Alliance? Gabriel didn’t really find anything wrong with that, but he still had several questions... why would she want to form an alliance with someone like him? He already had tons of enemies and was making new ones every day.
Scarlet seemed to see through what he was thinking and added, "You don’t have to answer immediately. But think carefully, Gabriel. The Adventurer Guild has enemies everywhere, and you... you attract trouble like a magnet. If we stand together, it will at least keep others wary."
Gabriel tilted his head slightly, studying her pale face. She wasn’t lying. In fact, her words carried weight. He had seen enough scheming in his past life to know when someone was trying to use him and when someone was being direct. Scarlet was being direct.
"Alliance means shared enemies," Gabriel muttered, crossing his arms. "If your guild comes under fire, that trouble will fall on me too."
Scarlet smirked faintly, brushing a strand of her raven hair behind her ear. "True. But tell me, are you afraid of trouble?"
Gabriel’s lips curled into a humorless smile. He didn’t say anything but instead let the silence answer for him.
For a brief moment, their gazes locked. Then Scarlet extended her hand. "So? Do we have an agreement?"
Gabriel didn’t take it immediately. His thoughts drifted back to the three strange humans he had just encountered—the Deleters. If they were already moving inside this world, then larger storms were brewing. Having a strong ally like the Adventurer Guild at his side wasn’t a bad card to play.
Having the Adventurer Guild as an ally was no different from having Thomas Voss, one of the strongest existences in the Valerian Kingdom, at his side.
Finally, he clasped her hand. "Fine. An alliance it is."
The handshake broke, and silence settled for a few seconds. Scarlet turned, walking toward the stairs. "I’ll make the arrangements. You’ll be notified when the official contract is ready."
Gabriel watched her leave, his eyes narrowing slightly. An alliance was one thing, but he still couldn’t shake off the feeling of being watched. He glanced back through the glass window—though the truck carrying those Deleters had already vanished, his instincts screamed that they hadn’t left him alone.
"Tch. Things are moving faster than I expected," he muttered under his breath. "If those Deleters are in play this early, then the Convergence may happen sooner than I thought."
As he thought about this, he felt a light shiver down his spine. The last thing he wanted was for the Convergence to happen sooner... with his current strength, the same thing that happened in his past life might just repeat itself once again.
His fingers tapped lightly against the windowpane as he thought back to his past life—the chaos, the betrayals, the countless wars. Everything was falling into place again, only this time much faster!
If not for his special skill Undying Will, he would have been panicking right now.
Gabriel’s electric-blue eyes glowed faintly as he whispered to himself, "If the developer wants to send Deleters after me, then let them come. I’ll erase them from this world before they erase me."
But before then... there was something he needed to do—the very reason why he had returned to Stellar City.
After Scarlet left, Gabriel didn’t linger on the second floor for long. He went upstairs to the floor reserved for the elite squad of the Adventurer Guild.
This floor was as busy as usual, adventurers laughing and gossiping among themselves. Yet as Gabriel walked through, the crowd parted slightly and everyone went quiet.
"Oi, don’t tell me you completed the mission already!" The familiar, annoying voice sounded right beside his ear. He didn’t need to look to know who it was.
He ignored it and went straight to the white room where the mission board was.
"Jerk, are you ignoring me?" Alice, the assassin, frowned, smoke practically coming out of her nostrils.
"That seems to be the case," Lily commented with a dead look on her face.
Alice’s face reddened more and more. In her mind, her eyes had already slaughtered Gabriel a thousand times. She was about to lunge at him when Lily, who was older and more mature, grabbed her hand.
"How about you leave him alone and stop disgracing yourself any further," she whispered into her ear.
Alice pursed her lips, not out of embarrassment but pure irritation. She then glanced at Lily and whispered with narrowed eyes, "Do you think that jerk is a eunuch?"
Lily froze, her calm expression twitching. The question was something she had not anticipated, yet it was something she had thought about before. She had never seen him lust after a woman.
"I doubt it." She shook her head and then, in an even lower voice, added, "I hope."
Alice crossed her arms and huffed, glaring daggers at Gabriel’s back. "What kind of man ignores a beauty like me? He didn’t even flinch when I teased him the other day. Either he’s a eunuch or—"
Her voice dropped lower, almost conspiratorial, "—he’s into..."
...
Meanwhile, unaware of the wild theories going on about him, Gabriel continued his walk. During his ride back to Stellar Kingdom, it had taken barely four hours, which technically meant that seventy-two hours had not passed yet for the quest to be completed.
His current goal was to complete two more quests during this duration so that he could officially kickstart his guild and begin mass recruiting.
However, just out of curiosity, he decided to check the forum. The first text he saw was from BrawlerX, who was making crude jokes about how soft and realistic female hands felt in this game.
Gabriel furrowed his brows. Although it was awkward, it meant that nothing had happened to the camp yet.
"Still, when I get back, I’ll need to caution him. The last thing I want is for him to do something stupid."
Suddenly, something else caught Gabriel’s attention on the forum. It was an image of the current player ranking uploaded by a player called KamyNyx.
In first place... it was not Ragnarok99, Sniperbowlegend, or even BrawlerX. Rather, it was IceQueen.
She was now at Level 45.
Players leveled up faster than NPCs, but this speed was still insane even for a player.
"Just what has she been up to in the past few days?" Gabriel’s eyes narrowed.
Meanwhile...