The killing intent the members of ChaosKnight projected was like a faint breeze brushing against Gabriel’s skin. Slowly, he turned to face them.
That single gaze quenched the fire in their eyes, reducing their bravado back to ashes.
"Fuck, I can’t do this!"
"Me neither!"
"I don’t have enough time to waste here," Gabriel said, his voice calm yet final. "So, how about this: kill yourselves, or let me do it myself.."
The players exchanged uncertain gazes, confused about what to do. If this were one of the cheap games they were used to, they could have simply logged out, waited for Gabriel to leave, and then logged back in.
However, all that greeted their eyes now was a bold error message:
[Sorry, you can’t log out during combat]
The leader of their small group, Big Shark, wore an extremely grim expression. None of the choices favored them.
The pain transmitter in this game was intense. Even the smallest injury they caused themselves felt almost the same as in real life.
Gabriel didn’t hurry them. He simply watched with a slightly bored gaze while they whispered among themselves.
They were weighing their options. Never in their lives did they think they’d be in a situation where enemies told them to pick between killing themselves or being killed.
One might wonder why Gabriel would suggest this. Well, it was simple. Unlike with monsters and NPCs, killing players didn’t grant him Extraction Points.
Even the experience points they gave were minimal, since they weren’t real people.
Furthermore, he didn’t even consider the ChaosKnight players as humans. In his eyes, they were just ants waiting to be crushed—perhaps even lower than that.
Several seconds dragged by as puddles of sweat accumulated beneath their feet.
Finally, Big Shark gritted his teeth, his eyes darting between the doorway and Gabriel.
"Fuck this! I’d rather run! Everyone, save yourselves!" he suddenly roared. Spinning on his heels, he kicked the ground and charged forward, shoving aside those in front of him.
Big Shark was a warrior who had invested most of his stats into strength. Like a storm, he barreled through the group, sending them flying.
A faint gleam flickered across Gabriel’s eyes as he retrieved a knife from his inventory and hurled it at the fleeing player.
FWOOOSH!
The knife split the air. Big Shark’s scalp tingled and his eyes trembled as he sensed imminent death approaching.
Stab!
The blade pierced right through his skull, instantly draining all his health points.
"Aghhhhhh! Son of a bitch!" Big Shark roared as his body dissolved into data fragments.
Ignoring the kill notification, Gabriel shifted his gaze to the others and shook his head.
"Cowards, you can’t even kill yourselves," he muttered disappointedly, then stepped away from his spot.
"Aghhhhhhhhhh!"
"Monster!"
"Bastard!"
Their collective screams lasted only three minutes before the chambers fell silent again.
’Our work here is done, come on, let’s return to the camp,’ Gabriel said to Grizzlenaught.
The giant beast nodded, glanced once more at the battlefield, and then obediently trailed behind its master.
In the real world, several ChaosKnight players woke with a jolt, breathing heavily, sweat soaking their faces. Among them was Big Shark.
He placed a hand on his chest and started breathing hard.
"Phew... it was just a game... just a game. For a moment, I thought it was real," he mumbled, then frowned when he noticed the smell of piss.
After cleaning up, he didn’t log back in. Instead, he immediately called the guild leader.
The phone rang a few times with no answer, then finally someone picked up.
"Guild leader," Big Shark said quickly.
"Sorry, this isn’t your guild leader. She’s currently in the game," the voice replied.
"Oh, I see."
"What do you want to tell her? I can help relay the message," the voice continued.
He hesitated for a few seconds. Originally, this mission was supposed to be known only to the core members of the ChaosKnight guild. But since Broken Heaven had hijacked it, there was no point keeping it secret.
"Tell her the mission was a failure," he said through gritted teeth. "When we got there, that bastard Broken Heaven was already there and he took all the treasures."
The line was silent for a while before the voice replied. "Sure, I’ll let her know."
"Thank you." Big Shark hung up and tossed the phone onto his bed. A part of him felt the voice was familiar, but in his current state, he couldn’t place it.
Meanwhile, on the other side, Jayden slowly pulled the phone away from his ear and glanced at the beauty sleeping calmly with a VR headset on her face.
’This game... it might be as interesting as they say.’ His gaze flickered. "However, no matter how tempting it is, I’ll keep my promises."
---
Later that day, after IceQueen logged out, a meeting was held with all the core members invited, including Big Shark.
"That bastard Broken Heaven was truly there?" IceQueen spoke in a cold, angry tone, her icy gaze sweeping across the table. "How did he even find out about this mission? It was supposed to be top secret!"
Those present shifted uncomfortably, feeling the weight of her stare.
"Which one of you leaked the information?" she demanded, her tone sharp and chilling.
ChaosCleric, seated beside her, cleared his throat. "Guild leader, I don’t think any of them leaked it. No one would be dumb enough to do that. They know you’d make their lives miserable in the waking world."
The others nodded vigorously in agreement.
The vice leader continued, "I suspect Sir Broken knows about this place because he’s an NPC. It’s possible he found it even before us."
"So what now?" IceQueen asked.
"Let’s avoid a full frontal confrontation with him for now and focus on increasing our strength," ChaosCleric replied. "I just received word that the players who joined the raid are traumatized and won’t be able to play for a while."
IceQueen sucked in a cold breath and slumped back in her seat.
This was just a game for crying out loud... how could an NPC traumatize players?!
Finally, she nodded and stood up. While walking out, she said, "We’ll follow your advice for now and stay low. Fortunately, there are still some missions Father told me about."
***
Get us to 100 Golden Tickets Guys!!