Chapter 96 :
Episode 21 : Second World (2)
After hearing what the ‘Helpers’ had to say, half of JoonChul's group had concentrated on thinking about something.
It was obvious what they, except JoonChul's comrades and JoonChul, were thinking right now with a weighty expression.
"So who's going to do it? Are we joining or creating one ourselves?" Louis, who stood beside Mya, asked everyone.
Naturally, he was wondering about the guild and who would pay the cost for creating a guild and being the leader of it.
Alaine being the first to reply to Louis, shook her hands. "Being a leader is hard in itself. So I'm out."
"Mya can't be the leader since she's a child and she might not have enough coins to open a guild." Louis answered for Mya after staring at her for a while.
Mya agreed. "A child being a leader..? Brother Louis is right. I can't."
"Uh huh." Alaine nodded at Louis's clever thinking, seemingly trying to understand. "What about HwanGi?"
"I am not good at being a leader though." HwanGi quickly declined.
"But who'll be the leader? Wait...?" Alaine was talking normally until she witnessed a message emerging in her viewpoint, shocking her in the process.
[‘Wang JoonChul’, the Guild Leader of ‘The Rebels’ has invited you to join his Guild!]
[Would you like to join? Yes/No.]
Finding out what these messages were all about after reading it, Alaine exclaimed in astonishment. "What!?"
When HwanGi read the invitation, he frowned upon seeing what the guild name was, including the devil's wings and horns behind the name as the symbol of the guild.
"JoonChul-ssi.. Why does it have to be named ‘The Rebels’?" HwanGi, seeming as though he disliked the name, glanced at JoonChul who was sending more invitations to all the members in his group.
"And the devil-like symbol too." He added.
Upon noticing HwanGi's distaste, JoonChul gave his response to HwanGi which was just a casual shrug of his shoulders.
HwanGi let out a sigh before tapping the ‘Yes’ answer to join in ‘The Rebels’ guild. "JoonChul-ssi.."
"HwanGi! Did you join?" Alaine questioned HwanGi.
"Yes, I just did."
"Say, do you know how much coins does JoonChul have in his coin possession?"
"I don't know."
"At least we didn't have to pay 3000 coins for the fee. I mean one of us would have turned broke. Haha." Alaine, laughing as if she said it as a joke, felt relieved.
Out of a sudden, Alaine got a flick to the head by Louis, causing her to groan even though he didn't use a lot of strength in that flick.
"Hey! Why did you do that!?" Alaine cried out to Louis.
While crossing his arms, Louis glared daggers at Alaine. "That was nothing to giggle about. You're going to influence Mya's behavior if you act like this in front of her."
"Brother Louis.. I-It's fine. So you don't have to hit—" Mya who saw the unexpected flick to the head, was trying to tell Louis when she suddenly got disturbed.
"Mya!" Louis pulled Mya close to him after discovering a string like wall encasing everyone in the area.
"Deja Vu??" Seeing as Alaine remembered what this wall was, she uttered. "This wall.. no, it's Mirai's cocoon! Wait, why is she trapping us in?"
"Do you wish to get bombarded with people charging in on us?" The calm voice of JoonChul caused Louis, Mya, Alaine and HwanGi to lay their eyes over that direction.
In view of the fact that everyone in ‘The Rebels’ guild had been encaged in the cocoon, it was no wonder they were getting a bit cautious.
"What does that mean?" HwanGi asked.
JoonChul answered, pulling out an apple to munch on. "It's what I said. The players who haven't joined, will rush to us or more accurately, me since I'm the leader."
"Then why are we trapped in here? Shouldn't it be you?"
"I thought you were quick-witted, HwanGi-ssi. What happens if you get hurt? It's better to protect everyone than just myself."
"Hm, I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking at all." HwanGi scratched the back of his head, feeling a little displeased of himself because he got slightly wary of JoonChul.
A sudden crash pummeled at the outside of the cocoon, raining down more and more brutal attacks from each and every side of the cocoon as if those were trying to peel into the cocoon that Mirai had made.
When HwanGi felt the vibration from the ground after the crash, he took a quick look over there until he heard JoonChul stating.
"So it's started. Really, these players only wanted to join us because we're powerful. But I guess that's more sensible than joining a weak guild."
With an already drawn bow and an apple in his mouth, JoonChul pointed his arrows toward a small opening in the cocoon before shooting those arrows outside.
As it was waiting for those arrows to leave, the cocoon had closed after the arrows went through, making it hard for HwanGi to figure out what JoonChul was attempting to do.
Afterwards, JoonChul looked briefly at Raiden, nodding his head to tell Raiden something.
As HwanGi was guessing what the arrows do, now he had to ponder what Raiden was doing right this moment.
"Huh?" HwanGi witnessing Raiden stomping his foot on the ground, forced the earth to shake which led to HwanGi stumbling while trying to stand.
Not only that, HwanGi felt like electricity was traveling through the ground while the earth was quaking.
"What is he doing..?" Alaine's sudden voice resounded behind HwanGi, prompting HwanGi to get his eyes back to Raiden.
When he laid his eyes there, he got a glimpse of three strikes of lightning coming from the hands of Raiden. On the other hand, the lightning was shooting at the direction where JoonChul had shot his arrows.
"Are they trying to stop the attacks or paralyze the players?" HwanGi thought that before his voice turned grim. "Or are they killing them..?"
"Kill..?" The eyes of Mya went wide from hearing that word.
Her hands trembled, showing her weakness which was seeing the sight of people's blood dying the earth.
Mya, sharing the same mindset as a particular creature, lamented as she imagined the sight. "The poor.. plants and soil being splattered with blood.."
[Player ‘555’ has activated the Skill, ‘Nature's Melody’ Lv. 2.]
Slowly but surely, the soothing sounds of flattering leaves brought ease to one's mind, echoing through the ears of the people outside the cocoon marvelously.
Trees rustling noises that could bring forth a wave of drowsiness, could be heard from the outside.
Even JoonChul, along with everyone in the cocoon were shocked to hear this music playing around Mya.
"I can't let everyone harm the plants and fill them with blood!" Mya exclaimed in determination with a slight flicker of green light in her pupils, not flinching when all eyes were on her.
During this, Mya spotted the expression JoonChul had. He was expressing satisfaction or more so, contented by what she had done.
"She did a perfect job." As Raiden spoke that, he went toward Mya and gave her a head pat, congratulating her. "You would make a good protector of nature if you keep this up. By the way, good job!"
Not being able to prevent herself from blushing from Raiden's compliment, Mya's cheeks went red. Stuttering when she thanked him and unknowingly, the green light in her eyes was no more.
———
It had been a while since the ‘Helpers’ had kept their mouths shut this entire time.
Despite this, I was rather impressed by Mya who seemingly had the resolve to protect the plants and earth.
‘What a befitting person for her.’ Musing as I took a glimpse at Mya's amulet, I bit the apple that I hadn't finished yet.
"It's time."
Upon being done with eating the apple, I spoke while directing my eyes at Mirai to signal for her to drop the cocoon.
Once the cocoon's strings started to scatter back into Mirai's fingers, it revealed a scene of the outside.
On the ground, I could see the people that got affected with Mya's melody sleeping peacefully.
Even though I wanted to kill them so that I could get more ‘Numbers’ to recruit potential NPCs in the future and get incredible skills, I couldn't do it when they're watching.
They, as in the ‘Helpers’ who had finished setting up the portals for world-line transportation. And my other teammates too.
"Oh my.. looks like everyone had some fun while we were busy." Tanzanite marveled by the sight as she floated downward to the earth.
Eventually, Tanzanite acting differently than normal, proceeding to hastefully rush things. "Now everyone, please get in the portals right behind that tree!"
Not bothering to check whether anyone was ready or in a guild, she was appearing as if there was something problematic in her way.
‘No, it's more like something is wrong that she's acting this way. But why?’ I wondered when I followed my glance at the hand of Tanzanite.
"See that tree? Go over there quickly and touch the tree. You'll be going to the new world for the next stage." Tanzanite ordered everyone in a strangely startled manner.
I mumbled. "What's going on with her?"
Without a doubt, everyone resisted to set a foot after hearing her words. It was because they didn't wish to leave and that they saw how odd Tanzanite was.
"..haha.." Tanzanite was jumpy while she was giggling at the sight of everyone standing there not leaving yet.
Not sure why she was acting this way, much or less bothered to care, I told the members of my guild. "Everyone, let's go."
As I walked toward the tree which the original JoonChul had first seen the moment he opened his eyes. Along with my comrades who followed behind me obediently.
After that, HwanGi, Louis, Alaine and Mya went behind us. Despite them seeming hesitant, they still followed me.
"So.." Back to where I was thinking, the tree that we were heading toward, was the only out of the ordinary thing in this grassland.
"The Cupressus Sempervirens tree." I expressed a slight nostalgic smile.
Unfortunately for me, I couldn't have the time to smile when Tanzanite suddenly made a declaration.
"The first person to go into the portals will receive 5000 coins!!! After that! The number will go down by 50 upon the next person!! So hurry before you get the lowest amount of coins possible!"
"What the heck..!" I bellowed, glaring in confusion toward Tanzanite's direction. ‘This is much stranger than the part where she acted oddly!’
