*** 15 minutes later, a path nearby ***
Yolimar was looking nervously at the battlefield, 2 km away. Vato had engaged in a barred battle with dangerous enemies, clearing a path for her to escape, promising to follow her safely and force her to escape from the battlefield. However, even after minutes passed, no one followed her, and as far as she could tell from the sounds from the battlefield, which she could not see because of the trees, the battle was still going on. His only love, Vato, was in danger…
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*** Battlefield ***
Vato, who was on his knees on the ground, was trying to calm himself and control his fatigue by taking very deep breaths, holding on to the sword he had stuck into the ground with both hands. He had rejected the offer of this terrible enemy and went to war against them. However, he was in a very difficult situation because of his promise to his wife not to kill anyone.
The leaders of his current enemies were far stronger than he was, and they were also ruthless. Their leader had killed his own henchman, which Vato refused to kill. And then the bloody war began.
Realizing that his blunt sword could not help him this time, Vato made the weak members of the group in front of him unable to move with his sharp sword, slashing them to their knees etc. The leaders, however, were very strong, and although his agility, Vato could only escape them by running away.
This chase had been going on for 15 minutes, and Vato was starting to feel like he didn't have the strength to fight anymore.
"I really got bored with this sh.t!... Junior HP Increase on!" The leader raised his free hand and swung it 180 degrees in front of himself. And then yellow lights began to shine on the bodies of the members who were writhing on the ground with injuries to their kneecaps. Afterward, all of their wounds were completely healed and they stood up again in good health. "This is your last chance! Will you join us or not!" He placed the sharp blade of his axe against Vato's neck menacingly.
Now everything depended on that one-word sentence that would come out of Vato's mouth. "Yes…" or "No…" Vato would either die keeping his promise and leave his wife alone in this dangerous world or…
"ARRRGGGGHHHHHHH!!!" The leader, holding his right hand with a split wrist, dropped the axe in his hand and took a step back.
Vato had made his last move... The last move he could make with his oath-keeping personality…
He had managed to keep the dangerous enemy in front of him away, even if only for a few seconds. Then he quickly stood up and started running, reaching one of the momentarily startled weaker members and thrusting his sword into his chest, stealing his sword. Afterward, he continued to attack weak members and flee from strong leaders with his specialty, his dual sword technique. But unlike before, this time by… killing them…
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*** Path ***
Still looking toward the battlefield, desperately waiting for her husband to arrive, Yolimar saw movement among the trees. And immediately drawing her own sword, she frowned, gazing determinedly in that direction. "COME OUT!"
"It is ok, my love…" Vato emerged with a soft voice and started walking towards her, smiling warmly with the relief of his success. "This is me, your Vato…"
"W…h…" Yolimar was starting to stutter.
Vato, who was having trouble breathing due to exhaustion, thought that the reason for his wife's reaction was that he thought the enemies were still after them. Thinking that the danger had passed now, Vato took off the helmet of his armor, asking his wife Yolimar to think the same way.
However, instead of comforting her, he realized that this move was even more frightening, as the fear grew in Yolimar's eyes. "What is happening to you, my love?" He took a quick glance over himself and realized that all his armor was covered in blood. "Ah this blood? Hah ha. It does not belong to the enemy. Just a few minor scratches, my love, hah ha." For the first time in his life, Vato had to lie to her, fearing that he would get her mentally hurt by scaring her. However, it wasn't working. Because Vato, struggling to keep himself upright so as not to faint from exhaustion, failed to notice the most obvious evidence.
"Y…your eyes…" Yolimar, whose pupils were tiny from fear and sadness, put both hands to her mouth, trying to restrain herself from screaming.
Vato's eyes turned so red that not a single white was left where the whites of his eyes should have been.
Unfortunately, they both mastered the tiniest details of the red-eye mechanism. That's why Yolimar knew very well that Vato's eyes couldn't turn this red by killing just one or two people.
When Vato was in a situation worse than he ever wanted in his life, an even bigger disaster occurred.
"YOU B.STRD!!!"
Behind him, 5 silhouettes appeared… Vato had escaped, confident that he had killed more than 10 enemies and injured the 3 leaders to the point of being unable to move. But unfortunately, he had made an erroneous observation due to the situation he was in.
There were still some survivors, and the leaders had gotten there somehow, even though they were walking with difficulty due to their wounds.
Vato, who could not think clearly due to the mental turmoil he was in, forgot about the detail that his wife Yolimar would be affected even more and acted with hatred.
He cut off the head of one of the weak enemies and cut the body of the other in half by swift attacks…
Immediately after, he severely injured the 3 leaders again, causing them to fall to their knees and turned towards his wife to escape…
"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
However, something terrible happened and his wife screamed loudly and fell unconscious. The reason why Yolimar fainted was not only because she had witnessed a massacre that was too heavy for the human eye, but because it was her husband, whom she had witnessed since the day she met, with his naivety and kindness to the people around him…
Witnessing his wife's situation, Vato's heart hurt deeply, but he did not slow down and fled the scene, taking his wife Yolimar in his arms, who was lying on the ground.
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Waking up in a cave the next day, Yolimar looked around in bewilderment and saw her husband, who was waiting hurriedly on the flats beside him.
Vato tried to extend his hand, smiling warmly at her, but…
"Who… who are you?" Not recognizing the man before her at first, Yolimar stared intently into his blood-red eyes and screamed again, fainting…
After a while, the same thing happened when she sobered up again …
And again… Again and again…
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Vato was completely helpless. The condition of his wife only worsened each time. At first, she didn't just know him, but Yolimar had now forgotten her own identity. And she kept fainting every time…
Although it was very painful for him, Vato had to make up his mind…
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*** A few days later, GBR Keep Gate ***
"HEY, STOP! WHO ARE YOU!?" As the dusk of dawn continued, the soldiers standing guard in the passage noticed the silhouette approaching them.
"Leave this to me!" Karmalita, one of the senior R4 officials of the GBR alliance, was there by chance, and seeing this development, she walked past the soldiers and stepped forward, clutching the hilt of her sword hanging from her waist menacingly. "HEY YOU, STOP THERE AND NAME YOURSELF!!!"
Carrying an unarmored, unconscious, and defenseless woman in his arms, the man answered without removing his helmet. "Just... a lost one…"
Although it was still slightly dark, Karmalita, suspicious of this answer, frowned, looked intently into the eyes of the man five meters away, and… "YOU!!! YOU HAVE RED EYES!!!" She quickly drew her sword and prepared to attack.
"Please… do not…"
Because the eye sockets of the man's helmet were wide, Karmalita noticed another detail. Even though its color was red, tears were flowing from his eyes…
"Can you… protect her?"
"Protect?"
"Yes… I've heard that the GBR Alliance is one of the most peaceful alliances out there… Can you accept her in your alliance and protect her?"
"Sorry but…"
"No… She is not a blood-eyed like me…" The man politely left the woman in his lap on the ground and took a few steps back without turning around.
Approaching the woman with heavy and cautious steps, Karmalita knelt slightly and controlled her eyelids by opening them softly with her other hand without letting go of her sword.
"See? She is pure… Pure than anything in this world…"
"Who is she?"
"Yo…" Vato paused abruptly and pondered their past, fearing that Yolimar might become a target again. "Yohani…"
"Yohani? I have never heard of such a player. Why don't you protect her yourself?" Karmalita was still suspicious...
"..."
Although the man's silence did not dispel her doubts, she made up her mind. Even if she did not trust him, the condition of the unconscious woman proved that she was indeed a victim.
"You can be sure that I will never show up and bother you again… But if…"
"If?"
"If I find out that she or your alliance is in danger, I'll come to get her. Of course, I will pay for your indescribable help by helping you…"
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Vato then went alone to the hive of the BRe alliance. Thanks to his red eyes, it was not difficult for him to join this alliance, which is very difficult to accept members…
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*** Today, Simultaneously with the BRe ambush ***
A system warning screen popped up again for all players in this world.
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— [WORLD CHAT IS ACTIVE] —
"I am calling out to those who still have not lost their humanity in this fake world! Your trusted friend, Ocean is talking.
Our dear friends, Miha of BRE, Canosfer of RES, PapaBear of WAR, Ruby of XJX, Kisperia of WTV, and Hina of GBR Alliance have reached at least.
But we are under the attack of a very powerful faction here and need your help. All the prodigies who stood against this System! Please come to the GBR Hive and help us!
But hurry up please, because everyone is reading this broadcast, not just you. Countless people with hostile intentions will also come here and this place will soon turn into a bloodbath."
— [/wc] —
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"Holy God!!!" Seeing the pop-up notification, Vato panicked and rushed to the room of Jan Purge, the interim king for the week.
"I need permission, King!"
"What permission, Vato?"
"Let me take a few players with me to the GBR hive!"
"GBR Hive? Look Vato, I'm the temporary King. As you know, Aramis became the permanent King of the server. And he's already sent Ahmed and Pump there and told me not to move anyone in our hive. Sorry, but it wouldn't be right for me to break his order like this."
"Please… Jan…"
Although Jan and Vato were a few red-eyed players in both the BRe alliance and the server, they always devoted their time to monster-slaying events. As
Jan stared at his friend for a long time, who was waiting in front of him without explanation. "Ok, Vato. You obviously have a valid reason for that. But promise me…"
"Ok, Jan. I will not harm them… And bring Miha here also…"
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*** Today, GBR Hive ***
Tears began to collect in Yohani's eyes, her trembling hands began to move toward her mouth… The walls of a dark cell hidden deep within her brain were beginning to crack… Horrible memories that had been forcibly imprisoned in a dark corner of her mind against her will has begun to seep out of this crack and come to life before her eyes…
"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" With a terrible and painful cry, Yohani's body collapsed to the ground as if she had lost her soul…
While everyone was panicking with this latest development, Karmalita was eyeing Vato with a serious expression. Since the armors in this game world are common, it was not an easy task to understand the identity of the players just by examining the armors. And she had never met Vato face-to-face before. She had never looked at him this closely in the past few hours, and remember his voice tone either. However, she began to understand what was happening there now due to both Yohani's spiritual explosion and looking carefully into the large eye sockets in Vato's helmet cavity.
Vato took one last look at his dead enemies lying on the ground. These people were actually none other than the leaders of the KOS alliance, which long ago carried out a bloody raid on him and his wife and separated them. Therefore, Vato not only saved his wife and members of the GBR, but also took his long-desired revenge…
"Thank you for everything, Karmalita…" He started walking toward his wife Yolimar... no, Yohani, by being sad about her fainting. And he continued to speak without looking toward Karmalita. "I'm here to repay your favors and take what's mine… As I promised..."