Chapter 117: Wil meets Aria

Level 110-zone;

In the middle of the forest, an 18-year-old boy and a 13-year old girl were blocked in the way by a team of eight with an average level over 115. 

"What's the meaning of this? We had a deal," she said in a serious tone while tightly grabbing an egg that's roughly the size of an ostrich egg.

One of them smirked, "what deal? We are the ones who did the work. So, naturally, it belongs to us."

She growled, "My brother was the one who fought with the beast. All of you just supported him."

"Hmpf, if it wasn't for eight of us dealing massive damage; neither can your brother kill the boss nor you get to claim…" snorted one more guy.

"Shut up, Deadline." Suddenly, they were interrupted by the team's captain. 

Ignoring the girl, the leader of the group then spoke to the boy, "forget what he said. Rey, I already told you that you'll be given epic-grade Gun that dropped as compensation. If it isn't enough, I'll give you 25 gold coins in addition. Hand over the beast egg, right now."

"Captain, are you serious? That's equivalent to 500 thousand dollars," commented one of them in a shock.

The team captain didn't reply and continued to stare at the boy, "What do you say, now?" 

Rey shook his head and replied calmly, "My sister desired it. Forget about 500 thousand. Even if you offer 500 million, I won't let you take it from her."

The captain frowned, "Because I value your skill, I was being nice to you. It's rare to find a good paladin who can act as a tank better than a guardian.

But, don't push it too far, Rey. I had the orders from the squad captain to secure the egg at all costs. Do you think both of you can survive in the game once you offend our higher-ups?"

As soon as she heard the name, while Rey stayed silent, the girl snorted, "Hmpf, don't talk as if your guild is number one in the kingdom. Forget about Kingdom, even inside the capital city, everyone knows your guild is still number 2. We can just transfer to another city and level in another region. What can you do, then?"

Upon hearing her reply, the captain looked at her brother, "What about you, Rey? Do you really want to make us your enemy over a petty thing? It's just an egg of a Heroic grade beast. Think again and convince her to give up. You will be promoted to captain rank once you hand over the egg."

Rey then replied calmly, "I'm on my sister's side whatever she decides."

The captain sighed, "I see. Then, it's too bad… everyone, kill both of them, and take the egg."

As Rey grabbed her hand and told her to stay behind him, he raised the Shield and the Sword while their opponents also took out their weapons and aimed at him.

Just then, something in the size of an apple fell right on one of them.

*Boom*

A large explosion occurred right on top of one of them and not only killed him on the spot but also took out two that stood on the right and one on the left.

Before the captain came to his senses, the explosion was followed by two normal arrows rained from the sky that struck one more thereby taking out more than half of his hp.

As the fifth one is also finished by the following two arrows, leaving behind only three of them, everyone heard a voice from above.

"Yo, everyone… up here…"

Quickly the five of them turned their heads towards the sky and saw a 13-year-old teenage girl that has a Missile launcher in her hands and a grin on her face. Beside her, there's a 19-year-old beauty that took two more arrows from the quiver and aimed at the next target.

Looking at them, a frown replaced the shock on the captain's face, "who are you two?"

A simple word came from the little girl as a reply, "SnowDew."

While the two subordinates in the back and the brother-sister pair wondered at the same time, the older girl giggled as they slowly landed on the ground, "It seems there are people here who don't know about you, ."

SnowDew's face turned red in embarrassment, "C'mon, unnie…" Then, she glared at the two players from Dreamwalkers and instantly fired a missile without giving any warning.

Even though both of them reacted at the last second, they still caught up in another explosion and died in one shot. 

Meanwhile, the captain took a step back in fear, "you… we don't have any enmity with each other. Why are you attacking us? Are you a friend of those two?"

SnowDew shook her head, "of course not," and Hyori continued with a cold tone, "But, we saw everything. You guys are trying to bully them and snatch the beast egg using force. That's something unacceptable to us."

"Leave in ten seconds if you don't want to end up like them," warned SnowDew as she glared at him.

Since he knew he wasn't a match for SnowDew, to save his 50% exp and equipment, he quickly left the place leaving behind the dropped equipment from his subordinates.

Meanwhile, on the back of Leon, Wil was whistling in happiness while he was on his way towards the capital city.

But before he even crossed the level-200 zone, Leon stopped flying all of sudden and the surroundings froze.

"Leon… Huh? What the hell?"

His surroundings instantly changed and Wil found himself in a white space with no entrance or exit while Leon also disappeared.

"What's happening? Argh… Why can't I f*****g move. Everything was fine until a moment ago…" thought Wil as he was suspended in the air with his hands stretched widely.

Just then, a 5-6-year-old adorable little girl wearing an Eastern continent's traditional wear appeared before him.

Looking at her, who was floating on the air without any wings, at first, Wil thought she might be an ascended but then, put that thought away and asked calmly while struggling to move, "Who are you?"

But, no words came out because of the blockage of the vocal cords. Since there was no response, Wil tried inspection.

*Ding. Error…

"Error? What's happening? How come the inspection failed? Even if she's a higher tier ascended, there should be no error. At least, I should have seen question marks. What might be the identity of this girl…" continuous thoughts popped up in Wil's mind.

Meanwhile, the little girl slowly floated towards him and then stared into his eyes for a while from close range.

Ten seconds later; 

"Ok, good. There's nothing abnormal," the little girl backed away with a nod.

As she snapped her fingers, Wil was freed and fell on the floor. 

He calmly stood up and stared at her silence before she apologized, "sorry about that. I had to make sure there's no abnormality in your data. By the way, let me introduce myself.

My name is Aria, an artificial intelligence designed by Summersoft to run this game. You can say I'm the manager of War Online."

Wil continued to look calmly at her while inwardly shocked to the core, "Ar… Aria? That super AI? Why a person like her is meeting me in the game? That's right. Earlier, she did mention that there's no abnormality in my data."

He quickly came to his senses as she continued her explanation that answered his doubt, "according to the data we collected, I found a few things that's abnormal about you.

For example, on the very second day, you happen to fly over to the sea just when one of the natives opened up a barrier that's intended only for an hour. Because of you, the barrier had to be permanently opened.

After you crossed the port and entered the sea, you flew 15 long hours long and found one of the tombs of legend class and became an Elementalist. It's as if you knew it was placed there from the start when except me, no one has that knowledge.

Another suspicion is that you lied to King Mirella that you had a map and found the entrance to a hidden realm but in truth, your data shows that it's your first time to enter that region. And you are the first one to do so.

So, there's no chance that you might have heard it from someone unless it's a GM. If that's the case, then, in case, we found such evidence, in accordance with our policy, I will have to ban you from playing.

There are also other suspicions but I concluded it was entirely coincidence. In human terms, you are too lucky, although I was wondering all this while whether it was just the continuous success of low probabilities or something wrong in your data... 

But, since, I didn't have a right to question you, to maintain the balance in this virtual world; I had to check whether there are any bugs that I wasn't able to detect. I apologize once again."

"This super AI... Her analytical ability is on another level. She's the only one who can crush my plans easily with a thought just like how she made hiring guards almost useless. I need to be careful in the future. At least of my actions…" thought Wil after hearing her explanation and then, asked, "it's fine. I understand. But, why wait until now? Didn't it happen quite a while ago? Is it because of Leon?"

She nodded with a smile, "yes. Acquiring legend class is something that we weren't concerned about since it was placed at a random place so that a user can acquire it.

But, on the other hand, the double mutation isn't something that should be arrived yet. Nor it is something that should be known to the people. Because your battle companion is a guardian beast, its stats have now crossed the limit from the current phase. This is also a worry for us. So…"

"So… Are you going to put it into some locked state until next phase or will you remove double mutation from it?" asked Wil with a deep frown.

Aria shook her head, "no, I can't remove the double mutation or put it into a locked state. That kind of action goes against the rules. I'm only here with a proposal."

Wil then saw her pulling a Bracelet out of nowhere and said, "Upon equipping this bracelet, a curse will fall on Leon, and he will have debuff of a 50% stats drop that will counter the double mutation temporarily until the next phase starts.

On other hand, your stats will be increased by 100%. How about it?"

"No thanks," Wil shook his head and reject the deal immediately.

"Eh?"