Chapter 153

The Qualifications of a Guardian Tower Master scenario ended. Did that mean the Guardian Tower Master would be chosen, then?

Gulp, gulp.

As I chugged healing potions—since it was more effective to drink them rather than use them in a slot—I waited for the notice. My destroyed knee throbbed.

I was resting, idly wondering how many bottles I would have to drink for my knee to heal, when I heard a notice I hadn't even considered.

[Guardian Tower Scenario 02 - 'Acknowledged Guardian Tower Master' is beginning.]

Something popped out of the Guardian Tower. It was a pixie the size of a palm. The pixie sporting yellow pigtails was extremely adorable. She had an innocent and kind-looking face, and her petite size made her look delicate enough to break with a single touch. Her extremely gentle smile and expressive face naturally elicited compassion.

'A pixie…?'

A pixie's cute outer appearance was exactly that, an appearance, a façade. Generally speaking, pixies were a trickster race that liked to harass others. They were stubborn and greedy, so everyone knew nothing good would come of getting close to one.

'And at this point in time, a pixie should be way stronger than us.'

Even Yeonseo's Streamer, Roa, was an opponent we couldn't face with our current skills. Our rate of growth was unrivaled, but we were still 'beginners'.

'Of course, I can't read her status.'

All I could tell was that she was a pixie. Eye of Perception was unable to read the status of the pixie, who had a much higher level than me.

"Tadaaa! Please welcome to the stage, the Pixie of the Guardian Tower, Lilyyyy!"

I had no idea how she did it, but a very small fanfare went off next to Lily's two transparent wings, almost like she set off tiny firecrackers.

Tadadaaaa–

Tadadaaaaaa–

Tadadaaaaaa!

Maybe it was a System effect, because I even heard fanfare music.

"Lily is Tintin's pixie," she declared before breaking out into a giggle.

Yoohyun stared at the pixie in a daze. His massive muscles began to tremble imperceptibly.

"Su-Su-Super cute…!"

A line of drool flowed from his mouth. Come to think of it, Yoohyun was said to flop over and die for cute things, particularly small animals. The story of him crouching down with his huge body in front of a chick for four hours straight of just watching and poking it with his finger was famous.

He even said the following in an official interview:

–I just want to pet it so bad. I want to pet it, but I can't because I'm scared it'll explode if I touch it. It's so pretty; it drives me nuts.

He seriously sat there touching it for four hours. People talked about how Yoohyun was making heart eyes back then, and the nickname 'Heart Eyes Yoohyun' was trending for a while.

"To-Too cute…!"

While Yoohyun was still in shock, Lily made the action of tucking her hair behind her ear (though of course, there was nothing to tuck in, since her hair was in pigtails. She only made the gesture).

"I am pretty cute, aren't I?"

Floating in midair, she struck a pose, putting both hands on her hips and twisting slightly to face Yoohyun.

"What are you doing? Hurry and take a picture!"

"If-If it's okay with you, I'll take one!"

Yoohyun rapidly pulled out his phone and took a picture. I just watched in silence.

'This is something I didn't know about.'

Did this sort of thing also happen with the Guardian Tower that appeared in Manhattan, New York? Did that Tintin have a pixie?

'There's no way to tell.' For now, I couldn't find out. 'But… I have a feeling it did.'

The world I hadn't known about, the world of Rankers. The world belonging only to them, a world the Internet or the media was not privy to. Such a world definitely existed, and I was in the process of stepping into it, little by little. No, I was creating it, little by little.

'I'll move with the assumption that a pixie appeared in the past as well.'

A pixie appeared in the past. Here, the Gold Pyramid Michelle was in this spot. I could use those clues as a base. Right now, Yoohyun was completely blown away by Lily's cuteness, and Lily was intoxicated by his interest, seemingly having forgotten her true purpose.

"How about this pose?"

"Cu-Cute!"

She moved from place to place, striking poses. Right now, she was floating horizontally in front of the Guardian Tower, pressing her lips into a slight pout.

'The person who became the owner of the Tintin that appeared in Manhattan was none other than the Gold Pyramid Michelle.'

Michelle was an excellent sovereign. She also had amazing and outstanding teammates under her command. The Gold Pyramid Michelle and the Master Kwon worked together.

'Michelle and Kwon met the pixie.'

They successfully gained ownership of the tower and later nurtured it into the strongest Guardian Tower in the world, 'Titan'.

'The Gold Pyramid and a Master.'

I constructed an inference of that moment in time. What happened back then? I knew their general personalities and skills. If they met 'Lily', how would they have acted? Many scenarios and assumptions blitzed through my mind.

Lily made an expression of great satisfaction.

"Jeez, this cuteness of mine. It really is unstoppable."

Flapping her wings, she flew up to me.

"You're the boss, right?"

"Yes."

"I really didn't think Big Black Dogs would be selected as the scenario monster, you know. It seems Tintin has evaluated you guys very highly."

It wasn't Tintin, but the System, but I didn't say that. I just listened in silence.

"Thanks to that, Lily was able to gauge your full power very accu—Ah, right. This isn't right, hold on one sec."

Lily put her hand into her chest, through the yellow one piece she was wearing. Then, she drew out something that looked like a lengthy receipt.

"Glasses. Where are my glasses?"

She reached into her chest again, this time emerging with glasses. They were a little large, so it looked like the glasses were wearing Lily rather than the other way around. Amazingly, they somehow stayed perched on the tip of her nose without falling off.

"Let's see here. Ah. Right! This is it. This first!"

The pixie shoved the long strip of paper back into her body. To my fascination, it went back in and disappeared completely.

"Alrighty, alrighty. The first thing we'll do to progress the scenario is to take a vote. It's called the Player~Vote!"

Lily folded her arms, flitting around us. Sparkling dust fell from her wings. Sitting atop my shoulder, Darongi sniffed the pixie, nose flaring like a dog.

"Unfortunaaately, only one person can become the Master of the Guardian Tower."

"..."

"So we're gonna have a vote to decide. Between you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you. And this boss here!"

Me, Sunhwa, Sung-gu, Yoohyun, Sunghyun, and Yeonseo, plus Taeguk Shield's Song Kiyeol, Cheon Sooji, and Gong Jinhoon were given the right to vote.

We all heard a notice.

[The Acknowledged Guardian Tower Master scenario is in progress.]

[A 'Voting Slip' has been sent to your Inventory.]

"Everyone will vote. The first candidate is the boss. You, what's your name?"

"Kim Hyukjin."

"Alrighty. If you're in agreement for Kim Hyukjin becoming the Guardian Tower Master, ciiiiircle!"

She drew a big circle in the air.

"If you're against it, xxxxxx!"

She crossed her arms into an X.

"I can't give you much time. Just three minutes. All votes must be circles for the candidate to be recognized as the Guardian Tower Master. Alrighty then! Time staaaart!"

A timer appeared.

[3:00]

[2:59]

It started ticking down. Yoohyun spoke with a tone that brooked no argument. "Of course it has to be Hyungnim. Circle, obviously."

Lily piped up with a beaming grin, "Nopers, everyone here is qualified to become the Guardian Tower Master. If Hyukjin doesn't get chosen, then the candidacy will go to the next person by order of contribution."

Everyone would become a candidate, by order of contribution. The first candidate was me. I didn't know who would be next, but I could guess who would be last.

'Gong Jinhoon will be the last to have a turn.'

As if she read my mind, Lily continued her explanation. "You! Yes, you. You're the last candidate. The position of Guardian Tower Master cannot remain vacant. So even you have a chance. But resolve yourself, all votes have to be circle."

Her eyes narrowed into curves. They looked similar to Yeonseo's smiling eyes, but inside them was a mischievous and mean glint. If Yeonseo's smiling eyes were like the blinding sunlight of the spring sky, Lily's was like the portent of an imp's roguery.

'Yeonseo's smile is definitely something special.'

It was indeed special enough to cause the Sword Empress crush fever. Right as I was thinking that, Isabel woke up.

(Don't think about another woman.)

(I'll really kill you.)

(You were thinking about that woman, right?)

No, I was just saying her smile was a little special.

(That counts as thinking about another woman.)

I decided to ignore Isabel. I wasn't thinking about women. It was just interesting that the same facial expression could be completely different. In addition, I merely concluded that every action of Lily's was purposeful. She was intentionally giving a more mischievous smile.

'It definitely won't just end with the vote.'

Pixies were far from simpleminded. In the beginning, she acted like she accidentally let something slip. It was an implicit hint that something else was to come, and it didn't escape my attention.

Sooji said to Gong Jinhoon and Song Kiyeol, "I think it's right for Hyukjin to become the Master of the Guardian Tower. The Guildmaster thinks the same, right?"

Kiyeol nodded. "Of course."

Yeonseo smiled brightly. "Then all of us are putting down circles. Correct?"

Lily was staring at us with amusement. There was still about one minute and thirty seconds left. One minute and thirty-three seconds, to be exact.

[1:33]

[The vote has concluded.]

[Summing up the vote.]

Lily pushed up her glasses. "The result of the vote is out! It's not important how many circles there are, so I'll check if there are any X's or not! It's completely anonymous! Your secrets are locked away in an iron box with me. I guarantee it, on my name of Lily."

Then, she shook her head to and fro. "Dearie me. One person voted no!"

A yellow 'X' popped up over Lily's head.

Sunhwa's eyes grew wide. "What?"

Yoohyun huffed, "Who was it?!"

The gazes of all my teammates converged in unison on Gong Jinhoon. He waved his hand. "No, no. I put down a circle."

The Taeguk Shield Guildmaster's bafflement was visible to the eye.

"Did you put down an X, Guildmaster?" said Yeonseo to Kiyeol. "In the hopes that your turn would come?"

"No. I put down a circle."

There was a moment of confusion. I spoke up.

"Hold on."

Everyone quieted. Lily was watching the situation with relish.

"All of us voted circle."

However—

"Someone else participated in the vote."

There was a trick concealed in this scenario. I was sure that Michelle and Kwon would have been able to figure it out.

'Michelle will have had complete trust in her teammates.'

She would have been certain that none of her teammates would have picked X, which led her to see another path.

"Lily. Did you also have the right to vote?"

"Hihihihihi." She let out a tinkling laugh. "Wow. You noticed? You're super smart! That's right, the person who put X is me."

"And I'm sure you yourself are well aware that your vote of X is invalid."

"How come?"

From the moment Lily appeared, I sensed that something was off. Knowing she was continuously giving implicit hints, I observed her closely and remembered everything she said and did.

"You said this was a Player Vote. Let me ask you. Are you a Player?"

"Nope. I'm the cute pixie, Lily. I'm also a friend of the Guardian Tower Tintin."

"Then that means your X was invalid to begin with."

"Yep, that's right." Lily smiled brightly again, her grin even wider than before. "You're quite something, you're really quite something. I never even dreamed that the scenario would progress so quickly."

The Guardians had to be watching with as much enjoyment as Lily had surprise. In games, novels, or movies, stories where the main character was dragged around by the plot were no fun. It was important for the main character to create the plot and actively play a role.

Stealing Lily's line, I said, "Then, shall we move onto the next scenario?"

It was like what I always said to Senia. I would create the stage. I wouldn't let myself be dragged around. That wasn't what the Guardians wanted, either.

So I took the initiative to say, "You'll probably give us two tasks."

"Huh?"

Lily froze in midair, apparently so shocked that even her wings ceased to move. Before she hit the ground, Yoohyun dove forward and caught her, then wiped the sweat from his brow.

"Whew, what a relief."

Yoohyun's hand was trembling. He was probably worrying about something useless like what he would do if this tiny pixie hurt herself in his palm.

Lily didn't seem to have any thoughts of flying again. I couldn't see it earlier, but I could see her state now.

State: Shock / Disbelief

"Are you a prophet? What are you?"

Judging by Lily's reaction, my prediction was correct. We had two scenarios ahead of us. I was sure of it.

"The first scenario that'll occur."

I continued with confidence.

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