Chapter 803 - You Should Trust Others (1/2)

Translator: Atlas Studios  Editor: Atlas Studios

Rhode was obsessed with completing this mission flawlessly. His head was fully occupied with ways to accomplish it without Christie getting hurt. He could use the teleportation ring to return to the fortress instantly. But the problem was how he could reach his destination safely…

This challenge ignited his fighting spirit.

If it were others, perhaps they would have chosen not to risk it. Christie was so important to him while the Fantasy Key was ultimately a lifeless object. Moreover, he already had the keys to the Silver Ocean and Fiery Plains. Was it still necessary for him to risk Christie for the Astral Temple?

That’s right. It wasn’t necessary.

But he was determined in getting the Astral Temple without Christie getting hurt at all!

He knew that this was greedy of him as though requesting for a 50-man party to not lose a single point of health against a BOSS. Was it possible? Of course not, and every player knew it. Even though there might be a slim possibility, players were humans, after all, and there were times where they were distracted. What if someone couldn’t keep up with the pace? What if one of them had their ears twisted by the wife and had to go ‘offline’ temporarily?

This was just a game. If it were reality, more accidents would have happened. What if Christie sprained her ankle? What if she ate something bad? What if she got poisoned by the Undead Creatures? These were all sorts of ‘what ifs’ waiting to happen. So this became an impossible mission for him. On the other hand, these challenges ignited his fighting spirit.

He loved challenges in the game. The more that others thought something was meaningless, the more he found them meaningful. He wished to attain flawless victories. No matter the accidents or what the enemies came up with, there were no ‘what ifs’ in his dictionary because he ‘had to’ succeed in them. After the Munn Kingdom was destroyed, many players lamented that this was ultimately just a game and no matter how strong they were, they were only players. That was how the script was planned and they didn’t have any other paths to take apart from following it. However, Rhode didn’t think of it this way. In the end, he found Mini Bubble Gum, formed a group with players who were equally unwilling to give up just yet, and rewrote history.

If Rhode didn’t annihilate the Dark Dragon back then, the new chapter wouldn’t become the ‘Chaos and Order’, the players’ era wouldn’t befall, the demon army wouldn’t invade and start the Deepest Labyrinth that led to the return of the Void Dragon… Everything would only be froth and shadows.

In order to ensure that everything was absolutely safe, Rhode came up with tons of ideas. He had even come up with the ridiculous idea of boarding the thousands of fire elemental creatures on the floating boat and crashing into the group of Undead Army directly like a terrorist attack. But it was a pity that the natural gales weren’t blowing in the direction toward the Battle Mage Group’s encampment, so the floating boat wasn’t usable in this case. The other method he thought of was to wipe out all the Undead Creatures before bringing Christie in. However, this was basically impossible because the number of Undead Creatures was endless due to their years of clashing with the Eastern Plains. If Rhode eliminated all the Undead Creatures in the encampment, the Undead Creatures from other regions would swarm over and they would be submerged completely.

The other method was most commonly used by players. They escorted the NPC, sneaked past the Undead Army, and completed the mission. However, Christie had a weak body and slow movement, which made it almost impossible. Moreover, the Undead Creatures were sensitive to the presence of mortals…

Rhode had been considering the problem whenever he practiced his sword skills, ate, walked, or slept. He considered all the possibilities of accidents and solutions to resolve them perfectly. He was as though one who held onto broken blocks and tried to build them altogether. However, it just wasn’t that simple.

He was so obsessed with ‘building blocks’ that when Canary smacked the table and dragged him back to reality, he didn’t respond immediately.

1“What? What did you say, Canary?”

“I asked if you’re facing a tough problem.”

Canary folded her arms helplessly. She revealed a bitter smile.

“How long do you think we’ve been together? Even Marlene and the others have realized that something is wrong with you. Do you think that I won’t know it? This problem shouldn’t be harder than you annihilating the Country of Darkness and Light Parliament in the game, right?”

“In fact, it isn’t anywhere simpler from a certain aspect.”

Rhode shrugged hopelessly. He gazed at the sky through the window and realized that it was already dusk. The tea on his table had turned cold… If he recalled correctly, this was the tea that Agatha poured after he returned to his room in the morning.

“I’m back to my bad habit.”

Rhode showed a bitter smile at the mess on his table with papers filled with words, drawings, and meaningless doodles. They were all written inadvertently while he pondered on his strategies and he couldn’t even recognize them. He lifted his head, sat back on the chair, and rubbed his temple. When he reopened his eyes, Canary had leaned in closer to him.

“Alright, you can tell me the truth now, Rhode.”

Canary said with a smile, but her tone was stern.

Rhode shook his head. However, he admitted that he alone wasn’t invincible at times. He let out a sigh and told everything about the situation to Canary.

“I see…”

Canary nodded slightly. It seemed that Rhode had tried his best in considering all the necessary matters. If the chance of accidents didn’t exist, there wouldn’t be any difficulties for him. But now…

“You can get Anne to protect her. Haven’t you done so all this while?”