BXBX NOVEL Chapter 203 - Falling Into Place
"Good morning guys," said Yuki as he woke up in the middle of the afternoon with a yawn as he greeted both Avila and Scar who seemed to be in an intense game of chess.
"Look who\'s finally awake!"
"Good morning sleepy head!"
"We\'re glad you managed to get some sleep after all that training."
Those were the types of comments Yuki expected to receive. However, instead he was given the exact opposite of what he had asked.
"Be quiet Yuki! Can\'t you see we\'re doing something!" Scar yelled at him.
"Ya, have some manners at least," Avila added.
"Sometimes I forget that they\'re older than me because they choose to act this way instead of behaving like the grown adults they are. Seriously, how am I so much younger than them?" Yuki asked himself as he began to walk towards the door of the house which the 3 of them were renting.
"I\'m heading out," said Yuki before locking the door of the house as he had received a key for it once Scar had paid for the first month that the 3 would live in it. The old lady had actually returned the same day that Scar had taken the place and dropped off copies of the home keys for Avila and Yuki to use as only the landlady and Scar originally had the keys to the house.
"Where should I go now... maybe I\'ll get some food. It\'s been a while since I ate food which wasn\'t stored in my inventory," said Yuki to himself before heading out to the shopping district of the kingdom.
"Speaking of buying something, how is there already a toy making company in this world? It\'s only been a bit over a single year since the creation of it yet there are so many things in this world which took humanity in the previous world so long to accomplish. I guess It\'s easier to do something once you\'ve already done it once plus you\'re also allowed to use abilities which are just renamed magic. Although it\'s impressive, it\'s not surprising," Yuki thought to himself as he continued walking.
Once inside the shopping district, Yuki went inside a store which served brunch. Although Yuki had expected the place to look more modern and sophisticated, that was far from what the place was. The store was much like a bar with it having a front serving desk along with a couple stools at which the customers sat and enjoyed their meal before leaving.
"I guess everything except the food industry has evolved. That would only make sense seeing as most people aren\'t concerned with how fancy their food is due to the fact that they want to show off to their friends," Yuki said to himself before ordering his food and paying for it. Once seated, Yuki awaited his meal to come and as that was happening, Yuki felt a tap on his shoulders before he heard a call as well.
"Come outside," said the voice. Wanting to see who would dare to disturb his peaceful meal, Yuki turned around to see that there was no one. Now even more curious than before, Yuki stood up from his chair before leaving the store to see that there was someone in a cloak which was walking away from the scene. Believing that the person in the cloak was his target, Yuki began to follow that person.
"Hey, you there, stop!" said Yuki as he grabbed the cloak man by his shoulder. At that exact moment, the person in the cloak revealed themself.
...
"Arthur?" Yuki asked as he saw the familiar face of the strongest player in the world.
"That\'s right. Now Yuki Kaito, would you happen to have an idea of why I am here?" Arthur asked.
"I actually don\'t. I\'m surprised that you actually bothered to leave the dungeons to come see me. It\'s quite an honour," said Yuki in a sarcastic tone.
"Ha. Ha. You\'re very funny. Anyway, I\'m here because I know about you. I know about how you were arrested 2 times and killed over 3000 people in a war between you and 3 whole kingdoms. So how do you feel now? Pretty scary right? You\'re now under my control. You\'ll never be able to disobey me," said Arthur in a sinister cliche tone.
"I really don\'t know how it took you so long. What I\'m not surprised about is that only you know of this. I mean this is a whole other continent but come on, 3000 people dead should\'ve made the headlines. I thought I would be placed in children\'s horror books by now, yet not a single person other than you had recognized me," said Yuki.
"Wow, now that you mention it, that\'s pretty sad. Anyway, why aren\'t you scared? I can literally expose your deepest and darkest secrets," Arthur explained.
"Arthur, remember our first encounter?" Yuki asked and in that same moment Yuki switched with One who sent a shock to Arthur\'s heart.
"I see. I still doubted myself back then since I had no hard evidence but now, I know it\'s you who\'s doing it. So tell me, how are you able to use such power? We both know that the greater the level of a player compared to their opponent, the more resistant they are to an enemy\'s attacks. Yet, your heart attacking ability seems to work pretty well even though you\'re so many levels below me. So tell me Yuki how are you doing it?" Arthur asked.
"I have no reason to tell you. All I have to say is that you should\'ve minded your business before and now, it\'s your final chance. If you wish to continue living your life, just pretend like you don\'t know me and I\'m just a new member of the top 20. You should already know about that since you basically stalk me all day, every day," said Yuki.
"It just continues to make me look like more of a fool since that actually is true. However it\'s not because I stalk you. It\'s because a group of people around the middle class of the guild began to say that you\'ve managed to level up 6 times in the past 2 weeks which is a great achievement seeing as how high of a level you already are," said Arthur.
"I\'ve been meaning to ask as well Arthur, how did you manage to level up so quickly? It\'s quite odd but the truth is that you only started leveling up seriously and taking on dungeons a few months ago as opposed to everyone else who started way before you is still stuck at around the mid to high 30s. So what do you have to say?" Yuki asked as he wanted some answers.
"Where did you learn about that? I tried to keep that a secret from everyone!" Arthur yelled out.
"Well I didn\'t. It was just a guess but your reaction confirms it. So just come out with it already," said Yuki.
"Damn it, I fell for the oldest trick in the book. Fine, there\'s no point in hiding it. Although you should consider yourself very lucky that you managed to get such a lucky guess," said Arthur.
"It wasn\'t just luck you know, I actually put some thought into what I saw. Anyway, I only guessed that because first of all, I asked around for the date which your clan was formed. Next, I asked the researcher of my team to find out what the average of the high level players in this world were. I came to find that number to be from level 35-39. Now, you\'re around level 44 which would make you 6 levels higher than the second strongest person in the world. You see, that\'s such a huge gap but everyone assumes that it makes sense since you\'re usually gone on your dungeon trips yet in truth, you\'re not since your clothes are usually intact to a certain extent when you get back from your trips as presented by your statutes. That was when I knew something was off and took my guess," Yuki explained,
"Wow, you really put a lot of thought into this. I mean most people choose to ignore those subtle details because everyone believes that I\'m some kind of higher being which can\'t get hurt. Good for you that you managed to figure out that there is something off but you\'ll never learn how I managed to do it!" Arthur said in an arrogant tone.
"No don\'t worry, I already figured it out. Your ability makes it so that whoever holds the quest papers and kills a monster, they have to bring back the monster\'s head which is also included in your ability. You use the fact that you need the heads as proof so you can pay the people who bring them in which seems normal but where do you get the money? That kind of money can only come from one place, that place being the dungeons. You see with everything I\'ve said so far, everything\'s just falling into place..." Yuki said.