26 Gourmet's Order
"Woah there, lady. Slow down!" A man wearing a man harness underneath his clothes was suddenly pushed aside by a rushing girl.
"Sorry!" The girl looked back and apologized to the man. However, she did not stop.
'Annie! Pull yourself together!'
She thought to herself. She panicked at the thought of missing out on the event happening in Immersion Online. The girl was rushing home from singing in a karaoke booth by herself.
'I shouldn't have gone singing today.'
She deeply regretted her decisions for the day. She received a text from her Friend K that an event happened and now she's rushing. Had she directly went home from school, she would have been able to join the event when it started.
"Excuse me!"
She reached the bus stop and inexcusably cut in line. The people that were at the bus stop prior to her grumbled and complained about her skipping the waiting. One of them was very vocal about it.
"Hey! No cutting in line! I have been waiting here for 6 months!" A man wearing a trench coat exclaimed. He was not having any of the girl's actions.
"I'm sorry! But I have to get home quickly!" The girl replied. She was scared but she stood her ground.
"Hurry home? What for?"
"I need to get home now or I am going to miss the event in Immersion Online!"
"Oh. Understandable. Have a nice day."
The man calmed down and no longer spoke. And everyone else also understood the girl's circumstances and no longer complained, they cheered her on instead.
"Good luck!"
"Yea!"
"You better get home quickly!"
Everyone became enthusiastic and gave the girl some moral support. The girl looked back and bowed to them.
"Thank you, everyone. Thank you so much!"
After the girl said that, a bus came just in time to grab some passengers. When the door opened, the bus driver was smiling towards the girl and motioned for her to get on the bus.
"Let's go!" The bus driver yelped.
The girl quickly got on the bus and sat down. The bus door closed and soon took off.
"Hey. What just happened?" The man wearing a trenchcoat asked. He was still standing, waiting in line for the next bus.
"I'm not sure." A woman answered. She was supposedly the first one on the waiting passengers. The door closed before she was able to get on.
-
"You doing alright there, buddy?" E carefully said to Bob.
He was worried that Bob may have a bit of craziness running in his head. But before Bob could reply to E's query, a prompt blocked their vision.
*Party Member Annera is now online.
The missing party member finally connected to the game. Annera was offline since earlier and that is for good reason, she was singing alone in a karaoke booth.
[Annera: Hey guys! Where are you?!"]
The party chat prompt showed itself and Annera's voice could be heard from within it. She was clueless about the whereabouts of the party so she just asked.
There was only one reason why Annera had to ask. Immersion Online removed the minimap feature which was available in the closed beta testing. 'It would kill the immersion.' Or so they say.
"Annera! We are just outside the pub!" E replied in a loud voice.
The pub that E was referring to was right beside the smithy. So with his voice being loud enough, Annera should be able to hear him from within. And sure enough, the door opened.
"Hey! Did I miss it?!"
Annera asked in a loud voice. She knew the people she was talking to anyways so she did not care about formality.
"Keep your voice down. There are monsters about." Enma warned.
At his precaution, Annera calmed down and took a look around. She saw that the city she was in was no longer the same. Destruction was evident everywhere within the burning city.
"Okay. But who is that?" Annera whispered.
She used her right hand to point towards Bob—who was in a kneeling position—and looked at everyone. Annera did not know Bob and did not have the opportunity to look at the party list.
Bob cocked his head at her question. Same as Annera, Bob does not know the girl before him so he was confused as to why the girl was pointing towards him.
"My name is Bob?" Bob said his name like he was asking a question.
Annera heard Bob clearly. She nodded her head at Bob's answer and looked at E. E nodded at her. After E nodded at her, Bob nodded at E. They kept on nodding at each other, help! I ran out of ideas. (AN: Nah. I'm just busy with real-life stuff.)
"He's a new party member. Most probably a berserker, hence the blood and madness." E stated.
It was at that moment that Annera took the liberty to check the party list.
'Yep. He's in the party. Why did E even invite this weirdo?'
The way she saw Bob, with all the blood and guts on him, the seared clothing, the dead fish eyes. All of that made her feel that the man before her was not a normal person.
'Still. Why does he look like he's in so much pain?'
Annera was right on the mark. Bob's eyes indicated that he was not comfortable with how things were. It was infinitely different from the usual player who got injured.
'Thinking of pain, how much HP does this guy have left?'
She did not notice it earlier because there was no HP bar to be seen, and that's exactly why it was a problem.
'There's no HP bar? Wait. There is! It's just very low.'
After realizing that, she moved closer to Bob and motioned with her hands to warn Bob. When she reached Bob—who was still confused as to what was happening—and tried casting her healing spells.
But before she could do that.
HONK~~~~~~~~~~
A horn suddenly sang the song of its people. It was loud enough to catch the attention of everyone from within the city.
HONK~~~~~~~~~~
"Oh? Those fuckwads finally decided to show themselves." Minion said with an irritated tone.
"Who?" E asked Minion. Minion's statement implied that he knew what was coming.
"It's the Gourmet's Order of Paladins. It's the acting religious order within the Kingdom of Doof."
"Ah. I see. But what the hell is up with that naming sense?"
"I don't know much but if you take the kingdom's name, which is 'Doof', then put it in reverse, you get 'Food'."
Everyone was silent. This realization made things clear. The names of the places and some of the monsters being food-related was because of the kingdom's religion and history.
BONK~~~~~~
The horn's sound continued ringing. And when it ended-
DUG DUG DUG~
Sound of marching could be heard. The source of the sound was coming from the church proper. Knights wearing clean uniforms with weapons that look as shiny as my friend's forehead.
"Let's purify these dogs. Then hold a festival right after."
A leading figure said. The leader was wearing a different set of clothing. She had better garb with ornaments that resembled foodstuff, armed with a sword that looked more like a knife.
People were cheering the order of knights. They were happy that this discord will finally be resolved and everything would return to normal.
However, the players did not like that the Gourmet's Order started moving.
"Damn. Our loot is going to dwindle."
"Sadly. Hey! Yu Lin! How about we grab some tea after this?"
"Yea. This is going to end quickly."
Although the players were complaining, they felt relieved. They did not like the fact that their in-game lives were in danger so having a strong backup was just what they needed.
"Hey, E!" Minion whispered to Blight's ears.
"Hmm?" Blight replied in a hushed tone.
"I wonder what will happen if we shoot that woman's knee with an arrow?"
"...."
"Do you think, she will say 'I used to be an adventurer like you'?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
The marching Gourmet's Order of Knights suddenly dispersed from their group, forming smaller groups of 3 and fighting each werewolf with numbers.
An onlooker commented on this tactic.
"That's dirty!"
"Yea! It's just plain bullying the werewolves."
"Shut it! These vermin have defiled these beautiful Donut Houses. I shall not stand still as they continue destroying this tasty place and its people."
The leading woman scowled. She did not like that the people were siding with the werewolves.
"And what's more! Winning is what's important!" She continued.
They continued their bantering. In the end, the leading woman wasted time dealing with the people while her subordinates carried on with killing the werewolves.
And however silly those events may be, one certain person did not care for it at all. Annera was looking at her palm, she was about to heal Bob but she was hesitating.
'Should I heal him?'
As a healer, it was within her nature to heal those that are injured. But she was deliberating this time because she was scared of Bob's eyes.
'Yes. He needs healing.'
So she aimed her palm towards Bob once more. A warm and comfortable light suddenly wrapped around Bob and healed him.
Bob was confused because of the light. His madness made him cautious against it but after a few seconds, he felt bliss. He could not do anything aside from staring blankly at Annera.
After the healing spell ended, Annera withdrew her hand and sighed.
"Are you an angel?"
Bob exclaimed as he held Annera's hand.
