A few moments before Life wrote her message...
'Ohh god, will he think of me as someone who is using him or not? I truly don't wanna mess this up, please don't have a misunderstanding over this.' She was praying as her fingers typed the last words and pressed enter, her body shaking unconsciously.
"Thank you again, well, I just wanted to ask if you can join our group for a dungeon tomorrow once they are out. As a token of my sincerity, I'll inform you that several assassins are already waiting for you outside the temple in an ambush. I truly don't mean this as a trade or threat, please don't take it as such."
"For more details, if you're curious. I'm watching this through Father's stream inside of Iron Fangs headquarters, he's gonna use you as a stepping stone to solidify his position as the guild master."
Life felt her heart sinking, and her anxiety rose beyond the roof as she awaited his response, fearful that he might take her words as a threat or anything of that sort.
Gasp!
Yone's body froze as he read her next message, his worldview shifted for a moment before he regained his composure and typed to confirm whether her words were true or not.
"You sure you're watching this? This is no joke if you're trying to prank me."
Alas, her next words shocked him even more as his heart fell and mind buzzed, countless ideas running through his head, but none could comprehend how the hell is such a thing was possible so early in the game.
"No reason to lie to you, my father has always taught me to seek opportunities inside games whenever you see them, no matter the sacrifices you need to make, everything is acceptable as long as it's in-game and you're gaining benefits out of it. He would most likely be proud of me if he heard that I sacrificed his potential big stepping stone to befriend the best current player, 'Requiem'."
'There is no way that's what your father meant.' Yone couldn't help but grab his head with both hands and think that Life had something wrong her with her logic,' You can sacrifice anyone in-game, yes I do agree as well, but not your literal father, whose literally the guild master of Iron Fang and is live streaming the whole event for the guild.'
'Is this the reason for her downfall? People finding out that she's...naive?' Yone didn't want to think as such to be honest, especially to such a kind soul. But her words shocked him so much that he even forgot about the ambush for several seconds.
"Ohh, thanks for your information Life. I'll make sure to call you back after I'm out of this troublesome situation, okay? We can do the dungeon by then I promise," Yone wrote his message as fast as possible and concentrated on his problem.
'This is truly troublesome, am I done for?' He thought as he heard several footsteps closing in on him from the staircase, they were steady and as silent as possible, but they couldn't hide from him, given the gap in levels.
"Just die, with those skills you can barely qualify as a beginner, much less a pro, like the elders said after their brief observation," Night's Regret rushed at Yone. He was prepared to fight him with a three-level difference as long as the others could catch up and corner him here; he was confident that with enough numbers, they could take him down.
Yone was a bit puzzled as he heard the voice right next to him, but after seeing the in-game name in that brief moment, he couldn't help but laugh instead," Haha, you guys are indeed hell bent on opposing me, right?"
Just as Night's Regret dagger was about to reach him...The corners of Yone's mouth revealed a cold smile. He had been interacting with Night's Regret in Guardian Angels for years now, so he was extremely familiar with his strengths and habits.
Yone took two steps ahead and thrust his dagger upward toward his throat, Night's Regret mind screamed with alarms urging him to dodge the attack but Requiem's attack speed was so high that he couldn't even think for a second moment before his screen turned grey, his HP plummeting to zero in the blink of an eye.
207!...Critical hit!
Yone could have never guessed that Guardians Angels were part of this ambush, but he also knew there was no way Noah was behind this; instead, Guardians Angels had no idea that he bought shares and was now more or less on their side and were merely joining Iron Fangs for benefits.
"Hmm? Why is it quiet all of a sudden?" Derek, the guild master of Iron Fang, couldn't help but halt his steps and raise his hand to stop the others behind him as the whole underground tunnel went silent, the once yelling scout that was sent ahead to probe Requiem went mute, and his character on the party group went grey.
"No, we severely underestimated him. Run everyone," Derek yelled in the voice chat as he stepped back in a hurry to flee the place.
Alas, before he could even take a step back, an assassin in regular black leather armor appeared behind him. In the next moment, several numbers with the hundreds appeared in front of him before he couldn't control his body anymore, and his vision turned grey.
'Such attack speed and damage, how?!' Derek was in disbelief as he appeared in the fountain hall, a countdown of one minute ticking down before he could move again.
Back on the staircase, the three other assassins that Derek personally selected from his guild didn't last for even ten seconds before they followed behind their leader, all of them not understanding how a mere three to four level difference could make such a difference.
"I was scared for a moment there and even thought that I'm done for, I truly was confident they brought an entire raid party of at least twenty people to take me down," Yone squinted his eyes as he looted the assassins that just tried to ambush him." They probably think this is something like End World, where skill plays a big part in the early game.
Unfortunately, they don't know that the Eclipse Online level gap is nigh-impossible to breach at first, and skills will only matter starting from the tier 2 promotion or so.
'Truly naive,' He smirked before heading towards a light that suddenly appeared at the end of the chamber he was in, his smirk widening.
'Bingo, thanks for opening a secret path for me as well ,hahaha.'
///Author's Thoughts: Guys, I truly need your thoughts on the pacing and story so far, your feedback is very important!///
///Also, I just got officially contracted by Webnovel so expect me to work as twice as hard from now on. Btw, Power Stones truly matter for rankings and Gifts are also an option for more support. Thanks a lot guys, just felt this message is better for one last time and it doesn't affect the word count as usual///