Ascension: Online

When I went back into the city once more, I saw that a bunch of players had gathered around a single boy - Qin Yao. It seemed that Captain Ling Ye and his group of guards had managed to find many other players while I was outside exercising. Speaking of, they were here as well, listening in.

I joined the crowd. Coincidentally, I somehow managed to position myself right beside Chiaki - the one person I didn't want to interact with. She shot me a glare, which I didn't bother returning. Instead, I pretended like I didn't even notice she was there. That said, I was a bit surprised she didn't try moving away from me - probably to avoid attracting any attention to herself.

"Greetings, everyone," Qin Yao said, standing on top of a rock to make himself appear taller. "I trust everyone gathered here knows what this discussion will be about, but I'll say it anyway. Our mission is to head into the forest and kill all of the Magic Beasts we can find, in order to prevent a tragedy like last night's from ever happening again to Tianyin City."

"Look... we ain't all as heroic as you, kid," a man who looked to be in his thirties spoke up. "Most of us 're all just 'ere for the bloody reward money and the items we can get."

"Yeah, that's right," a few others added in agreement.

"That's fine," Qin Yao hurriedly said. "Even if that's the case, you're still helping this city. For that reason, you deserve rewards."

"Sure, but... how exactly are we actually going to pull this off?" a girl asked, raising her hand timidly. "I mean, from the way you've been talking, it sounds like you have a plan, but..."

"I do," Qin Yao said. "Just follow my lead - I was the one who discovered how to kill the sabertooths last night, after all. As long as you listen to me, we will get through this easily."

Hearing this, I couldn't help but scoff out loud. However, unfortunately, that drew some attention, and everyone turned to look at me. Qin Yao's eyes met mine, and he realized who I was - the person he had stolen all the credit from. He feared that I would expose him right now, making him lose his status completely. That said, I didn't have any evidence, and he seemed to realize that too. Because he didn't want to show any sign of weakness here in front of the other players and Captain Ling Ye, he had no choice but to confront me, even if he didn't want to.

"Do you have a problem with me leading?" he asked, looking at me in disdain.

I laughed and quickly shook my head. "No, no... I just choked on... uh, air. That's all."

From beside me, Chiaki snorted in amusement, but I didn't pay her any mind. Qin Yao scanned the rest of the audience, despite clearly knowing what I just said had been a lie. Everyone else obviously knew too, but no one decided to call me out for it, fortunately.

"Does anyone have any objections to me being the leader?"

The other players glanced at one another, and all shrugged.

"Hero Qin, no one but you can be the leader," Ling Ye said, inserting himself into this conversation. "Without you, these people cannot win."

"Oy, I can't believe an NPC is lookin' down on us," the man in his thirties from before chuckled. "Hey, 'Hero Qin', mate, how did'ya earn the favor of a bloody NPC like that?"

Captain Ling Ye seemed confused at the term 'NPC' but didn't say anything.

Qin Yao cleared his throat, unsure of what to say in response to his fellow player's mockery. "Ahem... anyway. That's all. We'll begin our mission at 6 PM today. That's in about eight hours, more or less. Any questions?"

"Um... yes!" the girl from earlier raised her hand again. "You told us to just follow you, but... that's really abstract. Can you tell us a more solid plan than just that?"

"H-Huh? Er... well, I'll split us into balanced teams, and then search the forest for any signs of Magic Beasts. Kill on sight. That's all there is to it."

I sighed, this time taking note to do so quietly as to not attract any attention to myself again. There were so many flaws with this kid's plans that I didn't even want to talk about it. For one, he doesn't even know any of us; our strengths, our weaknesses. Among us, there were bound to be strong players and weak players. What if he ends up putting all the weak players into one group? That would be essentially sending them to their deaths.

Besides, we have no information on these Magic Beasts at all. How powerful exactly were they? What types of beasts would there be? The only dangerous species we've really fought against have been sabertooths. However, last night, there had been far more than just those. The sabertooths we killed were merely the frontline, and the rest just happened to retreat. In all honesty, if they didn't run away and had just continued attacking, they probably would've demolished Tianyin. Qin Yao may have been able to learn a trick off me to kill the sabertooths, but I died after that - he had no one to copycat off of.

To sum it up, we had no way of knowing the true strength of these Magic Beasts... that is, if we weren't players, anyway.

The fact that this 'public event' was available to us meant that it was meant for our current level. Qin Yao must've seen this quest appear on his System, which was why he proposed this extermination idea to Ling Ye and had him recruit other players. Not a bad move, but still, his plan had many flaws. It was clear he didn't think this far ahead. Still, I doubted Qin Yao really cared about any of the other players. He just wanted all the good stuff for himself - as long as he gets his reward, fame, and survives without a scratch, he's fine.

Because of this, I had to make a move. I needed to ensure no one dies in vain, all because of the stupid and careless plan this kid thought up. Now, I'm not doing this because I wanted to play the hero or anything... but because I wanted a certain someone to owe me a favor.

"Before we do anything, don't you think it's necessary that we get to know one other and ascertain each others' strengths and weaknesses?" I proposed, raising my hand slightly. "I mean... you said you'll be splitting us into balanced groups, right? How the hell are you going to do that if you don't even know our abilities?"

Qin Yao looked at me and narrowed his eyes a bit, as if annoyed by my words. However, that expression quickly disappeared as he responded:

"Of course. You're right. In that case, let's all do a little introduction about ourselves, then. I'll go first since that is only natural, as the leader."