"He truly is an exploiter. I wouldn’t have noticed the contradiction between the rules and the bounty."
"Yeah, he is intelligent. He knew it the moment he realized the bounty was on Daniel... More than that, he wanted to kill him right then."
"Oh, you think so?"
"Yeah. When he grabbed Daniel’s shoulder to comfort him, he already had his inventory open with the poison ready, but then Daniel revealed that he was a man."
"Wait... you’re saying that Rafael was so shocked by the reveal that he—"
"I think that’s enough." Another voice interrupted. "We aren’t here to analyze people."
"I just like how he does whatever it takes to survive." It was the same blurred-face man who had teleported Rafael out of the Seventh Lord boss fight... the same man who had given out the bounty.
More than that, they all had the same blurred faces, the same enormous wings, and the same white garments decorated with gold.
"Shouldn’t we interfere? He’s technically cheating."
A question came from the other side of the enormous table, one that immediately drew everyone’s attention.
Though this time nobody answered, instead all of them turned toward the figure sitting at the head of the table.
"Eldoria is a world bound by the sheer will of what one can do. I see nothing wrong with what he does."
He slowly shook his head.
"But being selected for two World Events in a row..." He paused. "That is a record."
The man sounded genuinely more surprised by that than by anything Rafael had done during the Event. And somewhere far below whatever place those six beings were sitting in, the person who had just set that record finally returned back.
"Rafael!" Tim’s voice immediately came the moment Rafael teleported back.
He had been waiting for him, and not just waiting. He already had a potion in his hand, ready to use it.
"Are you hurt?!" His eyes immediately went over Rafael, taking in all the blood covering him.
"I’m good." Rafael’s voice came as he still held the Executioner’s Blade in his hand. "But take this shit and throw it away."
He held the sword out toward Tim.
"It can’t cut anything."
Tim reached for it, but the moment he got a proper look at Rafael, his expression changed.
He was covered in blood while the dull, chipped blade in his hand looked even worse.
Strands of hair were stuck in the chipped blade and the whole thing was covered in blood.
"Are you sure you’re good?" Tim asked again as he grabbed Rafael’s shoulder.
"Yeah, but I’m fucking tired and hungry."
"Okay..." Tim stared into Rafael’s eyes, but there wasn’t really anything there for him to read. "I have food. And a bed. You can eat and sleep."
"Good." Rafael dropped the blade onto the ground. "Then I’ll eat and sleep."
He started walking toward the door, but was stopped.
"You aren’t going in like that!"
Leila was standing off to the side with a wand pointed directly at him.
"You smell like shit!"
The tip of her wand flashed blue.
"Wait—"
A sphere of water exploded around his entire body.
The water spun around him violently, twisting from his boots all the way up to his neck like a miniature fucking tornado.
Blood immediately peeled away from his clothes and armor, turning the clear water dark red as it spiraled faster and faster.
Though the problem was that... the water wasn’t just washing his clothes.
It was getting into his eyes, his mouth, his ass crack, anywhere it wasn’t supposed to go, and it didn’t feel too fucking good... though he was getting clean.
"Leila!" Tim shouted at her, and in that instant, she pointed the wand up toward the sky.
The water spinning around Rafael immediately shot upward and disappeared into nothing.
What remained was Rafael, his hair sticking straight up toward the sky, his body clean as fuck, looking like he had just been reborn... or waterboarded.
"You little—" Rafael stopped as he looked at Leila... and her body.
She was wearing revealing clothes with armor over them... and she looked good.
"Stop staring at my body... I’m fifteen, remember?" she said, but pushed out her chest. "Or are you a pedo? You like it?"
For a moment, Rafael said nothing as he stared into her eyes.
"I was mutilated by a guy with one punch. I exploited the Ring of Health and broke a woman’s neck... then I broke the neck of another guy who was pleading for help, and then I smashed his skull..."
His eyes stayed on Leila.
"And... I don’t feel anything about your age like I did before..."
He looked toward Tim.
"That spell... did you..." Tears started falling from Rafael’s eyes. "...make me a pedo?"
For a moment, there were no words. Tim and Leila slowly looked at each other, then back at Rafael and at the absurdity of what he had just said.
He had murdered two people... but the biggest concern on his mind was Leila and the fact that he no longer felt disgusted by her clothes and her real age.
"That spell is—"
[World Announcement]
The voice came with the announcement window popping up in front of everyone.
[The First World Boss Has Been Defeated.]
Everyone’s eyes immediately snapped toward it, every single player in Eldoria reading the same thing.
[World Boss: Gharok, Orc General of the Iron Horde]
[Level: 100]
[Defeated by a Single Player.]
[RentIsDue, Level 89]
There were no words as all three of them stared at the same thing.
"Impossible," Tim immediately said. "That boss has three phases, it is impossible to beat him alone at that level eight nine."
Rafael’s eyes widened. "He used an exploit—"
[World Announcement.]
[The victorious Player has also fallen.]
[RentIsDue, Level 89, has passed away.]
[His achievement has been awarded in Square of the Immortals. May their victory be remembered throughout Eldoria.]
[Would you like to visit his memorial?]
There was no hesitation. Rafael immediately accepted it and was teleported to the target location, followed by Tim and Leila, who had both accepted it as well.
The moment he arrived, there were hundreds of people, maybe even more, all heading toward the exact same spot.
A huge statue stood on the right side of the Square of the Immortals.
[RentIsDue]
[First Slayer of a World Boss.]
[Level 89]
"Is this a joke?" a voice came from somewhere around Rafael.
"What the fuck is this...?" another voice came.
"Don’t look there," a man said as he covered a woman’s eyes.
"Oh my God..." Tim’s voice came from behind Rafael.
"He was a crazy fucker." Leila smiled as she stared at it.
What stood in front of them was a huge marble statue of RentIsDue.
But he was... butt-ass naked.
More than that, he had a fucking huge sausage carved out of marble hanging down between his legs.
"Is that a... stick in his hand?" Tim asked, smiling at the statue.
"It is..." Rafael smiled. "And look at what’s on his head." He pointed up.
"No way..."
"Yeah... that’s a cooking pot."
They were looking at this huge hundred meter-tall marble statue of RentIsDue, butt-ass naked, his sausage hanging out, with a stick in his hand and a cooking pot on his head.
"It magical."
Tim slowly nodded.
"It really fucking is."
Rafael couldn’t even disagree.
Hundreds of players had gathered to honor the first person to defeat a World Boss, and what they had gotten was a three-meter-tall naked man with a stick in his hand, a cooking pot on his head, and his dick immortalized in fucking marble.
And somehow, Rafael respected him for it.
"He knew," Rafael said.
Tim looked at him. "Knew what?"
"That if he ever did something important enough to get a statue, this was how everyone would remember him."
Leila stared up at the statue.
"So he planned this?"
"Probably."
"That’s fucking stupid."
"That’s why it’s perfect."
For the first time since returning from the Event, Rafael actually laughed... though not for long.
[Memorial Visit Concluded.]
[All Visitors Will Now Be Teleported.]
Rafael teleported first, but there was a bit of a problem.
When the teleportation finished, they were all in the same place... but not where they had come from.
"Oh..."
They were in Fersay.
The fountain, the castle towering over everything in the distance.
"Why did it teleport us here?" Tim asked with a sigh, though he didn’t really care that much since they were already standing at the teleportation fountain.
"Because the devs coded it this way," Rafael said. "Even in the game, it did this."
As soon as he said it, hundreds, if not thousands, of people began teleporting into the same square around the fountain.
"See?" Rafael looked at Tim.
"Yeah, but let’s go home before something happens." Tim raised his hand.
"Let’s go shopping," Leila’s voice came from behind them.
"Huh?" Tim looked at her. "Shopping?"
"Yes," she said again. "We need food, clothes, perfumes, shampoo, and every other everyday thing."
"What?" Rafael asked as he looked at them, completely confused about what the fuck they were talking about.
"Shopping."
"He doesn’t know," Tim said as he stared at Rafael’s dumbfounded expression. "Remember I said we came to Fersay to look around? We actually explored the safe zone a bit before getting attacked outside of it. What we found is that the items that meant nothing in the game, like perfume and shampoo, can actually be used now. So there are a lot of everyday items we can use."
Leila smiled, but it was that cheeky smile as she looked into Rafael’s eyes, ready to drop a bomb on him.
"More than that, they’ve invented a lot of useful items... like tampons."
For a moment, Rafael said nothing as Leila just smiled at him.
"Invented... by who?"
"The NPCs."