Yrwin took his broken staff and finally managed to climb on shore.

They were safe. After such gruesome travelling, they were finally safe.

Over a year of going from one place to another. The sea, the villages, anywhere on Furuk, even the desolated deserts and forests.

All while being persecuted and chase around. Even the Civil War quest had wearied off its time limit, and still, groups of cavalries, assassination squads and even an entire platoon of soldiers were sent to deal with them.

First, the number of irregularities around them grew, as not only three, but then five, ten, and even fifteen irregularities began to show all around.

It took them a long time to understand that the only way to stop the weird phenomena was to capture and imprison the abnormal NPCs which came their way. Only then did the irregularities became smaller in number.

At the time, even the other players they found on their way either ran away or bring trouble with them as well.

It was as if something was clinging to them, and once it found an NPC, be it friendly or an enemy, it would then hop inside of it and that NPC would then immediately become abnormal.

Of course, they had tried to infect non-aggressive NPCs as well. For a time, it seemed to work.

However, regardless of that, once they entered some city, the numbers of abnormalities increased and then kept increasing until someone recognized them and told the guards or something.

If they were facing against five abnormalities on the open, they would have at least fifty to deal with after going to a city for a couple days.

The only way was to isolate themselves on the forests and either kill or capture any NPCs they found.

It was as if they were committing NPC genocide all around.

Yrwin sighed after finally getting on the pier. It wasn’t easy to do so when he lacked an arm.

With his good hand, he then helped Max, Raphael and Lillian to get there as well. The ship was then finally released from its burdens and sank on the sea.

It was a bit sad to see the commotion while some NPCs’ drowned, while others jumped from the ship and immediately came to Yrwin with a report saying that the vessel had sunk and they had been lucky to survive.

Yrwin waved his hands and, with a few regal words and gold sacks, said the NPCs’ should find a way to go home.

‘There might be some NPC boats left on this island. If so, then once they found the others they will probably go to the sea as a group.’

It was a tactic they had used plenty of times. The NPCs would trade gold amongst themselves, and the gold pouches Yrwin gave them had a small nasty mind-controlling item on them. Anyone with a main level of 20 or lower would be compelled to enter a boat and sail as far as they could.

Still, there were far more NPCs in the town than him or any other members of the Calamity Jacks’ Fools Party could have imagined.

- It seems like no one has been killed. The NPC establishments are still in service - Max said, a small amount of fear on his face.

- To think they wouldn’t have made any NPC cleansing at all… are they fools or what? - Lillian munched on a piece of chocolate, not so happy, but surely relieved after finally reaching the Island.

- Maybe it hasn’t happened here… there doesn’t seem to be any signs of NPC revolting - Yrwin was a bit hopeful.

- That would be impossible! They were everywhere we went, and this place is full of refugees; how could they not be here?! - As for Max, he remained cautious.

- Oy, oy, the four of you there! Are you guys new here or something?!

Suddenly, a small street vendor called to them.

- Ah, yes. Thank you for noticing. - Raphael, obviously, was the first one to notice. - Is this Dragon King Island? Please tell me it is…

- You folks have gone through bad times, I see. - The vendor, a dwarven fisherman, spoke to then. - What was it? Sea monsters? A kraken or something? I have a few orders for kraken meat, so if you could tell me where it is…

- Kraken? I wish! Do you even know what is happening outside? The whole world is in chaos over there!

Lillian answered in a bit of a furious state.

- Oyh, Sullivan! Three kilos of Abcean Longfin. Make it quick and make it fresh! - Intervened a feline player.

- Calm down, calm down. - Yrwin intervened - we just had a really bad encounter with a bunch of NPC zombies. We managed to mind-control those under level 10, but the others mangled us pretty bad.

- Oh, you mean the weird NPCs that seem to come alive or something? - The dwarf fisherman said, while packing a few fishes for the feline customer, which happily proceeded to pay by inserting mana on the mana crystal in front of him.

- Yes. They, precisely. We have been having a terrible time with them. - Yrwin explained.

- Smart my ass. Bunch of bastards. - As for Max, he obviously disagreed.

- Ooh, I know, I hope you guys have brought some with you as well! I’m in need of a new maid, and the regular NPCs’ are a hassle - The feline player said, while retrieving its fish and putting his hand on the mana-gathering crystal on the dwarf’s stand.

- Ayê. Those guys are very useful you know?

As Sullivan’s words sunk on the Fools’ Parties’ ears, they felt their legs growing soft.

First, they felt shocked. Then, they began to laugh while crying.

The NPCs which gave them so much problem were peaceful servants on this island?! What about all they had been gone through? All the lost limbs, almost dying many times, all the violence and humiliation?! Their minds were on the verge of collapse.

*sigh* - Call that Admittance Girl over, would you? - The dwarven fisherman had seen a few guys like those in the past. So, he didn’t even try to bring them a single word of consolation. Instead, he asked for the player in front of him to go and fetch someone which would be able to help them.

The longer one took to reach Dragon Kings’ Island (2), the longer they would have been fighting for their own survival in the world outside.

If he were to say things like “it’s fine, it will be all o.k. once you get a few NPCs infected” then they would probably only become more frustrated and come up with excuses like “we did it already!” or “I don’t believe you! Prove it!”.

People had a hard time getting new NPCs since the… Lord…. Of the island would work for only a single day so many months, so they would rather avoid people having mental breakdowns and starting an NPC killing spree.

So, a couple real-world psychologists which had come to Another World had volunteered to take care of the newly admitted.