Chương 20

Father Okonkwo smiled.

"You are a brave young man, John."

"I'm not that young," I replied with a smile.

"But thank you. Also — may I ask. Will you be able to heal my friend's arm? He lost it below the elbow during the fight to reach the undead boss. I would really like for him to get it back. He's taking it better than I thought, but I don't want him to… you know."

"Of course," Father Okonkwo nodded.

"It will be no problem for me, once I reach the second floor. My skills — I feel a little ashamed to say it, but I was given three skills, and they are all very powerful. One of them is able to heal."

"All right," I smiled.

"That's great. Listen — I need to get to my teammates and the guide. Can we talk after I catch some sleep?"

"Of course," Father Okonkwo nodded.

"Please, John. I will not keep you any longer." I gathered Lucas, Marcus, Tina, and Hailey, and finally went to the inn. King Pussycat had stayed at the stock pen. Through the fence, a few children were already staring at him, while their mothers watched from a distance, half terrified. But the giant lion was clearly a welcome distraction. Bluemont was half drunk. We entered a massive, sprawling inn where soldiers were celebrating. The noise suddenly dropped as we made our way in. Heads turned toward us.

Nobody raised a glass. Bluemont took one look at the room and steered us into a side room, where we could talk in peace.

"Keep walking, kids." Once the door closed, he smiled.

"First of all, let me tell you — great job, kid. Kids." He looked at all of us. There was a satisfaction in it that seemed to clear the haze of the liquor from his eyes. Then he lowered his voice.

"One more thing, and then I never said it. Guides are not to interfere with the broadcast. I can't comment on it. I can't correct it." He took a swig.

"The Elf had a hand in what they showed. You didn't hear it from me."

"They shot at us," Lucas said. He sounded tired.

"I'd have shot at us too."

"I'm mad at the show," Tina said quietly.

"There's an army of dead things out there… and now the stream is trying to pitch us against each other." This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Hailey was quiet. She kept looking at the door, toward the soldiers' voices.

"If I have to be honest," Bluemont said, "I wasn't sure you would survive. And you." He turned toward me.

"You got a pet. A boss. And not just any boss. Do you know that the lion you got is the second-best boss you could have gotten on the entire first floor?"

"Really?" I asked.

"Wow. Wait — so not all bosses are as strong as King Pussycat?" Bluemont cringed at the name and nodded.

"Not all of them are that strong. You find them in different zones. The one you got is incredibly strong."

"Well, that's great news, then. I was thinking about it on the way back. Maybe we can start cheesing the tutorial with King Pussycat. We could all ride him, have him kill monsters, and gain a lot of experience until we become as strong as he is. Would that work?" Bluemont nodded.

"It would. And that's what I was about to advise all of you to do. It's almost unbelievable that the tutorial lets you have something like this. It's second only to that damn priest."

"Yeah," Marcus exclaimed.

"I heard about it. He got in touch with a god? How did that happen?" Bluemont shrugged.

"I was never selected by any god, so beats me. But what I can tell you is the man must have gotten a whole lot of power, if he managed to bargain on behalf of humanity."

"Yeah. About that." I turned to the others. I hadn't really had the time to discuss everything.

"Did you guys hear that there's a whole army coming? That it will reach the haven on the fourth night?"

"What?" Tina asked.

"What do you mean?" I quickly explained. Everybody looked stunned.

"These motherfuckers are coming here to kill the man, get power — and they would kill millions, hundreds of millions, for their selfishness?" I had never seen Marcus so angry. He slammed his fist on the table.

"John, we must go get stronger. And take care of these motherfuckers."

"Yeah," Tina nodded.

"We have to kill these bastards." Lucas massaged his stump and looked grim.

"What kind of people would do something like this?" Hailey looked like she was on the verge of crying. Bluemont, however, just said, "As it happens, you're witnessing the kind of behavior that's not going to be rare going forward. The system, the patrons, the gods, the spectators — wait for that can of worms — they will try to pitch you against each other. Some of you will receive wild rewards for betraying the others. Betrayals generate revenge subplots in the tutorial, and the audience loves that.

So the system AI tries to tempt people as much as possible."

"Or maybe," I said, trying to be more positive, "the AI is trying to weed out the traitors early. It doesn't matter. I agree with Marcus. We'll sleep a couple hours and then move out. Thanks to King Pussycat, we can probably take care of this thing. I'm pretty sure that with Father Okonkwo's blessings, King Pussycat could slaughter the army single-handedly. Thoughts, Bluemont?"

"It depends on the number of S-rankers on the other side. Your pet is a damn monster — especially if you gain at least eight more levels before tomorrow night. If you do, and the pet goes back to his normal power, then nobody in that army short of a triple-S ranker will be a threat." I felt a but incoming.

"But," Bluemont said, "triple-S rankers are impossible to predict. There might be someone with skills better than yours, John."