Familar Face (2)

Jason Mao watched the foursome depart, his eyes gleaming with cold fury, which he concealed from the others. Unfortunately, not all of his followers were discreet.

"Jace, why did you let them leave?" One of the girls behind Jason Mao cried. She was visibly fuming.

Although she was not particularly beautiful, she was attractive with a curvy figure that entranced a few of the hormonal youths in her group.

"She stole our prey so blatantly," the curvy girl continued fury in her voice, "and refuse to your face so arrogantly. I thought you don't accept those behaviours."

Jason Mao was still in his contemplation, as if pondering over his choices. One of the youths of his company chose to calm the curvy woman.

"Come on, Dinna, didn't you recognise them?" The boy was barely sixteen or seventeen years of age, barely growing his facial hair. "You already saw how crazy that girl was in the fight. There's nothing to say about Kingmaker, whereas Ulysses? A straight-up legend."

Dinna simply snorted. "He might have been a legend, but he looked nothing in view," she said. "Didn't you see his figure? As for Kingmaker, he has no chance in this game."

"What are you talking about?" The teen couldn't believe his ears.

"Kid," Dinna scoffed, "you still haven't figured out what this game is all about. This game isn't for those rich pricks to buy their way to victory. Apotheosis is for every one of us. We are fighters, we earned our chance, unlike them. How can we cower before them?"

The teen exchanged confused glances at others in their group.

"Well, Dinna does have a point," Jason Mao said.

"Then why did you let them go?" Dinna demanded, getting her chance. "With our numbers, we can easily bash them. I didn't take you for a fool to miss a chance like this, and now they'll be cautious of us."

Jason Mao raised his head and looked at the girl, his eyes boring a cold stare. The tattoos on his neck were visible, but what caught most people's attention was the flower pulsing with a red glow. The new addition was clearly from the game, while the rest were reminders of his youthful endeavours.

"Dinna," Jason warned, "check your tone when you're speaking to me. I won't warn you a second time."

Dinna looked at Jason Mao, gritting her teeth before looking down. "I apologise."

With that, all the other fellows of the group became more subservient. Jason Mao was a better leader than Ulysses made it out to be, and he knew it.

"Although Dinna spoke out of favour, what she said has some point," Jason Mao spoke, addressing all twelve of his crew. "No matter how reckless and foolhardy it sounds."

"Then, why did you let them go so easily?" She asked, more docile than before.

Jason Mao glanced back at the buxom lady. "Did I?"

***

"Are you alright?" Rin asked Elise on the way back to the farmhouse.

"I don't think so," Elise said, her face looking sick and starved. "I just bathed after logging back a couple of hours ago, and I'm filthy again."

"At least you aren't vomiting now," Luke joined the conversation.

"That's probably because I puked out everything I ate in the game."

"Huh, that seems about right." Luke smiled. "Anyway, we thought you aren't coming back to the game anymore."

"Ironically, I have the same thought in mind for the entire day after I experienced the most disgusting day of my life in that dungeon," Elise said, her voice sombre. "Yet here I am."

Rin cracked out in laughter. "What changed your mind?"

Elise had no straight answer to that question as she was still searching for the answer herself.

"I guess I'm a little more fascinated by the world than disgusted," Elise said. A weird smile perked up her lips. "Moreover, I feel I can use games for practical study."

"What kind of study?"

"I'm a medical student," Elise said with a joyless laugh. "I reckon people would get injured pretty frequently with how the game is going, I feel like I can complete a lot of my practical study here."

"Then what's stopping you?" Ulysses said, jumping onto Luke's back. "Treat this fellow, he still bore too many unrecovered cuts."

Luke was about to disagree, but remembering he barely managed to stitch and bandage his would with the first aid kit, he wasn't that eager to dismiss Elise's treatment as an option.

"Can I check on your wound?" Elise asked.

"I guess there's no harm in it, sure." Luke rubbed his left waist, still feeling the pain. "Also, care you tell what occurred with those lots of players?"

"What to tell," Elise complained, her expression hardening, "that guy simply is a jerk."

Still, Elise recounted the events that unfolded between her and that group of players while fighting the wolves together. When Elise encountered them, they were already in the middle of a battle with the wolves.

Elise had no intention of joining the fray, considering she just washed up after logging in, but that changed when another pack of wolves joined the fray. Eventually, she had to fight, and that too, quite brutally, as wolves were the hardest creatures she faced in the game.

After that was done, the opposing group accosted her, not letting her loot after the wolves she had defeated.

Not unless she joined their ranks.

Well, Jason Mao worded that pretty flowery, but his intention couldn't be hidden from even a late teen like her.

"And that was when you two appeared," Elise ended her recounts.

"That sounds just about right to my ears," Ulysses laughed. "I wondered how he managed to get his crew together so early in the game."

"Who are they?" Elise inquired, curious. She could guess them being pro players, but she didn't recognise them at all.

"Jason and we go back to old days," Luke came up with a curt response. "In our qualifying ears, Rin was single-handedly responsible for relegating them to the third division."

"Please, they are simply unskilled for the top league," Rin scoffed. "I just showed them that early in their carrier, for all the good it did them."

"Apparently, it did some good. Although he never managed to advance to the Avalon League after that, he did manage to sit comfortably in second division from what I know."

__________

A heads-up:

The chapters will be locked on Monday/Tuesday, from chapter 52/53. You know what that entails:

You have to use coin/fastpass to read them. But that wasn't all. The book update will be more regular, and it will give me a chance to continue pouring my time into it.