Hi Zhao
[Quest: Save the Baldy!]
[Description: Avatar is the bridge between humans and spirits. His value to both worlds is can't be underestimated, and lending him a hand will always be met with great rewards.]
[Objective: Save the Avatar and don't let anybody disturb him before he comes back from the spirit world.]
[Side Objective 1: Don't harm Zuko (severely)]
[Reward: Greatly increased closeness and respect from most spirits and humans. Random Stat RankUPX2]
[Side Reward: Greatly increased closeness with Iroh, mildly increased closeness with With Lotus, Random Stat RankUPX1]
'Oh, the quest is complete, he must be waking up.' Kunyo said as he gave his attention to the Avatar while checking his new stats.
Name: Kunyo
Title: Fire Nation Mid-class Noble, Second Coming of Combustion God, Dragon Slayer
Class: Firebender
Rank:S+
HP: 100%
MP:36000
STR: S-
AGI:S
VIT:S
INT:S+
WIS:S-
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''Ugh'' Aang woke up with a grunt and took everybody's attention.
''Good morning baldie.'' said a voice he couldn't recognize.
''Hey! He's bald by choice!'' Sokka defended him from the unknown man as the unknown man laughed.
'What is going on?'
Aang finally got up to see 2 unexpected visitors.
His eyes squinted a little after seeing Zuko meditating in the corner, but seeing him passive like this confused him.
Then he turned to the new guy.
''Hi! I'm Aang.'' he greeted cheerfully.
''ShenLong, nice to meet you.'' Kunyo greeted back.
'He's surprisingly polite, isn't he?'
Seeing everybody sitting and drinking some juice with him, he must be on their side.
''Are you drinking blood?''
Everybody but Katara chuckled at that, as Katara groaned, anticipating Kunyo's sales pitch again.
''It's pomegranate juice, its really good for your health and tastes delicious. Wanna try? Who am I asking? Of course you do!''
Suddenly a glass appeared in his hand as Aang watched him pour some liquid into it with wide open eyes and jaw.
''HOW DID YOU THAT!'' he asked, unable to contain his excitement.
Kunyo winked at him.
''A magician never reveals his tricks.''
''Wooaah!'' Aang nodded with stars in his eyes as Katara and Sokka rolled their eyes.
'He already has him in his fingers...'
''What is Zuko doing here?'' Aang finally asked the elephant in the room
''He is contemplating and brooding about his future and his life choices.'' Kunyo said, before turning to Zuko and shouting ''Aren't you!?''
''I SAID SHUT UP!''
''He's growing up.''
''Anyway. You're probably curious about some things, like why am I here?''
Aang nodded silently.
''Well-''
Just as Kunyo was about to explain, his words got cut by an arrogant voice.
''Well, well, well. What do we have here? The Avatar and the honorless prince.'' Admiral Zhao said with a smirk on his face.
Everybody got their guards up, including Zuko.
''I am not surprised that you betrayed your nation, Zuko.'' said Admiral Zhao with a mocking smile. ''I am sure this will be 'very saddening' news for your father.''
Zuko gritted his teeth.
''But, I have a proposal.'' Zhao's eyes scanned everybody, trying to discern their threat levels.
''If you help us, I will speak up for you. I promise on my honor.'' He waved his hand around as if saying ''look at these''
''We have an opportunity, Zuko. Forget the Avatar, at this point he's just an extra reward.''
Everybody's eyes widened and their heads slowly turned to Kunyo. He was right!
Kunyo nodded with a smug face.
''If we kill the Ocean or the Moon spirit, we will be written in the history, never to be forgotten!'' His hands shook with excitement. ''Zhao the invincible, Zhao the Moonlsayer! Zuko the Redeemed! We will have all the glory we want.''
''Zuko, you can use this to even become the emperor, pushing out your sister from the succession with your glory alone!''
''Join m-''
''Alllright! That's enough of your evil monologue. You won't convince Zuko.'' Kunyo cut him off, before looking sharply at Zuko. ''He won't right?''
Zuko looked conflicted.
'Should I intervene and tell him some wise words, or just letting him come to his own decision is better?' Kunyo thought to himself.
He could feel Iroh around. If the old man wanted to intervene, he could. If Iroh was still passive, that meant he wanted Zuko to find his way himself.
'But he betrayed avatar during book 2...' Kunyo was conflicted as well. He didn't know if he should intervene or not.
After a few seconds of silence, Zuko shook his head and got closer to Zhao with a determined face.
''I knew you would make the right choice.'' Zhao smirked.
[NEW QUEST!]
[Path of Redemption!]
[Finding his own way was always in Zuko's fate. But, helping him find it before his predestined time would be a great deed as well.]
[Objective: Help Zuko find his own way before the fated time.]
[Reward: Increased closeness and respect from Team Avatar and Iroh. Wisdom Stat IncreaseX2]
''Zuko... Is this really what you want?'' Kunyo tried his talk-no-jutsu.
''You don't know what I want.'' Zuko answered quietly.
''Is glory really this important to you?'' Kunyo tried to touch Zuko's human side.
Seeing Zuko even more conflicted than before, Aang joined in.
''Zuko, killing the Ocean spirit won't just affect the water benders. It will destroy the balance of this world. Catastrophe will happen. This is beyond the interests of Nations now. This will affect the whole world Zuko!''
Seeing the protagonist work his mouth, Kunyo regained his spirit. He was about to continue in his encouragement, but something unexpected happened.
''You never lost your honor Zuko.'' Iroh said suddenly, appearing out of nowhere under everybody's, but especially Kunyo's wide eyes.
Kunyo didn't expect Iroh to intervene at all!
He thought Iroh would want Zuko to find his own way while giving him subtle clues and nudges to help him during his journey to find it.
Iroh intervening and actually showing the right path to Zuko was incredibly unexpected for Kunyo.
'Maybe I misunderstood the old man...'
Maybe Iroh thought Zuko was making good progress and it would be a mistake to just let it all go down in vain?
Maybe he thought this situation was too important to stay passive?
Kunyo could only theorize, but couldn't come up with a certain answer.
Iroh's words and his warm eyes were the last nudges for Zuko.
He was silent for a second, before suddenly attacking Zhao with a fireball and retreating as Zhao defended himself from the attack.
Zhao was fuming with anger with a red face. He gritted his teeth and spat out some words with a low voice, trying to hold himself back from shouting or doing something detrimental to the situation. He had to keep his cool now. He ignored Iroh's treachery as it was already expected, instead focused on getting Zuko back on his side.
''You will regret this Zuko. I'm giving you the PERFECT chance to redeem yourself. I guarantee you the throne, your father's approval! I'm giving you a chance to become a part of the history, not as a traitor, but as a great leader of the greatest Nation in the world!... You still have a chance. I understand your confusion, so-''
His words were cut off mid-way as Kunyo spoke suddenly.
''Well, that's done.'' he gave a sigh of relief as everyone stared at him.
'Did he really just stop his monologue to say that?'
However, he didn't disappoint and continued talking after a few seconds.
''Now, Zhao. Admiral Zhao? Whatever. I will be honest with you, the only reason I put up with your shit until now was because of special circumstances. You and your soldiers have 10 seconds to fuck off before I start blasting.''
''...''
''When I say blasting, I mean to... hurt you, of course.'' he said, cringing a little. Somehow, it felt weird to say that.
There was a heavy silence after Kunyo's arrogant declaration.
''hehe...Haha...HAHAHAHAHA. Who the fuck do you think you are, you little shit?! A lesson for you, you should SHUT up when the adults are talking!'' Zhao screamed with a red face as Iroh chuckled at the unexpected situation. Things were getting out of Zhao's hand and he was getting frustrated.
He brought soldiers with him, but he didn't expect so many people here. Even Iroh alone would be a headache, seeing so many people ready to fight wasn't good for him.
Although Kunyo wasn't going to kill anybody (partly because of his quest, partly because he didn't want to leave a bloody trail wherever he went), he could still injure them until they gave up. That was a lot more merciful than the extremely pragmatic thoughts gamer's mind gave him.
Kunyo was already one of the top dogs in this world already. He didn't need to play by their rules, they needed to play by his rules. That was one of the reasons he did that.
The same reason he didn't choose diplomacy and political games was because he really wasn't the type of guy to struggle with them.
He knew, with his abilities and newfound intelligence, he could probably succeed if he tried his chance at the political mess, but he just didn't want to.
The same reason he didn't choose politics was playing its role here as well.
He didn't want to get bored.
Right now, these guys with their predictable talks were just plain boring.
Why listen to their predictable ''evil monologue''s when he could just shut them up?
He looked down on his stats. They increased once more after the mission completion.
Name: Kunyo
Title: Fire Nation Mid-class Noble, Second Coming of Combustion God, Dragon Slayer
Class: Firebender
Rank:S+
HP: 100%
MP:42000
STR: S-
AGI:S
VIT:S
INT:S+
WIS:S+
His rank was still the same, so he assumed S+ was the highest he could go.
'I'm both sad and happy that there isn't a SS or SSS rank yet.'
That meant he was truly at the top of the pyramid of this world.
1.7K
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