6 Ch. 6
Previously in ch.4
Yoongi's POV
My conscience left me with the feeling of guilt, my head was ringing with countless warnings and anonymous signs. After I took my anger out on her, I regretted the very second I lashed out on her.
I shouldn't have yelled at Y/n like that.
Even when she spoke her mind, I didn't dare to fight back because I knew I was being a total dipshit.
The rest of the boys including me grabbed our weapons. Jimin-ssi went bare handed as usual, Namjoon got his shield and sword as I could see Taehyung was a little lax in the situation we're in.
Hoseok got his gun and loaded his ammunition. Out of everyone of us here, I can guarantee he's the strongest and the most modern unique class there is, a mechanic.
Hyung was already connecting his magic circles to summon his contracted familiar but that's when Jin hyung asked her.
"What about you Y/n?" We all looked at her.
Her hands were tucked in her pockets, she was too overconfident in her abilities.
"Me? Since there will be an army coming, I guess I'll summon some hellhounds?" Her voice was faint, I could not really comprehend all of them but briefly understood some.
What's is she talking about.
I think I should try and protect her as much as I can, till my last breath. That's the least I can do for rambling my mouth.
But all of the sudden, the ground shook.
Then, she chanted a language that all of us could not comprehend.
"W-What is happening??" Hoseok suddenly said as he trembled at the sight of the gate opening.
That's when I saw.. no, something I couldn't even think of doing, happened in that mere second.
My hearing was blocked as the boys were panicking in the distant background. But it was briefly quiet in my mind.
It was blank.
And that was when I knew, I may be too much of an idiot to not notice.
"To hell with me and my useless mouth."
End of Yoongi's POV.
Back to the story [ch.6] Y/n's POV
"Yah! I said hand over the food or you'll face the wrath of the silver skull group!"
"Pfft--" I choked on my own saliva.
"The silver skull group, you say." I tried to contain my laughter but ended up snorting instead. "What a... unique name."
"You dare make fun of our silver skull group?!?" They raised their weapons as they aimed their swords at me. "Our leader is ranked 50 in Korea's player rankings!"
I broke out a sardonic laughter and abruptly stopped as my eyes glowered. "What an old-fashioned way of threatening someone."
I grabbed the tip of the sword with my bare hand and aimed it by my neck. "If you want to threaten someone, you ought to do it properly."
Blood oozed from my palm but I did not flinch and maintained eye contact. The grip on his sword tightened as he was trembling. "Y-Yah, w-what are you doing??"
"If you're already trembling from this much, you can't even go through the lengths of being the leader of a group." I let go of the sword and unconsciously healed my palm.
"If you can't do something as simple as that, don't go around flaunting your group's name. It's embarrassing."
"H-Hah! A healer?" He scoffed in disbelief. "Stop talking shit about us if you're just a mere healer!"
"What would a healer know about k-killing people huh?!?"
"A lot," I mockingly laughed. "At least more than you, that is."
"Seeing you stutter just by saying the word 'killing' proves everything."
"I'm in a good mood right now, so you lot should scatter before I really decide to kill you." I continued munching the meat, not batting an eye towards them.
"Y-YAH--"
"Now that's not nice of you guys to interrupt their meal." A bulky male westerner with blond locks of hair with overwhelming height, came and grabbed onto the leader's shoulder as he spoke in English.
「 Host is using private system chat with 'Jojo' ★. 」
★Y/n : "Oh? Who's this?"
★Jojo : ["Johannes. He specializes in close quarter combat."]
★Y/n : "I can see that."
★Jojo : ["What, you fancy him? You're gonna offer to be his sponsor or something?"]
★Jojo : ["Too bad, he's been refusing every offer he was given."]
★Y/n : "I didn't say I wanted to sponsor him, I just find him quite amusing."
★Y/n : "He's around 34? 35?"
★Jojo : ["38. He's originally from a place called Kansas."]
★Y/n : "Kansas? Back when I was a teen, I've always wanted to visit there just once."
★Jojo : ["It's not like you can't, you can go anywhere with the power you have now."]
★Y/n : "It's not like I don't want to, it's because I can no longer do so in the condition of today's world."
★Y/n : "That's because of SOMEONE, the world ended up being the home of monsters and magical beasts from the abyss."
★Jojo : ["...Point taken."]
"What's this-- A foreigner?" He abruptly shook the foreigner's hand off from his shoulders. "Mind your own business!"
Then he mocked him in bad spoken English. "Mindeu your own businesseu!"
I unconsciously face palmed.
The foreigner's build was flawless, his height was practically towering everyone around him. He then spoke in fluent Korean, "would you have stopped bothering them if I'd mind my own business?"
"W-What the, he could speak hangul??" He scoffed. "Yah. Mind your own business, chump. I don't wanna deal with troublesome foreigners. You all just brag about being the best, rotten bastards."
The foreigner spoke. "I recommend you to back off before it's too late."
The guy scoffed once again. "What? Don't tell me you're gonna pick a fight with me?"
Then, one of his minions kept on nudging their leader's back.
"WHAT WHAT WHAT??"
I interrupted him instead. "Yah, ahjussi."
[ Yah : means "hey!" ]
[ Ahjussi : means 'middle-aged man'. ]
"Can you just stop this nonsense? I'm not really patient and this is really bothersome." I said as I continued to munch my meat once again. "Can't you just leave?"
"YAH--"
Then, the foreigner grabbed the guy's wrist as he was about to hit me.
"Why are you bullying this lady for? You're a grown man for god's sake." The foreigner spoke and tightened his grip as the man struggled in his grasps, "you should thank me for saving your sorry ass before things get ugly."
"I don't want any unnecessary conflict."
"I'm saying this for your own good," he released his grip. "Or you'll be killed by the likes of this lady here and not me even if it's almost a tad late."
Oh, he's quite sharp.
The man fell to the ground from the impact, intimidated by the foreigner's build from his point of view.
"B-Boss!"
I then placed my bowl aside and mumbled. "Oh please, stop exaggerating. You're acting as if he died."
"By the way, you look exactly like someone I know and very much loathed." I paused and thought for a while. "Ah! I knew you looked way too familiar. You're that bastard of a loan shark that bothered me for years."
"W-What?"
"You might not remember my face now, because you can't possibly remember one of your many victims." I abruptly paused. "Isn't that right, ahjussi."
He was confused and thought for a while.
"Loan shark?" The foreigner frowned as he stepped forward.
Then one of them spoke, "i-isn't that Johannes?"
They mumbled, "w-what? THE Johannes?! O-One of the top ranked players in Korea right now???"
"Shhh! He'll hear us!!"
"Just you wait!" The men that surrounded us ran towards a direction.
The boys had their gleaming eyes pointed at me, I tried to avoid their gaze and drove my attention to Johannes.
"Sorry for the late introduction, I'm Johannes by the way." He shot me a warm smile. "I hope you don't mind my intrusion, it was rather rude of me."
"Ah no, it's fine." I chuckled, "you gave me one less problem to handle."
"Then it's my pleasure," Johannes curved up a smile. "I'll be on my way--"
"If you don't mind, you may join us if you want." I chuckled.
"R-Really? I don't want to interrupt you guys though.." He scratched the back of his neck as he nervously laughed.
"It's fine, the more the merrier." I curved up a smile. "You're more than welcomed anytime, Johannes."
"T-Then thank you, Miss.."
"Y/n, you can call me Y/n."
"Miss Y/n." He chuckled.
I got another bowl from my inventory and filled it up with the warm stew. "Here, you should have some too."
"I-Is it really okay to take some from you guys?"
"I've told you that it's okay, you can join us anytime." I chuckled, "we have more than enough."
Johannes drank some of it by the bowl, he stopped and spoke. "It's been awhile since I had warm authentic kimchi jjigae."
"It's delicious." He smiled.
"I'm glad it suits your taste," I chuckled. "I was worried since some might not have liked Korean cuisine."
"A-Ah no no, I enjoy Korean culture as if it is my very own!" He stuttered from the misunderstanding.
I chuckled at his sudden panicking, "Is that so?"
"Noona! You still haven't told us how you were so strong!" Jungkook said gleaming with full of energy and curiosity.
I chuckled at his behavior, "it seems that I haven't."
"Are you sponsored by a powerful constellation?" Hoseok asked, full of peculiarity in his question as the rest looked at me with eyes filled with aspiration, including Johannes.
「 The phantom ghost and the other constellations are also curious. 」
「 The phantom ghost is listening to the conversation, brimming with curiosity. 」
「 Jester is eavesdropping. 」
"No, I'm not."
"Huhh?? Really? Then the power you possess are all yours to begin with?" They said as they were in awe.
"Uhm.. excuse me if I'm interrupting, but why is your name not on the player ranking? You're clearly qualified enough." Johannes asked.
"That's peculiar of you to say," I chuckled. "You haven't seen me in action yet."
"That's true, but my guts are saying that you're powerful enough to be in the top 10 rankings." He chuckled. "And my guts were never once proven wrong."
"That's awfully kind of you to say, Johannes. But the thing is, I don't even know how to register myself into the rankings."
"Didn't your teammates teach you how?"
Namjoon then spoke, "we don't know how either, we just got ranked without even registering."
"Thankfully, I can teach you." He chuckled. "I'm a foreigner so I had to register myself since I'm not originally from Korea."
He then looked at me and spoke. "Are you not from Korea?"
"No, I am. I've been staying somewhere far from Korea before this, so maybe my situation is a little unique."
"Okay then, just open your system window and tap onto the search button. Then, search for 'player ranking'."
"From there, it will show you the rankings in the globe. A notification will pop up for you to register. Did you get it?"
"Yeah I got it," I smiled.
「 Would you like to register into the player rankings? 」
[ Yes. ]
Then a notification window popped up in front of everyone.
「 Player rankings updating! 」
"This is the first time the system is making an announcement for an update in rankings!" Johannes said, astonished.
「 Player ranking(s) updated! 」
[ Player ranking #Korea server ]
No. # | Name | Power ranking
No. 1 | Y/N | 84,912,653
No. 2 | Kim Jong-il | 5139
No. 3 | Kang Hee-chul | 5128
No. 4 | Victor Steward | 5017
No. 5 | Ahn Jiwon | 5003
No. 6 | Choi Jae-hyun | 4998
No. 7 | Park Sun-mi | 4612
No. 8 | Lee Seokhyun | 4527
No. 9 | Park Hee-sung | 4029
No. 10 | Johannes T.Thomas | 3749
.
.
.
[ Player ranking #Global ranks ]
No. # | Name | Origin | Power ranking
No. 1 | Y/N | Korea | 84,912,653
No. 2 | Liam Werner | USA | 6645
No. 3 | Naomi Ichigo | Japan | 6597
No. 4 | Thomas J. Baxter | US | 6542
No. 5 | Liu Zhigang | China | 6487
No. 6 | Mason Lee | UK | 6466
No. 7 | Benjamin Haul | UK | 6379
No. 8 | Christopher Henry | UK | 6325
No. 9 | Andre Orland | Spain | 6269
No. 10 | Hannah Rosabel | Canada | 6254
.
.
.
「 Host have registered into the player rankings. 」
「 Obtained 20[+200] coins. 」
"Jesus!" Johannes's mouth went ajar. "That's incredible-- Wait, 84 million power ranking???"
"Woah! Noona went up the rankings!!"
"It seems that I did… gain more unwanted attention." I said as I heaved a sigh.
「 All players have registered into the player rankings. 」
「 Initiating sub-scenario in #Korea server. 」
-
[ Sub-Scenario #1 – Winner takes all! ]
Category: Sub-scenario-player x player competition!
Difficulty: ?
Clear Conditions: All players are to participate regardless of class. Compete with other players and defeat the remaining opponents.
Time duration: None
Reward(s): 1st place = 100 coins, +1 in every stat, C rank skill & item.
Failure: --
-
「 Competition will begin shortly after 2 days. 」
「 Please make preparations travelling to the Arena located in Seoul, Jamsil. 」
"What? A competition?" Hoseok looked surprised. "Between players?"
"I guess so." I wavered as I clicked my tongue.
"The other countries are doing the same too, it's a competition within their own territories." Taehyung said, "It's flooding the chats."
"Players around the globe are in the live chat, it's like social media but within the system to share new information on ways to subjugate types of monsters. Some use it to share the events happening on their side." Namjoon said as he stepped forward, like he knew I was going to ask.
"That's useful," I chuckled.
"I guess we have to take part in the competition huh." I sighed.
「 Private system chat with 'Jojo' ★. 」
★Jojo : ["You're participating?"]
★Y/n : "It's a must for everyone to participate, so.."
★Jojo : ["I mean, I can exclude you from the list so that you don't have to participate trivial competitions like this. Plus, I'm assuming that you want to keep your identity hidden in the mean time."]
★Y/n : "Won't that be breaking the rules?"
★Jojo : ["They won't question a guide's authority."]
★Y/n : "Well that's partially true, if you had more authority, that is."
★Jojo : ["What?"]
★Y/n : "Anyhow, wouldn't the other constellations question about my absence? Since they've been eyeing me for awhile, and some would've noticed if I didn't participate."
★Jojo : ["That's true."]
★Y/n : "Even if I participated, I don't want to attract unwanted attention. Plus I'm not interested in the prize."
★Jojo : ["Whatever, just come to a decision in the meantime. I would also be attending, as a representative of our district, of course."]
★Y/n : "The competition will be held at the arena in Jamsil? The world turned out to be like this, but the stadium is still doing fine?"
★Jojo : ["It was preserved since we need a proper place for future competitions, so the GM decided to preserve the one in Jamsil and made minor adjustments."]
★Y/n : "The GM?"
★Jojo : ["It's short for Game Master, most constellations don't know about him yet. We were deployed by him to manage the world's affairs ever since the invasion of your world. Have you not played any games in your life?"]
★Y/n : "You're spitting a lot of facts without me threatening you today."
★Jojo : ["It's not like it's a big deal to give out trivial information about him, he doesn't mind it if it's given to a fellow constellation."]
★Jojo : ["I'm a low tier guide, so I won't have much information on the GM himself. The higher your position as a guide, the more quality the information will be given."]
★Y/n : "Is that so.. Then that settles one thing."
★Y/n : "If it's a competition within the country, wouldn't there be guides from other districts attending too?"
★Y/n : "Well, Curtis's channel is doing well these days, constellations are always flooding into his server."
★Jojo : ["Ugh, don't mention that scoundrel."]
★Y/n : "Why not? I thought fellow guides are friendly towards each other."
★Jojo : ["He always brags about the taxes he gets from the amount of donations the constellations gave the players just because the top 5 players are in his district. ]
★Y/n : "Cheer up, I'm already numbered 1 in the player rankings in and out of Korea. People and constellations will try to find me through servers. They would probably ask around and finally end up in your server."
★Jojo : ["What exactly are you plotting?"]
★Y/n : "Nothing, really. All the trouble to hide my abilities have not entirely gone to waste. But, I need you to do one thing for me."
★Jojo : ["What is it?"]
★Y/n : "Nothing too hard, all you need to do is to rise up the top and become a high tier guide with my name, in exchange for the information about the GM."
★Jojo : ["You sure know how to cut a deal, that's a really tempting offer."]
★Y/n : "I know, so would you accept?"
★Jojo : ["I'll be waiting then."]
-
I looked at the boys and smiled. "After you guys finished your meal, I'll take you guys somewhere."
"Johannes, do you want to tag along with us?"
He widen his eyes, "Can I?"
"Yeah, after we finish our meal." I chuckled.
Jin then asked, "where exactly?"
"You'll see when we get there." They all nodded as they quickly finished up the remaining food.
"Slow down," I chuckled. "The food's not going anywhere, and we still have time so don't rush."
"Done!" They still finished their food in the nick of time.
I chuckled, "alright then, we'll walk to our destination. It'll help with digestion."
The bowls hovered and was spotless after a minor cleaning spell as they disappeared into my inventory.
We moved as a group and made our way towards the exit of the dome. The same two people were still guarding the way out the safe zone.
I halted my tracks and the rest behind me stopped as well. "Hello, long time no see."
I smiled, "you two looked like the same delinquents I met about an hour ago."
I intertwined my hands together as I broke out a sardonic smile, "are you two going to stop me from going out again?"
They vigorously shook their heads and opened the way out.
We headed out the dome and I briefly stretched.
"Why did you bring us outside Y/n?" Jin asked.
Johannes then spoke, "isn't it quite dangerous outside the safe zone? Monsters are roaming in almost every nook and cranny."
"Not while I'm here," I chuckled.
"From now on, we'll be starting your training in this vast field of roaming monsters."
I curved up a smile. "That's how all of you will gain experience."
End of chapter 6
-
「 Status Window 」
Name: Johannes T. Thomas
Age: 38
Species: Human
Level: 6
Job: Warrior
Title(s): [-]
Sponsor: [-]
HP: 150
MP: 5
Aura: [ Locked. ]
Strength: 39
Agility: 13
Vitality: 32
Intelligence: 29
Skill(s): Flaming fists[LV1], Body strengthening[LV1].
