Ding! Ding!
"...Mhm?"
Anna, teary-eyed, took out her phone and saw that she had received a photo from an unknown number.
She frowned and checked it out, but when she saw the picture, her eyes glazed over with shock.
Her hand began to tremble. She squeezed hard on the phone. The screen started cracking around the edges.
"W-w-w-w-w-w-what..."
With the picture, there was also a text that said, "Mine," with a smiley at the end.
"You... Hahahaha... Hahaha... Ahhhhhhhhhh!"
Anna screamed hoarsely and threw the phone across the room. It shattered into pieces on the hardwood floor.
...
Early the next morning, Fang Raon logged back into the Black Online, and everyone else was already online.
They linked up, searched for the tower key for about an hour until they found it, and headed straight to the 8th floor’s tower.
Without much problem, they successfully cleared the boss raid, again rolled dice for the items, and headed straight to the ninth floor.
For the following week, they grinded floors without really staying in one place for too long.
Meanwhile, in the real world, Fang Raon’s days were pretty dull, and nothing of interest really happened with Chaewon.
She had calmed down her advances, and neither of them had made a move towards deepening their relationship.
However, with his sense of sight back, Fang Raon wanted to visit different places in the Megaworld.
It cost him quite a bit, but he went to visit Hard Football match over on the 130th floor, and it was quite an experience.
Hard Football was one of the most famous sports in the world. It was about kicking a ball towards the opponent’s goal, but at the same time, there was also another aspect to the game.
It was played in virtual reality. Every player had their own selected ’superpower’ they could activate in the match.
While the actual match was happening in the virtual reality, their avatars were still shown in the real world, playing the game in the actual stadium.
Since he couldn’t go there alone, he went with Chaewon. It felt like a date. She was also happy to go there with him.
After several more days, Fang Raon and the party successfully cleared the 13th floor and arrived at the 14th floor.
...
"Huff... Haah..."
"...That was a tough one, guys..."
The exhausted party stood over the corpse of the 14th floor’s boss, basking in their hard-earned victory.
They were out of breath.
This raid took them three hours to complete, and it was easily the hardest one so far. It also almost ended badly.
Machary was almost dead multiple times, but with the well-timed assistance by Poppy, he somehow survived.
"...At least, we reached our destination."
Machary said, and looked at Fang Raon, who also nodded.
The rest of the party looked at them. Conflicted looks on their faces.
They knew about them planning to head only to the 15th floor, so they didn’t know what was going to happen to their party now.
"...Let’s roll the dice."
Ragnar said.
Everyone nodded, and after rolling the dice, they chose their selected items and took the dropped items of the boss.
"Whew... Let’s go!"
Machary caught his breath, climbed up the steps, and opened the door that had "15th Floor" engraved on its frame.
When the door opened, a gust of cold air gushed out, and they stepped through.
...
When they stepped out of the door, they arrived in a warm-looking lodge. It was built with wood, and there was a fireplace crackling with fire at the corner.
There were heads of hunted animals on the walls, carpets of various animal skins on the floor, and comfy leather armchairs surrounding the fireplace.
"...This is the 15th floor? It looks so nice!"
Poppy said with a smile.
Machary walked to the window, looked outside, and saw the world being completely surrounded in white snow.
"I’ve heard that the 15th floor is very cold, especially at night."
Abigail said.
"...So it’s like the 2nd floor, except on crack."
Ragnar said.
He believed that he was cold-blooded enough to handle the cold of the 15th floor.
Creak!
In that moment, the lodge’s door opened, and cold air gushed inside. It made everyone shiver.
"Ah, welcome... welcome... travelers."
A warmly clothed old man said with a smile. He was wearing a fur hat and looked like he was a veteran of these parts.
"I am the owner of his lodge. I am also your designated guide. If you may, look at the map on the wall."
The old man pointed to the wall next to him.
It had a map nailed to the wooden wall, and it showed the entirety of the 15th floor. It looked like it had a lot of mountains.
There were also a lot of forests and roads, but there were also three places on the map that had buildings.
[Snowberry Village]
[Hollyhatch Village]
[Tinselbrook Village]
"I, unfortunately, can’t let you stay here, but I can take you all to one of these three villages with my sledge!"
The old man said.
"...Where will we go?"
Poppy asked curiously.
At that moment, Machary approached the map, looked at the names, and had done enough studying to know where to go.
’Showberry Village is where Rose Records is. Hollyhatch Village is Grinding Grief. Tinselbrook Village is Monsieur Rascal.’
"Where are we going, Machary? It looks like you already have an idea."
Abigail said.
"...Snowberry Village."
Machary said.
"Ah, that is a really nice place. It has some really nice people there. You chose well, I must say, haha."
The old man said with a smile.
They then all stepped out of the lodge, and saw the old man climb inside a sledge that was being pulled by six strong-looking reindeer.
"Hop on!"
They all climbed on, and with that, the reindeer started pulling the heavy sledge through the snowy ground.
It was biting cold.
"S-S-S-So cold!"
"Quickly change to the winter clothes!"
They all still had the warm clothes from the 2nd floor, and they put them on, but it really didn’t do much.
"Yeah, this place is really cold. It’s now warmer than usual, but in a couple of hours it will turn really cold!"