Chapter 72 :

Episode 16 : Helpers's Strange Sincerity (4)

A moment ago when I started to give Asher a handshake, I was wondering what Alaine was trying to do by going behind HwanGi after talking with Asher.

Then I thought maybe I should introduce myself to Asher instead of being wary of her, and for this result, I approached Asher and extended my hand out for a nice handshake, starting off by introducing myself.

"My name is Wang JoonChul. Nice to meet you."

Being suspicious of my sudden approach, Asher still took my hand and shook my hand while introducing herself to me. "A pleasure to meet you, JoonChul. I'm Asher Kim."

"Is there a reason why you're following our group, Asher?" I asked, speaking politely as I smiled.

"Meh, I'm just scouting for a strong group." Asher shrugged, obviously lying right now but I let that slide.

We were walking as we talked, asking random questions that came to minds while giving answers that are false with a couple of truths.

"Why do people not get terrified when they see us? I mean.. we're from another world and wearing odd clothes that these people don't know of." Out of the blue, Asher asked me a good question.

‘Should I be telling her that she's not the only humans from Earth that got transported here?’ I thought about telling her this, but then I refused to do so.

Instead, I lied to her. "They are NPCs. They could be programmed to be less fearful toward us Earthlings."

"Oh, why didn't I think of that? How stupid of me. Pfft." Asher chuckled as she completely believed my lie.

For a moment there, I remembered the time when the people of this world used to be frightened of the strange humans coming to their world more than once. 

When the first arrival of Earthlings started, the people who reside here, panicked, wondering why they couldn't harm those players in their kingdom, town or whatever they were living in, until they found out about the strange godly beings appearing before them, informing them enormous amounts of information into their heads in one day. 

It was hectic and chaotic when I watched them go crazy and fainted because of the pile of information shoved inside their peaceful heads.

At that time, I was a kind-hearted person, I tried to help these people so badly that I couldn't. Because of the ‘Creators’ and ‘Archangels’ stacking up more quests and stages for us players to go through, I couldn't do anything toward these people.

However during that time, people of this world began to learn about the method of killing the players to become a player themselves, it was then that an ‘Era of Massacre’ arose. 

Players died by the hand of this world's people, and so to stop this, the ‘Creators’ turned these sinners into their playthings by transforming them into NPCs. 

Thankfully, I was alive by chance at that time, I personally witnessed the people switching to a nice person, their lives being forced to live serving the players and helping players through their journeys.

I felt like my kind-heartedness turned for the worse during that time, but I'm not quite sure if my memories are telling me correctly.

‘Urgh..’ I groaned, realizing that Asher has been talking to me this whole time while I was recalling the past.

Including Alaine running straight past me before being grabbed by HwanGi.

"Oh, we're here." Getting my mind out of things, I now focused on what's ahead of me.

———

I walked beside Asher, along with my comrades, looking over to the items being sold in the stores.

"Do you like this, Mimi?" Raiden asked Mirai, pointing his finger toward a necklace.

Mirai snorted while unfolding her fan to cover her lips. "Do you think that ugly thing would fit me? Baka!"

Raiden laughed and continued to take the necklace, putting it on Mirai's neck. "See! You look good! Mimi-Chan."

Mirai didn't like the idea of Raiden suddenly picking up the necklace and placing it on her neck without her permission, but as soon as she discovered the necklace being a perfect fit for her, including how the necklace looked.

She immediately changed her mind and said this to Raiden. "Hmp. You're lucky that this actually looks great on me, Rai-kun." 

"I'm going to pick this one." Raiden quickly took the next necklace which was beside the one given to Mirai.

While Raiden was paying for the necklaces, I smiled as I watched over them.

Even on a day like this, I wanted to relax a bit, nevertheless, I couldn't since I was more fascinated by how the ‘Helpers’ acted today.

In the past, I spectated the ‘Creators’ and ‘Archangels’ using their godly powers onto this world's people like puppets, killing innocent earthlings and other world's people as well as forcing rules upon them. 

There were joy in their eyes when they saw us suffer and adventure through their created stages.

‘These ‘Helpers’ gave everyone access to the ‘Shop’ that easily? No way..’

The ‘Shop’ is an option for buying items that players cannot get. For example, foods, armours, weapons, loot boxes, potions, etc. 

True, the players could buy them outside of the ‘Shop’, like going to a store and buying them. But it has a limit.

That was the reason why players in the past struggled to survive in stages 12-15 because of lack of materials to stay alive throughout the tough challenges within these stages.

And now having access to the ‘Shop’ is like cutting the death total to 0 thanked to the ‘Helpers’'s sincerities.

I didn't know why these kinds of people suddenly have a change of heart after all these years. I could not believe it no matter how much I think about..

It might have something to do with ‘her’..

"JoonChul. Yoo! Earth to JoonChul!" 

With a hand waving in front of me, I snapped out of my thoughts by the voice of Asher.

"Dude, you shouldn't be daydreaming right now!" Asher talked to me before unexpectedly directing her eyes to somewhere else. "Huh..?"

I followed where she was looking and found out what was happening ahead of me.

A gang of people walking out of a bar with a person they were dragging out, the person looked to be confused and scared as to why the gang was doing to him.

Judging by how the man dressed, he seemed to be a player but as for the gang members, none of them looked to be a player nor a powerful foe.

One of the gang members tossed the person to the ground violently while the others laughed at how pathetic the player was.

I forgot to mention that when the ‘Creators’ gave a set of rules for the people of this world, one rule was not to kill players while in a safe zone nor overkill the max amount of kills which was 5 kills per person in a danger zone.

None of these rules stated anything about torturing the players or bullying them, it only instructed about not to overkill players.

‘Hm. A terrible sight to see.’ And the thing occurring before me, was the gang members kicking and pulling the hair of the player.

What was worse was that players can't use offensive or disruptive skills while in a safe zone, meaning players couldn't attack the people living in this safe zone.

There is another way which is using skills like mental skills, defensive skills, just any skills that don't destroy the people living there and the area you're currently in.

But sadly for the player who was being beaten by the gang, he didn't have anything to defend himself.

I knew because I had already checked his status using ‘Player Analyzation’.

After watching the scene, Asher didn't care much and just spoke this. "Wow. Suck to be him." 

I, too, didn't want to pay attention toward that player since I grew tired of viewing and saving the people in these kinds of situations from my previous lives. 

"He must've gotten himself into that situation or that it was his unlucky day to be picked as a target for the gang to toy on." I spoke, letting out a long sigh before noticing someone walking past me.

When I found out who it was, I was shocked to see him going toward the gang so confidently.

"What the heck are you doing HwanGi-ssi?" I mumbled before I pondered why he would involve himself into someone else's problems. 

"Oh my, a heroic type of guy." Asher said as I thought she almost had sparkling stars in her eyes while watching HwanGi being a hero.

"A heroic.. HwanGi appears to be that way.." I glanced over to HwanGi as he was getting closer to the gang. 

Soon, I was feeling some sort of familiarity and I didn't know how to describe that feeling nor why I was even feeling this.

‘Something is definitely wrong with me. I think I need to stop overthinking things these days.’ Another sigh left my mouth after I had muttered to myself.

**—**—**—**—**

Author words :

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