Before even the alarm rang, someone was knocking on his door.
Zen woke up with a groan. Sleep deprivation might kill him faster than Johan could at this rate.
"Who is it?" he stumbled across his room and opened the door.
"A delivery has arrived for you," the invigilator lady growled, and Zen nodded, thanking her for the package.
At once, his mind cleared when he saw that it was the Egg Encyclopaedia with a letter to explain more about today's Egg Hunt Event.
Zen quickly logged online to check if anyone else received their deliveries and a letter about the Egg Hunt Event.
As expected, the early birds already knew about it. In fact, Zen was surprised at how many early birds there were. Did the people in the mafia not need sleep? Then again, Zen logged out much later than they did.
[Akiko "Death Princess" Kanzaki sends you a message. "Please come to my room once you have woken up. The rest of the Guild will be waiting for you. The items have arrived. We need to discuss our action plan before the event starts."]
Indeed, now that they had more information, Zen wanted to finalise certain preparations. However, he first needed a coffee. Akiko did not mention when he should be there, so Zen thought that delaying it for a little wouldn't hurt. Breakfast was the most important meal for the day.
The world watched as Zen groggily bumped into walls on his way to freshen up and stumble into the kitchen. Thankfully, he did not meet anyone on his way. The other mafia candidates were too busy doing last-minute preparations. Guild Carnage took hold of the training halls while Guild Survivors gathered in Akiko's room, all waiting for the one person deciding between making toast and steamed buns. Eventually, the cook decided to waste less time by making both. At the same time, he made some breakfast tea by the pot and brewed some coffee for everyone.
The mood was too sombre even at six in the morning. It was worse for those gathered in the Death Princess' room. Nobody spoke, and the two most powerful people were very silent. Sasha could not help but sit very still as they waited for Zen. It was odd how nobody wanted to disturb Zen or wake him up. Most people were up by four in the morning. Sasha herself logged off somewhere close to midnight. Three hours of sleep was more than enough for trained assassins. However, Zen was very civilian-like and a growing child. Liu Feng stated that they would only find Zen at eight in the morning if he still was not up by then. Nobody dared disagree when Akiko supported his decision. Instead, they started pooling their information together, finding out what kind of sponsored items everyone received.
Nobody expected to smell something good in the middle of their discussion, but everyone knew who it was.
Zen was about to knock on the door when it opened.
"You're here," Akiko greeted and held the door, so Zen could push his food trolley in. The boy was such an angel! He even brought breakfast, even though most of them were trained to need very little food when on important missions.
Zen yawned and nodded, thanking her before blearily rubbing his eyes and informing everyone of the breakfast menu.
"I didn't know what to make for breakfast, so I made some toast with a variety of spreading and steamed buns. There's enough coffee and tea for everyone. The milk and sugar are not added, so please help yourselves."
As if all manners were forgotten, the guild members dashed forward, trying to get in line behind Akiko and Liu Feng. It was no surprise that Liu Feng prefered the steamed buns to the toast. He also poured himself a cup of tea and added a little milk before returning to his seat. Zen helped everyone with their plates until someone pushed one into his hands.
"You should also eat. Don't wait for everyone to finish eating before you do, advisor."
Zen stared at Akiko and looked at Sasha, who was beside her with a cup held out for him. Those words were said loud enough for the people coming for seconds to hear. Zen was so busy serving others that he completely forgot about it. That's right, he wasn't an errand boy. Here, he was an advisor. Even if he did not mind, he couldn't forget about the people supporting his position. Akiko and Liu Feng's pride were on the line, and Zen couldn't do this to them.
Grabbing a steaming mug of coffee and adding some sugar, Zen settled on some simple toast with honey and jam. It was quite the odd combination, but Zen didn't care. He was still sleepy and needed something sweet to kickstart his brain.
"Did you take a look at the event information?" Zen asked in between bites as the guild members started helping themselves to seconds.
Akiko munched on a steamed bun and nodded. "Similar to the opening ceremony, there are two ways to clear this event. How do you want to do it?"
Zen took a look at the letter for the first time as he ate.
===
Event: Egg Hunt
Objective: Find as many hidden virtual eggs around the academy. Ranking revisions are calculated according to points collected.
Points:
Red egg: 1
Blue egg: 2
Green egg: 3
Yellow egg: 4
White egg: 10
Black egg: 50
Conditions for ending the event: Kill the Basilisk Boss Monster.
===
"We received information that there are two ways to take down the Basilisk. The first way was through combat and in-game weapons that we were sponsored for the event. The second way is by creating a Rainbow Egg," Liu Feng mentioned. "How should we do this?"
Zen nodded. Most students who wanted better privileges would go for the points. Not many people would be keen on killing the boss monster. The Basilisk would continue hunting students throughout the event, and it was up to the two major guilds to end the event.
Their main objective was to survive. Zen pulled out his Egg Encyclopaedia. In it, the recipe for the Rainbow Egg was included. At the same time, Zen was given some interesting facts about the eggs they should find in the event.
"What kind of items does everyone else have for the event?" he asked.
As Zen listened as his guild members revealed what they purchased, Zen sighed. It was a very good thing he told the guild to create a map of their own before the event started. Nobody thought to purchase the event map at all, even though there were many of them in Class E ranks. Even Tracer opted for the Egg Tray instead of the map, much to Zen's disappointment.
"Listen up," Zen told the guild members, who looked slightly ashamed of their purchases. The ones who could afford weapons placed orders for weapons. Everyone was only thinking about themselves, and Zen couldn't blame them. They didn't think they would join a guild this quickly. Thankfully, it was within Zen's calculations.
"Those who can fight should fight. However, we're not going to fight the Basilisk or Guild Carnage. We're fighting for location and home grounds."
As the guild members gathered around the map in the middle of the room with their coffee, tea, steamed buns and toast, Zen started the strategy briefing. They had this in the bag.