Brookie's Loyalty (2)

Jisha grabbed the collar of the man and pulled him close. He didn't resist.

"Well... It seems like your organization leader is after me. You won't report me to him, right?" Jisha whispered in his ear.

Brookie gulped in nervousness.

"No... I won't."

"Good."

Jisha smiled as she let him go.

"I'm Fae Sol. Good to meet you," she said as she stuck out her hand.

"Haha... Good to meet you," Brookie said as he stuck out his hand in response.

As he was about to shake her hand, Jisha materialized a Cinnamon Bun in her outstretched hand. Brookie grabbed it, surprised by the unexpected texture of what should have been a handshake.

"Agh, what..."

Brookie inadvertently grabbed the Cinnamon Bun.

"Take it. You've lost some HP, after all."

"Huh... Thanks," Brookie said as he inspected the item.

After confirming its effects, he hesitantly put it in his mouth. But after the first bite...

"Wow, this is delicious!"

He ate the whole thing in a matter of seconds.

After fattening him up, Jisha was confident that she could get information from him. So, she cut straight to the point.

"What's the name of your leader?"

"Oh... it's Stein," Brookie unhesitatingly answered.

"Do you know Yaele, Ivonna, Muyonnu and XiNalaSlave?"

"We're not close, but I know them. Did you meet them?"

"I did. How do they rank within Asunder?"

"They're pretty new to the group. They were accepted as a part of Stein wanting to expand the org for Synergy exploration."

"What's your position?"

"I'm pretty high up, actually. The highest ranking would obviously be Stein, the leader. Right below him, there's his party he always plays with. All of them are pretty strong. And right below that, in an officer position, is me and a couple of others."

"Hmm... Aren't you giving away this information a little too easily to someone who claims to be an enemy?"

"I guess so."

It was odd... If it were someone who was low on the totem pole, it would make more sense that they would divulge so much. But it didn't make sense for an officer to be this disloyal. In fact, even the four that Brookie had described as "new to Asunder" were far more loyal than what she had just witnessed.

*What's his motive?*

"Why? Are you planning to betray Asunder soon?"

"Hmm... I wasn't planning on it, but I might."

Jisha's eye twitched at this overly vague response.

"What does that even mean?"

"Haha... I'm not sure."

Jisha materialized her slingshot in her right hand so Brookie could clearly see it.

"Really?"

"Wha- Okay, okay! I'll tell you, so put that away."

"Hmmm..."

Jisha, not convinced, placed a pellet on the launch pad and stretched the slingshot to its maximum.

"I wonder how much damage this does to a player? Do you want to find out?"

"Okay, I get the point, I'll tell you, so please put that away!"

"Hmph."

Pouting, Jisha put the slingshot back in her inventory.

She wanted to test it out, but if she were to accidentally one-shot the player in front of her, she wouldn't be able to hear what else he had to say.

After taking a deep breath, Brookie began speaking.

"I... am loyal to strength."

*Oh?*

Jisha tilted her head to the side in a cute way, trying to appear as harmless as possible. Seeing this, Brookie shook his head.

"Yes, your avatar is beautiful. When you make that pose, most people would be captivated, underestimating your strength. But after what you've already shown me, it's obvious you're not ordinary."

Jisha wasn't convinced.

"Okay... You say I'm 'not ordinary', but Stein, someone you follow, shouldn't be ordinary, either. Yet you're willing to immediately betray him when you see me?"

"Haha, it's true that Stein's not ordinary. But something about you is different."

When she heard this response, a light flickered in her eyes.

*He's not bad.*

"You... Do you have extensive combat experience?"

"It looks like you can tell," Brookie said with a resigned sigh. "I've served on the front lines for the Alacai Covenant for about 15 years and recently got discharged. I've wanted to explore the world normally, but due to personal circumstances, that hasn't been possible. When I was forced to play Synergy, I thought it was just another trash VR product, but seeing what I did today... It changed my mind, to say the least."

"Okay... So do you want to fight?"

"... Definitely not."

"Hm... So what are you doing out here? Exploring with your friend?" she asked.

"Well... that wasn't the plan originally. You see..."

Brookie then explained the Covan Hamlet situation to Jisha.

"I see... So you don't have a compass, much less a map, right?"

"I suppose not."

Jisha shook her head once she heard that.

"You have to have a compass at the very least when you venture into the wild. The only valid recovery spots for you right now are starter hamlets, and once you've left, there's no way to get back if you've ventured too far. You'll just end up dying to something eventually."

"We didn't have a choice."

"You did, though. It's much more reliable to wait in your starter hamlet until Shock Collar gets bored of guarding the important places. It sucks to wait it out, but it's better than leaving altogether. After all, if those players are stuck guarding the shops, their leveling progress is delayed significantly, and that's not good for any org. It doesn't sound like they're very smart.

"It's also likely that they're using more than two people to guard these places, so it's still a net loss for them overall. If it were up to me, I'd let you buy things normally, then pretend like we're leaving. Once you think you're safe, it's easy to just ambush and kill you with the numbers advantage. That way, we'd be able to plunder your money and items, also making you lose XP."

Jisha finished her explanation to find Brookie staring at her incredulously.

"What? Have any better ideas?"

"Ah... No. I was thinking it sucks we'll have to miss out on Covan's auction, but maybe you could help us out?"

"Oh, an auction? Sounds interesting, but what makes you think I can help you out?"

"I dunno, maybe you have a couple tricks up your sleeve? Regardless, if you come along, we could both snag a couple of nice items."

Jisha looked at the Silverium she had just earned from clearing the boss and smirked.

"Well... I've definitely got some money I can spend. Where's the hamlet you came from?"

"Ah, well... It's that way. It's not far; we should be able to reach it after about 10 minutes of walking."

Brookie pointed west, deeper into the forest.

*Looks like it's kind of en route to Inkling Village, so that's perfect.*

"Oh, cool. I was headed that way anyway. By the way, take a look at this," Jisha said as she pulled the map from her inventory.

"What is this?"

"It's a map. Something you should have bought before leaving. See this?"

Jisha pointed at a green spot on the map.

"We're here. And you see this?"

She pointed at the cluster of buildings in the center of the map.

"That's where I started. If I wanted to go back, it'd be easy for me to retrace my steps."

"This... I can't repay you for this."

"You don't have to. I'm in a pretty good mood right now, so don't spoil it. By the way, you know you can just teleport back if you're still a certain distance from your spawn location?"

"... Really?"

"Yeah. But you and your friend might as well show me the way to this auction while we're at it. I guess you can think of it as paying me back for the map."

"..."

Jisha turned and headed in the direction Brookie pointed, which was hopefully where the Covan Hamlet was located.

*I doubt he'd lie to me, but there's always a chance.*

Brookie's mannerisms had seemed sincere, so she wasn't worried. Even if the information was wrong, Jisha still knew the way back to Uval.

She turned around to make sure Brookie and his friend would tag along.

*An auction, huh? Let's hope there's some good stuff there.*

With a sparkle in her eyes, Jisha skipped towards Covan.