On that evening, after Salathiir’s defeat, a stunned silence lingered among everyone. The square and so of the buildings lay in ruins due to Salathiir’s attack, but miraculously, no NPCs perished in the onslaught.
The square buzzed with chatter, uncertainty, and speculation.
"What happened back there?"
"I don’t know."
"The guild leaders are currently investigating."
"Who do you think defeated that Demon Dragon?"
"I don’t know."
"How co none of the NPCs were even hurt?"
"Apparently, they all hid in so kind of underground hideout in that old storage area."
"There’s an underground hideout?"
"Yeah, built by the orphaned children."
"Why haven’t the guild leaders told us about that before?"
"Because they didn’t know either."
"How could sothing so crucial be beyond their knowledge?"
"They’re currently investigating it right now."
"Hopefully, we will have our answers soon."
anwhile, the remaining guild leaders where convened in a private eting in one of the rooms in the inn, as their mbers reported what they knew.
The information from HQ returned, revealing that the mysterious player or NPC who had joined their ranks and disguised themselves as one of their mbers wasn’t present when they faced Salathiir.
"It must be him," Steel Striker said solemnly in a corner, leaning against a wall with crossed arms. "The one who defeated Salathiir."
Silence hung in the air, and no one refuted Steel Striker’s conjectures because everyone shared the sa thoughts.
"Did any of us trigger so kind of event without us knowing?" Doom Harbinger asked.
"I believe so," Ragnarok Reaper said seriously. "According to our reports, there’s only one NPC here that could have a relationship status with a player, and that’s the orphaned girl nad Poppy, the leader of the orphans who built the secret hideout."
"But we’ve already tried to increase our relationship level with her in the past, to no success," said Fighting Bunny. Since Fury was gone, she was the acting leader of their guild right now.
"We didn’t even manage to increase it to [Acquaintance]. It was simply impossible to increase it in this short amount of ti we’ve stayed here."
"That’s right," agreed Ragnarok Reaper. "However, there’s this theory in my mind."
"And what’s that?" Eclipse asked.
Ragnarok Reaper took a deep breath and stared at the others seriously. "That this player who managed to sneak into our ranks also increased his Relationship Level with Poppy, prompting an event that happened a while ago. The NPCs all hiding underground, made by Poppy, who’s the only one that has a relationship level with a player, was no re coincidence."
"So we’re establishing that this . . . guy is a player now?" Steel Striker asked with a sneer. "The top four guilds managed to be outsmarted by so unknown player? What would the others say?"
There was silence in the room again before Fighting Bunny said, "Regardless, we can’t deny the fact that only a player could increase an NPC’s RS level. And this hideout is Poppy’s territory. These are facts and angles that we couldn’t ignore.
"And who knew that there’s an underground hideout? Can anyone access it right now?"
"No one but that mysterious player and the NPCs," replied Doom Harbinger. "We tried going in, but the children would simply not let us in and the system blocked us from even going inside that Storage building."
Steel Striker stood straight. "So, aning he’s the only player who could access that underground, right?"
"Where are you going?" asked Fighting Bunny when Steel Striker walked towards the door.
"To find him, of course," Steel Striker said before opening the door. "This mysterious intruder is a cat player, right? We couldn’t achieve anything here with just theories and assumptions. I’m going out there to find that guy and make him talk."
Then he was gone.
"Hoi," Fighting Bunny was about to stop him when Ragnarok Reaper spoke.
"Leave him. Once he sets his mind to it, no one could stop him."
"So, what are we going to do about this player?" Doom Harbinger asked.
"Can Maya brew sothing that would allow us to locate this guy?" Ragnarok Reaper asked Eclipse.
Eclipse shook his head. "I asked her that before, but she didn’t have the necessary blueprints to make a tool for it. Most of her recipes are potions and poisons, after all.
"And even if you asked her, I doubt that she would cooperate. She has a lot of things in her hands right now."
"Brewing potions and maintaining the supply of potions are essential, after all right now," Fighting Bunny said. "Frankly, I don’t think finding this player is necessary right now, considering that he did help us in defeating Salathiir. That makes him on our side, right?"
There was a tense, heavy silence in the room.
"We don’t know that yet," Doom Harbinger said, breaking the silence. "This player has already left our group, and there’s no way that we can retrieve the list of players’ nas, including those who left, from our logs while we’re here. We have to request the lists from the developers for that."
Ragnarok Reaper nodded, "We have already emailed the devs. Right now, that player solo-killed Salathiir, aning that all EXP, gil, and Salathiir’s legendary-grade drops belong to him."
"Ah!" Fighting Bunny stood to her feet, her eyes wide. "That’s right! Now that you’ve ntioned it, we didn’t receive anything from that fight, even though we’re the ones who reduced that monster’s HP!"
Fighting Bunny clenched her hair in frustration. "Grrr! We were so relieved that we didn’t notice it at all!"
Doom Harbinger sighed and crossed his hand over his chin. "Now you know. We can’t leave this guy to his own devices. As long as he remains at large, he or THEY could KS our kill and solo out rewards."
Fighting Bunny released a deep breath. "Damn it. We don’t have ti for this. Now that Fury is gone, we should be planning our next move and not searching the whole town for this guy."
"We don’t have a choice but to do it unless we want to be robbed of our rewards in the future," said Eclipse.
"Let’s announce it to everyone and have them help find this guy. It would be faster that way," Ragnarok Reaper said seriously.
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