A footfall crashed from above. Not only was it noisy, it created a dust rain on Yung Jae's face.
A boy whooped. "Yeey, no school!"
"Don't run around, you squirrels!" A girl's voice. Sadly, she also shouted and draped hard.
The noise. It continued terrorizing him for many minutes. Those children forced Yung Jae to the edge.
It reminds him of his parents. Jo Wo loves draped and strode like a maniac around the house while whooping.
Yung Jae shrugged, closing his ears. "Give me five."
He woke up, yawning high, arms up. The sun spread a cozy warmth inside. The light came from a crack in the wall and an open window.
He sniffed an egg roll coming from the kitchen behind the bar. The aroma tantalized his stomach, which hadn't been filled with food yesterday.
Hurrying to the kitchen, he found aice prepared for dinner while another girl was washing a plate on the sink.
There was no one else. "Where is everyone?"
"Good Morning." Her lips curled up as she prepared a plate on the table. "Miss Hoso and Miss Alice already gone for Terrish, Tia, and others leveling up in the forest nearby. Come, eat first."
The food aroma was firm as he sniffed it closely. But, the taste. He doubts it. The last time he eats food, his belly hurts like being stomped by an elephant.
"You don't like eggroll?" Aice was pouring lemon juice into a mug. "Miss Hoso already solved the problem with food."
"What do you mean?" Yung Jae gulped a juice, and his eyebrow rose. His tongue danced with a flavor. He swallowed it until the bottom of the mug was visible. He licked it all like a dog. "Oh my god, at last, hemp!"
He realized there were many pairs of eyes amazed by his antics. His face was hot as his mug landed with a thud on the table. "Sorry."
"Here, drink more." The mug was whole again. "I mix it with milk. Come, eat the eggroll. Don't worry about the price. Today is free. Tomorrow, pay."
He enjoyed the meal with pork and a knife. He could devour everything in one go, but courtesy. He must keep it permanently.
He checked his party status. Natasya had quit the party, but the logout button was still missing. "Is my friend already awake?"
"Miss Natasya? The last time I saw her, she was with Tia. Don't worry, your girlfriend is safe here. No one dares touch her."
"We are just friends."
She was already fit. That was enough for him. "About the food. What a catch?"
"It's just an egg with salt and corn oil, no big deal. Do you like it? I'll cook another for you right away."
"No… no, I mean, what's the secret of making it tasty? The last time I ate, they were bland. Even the coffee tasted like mud."
"It's simple, but don't you dare share it outside our hamlet," she said. "Miss Hoso has a plan for it."
Yung Jae nodded and gave her his ears. Aice whispered the secret of tasty food.
"Just don't use auto. It will work flawlessly. But, you need job skills for cooking."
"Ah?" Yung Jae couldn't believe it was that simple. He gave her a nod and never shared it without Hoso's approval.
After breakfast and taking a bath, Yung Jae moved to Terrish City.
There was nothing new in the city except there was a new kind of guard on the west entrance of Terrish
Two of them. Red in voat, black at pants, with a high bearskin. They carried a rifle and stood like a statue.
There, a swishing noise came from Crepost as two Sentry Guards busied themselves with brooms, helped by four players.
The store was partly open, but there were no players. Both the customer and seller were NPC. No, but Terrinian. He should never call them NPC. Aice already warned him.
Strangely, those Terrinians acted like real humans. It was not doing all of it with a script. Besides, he needed to find the answer to the logout button information on Chae Wo's whereabouts.
She must be hungry. She needed him. She must be scared right now, trapped in The World.
Those Game masters must have the answer. Yung Jae galloped toward the Control Tower on Baker Street.
On the way, he couldn't be helped but took notice. Players fall on the patio, gloomy-looking, as they eat their food.
The spaghetti, burger, and beef all looked tasty, yet Yung Jae knew how bad the taste was.
Sharing the secret might help them regain their spirit, but he promised Aixe not to share it.
"What trash food it is!" The man rose and threw his plate. His face was red lava. His eyes rounded, intimidated a waitress. "I pay five gold coins for this shit!"
"Excuse me," the Waitress in maid uniform bent a little. "But we remind you before about the taste."
Yung Jae tried to settle them down. Perhaps if he shared a secret, this incident would never have happened.
"Don't waste your stamina, sit. Eat, and we return to aventi." His friend pulled him down, but the situation was tense with mistrust of them. Both sides glared at each other.
As he came to Baker Street, Yung Jae stood on the crossroad as his way was being blocked by demonstrators.
Two-story buildings with Versailles architecture stood valiantly before thousands of crowd players. White hall, blue roof, and a statue on both front columns with twenty stairs ways.
Knowing he hardly had changed to enter the building, Yung Jae decided to sit on a bench, watching how it went.
The demonstrators came with chairs, stools, bottles, and buckets of tomatoes and eggs.
"Answer us, you piece of shit!" The man in the crowd yelled. "When are you going to let us out?"
The crowd said, "Let us log out! Let us log out!"
"We have work to do, dammit!"
"I need to feed my dog!"
"My son, my son needs me!"
There, more than fifteen Sentry Guards occupied the stairs between a man with glasses on a white scientist long coat and the crowd below.
The man in a scientist coat tried to calm them down. "We work on it, so stay calm and enjoy the game. Please return to the inn or your guild. We'll inform you all if the logout button problem is already solved."
"Have fun, my ass!" The man in the crowd shouted. "Just tell me what is going on here?!"
The man fixed his glasses. "Just have fun, and everything will be fine. We'll work on it. We… will compensate for it after we log out. Free gold coins for all of you! So, stay calm and have fun!"
"Have fun, you said?" The man in the crowd threw an egg at the Scientist man. "Let's have some fun!"
Soon, other players follow. They threw eggs and tomatoes, then the bar stool, buckle, chair, everything they could trew, trew.
The demonstrant charged out.
The poor scientist man hid behind the pillar and took a peek there.
While those Sentry Guards created a wall with their body and ensured no one would break in.
More sentry guards came out from the building and made a second line.
One of them wore an officer hat. In his thick black with red choke coat, he looked way cooler than others. He elevated his saber.
"Attention for all adventurers. If you insist, we'll open fire to you!" The officer swung his saber down.
The second line shoots their rifle into the sky.
Demonstrate didn't budge. They keep pushing the line and throwing everything to the Sentry Guards.
Yung Jae noticed many players preparing Molotov. They covered their faces with a dark bandana while burning the napkin connected to the bottle filled with oil or beer.
"Hey," Yung Jae yelled, dashing toward them. He realized if they dared to do that, the riot would start. "What are you doing? Stop!"