Chapter 127 :

Episode 27 : Back in Action (1)

Moments before the commotion between Louis and Adam, Sapphire and Ruby who were sitting on a branch, were focusly watching the screen.

"This garden is boring.." Ruby sighed as she was hanging upside down on the branch.

Hanging on the branch with her foot, Ruby crossed her arms while viewing the show. On the other hand, Sapphire was sitting normally as she observed what the three participants were doing.

"Sapphire, don't you think this event is too hard for the players?" Ruby raised a question.

Getting Interrupted by Ruby, Sapphire quickly gave her response to Ruby's question. "Compared to the future stages, this is endurable."

"Oh. You mean Stages #14, #15, #17, #18.. literally every stage."

"..." Sapphire ignored Ruby and continued watching the show.

Annoyed by Sapphire, Ruby swung herself upward before landing onto the branch to sit beside Sapphire. "Oi. What's so easy about this event anyways?"

"I'm at a loss for word because of you, Ruby." Sapphire being scornful of Ruby, shook her head when she heard Ruby.

"Tch, don't just give me that look and just tell me already." Ruby grumbled.

"Very well. To start with Phase 1. If it weren't for Mya's knowledge of flowers, they wouldn't have made it past Phase 1."

Ruby mumbled. "Somehow.. I feel like they knew the kid was useful in Phase 1."

"There occurred a problem when the teenage girl got her arm rip off, but it was fixed thanks to Mirai's cleverness."

"Uh huh. That kid is quite amazing for her age. Even that teenager."

"For Phase 2, even without that child, the two ladies would have been able to beat through the phase."

Ruby yawned. "Yep, and now, I'm starting to think this event is just too easy."

"And lastly, Phase 3. Because the timer is set to 30 minutes, there won't be enough time for the three participants to complete the crafts, but luckily, they were smart enough to use the teenager girl flawlessly."

"Ah. You mean the clones? Yeah, yeah. I can see it through the screen. The teenager does the craft while the child and that woman do the fighting and defending."

"Right. So you did watch it."

"Duh, because there is literally nothing to do here. I thought this place was awesome, but now, it is just plain."

Ruby grumbled, making angry noises while Sapphire just gazed at Ruby, mumbling. "Nothing amaze you, Ruby."

Out of the blue, Sapphire heard a commotion underneath her and so she took a glimpse at what was happening.

Along with her, Ruby also took notice of the noises. "Huh? Is that a fight?"

When their eyes caught on the scene beneath them, they couldn't believe that a player was going to threaten one of the Master of Ceremonies.

"Whoa! Is he going to harm the moderator of this event?!" Ruby gasped as she was about to move.

Without expecting it, Ruby was halted by Sapphire when the latter grabbed the former's hand.

Sapphire then told Ruby. "We don't need to intervene."

"What? Why?" Dumbfounded, Ruby asked.

"Because it's not our problem."

"...Wut?"

———

After a short moment from seeing the system message about the special event's completion, Louis had already released his javelins away from Adam.

As Louis waited for Mirai, Alaine and most importantly Mya to teleport back to this place, he kept his angered glance on Adam, not once letting his eyes wander about.

[They will fall down.] Adam mentioned abruptly.

"Hah?!" Louis glared at Adam before shifting his gaze at the sky to see if Adam's words were true.

Sooner or later, when Louis had looked up, he didn't find anything out of the ordinary even after checking every nook and cranny.

And because of this, Louis was absolutely infuriated by Adam, summoning back his ‘Marine Javelin’ to finally get rid of this liar.

"AHHH!!!"

When all of sudden, Louis, including everyone could hear the screams coming from above.

"Catch me!!" Alaine shouted with her arms and legs spread out.

Even before Alaine could finish her sentence, she was falling incredibly fast that she was nearly close to crashing into the ground.

Thud!

As though luck was on her side, she managed to land onto Louis who had jumped in her way to stop Alaine from crushing the ground.

..Although she didn't crush the ground, she did crush Louis's backbone.

"$#%@!!!!!" Words that didn't make sense at all, were being shrieked out from Louis's mouth.

During his groaning, Louis suddenly realized something through his agony. ‘Wait.. If Alaine fell, that means..’

"Mya!"

In a blink of an eye, Louis got up which forced Alaine to get harshly knocked off by Louis. Moreover, instead of worrying about Alaine, Louis gazed up into the sky to locate where Mya was, but it was to no avail.

"Where is she?!" Louis grunted before feeling a hand being placed on his shoulder.

Flinching upon feeling the hand, Louis slowly but surely turned his head around as he was wondering why he felt like he was going to get murdered by the person behind him.

Frightened, Louis spoke. "Y-Yes?"

"If you're going to save me.." Alaine whispered, sending her daggers like eyes directly at Louis's. "Do it properly!!"

After that, Alaine had kicked Louis's back which further increased the damage she had already done to Louis from the fall, prompting him to roll onto the grass.

Then, Alaine brushed off the dirt and grass on her hair before growling at Louis. "Grr!!"

"Ugh.." Louis groaned as he had stopped himself from rolling on the ground. "What the heck did you do that for?"

"Oh! You got the gut to say that when you literally just dropped me off on the ground?"

"I saved you from broken bones! And now I'm the one with a broken back!"

Getting up from his spot slowly, Louis stood up straight or so to speak. Since his back was too broken, his posture was a little bent. Not only that, he could even hear crack noises whenever he was trying to stretch his body.

"Ugh. Alain—" Louis was unexpectedly cut off by a giggle that he had heard.

As Louis tried to find out who was giggling at him, his eyes grew wide in shock after laying his glance on that person.

..By the way, it wasn't Alaine. It was someone else.

"Mya! Thank the stars that you're oka—ack!"

Relieved and bewildered, Louis wanted to run over to Mya, but on the other hand, his backbone was still in a bad condition which caused him some backache while he was trying to move.

"Let me help you." A voice from behind led Louis to jolt forward and turned around to look.

And without a doubt, Louis did a lot more damage to his spine again, flopping on his butt to the ground as expected. "Urk..!"

Even though he was perceiving backache, he still saw who it was that was behind him earlier.

"Jeez. What happened to him when we were out risking our lives?" Alaine commented.

"Brother Louis!" Mya, waving her hand while sprinting toward Louis, had come forward to hug Louis.

Not having the chance to stop Mya from embracing him, Louis felt yet another growth in his back pain after Mya gave him a firm hug.

"It's great to see you again, Mya." Since Louis didn't want to hurt Mya's feelings, he actually endured his pain and forced himself to hug Mya. ‘Oh give me a break..’

After some time, Mya finally released herself from Louis, smiling at him with her gleeful grin. As a result, the tormented Louis forced a smile on his face while crying out in his mind.

‘It freaking hurts..!’ Louis moaned as he calmly and casually asked Mya. "So, who saved you from the fall, Mya?"

"Uncle HwanGi did!"

"Ah.. I should give him my thanks." Louis smiled. ‘After I fix my back!’

———

Meanwhile, somewhere with mirror-like walls that brought limitless routes and paths, also had endless dead ends.

..And that wasn't all.

"Pfft. Hahahah!!"

Laughter which was filled with malicious intentions, was echoing through the crystal walls and could be easily heard all over the places.

"How many did I kill this time?"

The masked figure with a small dot of light illuminating the place to show the surrounding, was revealing something of a heinous scene.

Blood, fleshes and corpses in every part of the vicinity were painting the crystal clear wall with bloody red and bits of guts. And the person responsible for this was stepping onto a woman's head before stomping it to the point of breaking the skull.

Crack!

The masked figure chuckled. "Well, well. I got some tasty ‘Numbers'. So what's now?"

"Right! I was supposed to collect more ‘Numbers'. Luckily for me, the other guild members had already passed through this stage, so I'll be safe from their suspicion for a bit."

The masked figure straightened her arms and legs to relax herself from the thoughts of the corpses around her, avoiding to look at them and instead, stared at the glass like wall in front of her.

"Dang it all." The masked figure cursed as she slammed her fist into the wall, shattering the surface little by little.

The spot where she punched, was where her mask was. Seeming as if she was expressing her hatred for the stuff underneath her mask.

Sooner or later, the masked figure's hand was faintly bleeding slightly by the sharp edges of the crack she made. Despite seeing her hand bleed, she did a sway motion to get her blood off her hand before walking toward a corpse.

Crouching as she grabbed the corpse by the collar, she glared at it for a long while before tossing it aside.

"All barks and no bites, stupid idiot." The masked figure grumbled, kicking the corpses around to move them away from her way.

"Don't they know the nickname they gave me!? My name literally means the person who brings death?! And yet, they can be dumb enough to try and fight me!"

"I can't believe they let morons into this guild! What an absolute fail!"

"They should have just added people with good potential, not just some weird old morons trying to act like they're strong just from killing one creature or person."

"Why did I choose this guild in the first place?! I literally trapped myself with complete idiots!"

By then, the masked figure let out a long sigh to relieve some of her stress while walking along the way.

"Maybe I should have joined JoonChul's team, it's way better."

But after thinking things through, she shrugged her shoulders and head, grumbling by that thought.

"Nah, I'm pretty sure I'll get pummel to the ground by those weird friends of his."

"...!!!"

Out of the sudden, the masked figure heard footsteps slowly but surely approaching her from behind her.

The masked figure jolted and backed a few steps away when she sensed a presence coming at her back.

"Who goes there?" She uttered while pulling out her scythe from her inventory.

Giving her weapon a spin, she finally spotted the person trying to run away from her.

"Oh no you don't!" She exclaimed with a sneer as she began to chase after that fella.