Chapter 33 - Louise Handles Everything, and New Mystery

The players were there to get Arthur. Nothing else to it. While his fame in the game gave him a lot of fans, it also brought people who wanted his demise. That was just how things worked.

But those players were stupid to show up there. Louise was with him, and she was a powerful NPC who could kill all those low-level players without breaking a sweat.

Louise looked around and noticed who they were.

"Chosen Ones?" she asked, glancing at Arthur for confirmation.

"Yep, that’s right."

The players hadn’t expected Louise to be there. Or maybe they had, since Arthur had posted about her in the forums, but they probably didn’t think she would actually help him.

"Cinder," a player stepped forward, looking like the leader of the group. "You’re dead. We’ll be the first group to kill the most famous Chosen One, haha."

Louise frowned at that. She leaned closer and whispered in Arthur’s ear, "Do you want me to deal with them?"

Arthur was confident he could take on most of them, but all of them? Not possible right now. He didn’t want to reveal Yuki yet, and besides, Yuki didn’t even have proper attack skills to help. His tamed beast would remain a secret for now.

"Your help would be quite good, actually," Arthur whispered back.

Having her step in would show the other players that Arthur wasn’t alone. As a solo player, people might try to prey on him, thinking he had no one to rely on. Right now, he couldn’t fight that many players alone. That could change in the future as he grew stronger, of course.

But Louise was there precisely for that. She unsheathed her sword, glaring angrily at the group.

They noticed her level was so high they could only see ??? above her head.

"Why is she defending you?" the leader said in shock.

It was the first time they had actually seen an NPC defend a player like that. No player had befriended an NPC the way Arthur did. It was all thanks to his reputation and his contacts.

Louise created a fireball with her left hand almost instantly, then hurled it at the leader.

The fireball flew fast, and the player didn’t have time to dodge. It killed him instantly, dealing a whopping 1240 damage.

After finishing him off, Louise didn’t stop. She rushed another player, slashing with her sword. Her attributes were so high the players couldn’t even see her movements.

Her class was both melee and ranged — a magical swordsman. She could use all elements of magic, though some only at basic or intermediate levels.

It was the ice element where she truly excelled, which made sense considering the kingdom she lived in.

Within just a few seconds, Louise had killed five players. The rest were in complete shock. None of them expected Arthur to have such a powerful NPC backing him up.

Arthur wanted to show he could fight too. Killing 1 or 2 players wouldn’t cause him trouble. With his current reputation in the region, even if he picked up a PK status, the guards wouldn’t attack him, and he’d still be able to live normally. So there was no reason to avoid killing players.

He activated his stealth, vanishing. The players instantly shouted, "Where is Cinder? How did he vanish?"

No one knew what class he had, but they were sure he wasn’t a rogue. Yet here he was, turning invisible. How was that even possible?

Arthur circled around, getting behind one of the players. Then he used his Assassination skill.

[60 Damage]

The skill wasn’t enough to kill the player, who was a rogue as well, but Arthur didn’t stop there. He followed up with Deep Cut, weaving auto attacks between both skills.

That combo dropped the player to 10% HP. The rogue tried to escape by activating his own stealth, but the bleeding effect finished him off.

Meanwhile, Louise was still going all out, now casting AOE ice spells that instantly killed four more players. Everyone was basically dead. Only one player remained alive.

This last player had already given up, not wanting to fight anymore.

"Don’t kill me, please," the player begged. "I can answer whatever you want."

Arthur walked toward him to ask questions.

"Why are you chasing me?"

"O-Our guild leader wanted us to find and kill you. We’re from a top guild."

A top guild. Arthur didn’t like the sound of that. There was one guild in particular that was famous for having far fewer members than normal, but every single one was either a rogue or another class specialized in espionage, assassination, and shady work.

Was it the same guild already after him? If so, then someone had hired them to target Arthur. That guild never went after people without a contract.

"Who hired you?" Arthur pushed, yelling at the player.

"I can’t tell you that! They’d expel me from the guild."

There was no point in asking more if the player wasn’t going to answer. For him, it was better to die, lose some EXP, and grind back up than get kicked out of the guild. Arthur looked at Louise and nodded. She instantly knew what he wanted.

A clean slash of her sword, and the player was dead. The difference between a high-level NPC and players who had just started the game was insane.

Now that only the two of them remained, Louise had to ask.

"Why are they after you? Did you do something illegal? I knew it! You and my father are up to something."

"Hey, it’s not like that. I didn’t do anything, and your father didn’t either. Are you still mad he didn’t give you Yuki as a pet?"

Louise gently kicked a tiny rock near her.

"Hmmm, maybe. I know the reason, it’s just hard to accept sometimes."

She then walked over to the river, completely forgetting she had just killed a few players.

"Yukiii," she yelled, "come here so I can pet you!"

The poor little creature couldn’t even understand what she was saying...

Arthur checked the forums right after those players died, and sure enough, there were already tons of posts about it. The players had recorded the encounter and uploaded it, chasing views.

Everyone quickly linked Louise to the woman they’d seen in Arthur’s earlier post when he was riding the horse. The horse even appeared in the footage, so it wasn’t hard to put the pieces together and realize what was happening.

Questions were flying among the players. Everyone wanted to know how Arthur had a hot woman protecting him while most of them were still struggling just to reach the first city.

They rested for a bit near the river and then returned to the main road, still heading up the mountain toward the village.

No monsters came to attack them, which was rare. Louise was clearly puzzled by it.

"Something might be wrong," she said. "I don’t believe we’re just lucky."

Arthur shared the same thought. Considering it was a game, the world was definitely designed to keep things interesting—or rather, to make the players’ lives a living hell.

The whole point of the game was to be realistic, to make players feel what it would be like to live in a magical world. And in that regard, it did a damn good job.

They rode the horse, and after three more hours, reached the mountain village. It was still dark, so Arthur couldn’t see how beautiful the place was. Only in the morning would he.

The moment they arrived, a group of villagers came out with swords and torches in hand. It was uncommon for outsiders to visit the village.

But when they saw Louise’s face, all of them instantly recognized her.

"Lady Louise," a villager said, "why are you here this late?"

It was hard for her to explain why she traveled during the night, so she avoided the question altogether.

"Can we have a place to stay?" she asked.

"Of course. Follow me to the tavern. And it’s free for you, lady."

That was one of the perks of being Ray’s daughter.

The tavern was empty except for the owners, who were surprised to see Louise show up so late. If she had been an ordinary person, they would’ve been annoyed at having to wake up in the middle of the night to hand over a room key. But because it was her, they greeted her with smiles. Reputation made a huge difference. Arthur already knew that.

The room was simple, with only one bed, but since Arthur would soon disappear after logging out of the game, there was no reason to be alarmed.

The tavern owner stood in front of the door, refusing to leave until he said something to Arthur and Louise.

"Something is... strange in the mountains, Lady Louise. We haven’t seen any monsters roaming near the village for quite a while. I know I should be happy about that, but magical monsters are part of our world. If they’re not here, then there must be a reason..."

[Hidden Quest in the area. Find clues to unlock it]