Chapter 8

“Welcome to District 14 where paradise is in your reach!” A woman’s voice welcomed all the passengers that had just gotten off of the train from the speaker on the wall.

Mykel immediately lit his cigarette even though he knew that the station prohibited for anyone to smoke. His [Intimidate] skill made everyone wouldn’t dare to tell him or even get close to him while he casually left the station.

Mykel looked at the city and he felt like he was home because he used his hometown’s city structure as the base of District 14’s city structure combined with a bit of a medieval theme. He went to the tavern in the far south of the city where the Azazel tower could be seen from the distance.

“Welcome!” An old man greeted Mykel who just entered the tavern but he immediately regretted it as he saw the bad aura around Mykel. He gulped as he kept staring at Mykel who walked toward the counter and sat down in front of him. “W-what can I get you?” he asked nervously.

Mykel smoked his cigarette and threw the card on the counter. “Just bring me a bottle of vodka and whenever you see the ice in my glass melted, you refill them immediately,” he said as he put off his cigarette and puffed the smoke.

“Of course!” The old man replied as he hurriedly grabbed a bottle of vodka from the wall and then put it next to Mykel.

The old man put the ice cubes in the glass and then gave it to Mykel. “Here you go,” he said.

“Is there an empty room upstairs?” Mykel asked as he emptied the glass in a single shot.

“There’s plenty of room upstairs, are you going to rent for a night?” The old man asked.

“No, I will rent for a week,” Mykel said as he poured the vodka into the glass.

“That will be 100 zeny per night,” The old man replied. Mykel glared at him and he immediately looked down. “I can give you a discount if you want to!” he corrected himself as he gulped.

Mykel slammed his hand on the counter as he sighed and stood up. “I’m going to rent the whole tavern for a week, how much? Is ten million zeny sufficient for the cost?”

The old man was shocked and looked at Mykel with confusion and disbelief at the same time. “E-excuse me? Do you want to rent the whole tavern? For ten million zeny?” he repeated Mykel’s words.

“Did I stutter?” Mykel glared at the old man with a straight face.

“No, but why? Why do you want to rent the whole tavern for yourself?” The old man asked as he rubbed the back of his hand nervously.

“Because I want to, is there a problem with that?” Mykel asked as he raised his eyebrow and poured the vodka into the glass. “You’re asking too much, if you don’t want my offer, I will ask the other taverns,” he continued and took a shot.

“No! No! We will take it!” The old man said as he ran out of the counter and stood in front of Mykel.

Mykel grabbed his phone from his pocket. “Give me your account number and I will transfer you the money now,” he said as he scrolled his phone screen.

“Here!” The old man said as he showed the account number on his phone.

“Check your balance, it should be delivered by now,” Mykel said as he put his phone in his pocket.

The old man was screaming hysterically as he jumped over and over while Mykel just smirked and grabbed the bottle of vodka and the glass. “I want you guys to leave District 14 and go to District 1 to enjoy your vacation with that money for a week,” he said as he walked past the old man.

“Eh? Why?” The old man asked as he turned around to look at Mykel.

Mykel put his left foot on the stair and turned around. “Just trust me on this one, you will be grateful when you know,” he said then walked up the stairs. “Enjoy your vacation with your family, Garci,” he continued as he went upstairs.

Garci was surprised that Mykel knew his name, but Gurci felt a bit relieved because Mykel wasn’t really a stranger if he knew his name.

Three days had passed, and Mykel was hanging out outside the tavern enjoying his smoke. He looked at his watch and it was still 9 A.M. but it was already busy in the area as he watched Awakeners go to the Azazel tower.

A group of Awakeners that seemed to be a rookie who just awakened a few days ago based on their conversation just walked past Mykel.

“We will be rich, boys!” The bald guy said with excitement to his friends behind him.

“Don’t get too excited, Joan, we aren’t sure if we going to be able to hunt demons since we never hunt them before,” A guy with glasses said to the bald guy.

“Come on, Rey! Haven’t you heard his story? He got hundreds of thousands of zeny by just farming on the first floor of the Azazel tower! He’s not that different from us and he was alone while there’s four of us here,” Joan replied while he pointed his fingers at his friends.

The woman behind them was just following them and didn’t say anything, she looked to her left and saw Mykel staring at them while smoking his cigarette. Mykel raised his glass of vodka at the girl while he smiled at her.

“Shelly, why are you so quiet?” Joan asked as he looked at the woman who had been staring at Mykel.

“Huh?” Shelly said as she turned her head to look at Joan.

“Come on, don’t tell me you’re nervous about this?” Joan asked as he wrapped his arm around her. Joan then looked at the guy who hold a shield next to Shelly. “Alan, are you nervous?” he asked.

Shelly just forced her smile as she kept holding her staff while Alan looked at Joan while he raised his eyebrows. “I’m not, I’m just thinking about the money we spent on all these items. We need at least to get our money back first since I don’t have any more money on me on this trip,” he replied.

“You don’t have to worry about that! That’s why we are here in the first place!” Joan said as he patted him on the back.

The four of them reached and looked at the Azazel tower as they couldn’t see the top of the tower because the clouds were blocking the tower. They looked at Awakeners coming out from the tower with so many loots with them, Joan pointed at those Awakeners as he told his friends that it would be an easy job.

Joan and his friends were waiting in line since there were hundreds of Awakeners waiting for their turn to get inside so they don’t have to fight for the loots. Based on the number of people in the line, it would take them at least two hours before they could enter the tower.

While they were waiting to enter the tower, the sunlight suddenly disappeared and all the Awakeners were so confused about it. They walked to the side of the tower to see the sun, and they saw a solar eclipse happening at that moment. All of them were mesmerized by the eclipse until they heard screams coming from inside the tower.

“What’s happening over there?” A guy with a spear asked the people at the front.

Before he could get an answer, he saw Awakeners running out of the tower with blood covering their body. Some of them lost a limb as they kept running away with fear written all over their faces without even bothering to see their injuries.

Demons started to come out from the tower and tear the Awakeners’ bodies like paper. The rest of the Awakeners were shocked by it and the first thing they did was to charge at those demons and save those helpless Awakeners. Little did they know that those Awakeners that they tried to save were stronger and more experienced than them.

Those who watched from the distance saw the demons were having a feast as they ate the flesh of the Awakeners. Joan and his friends were shocked and immediately ran away as fast as they could since they would only be eaten by those demons.

“Run! Don’t look back!” Joan screamed as he ran behind his friends to protect them.

Mykel who drank the last drop of the vodka started to hear screams of the people from the south. He stared from the corner of his eyes as the Awakeners were running for their lives. He then put down the glass on the table as he lit his cigarette and enjoyed the show.

“Let the war begin,” Mykel said as he leaned on the wall and puffed the smoke.