And so, Crown, John and Bonifacius travelled to Glumington, Pedecree drove the cart.

“I really think we should have brought Bromy…” Crown remarked.

“I mean… he feels like a teacher kind of guy”

JohnWillStab shook his head.

“Do you really want more people to get stronger and become Bromy-clones?” John asked feeling a chill run down his spine.

“G-guess not…” Crown agreed.

Bonifacius was healed up after his fight in Grimwood.

“I wonder what kind of people will rely on our guild for guidance…” Bonifacius wondered.

“I hope they’re not all older than me… that would be awkward…” John remarked.

Crown breathed a sigh.

“In total, this game had about eighty-thousand players… the average age was around eighteen so you’re good…” Crown remarked.

“Huh, how’d you figure that out?” John asked.

“I copied down the databases from the server, all the account information was right there!” she exclaimed.

“…”

“…”

“Isn’t that… very illegal?” John asked.

“…”

“…”

“Not if I’m not caught,” Crown replied averting eye contact.

“Don’t worry, I had the most advance VPN out there for this kind of stuff!” Crown began.

“OH NO!” John knew what was coming…

“I used a long string of computers all over the world, one connected to the next, I paid some locals to keep the computers running for a few bucks for ‘scientific research’”

“At two points along the chain of computers I had a shed boobytrapped with explosives in which were two computers, instead of using any networks, I had them connected through a wire,”

“At another point along my VPN chain I had a computer display its data in hex and I’d use a camera on a different computer to decrypt it!”

JohnWillStab tuned her out at this point.

About half an hour later JohnWillStab noticed he was dozing off, he glanced over to Crown who was still talking about the nerd stuff.

He glanced over to Bonifacius seeing he was looking terrified, tears streamed down his face as a look of ungodly confusion permeated his very being.

“Pretty secure, right? What about you guys?” Crown asked looking at John and Bonifacius.

When faced with the blissful silence Bonifacius began to cry loudly, like a world war one soldier, filled with so much adrenaline he clung to life and fought with his guts sticking out only to drop dead one the battle subsided.

“I just used incognito mode for porn like a normal person,” John replied.

“Tch, I’m talking about something more important than whatever cringy weeaboo shit you looked up before you became dickless,” Crown began.

“Like what?” asked John.

“Like blackmailing foreign politicians,” she replied.

“You’d be surprised what you can call blackmail material in the political world, once I got two-thousand bucks for not publishing a photo of a middle-eastern politician eating pineapple pizza,”

“Wow… I… don’t care…” John admitted.

Crown shrugged.

“What can I say, I didn’t expect your kind to understand the highly-technical topics,” she said smugly.

Eventually, the group reached the large walls of the city, Pedecree entered inside and dropped them off outside the town hall.

“Remember to call me ahead of time when you need a lift back,” Pedecree reminded the group as he turned to leave.

After waving their goodbyes, the trio entered the large building, it had many floors and was covered in massive windows.

As soon as they stepped inside, they were stopped by the receptionist.

“Level?” she asked sounding bored.

“Hi, we’re here for the-” John began but was cut off.

“What’s your level?” she asked in an exhausted tone.

“I- I’m level forty-five!” John exclaimed.

“I- I’m level forty-three!” Crown replied.

“I- I’m level fifty-three!” Bonifacius exclaimed.

The receptionist shot them a look that meant “No you’re not…”.

She breathed another sigh.

“Whatever, go into the first door on the right and stand in the crowd,”

“R-right…” John nodded.

The trio entered the big room, inside were dozens of people.

JohnWillStab crossed his arms and looked around.

“There sure are a lot of people,” John remarked.

“Indeed!” Bonifacius exclaimed.

“I can hardly wait!”

“…” Crown looked around not seeing any other frogmen.

“So, I’m the shortest again…” she thought.

On the opposite end of the room was a stage with several rows of seats in groups of three.

“Guys… shouldn’t we go up there?” asked Crown.

“And be the focus of attention?! Screw that!” John replied.

“Indeed, we should await instructions!”

“Hey, you guys in a group, yet?” asked the brown-haired person.

He wore a dark-green vest over a light-green shirt and black trousers, his spiky hair a chestnut brown with a red headband.

From the looks of it, he wasn’t even twenty.

“I’m Adrian, we’re meant to get into a team of five, right?” he asked.

“O-of course I knew that!” John exclaimed.

“You didn’t…” Crown said bluntly.

John forced a smile and ignored her.

“Right… well, I’m in a group with one other person, if you’re interested, we could team up!”

“You three, plus us two make five, right?!” he exclaimed excitedly.

“I… think so…?” John replied uncertainly.

“Yes, yes, it is…” Crown sighed.

“Aha! I knew it!” John exclaimed.

Adrian looked at them uncertainly.

“Are you guys… alright?” he asked.

Bonifacius cleared his throat.

“GREETINGS!” he exclaimed.

“I was not aware that we were meant to form parties of five, we would gladly accept thy proposal!” Bonifacius exclaimed, shaking the man’s hand aggressively, the comparably small human almost falling over at multiple occasions.

From the crowd appeared a younger-looking girl.

She wore a black witch’s hat and a witch’s robe with several belts and pouches attached to the outfit.

“Ah, there you are! I’ve managed to find someone who’ll team up with us!” Adrian exclaimed.

“Really? Even though you’re a bow and sword class!?” she asked.

Adrian’s face contorted to a defeated smile as if to say “You weren’t supposed to mention that…”

“What’s that got to do with anything?” Crown asked uncertainly.

“Eh? I thought swords and bows were the worst weapons… well, more like everybody else did…” Adrian explained.

Everybody else used axes, hammers or in some cases guns.

“And I’m an air mage… everybody said air was the weakest magic but I can’t get it changed…” the witch-lookalike explained.

JohnWillStab, Bonifacius and Crown exchanged confused looks.

“Have you guys… played this game?” Crown asked.

“I got it for Christmas a few years back, I looked dead so I just uninstalled it after a day…” Adrian explained.

JohnWillStab breathed a sigh.

“How can you guys teach others how to play the game if you can’t play it yourself?”

Adrian’s expression shifted to a more upset one.

“Don’t pretend you’re so smart, you’re here after all,” Adrian smirked.

JohnWillStab gritted his teeth.

“OH YEAH?! YOU WANNA FIGHT!?” John demanded grabbing his daggers.

Adrian crossed his arms.

“Tch, Emuhlee and I could totally beat you guys in a fight!” he grinned.

“Alright, that’s enough, we’re meant to be a team, remember!” Emuhlee exclaimed stepping between the two.

“J-JohnWillStab, thou don’t truly plan to fight a low-level player?!” Bonifacius asked.

“OH, I ABSOLUTELY DO!” John exclaimed, he was held back by Bonifacius, Crown grabbed the dagger from his hand and stabbed him in the gut,

“Quit acting like a dickhead, apologise…” Crown commanded continuously stabbing John in the gut.

Blood fell down to the wooden floor.

“N-NEVER!” John grunted.

Adrian and Emuhlee looked at Crown massacre John with a look of confusion, it took them a few seconds to truly appreciate that someone was getting stabbed before their eyes.

The bloodshed attracted the attention of a handful of other people, they were all low-levels and were seemingly afraid of interfering.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” Adrian demanded.

Crown looked over to him with a bored expression.

“Don’t worry about it, he likes it,” she said with a shrug.

“NO, I FUCKING DON’T!” he cried as a handful of chopped-up guts flew onto the ground.

“GIVE THOSE BACK!” he cried.

Emuhlee passed out, falling to the ground.

After a few more minutes Crown finally decided to decapitate John to stop him from being aggressive.

“There,” she kicked the body aside.

She leaned in towards the head, “If you don’t apologise, I’m going to donate your head to Bromy’s lab,” Crown whispered.

John’s expression darkened as his head turned to face Adrian.

“P-please find it in your heart to forgive me,” John said in an apologetic tone.

“FOR CALLING YOU OUT ON YOUR BULLSHIT! I CAN TOTALLY KICK YOUR ASS!” he added as Crown kicked his head across the room, it landed against one of the walls leaving behind a massive bloodstain before falling down to the stage.

Dozens of people looked at him, their expressions a mix of fear and dread.

“…”

“…”

“Hi.”