56 --- Followers and World Boss Appearance

*Shing!* -1,776,000 *Thud*

[You killed Gregg, The Bandit Chief(B) Lvl.65!]

[You obtained 50,000 Exp, 500 Fame, 633 Gold Coins, 292 Platinum Coins, 47 Spirit Stones, Steel Armor Set(C), Skillbook x7, Cutthroat(B), Holiday Giftbox.]

*Huff!* *Huff!* *Huff!*

'That guy was so strong! I can't believe my full berserk mode was activated just by fighting him. If this were real life, I would have died a hundred times over already.'

"Phew! Although I improved a lot, it was not even close against these bandits... Seriously, if this guy were to become a combat instructor in Gilona, he would become a world-famous teacher..."

It has been a week since Chris started traveling south. He has already covered nearly a quarter of the way and will take at least 30 more days to reach his destination.

Even with his incredible movement speed, it's not that easy to cover hundreds of thousands of kilometers at all. He also makes a stop over in any villages, towns, or other notable places he sees with save points to make one. And sometimes, do a quest that ranges from epic and above rank for those places, like what he is doing right now.

He's currently inside a cave-like hideout to clear out all the bandits that were terrorizing the nearby town and save the kidnapped women, if there are any.

[Cutthroat (B)^Lvl.65^: Dagger. +10,400 PAtk., 50% Crit. Add skill Cutthroat.] (Hidden Omitted).

[Cutthroat(Passive): Invisibility type skills will last 50% longer. All sneak attacks will instead deal 1,000% damage. All targets killed will also drop twice the loots.]

"What an incredible skill! It would be nice if one of my pieces of equipment had that..."

*Sigh*

"I guess I'll save it for now. Who knows, there might be a way to extract that ability."

After admiring the dagger and taking a few minutes of rest, he began to loot the hideout and look for the kidnapped female NPCs that he saw on his UI map afterwards. He started by opening the huge chest in the room.

*Creaaak!*

[You obtained 5,750,000 Gold Coins, 841 Spirit Stones, 1,290 Empty Books, Gems(Elemental) x837, Gems(Upgrade) x81.....]

"Heeeh... these scumbags are quite rich! They even have empty books."

After completely looting the room, he left it and approached the hidden room at the end of the hallway, which was indicated on his UI map. Although it was laced with contraptions, he made short work of it using his legendary ranked dismantling skill.

*Creaaak!*

"Ooof! The smell of piss is pretty strong here!"

Upon opening the door, what greeted him was a heavy smell of urine. Although he was used to this kind of smell, this one was the most overpowering he had ever smelled so far.

He continued to move towards the green human blips on his UI map. And after a little bit of walking and trap dismantling, he finally reached the place where the kidnapped females should be.

His face darkened after seeing dozens of naked women with pale complexions scattered across the room. Most of them were tied up on wooden poles, and their bodies were littered with slime-like liquids as if someone had just bathed them in it. Some are in cages that can barely fit a human.

[Sheena the Village Girl(F) Lvl.10], [Ellia the Village Girl(F) Lvl.12], [Martha the Adventurer(C) Lvl. 45], [Adeline the Priestess(D) Lvl. 25], [Maria the Huntress(C) Lvl. 20], [Sally the Merchant(F) Lvl.15], .....

'Damn! Seeing this kind of scene in person is more gut-wrenching than reading the posts made by players in the forums who raided some bandit, goblin, or orc camps...'

His blood was currently boiling upon seeing the scene in front of him, and even his bloodlust was oozing out of his body. Even the female NPCs were startled upon feeling his aura of hate.

"""!!!"""

"N-no more please..."

"Ughhh..."

'Oh crap!'

He snapped out of his sudden daze and tried to control his raging blood. Even though it was just a game, he could really feel their suffering, all thanks to his new weird ability that allows him to see a person's inner self. And it even works on NPCs.

"S-sorry girls, I'm here to rescue you..."

He quickly took out some clothes from his inventory and threw them to the bare-naked girls. He has so much unrecycled junk in his inventory that he doesn't think it will be useful at some point. Afterwards, he proceeded to untie the bindings of the girls and destroy the cages' locks.

A few minutes later, Chris and dozens of women can be seen coming out of the cave. The girls' skin finally has a fair complexion, all thanks to his one and only healing skill.

He also gave them weapons and equipment, since he had lots anyway. He didn't notice that some of them had hearts in their eyes while looking at his wide back.

With the girls in tow, he is on his way to town to complete his quest.

*******

In just a week, his guild rapidly grew and now has more than 15 million members, nearly all of whom are residents of Glaze City.

So far, no one has had trouble with his guild, as the current ongoing event is somewhat more important and no one has seen his name appear on the medal count ranking, so they were more enthusiastic.

Little did they know that Chris hasn't opened his gift boxes yet, which have reached nearly ten million. Had they known, they might have started making trouble with his guild already.

Chris didn't just keep on running towards the south after all, as every time his memory stone cools down, he will teleport to the labyrinth and unleash his heavenly spells there. After killing the boss on that place, the monster count tripled and spawned fast, making it ideal for grinding and farming items.

Meanwhile, in the real world, Glaze City has also dramatically improved. After capturing the scumbags that were eyeing the Heavenly Store day and night, all of the non-player citizens of Glaze City started buying their consoles to start playing Gaia.

Those who couldn't afford one were sponsored by Chris, especially the slum people who barely had enough to feed themselves. Although it cost him a lot, it didn't even make a dent in his pocket.

His mansion was also nearly halfway done. Some of the builders were actually players who have nearly similar classes in Gaia, so making a mansion was a breeze. The most troubling thing for him, though, was the Grantz sisters' desire to move into the mansion once it's built.

He didn't know why, and the sisters threatened to not cook for him anymore; even his brothers were alarmed at this and pressured him, so he had no choice but to agree. Such divine foods can't be passed up after all. And his future mansion is too much for him anyway, so he didn't mind.

Even some of his female friends, like Amanda, Akira, and the Triplets, who had a crush on him, were already brewing a plan on how to move into his mansion without making it obvious. If he were to actually know of this, he would be in panic, as a certain silver-haired princess would definitely cut him into pieces if she were to know of this. 

As for capturing the scums that are constantly eyeing the heavenly store, it's to keep them and force them to constantly make a false report that nothing is new in Glaze City.

The city is not yet ready after all, so there's no need for unnecessary trouble. He didn't know why the mayor didn't do that from the beginning, but he didn't ask as the mayor probably has his reasons. 

*******

[Congratulations, you completed the quest, Destroying the Bandits(A)!]

[You obtained 500k Exp, 5k Fame, 25k Gold Coins, 12 Female Followers(A-SS).]

'Errr... what now?'

Chris, upon reaching the town, immediately reported the quest's completion to the town leader. He didn't mind the low rewards as per normal player standards; it was quite generous, and he already got lots of things from the bandit's hideout, so he was satisfied with it.

The only thing that made his brows raise was the final reward. His play style was that of a lone wolf thanks to his insane attributes, so having a follower that was not on his level would just be excess baggage. And they're all female.

*Thud!* x12

The girls, who were supposed to be his followers as quest rewards, suddenly fell to their knees in front of him. The one in the lead was the first to speak.

"My Lord, thanks to you, our lives were spared from that hell. As a sign of our gratitude, please let us dedicate our lives to you until the end of time!"

"..."

'Aren't you girls too extreme?'

He was speechless, and his mouth was twitching nonstop. He couldn't fathom what was going on anymore or how to deal with this kind of situation.

[Carol(SS)^ Lvl.1 BattleMage(B) 1/1]

'Wasn't she the highest level among them? She became level 1...'

'This follower system seems similar to a pet system and hasn't been implemented yet. And here, two systems were already working for me...'

The woman in front of him was a tall, voluptuous woman. Her long, black, flowing hair reaches her waist. Her face was so mesmerizing that any man would be dazed after seeing it. She also had a stoic-like way of speaking, which actually makes her more enticing.

'It seems that she managed to keep her chastity inside that hideout thanks to that timed self-destruction spell she attached to her and her group. But it will actually expire in about a day or so. Guess I made it on time?'

"Ermmm... girls, you don't have to dedicate anything and just go on with your-"

"""!!!"""

"..."

Just as he was about to decline them, the women suddenly had tears in their eyes, which were about to fall. They were making an abandoned puppy-like expression, which made his mouth twitch once again.

'Oi, oi! What's with that expression? You're not little kids, you know?'

In the end, he gave up as the townspeople were also looking at him weirdly, which pressured him.

"Haaah... alright! So, how do we do this?"

"Hehehe! Thank you, My Lord. Just please drop a bit of your blood on our chest..."

The voluptuous black-haired woman giggled in happiness afterwards, as if the previous expression she made were just an act. It was similar to the rest of the girls. She then proceeded to shamelessly give an instruction to him while acting shyly, which shouldn't be possible but she did it perfectly.

"C-chest? Does it not work if dropped on the other part?"

"This, yes, My Lord. It also works..."

'What the hell, woman? Are you a pervert or something? You didn't let yourself be intentionally captured by bandits, right?'

Chris was flustered upon hearing it and asked if there was another way. The woman answered honestly, with disappointment in her eyes. She cannot lie to her master after all. Chris, who saw her disappointed expression, almost cursed loudly, but he did it in his mind instead.

His mouth never stopped twitching at this point. He didn't know if saving this woman was actually necessary. In the end, he dripped a bit of his blood on their foreheads, much to the disappointment of the girls. They suddenly turned into motes of light and then entered his body.

"Huh?"

[Notice: Due to the intensity of the contract(Life and Death), your followers, Carol(SS), Diana(S), Sylvie(S), Margarette(S), and 8 more(A), was automatically moved to your inner dimension, Everglade(S)!]

"Oh! That's right, I got that one too! I clearly forgot about that..."

He was relieved that he doesn't need to be with them all the time and can just carry them with him. He was planning to send them to a safer place and let them level up on their own. With their incredible potential, they'll be one of his powerful trump cards.

'Well, I'll let them stay there for now, as they should still be tired, and I'll level them up a month later, along with my pet once it has hatched. I'll also visit that inner dimension later, when I have time...'

Bidding his goodbyes to the townspeople, he continued his travels towards his destination.

A few hours later, he stopped and looked at the sky as a loud ring resounded.

[DING!]

[World Announcement: The number of dropped Holiday Giftboxes has finally reached the threshold to call upon the Gift of all Gifts! Each one of its phantoms will spawn near each of the major human empires. Killing just one phantom will ultimately kill it and allow you to receive its godly gifts!]

"Oh? Guess I have to check it out and see its stats tomorrow... There should be damage rankings as well."

The event's world boss has finally appeared, and everyone, including him, was excited to see it. Although it was a god-ranked world boss, he was confident in himself now that he has lots of survival skills to escape when that monster goes on a rampage.