Chapter 52: A new world order.

“Now that we understand what it is our Lord wants, it goes without saying, but failure is not an option.” Lyra finally spoke after her long silence.

“To be summoned by him is an honor by itself. For that, you must live up to that honor, even at the expense of your very life.”

When she said those words, her gaze quickly turned to the Pillar she knew was the weakest amongst them.

Azeal.

With his arms folded and eyes closed, he spoke, a way to defend himself if anything.

“I am aware I have the weakest level of the Pillars, and with that, an even bigger embarrassment since I am the only one here Lord Kai granted a title. But please be rest assured, I am more than capable of pulling my own weight.”

“You seem rather confident,” Fhera chimed in with a thoughtful look on her face.

“Wouldn’t you be if Lord Kai blessed you with a title?”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Her voice sounded disappointed this time.

“Be that as it may, being able to pull your own weight is something that is expected of all of us here. Now then, I would like to propose the first step of action. If you don’t mind, of course, Lyra.” Sanovere looked towards her location.

Lyra raised her hand, hinting that she indeed wanted him to continue.

And he did.

Pointing at the map, the first thing he did was have Fhera identify all of the places where she had spotted the dungeons and also their ranks, levels, monsters, and so on.

Surprisingly, Fhera’s memory was flawless as she remembered every single detail down to the last number.

After gathering all the information, Sanovere couldn’t help but grin excitedly. He could already smell the victory from miles away.

“I suggest we take care of the monsters towards the South first. This side holds powerful monsters that are teetering to the level of 100. If we can hold down most of them here, it would be easier for us to conquer the rest of the land.” Sanovere used his magic to highlight where he was talking about.

“I assumed you wanted to go for the city first. There are tons of humans there we can turn into slaves. Would it not be better to catch them unaware?” Lyra added midway.

“Why of course, with our current strength, we should be able to do so if we catch them unawares, but they still outnumber us by a lot. If anything, I say we wait for Lord Kai to finish his trip from there and wait for his decision before we act.”

“Yeah, I agree with him too. I don’t think Lord Kai would go there for no reason.”

“What do you think he is there for?” Fanny asked, looking at the table.

“If I had to guess… He is probably baiting them into gathering information,” Lyra replied.

“He is truly amazing.”

“Right.”

…

Meanwhile.

’Now where the hell am I?’

Kai thought to himself, standing right in the middle of a dark alleyway.

From both the back and front, he could hear the murmurs of the everyday citizens sweeping past his ears as they walked past.

’Don’t tell me I got lost again.’

Kai had been spending a couple of days in the city for the sole purpose of feeding his curiosity about the state of the game since the logout option had exited.

And from what he could see…

It was far worse than he expected.

Icons.

These were the names given to players who were said to have special icon symbols floating at the top of their heads.

Those who had such marks were said to be the higher form of any creation, usually getting praised and basically viewed to be better than the average person.

Why?

Well, it was quite simple. Everyone had common stats that popped up at the side of their heads that viewed their info, be they NPCs or Players.

But because of the New World Order, those who were Players were forced to join Guilds, receiving the Icon that basically allowed anyone to know they were not the regular NPC.

Only players from the former world were allowed to join Guilds.

And one might wonder why that would be. Since in truth, there had been cases where even NPCs were stronger than most Players.

There was no other word than blatant discrimination.

If you were an NPC with no Icon on your head, the attention you received was far less than someone who was at a lower level but had the Guild Crest at the top of their heads.

Other creatures such as monsters, demi-humans, and so on didn’t get the same treatment. They were treated as toys, called NPCs as slurs, traded, and so forth.

It became so bad that many NPC non-humans began to flee from their homelands to live somewhere safe. Though this didn’t apply to all, as some were financially stable enough to buy their own freedom.

As Kai stood in the alleyway, from a far enough distance, he could see three men beating a young Wolf Beastkin at the corner, as people passed and ignored it.

’Even in this game, there is no escaping the horror of the human heart.’

With a small sigh leaving his mouth, he shoved one hand into his pocket and then slowly began to walk out to the open.

Once he arrived at the far end, his gaze immediately met with one of the nearby shops at the far distance, and standing there was Carlotta, her back resting against the far wooden counter.

Kai had ordered her to wait for him there, since very close to the small shop was a restaurant they could eat at.

However, upon seeing where she was, he also noticed she wasn’t alone.

Two bulky men were in front of her, and from the way they were dressed, Kai could guess they had to be some kind of mercenaries.

“Come on, don’t be like that. You look too good to be standing here all by yourself. Come hang out with us instead.”

“Yes, I promise it will be a lot of fun.”

Carlotta had purposefully kept her cool and ignored them the entire time because she didn’t want to disobey the order Kai gave her, which was basically to not attack anyone in Rambosa.

That said, she was certainly nearing her limit.

One of the mercenaries was so close to her face that she could feel his bad breath pressing directly on her.

Before she could snap, she suddenly noticed Kai observing at a far distance.

Her once frowned face brightened up with joy.

“Lor— Aron!”

She ran towards him, giggling and laughing up until the point she was near.

“Where did you go, Lord— I mean, Aron sir.”

Since he still had his mask on, Carlotta could not see the deadpan look he had on.

’No way it’s that hard to call me by my fake name. Now, then. I am not one to handle things like this, but I don’t think those guys took Carlotta ignoring them well.’

Kai turned his gaze towards them, and if he wasn’t mistaken, he could see them already reaching for their knives behind their backs.

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