"Sorry! Sorry! I'm late!" Leonel greeted and apologized to everyone.

Ren didn't know if he should smack Leonel in the head or slump on the ground in relief that nothing had happened to him. He chose the former when Leonel coyly smiled at him, not one bit sorry for his actions.

"What happened? Why are you late?" Ren asked after he gave Leonel a piece of his love.

Leonel rubbed his injured head and sulked to the side. "It's because my sister wanted to try the pod and refused to come out if I didn't promise to buy her a pod and a Gucci purse."

Ren forgave him because it was Mia, but he still reprimanded him nevertheless. It was bad in business if he was late at their first ever work as a mercenary.

Their attention shifted when something shot from the sky like a meteor descending on land. The ground shook and cracked. The force sent waves of gust and dust that bent the grass, making everyone shade their eyes with their hands from the sharp gales.

When everything settled, everyone saw the creature standing straight in the meadows. It was tall, about 4 meters in height, and its body was robust, almost five time the size of regular humans. It was clad in thick black metal armor. Its helmet covered everything on his head while only two holes that glowed red were visible as its eyes.

The intimidating part about it was its two horns on the side of its helmet and the broadsword that was struck on the ground while its hands were on top of its hilt.

There was a slight fog of breath swirling on the series of small holes on its helmet while a deep gurgling low grunt echoed in their ears.

Leonel squinted his eyes to take a better look. "Gorm? What kind of abominable creature is that?"

A mellow voice of a woman rang on the horizon and hushed the murmurs in the air.

<Welcome to the ever first Guild War. On behalf of COVENANT, we welcome you all on this important day . . .

In front of you is an enemy you must defeat and in your screen determine your turns.

Good Luck>

"That . . . that's so short, and it felt like she doesn't mean it," Leonel muttered, and Nikolai seconded.

"Maybe she's tired."

"She's AI. She doesn't get tired."

"She's all over the place. Imagining being on different servers at the same time. That must be exhausting."

While the two boys argued, the others huddled to the new screen that appeared in each guild. It only contained a single sentence instruction, and rows of blank boxes that glowed blue. And those blinking blue boxes were immediately turning grey, meaning that the other guild already chose among the hundreds of boxes.

"What should we chose?" Tor was shaking. He was the temporary leader of the guild, though it was mostly Ren who commanded the entire troops.

If he chose the first number, then they're doomed. No one knew the enemy and what it could do. The first guild to challenge it was always the cannon fodder.

"Just chose among that box," said Roxy without care.

"But what if I chose number one?" Would it be his fault that they got eliminated in the first game? Tor peeked at the creature that they were going to defeat.

It looked buffed . . . and powerful.

Tor had cold feet all of a sudden. "Rather. Is there a private arena so the others wouldn't know anything about the fight? If it's like this, then the last number had the advantage."

"Luck is also part of the game," Ren said.

"Don't be a p*ssy, and pick a box already," said Roxy with an impatient face and voice.

Tor's fingers were a bit shaking, and he closed his eyes and pressed a box on the screen.

[47]

Tor released the breath he held while the others sighed the tension in their nerves.

"Not bad of a number. It's just in between." Leonel nodded to himself.

When everyone picked a box, a voice rang on the horizon, overshadowing the buzzing noises.

[Number 1, engaged Gorm. You have five minutes to defeat it]

"Huh?"

"There's a time limit?"

"What the f***?!"

Tension rose in the air as a new variable suddenly wrecked everyone's composure.

"This is bad." Leonel stretched his fingers one by one to contain the nervousness he felt.

"They should really warn us beforehand, shouldn't they?" Nikolai looked over at his sister in worry.

Sumeri forced a smile to calm his brother, but the slight trembling of her voice wasn't convincing anyone at all. "It's part of the game. D-don't worry. We'll be fine."

However, saying to 'calm down' was easier than doing it. Five minutes was nowhere near enough to defeat a Boss. What were the developers thinking? Eliminate everyone in the first round?

"Only four minutes left. Is number one not going to fight?"

"Did they give up?"

"Aren't they going to try at least?"

Murmurs filled the area once more until a shaking group of players stepped forward. Their faces were white, and they were stumbling on their foot as they walked.

They looked like they had already accepted defeat before the battle even started.

Nikolai grabbed Sumeri's hand. "A-are they going to be alright?"

". . ."

The area was hushed, and when the group engaged Gorm the Destroyer, a mirror-like dome engulfed a radius of a hundred meters before the first guild was utterly shut inside its barrier together with Gorm, out from everyone's eyes and ears.

"What happened?"

"So there's a barrier."

"I can't see anything."

Murmurs percolated in the air, and tension rose together with their nervous voices.

"Damn it." Leonel bit his thumb. "I can't see anything. Can't they have like a camera or something? The suspense is killing me!"

"What do you think is happening inside?" Nikolai questioned.

"There's your barrier," said Roxy to Tor while the latter didn't know whether he would rejoice that the game was being fair for everyone or not.

At this rate, they wouldn't know anything, so being first or last didn't mean anything at all.

Rather, being in the middle or last was torture as they awaited their turn while thinking of what was happening inside the dome.

After two minutes, some parts of the dome disappeared until it ultimately revealed Gorm, who was standing like before, but the first guild who attempted it was nowhere to be seen.

"Damn it," Leonel grunted. "Now I'm having stomach aches."

"M-me too," Tor seconded.

Nikolai bend a little and clutched his stomach. "Me three."

"What do you think happened to those groups?" Rox asked.

"Maybe they passed?" answered Roxy, and she shrugged. "Who knows, that Gorm isn't hard to defeat after all."

Ren and the others looked at her with dead eyes and Roxy shrunk from where she stood. She was just trying to get rid of the tension, alright?!

Gorm was definitely strong. Even from miles away, they felt its intimidating prowess.

"Ren, you did say that you have something in your skill that lets you check the beast's stats. Can you check it from where you are?" Sumeri asked, facing Ren. It was the reason why Ren specifically said not to bring a [Monocle] as their special item since the man was already their walking [Monocle].

Ren shook his head. "I have to engage it first."

"So there's no way of knowing?" Sumeri asked.

"Even a [Monocle] wouldn't activate if we don't engage it, sister," said Nikolai.

"What are we going to do then? It's almost our turn!" Rox hopped on his toes and paced back and forth.

Roxy argued, "We're still forty-plus away."

"It's still near. Before you know it, it's the number twenty. And then forty. And then US!"

Upon what Roxy said, panic rose in the others' hearts, and their stomach churned even more while their limbs went frigid, and the cold was biting every nerve in their body.

"Everyone calm down." Ren stepped forward. "I think . . . I just found a way to win the first round."