Chapter 48

In a certain restaurant in the middle of Shibuya, two individuals wearing a working suit are to be seen having their lunch.

(AN: I'll be addressing these two for the whole chapter using the color of their necktie since I'm so creative.)

They just ordered their food not so long ago so their table is still empty. The waitress who took their orders also said that it might take some time before their orders get served due to the great number of queued customers.

This sounds frustrating for sure, but the current sourness in their face is not due to this very reason.

Actually, they're not in this mood seconds ago, it just turned this way quickly in the span of one quick conversation.

"... Man, there are so many people. Is this place really that great?" Said the man with the red Necktie while looking around the restaurant.

"... Yeah, their food here is really good." Said the man with the blue necktie that sits on another chair across the table.

"... Well, we'll see about that haha."

"... Yeah, you'll just see it for yourself soon. "

Both of them paused for a moment before the guy in the red necktie jolts up, looking like he just remembered something out of nowhere.

"... Anyways, when you asked me to meet up with you earlier, you seemed to have a gloomy tone in your voice. You didn't want to tell me the reason either on the phone, so..." The man with the red necktie looks at the guy with the Blue necktie with a "What about now" gesture.

"... I'm actually waiting for us to eat our food first so it won't leave a bitter taste in our mouth, but if you insist then, fine. I'll tell you now." The man in the blue necktie said with a sigh before speaking again in a more serious tone.

"Judging from your tone, you don't seem to know anything about the current situation in YGGDRASIL... Right?"

When the man in the red necktie heard this, his eyebrows contracted. Looking very confused.

"... No why? I've been busy these past few days at work. I barely have time for sleep, let alone to be in YGGDRASIL." The man in the red necktie said with a chuckle.

"... Yeah, figured that out. Actually, I too am in the same situation, but mine's lighter I guess since I still have some few vacant moments to play." The man in a blue necktie said with a knowing smile, understanding the situation of his friend."

Both of them laughed lightly after this, as they both reminisced the time when they can still play YGGDRASIL without having to worry about tomorrow, then compares it to what they've become now.

"*sigh* Anyways, what about this situation I didn't know?"

"Oh, about that... there are three things actually. What do you want to know first? The Bad news, the very Bad news, or the worst news out of the three?" The man with the blue necktie said with a teasing smile.

After hearing this, the Man in the red necktie looked at his friend with an expressionless face.

"... If they're all bad news, why make me choose? Just spit it all out goddamit."

" Well, they're all bad news indeed but, I don't know how to start you know. The three are related to each other so it's kinda complicated to explain, so pick your poison I guess."

"*sigh* Alright, whatever. Just start from the bad to worst."

"Okay, so for the Bad news..." The Blue necktie man paused for a moment before continuing with a serious tone in his voice.

"Our Guild has been attacked last night and... one of our bases has been destroyed."

After this, even though the whole restaurant is lively with its bustling crowd, complete silence overtook the two.

What the Blue necktie man said, came to the red necktie man as a shockwave that shook him to his core. It took him a few seconds to recover and finally respond.

"... Destroyed? Completely? And just last night?"

The man in the blue necktie replies with a nod.

"And this is the least bad out of the three problems? Great, can't wait to hear the rest. F*ck." The man in the red necktie said in a sarcastic tone as he rolls his eyes.

"... You know-" The Man in the red necktie was about to speak again but paused because a waitress came to their table, holding the food they ordered a minute ago.

The waitress excused herself as she served their food on the table in front of him. This only lasted for a couple of seconds before they were once again, left alone at their table.

Both of them just looked at the served meals in front of them. 1, 2, 3 seconds have passed and they're doing nothing but be in a daze. Until one of them, the red necktie man, broke the ice of silence with a sigh as he look again at his friend with an expressionless face.

"... You know what? You're right, we should have waited for the food first cause I feel less hungry now after knowing this."

"... Told you."

After that, motion has been made as they both started to eat.

"So... what Base it is?" The man in the red necktie asked as he stuffs his mouth with a boiled spinach. He didn't even look up when he asked his friend.

"... The newest one. The one that we put close to the newly found mine."

After hearing this, he now looked up with a puzzled expression.

"... How the hell did that happen? What are you guys doing while they're attacking? Watching? You know that that base is important because of the mine there."

"... We know that but-" The man in the Blue necktie tried to explain his side but the red necktie man interrupted him with a bit of a passive-aggressiveness in his tone.

"If you know then why did our Guild give up on that base that fast? And it's just last night. Unless you guys are doing nothing as I said, with the strength of our Guild, then it should be impossible to bring that base down in one sitting. We are the first ranking Guild are we not?"

"... It's not like that. We did what we could at the time of the attack. Even I whos working at that time still helped. Well, not personally cause as I said, I'm working and therefore can't log in and play, but I still helped to some degree. It's just that, we've been overwhelmed. The momentum of the attacker is just that fast that the defenders in that base, at that time, didn't manage to hold on and fell before we can even take action."

Hearing this, the man in the red necktie sighed heavily in annoyance. He kinda understood the situation but he can't help but still be pissed. He can't believe that they, the most top-ranking Guild, have been dominated that easily by someone that is below them.

"... plus, the timing of the attack is pretty well done too, since the exact time he attacked is the exact moment when the majority of our guild members are not active. It's like, he knows our ins and outs pretty well."

"... Of course, there's a snitch. It's not like that's news to us." The red necktie man said as he throws his hands in the air with a gesture of "what others could it be?"

"... Yeah, but this time, it's different."

"... Anyway, what bothers me more is that you've been mentioning this attacker as if he's only a single person. Don't tell me that we've been sieged by a Single Player?"

"..."

The man in the red necktie was expecting his friend to answer his question with the "Of course not", but the silence that he got seemed to betray his expectation.

"... You've gotta be f*cking kidding me."

"... You're right, it's just a single Player. And ironically, the identity of that Player is actually the next bad news."

The man in the red necktie puts down his chopsticks after this and gently massages his temples, looking pretty stressed. But even though he looks like this, the expression on his face seems to tell that he finally connected the dots.

"... Let me guess. It's that bastard Raizel, isn't it? I mean, he is the king of solos, so if there's a guy that's crazy enough to attack a whole guild base all by himself, and succeed, then it's gotta be him."

"Yup. It's him. And judging by your, little connection to him, then all I can say is that... The mine isn't his motive for the attack." The man in the blue necktie said mysteriously, but judging by the tone they're giving to each other, it seems that they finally have the same flow in this conversation.

"... It's me." The man in the red necktie said as if to follow up on what the blue necktie man just said.

"Yup."

"... *sigh* F*ck. He's such a headache. The three of us had an agreement already back then to not touch each other and yet, he still decided to do this? Stupid. Very stupid. He's only asking to be killed when he's already in a very sweet spot." The man in the red necktie said in annoyance as he shakes his head, looking very disappointed.

A short pause followed up as they decided to continue to eat their meal. But a few bites later, their conversation continues.

"So, what are we gonna do about it?" The blue necktie man asked.

"... What else, we fight of course. He's the one who made the first move so no one can blame me for responding back." The red necktie man responds while stuffing his mouth with meat.

"I like that choice. I thought you'll choose to just hide away from him." The blue necktie man said with a positive nod, but when the red necktie man heard this, his ears perked up.

"Are you seriously taking me for a coward all this time? F*ck you man. Why would I be scared of him? Just because he's the rank 1, doesn't mean he's invincible. True, me soloing him will be a hard fight, but him against our guild? Then that's an entirely different thing."

"... Alright alright. I agree to that, chill haha." The blue necktie man said laughingly as they both resumes their eating.

"... Anyway, does that lion bastard know this already? I'm pretty sure that once he knows about this, he'll immediately use this chance to move personally cause I heard that Raizel and he has a tilted relationship. But due to our agreement, he can only deal with Raizel backhandedly. Instead of me, Raizel should have attacked him first because now, the chance of this fight becoming a 2v1 is quite huge haha. Very poor judgment of him."

When the Blue necktie man heard the Red necktie man says this, he suddenly froze. Then slowly look up to face his friend with an indescribable expression.

"... Why do you look like that? Did I say something wrong?"

"W-Well..." The blue necktie man hesitated for a moment, but due to his friend's prying gaze, he continue speaking...

"Actually... that's what Raizel did. You're not the first one he attacked, but that Lion guy. Haha~" The Blue necktie guy said, and laugh lightly at the end, but his laugh halted and became dead as he sees that his friend's expression suddenly turned into a frown.

"Don't tell me..."

"... Y- Yeah. And funny enough, this is supposed to be the 'Worst Problem out of the three'. I just forgot to tell you since I got dragged away by the momentum of our conversation." The Blue necktie man said as he avoids his friends' gaze.

"... What!? That Lion bastard has been done in already!?" Red necktie man said with a tone of disbelief.

"Yeah."

"W- when did this happen? Why didn't I know of this!?"

"Well, it only happened very recently, like just the other day. Even I just knew this thing not so long ago."

"... Goddammit! That guy has done it now! He's f*cking crazy!" Red necktie man said as he pound lightly the table.

"... *sigh* Come to think of it, you never told me the reason why you guys made a truce to begin with. I mean, you three are supposed to be arch enemies, so it's kind of a weird thing to do. The first time you told me this, I was a bit surprised but didn't question it since I thought that it was just a plain agreement. But listening to you now, there's seems to be a bigger reason." The Blue necktie man asked

Hearing his friend's question, the Red necktie man shook his head one last time before answering in a more calm tone. Looking as if his passive aggression earlier didn't happen.

"... Not that big really. If Raizel kills both of us, he'll gain a massive boost. A boost that will cement his rank in the whole YGGDRASIL. He'll be unmatched when that time comes. That's it. But, after doing that, he'll have a status similar to that of a World Enemy. Not the status of strength, but the public status of being a Public Enemy number 1. That's why doing this is STUPID. Now that he killed that Lion bastard, he is an enemy for all Demi-Human already. He'll be unmatched once he completes his Origin quest for sure, but it's only a matter of time before he loses to a ton of players that will surely come for him after." Red necktie man said while still shaking his head, but still decided to resume his eating as he begins stuffing his mouth again with some food.

On the other hand, the blue necktie man seems to have a confused expression. Like something is not clear to him.

"... Raizel's situation right now is not that different though. Like, I heard that he's still being hunted by many Players up until now. So I don't believe that the punishment is that grave. For him at least."

The red necktie man nodded to his friend, like he was saying that he understand his take but...

"... True. But the rewards for killing him at that moment will surely tempt many more Players. The consequence of going after him is lessened too since if you are killed by him, the losses you receive after death are halved by 5 percent each time you are killed by him. Mind you that the loss prevention can go up to 95 percent. At that point, even if you are killed by him, you wouldn't worry about your losses anymore since you can probably get it back just by killing a few normal Monsters. Not to mention that the Item loss will not happen too if you are killed by him. Right now, many Players are afraid of him because they might get spammed killed like he always does, but with these conditions, that is not possible anymore. After knowing these, would you still be afraid of him?"

"Hmm... Not anymore I guess."

"... Yeah that's what I thought. When that time comes, the majority of the community will surely hunt him down. And no matter how strong he is like I said earlier, it's only a matter of time before he gets exhausted and eventually, gets killed. What he'll get in this is nothing but short live. He's only ruining his peaceful life in YGGDRASIL."

"Wait, how can you be so sure of all this stuff? Did he tell it to you?"

"No. I'm sure of it because I too have the same punishment. Albeit a little different since I'm the [ Hero ], so it's impossible for me to become an enemy in the end but yeah, I'll have a situation that is the same to his. That Lion too is also the same that's why we decided to just coexist peacefully without minding the others cause that too can work. But now, look what he's doing."

"... You will lose the [ Hero ] class once you get killed by him right?"

"... Yeah."

"Just hide from him then."

"I can't and you know that. He'll keep picking our bases down one by one until he destroys our guild. Many of our Guildmembers and friends that have no idea of all this situation will suffer from this. Plus, we all built our Guild with hard work, I can't let it be destroyed just because of me."

After the Red necktie man said that, both of them pauses again.

"Alright then, now what?" The blue necktie man asks.

"Well, we stick to my original plan, we fight. We will fight him with full force all at once. This is what he wants, we will give it to him. What happens after that..." The red necktie man stops talking for a moment before answering with an odd smile.

"... will decide whether I'll be retiring from Playing YGGDRASIL or not."

Hearing his friend's remark, the other party smirked.

"Retiring? That sounds like a big word haha."

"I'm trying to find a good reason to stop playing already anyway. If I get killed by him, almost everything will be gone. I think that's a pretty good reason to retire already."

"... And if you lived through?"

"Then... Then the addiction continues HAHAHA."

Both of them laugh loudly, making the other customers inside the restaurant glance in their direction. Causing them to cough a few more times to defuse the situation they made.

"... On the other hand, aren't you, that lion, and Raizel, the same breed? In-game I mean?"

"... Origin classes? Yeah, why?"

"So, if that's the case, why is he the strongest? Why is he that strong? I mean, you too are strong, but you can't just rally up a whole base as he did. Is his Origin class that strong compare to what you three have?"

"Umm, not really. In the percentage of our potentials, we three are technically equal. The reason why he's much stronger is that, well, he's a madman that's why. That's why we call him crazy in the first place."

To this, the blue necktie man just looked at him with a confused face.

"... Well, I mean, just like in other games, those who play more, benefit more. In my case, even back then in my prime gaming days, playing 5 times a week is already a lot. But Raizel? Bruh. I see him playing for at least 5 hours every f*cking day. I mean, who does that? What is he even? Unless he's a no life, which is unlikely given by how much money he spends inside the game, then he shouldn't be able to do that."

"... Ah, I get it now."

"Yeah. Only our potentials are equal. He and I should be able to stand toe to toe, I mean, that's how it's supposed to be, but we are simply outpaced by him by miles already. Honestly, Raizel deserves his position more right now, given by how much effort he gave into it. There's no way for us to match him in that criteria unless we quit our jobs and just play all day haha."

"Haha. He's a crazy guy indeed."

After that, they both resume eating their meal while conversing more about here and there. But this time, their topic is no longer connected with the topic they have earlier.

A few minutes have passed and they finally finished their meal.

"... Alright then. *Looks at the watch* Time really flies fast when you're having a good conversation." The man in a blue necktie said with a laugh and his friend responds with a chuckle of agreement.

"... I think I need to go already, I still left some work in the office. I just sneaks out earlier afterall just to meet you. Haha." The Man in the red necktie said as he stands up, looking ready to leave.

"Oh okay. I think I'll stay here for a bit. You know, desserts."

"... Yeah yeah. Enjoy your deserts. I'll go ahead now." The man in the red necktie said as he starts walking toward the exits.

"Yeah, just remember to go online later at night for the Guild meeting! The location is already on your chatbox!" The man in the blue necktie said as he reminded his friend.

"... Yeah, yeah. I know. No need to tell me twice." The man in the red necktie said with a smile before he walks forward and disappears through the exit door.

After that, the Blue Necktie man is finally left alone on the table.

Seconds after, a waitress came to his table.

"Will you still be ordering something?" The waitress said with a smile.

"... No I'm good, thank you." The blue necktie man immediately replies with a grateful tone.

"... Okay, just call me if you need anything more." The waitress said before leaving to serve the other customers.

After that, the Blue necktie man looks out at the window and sees his friend walking away from a faraway distance already.

But strangely enough, the smile on the blue necktie man's face while looking in his friend's direction has been replaced now with a rather, sharp gaze. A contrast to the expression he just has a few seconds ago.

*Buzz*

Suddenly, his phone vibrated. Indicating that he received a text just now.

He pulls out his phone to see who texted him, but deep inside his mind, he already knows who might be the sender of the text.

He navigated through his phone to access his inbox and there, he saw one unread text. He pressed it to read the text.

[ Unkown: Is he suspicious about the meeting spot you told him to go to? ]

After reading this, he replied immediately...

[ You: No I don't think so. ]

After that, another message came in.

[ Unkown: Alright, I'll send in the money later once the deed is done. ]

Reading this, the blue necktie man smiled.

[ You: Fair enough ]

After seeing that no message will come anymore, the blue necktie man finally stands up and tidy his crumpled clothes for a little bit.

He then looks in the direction where his friend is walking earlier and mutters under his breath.

"... I'm sorry my friend. I had to do what I need to do."

After that, he finally exits the restaurant too.

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