Inside one of the inns in Yleka city, a grown-ass man wearing barely any clothes barged into a room in a very rude manner. Three men sitting around a table turned to look at this intruder who had entered without permission.
However, no one showed any reaction. One of them remained silent and indifferent while the other two seemed to be showing some pity. This only made the intruder even more agitated.
"You! You feed me false information like this, destroy my entire guild, and still dare to sit here peacefully and drink your stupid tea?"
Immediately, two among the three men jolted up from their chairs and stood defensively. One of them had a strong nether aura swirling around while the other was ready to go berserk.
However, the third guy, the person enjoying his drink, remained calm.
"The tea is good." He raised his gold-rimmed glasses and answered as a matter of fact.
The other person was about to explode but the glasses guy chuckled lightly and raised his hand, stopping him from speaking further. "If I were you I would think twice before opening your mouth, Rowen."
"But-"
"That's enough." The gold-rimmed glasses guy did not talk any further. Instead, one of the two other men grabbed the shirtless guy and brought him over to another room on the same floor, adjacent to this room.
"Kouske! Barett! This is not fair! This is not the deal we made. How did they end up winning? You said. No, he said that we will win. You said his predictions never-"
"Yes, I know what I said and I know what we discussed, but you still lost. This was should have been your victory but you still lost. You understand what that means, right? You suck that much."
"What…"
"Even after all arrangements we made for you, all the favors we pulled in, you still somehow managed to lose this war. Who do you think suffered a bigger loss? You or us?"
"But…"
"Are you a total idiot? How could you forget about Alex? She is the guild leader at the moment and when you didn't spot that redhead anywhere in the five paths, shouldn't you have thought that something was wrong?"
"Oh wait, that's right. You died way before that. You couldn't even stay alive until the end of the battle. What a piece of useless trash!"
"Kouske!"
"Just shut up and leave. You were never fit to be a guild leader in the first place. That's why you lost. Now, don't waste your time sulking around like a pussy."
"Suck it up and rebuild yourself. You are still at Level 50, use that to your advantage. You already know what guild to join now. And more importantly, this should be the last time, you disrespect brother."
"If you do it again… do I need to spell things out for you?"
Rowen shook his head listlessly. In front of these people, he was but a mere ant. Even if they crushed him under their feet, he couldn't say anything. They gave it all and now they took it all. All he could do was swallow his pride and follow the orders.
Just a few hours ago, he was a man who had everything, at the peak of fame, at the top of his career, eyes of the whole world on him, and now he had nothing. He was a loser and he had to start from scratch again.
Rowen gritted his teeth and stepped outside. His trade window opened as Barett gave him a set of items and some gold.
"Don't mind the harsh words. You don't understand but we have indeed lost a lot in this war. We can talk later when you have a chance to get back on your feet. Until then lay low."
Rowen sighed. For a second, he wanted to throw this charity right back at their faces but he really was not in a position to do so.
He never even wanted to go into this war in the first place and now he was being blamed for everything. The world sure was unfair.
As he walked away from the inn, mixed in with the other players, he saw a proud guy walking past him. He was wearing a Crimson Abyss guild tabard and showing off.
For a moment, Rowen couldn't help but think how his life might have been different if he had joined a guild like that. Maybe he wouldn't have to bow his head to others like he did now.
Not too far away from Rowen, there was another person walking equally dejectedly.
"Boss, what happened?"
A tall well-built man shook his head in response. This was none other than Dallas.
"Dallas, you look sad. Are you upset that the deal won't go through?" One of the players near him asked again.
"Nah." Dallas shook his head. "The deal will go through for sure. Their win or loss has nothing to do with us."
"Then?" The friend couldn't understand why he was so upset. "Did you maybe bet a lot of money and lose it?"
"Nope." Dallas still said no. He was not a betting man. He didn't bet all that much on the war.
"Then what the hell happened?" The friend finally lost his patience!
"Arghh." Dallas sighed. "I met a guy."
"Huh?"
"I met a monk and he said that I would have good luck. No, he said great luck. He said people would chase after me and give me things."
"What the hell are you talking about? Wait, is this that big brother person?"
"No. No. Of course, not. This was a different monk. I was hoping we could recruit him to our guild. You see how powerful that person is, so maybe I thought this guy would also be powerful."
"Oh?" Now the friend understood. "Should we try searching for him, then?"
"No. No. Let it be. What he said didn't happen after all." Dallas decided that the monk was just another wannabe scammer, cheating everyone with the same good luck predictions. "Forget it." He shook his head.
And just as he took another step, he walked right into what looked like a big pile of shit.
"FUCK!"
For some reason, the monk's smiling face and his prediction flashed past his mind at this exact same time.
"Damn it. Let's go and run a dungeon. I need to do some stress relieving." Dallas slapped his forehead and the group silently disappeared from Yleka city.
And somewhere in the same city, a monk sneezed loudly.
"Ah. Someone must be thinking about me. Maybe what I predicted, finally came true? Yes, yes. That should be it. Maybe they are looking for me to thank me. Sigh. Unfortunately, I am too busy so I should keep moving forward."
He revealed a very self-content, smug grin as he jutted his chest out and walked forward. There he saw a well-equipped player leaning against a wall and stopped in front of him.
"Kind sir, you seem to be a very nice person, do you want to know your future? It will cost just 1 gold coin."
***
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***
"Huzzah!"
"Yay!"
"Bottoms up!"
"We did it!"
There was a loud round of cheers as everyone crammed into the cramped apartment for a round of beer. Of course, the only underage girl in that group was begrudgingly holding a can of juice.
"Sis Yue, can I not taste a little?"
"No, way." Shen Yue shook her head. Her cheeks were flushed as this was her fifth bottle. Just like her, Alex was also completely drunk. Everyone was letting loose as they had really worked hard for the war.
The only people who weren't drinking anything were the old woman and two men dressed in an old-fashioned way. They were actually the chief guests for this celebration as Alex had invited them over to the house to try and deepen their bond.
She could see that they weren't part of the guild's main roster yet, and after witnessing their talents on the battlefield, she absolutely did not want to lose them.
However, as the evening progressed and the number of drinks increased, this was quickly forgotten. Rey was also equally drunk, along with a few other guild members who had dropped in for the party because they lived nearby.
Thankfully, before the dojo people decided to leave for the evening, a sober person finally entered the party.
Liam's room door opened as he stepped outside, flinching at the loud music. "You guys…" He chuckled helplessly. Now he did not have to guess what happened to the guild war.
Naturally, he immediately noticed the granny and her two associates sitting on the couch in a side silently. He waved at them helplessly with a polite smile.
However, as he was walking toward them, a figure dashed right into his arms so forcefully that she pushed him right onto the ground, soft red hair cascading all over his face.
"Liam! We won! We won! We won!"
