’Why is he asking to play his ga?’
Staring at the laptop in front of him, Rowan was a little confused. However, he wasn’t confused for long as he recalled that Seth’s ’real’ job. That of a ga developer. Or at least, that was what he called himself.
In Rowan’s mind, Seth was more of a therapist for him than a ga developer.
He was the only one who was capable of calming him down whenever he had trouble with sleep or had nightmares about his past.
That was why Rowan forgot all about Seth’s real job.
But then again, he wasn’t really that interested in playing Seth’s ga. He didn’t want to sound arrogant, but he was one of the top recruits within the Guild. Yes, he was still inferior to Kyle and Zoey, but he was still up there.
He didn’t believe for one second that the ga could have an effect on him.
He was also not in the mood for it. Especially with everything that had been happening within the departnt.
’I know he’s helped out a lot, but I don’t really want to fake a reaction. I’m not exactly the greatest of actors. If I fake it, and he realizes it, he might just stop doing the sessions with . But what if I don’t fake it and I won’t get scared? Will he get angry and kick away? Or will he lock himself up in his office again? But what about my sessions...?’
Rowan started to sweat.
Regardless of how he tried to see things, he was in quite a disadvantaged situation.
Whichever option he chose seed to lead to a terrible outco for himself. The only way for everything to go smoothly was to be genuinely scared, but Rowan knew he wasn’t going to get scared.
Just one look at the plain interface was all he needed to know about the quality of the ga.
’Ah, shit... What do I do? I can’t do without the therapy sessions anymore.’
"Rowan?"
Suddenly hearing his na get called out, Rowan raised his head to see Seth staring at him with his head tilted.
"Is there sothing wrong? Is the ga not loading?"
"Oh, ah... the ga. Yes, the ga."
Turning his attention back to the ga, Rowan secretly swallowed. He was trying to think of all ways to reject playing it. However, lifting his head once more to stare at Seth and seeing the way that he was looking at him, Rowan could only inwardly sigh.
’Since I made an appointnt with him, telling him that I have sothing coming up will feel too obvious. In the end, do I have no other choice but to play the ga...?’
Licking his lips, Rowan once again alternated his gaze between the laptop and Seth. However, the mont he looked at Seth and saw the look of anticipation on his face, Rowan felt his hand twitch.
It really did seem like he cared...
’Alright, fine.’
In the end, Rowan sighed once more.
Regardless of how unscary the ga was, he was prepared to put out the most amazing performance of his life.
Reaching out for the mouse, Rowan moved the cursor towards the [Play] button and left-clicked.
Click!
The ga began.
***
Swoosh! Swoosh!
Figures began to erge one after another from behind a large portal. Waiting for them before the gate were several figures clad in white clothes, holding onto tablets as they stared at the erging figures with a look of shock.
In the end, they only snapped out of it when Kyle erged. He had a complicated expression on his face as he did.
Turning his attention towards the people clad in white, Kyle held onto a large bag and tossed it to them.
"Here. This is our haul for today."
"Uh, ah...? Yes, ah, yes."
Catching onto the bag, one of the figures clad in white opened it and quickly looked through the contents.
"This..."
It didn’t take long for their expression to change as they looked at Kyle and the group in shock.
"Not bad, right?"
Smiling at the researcher, Kaelen erged from behind Kyle as he stared at the bag.
"If I didn’t count wrong, we should’ve been able to fetch about thirty fragnts."
"Thirty-four to be exact."
Serelith added by the side, yawning slightly as she gave the bag a casual glance before losing interest. Leaning against her spear, she brushed her long white hair behind her head while also mumbling sothing to herself.
Sothing along the lines of, ’What should I have for lunch? Turkey sandwich?’
Staring at the two and then the bag, Leon found himself licking his lips. While the haul wasn’t exactly big, considering the gate that they had just entered was a re rank, this was amongst the highest hauls they could receive.
Once a gate was cleared, they wouldn’t just disappear forever after closing.
Once a gate was cleared, the Guild would assu authority over it, allowing them to send mbers back inside to gather fragnts.
...Or in their own terms, ’farm’ them.
What distinguished the differently ranked gates from one another wasn’t the purity of the fragnts within; they all scaled with the gate’s clearance level. It wasn’t the attribute either. What truly set the gates apart in rank was the haul granted upon clearing each successive trial.
The higher the rank of a gate, the greater the number of fragnts that could be ’fard’ in said gate.
A ranked gate usually produced about twenty to thirty fragnts per subsequent clear.
In other words, they had cleared the gate flawlessly.
"This one was quite a bit easier than I expected. I’d expect the fragnts to be quite pure this ti. The haul isn’t so bad." Chiming in from the side was Sarah, who looked at the bag with sparkling eyes as they all started to move back towards the Containnt Area.
Coming directly from the Collection Departnt, Sarah specialized in the collection of fragnts from gates.
Her attraction towards the fragnts was only natural.
"I can tell with just one look that the fragnts are at least 60% above in purity. Fuck!" Sarah enviously looked in the direction of those in the Containnt Departnt. "You guys have it really easy. We hardly did a thing, and we managed to get so many pure fragnts. How is this departnt so unprofitable when it’s so easy to farm fragnts?"
"About that..."
Kyle could only force a smile while answering her. It wasn’t like collecting the fragnts was hard. If he went by himself, he could probably collect the sa amount.
The issue was that he was too busy trying to clear the higher-ranked gates, leaving the lower-ranked gates for the less experienced people.
The number of resources the Guild had to spend to first clear the gate in the Containnt Departnt was much higher than what it spent on one gate in the other departnts. Not only that, but the deaths were much higher, too.
It really wasn’t as easy as she thought it was.
Kyle was just about to say this, but was soon cut off by Kaelen, who gave them the side-eye.
"Maybe the reason why they are so unprofitable is that they waste too much ti on preparations. I heard that in order to join this departnt, one needed to be extrely brave. But..."
Kaelen put on a difficult face as he looked away from Kyle and entered the containnt zone, filled with its nurous cubicles.
"...As far as I see, rather than bravery, I see sothing else."
"What else do you see?"
Frowning, Kyle looked at Kaelen. He could feel that whatever Kaelen was trying to imply wasn’t anything nice.
Seeing Kyle take the bait, Kaelen’s lips pulled up as he opened his mouth to speak when...
Clank!
A sharp smack rang out in the distance, snapping everyone’s attention toward one of the doors. From behind the darkness that embraced the insides of the door, a pale figure stumbled forward, his eyes wide and quivering.
He reached out a trembling hand toward the doorfra, barely able to whisper,
"H-help..."
But before his fingers could touch the edge, a figure materialized behind him. The figure tilted his head slightly, voice calm.
"Co on. You barely played the ga. Keep going. I still need more data."
"No, no, no..."
"Do this favor."
Rowan’s face contorted, his expression twisting as the color drained from his skin. He jerked his head up, eyes locking with Kyle and the others. With sudden desperation, he reached toward them, screaming at the top of his lungs:
"Help ! Help !! I can’t do this anymore! Help !"
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