It went exactly as expected for Delicious Wind Goose.
After showing off their strength last night, the people from “Red Dead” approached early this morning.
The talk went well for the players from the start.
After all, the management of “Red Dead” was loose. It was not a strict organization. After confirming that the players were interested and had no intention of joining other organizations, the negotiation was done.
The “Red Dead” organization had a loose arrangement on the outside and tight management on the inside. They were not afraid of spies coming in. After all, peripheral members had almost no access to any information and had to work for nothing.
As to who would become an internal member, it all depended on their actions. However, the “Boss” had the immediate decision. Their identities were even kept secret. Even the other peripheral members would not know which of their members were internal members.
But the strange thing was that the internal members were united. Not to mention the hidden spies who joined in advance, there were even no bribed betrayers among them.
Many people thought the Boss, or perhaps someone under him, was a Great Wizard proficient in Prophet School and Soul Snatch School. Thus, there was such a tight organizational structure.
However, things went beyond Delicious Wind Goose’s expectations.
It happened after they had a rough discussion about “joining the Red Dead”.
After confirming that they were willing to join Red Dead, the person who came to talk to them suddenly changed the subject. He asked Delicious Wind Goose, or perhaps the whole group, to go to the fort sternly.
Delicious Wind Goose only found out after asking.
It was said that the “Boss” instructed them before the group went out. If Delicious Wind Goose were willing to join them, he would be directly promoted to a core member. The three people who came together with Delicious Wind Goose would also be promoted to internal members.
…But why?
The players were baffled.
If it happened not long after they first came to Mist Continent, they might have thought that they were blessed with the protagonist’s plot armor since they were the players. However, after recognizing their status, they knew that they would be, at best, playing a supporting role.
At the same time, the players had not met the boss yet.
The “Red Dead” even knew they came to Natta County with ulterior motives.
Why would the Red Dead’s leader invite them into the core of the organization when they had never met before?
If the other party could predict the future, would they not know their purpose?
In the end, the players made a decision after a discussion.
The conclusion they gave was not to spread out.
It was better to be wiped out all at once than to be defeated individually. Even though the players could brute force their way out at any time, they could also pay some sacrifice and teleport away anytime. However, Natta County was not a safe place after all. Even if a single person acquired the “Red Dead” nameplate, the person might still be unable to get food, clothing, housing, and transportation if he was not smart enough.
So although they felt something was wrong, they still went together to the “Red Dead” base in the end.
Then, they successfully met the “Boss”.
To their surprise… one of the most influential people in Natta County was not a wizard.
Delicious Wind Goose was ready to face a dark spell caster like the Gul’dan [1] type.
It turned out to be Gul’dan, indeed.
But it was Gul’dan with his clothes off—
“Here, you can call me ‘Boss’. You can also call me by my first name, Ike Searing-Fang.” The person who spoke was a burly man with golden curly hair.
He was smoking a cigar, and his voice was calm and charismatic.
Ike wore a yellow linen gown with sleeves rolled up to the elbows and an off-white waistcoat with many pockets. This outfit looked like an engineer and a reporter.
His skin was bronzed, and his exposed skin was covered with scars. He was extremely muscular, and his figure was about the same size as Delicious Wind Goose or even more exaggerated. He had an inverted triangle figure like a superhero in the comic book.
At the same time, he was one head taller than Delicious Wind Goose, about 1.9 meters tall.
His arms were firm like a sailor… the kind who loved spinach [2].
But what was most familiar to Delicious Wind Goose was that Ike Searing-Fang’s pupils looked like flowing lava, giving off a “bright dark red” feeling. He also spat out a faint white mist that smelled of sulfur when he breathed.
—The most important thing was a heavy gold chain around Ike Searing-Fang’s neck. It looked like a bunch of mahjong tiles.
With this body type, could he be a Soul Snatch Wizard or a Prophet Wizard?
Delicious Wind Goose was confident Ike could crush Yokai Sensei with one punch!
Except that Anderson might take three punches to kill, the three of them weren’t enough to contend with him.
More importantly,Delicious Wind Goose had seen this last name in a nightmare: the very nightmare that made him a transcender.
There, he met a Destruction Wizard named “Arthur Searing-Fang”.
His pupils and the sulfur smell in his breathing were similar to the man named Ike!
“Stop looking at me. I’m not a wizard.”
Ike, who called himself “Boss”, grinned and exhaled a plume of white smoke mixed with the smell of cigars and sulfur. The cinnamon smell almost covered up the scent of sulfur…
But as it happened, Delicious Wind Goose had a keen sense of smell.
“I can’t tell you about my specific profession. But I’m definitely not a wizard.”
Ike Searing-Fang smiled lowly and spoke in a charming, masucline voice, “I think you must be very curious. Of course, I’m not a wizard, but how can I judge that you are credible?”
No, I’m not curious at all.
We’re just here to spend our day, Boss…
Delicious Wind Goose thought that from the bottom of his heart.
But he remained expressionless on his face and nodded slowly.
His body was about the same size as Ike’s. The silver bracelet on his wrist looked intimidating if he did not talk much and pretended to be cool.
“To tell you the truth, this is a ritual we held. It’s also a large-scale artificial nightmare created by me myself.”
Ike said slowly, “I need you, Delicious Wind Goose. You are a Silver Rank transcender who has just advanced or a ritualist who has seen a true deity. The most important thing is that you are not a wizard. So, you perfectly meet the victory conditions of this ritual.”
Why must it not be a wizard?
Why me?
Delicious Wind Goose was suspicious.
But he did not ask much.
Presumably, the other party would not say it out either.
Delicious Wind Goose said directly to the point, “So, what should I do?”
Ike grinned, revealing an unabashedly happy smile, “Don’t worry. You’ll know when the time comes.”
Three hours later…
The four of them were respectfully invited into a luxurious villa with the “key” provided by Ike.
Of course, this luxury was also quite relative.
Compared with the villas they had seen in the capital, it was naturally not as good.
But in Natta County, Delicious Wind Goose believed this might be the best thing Ike or “Boss” could come up with.
Ike requested that the player could try to purify the nightmare he designed. It would be best if they could pass the level.
What the hell are they going to do?
How did he do it, artificially creating a nightmare?
He is not a wizard, but how can he achieve that?
And what does that even mean?
Delicious Wind Goose was puzzled.
It looked like some kind of conspiracy. But the other party was too frank, which made them a little undecided.
And…
That was a nightmare!
It was the element for the teleportation waypoint that granted experience and level-up rewards.
The nightmare itself was pretty interesting too.
It was quite enticing.
The courage as players also stopped them from backing down before trying.
After all, they could be resurrected.
After the players discussed it, they planned to have three people enter the nightmare to see the situation themselves.
They could use it to establish a teleportation waypoint if all went well.
Of course, just in case… they could not have the entire team enter the nightmare.
They left the only priest, Yokai Sensei, in charge of the vigil.
Yokai Sensei’s duty was not to protect his comrades.
Instead, when the enemy launched an assault, he would strike first to kill all his teammates.
He was the priest of the upright deity, and there was no way he could be controlled.
However, if the curse vessel of a transcender were stolen, the person would lose most of his transcended abilities in an instant.
It was a safety precaution even though they thought there was no point in plotting against them or kidnapping them. At the same time, it was highly probable that Ike was Gold Rank. Even if he weren’t, it would not be difficult for him to deal with them.
But this place was Natta County, after all.
The players could not trust the others easily.
“Are you ready?” Dove had exchanged eyes with Anderson.
“Don’t worry. I’m watching.”
Yokai Sensei patted the gun and said in a deep voice, “I think you should start a live broadcast. We should let the free players spectate you, and that feature helps keep a record of it.”
Delicious Wind Goose nodded and turned on the live broadcast readily, “That makes sense.”
He then cuffed the metal bracelet on his wrist and leaned back. For some reason, the metal bracelets looked like handcuffs, but nothing connected the two cuffs.
This was the first time players entered an unexplored nightmare while actively using the “dream key” as an item.
Based on Ike, this seemed like a nightmare that enabled a party-finding feature or something like that.
A nightmare that three people could enter together—
“This seems to be called a [co-op nightmare].”
Delicious Wind Goose muttered, his consciousness gradually becoming blurred.
His first reaction was: This boss did not scam me. So it’s really a nightmare?
Between drowsiness and waking, he felt his limbs bound by inexplicable power. It was like being chained to a cold chair.
—Suddenly, he trembled and woke up.
