Game’s Dogma

​​​​​​​Drako Yau was completely unfazed. Having been ravaged by the crazy old geezer, attacks of this level were nothing to be wary of. He did not take a step back, but instead went along with the momentum of his previous thrust and closed the distance to avoid Sasaki’s longsword. He then swept the legs of a goblin with his spear, sending the monster tumbling towards Sasaki.

Seeing the tumbling goblin flying towards him, Sasaki immediately blocked the goblin with his sword and activated a skill, Crescent Slash. His longsword drew a semi-circle arc, damaging all three goblins that were within range of the skill.

‘You!’ Vexed, Sasaki yelled in rage.

‘This is a game, not the actual world.’ Drako Yau responded by pursuing him.

As Sasaki damaged the goblins with his Crescent Slash, he now drew the aggro of all three goblin warriors. With Drako Yau hot on his tail, it was literally a four versus one situation.

‘Despicable!’ Sasaki’s face flushed red as he swung his longsword, blood spraying onto him.

Even under normal circumstances, he would be hard-pressed to fight two goblin warriors at the same time. Right now, however, he had to face an additional opponent, one that was dozens of times more terrifying than goblins.

Drako Yau deliberately instigated such a situation to teach the kid a lesson.

One the other side of the forest, a whole party was fighting against a single goblin warrior: two Level 10 warriors, two Level 10 hunters, and a Level 10 cleric.

The two warriors stood on the frontlines as they held the goblin back while attacking from time to time. Under the protection of the warriors, the two hunters freely dished out damage from behind, firing arrow after arrow with their longbows.

The goblin’s health bar was decreasing at a considerable speed. Meanwhile, the cleric kept waving his staff at the rear. One spell after another, he kept casting basic healing spells on the two warriors.

It was a well-rounded party, and on their shoulders were identical emblems.

The emblem was in the shape of a wolf head, and a whirlwind pattern was seated in the centre of the wolf’s forehead.

Howl of the Tempest Wolves.

It was a guild, and being able to create a guild in just a week was by no means an easy feat. The conditions for creating a guild included not only a fee of 10,000 gold coins, but also 30 players who agreed to joining the guild. 

The 10,000 gold coins was a target completely beyond starters. As for the 30-member requirement, it wasn’t as difficult to meet. Everything was thanks to their guild master, one of the warriors fighting on the frontlines—Zephyrwolf.

The name ‘Zephyrwolf’ was not an unfamiliar one even in other games. However, his fame was notorious in nature. Known for his atrocious acts, the infamous Zephyrwolf was a player who committed terrible deeds regardless of which game he played.

Of course he’d kill other players for their equipment, it wasn’t even something worthy of mentioning. The most impressive thing he had done though, was summoning his ‘wolf pack’, a gang of 30 players, to slaughter a player over and over again whenever he respawned in a city. The reason was that the player’s ID had the same name as the man who had stolen his girlfriend before.

‘Hm?’ Zephyrwolf shaved away the last bit of the goblin’s health and looked around.

His subordinates quickly asked, ‘Boss, what’s wrong?’

‘I hear a fight nearby’, he replied.

Right now, Sasaki was showing a shameful display. As far as he could remember, this was probably the first time he had felt so embarrassed about himself.

From the moment he was mature and sensible enough for a kid, he had always been hailed as a genius in various things, and he had never disappointed anyone with his performance either. Be it learning different things or helping his father out with their family business, he had never lost his composure and managed everything perfectly as if it was his natural talent. It was the same even for his swordsmanship. He had already exceeded his tutor in the way of the sword, and his tutor could no longer win bouts against him.

Yet now…

A goblin turned into a puff of smoke at the end of his sword, but he didn’t feel even the slightest of relief. The man who originally looked like the embodiment of righteousness now became an insidious viper that slithered in the shadows.

His spear always came at unexpected times from unexpected angles. The most surprising strike was one that came from beneath a goblin’s armpit, and it even landed on his weak point. It was the attack which had dealt the most damage to him  during their bout.

Sasaki glimpsed at his health bar at the top left corner of his vision. In a few minutes’ time, his health had already gone below half.

He hadn’t expected the battle would turn into such a tough one because of his Crescent Slash, but that wasn’t the most infuriating thing.

‘You’re so strong, why do you have to fight me in such a way!’

Drako Yau didn’t respond to his words. Sasaki wore such luxurious equipment, yet his attitude was extremely childish. It was precisely such an attitude that would lead to a day when he would be killed over and over again until all his equipment was snatched away.

At that moment, Drako Yau’s ears twitched as he murmured, ‘Geez, speak of the devil.’

Immediately after, he turned on the two goblins that had been fighting on his side the whole time. With how much damage Sasaki had dealt to them, it did not take long before the goblin warriors made their final cries and disappeared into thin air.

‘Hm?’ Sasaki looked at the man whom he looked down upon. ‘What’s wrong? Had a sudden change of heart?’

Drako Yau curled his lips. ‘Idiot.’

Drako Yau despised this type of person, even more so than Hades. Hades understood the rules of the world, which was survival of the strongest, so he never bothered with things like poise and would make sudden attacks or ambushes.

However, Sasaki was the holier-than-thou type of person.

‘Have a good look around you.’

Only then did Sasaki take a good look around him. Without him noticing, they had already been surrounded. He took out a potion and drank it, then looked at his health bar. It was somewhat awkward for him though, because Real World was the first game he had ever played, as well as the first game he was addicted to.

Zephyrwolf was astounded by the longsword the man held.

‘No way…’

It’s a rare longsword! It really is a rare longsword!

Zephyrwolf had a habit of robbing others, but most of the items he got could only be sold for in-game currency. He had a proper full-time job, nor had he ever thought about selling in-game items for actual money.

But in Real World, things were different when players flooded in like ants. With enough people, there would always be demand.

Especially those well-off players and large guilds, they had the money. They didn’t mind spending cash for powerful equipment, because they weren’t that short-sighted. They had to fight against time: for levels, for dungeon time attacks, for equipment drops from dungeons.

Purchasing powerful equipment sped up their levelling progress, allowing them to grow stronger quickly, which in turn made it possible to farm dungeons of higher difficulty sooner. From these dungeons, they would then acquire even more powerful and rare equipment which they could sell for profits. To them, purchasing items to kickstart their progress was but an investment.

Levelling up in Real World was not easy at all. The game had been out for a week now, but the current highest player level was only Level 17. While Drako Yau had easily reached Level 5, things would only get more difficult from that point. Starting from Level 5, the experience required to level up increased exponentially.

This Level 4 longsword, I can sell it for at least 5,000 dollars, a whopping 5,000… It’s twice, no, thrice my monthly salary!

For the first time, Zephyrwolf had the idea of earning actual money from a game. Anyways, he had to defeat the two rich newbies first.