Knights & Mages Online; The Lightnovel

Chapter 17 "Strawberry Cocktail"

MONTH 6

  It had been 6 months since 61 million 8 thousand people got trapped in the Virtual Reality Massively Multiplay Online Role Playing Game, Knights and Mages Online or as known as KMO.
It was a nightmare at first but now, after 6 months, things had been calmer, sort of. There were still some troublemakers but they were less than before and most of them were hiding from the Ruler Guilds.
  Ruler Guilds were simply the guilds which determine the laws, judge the criminals and were responsible from protecting people. They were authorized as the government, the court and the police by the people since the 30th Island raid. With a poll people organized, they'd agreed on Top 5 Ranked non-PK Guilds to become the Ruler Guilds.
  Current Ruler Guilds were The RoadHouse, the Dragon Knights, The Nightforce Alliance, the Knights & Mages of Freedom and the Silvercloakeds. Although, The RoadHouse'd never been an active Ruler Guild; they would never join the meetings between Rulers, never actually interact with them or even show themselves. They were clearing the dungeons only with the guild Iron Shield and no other. No one knew except them who or how many The RoadHouse were..
  ".. but people say they are about 15 thousand people, all elite gamers and all hidden among us. And their leader, the most scary player in the KMO.. They say he's almost 2 meters tall, really muscular and has a charismatic but a ice cold face. Half of his body is burnt when he tried to burn his enemies in real life. Some also says he's a Griefer who enjoys killing the weak, the most dangerous Red Player in KMO, even so that his username is a darker red colored from the other Player Killers." told a guy who was sitting in the corner of the bar with his friends, surrounded by almost 20 kids.
  They were in a bar on the 43rd Island, the last island they'd unlocked. Seth was sitting on the bar counter unlike the guy who was telling kids about the rumors, it was actually considering as nighttime stories in here. He was in his casual clothes, the same outfit he wore when he met Rein for the first time. The storyteller was right about one thing though, The RoadHouse was only working with the Iron Shield and actually formed a secret alliance. The alliance was recently officially created, just about 3 weeks ago.
  The strawberry cocktail he ordered came a minute later and he thanked the NPC bartender.
  "Hey, kid." the European looking man who was sitting next to Seth called him.
  Seth looked over but said nothing.
  "What about giving me your drink? See.. I don't have any gold." the man who was probably over 35 smirked at him.
  Seth decided not to make a fuss and just passed the drink to the man who had an ugly scar across his face. The pink shaded boy ordered the same drink once again and also didn't forget to thank the NPC.
  "They're not real, you know that, right?" mocked the ugly scarred man. Seth just shrugged.
  "Tell me then, these cocktails are pretty pricey. Where the fuck did you get that much gold to spend on something like this?"
  Seth shrugged again while muttering;
  "I saved up."
  "Ah~ Then what about giving me those savings since you don't use it for anything useful anyways?"
  "Don't wanna."
  "What?!" the man squinted his eyes.
  "I said don't want to." said Seth calmly and got up to leave the bar. However, the ugly man grabbed him from his wrist;
  "Where the fuck do you think you're going?! Do you know who I am? I'm a member of the guild, Shadow Swords. My guild is on the 13th Rank!" he grinned.
'Shadow Swords.. I'm pretty sure I heard their name before.. Ah. Now I remembered.. They're known as The Yellow Guild too. I see~'
  The Shadow Swords were called The Yellow Guild cause they had the highest percent of yellow players among the other guilds. Meaning they were really good at tiptoeing around the rules of the System. There were 3 types of Players in KMO;
  1- The White Players. Those were the regular ones who haven't directly committed an infraction that's been set by the System. They'd have their names in white font. NPCs also had white fonts with an 'NPC' tag under their HP bar. And attacking a player with a yellow or red font wouldn't change a player's color since the System interprets it as a self-defense.
2- The Yellow Players, the ones who perform light crimes such as theft or hurting the white players. Depending on the crime, they can actually go back to being a white player by completing the requested quest.
3- The Red Players aka Player Killers. They'd been granted with permanent red font color. People with red fonts were unable to enter any place that had the 'Area' effect on. If they try to get into these areas, they'd be attacked by the NPC guards until they leave the affected area. In order for a red player to move between islands, they have to either walk from island to island using the cleared dungeon Island Gates or use Teleportation Crystals. They simply can't use the City Gates. Red players were also unable to hide their names unlike the white and yellow players.
Seth used his Kami-Eyes to scan the ugly man. He was a 83 level, B Rank yellow player, obviously a thief. He was probably a mid-ranked member of his guild.
"Uncle, let go while I'm still saying it nicely." Seth warned.
Physical strengths depended on a player's stats and that had to do with the player's level and Rank. So Seth knew that he could easily just throw the man across the bar like a toy but he didn't want to cause a scene. He liked this bar and wanted to be able to come and go here in ease for a little longer.
He looked around to see his surroundings a little better. Kids were looking pretty spooked by the Yellow's presence. They were about in their 10 levels, more like their ages. They were probably under the Settlement Guild; The Eden.
  The Eden was the child protection guild of KMO. Honestly, the best idea someone had come up with in KMO if you ask me. The guild Guardians, the adults who were responsible from the kids, must've thought it would be much safer spending their time only in cities which were absolute damage-free zones. It was smart of them. Other people were pretending like they don't see a thing cause most likely the Scar-man over here was an infamous bully and stronger than the villagers. Seth thought he had no other choice but to kick his ass when someone acted before him, like.. literally kicked the chair the man was sitting a few moments ago. It was one of the storyteller's friends. The one who was looking through his DMs the entire time. He was wearing a hoodie and a mask.
  "Kise!" the other friend of the storyteller called after him, concerned.
  The masked guy, no- Kise, was about Rein's height, maybe a little bit taller than the ex-henchman and definitely younger. He had short space cadet blue hair that was fading out to a grayish beau blue color till its end. His eyes were a light shade of hazel, skin was fair and he looked.. really REALLY good looking even with his mask on. Seth thought he looked kinda familiar.
"What about you leave him alone."
"And who the fuck are you?"
"Someone who doesn't particularly like douchebag bullies."
"What did you say?"
"Great, I came across a blockhead, just my luck. Do you want me to spell it for you slowly again?" the dark blue haired young man rolled guy eyes dramatically.
"You brat, you know who I am?! I'm a B Rank-"
"-So what are you boosting about then, you dipshit?" he pulled down his black mask a little, revealing his face only barely. The Shadow Sword member froze in his place, terrorized by the sight.
"Y-you-" he could only managed to say.
Seth's eyes also widened in awe. It was none other than Song Kiseung of AoS, Ace of Spades.
Ace of Spades was a fairly popular idol group in South Korea but they were mostly more popular overseas. So in real world, he was a known celebrity and in KMO he was known as the most terrifying S Rank Fighter.
After the order established in KMO by the Ruler Guilds, Dragon Knights and Knights & Mages of Freedom wanted to determine the population and ranks to examine percentages. Thus, all players, even Seth at that time, went to the Archives and registered their ranks. In the end, it was announced that only 62 players of 61.8 million were S Rank. Now, they were 59 S Rank left among all 43 million players (yeah, the "establishing order" process wasn't exactly the easiest). Even though Seth still was the highest leveled player, with their bonus stats, S Ranks were almost equal to him.
  "Go on, get lost." Song Kiseung put his mask back on as the man left the bar in hurry, glaring at Seth.
  'Why do I feel like damsel in distress now?' Seth thought just before the storyteller asked;
  "Hey, you okay?" He was as short as Seth , no, even shorter, which was kind of cute. He had tangerine shade hair that was falling naturally between his ocean blue eyes.
  Now that he got a better look at the group of friends, the other two except Song Kiseung were definitely Kim Hyeonu and Lee Luka of AoS! That means they were Seth's seniors!!.. sort of. Even though he was extremely surprised by this revelation;
  'I actually could handle that guy.' was what the blonde thought but instead;
  "Ah, yeah. I'm fine." he answered Luka.
  After Song Kiseung, the S Rank Fighter; Kise, glanced at him with cold as ice eyes, the tall young man turned to Kim Hyeonu, the leader and the main vocal of AoS and said;
  "I'll go find Klaus and Tao. They're probably still looking at the potions they can't afford in a Silvercloakeds' shop."
  "Okay. We'll be waiting for you here." he replied and after his member left the bar, he looked at Seth, smiling apologetically;
  "I hope you don't mind his.."
  "-whole being?" Luka finished the sentences for his troubled leader, grinning.
  "Well.." the leader laughed sheepishly, "We were quite stressful these days." Kim Hyeonu's voice was significantly soothing in person, way more than Seth could even imagine. Now he was starting to understand why he had so many fans going crazy about him. Well, that and his face.
  "Oh, no problem at all."
  "Would you like to sit with us until he comes back?" Hyeonu asked short boy while Luka was walking back to the children.
  Before Seth could answer the tall idol, the bar's door opened with a loud bang, kicked by the scarface  from before. He had brought his friends with him this time. At least 10 Shadow Sword members barged in, smirking at them. A man with long cloak and stubbled beard came out behind the scar face.
  "My man here told me you brats disrespected him. No one disrespects my men." he walked closer to Seth while Luka got the children behind him, "Either you duel with me or we'll take all these kids into the woods. After we take all of their items, we'll leave them there to die."
  Seth froze in his place when the mention of the children.
  "Fine. I will duel with you." Hyeonu stepped forward, getting in between the Shadow Sword leader and the blonde Healer.
  'Huh?'
  "Come outside." he grinned and left with his members.
  "What do you think you're doing, hyung* ?!" Luka asked, "He'll kill you!"
  "Well, he wasn't going to leave otherwise. What if he'd drag one of the kids out?" he replied but then smiled and added gently, "Don't worry, I just need to stall them until the others come back."
  "Umm.. I could actually take care of him." Seth said finally, raising one of his hands. Both turned at the blonde.
  "What?! Really?!? What's your rank? What's your class?" asked Luka excitedly.
  "I'm an A Rank Healer" Seth replied, both AoS members put a sour face.
  "A- an Healer.." the smile on Luka's face became weird, "I.. I think Hyeonu hyung would be a better choice as an A Rank Fighter." he added as Hyeonu smiled.
  The two AoS members walked outside as the Mage Knight followed them. Other players were muttering between each other when the leader of the idol group got face to face with the leader of the Shadow Sword.
That's when Seth used his Kami Eyes on all of them.
Nagisa: Level 77, C Rank, Healer -in white font-
Hyeoneus: Level 79, A Rank, Fighter, Guild Leader -in white font-
Griminal: Level 87, A Rank, Blade Master, Guild Leader -in yellow font-
'Fuck' Hyeonu wasn't enough even just to stall him.

To Be Continued~

*Hyung : 형 , a word used by Korean males to address another male older than them who they are close to. Hyung literally means "older brother".