“TERRENCE!” She screams at the same time as Ozzie’s ding. I don’t get to check the points because she grabs and shakes me back and forth. “WHAT DID YOU DO?!” “N-NOTHING!” I raise my voice to make it seem like I’m also panicking. “WHAT DID YOU DO?!!” She screams at me again with more intensive shakes. “I-It slipped from my hands! I SWEAR! Ugh—” I’m starting to get dizzy from her shaking, not going to lie. That ‘ugh’ in the end is honest from the bottom of my throat. “I think I’m gonna puke…” Her face twitches from anger to worry, and then to annoyance. She doesn’t look like she’s done with me, but maybe she can see the paleness in my face, because eventually she lets me go. I immediately move to the side and let rainbow flows from my mouth. I think adrenaline from the chase finally gets me with all that shaking. But it’s worth it because my points are now 5/27. I take out my water bottle and gargle some water to wash the foul taste from my mouth. Then I return to her folding a clo
My point hasn’t gone up, which means that just beating them isn’t enough. So I go to the restroom. There is a staff card right outside the door. It should belong to the guy hiding inside, so I take it. I remember the door is locked from the inside, so I don’t bother knocking and just kick the door open. “Terrace cadet on site! We are rescuing the workers! Is there anyone here?!” I shouted. There is no answer, but I know he’s in one of the stalls. So I shout again. “Is there anyone in this restroom?! Please answer me!” Still, no answer. Alright, last straw. “Terrace, come in. Cadet reporting. There is no one in the 5th floor—” “I’M HERE!!” The last stall suddenly slammed open and a man comes out of it. “I-I’m here…” I smile and show him his Staff ID card. “Mr. Shawn?” The man nods. “Are you really from the Orion Terrace?” When I show him my Arrow and uniform, he’s finally convinced. We exit the restroom and this Mr. Shawn almost didn’t want to go because he’s too afraid of ste
The first scene that plays in front of us is a gunshot sound and a wounded cadet crawling towards us. The cadet, who is my classmate Greg, is looking pretty worn. His eyes are wide open with shock, his suit is tattered, and he also has blood on him. When the cadet sees us, he immediately shouts for help. “Help! It’s a gunner!” More gunshots echo from the hallway behind him, also screams. We immediately pull him to us to get him out of the line of fire. “Treat him, I’ll buy time.” Jake said. But I stop him. “It’s a gunner and you’re a batter. You can’t fight him. I’ll go.” I crawl to the edge and I thought he doesn’t have any comments, but he protests right after I took position to take vision. “You have never fought these guys before. You’ll get shot!” “Do you want to get shot instead?” I glance at him. He doesn’t retaliate. Good. I don’t want him too. It’s troublesome to argue and a waste of time. Besides, I need to work a little bit creative here to rescue the people in this f
She’s glaring at me so intensely that I can’t help but stare at her in complete confusion. “What?” I said. I kinda have a feeling that she’s angry about something. But I don’t know why. ‘Did I miss something? But my points have gone up. So it should be fine, right?’ Then she approaches me in wide strides, but Jake immediately stands between us. “No, no, Amy!” Jake said. “But he’s—!” “We’re still on a mission. If you have anything against him, put it in the report.” Jake said. Oh yeah, her name’s Amy. And she goes back to glaring at me. “Just what is her problem…?” I mumble. Jake seems to hear what I’ve just said, because he turns around and whisper to me to be quiet. And I do just that. But it’s only because I don’t really want to waste my energy on her either. ‘Haa… I wish the hoverboard is faster…’ I was just wondering about that, but thankfully, it comes just a few seconds later. The tight atmosphere turns lighter immediately because we have to help the workers get on it
At the North Team’s Captain Base a few moments ago… The Operator Team receives a wave from the Headquarters. “Nat! We got a call from the HQ!” Sheena said. She is a fourth-year who is operating the communication in the North Base. Natalie, the captain of the North Team who is examining purple crystal fragments, immediately comes over to the computer. “Put us through.” The other operator, Kal, also a fourth-year, inserts the speaker cables into the computers. Then Sheena presses a button and a small yellow square lights up on Sheena’s screen. “The Captain is present. Over.” There is a sound wave and a voice speaks through the speaker in a slight grunge-like effect. “North Team. Communication has been cut off from the other three towers. But your wave is still able to come through. How can this happen?” Natalie presses a button to reply. “North Team Captain reporting in. We have found two mysterious, yet similar, devices that we accidentally destroyed. It holds this specific kind
I push the emergency door open with the man’s help. This one is rather heavy unlike the other floors which are either already open or only needing a slight push. If they really put the Connector crystal in this floor, then it would make sense if they even make the emergency door sturdier than the others. I keep this detail in the back of my mind before I peek inside. There’s no one here and the place seems untouched. But I already know that. Still, I have to pretend I don’t to avoid suspicion. “Stay here.” I told him as I pull my gun from the holster. “Are you sure?” The man asked. “Yeah. I’ll come back when it’s safe.” “Be careful.” He said as I enter. I walk calmly with my gun drawn, but as soon as I turn the corner, I run. I keep it lightly though, because it might echo in the hallway and gives the wrong signal. I make my way exactly like in my memories, and I eventually reach the Control Room. Well, only in front of it. There is another room inside this one that houses the Co
When Terrence escorts the technician to the 10th floor, four 3rd year students arrive in the back entrance of the North Tower. They are the ones ordered by the Captain to split up from the Base and join the ones in the Tower. “Huh? Where are the seniors paired up with you? Shouldn’t you guys be at the base and guard the citizens?” A senior approaches them. “The Captain told us to come here and relay a new command.” One of the juniors said urgently. A junior approaches. “Why can’t she relay through Arrow?” “The Base is being moved and there’s news that many terrorists are coming here soon. She wants you to move inside the Tower for protection.” The junior and senior receiving the news jolts in surprise. “W-What?! More—” Before the two could scream, the others cover their mouth. “Shh!” “The captain wants to keep this between the cadets. She doesn’t want to cause panic among the rescued citizens here.” The five of them looked over to the citizens who are sitting on the ground with
When we are waiting for the hovercraft, I confirm with the technician about the codes. This is because I know that the password is different with each floor. So I doubt that all three connectors use the same password. “Sir, are you sure these codes are also used in the other 2 floors?” I asked. “Of course. Why are you asking, son?” “It’s just, for some reason, giving the other floors the same passcodes for all three floors… It’s quite unbelievable to me.” I told him as I look at him. “I don’t feel it’s very secure.” The man smiles. “I think I know what you mean. But the Chief Executives had decided as such after simulating various incidents such as this one, and as a technician, I have to agree.” It does make sense that they prepared certain measures to protect their businesses. But that makes it even weirder that they would set the same passwords. “How so?” “The Connector crystals are essential for that region’s communication. If they are shut down, then the communication wave i
As we waited for backup to come, I split up with them and went to the chief’s house. But, I only found his frightened wife there who told me that he went to the restaurant. After I told her to stay put inside the house, I went to the restaurant.Sure enough, I found him there along with some scared and injured villagers.“Cadet!” The chief immediately came to me. “How’s the village’s condition? Do you know why is this happening?”“First things first, chief, is everyone here? I made sure nobody’s outside, but I haven’t really checked door to door. And your wife is by the house. I made sure she’s safe.” I told him.He nodded frivolously. “Ah yes, yes, thank you! Yes, everyone had gathered here after the monsters came. Your friend the blue haired guy protected me while I checked.”Huh. I didn’t think that guy would be quite nice to do that. But it’s part of being a cadet, so it’s not worth my compliment.I nodded at his report and went to check on the injured villagers. I knew I couldn’t
“Blondie! Rufus, stop!”“No, Rufus! The village is still in chaos!”I could hear Guinevere and Pierce yelling from the side.Then I could hear clothes shuffling and Rufus said. “Let go of me! He needs to be taught a lesson!!”When I looked, Pierce was holding Rufus from behind. The four-eyed didn’t say anything, but it looked like he was trying his best to stop his leader from finishing me. His face was starting to get pinkish.I’m a bit surprised to see that Pierce got balls to stop that blue maniac. But I used this chance to get up.“I swear! I did not do it! I was looking for a Bearon like you told me to! I don’t know anything about the broken fences or monsters!” I said. I tried to make it believable.Rufus stopped resisting and glared his eyes at me. “Broken fences? So you knew the fences w
Terrence and Guinevere returned to the village via the same way the monsters the entered the village. The village’s condition wasn’t that much of a difference. It was still in chaos. Although there were more upturned wagons and broken fences, along with monster carcasses.Both cadets grimaced when they saw the situation. Then the plum haired one nodded. “Yeah. Nu-uh. You obviously can’t trigger those monsters. But Rufus obviously wouldn’t listen. He BELIEVED you did it. So, you’re still in trouble.”“Dang it!” Terrence sighed heavily, pretending to be very bothered by it. “Couldn’t this day get any better?”Then they heard a scream from our right. It was high pitched and it was asking for help.“Help!! Uwaa!”A little girl emerged from the corner of a house, looking all bruised and bleeding. Behind her, a Cassory was following her closely while pecking on her dirty blue dress from behind.With her clothes being pulled, the girl lost her balance fell to the ground with a yell. The Cass
Guinevere followed the sound of gunshots and roars that led her deeper into the Southeast Forest. Her heart was beating fast with anxiety. Between getting lost and ambushed, she was also anxious that they would be punished for the chaos in the village.They were the ones who told Blondie to hunt a Bearon after all. And Guinevere had a thought that he must have aggravated the monsters in the forest somehow. She didn’t know if that’s true, but that what most likely to happen. And if it was, then it was their fault.'Is he dead?' Guinevere pouted in distress. Because if he was, it was also their fault.She started to think that testing the Blondie with Bearon hunt ‘alone’ was a bad idea. 'What if he's badly injured and he reports us to the teachers? But he's a nobody. So no one would listen to him, right? But he looks like he's close with Rean... And Rean is a star student, teachers praised him&helli
“How can monsters enter the village?!” The villagers panicked. Rufus’s group tensed. Everybody knew that monsters couldn’t get into villages because there are wards installed. The only chances they could enter are only if those wards were destroyed. Which is obviously what happened here. “The wards… They’re broken…” Pierce mumbled in disbelief. The cadets immediately left the restaurant to look at the situation. When they reached outside, Prantas and Cassories were running around, chasing the villagers and making a mess in the village. “Waaarrkk!!” The Cassories screeched as they were making chaos. “Aaahh! Help!” “Monsters!” The villagers screamed. Some of them were running into their homes, some were hiding behind a cart, or even defending themselves with whatever they could. They were trying their best not to get hurt. “Ah! Duck!” Guinevere dragged Pierce down in time as a Cassory jumped at them. “Wark—ARK!” The freakish bird was immediately slashed by Rufus and fell to t
In the end, that SE stood for South East because we ended up going to the forestry near Rowan village.I didn’t take them to be people who like cold temperature, but I think they picked this area because the monsters are less wild than the southwest.Southeast region has Bearons, bear like beast monsters, that while don’t move as fast as Direwolves in the southwest, are essentially more powerful. Added with a couple of Prantas, vine-like plant monsters that crawl on the ground and could grab someone by their feet, this area is a perfect place for training.“The target today is killing a Bearon. Then we’ll bring its head to the local hunting lodge. It’ll fetch some money for dinner.” Rufus said.I’ve always wondered how did the game reward the characters’ team money while all they do is just killing. But here, I found out that monster corpses could be exchanged for money through instances such as Hunting Lodge in the forest.But luckily for me, I didn’t have to do that because the Syst
After delivering the food, the number 7 instantly filled the quota which means there were 13 people left for me to help.There were only 5 days left before the big day, and I need to plan my strategies fast. Not to mention the teamwork I have to increase with those jerks. If I couldn’t open the map within tomorrow, I wouldn’t be able to prepare efficiently.Then I thought of Ian. He was so determined to help people and raise the society’s view of the academy. Maybe I could ask him for help.I opened the map of Orion Terrace to find the guy, but I saw his name right on my dot.“Huh?” I frowned.Then I felt a poke on my shoulder and appeared in front of me was the guy I was looking for.“Hey! You took my job!” He crossed his hands on his chest and looked a bit upset.“Sorry. I just kinda had the epiphany to help people.” I said, pretending to be nervous.“Just kinda…?” He frowned. “No one ‘just kinda’ had an epiphany to ‘help’ people.” He said.I shrugged and pointed to myself. “I did.
After that short briefing, we were dismissed. Rufus and the others went on their own way while I left to plan my own strategy.‘Ozzie. Did you catch when the event is going to happen? And can I have a map of the venue?’ I asked the System as soon as I got off the elevator.[It will happen at the end of this week. Map will be available for free when you are at the place. But you can buy it at the Shop if you are desperate.]That means I have less than a week to raise my level to at least 16, and work together with… I gulp. Rufus’s team.I never liked them back when I was still a player or now. Rufus is such a… Character. He’s a real bully and bad, and… I don’t like him. Period.Pierce is the only one tolerable. He is the one who has more sense between the three of them. But I still can’t trust him because he still has a dark side that he hasn’t shown yet.While Guinevere... Well… She’s Princess Annoying. F minus. Bleh.I whisked them away from my mind for now and opened the System’s sh
*** Mission failed! You’ve failed the mission “Get in Rean’s Team”! You may not claim the rewards! + Mission changed! Finish the mission and… *** I couldn’t bring myself to continue reading the notification as the only thing on my mind is ‘FAILED?! WHAT THE FUCK?!’ After talking to the girls, also Natalie (again), because I passed out at the banquet and I remembered I had to apologize. But thankfully, she didn’t mind at all. Although she did hear that I went to the training center, and she wanted me to spill about it. I didn’t, of course. She didn’t like it, of course. But I don’t care and she didn’t press further. Then I had a talk with Rean and Ian. Their reactions were mostly the same as the girls. Overall, they had good impression on me. So then what the hell is this? “What is wrong with him?” Guinevere asked, looking at me nervously and slight disgust. “Probably intercepting his escaping brain cells.” Rufus replied uninterestedly. The comment made the plum haired girl