I felt my neck being crushed by the infuriated jumper's arm. He placed his right arm across my neck. I could hear my throat being crushed and the air entering my lungs became scarce.
"Just let me explain," I said in a hoarse voice, "I did that for your own good."
"Stop lying," he roared, "you almost got me killed!"
"It's just you didn't do anything against the dragons," I tried to resist his arm and strength with all my might. I pushed his arm a few inches away with much difficulty, yet his eyes kept shining in a dangerous light.
He was really trying to kill me here. That bastard!
"I fought dragons, all by myself."
"Stop bullshitting me… You were terrified of them, I saw that in your eyes."
My words seemed to trigger something and he pushed further his arm. This time I hardly managed to resist and again he crushed my neck with his arm.
"Killing me won't work, you'll die if you did so," as trying to reason with him failed, then there was nothing else but to give him a few threats.
"I can jump anytime I want, did you forget? I'm a jumper."
"You are bound by the contract between the two of us," I said with a hoarse voice, "and you can't jump according to the contract. You have to remain here and help me to save your friend."
My words didn't affect his anger, instead he pushed further and I could hardly suck in any air. For a long minute he kept pressing over my neck before suddenly releasing his arm in obvious resentment.
"I can't believe how you treated me just now… If not for luck, I would have been dead!"
"Cough, cough…" I coughed and sneezed while trying to gallop air like I was on the verge of dying.
"You should never do that again, I'm warning you."
"If the situation required me to do it, then I won't hesitate," I stood up slowly while adding in a firm tone, "this isn't a game, it's an apocalypse. Death is at every corner. Muster up your courage and be prepared for what's about to come."
"You…" he moved closer in a moment. He seemed to teleport and stood in front of me using his fast speed. However he didn't do anything this time. After all, he knew better.
"You survived, so did I. We managed to defeat the impossible, so embrace the moment and don't think about what happened too much," I even patted him on the shoulder. For some reason I felt his body softer than usual.
He didn't say anything and stayed silent by my side. I didn't want to hear any more complaints. Right now I had to wait for my warriors to achieve my needed quota of the fifty percent kill so I'd call this quest my win.
However, just after twenty minutes, something flashed in front of me. "You again? What do you want this time?" I crossed my arms in defiance and challenge while gazing up at the three angels who just appeared.
"Esteemed miracle creator, we are here to notify you of something minor," the middle angel said in deep respect in tone, yet his eyes carried strange meaning.
It was like he was gazing up at me in mockery, as if he was just seeing a dead man in front of him.
"Speak then and don't waste my time," despite seeing that sinister gaze of his, I calmly said with the same arrogance as before.
Their treacherous dirty plays against me were inevitable. After all, we both belonged to two opposing camps. But guarded by my fame he couldn't dare to reveal his hostility in words in the open.
So I knew he was here to reveal his next trap that he carefully selected for me.
"I'm here to notify you of a minor adjustment. This rest period before the start of the second quest will be elongated from six hours into forty-eight hours, an entire day I mean. I wish you luck."
Yet his eyes told me he was wishing me death. With a whoosh he and the other two angels vanished. From the start he was the only one speaking while the other two kept lowering their heads as if they were showing their respect to me.
Screw these motherf*cker!
"What is their aim from this?" The jumper seemed a bit calmer than before. He stood by my side and asked with puzzlement.
"The time in between the quests is related directly to the difficulty of the next quest," I slowly said with a slightly dark face, "initially the next quest was related to us taking control of a small area. Then the third quest will be related to defending this area against monsters. The fourth quest will be regarded as ruling almost one fifth of the entire city, creating the five warlords. The fifth quest will be regarding the defense of each warlord against the monster tides and the sixth quest will be regarding the selection of the supreme ruler of the city."
I said in one breath while recalling the sequence of quests I knew by heart.
"The seventh quest will be a grand challenge between monsters and humans under the control of that supreme lord," the jumper nodded in agreement, "then what do you mean? I already am aware of all this."
My face didn't change as I explained further, "out of the upcoming quests, the ones with forty-eight hours of rest and longer are the fourth quest and higher. If my guess is right, then the challenge over the entire city and defending it is too early to happen."
"You got a point," the jumper nodded again as he was lost in deep thoughts before adding, "without the selection of the five warlords, the selection of the entire supreme lord won't happen. Also the monster challenge quests can't be a choice either."
"That only leaves quest four ahead of us," I said, "but that means we are going to battle for a vast area and against many contenders."
I didn't feel this was right. Even if this was their plan, the initial time of this quest was roughly seven days. With the nature of the system and its famous balancing nature, this time would be elongated by a few days.
Yet that wasn't enough to make these bastards look this confident in killing me. Who would stand a chance against my warriors? Something seemed wrong here.
"We are at the central park," the jumper suddenly said, "it's considered a big part of a zone by itself. But to be one of the warlords of the city, one had to conquer at least five zones."
I knew this was the condition of being a warlord. Also it was just the initial condition. Afterwards one had to defend against the monsters and other warlords as well.
But the lack of the second quest meant I would lose the ability to gain control over more people. Also it meant I'd lack the power to buy fortifications and defensive weapons from the market.
Yet that wasn't enough to threaten me. With the jumper on my side and the warriors as well, I could be considered the only one in New York city who could contend over the supreme ruler position, not only a warlord.
"Hmm… We need to move earlier than expected then," I thought about it for a second before I turned to the jumper, "you'll head north and meddle in the Harlem zone."
"Harlem? Why Harlem?" The jumper seemed puzzled with my arrangement. But he didn't know that most of the people who survived the initial waves of the apocalypse were mainly gathered there.
"Just go and make sure to scan everything and get to know the strong people there," I said without explaining much to him, "your role is to know who is going to be the one leading that zone. Also if you see anything suspicious, don't hesitate to give me a message."
"I have my own compass to tell the traitors from the normal people."
As expected, he got the compass. "Just don't be arrogant and overconfident. Our enemy is cunning and I'm sure he will try something dirty this time."
"What's new about that?" he shrugged before his eyes shone abruptly as if he recalled something, "what about you? Are you going to remain here as well?"
"I will head south and try to find good zones to control," I now decided to go and find that ace. She was at the hospital, and there were many people gathered and survived so far in there.
If I managed to get them to my side, then I would control three zones before the quest even began. This way I only lacked two zones to conquer and I'd be a warlord.
"Alright," he acted strangely obedient.
"Are you alright?" I couldn't help but ask.
"I'm just happy to get as far away from you as possible, what's wrong with that?" he said it in his usual harsh tone before he pointed at my Bulltors, "won't you send a few with me? I can get more authority there using them."
"You are still thick headed like always," I sighed in helplessness, "what I just warned you? Stay low! Don't show off until we are sure of what's going on here."
"Tsk, you have all of these Bulltors and don't want to give me some… You are a stingy person, tsk."
I watched his back moving away while he kept muttering to himself like that while shaking his head and shrugging. I only smiled and said nothing. What did he think of me? I only had less than fifty Bulltors only.
As I sent away the jumper, I couldn't help but send another message to Angelica. I asked her about the updates with her friend. Yet no news was given.
She still didn't answer her messages. This time I seriously considered this matter.
[See her name in your contact list, is it a special color aside from green?]
The names of people in the contact list were mainly green in color. That meant they were available. But if the color changed, that would be related to something else.
For example if the name was gray, that meant that person was inside a quest and unavailable to reach. If the name was red, that meant he was confined under special circumstances, like being attacked.
And if the name wasn't there, that meant that person was dead. But I didn't think about that option, as if that was truly the case then Angelica wouldn't be able to send messages to her friend.
[Her name is silver in color, does that indicate something?]
Silver? That was a new color I had never heard about before. [Isn't it gray?] I asked as it was close between the gray and silver.
[It's silver, don't think I'd mistake the two! There is a distance between heaven and earth between the two colors!]
Well, I had to admit… Girls were really something. I couldn't easily tell apart the two colors, yet she said there was such a big difference. Thumbs up for you, girl!
[Alright, I'll go and check on her soon. I'll keep you updated]
[And I'll keep messaging her]
I closed the message box and the next thing that happened was for the system to announce my success at last in this quest.
[Congratulations! You managed to complete the class special quest]
[You killed over seventy-six percent of the monsters appearing in this quest]
[Your assessment is rare]
[Rewards are being adjusted according to your assessment]
Assessment? I didn't consider that! I thought the system took this much time as I didn't get the needed quota for the quest.
Unlike what I thought, the quest seemed to have been done a long time ago. It only waited until all the monsters were killed, and like that I noticed the wailing roars of the monsters vanished from the world.
Yeah, my warriors killed every single one of them and gave me such a pleasant surprise. What would I get then? More rewards? Or my initial rewards would be upgraded?
I was so impatient to know.