Chapter 159 :

Episode 32 : Value What One Has (4)

[Stage #18 : Selfish or Selfless.]

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Stage Information: Artifacts that are like treasures, have remained in this frozen museum where frost is rust to the artifacts that resided here. As these artifacts rest in a museum waiting for a perfect person to wield them, the powers within them had subsided oh so much that their worths are hard to tell from a glance.

Stage Task: Pick the following options for completing this Stage.

[ 1 ] Snatch all the limited items from other Players for yourself.

— Or —

[ 2 ] Share the limited items with others.

Time Limit: 12 Hours.

Reward: ???/???

Failure: Nothing.

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"Huh?! We just arrived and a stage appeared?!" Alaine complained before she almost stumbled on her ice skates. "Ah!"

Thud.

Fortunately, Louis caught and helped Alaine get back on her feet by holding her silk arm. "Be careful, Alaine."

Out of the sudden, Mya gasped in awe as she was dazing on the frozen items before her. "Wow… These look so pretty!"

"It's a museum of frozen weapons, armor and all kinds of items." HwanGi found himself to be astounded from viewing such a sight as well.

While everybody was in shock from laying their gazes on this scene, JoonChul and his comrades looked disappointed by how much some of the frozen items had been taken by the other players ahead of them.

Although Noel and Crystal were clueless of why they were expressing such disappointment in their looks, the both of them seemed to realize it sooner when they saw how items were missing from the frozen museum.

‘I guess there won't be any good loot to take..’ Noel thought as he looked to be disappointed too.

Flash!

In a blink of an eye, an angel soon emerged in front of everyone's viewpoints, floating with a timid expression and a shy gesture.

"H-Hello, players.. It a-appeared that you all are safe and s-sound after all those hardships.." Pearl nervously said.

"I-I would like to say my congratulations to yo—"

Immediately, skating on ice and passing Pearl, JoonChul whispered into her ears with a malice tone. "Just get on with it."

"Ha." Pearl smirked in that split second after her eyes and JoonChul's were locked on, yet no one could even see her sneer at that speed.

Sadly, her true self only lasted for a second before she went back to her fake timid self.

Anyways, Pearl said with a shy smile. "We will b-begin after we go f-further inside."

Rustling…

Sooner or later, ‘The Rebels’ had entered the museum with breathtaking views to witness, going in with their faces getting more and more astonished by the seconds.

At that point, Alaine could not manage to sustain her excitement while she was looking around.

Undoubtedly, she gasped with thrillness when she laid eyes on a weapon. "Oh my god! An axe!! Aw man.. I wish I could use it!"

By then, Mya held Alaine's hand and pulled her toward a sword. "Sister Alaine, take a look at this dagger!"

When she followed where Mya was taking her, Alaine instantly noticed the difference in this sword.

"It looks awesome, too! But I don't think this is a dagger.."

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"How so? The sword looks short just like Sister Alaine's."

"Yeah, but it's too long for a dagger. See?"

Swish~

At that moment, Alaine took out her dagger from her inventory, putting it between the sword to show Mya.

"Ohh! I got it. It's not a dagger, but a shortsword!"

Dumbfounded at this sight, Louis commented while chuckling. "Amazing, Alaine. I didn't think you would be this observant."

"Huh?! Aren't I always observant? Just cause I seem childish at times, doesn't mean I'm not smart."

"Is that so?" Louis chuckled under his grin.

Clap! Clap!

In the end, it was finally time for the ‘Helper’ to give everybody an explanation on this stage.

Pearl started to speak timidly after getting their attention. "To s-start, since there are only 10 of you, excluding the snow bunny, y-you must pick 5 artifacts from this p-place."

"As the stage's task s-suggested, you either take all t-the items for your own or share with others."

"And n-no, you can't take all the items to get the stage's rewards then give them to your f-friends later!"

"Once you p-pick an item, it will be b-bonded to you, so you can't give it to anyone."

"And for those w-who pick more artifacts from the rest, they'll receive a bonus r-reward of 2500 coins a-and an Unique loot box!"

"You can be greedy s-since you won't die from failure, then good l-luck, everyone!"

———

Even after explaining, everybody already expected the ‘Helper’ to hand them vague information about the stage.

Despite the explanation being lackluster, it still gave them information on what to do in that stage.

Though, the details would not be mentioned, and that was why they had JoonChul and his comrades to explain the situation to them.

‘JoonChul-ssi and his friends are better than the ‘Helpers’, I appreciate that they go out of their way to explain the details much more in depth.’

HwanGi thought, shifting his eyes away from Pearl who was floating far from everybody.

"JoonChul-ssi, will you tell us more about this stage?" HwanGi asked JoonChul who was standing beside his comrades.

Not long after, JoonChul seemed to be thinking about something before he turned around to speak, ignoring HwanGi's question in the process.

"Louis, Alaine, Mya and Noel will each have their own items."

Even though his question was ignored, HwanGi didn't get mad over that and asked JoonChul again. "Then what about you and your friends, JoonChul-ssi?"

"Do we look like we need items like those?"

In an instant, Alaine joined in as she chanted. "Yeah, we'll be the one taking all the stuff so that OP people like JoonChul won't get any more stronger!"

"Speaking of us, if there are 5 items we can choose, why isn't HwanGi in it as well?" Louis pointed it out.

Slowly but surely, JoonChul shifted his glare at HwanGi before speaking the following words. "It's his punishment."

"Punishment?" Saying at the same time, Louis and Alaine both stared at HwanGi.

And the only answer they got was HwanGi nodding to JoonChul's words. "It's because I almost ended my life, isn't it, JoonChul-ssi?"

"At least, you understand." JoonChul scowled.

"Then who will have the last pick?" Alaine asked with an obviously greedy look.

"I can know for sure it's not you nor Noel."

"Bummer!"

"I'm debating whether it would be Mya or Louis, seeing how Mya wanted to be stronger and Louis being the weakest of all."

As clear as day, Louis was stunned by JoonChul's statement as he exclaimed immediately. "Weakest?!"

"From what I have seen so far, you clearly only have one skill that is for defense and offense, isn't that true?"

"What if I hid my skills this far?!"

"I doubt it."

Hearing JoonChul say all of this did make Louis furious, but it wasn't the time to be angry about some taunt.

So, Louis just scratched his head to calm down before he told JoonChul. "Either way, even if I'm the weakest, just give the last pick to Mya. I don't need it."

"Great, Mya will be getting the bonus reward because she'll be getting two artifacts."

"Then, should we start picking?"

"I advise you all to get weapons instead of armor and accessories, seeing how all of your weapons need an update desperately."

Afterwards, Alaine mentioned. "Yeah, I wanted to get new daggers because mine are kinda bad."

"A new bow.. Woah." Mya mumbled to herself.

After that, Louis commented. "Our weapons are starter weapons, so we were planning to get new ones anyway."

Watching as these pickers were being excited, JoonChul quickly told his comrades' their duties. "Frostina, go with Noel. Raiden is with Alaine and Mya will have Mirai."

Confused, Alaine asked. "Why do we need them around us?"

"Because the artifacts can trick you into thinking it's a good item when it's not."

"Zut! What the.. That's so not cool.. It would have been terrible if I had wasted my chance to get a weak item! Thanks in advance, JoonChul."

"You're welcome. Anyways, HwanGi, Behemoth, Crystal and I will keep a look out for you and any good items in our sights."

"What about me? I haven't got my partner for this." Louis asked.

"Right, I forgot. Behemoth, you go with Louis."

Puzzled as to why JoonChul assigned a cat to him, Louis tilted his head when he said. "Uh.. How can Blackie tell me whether or not the artifacts are good or bad?"

"His claws are an option."

"Merde.." Louis groaned just by imagining that. ‘He said that without feeling bad about it! How sick of a guy is JoonChul?’

Shivered rain on his body when Louis remembered the time where his face got scratched by Behemoth.

‘Oh god no..’ Louis thought.

In due course, JoonChul informed everybody to start. "This will be enough. Now, go carefully choose your items."

"Yes!" Alaine nodded as she was exhilarated.

Of course, she wasn't the only one excited about it since Mya also seemed to enjoy the excitement of picking two items to make them her own.

"One weapon.. and the other one should be.. Hm.." Mya muttered.

In the end, they finally proceeded to move in search of a good weapon to use for their future battles.

———

During ‘The Rebels’ Guild's conversation, one person didn't like how things were going out from her plans.

"It looks like they wouldn't be greedy at all, huh?" Pearl pondered as she grumbled.

Not only was she expecting a heated quarrel to occur, she had even prepared oysters to snack on while watching them fight.

But that expectation didn't happen at all…

"Should I eat and watch these people finish the stage with ease?"

Pearl scoffed. "As if."

"I must do something."

Whoosh.

Sooner or later, she had descended down to the ice floor, hollering above the ground as she floated toward HwanGi.

"H-Hey, Idol.. I wondered when I watched you all.. W-Why didn't you get the chance to pick?" Pearl tried to convince HwanGi.

‘This ‘Helper’... I shouldn't stay close to her..’ HwanGi mused while narrowing his gaze on Pearl.

Questioning why an angel had appeared and was talking to him, HwanGi still responded honestly to Pearl. "It's my punishment for nearly dying."

"B-But don't you want an item?"

Shocked by her words, he said while stepping a couple steps away from her. "I do want an item to get stronger, however my friends need them the most right now."

"Don't you have the urge to t-take all the artifacts?"

"Why would I do that? Sorry if you're trying to persuade me, but I don't deserve those artifacts." He uttered after putting a lengthy distance from Pearl.

"...That human.." Pearl grumbled with vexation.

In spite of her persuasion didn't work as she had hoped, Pearl still needed to ruin JoonChul's guild as much as she could to annoy Sapphire.

If one human didn't fall into greed, Pearl could convince the other humans while JoonChul let down his guard.

‘Who's next on the list?’ She thought before observing the other players.

Upon surveying the area, Pearl slowly spotted Alaine who was checking out the artifacts, and from the look of it, she seemed to have a slim chance of greed within her sparkling glance.

Sneered wickedly, Pearl immediately hollered toward Alaine. ‘Seems I have found my next target.’

THUD.

In the spur of the moment, Pearl was grabbed from behind before getting flung to somewhere dark and quiet, knocking onto one of the frozen artifacts.

"What did you have in mind when you saw Alaine, bastard?"

In front of Pearl, JoonChul, when he grunted with anger, glared his villainous eyes on a helpless ‘Helper’.

"How rude." She murmured calmly despite being in this unexpected situation.

SLAM!

Right beside Pearl's head, a hand was slammed because of JoonChul's hatred toward her.

"Eek!"

And as they were very close, Pearl could clearly witness the depth of his hatred upon laying eyes on him.

‘This man.. Something about him is definitely off..!’

In the end, the somewhat scared Pearl thought while she was growing cautious of him. ‘What is he planning to do to me?’