are there?”
“There are over 300 in our village alone.”
There was more than Vasen expected, but he didn’t think that was a big problem.
“If we can find my comrades, that shouldn’t be an issue. Plus, Night Sky and the gods of the pantheon will be looking over us.”
“…Night Sky? Pantheon? What is all of that?”
Vasen thought for a moment and replied, “Let’s talk while we deal with this body. And shouldn’t you give some water to your injured friend?”
Margo threw Vasen a reluctant look when he was already moving. This unfamiliar stranger was in a dangerous situation, yet he was still full of confidence for some reason.
***
At Pantheon, the first temporary conference room that was built had gone through a dramatic makeover from the empty place it had been, even excluding the large long tables and chairs that went with it. The conference room now resembled a theater with a lecture hall style setup.
Sung-Woon had suggested this layout because when players collaborated in the game, there were many cases where one person would present things to the others. Just like right now.
“…For that reason, two ships got caught in a cyclone and got damaged, and three ships safely anchored, but we still have no news about the other ship. That’s the current situation.”
As Sung-Woon pointed to the screen he had opened and stopped talking, Crampus spoke up.
“It’s not too much damage, right? Worst case scenario, we did estimate that it would be fine even if only one ship arrived.”
“Yes. This isn’t out of the realm of our predictions. Although I don’t really like the damage itself.”
Wisdom then asked, “Could the cyclone have been someone else’s doing?”
Sung-Woon thought for a moment and replied, “That wouldn’t be impossible. But as far as we know, there aren’t any players with such Large Areas, and the player that’s around us is Sha-Cha, who is an evil god. When I asked, they said it wasn’t them.”
Jang-Wan then asked, “I guess it’s a good thing that we can have an actual conversation with Sha-Cha, but are they really not doing anything to attack us? Jeol Woo-Bi tried to attack us quite recklessly.”
“Hm…” Sung-Woon replied, “In my opinion, I don’t think there’s much difference in their patterns of behavior. Fundamentally, they both tried to attack us. The difference is that Jeol Woo-Bi attacked us because it was worth trying, while Sha-Cha is in a different situation. We currently have the upper hand, so they seem reluctant to start a war.”
“Even if that’s true, wouldn’t they still try to stop us from coming?”
“I didn’t say that wasn’t the case.”
“…Huh?”
Sung-Woon opened the map of the northern region of the fourth continent that they came to know about. The left side, or the northwest region, belonged to the Black Order, and the right side was an unexplored area.
“It was observed that their ships have been moving little by little. While we can’t know for sure what kind of system the Black Order operates under, I’m guessing they are experiencing some internal conflicts, causing their external activities to slow down. And it worked to our advantage that we were careful. We need to organize a second expedition team, but we also have to put in some effort to block the Deep Ones that Sha-Cha will send.”
After Jang-Wan and the other players agreed and moved on, Lunda asked, “Then are there no survivors from the wrecked ships?”
“I’m still checking. According to what we know so far…”
Sung-Woon checked his system window that showed the scouting information from his creature creations.
“Ah, Vasen is alive.”
“Oh really? That’s good.”
“He’s met a native Pangolin…”
“Wow, a Pangolin? Pangolins are so cute.”
“…And apparently he killed a Rakshasa that was harassing the Pangolin. It appears that Rakshasas are the dominant dominant species of the northern region.”
“Darn. That doesn’t sound like good news.”
For a moment, Sung-Woon thought the same, but he changed his mind as he checked more of the information collected by his creations.
“Well, it might actually be okay.”
***
Margo said to Vasen, “That is our village.”
As they passed through a dense jungle, a wide open area extended before them.
The first thing that could be seen was a massive temple. The enormous stone building, unlike anything seen in Orazen, was built in the shape of a pyramid. It was divided into three floors, each built with wooden structures. Perhaps because the top of the temple was still unfinished, Pangolins were busily moving rocks. Rakshasas who appeared to be the supervisors were holding whips and shouting at the Pangolins or whipping the ground to scare them.
The Pangolin village that Margo was talking about stood to the left of the temple. It looked quite shabby.
“So that’s the temple you were talking about…”
“Yes. It’s the small temple that Katuru is locked inside. Compared to the large temple located in the Ashurada capital, Rugunda, it is small.”
“Then bring water to your friend. I’ll rescue that Katuru…”
“What? What do you mean… We’ve hidden the dead body well, so you should keep yourself hidden for now. You should wait for your friends…”
At that moment, a loud sound came from one side of the village, and a long line of Rakshasa warriors marched out.
Margo and Vasen quickly ducked and hid.
“Hey! Don’t pull!”
After a familiar voice came a thicker one.
“Hwae-Sa! Get mad! Mad…but won’t fight. If fight, Captain die…”
Vasen squinted and looked at the line of warriors. There were Theone Itimo and her crew, and at the end of the line, Hwae-Sa stood shackled. Hwae-Sa was huffing and puffing, but perhaps because of the other hostages, Hwae-Sa obediently followed the others. Behind Hwae-Sa, there were the goods the Rakshasas had looted.
After the shipwreck, it seemed that Vasen had fallen far away while the other crew members had somehow gotten to the coast with the broken ship. But they were exhausted and couldn’t fight back, so they got captured.
Margo said, “Are those…the friends that you talked about…?” .
“Yes.”
“Oh dear, that’s not good. Then you won’t be able to fight…”
Vasen saw the hostages being moved into the wooden prison behind the temple.
He said to Margo, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. We don’t have to wait for my comrades to come now, so shouldn’t we get going?”
“What?”
As Vasen followed his words and actually started moving between the plants to get to the prison, Margo got anxious, but eventually followed after him. Margo pointed out the Rakshasas’ patrol routes from time to time and helped Vasen sneak in.
As Vasen began climbing the outer wall of the prison, he said to Margo, “Margo.”
“Yes?”
“You’ll know when things begin. Can you call your friends to fight with us?”
“Oh my… I’m not sure if that’ll…”
“Hm… Just do as you wish. As long as they don’t start fighting against us because they’re scared of the Rakshasas, it should be fine.”
“Well, of course that…”
“Now go to your friend. I’ll see you later.”
“Alright…”
Vasen effortlessly climbed the outer wall of the prison and disappeared into the building.
Margo anxiously watched him.
‘Oh dear, no matter how capable he is, there would be so many Rakshasas inside. What do I do?’
Margo didn’t want to witness Vasen getting terribly defeated, so they quickly walked back to their friend, Chacha.
Chacha was lying on their stomach, resting at home.
“How are you feeling, my friend? Is your body feeling better?”
“I feel a bit better after a whole day of resting. But where have you been all this time? The supervisors have been looking for you.”
“Well, that is…”
Margo hesitated and considered whether to tell Chacha about what had happened today. However, telling the truth was a scary thing.
Just like Vasen was doing, the Pangolins had once tried to secretly organize a resistance against the Rakshasas, but the Rakshasas encouraged and rewarded informants. The whole thing was thus ruined before it even started.
‘Right… Something should be kept a secret.’
Margo replied, “…Well, something happened. I’ll probably get whipped tomorrow.”
“Oh no… What happened that…”
“Well…”
Bang!
Margo initially thought lightning had struck, but as a series of explosions followed, it was made clear that it wasn’t lightning.
Then as Margo rushed out of the house, they saw a Rakshasa running while shouting, “It’s an ambush! We’re being ambushed!”
Bang!
The Rakshasa suddenly fell forward like they had gotten hit by an invisible bat and couldn’t get up. Afterward, Vasen walked toward Margo while reloading his matchlock. Behind him were his now untied comrades, and they were shooting and killing Rakshasas.
“Margo, good to see you again. I was wondering if you’ve changed your mind.”
Margo’s eyes widened and then suddenly shouted, “Chacha! Chacha! Today is the day!”
“The day? What day?”
“The day we kick the Rakshasas’ butts!”
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