19 Red Zone (1/2)

The red zone didn't look any different from the normal zones. The trees were still as tall as ever, blocking the moonlight from illuminating the way for any traveling party. However, Shesmu and his friends didn't take any risk. Even though the scenery looked the same as before, they have been very careful with their steps, stopping every dozen seconds to reassess their environment.

'If I remember right, somewhere around here there should be a waterfall; behind it is the goblin den.'

Shesmu looked at the minimap and found that the waterfall was about 30 meters to their right.

”There seem to be a waterfall nearby,” Shesmu announced, ”if there is anything my experience told me, it's that these type of places are where hidden quests and treasures are located.”

”Seems fair,” DepressedRyan responded, while Leo nodded in agreement.

The party, after deciding on their next destination, walked towards the direction of the waterfall.

”But really, it's already been five minutes and we still haven't found any monster, isn't that strange?” Asked Leo.

DepressedRyan frowned and muttered, ”you're right. It makes no sense.” He then thought for a couple more seconds before continuing, ”maybe- maybe, there is a boss close to here or something?”

Hearing his suggestion, Leo became excited, ”A boss? Yeah, I know many games that did things like these. The area around the boss always lacks normal monsters.”

”Ohh, you're right Leo. Many games have that feature, so as to not just swarm you with mob then kill you with a boss. What do you think, Shesmu?”

”Hmm, I guess? I mean, it could just be that there was a team before us that cleared the area. But then again, we would have seen corpses of the monsters lying around. Well, who knows?”

However, while Shesmu's mouth said one thing, his thoughts went in a different direction.

'This is the goblins' territory, and it's night so they are asleep in their den. Of course, there wouldn't be any monsters going around.'

Shesmu then continued, ”Well, who cares about that for now. We're close to the waterfall so let's up to the pace. Hopefully, we find some treasure chests and get some good gear, the durability of my sword is already down by half.”

Leo laughed at Shesmu's comment and added, ”Yeah, me too! Also, let's wash our swords first before doing anything else. The handle is so sticky with goblin's blood that I can barely hold my sword properly.”

”Yeah, we should do that too,” Shesmu answered.

The party went through the dark branches only to be greeted by a silvery light. The water of the small lake in front of them reflected the light of the moon.

”Wow, this scenery is beautiful!” exclaimed Leo. The dark and gloomy forest took a toll on his mind, and that of his teammates too; now that they could finally see some light coupled with beautiful scenery too, their hearts were relieved.

The trio kept staring at the flickering light on the water for half a minute before Shesmu finally snapped out of his daze.

”Guys, I know that this is cool and all, but remember what we're here for. Let's start searching!”

At Shesmu's orders, the party started searching. They first checked the outskirt of the lake, each of them taking a position. Shesmu took north, Leo took west, and DepressedRyan took east.

They looked at every nook and cranny, next to every tree and in every hole, they could find. However, the party ended up empty-handed. After 15 minutes, they finally decided to stop.

”Well, we already checked the outskirt, so it's time for a dive!” exclaimed DepressedRyan, appearing happy. Shesmu made the both of them check out the surroundings first and foremost even though it was obvious that what they came here looking for was inside the lake.

”Yeah, finally! Let's go swimming-I mean searching!” declared Leo, correcting himself mid-sentence.

Shesmu looked at the duo in an incredulous manner for a moment. In his past life, for the longest time, the only thing he knew was work and work and more work. When he was streaming his gameplay for other people to watch, he had to control his conduct to conserve the image of his team. When he wasn't streaming, he had to train his fundamental techniques and familiarize with the new strategies. The only fun he had was the little bit of banter and challenges between him and his teammates. Now, staying with these two guys and experiencing the game in different more fun ways made Shesmu unwilling to go back to his previous lifestyle.