Emergency Meeting

In the control room, the fight between Adam and the Adult Centipede Skeleton played out on the big screen.

In the scene where Adam sliced off the centipede's skeleton leg, a few surprised exclamations echoed throughout the room.

Then, shockingly, it looked like the Adult Centipede Skeleton ran away, but they were certain that it was because it could sense Ron nearby.

"What do you think?" Ron asked his colleague with a neutral tone.

He wasn't the most fond of Kage and his Pro-Strong agenda, but he knew how powerful he was, and with Lose Eye, Keep Smile guild members here, the situation would be resolved quickly.

"I think that ant was lucky that the Adult Centipede Skeleton sensed your presence." Kage said coldly. "If you were ten seconds too late, he would be a crushed bug on the ground."

"That is as expected." Ron said, his eyes narrowing. "However, he is only Coinfeeder and yet had the guts to confront the centipede by himself. That deserves some respect."

"Strong deserves respect." Kage said. "Weak does not."

He then turned around and approached the door.

"Let's get this over with so I can leave this place quicker." Kage sniffed the air and grimaced. "It smells disgusting in here. A bunch of weaklings who can't even stand up for themselves."

Ron sighed and then looked at one of the control room's operatives.

"Send this feed to the Council of Mercenaries. I am sure they would like to see it."

"Yes, sir." One of them nodded and started sending the video about the fight to the Council of Mercenaries.

...

After a short while, an alarm rang throughout the mall, indicating that an emergency meeting was going to be held.

All the players in the tutorial gathered in the Safe Area and swarmed inside the auditorium.

The players in Adam's group had just recently returned from second floor and sat down inside the auditorium, wondering what the meeting was about.

After everyone had gathered in the auditorium and most of the seats were filled, Ron and Kage appeared in front of the auditorium.

"Hello, everyone," Ron said. "The reason for today's emergency meeting is because something happened on the second floor, and we have to address it."

The players shifted their positions in the seats as it looked like it was more serious than they expected.

"There had been Adult Centipede Skeleton evolving under the second floor for a few years now, and today, it was discovered by one of the players in this room.

"It might not sound serious to you all, but it is. It is a kind of creature that is commonly found above the 50th floor."

Gasp—loud gasps came from the players.

Donald and the rest paled as they remembered the sight of the hideous centipede running through the buildings. However, they were also relieved that the creature wasn't the boss.

The players that had already reached the third and fourth floors raised their eyebrows, wondering what that had to do with them.

"The Adult Centipede Skeleton is far too strong for floors this low." Ron continued. "It's not fully matured and isn't anywhere as strong as fully matured, which can be found beyond the 50th floor, but still, it's powerful enough to disrupt the hierarchy of the floors this low.

"It should be powerful enough to cross floors and reach the third, maybe even fourth floor by simply crashing through the wall of dimensions that separates the floors.

"The wall of dimensions is so pathetically weak in these early floors, but it's enough to keep these weaker Chaosbeings locked in their floors, but not enough to keep the Adult Centipede Skeleton on the second floor.

"That's why all floors below the fifth are closed for now. They'll be reopened tomorrow after we get rid of it."

Most of the players didn't mind, as it meant there was one free day of rest. However, the ones on the fourth floor were somewhat annoyed by it because the end of the tutorial was so close, and they had already been three weeks inside the tutorial.

They wanted to get it over with.

"Now then." Ron cleared his throat.

At that moment, Kage rolled his eyes and left the auditorium, as he didn't want to take part in this second part.

Ignoring that, Ron looked to the back row, where a black-haired player sat.

"We also decided to reward the player who discovered the Adult Centipede Skeleton. If the centipede had been allowed to mature longer, the situation could've ended with a lot of casualties."

The players from Adam's group looked around, wondering who was the one who discovered it.

At that moment, Ron said. "The rewards are 10,000 points for the final score and 100 Shinecoins. Player Adam, please come here."

"Argh..." Donald groaned and watched as Adam stood up and slowly walked down the stairs. "O-of course it was this bastard..."

Ramon narrowed his eyes dangerously.

Seth's expression looked complicated, and he focused his gaze on the steel shortsword dangling from Adam's hip. He clenched his hands into a tight fist.

The players from other groups watched as Adam approached Ron. They were surprised about the reward, as 10,000 points were equal to completing a D-ranked mission, and 100 Shinecoins was a significant amount of money.

"Here." Ron handed Adam the brown pouch containing Shinecoins and said, "If it weren't for your identity as Coinfeeder, the reward would've been much higher, but the council thought that this should be more than enough for someone in tutorial."

"I understand." Adam nodded and made the Shinecoins enter his interface.

He was then about to return, but then Ron stopped him.

"Also, here." Ron took out a round shield from his inventory and handed it over to Adam. "Yours broke, right? This is an old shield of mine, and I don't have any use for it."

Adam looked surprised but also conflicted about whether he should accept it.

Of course, he wouldn't mind free weapons, but this could have hidden intentions behind it.

Seeing that look, Ron shook his head. "I ain't trying to force you to join Crescent Serpents if you are afraid of that. This is my reward to you."

"..." Adam nodded and accepted the shield.

It looked slightly higher quality than his previous one.

After Adam returned to his seat, Ron looked at everyone and said, "For today, you all can have one meal in the restaurant, free of charge."

Many eyes brightened up as some of them had already had the pleasure of tasting the food in there, and it was a hundred times better than in the cafeteria but also more expensive.

Now that it was free of charge, many salivated just at the thought.

After that, the emergency meeting ended, and Adam was the first one to leave the auditorium.

'10,000 points. I wanted a little bit more, but it's good enough.' Adam sighed with a slight relief and looked at his interface with 100 Shinecoins.

He never had this many Shinecoins during his tutorial days in his previous life. Back then, it was a struggle to earn even a single Shinecoin.

'This is still not enough for Skill Scroll, and I don't need any weapons. I should just save them, and perhaps, at the end of the tutorial, I might be able to acquire one Skill Scroll.'