½ Prince

Chapter 5: If There is Already French Bread in This World, Why is There Meatbun as Well? – translated by bleachpanda

“Hmm… I remember that when Gui tried to take me to find everyone, he seemed to be going… this way?” I stared at the deep and quiet forest, thinking in desperation, Which direction did Gui take me in…? Speaking of which, if only Gui were still here, then everything would be fine. Even Zhuo-gēgē’s presence would help… Inadvertently, my heart sank. I will never be able to see them within the game again.

“Then… won’t I have to meet Professor Min Gui Wen now?” I frantically stood up. Oh no! I don’t think my midterm exam results on the history of literature were that… ideal. Thinking about the Professor’s comment on my test that said “there is still a lot of room for improvement” made me really… not want to tell him that I was actually Prince…

But if I don’t go to meet Gui, won’t that be quite cruel of me? I sighed with an inevitable headache, “What should I do?”

“What should you do? Open the door and let us in! Or else, be prepared to be destroyed!” A cold voice rang out.

I froze for a moment. This voice sounded very familiar, but that person usually didn’t use such a cold tone when speaking to me. I raised my head and looked up. I stood up, excitedly shouting, “Zui! And everyone!”

The entire Execution Squad had actually assembled right in front of my eyes! Everyone appeared tired and worn out, their foreheads dripping with sweat, their faces full of exhaustion. It could be deduced from one look that they had risked their lives to come here in a rush…Did they rush here in desperation for an idiot like me? I almost smiled happily from the bottom of my heart.

However, it seemed that Nan Gong Zui hadn’t expected that I would yell out his name. He stood there stunned for quite a while before replying, “Who are you? How do you know my name?”

“Don’t tell me you’re Prince?” Lolidragon rushed forward, studying my appearance from head to toe. “How did you become a ghost? And a red malicious ghost at that!”

“Lolidragon! Be careful! It might be a trap!” Undying Man charged forward a few steps, standing in between Lolidragon and me. He was playing the part of a hero that always protects the beautiful girls. Looking at me with suspicion and doubt, he bluntly said, “No matter how much you look at this thing, it does not resemble Prince one bit!”

Oh no… They can’t recognize me. Don’t tell me they’ll treat me as an NPC and kill me? I hurriedly tried to clear up the misunderstanding, “I am Prince! I really am! I just used the device that Lolidragon gave Gui! Lolidragon, you know… that plastic wrap that lets you transform..?”

“Plastic wrap?” A puzzled expression appeared on Lolidragon’s face. Her strange reaction led to the Execution Squad anxiously drawing out their weapons and pointing them toward me one after another.

“Pfffft!” Lolidragon couldn’t help but snicker out loud. It wasn’t long before she held her stomach in laughter. “Hahahaha! Plastic wrap! You actually called the fake skin we invented for transformations plastic wrap! Haha, only, only Prince would have such a weird imagination!”

“So it really is Prince?” Yu Lian-dàsăo gasped in surprise.

“It is me!” I nodded in desperation.

“Wow, Prince… You have turned… really red!” Sunshine stared at me with curiosity.

…That’s not the main point, everyone thought.

After hearing these “comments,” Lolidragon knelt on the floor, violently pounding the ground as she laughed in an even more exaggerated manner. The sound of her laughter agitated me to the point that I was seriously tempted to kick her a few times. “Y-You only need to shout ‘Restore’ in order to return to your original appearance,” she eventually stuttered.

I jumped up vigorously and said, “Why didn’t you say that earlier?! Restore!! Hurry up and Restore!!”

Why isn’t anything happening? I lowered my head, ceaselessly staring at my translucent torso… It feels strange being able to see what’s behind me through my chest. While I was still looking through myself and feeling strange about it, an explosion of red light suddenly emitted from my body. Once more, I felt an extremely concentrated amount of heat burning me. However, this time, I was mentally prepared. Unlike last time when I fainted on the spot, this time I was able to withstand the heat and see my body begin to change. Transparent plastic wrap (okay, Lolidragon insisted that it was fake skin used for transformations) appeared at the soles of my feet and slowly wrapped around my calves, then my thighs, followed by my waist, until it finally transformed me once again into a mummy encased in transparent bandages.

I… really felt like tearing off this plastic wrap. However, the problem was not only the fact that I had become a mummy, but that I had also become like one of those Egyptian mummies that are placed in coffins with their legs and arms completely bound. How could a mummy tear off its own bandages?

“Uh… As it is still in development, there could be slight defects,” Lolidragon tried to explain but succeeded only in making things worse. “Therefore, you should never say “Restore” when you are alone… Otherwise, you might run into some trouble.”

“No need to explain any further. Hurry up and remove that thing from Prince’s body,” Wolf-dàgē lightly interrupted Lolidragon whilst stepping forward and helping me remove the plastic wrap from my body. He managed to unwind the piece of plastic wrap from my face with much effort.

“As expected of Wolf-dàgē, you’re the best!” I thanked him immediately, touched.

Wolf-dàgē gently knocked on my head before reproaching me slightly, “Why did you run off alone without even reporting back to the team? Everyone was really worried about you.”

The moment I heard Wolf-dàgē’s words, I couldn’t help but think about Zhuo-gēgē and Gui once again. It was all because of me that they disappeared. I couldn’t stop myself as my voice choked with sobs, “I’m sorry, because of me, both Gui and Wicked… They will never appear in Second Life again. They… Both of them have vanished forever.”

Wolf-dàgē sighed. With his arms outstretched, he held me against his wide chest and said in a comforting tone, “Go ahead and cry. We’ll avenge them as soon as you’re done.”

“Wolf-dàgē…” After hearing his words, I openly burst into tears and wept bitterly, keeping my face hidden in his embrace. My tears and snot ran down Wolf-dàgē’s chest.

After crying for a long, long time, I started having countless flashbacks of when I was with the two of them. Strange… Why are the flashbacks related to Gui so violent and gory? I finally forced myself to stop sniffling.

Still hiding desperately within Wolf-dàgē’s arms, I quietly asked, “Does my crying sound horrible?”

“It sounds slightly better than a wailing god and a crying ghost combined,” Lolidragon remarked tactlessly, her words stabbing right through me. Someone really needs to teach her a lesson about interjecting with unnecessary comments.

“A grown man weeping? How unsightly,” Ming Huang said coldly, dealing me the last blow.

Ignoring the midget, I angrily turned around and glared at Lolidragon, “Couldn’t you at least comfort me?”

“Comforting is useless,” Lolidragon said, suddenly retracting her grinning face and replacing it with a serious one. “I’d rather stand by your side and fight alongside you.”

“Lolidragon….” I was shocked, “Have you taken the wrong medicine?”

Lolidragon gave me a ruthless blow on the head. She roared, infuriated, “Damn you! I rarely say such fine words. Why couldn’t you have acted along with me!?”

“So you do know that you rarely say such nice words…” Feng Wu Qing quietly muttered to the side.

“Prince, something’s not right within the city,” said Nan Gong Zui, frowning as he came forward.

“What do you mean by ‘not right?’” I asked, slightly surprised.

“Listen. It seems like there are battle sounds,” Zui said with a heavy expression.

I quickly strained my ears, and was indeed able to hear faint battle noises obviously drifting over from Flower City. “This is strange. Everyone is outside of the city, so who would be fighting within Flower City? It can’t be that the NPCs revolted, right?” I asked, unable to understand the current situation.

“No way. NPCs don’t fight with other NPCs,” said Lolidragon, dismissing my words. However, she continued furrowing her eyebrows as she said, “But, if they were self-aware NPCs… then that’s a different story.”

“Prince-gēgē, why hasn’t Celestial come out?” Doll asked worriedly.

Celestial! Now that Doll mentioned it, I finally remembered that Celestial and Ocean’s Heart were still in the city! I blurted out, “Could Celestial and Ocean’s Heart have started fighting?”

“Why would Celestial and Ocean’s Heart be fighting?”

“Let’s not worry about that aspect. Since both of them are good NPCs, I can’t just stand by and watch them kill each other,” I said hastily as I rushed toward the city gates. I took out Wicked’s longsword, hoping to use Pure White Inferno Rhapsody to break through the gates in order to stop the two people… the two NPCs from battling any further.

“Prince,” Feng Wu Qing suddenly called out, stopping me in my tracks. I looked at my brother suspiciously. Smiling, he threw a weapon toward me. “Your Black Dao.”

My Black Dao! I caught the weapon and took a look. It really is my Black Dao! My exceptionally black Black Dao, my best partner in combat!I was overjoyed. After swapping it with my current weapon, I couldn’t resist swinging Black Dao a few times to get the feeling back. “My precious Black Dao, you are indeed the only one who could ever fit my fighting style!”

“Pure White Inferno Rhapsody!” I charismatically shouted the name of my ultimate technique with my back confidently facing the gate. Without even having to look, I was supremely confident that the gates had been smashed into smithereens. Although I have nothing against you, dear gates, you were obstructing my path… I swept back my hair and turned to enter the city….

Bam!

“….” Silence hung in the air.

My entire body had smacked right into the city gates, the fingernails on my hands leaving ten scratch marks on its surface. That hurt! Ow, ow, ow… Ouch!

Suddenly, Nan Gong Zui walked to my side, which happened to be in front of the city gates. He placed one of his hands on the gate, bent down, and asked, his voice full of concern and worry, “Are you alright?”

Pah!

My entire body came into hard contact with the floor, leaving Nang Gong Zui stunned and looking down at his own hand, the hand that had “accidentally” pushed the gate open!

Nan Gong Zui, acting as if nothing had happened, once again walked closer and bent his body down, asking, “Are you alright?”

Thump!

“Uh… The chunk of ice that just fell from the sky and coincidentally hit you has nothing to do with me!” Nan Gong Zui solemnly justified himself.

“…” This was the sound of my speechlessness. Heaven raining ice chunks down on me? Don’t tell me the reason I’m being hit is because I was violent to the city gate… Have I angered the gods?

“Ah! Celestial!” Doll suddenly cried out.

I immediately jumped up from the floor, my eyes following the direction that Doll’s eyes were staring in. On a five-to-six-story-high building, both Celestial and Ocean’s Heart were in the middle of a heated battle for some unfathomable reason! The large number of both heavy and minor injuries on their bodies clearly showed that the battle had been going on for a long time.

Also, there was no mistaking the fact that both of them had been fighting on the ground just now. I could tell from the pile of NPC corpses they had left behind that had yet to disappear. In addition, everything surrounding the building had been completely demolished. It could be deduced that as they exchanged their blows, they had realized that if they continued fighting on the ground, all of the NPCs that were present in the city would have been wiped out. Hence, they had changed their battle ground to midair.

As several icicles formed from Ocean’s Heart’s hand and flew toward Celestial, I softly uttered, “Ocean’s Heart…”

“Prince, I know that you are worried about Ocean’s Heart,” Lolidragon said as she patted my back as if consoling me. “But rest assured, everyone will prevent….”

“Of course! It was Ocean’s Heart’s icicles that had fallen and hit me! And I thought I had angered the gods!” I said in realization.

“…” Lolidragon once again punched me violently.

“Why did you hit me again?” I complained angrily as I held my head.

“Hurry up and stop them!” Lolidragon screamed in frustration.

“Stop? Are you kidding me?” I looked toward the tall building. I could use Meatbun’s bamboo copter to fly up there, but couldn’t they see?Dozens of ribbons of Celestial Satin danced around in the sky, hitting the city’s walls from time to time and leaving huge holes in them. I can’t even imagine the amount of damage there would be if it were Ocean’s Heart’s icicles instead… If I really were to fly up there, I would get knocked out of the air by Celestial Satin and then find myself pinned to the wall through all four of my limbs by Ocean’s Heart’s icicles.

“Prince-gēgē, you have to help Celestial quickly! He’s bleeding so much!” Doll anxiously looked at the patches of wounds on Celestial’s body that had been carved by Ocean’s Heart’s icicles. She was so desperate, she was about to burst into tears at any moment.

“I…” Looking up at the sky, I was filled with doubt and uncertainty.

“Divine Lightning Strike!” Ming Huang shouted out of the blue as he cast his spell.

The cloudless sky was suddenly filled with lightning. Bolts of lightning hurtled toward Ocean’s Heart, but before they could even come within ten meters of him, they were destroyed by his icicles.

“Damn, it actually didn’t succeed!” cursed Ming Huang.

“He is a BOSS level NPC, you know. Relying only on a few mages may be futile,” said Yu Lian-dàsăo as she frowned.

“Then I shall go!” Sunshine suddenly spoke.

Oh right… I had almost forgotten that Sunshine has a flying carpet.

“You can’t! Look at the sky! There are too many ribbons of Celestial Satin and icicles…. You’ll die!” Fairsky objected to his idea fiercely.

“Fairsky, do you want me to simply stand by and watch Celestial die?” Sunshine tried to convince Fairsky anxiously.

“Prince! Hurry up and think of something!” Lolidragon grabbed my shoulders desperately and shook me vigorously.

“Stop it already! No matter how much you shake, I don’t have a…” As I was talking, an odd expression came over my face and an unbelievably wild idea sprung into my mind.

I took out my long-absent Meatbun and tried to shake it awake, wiping away its adorable sleeping face.

“Mama?” Meatbun muttered, still dazed as it blearily opened its eyes.

“Good Meatbun, can you do a favor for mama? After you help mama, mama will give you lots and lots of yummy meat buns to eat!” I tried my best to coax Meatbun.

Upon hearing that it would have yummy meat buns to eat, Meatbun immediately snapped out of its stupor. With love-filled eyes, it agreed eagerly, “Okay! Meat-bunbun will help mama!”

“Good. Meatbun, do you see the two big brothers in the sky?” I pointed toward the two people in the middle of a heated battle.

“I see them!” Meat-bunbun stared at Celestial and Ocean’s Heart curiously.

“Then, Meatbun, could you fly above those two big brothers from the side?” I asked. Just in case, I added in concern, “Remember to be careful, okay? Don’t get injured!”

Meatbun nodded its head vigorously. Obediently sticking out its bamboo copter, it flew into the sky.

“Prince, what do you intend to do? Although Meatbun has the title of the strongest pet, you don’t think it could last against two super NPC bosses, do you?” Lolidragon asked with extreme suspicion.

I smiled with no intent to answer her questions as I watched Meatbun fly dangerously close where Celestial and Ocean’s Heart were battling. “Meatbun! Use your ultimate skill, Fermentation!” I shouted toward Meatbun as it flew right above them.

“Okay! Meat-bunbun’s Fermentation skill is going to start now,” Meatbun said as its adorable face slowly started to grow, turning bigger and bigger…

“Oh my god… What a huge meatbun!” Someone shouted the words that I always heard when I asked Meatbun to use Fermentation.

It should be the right size now… I studied Meatbun’s size carefully. According to my repeated observation of Fermentation, Meatbun should be reaching its maximum size soon – the size which could just about bury an entire army.

“Ah! It’s falling!” exclaimed Doll.

“Yep. That’s a good position!” I said, looking up.

Indeed, Meatbun accurately squashed both Celestial and Ocean’s Heart as it fell. Then, with a “pong,” an enormous meat bun fell onto the ground just like that. I nodded my head in satisfaction and said, “It’ll be a bit tough on you, Meatbun. Hold your position just a bit longer, okay? Keep these two big brothers squashed. Wait for mama to finish, then you can return to normal.”

“Meat-bunbun will listen to mama, become big Meat-bunbun, squash big brothers flat-flat!” In order to demonstrate its obedience, it jumped up and down twice. I thought I vaguely heard groans coming from underneath Meatbun.

“That was a brilliant plan!” Even Lolidragon’s face seemed to show an expression that said, “You really are something else.”

“Okay, that is finally solved,” I sighed in relief.

“Prince, this is only just the beginning!” Winter Triumph said faintly.

I had only just shifted my attention away from Meatbun’s body when I realized what Winter Triumph meant. Because the battle between Celestial and Ocean’s Heart had stopped, the NPCs that had been scattered around were now gradually gathering and pressing toward us.

“Have we been surrounded?” I asked, finding it hard to believe.

Lolidragon rolled her eyes. “You have eyes, see for yourself!” she snapped angrily.

“This was an inevitable battle from the start anyways,” Winter Triumph added slowly.

“Couldn’t we say that it was for this battle that we traveled all the way to the Northern Continent?” Undying Man laughed out loudly.

“No doubt about that!” I grinned widely. “The target, the Central Tower!” I shouted in high spirits, taking hold of my closest ally: my Black Dao.

“Yeah!” The crowd roared with vigor.

I took a few deep breaths and then ordered, “Sunshine, take the long range fighters with you into the sky and support us… Take your thief wife as well so Lolidragon won’t need to take care of her.” Lolidragon’s ability to appear and disappear unpredictably did not make her any weaker than warriors, so allowing her to stay would definitely aid us immensely in this battle.

Lolidragon raised her eyebrows and said, “Hey! Your differential treatment is too much!”

I knew that Lolidragon was merely customarily making a sassy retort. In reality, I knew that if I’d told her to stay on the flying carpet she probably wouldn’t have wanted to at all. Therefore, I didn’t pay attention to her sour words and continued to give out my orders. “The warriors will fight against the NPCs on the ground, and the mages will deal with the NPCs flying in the air. If you have any spare time, help out the warriors on the ground… Even though it really doesn’t look like you’ll have much free time at all…” I looked somewhat helplessly at the packs of angel forces flying toward us. I hope the mages will be able to hold out against them…

Yu Lian-dàsăo, Ming Huang and Sunshine looked at me and nodded their heads.

“DanDan and Fairsky, both of you are responsible for ensuring the safety of the people on the flying carpet,” I said while looking at the two of them. They were the only two on the carpet that possessed the necessary abilities for close combat. In addition, DanDan’s class possessed both short distance and long distance attacks since she was, after all, a summoner.

“Okay!” the two of them answered at the same time.

“Wolf-dàgē, our safety will be in your hands,” I said, looking at Wolf-dàgē, feeling protected.

“No problem, just charge ahead and don’t hesitate!” said Wolf-dàgē gallantly.

Everything was ready now. I held onto my Black Dao tightly as I stared at the Central Tower topped with a large rose. We faced the NPCs in a moment of dead silence where no one was moving at all, then I raised the Black Dao in my hand and pointed it directly toward the Central Tower and shouted, “Advance!”

My legs started moving the moment I shouted for them to advance. Charge! Charge! Charge! I desperately lifted my legs and began to run. As for my comrades, they followed closely behind me. Kenshin even ran ahead of me since he had the fastest speed. His eyes were intently focused upon the Central Tower, and within them there was not only a sense of coldness but also a rare burst of passion!

Kenshin’s passion even made Cold Fox subtly reveal a surprised expression as he observed him.

Kenshin didn’t turn around; however, he asked a little hesitantly, “Prince, I…still do not want to kill other NPCs in order to protect myself. But… Sunshine is different from me… He has things that are important to him…”

I was slightly taken aback. What is Kenshin trying to say?

“Prince, for Sunshine’s sake, please protect Second Life… Lolidragon told us before that she can download us and store us in another place before Second Life is destroyed, but… This is also her first time dealing with NPCs that have self awareness. She cannot one hundred percent guarantee that we will be able to successfully keep our self-awareness after we are downloaded.” Kenshin said, a bit embarrassed, “It doesn’t matter to me because I don’t matter, but Sunshine is really happy right now…”

I was silent for a moment before I quickened my footsteps to chase after Kenshin. I put my hand on his shoulder and grinned widely, “Don’t worry, everything will be okay!”

“Prince! The enemies are attacking!” Undying Man angrily shouted to warn me. Then, the NPC monsters that rushed out began fighting with us, beginning a difficult battle. As for Nan Gong Zui, he was also in the middle of close combat with a few humanoid NPCs.

However, the NPCs actually avoided Kenshin who was in the very front and directly charged at Cold Fox who was closely following him, nearly killing Cold Fox by catching him off guard. Luckily, Kenshin reacted instantaneously and dispatched the NPCs with a few strokes of his sword, saving Cold Fox from his dilemma.

Meanwhile, a group of NPCs that looked completely ridiculous were charging at me as well… Waah, why are all the NPCs that are attacking Nan Gong Zui so good looking, while the ones that are attacking me look so ridiculous? Why is there a turtle with a tree growing on top of its shell and a peach that can extend sharp thorns out of itself, making it look like a pink sea urchin or something, attacking me? There’s even a monster that only has one leg… Please note, I said only one leg. That doesn’t mean that it lost a leg; it means that it “only had one leg to begin with!”

“Idiots! Stop getting in the way of my view!” I kicked the single leg out of the way, split the peach open with one strike, and didn’t pay attention to the turtle tree… It moves so slowly! I could probably crawl using one hand going forward and still defeat it, so why would I need to do anything about it…

Suddenly, several shadows shot out of the turtle tree. At that moment, I was occupied with fighting a penguin that was tied to a cross and did not notice its attack until the last moment. I could only look on helplessly as unknown objects raced forward to hit me.

“Be careful!” Winter Triumph’s deep voice rang out loudly. In addition, he hit those shadows into the air and said, “That tree has hidden weapons!”

I looked toward those hidden weapons and was shocked by my startling discovery… The true form of the turtle tree was actually… a chestnut tree! The hidden weapons were actually chestnuts with long needles in front.

“I wonder… do you think these chestnuts are edible?” I thought out loud whilst punching the penguin’s stomach.

“Stop joking around, Prince. There are more and more NPCs,” Winter Triumph strictly reprimanded, “Hurry up and break through!”

Upon hearing Winter Triumph’s words and seeing that my surroundings were filled with more and more NPCs, I curbed my imagination from running wild and seriously concentrated on heading toward the Central Tower!

“Waah, Mama…” Meatbun’s thunderous cry suddenly reverberated.

Startled, I turned around in panic to find that… “Someone’s” bullying my beloved Meatbun!

I looked at them from a distance away and actually saw an elongated and very familiar looking thing flying in the air. It’s frantically hitting Meatbun’s cute little head!

“Waaaaah, don’t hit Meat-bunbun, it hurts! It hurts!” Meatbun’s tears continued to flow… Oh no. I suddenly realized that it had produced two waterfalls. Before Meatbun grew this large, it could already drown the Adventurers’ Tournament’s stadium… Now that it’s this big…

I shouted in fright, “Everyone, hurry up and run onto the rooftops of the closest houses! The higher the better!”

While everyone was still baffled at my orders, the waterfalls’ water had already turned into a river flowing toward us. At that moment, everyone gaped with their mouths wide open, looking at the water in which they were submerged up to their knees, and then looking at the culprit – Meatbun.

Right then, the elongated entity suddenly flew high into the sky and then heavily dropped onto Meatbun’s head. This violent action resulted in Meatbun’s eyes turning super watery in a way that had never been seen before. I didn’t have the chance to say anything before a mountain-sized flash flood emerged!

“Ahh…” I really want to find a telephone pole to hug, but Second Life doesn’t have telephone poles… During this panic-stricken situation, I accidentally held onto the turtle tree’s trunk. It was only because I desperately held on to it that I wasn’t smashed into the wall by the powerful torrents of water.

“Don’t bully Meat-bunbun! Meat-bunbun’s Machine Gun of Mincemeat Attack!” Meatbun had finally been enraged. On one hand, it cried and on the other hand, it unleashed its Machine Gun of Mincemeat Attack at the elongated entity…

A meat clump three times my size fell beside me with a “crash.” It coincidentally hit the penguin that was tied to a cross, flattening it into a meat patty.

“Meat-bunbun did well! Hurry up and kill that horrible French bread now!” Lolidragon supportively yelled from a certain house’s fifth floor balcony.

“French bread vs. a meat bun, this certainly is something you would only be able to see once in every ten thousand years,” said Feng Wu Qing, who stood next to Lolidragon, shaking his head and sighing sentimentally.

French bread! Shocked, I looked at the elongated entity on the ground that was unable to get up due to the attacks from the meat bullets.They’re right. It really was a long piece of rock hard French bread.

“Why would there be French bread here….?” I asked, thinking this was becoming a bit out-of-this-world.

However, the French bread seriously answered me, angrily shouting, “Why can’t there be French bread? This is the Northern Continent, French bread’s territory! My territory! The real question is, why is a meat bun from the Central Continent here to try and steal my territory?”

Meatbun’s eyes turned into two question marks and then it opened its mouth to ask me, “Mama, what is French bread?”

“It’s…a bad person. Meatbun, quickly defeat the French bread, then Mama will give you really yummy meat buns!” After thinking for a while, I still decided to dumb the situation down. Since Meatbun’s Mountain Torrent Attack and Meat Bullet Attack had cleared up a large portion of the surrounding NPCs, how could I pass up on this chance to charge toward the Central Tower! As for the French bread, I’ll leave it to Meat-bunbun to take care of it!

“Horrible French bread-bread. Anyone who bullies Meat-bunbun must be a bad person.” Meatbun pouted in dissatisfaction and said, “Meat-bunbun must punish bad people.”

I looked at the scene of meat bun vs. French bread, painfully making a decision. I immediately shouted toward everyone, “Hurry up and take this chance to run!”

“What?” Lolidragon asked in shock, “What about Meat-bunbun?”

“What kind of situation do you think we’re in that you’re still worrying about Meat-bunbun?” rebuked Feng Wu Qing.

I glared at my brother. Then, eyes glistening with tears, I said, “I believe Meat-bunbun will be able to finish off that French bread. We should hurry up and take the chance to…”

“Meat-bunbun, what is that long thing?” an extremely familiar “vain” voice called out.

My whole body froze. That’s… I widened my eyes and looked. It really is Fire Phoenix! Could it be that Gui is all right? I frantically turned my head around looking for any traces of Gui. I really hoped to see Gui’s exaggerated smiling face once again.

“What is happening exactly? Master suddenly disappeared, causing me to become a wild phoenix again,” said Fire Phoenix unhappily.

Once I heard those words, my heart sank once again. Gui has disappeared. He will never come back.

Meatbun happily squealed, “Fire Phoenix! Hurry up and help Meat-bunbun punish bad people.”

“Bad people? Is this stick bullying you?” asked Fire Phoenix as it looked at the French bread with extreme displeasure. Its body’s flames seemed to be burning at an even hotter degree than usual.

Meatbun pouted, “French bread-bread hit Meat-bunbun’s head.”

“What? He dared to hit you!” Fire Phoenix’s fury ignited Flame Tornado, and then with one sweep of its wing, it threw Flame Tornado toward the French bread.

The French bread dodged to the side in shock… However, it had forgotten that to its side was Meatbun who was staring at it eagerly.

Nom! A strange sound suddenly drifted over. I turned my stiff neck to look toward Meatbun… The French bread was only left with half of its body sticking out of Meatbun’s mouth… And Meatbun had a satisfied expression on its face as if it had just eaten its favorite meat buns…

“Was it delicious, Meat-bunbun?” Fire Phoenix asked Meatbun in delight.

“It was really yummy! It’s as yummy as meat buns!” said Meatbun ecstatically.

“Let’s hurry up and go!” Lolidragon said expressionlessly.

Thus, we who were hugging onto trees and columns and those who were stuck onto walls all jumped off. A line of people bolted toward Central Tower. Pretty soon, the Central Tower appeared in front of our eyes. As long as we could get past this final plaza, we would be able to push open the Central Tower’s doors.

However, the plaza was not empty at all. I was slightly stunned. Even I was startled by the mighty force of NPCs that filled the enormous plaza to the brim. There were even many high level NPCs present that I had seen before.

“What should we do?” I forced myself to calm down and asked everyone in the party chat.

“The levels of these NPCs are too high. Yu Lian and Ming Huang’s AOE magic won’t do much damage to them,” Wolf-dàgē said worriedly.

Also, it seemed like the NPCs had already discovered us and had begun slowly drawing closer to us, step-by-step. We all started panicking.

“Let me help you guys,” Sunshine suddenly said, “I can cast Guided Arcane Missiles. One spell can kill a hundred NPCs at once.”

If one spell can kill a hundred, then we should be able to kill them all after firing it a bunch of times right? Everyone had finally begun to calm down, but I was still extremely worried. Sunshine’s Guided Arcane Missiles required a very long casting time. But with everything as it was, no matter what, we had to charge to the Central Tower to see the Dictator of Life!

“Then we’ll do that. Sunshine, you cast Guided Arcane Missiles. You can leave everything else to us!” I calmly instructed.

The most important thing in battle is intimidating the enemy. I raised my Black Dao with one hand and pointed it toward the NPCs in the plaza, “Kill!”

The moment I shouted this, everyone began moving. Kenshin was the first to charge. These NPCs were completely different from the NPCs before. They were high level NPCs that had an extremely high amount of intelligence. Therefore, these NPCs didn’t stupidly allow Kenshin to massacre them; they even took the initiative and attacked Kenshin first. Luckily, Kenshin was, after all, a hidden mission’s BOSS, so even though there were many enemies, he was still able to attack and defend. In addition, with the strong Cold Fox beside him supporting him, they quickly defeated several NPCs.

Compared to us, they were unbelievably good. We players didn’t have Kenshin’s abnormally strong capabilities. We slowly moved from one-on-one battles to pairing up and fighting back-to-back. In the end, Nan Gong Zui, Undying Man, Neurotic, Feng Wu Qing, Winter Triumph, and I all stood back-to-back against each other, forming a circle facing outwards in order to take on the numerous attacks of the NPCs.

The distance between us and the Central Tower continued to remain the same. Everyone’s hearts were raging with a desperate fire, and the weapons within our hands had long since been stained with different types and colors of blood. On top of that, everyone’s bodies were thoroughly stained with dark red blood. If it wasn’t for Wolf-dàgē continuously drinking mana potions with one hand and casting healing magic with his other hand, allowing white, warm beams of light to fall upon our bodies, I was afraid all of us would have already become rays of light.

How will we enter the Central Tower? How will we… go to see the Dictator of Life? As I kept fighting, my heart couldn’t help but begin to panic. I would rather kill myself a hundred times with the ND self-destruct program than fail here!

“Guided Arcane Missiles!” Sunshine’s voice rang out to the rescue. The sky looked as if it were filled with fireworks. An enormous ray of light shot into the air and then separated into numerous rays of light flying everywhere. Every ray of light’s disappearance represented the death of one NPC. The outbreak of a hundred rays of light resulted in an emptier plaza than the one that had originally been filled to the brim with NPCs.

“Prince, follow me!” Kenshin grabbed my hand and pulled me forward. After I recovered from the shock, I turned around and looked at my companions who were still fighting.

“But everyone…” I hurriedly tried to stop my footsteps. I didn’t want to leave my companions who were still there battling, everyone who was still there helping me block the NPCs’ chase… Kenshin, however, did not stop even then; he forcefully pulled me forward even further. My strength was not even slightly comparable to his… Thus I could only be dragged away.

Kenshin abruptly stopped in his steps, causing me to crash into his back. I suspiciously looked in front of me. There were four warrior NPCs that looked like they were BOSS level blocking the entrance. Kenshin’s expression revealed a complete sense of calmness. He let go of my hand and took out his katana, charging toward the four warriors.

“I will leave the Dictator of Life to you,” Kenshin said before he left. “Sunshine’s happiness… I’ll leave that in your hands as well.”

I shuddered violently and then looked back at my companions who were still involved in a bloody battle… Must I abandon my comrades and go on by myself?