Swoosh!
The Virtual Reality Pod opened up, and a green-haired man climbed out—he was Victor Ranrakok, the guild master of the Monsieur Rascals.
The house all around him was sleek-looking. Very modern-looking. It was basically how a rich person’s ho would look.
"Lights."
Victor said.
With a voice command, the light flooded the room, and the kitchen’s ceiling lights flickered into life.
He walked to the coffee machine—which was of the latest model—and started brewing a fresh pot.
After that, he went to the fridge, took out so eggs, and cracked them into a bowl to start making scrambled eggs.
"Lalalala~"
He grabbed a remote, pressed a button, and the speakers buzzed to life, playing so random pop music that had been topping the charts lately.
"Answering machine, have I gotten any calls or ssages?"
Victor asked as he took off his clothes and stepped into the shower and let the water wash off the exhaustion and stress.
[Beep... Seventy-two calls, and hundred ssages... beep]
"Hmm? I guess I’ve not been around for a couple of days, but goddamn. Any from a person called Rickard?"
Victor asked.
[Beep... Rickard has called you seventy tis and has sent you ninety-eight ssages]
"...What?"
Victor clumsily turned off the shower, stepped out of the shower while leaving behind wet footprints, and took his phone from the top of the living room table.
When he opened his phones, there were many missed calls and text ssages—more and more ssages coming with every second.
"Does that an he died?"
Victor didn’t bother to call Rickard and just checked the earliest ssages that he sent him.
[Rickard: I FUCKING DIED]
[Rickard: There is a secret entrance to the quarries. It can be used to sneak into Snowberry Village unnoticed!]
[Rickard: You must hurry there because those fuckers also know about it by now. You must hurry before they can do anything about it!]
[Rickard: It’s by the mountain. I don’t know the exact location, but I caught sight of smoke coming out of a chimney. It must be the welcoming lodge. The entrance is pretty obvious and it’s at the side of the mountain]
[Rickard: HURRY UP!]
"You... Shit, shit, shit!"
Victor, with the wet fingers, started spamming ssages to Derrick and his guild mbers to return back to the ga.
It was hard because the phone was touchscreen and his wet fingers made it difficult to type accurately.
It was also ssing up with the touchscreen’s sensitivity, and kept pressing out random letters and symbols.
"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! That should do it!"
Victor tossed the phone to the couch, and without even changing into clothes, he climbed back into the Virtual Reality Pod.
"Hurry... hurry... hurry..."
...
Victor’s eyes twitched.
He felt like he had woken up from a short nap, but it was just his consciousness transferring from his real body to his avatar.
"Everyon—!"
As he slamd his eyes open, he was about to shout for his guild mbers, but then his words got stuck in his throat.
"Hello~"
Waylen was smiling at him, holding a blade to his throat, and he wasn’t alone as the entire Rose Records guild was there.
They were sitting by the fireplace, chatting, and had been just waiting for them to log back on.
Outside, it was dark and quiet.
The corpses of the deceased mbers of the Grinding Grief and Monsieur Rascal had already disappeared.
"...Damn."
Victor sighed.
His hand slowly reached out to his inventory, but before he could do anything, his vision turned dark.
The health dropped to zero.
In the following minutes, more of Grinding Griefs and Monsieur Rascals logged back on just to et their demise.
And lastly.
Pixels appeared on a chair. It quickly turned into a full-fledged man. And it was Derrick Reece of Grinding Grief.
He opened his eyes, but then ca across the sight of the Rose Records, and decided to keep sitting instead.
"...Haah."
Derrick just let out a long sigh, took his smoking pipe from the table, and lit it up for the final puff of smoke.
"We will be back."
He said.
"I don’t care."
Della said, and her golden grimoire glowed, and close to hundred small golden daggers made Derrick into a porcupine.
"WE DID IT!"
The players cheered and hugged each other, and while not cheering as much, Della was holding back her smile.
She looked at the empty chairs in front of her and realized that with this, the war was indeed over.
Rose Records prevailed and was now left as the only guild in all of the 15th floor.
...
Within the village square, a large bonfire roared, sending clouds of smoke into the sky, and illuminating the joyful faces of the players.
There were food servings with at cooking over the flas, ad being passed around, and music filling the air.
Locals and players were dancing around the bonfires, and as the musicians, it was mostly the locals.
The locals were also heavily celebrating the victory, as it ant that they could go back to their lives.
And they didn’t have to worry about the other players anymore, who were hostile to locals, and could finally live in peace.
"...More ale!"
"...Change the music little bit!"
The drunken players stumbled down the street, arms wrapped around each other’s shoulders, happily singing and laughing.
So players—male and female pairs specifically—retreated elsewhere to have their own private celebration.
"..."
Sitting by the bonfire, Fang Raon was enjoying a cup of warm mulled wine, watching the festivities unfold around him.
’The war ended quicker than I expected. Less footage for my war journalism video. It doesn’t matter because the footage I got was... Excellent.
’I should probably head off... Getting late... I also missed the daily phone call with Chaewon. What a sha...’
He sighed.
In that mont, soone sat beside him. On the sa wooden bench. And he looked over to see Della smiling at the bonfire.
"It’s nice, isn’t it? It’s been a really long ti since we’ve been able to party like this. Everyone’s been quite stressed lately.
"The war didn’t help either. It’s nice... To be finally able to let loose."
Della said with a smile.
"You can also relax, guild master. You’re the one that had the most responsibility, after all."
Fang Raon said with a smile.
"Was it that obvious?"
Della asked with a smile while kicking her leg back and forth.
"I don’t think others noticed. I saw that your eyes were slightly red. You cried before the eting about exposing the traitor."
Fang Raon said, and looked at her softly.
The knowledge of having one of her close friends as traitor really hurt her, and even more so after finding about who they were.
"I’ll be fine, hehe~ This opens up a new dawn for Rose Records. This floor is now ours, and we will not let anyone take it away from us!"
Della smiled and puffed her chest.
"Cheers for that."
Fang Raon lifted the cup, then placed it on his lips, and took a small sip.
"...May I?"
Della asked as she looked at the cup, and Fang Raon glanced at it before giving it to her, and she smiled gratefully.
She also took a small sip, let out a cute, "ah," as she wasn’t used to drinking alcohol at all.
"Thanks..."
She handed it back and then stood up and stretched her arms above her head as she was thinking about heading to sleep.
"I’ll probably head to bed now. What are your plans for tonight, Fang Raon? Keep partying till the morning?"
Della asked with a giggle.
"Actually, I think I’ll call it a night too."
Fang Raon said with a smile, and then he put the cup away and stood up.
"...I’ll give everyone couple days of rest, so no training, or I’ll be really angry. I’ll tell that to my grandfather too so he doesn’t try to drag you out of bed."
Della said with a smile.
"Ah... I appreciate that."
Fang Raon smiled back at her, and their eyes lingered on each other for a mont, and her cheeks turned a bright shade of pink.
In that mont, she moved towards him. Her face kept coming closer. And Fang Raon could feel his heart start beating faster.
She pressed her lips against his right cheek—smooch—and then slowly pulled away with a shy smile.
"As a thank you. This victory, in my opinion, is yours. Without your heroics back in the quarry, I don’t think we would’ve won. So thank you."
Della said with a genuine tone, her eyes shining with gratitude, and Fang Raon looked at her in surprise before cracking a smile.
"No problem..."
In that mont, they heard the party turn quiet, and Della curiously looked around and saw the guild mbers looking in their direction in shock.
"...Did guild master just kiss him?"
"...I don’t believe it... My beloved princess..."
Della’s face flushed with embarrassnt, and she quickly pulled open her interface, and pressed "log out."
With that, she was imdiately gone.
"Raon..."
In that mont, he heard an angry sound and turned around to see Rock storming towards him at full speed.
He’d been drinking a lot and looked like he was ready to fight him.
"See you later, teacher!"
Fang Raon imdiately pulled open the interface, pressed log out, and disappeared before Rock could reach him.
"GET BACK HERE, YOU BRAT!"
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