“What’s wrong?” Hiro asked while approaching Liberty who instantly looked pale. Hiro was already standing behind the girl to examine the screen that appeared in front of her. He was curious about what appeared on the screen. Meanwhile, Noah, Jacob, and Cara just kept quiet and watched the two.
[Ace: Don’t go to the guild base now. I’ll let you know later]
That short message was all that appeared on the screen. It was not too strange for Hiro, but for Liberty, it was quite the opposite. The girl turned to look at Hiro with a worried expression on her face. This was the first time her brother sent her a message telling her not to come back.
“I have to go. It looks like Ace is in trouble,” Liberty said and she hurriedly walked past Hiro. Hiro stopped the girl, gripping her wrist gently. Liberty looked at him with displeasure.
“Hiro, I have to go. I won’t let my brother deal with the problem alone,” the girl explained while trying to free herself from Hiro’s grip. Meanwhile, Hiro signalled for Noah, Jacob, and Cara to come closer.
“We’ll go with you. Besides, we have to go that way!” Hiro showed her which direction was the right way to go back to the Moonspire City and go to Exalted guild base. Liberty, who had just realized that she had almost walked in the wrong direction, only frowned and turned around.
“You will go with me?” asked Liberty, feeling a little guilty for bothering the man. However, her gaze showed that she hoped that Hiro and his friends would go with her because she believed that their help would be very useful. Noah took a deep breath, yet he nodded obediently.
“Of course, we’ll go with you, Liberty, especially if you know something has happened. But, what actually happened? Can you explain it briefly?” Jacob asked curiously. Even though Liberty seemed to be in a great hurry, she couldn’t let the three of them go with her without knowing what was waiting for them.
“I don’t know, but Ace contacted me 100 times when I couldn’t connect to him. And from the message, I’m sure he’s in trouble,” Liberty said as it was without hiding anything. Her explanation made Jacob look at Hiro with an arched eyebrow, signalling to the man that maybe they both thought the same thing.
“Does he have enemies?” Noah asked. He was also curious about what happened to Ace. Liberty just shook her head and ended the conversation right away. The longer she waited and stayed there, the further her brother was trapped in danger.
“We will go now. Just to be on guard, you’d better prepare your weapons,” Hiro explained briefly. He understood that Liberty didn’t want to wait there any longer. Finally, the five of them rushed away from the purified haunted building towards the Moonspire City. They ran with Hiro leading the way. He knew the right and short way out of the forest.
Midnight. Hiro glanced at the time printed on his HUD system. It was 00:24. Even so, since the Moonspire City never got any sun, the atmosphere of the city didn’t change in the slightest.
After they arrived inside the Moonspire City, they moved towards the north, very close to the palace of the bloodline beast. Nearby, there was a majestic building almost as large as the palace of the beast stood in that place. The building that became the guild base for Exalted.
However, the place turned out to be already filled with players crowding their way. It was as if all the players who were in the city were gathered there right now. And a very loud explosion sound came from the front of the building, followed by a puff of black smoke that made all the spectators close their noses reflexively.
“No! What was that?” Liberty quickened her pace and stepped out of the line of players blocking her way. “Let me pass, excuse me. Excuse me.” However, the line of players still didn’t move from their place as if the spectacle was very exciting, and they didn’t want to miss it.
[Giant Air Bubble]
Noah had thought of another way to bring the five of them together in a giant air bubble that appeared from the magic circle in his right hand. All who had not expected the bubble to appear were shocked when their bodies were marked and instantly being pulled into the bubble, and the bubble lifted off their bodies from the ground.
“Noah, stop it! I don’t like heights!” Cara exclaimed, squealing like a normal girl. She even held on to Jacob’s shoulder reflexively when suddenly her feet were no longer on the ground.
The air bubble flew upwards so the five of them could see what was going on and what kind of spectacle the other players saw. And their eyes immediately widened in surprise when they saw an attack from ten terrorist players against Ace, Dimitri, Niklaus, and Alaric. The four of them seemed to have been half paralyzed, but they still tried to stand back up, even though their bodies were covered with wounds and blood.
“I will not let you have it,” Ace growled at a player standing in the front row. He wore a black robe without covering his head. And the player seemed to be standing with a black stick.
“You know that we didn’t come to ask, right? We have come to take it by force, game master owner,” replied the man in a calm voice. Hiro, who heard it, felt that the man’s voice sounded a little familiar. However, he couldn’t remember when and where he heard that voice before.
“Get the hell out of my guild!” Ace replied while throwing the spit that was mixed with blood.
“What a scumbag. You never learnt, did you?”
The man raised his wand in the air and began to draw a magic circle complete with runes, which surprised Noah because he knew what that magic rune meant.
[Destruction]
But, Liberty didn’t let that happen. Not after she had come.
Bang!
Three silver bullets shot from the Hellsing Whisper and lodged in the man’s hand, making him reflexively cancel the magic casting spell and drop his wand. His hand instantly scalded with fire. The silver bullets fused into his body and burned him alive right away.
The man turned his head back to see who had just attacked him, along with everyone else in the place. They stared reflexively at the giant air bubble containing five people floating in the air.
“Now they see us.” Noah said feeling that the situation was going to take a turn for the worse.
Meanwhile, Hiro had jumped out of the air bubbles from a height of five meters above the air and landed beautifully in front of Ace who was standing with both feet covered in blood.
“Nice shot, Libe. Now leave him to me,” he said to Liberty just before he jumped down without hesitation.
“Hiro?!”
“Should we go down now?” asked Jacob, waiting for a response from Cara and Noah.
“I guess that’s the answer!” Cara said while pointing at Hiro who was ready with a Vampire Blood-eater in his hand.
Cara shot out of the air bubbles to catch up with Hiro. Due to her light body, she landed further behind Hiro. Finally, the Everlasting members lined up to form barricades to protect those who could no longer fight.
Meanwhile, Noah stayed in the bubble, floating in the air with Liberty.
“You’d better stay here. I’ll protect you or Hiro will be in trouble,” Noah explained as he rolled his eyes, feeling like he had no other choice but to do so. At least he and Liberty could still attack from this distance.
…
“You must be … someone who claimed himself as WynterRain’s brother,” the man muttered with the wand in his hand. He recognized Hiro with a single glance. He was still wincing in pain from the gunshot wound to his hand. He even used his left hand to pick up the fallen wand.
Hiro did not comment and only focused on reading the name listed above the player.
[Level 85. Unknown]
The man hid his title and job as if they were very important to cover.
“I have nothing to do with you, young people. Enjoy this game while you can. But, with him… I have to teach him a bit of a warm-up lesson.” The man pointed at Ace who had walked up to Hiro and stood next to him.
“I’ll take care of him,” said Ace, not wanting to be indebted to Hiro.
“Libe is very worried about you. My friends and I will kick them out of Exalted’s guild base. I do this for her, not for you.” Hiro replied while tilting his head up to look at Liberty who couldn’t hold back her tears anymore after seeing her brother’s poor condition. Even if this was a game, and everything that happened here didn’t happen to the player’s real body, still for Liberty… this world was the only world she could live in right now.
Ace looked at Liberty who looked back at him, then nodded his head. For the first time, he believed that Hiro’s words, which he had considered as a rival, were true.
“You better not disappoint me,” Ace replied as a signal.
“You don’t need to worry about that.”
Whoosh!
Hiro dashed before the Unknown player prepared a magic circle to attack him first. At full speed, Hiro swung his sword across the man’s body without reducing his strength in the slightest.
Crash!
The man’s body was split in two with great ease, but both of them instantly turned into smoke. Meanwhile, his original body had moved not far from where Hiro had attacked him.
Updated from fr𝒆ewebnov𝒆l.(c)om