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Chapter 259: The Quest of Zola

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Though he couldn’t help but to feel remorse that he can’t personally hide the Big Black Ball, Siva still tried to at least show that he was trying to protect it by giving out an order to build a warehouse-building to at least shield the object from outside visions.

As such, temporary human walls were erected around the Big Black Ball and companies over platoons and squads of protectors were placed on strategic positions in the now dubbed as “Sword-God Island” to protect the objet that will become the future pillar of power that will propel this branch of The Company into the pedestal of glory in the entirety of Terroa.

Spyder Cargo Trucks carrying ground-based anti-air magic towers were placed around the object; Cyclone Squads floated and patrolled steadily in a protective formation, with some even anchored around and above the island waiting for immediate action in case of any sudden attacks…

For such a tough and mean job, a tough and mean personage was required for the task.

And the only person who perfectly fit that role was none other than the unsociable and yet fiery tempered little beauty…. Coralline.

Her instructions and way of handling this task was superb and her personality perfectly fits the criteria of requirements for this job.

As a result, she established a very tight security.

It was clear that Siva and The Company had put a large importance to this Big Black Ball and the matter of mobilizing forces for this task had caught the attention of the media agents.

Although the live broadcast of the battle had already finished, it was still an additional income to get some few exclusive shots of the thing that The Company wanted to protect.

But of course, such undercover work was not a legal action since while public events like the appearance of the Colossi is uncontrollable and is subject to public attention, exclusive scoops on a private property such as the Sword-God Island is already a breach of private affairs.

Yes, this is Terroa and real-world laws do not apply here and as such, no real-world laws are also in effect on how the owner of the land deals with the trespassers.

The limits of human patience can be fully released in this kind of place.

As such, the media agents who wanted to try their luck on taking these exclusive shots have been shot down or arrested, and their camera drones confiscated with their recording all erased.

“You can’t do that?! That is personal property!”

“This is against social equality!”

“You’re going against the freedom of expression!”

“Where’s my freedom of speech here?! I demand you to give me back my drone!”

Of course, defiant agents were speaking about their rights and such but no matter what they said, there was only one phrase that Coralline replied.

“The entire 20km airspace around Akhenaton is our personal property so you should be lucky that you are not dead. Or would you rather want us to rob you of all your personal belongings as well?”

With that one threat, the agents shut their mouths.

Pitou, who wore Thief clothes with a bandana, stood behind the Loli Witch who hovered while seated on her broom in front of the tied captives.

With the obvious clothes, one smile was enough to scare the careers off the trespassers.

Knowing Coralline’s fame and why she was famous as the Short Tempered Little Witch, if she snaps with more of their blathers, she’d only need to wave her wand to end the pitiful them.

Yet even so… as the aftermath of the attack of The Legion in Alexandria and the appearance of a Colossus garnered so much attention to the city, in only five hours since the last live footage of the grand battle that was ended by Gabriel… footage of a Big Black Ball beside the golem’s large sword that’s being secured by The Company was released by TDT’s competitive channel… Terroa 24/7 Online.

The headline of the exclusive scoop was:

[Siva’s “The Company”: to wage war against all the players in the future with a Black Ball Warship!]

Yes, it was a slanderous dishonest text but its goal was for the players of Terroa to spark a flame of doubt for an incoming war against The Company.

And…. it was a successful launch!

Many organizations who took the news seriously began to gather their strength, some of them even started to merge together as preparation for this said invasion.

The Big Black Ball they saw on the video was just too much of a reward after this event in Alexandria and knowing the tendencies of Guilds and the premier organizations in RPG: Terroa, it was not a farfetched idea to think that Siva’s The Company would actually start a skirmishing campaign.

Although The Legion’s forces that invaded the Walled City of Alexandria in The North was just a part of their overall forces, the fact remains that they lost a significant asset in the form of Apus Epirus, and as well as an entire fleet of elite Lambda-Class Warships.

What more, Marshal D’Catch had also flipped sides and this was a huge blow to their overall firepower.

Even more loss was the fact that Kladis’ pride and glory, his two Rewloola-Class Battleships, were lost during this Alexandrian campaign.

Aside from these visible losses, The Legion had two of their core members also captured at this moment… and these were two members that has the information they needed regarding one of the two important quests they were trying to complete.

The Blue Card Legion had lost terribly during this clash against Siva and whether The Company is a real guild or not, the fact remains that Siva, the holder of the Grand Quest, was in possession of a Big Black Ball that could spell a big sign of threat not only to the title of strongest guild in Terroa, but also to the title of [untouchable] owned by the most prominent of guilds.

No avid fan of RPG: Terroa would just brush off this kind of news no matter how slanderous or true it may be.

As such, forum boards, news channels, video chat rooms, video-hosting sites, and many other social networking platforms buzzed in activities trying to either clean the slate or pour fire to scatter the flames further.

True or not, the two worlds were swept in this storm that is Siva, and no existence shall turn a blind eye whenever someone mentions this name.

*****

Volga… no, Prince Zola, a real prince of the real world… was no means a total ‘black’ person. In fact, although he’s never been purely white before, he was neither both.

If it can be described, he’s in the grey zone and it is not a good thing, at least, mentally and psychologically speaking on his regard. (Author’s NOTES: pls read the context. I’m not racist. What I meant for black, white, and grey is the innocence level: WHITE for purely innocent; BLACK for tainted; and GREY for, well, you get the gist right?)

He was born third of the four heirs to the throne and although he wasn’t dubbed as the inheritor, he was still a [prince] in status and name.

Living a life enshrouded in the hidden wars of politics and ambition, the stress he had felt had definitely accumulated to the point of he was already thinking of committing suicide to escape his ugly reality.

The world was just full of corrupted uncles and greedy nobles hungry for ranks, and whether he wanted it or not, the people around him held the power and authority and he was just a mere pawn on their game of thrones.

He was prince, that’s the only thing he held dearly and took pride in his life. He may not be the brightest or the smartest, most talented of the four, but he was humble… at least humble enough to know that within the walls and halls of his father’s kingdom, to overly stick up your nose to the game of the adults will only lead to being swept in the storm that’s happening on the sides.

As such, just when he thought of giving up in life and becoming a foreign refugee just to get away from his so called ‘home’, RPG: Terroa was released and the introduction to an all-new world, an alternate reality, was given to the world to enjoy and venture to.

For someone who had never cared about the mundane world of the common people, the idea of ‘escaping’ his reality, even for just a bit, had hit him fully and he didn’t hesitate to buy the full set of gears needed to run the game and even went as far as to establish a business-grade inter-neuro net connection just to make sure that the bandwidth and connection stability wouldn’t affect his experience inside the game.

The very first day he connected, the game was already running for three months.

Time flows differently in Terroa and a day’s worth of playing in the real world was equivalent to three days inside Terroa.

I his first try, he was captivated by the world’s unique beauty.

Everything felt real, even the blowing wind and the whispering sounds of the creatures in the city, and the surroundings, the air, and just the feel of existing in this place… was very much different in the world he used to know.

Zola, who had always restrained himself inside and had always controlled what he says, what he does, where he goes, and who he socializes with, have found a sense of freedom, of being himself, of getting the chance to be what he was, a prince, inside RPG: Terroa.

When he first logged in, he chose a country in the Western Region of Heartilia, the southern continent’s name.

Unlike The North where there was no starting city, the West who only has one, the east who only has four, and the central continent who had strict rules and limitations on what and where to spawn… the south continent of Heartilia’s starting cities were divided into east and west factions and then further divided into regions and sub-regions with three starting cities each.

Whether by chance or not, Zola had chosen a starting city furthest to the west, close to the ocean…

Zola, as a real-world prince, was of course quite versed in some sword mastery and martial arts, and he used these knowledge to his advantage to advance faster than his peers in the path of glory and fame in The South.

As he ventured outside the walls of the city after choosing his Initial Ability, he discovered more and more of the joy of using your own body with a numerical limit, to sale the height of a mountain or the depths of deepest trench in the sea.

Soon, his name, Volga, became sonorous with fame and glory in the entire Far Western Region of the West Faction of the continent of Heartilia.

And then, after half a year, or one a half year in Terroa, he completed a mission that gave him a title to become one of the prince consort of a kingdom in the western faction’ alliance.

He was never one to chase the skirt of women but when he saw the princess NPC he was supposed to marry, an idea sprouted in his mind.

He discovered with great surprise that Terroa’s women were predictable and controllable to a certain extent if you know how to play your cards right.

That princess of the kingdom had seven sisters and four of them ended up marrying him and sharing his bed every night.

Volga became drunk in power.

Still, his real-world alter-ego was bred in the art of politics and as such, although he seem to lax in terms of real-world social assets, he was a bold and daring ‘prince consort’ in Terroa.

This side of him earned him his pride and he was able to discover that there are mysteries and very promising plots and twists in the story that revolve around the legends in the histories of Terroa.

One such legend he came across to… was the legend of the Knights of the Round Table who once roamed and occupied half of an entire continent’s lands.

Driven by his pride in being an adventurer, he set himself on a journey to discover the story hidden within that legend.

Eventually, he discovered… the [Light Sword] that was connected to the legend he was after.

Along the way, he met adversaries who, more or less, had the same goal as his and all of them fell by the edge of sword.

Right after he obtained the [Light Sword], a series of events led him into discovering that behind the legend of the Knights of the Round Table, there was also an even darker and bigger legend that carried with it a story he couldn’t possibly imagine.

As soon as he realized this, it was already too late to walk out of the quest because standing in front of him was a person, who, he had always known as his greatest adversary… in regards to everything.

Zola prided himself as being the weakness of all women but Kladis was even greater and he was smoother, more charming, and stronger than him by many levels.

And yet, with the invitation by a charming lady like Genevieve, even if he wanted to say no… he said yes because of his pride.

He wanted to prove to Kladis that he was better because he was a prince!

But, as the Blue Card Legion that Kladis led became larger and stronger, and the more the sword and chairs they completed along with the increase of the difficulty of obtaining them, even though he knew that he was becoming stronger and stronger, he still can’t measure up to Kladis and what more… he can’t seem to charm every woman that he had set his eyes upon.

Even the other three sisters of the seven, the most beautiful three that he failed to charm time and time again, had been subdued completely by Kladis in just a day of interaction.

And to add salt to the wound, Kladis never had to do anything and didn’t even approach his four women and yet, with the stories of the three sisters about Kladis, two of his four, began to show interest and even went so far as to wink at Kladis even though they sat at his lap during social gatherings.

It was a blow to his pride.

Since then, he had always hated him.

And then… and then she came.

He thought of Scion at first as an NPC. And even though he was a prince and has his own pride, he couldn’t stop himself from losing composure at the thought that Kladis would also take this girl away from him.

He couldn’t stand it because Scion… was just so darn beautiful!

Her innocence and fragile demeanor summons the lust of all men and ignites the greed to be the one to taint her. Her graceful presence and sway of her hair that seems to entice a kingdom to offer their lives as sacrifices to maintain her beauty was all the more visible even if she only sit there in the chair in her room without moving…

Most especially when he saw her for the first time, unconsciously brought by their spy-specialist, Kira, from the TOS Guild, her sleeping posture in that bed, lying down so openly without the slightest of defense… ignite more of his possessive side as a man.

Scion was just so stunningly beautiful that way.

She was just an NPC but she had such a presence that if she was a real person, her beauty would have been enough to cause wars on countries for her possession.

And so… before Kladis could even get his hands on her, Zola, no, Prince Volga would have to sign her body with his signature.

He will imprint his smell upon her that even if Kladis were able to get his hands on her, he would smell his scent on her body and make him regret ever stepping on his pride.

But… who would’ve thought?

Yes, her communications privilege was locked as she has the status of a [captive], but her magic is also that great and she was able to cast one spell after another without worrying about depletion.

And then, frozen still, Kira, who was still disguised as Hubert at the time, brought him outside and told him that Scion is not an NPC but a player…

She is a real person.

At that moment in time, Zola decided…

“She is mine, no matter what.”

Thus his quest to plan against everything that will stand on his way to get her as his woman began.

He had planned to die in Alexandria one way or another but he never expected to die at Karim’s hand.

Still, it helped him solve his first problem.

Now, with his almost unlimited money in the real world, for the first time ever, he will start a new life in that world, online.

Using his insurance policy, he will create a new character. He then bought four insurance policies for back up purposes and then took his first step.

“Game Start.”