Chapter 92: Exchange of information!
Chapter 92
"Yes, Zen. They are all transmigrators like the both of us." Jace nodded firmly, and Zen quickly shook his head after closing his opened mouth that hung wide in shock.
"I had my suspicion about her already." Zen said, pointing towards Aria who was still lost in thought, her eyes fixed on his finely toned body as if she had forgotten the conversation entirely. "But them? I’m shocked."
"Oh really?! What made you think I would be an NPC? Kek." Vynn chuckled, but Zen just waved him off with an annoyed look.
"Anyway, we are gathered here to put our heads together and share all the information and theories we have about why we are all here." Jace calmly said, his voice carrying authority, and everybody nodded along. "So, where do we start from?"
"Well," Aria began, finally snapping out of her daze and straightening up. "We all know we are in a game world known as Arcad, huh? And we got pulled in for one reason or the other."
"Right. I was always a fighting enthusiast." Vynn chimed in with a confident snap of his fingers. "So when I heard of a game where players could fight with ancient weapons like swords and whatnot instead of the conventional in-game guns, I decided to play it.
I played ArcadiaX for two days, and I loved it so much that I got obsessed. Then, all of a sudden, I felt a strange sensation while logged in. An error popped up, and the next second, I found myself here... inside the game itself."
"So you didn’t disrespect the game?" Zen asked with a raised eyebrow, staring suspiciously at Vynn.
"No. Why would I?" Vynn asked with a shrug.
"Did you?" Jace asked, narrowing his gaze towards Zen, who began rubbing his hair nervously, his smirk faltering.
"I kinda did. I was approached by the company that created the game, since I’m... I mean, was... a pro player." Zen said, trying to brag, but Erin just scoffed loudly.
"Yeah. Pro player that became the weakest. How ironic."
"Erin..." Jace calmly shot her a glare, and she just scoffed again while throwing her face away.
"Anyway," Zen continued with a sigh, "they said I should play the game, drop a nice review and all that. But I did the opposite. I played the game, lost, thrashed it in a review, and then bam! Found myself here."
"What about you, Erin?" Jace asked, turning to her, but the ice queen just shook her head coldly.
"Don’t want to talk about it." Erin simply said.
"Why? Everybody is sharing information here. So why do you want to hide yours?" Vynn asked, tilting his head with a raised eyebrow.
"Mind your tone, young lad." Erin barked as she glared at Vynn, her eyes sharp and unyielding. "You are the youngest among us, so you should learn to respect your elders."
"To hell with age!" Zen clapped back as he glared at Erin, his voice rising. "I revealed what happened even though it was embarrassing, but you don’t want to say yours? How rude is that?"
{Sheesh! Thought you had something for her? Why shout at the poor girl?}
’Buzz off!’ Zen roared inwardly, his temple twitching.
"What? Just because you got your Veil, you think you can boss me around? Yes! Use your damned Veil and cancel out mine, and I will still drill countless holes in you and let a man pipe you!" Erin roared, her hand tightening dangerously around the hilt of her sword.
"I dare you to give it a try!" Zen clapped back as he raised his hand into the air, ready to equip his sword at a moment’s notice, his eyes burning.
"Guys!" Jace quickly stepped between them, his arms spread wide to keep them apart. "If someone doesn’t want to share what happened to them, let’s not push further.
Please, let’s respect each other’s boundaries. The game is against us, and we are in a dangerous world, so we must stick together if we want to survive. So please! Let’s kindly stay calm."
"Tch!" Erin and Zen scoffed in unison as they threw their heads away, refusing to look at each other.
"Thank you." Jace exhaled in relief. "Now, I think we should just skip the how did we get here and focus instead on what we know about this world."
Everybody nodded along with a heavy sigh, the tension in the room still lingering like smoke after a fire.
"Okay. We are in the world of Arcad where beasts and dungeons prevail. We don’t know how we got pulled here or what reason the game has for dragging us in. But what we do know is that we are Reavers, and each of us are awakened." Aria said firmly, her voice steady despite the uncertainty in her eyes.
"Not only all Reavers are awakened." Jace chimed in with a thoughtful gaze, his tone calm yet probing. "I found out that there are a few awakened in the world who are not Reavers. Though rare, they exist, and they can give some Reavers a run for their money... mind you, I said some, not all."
’That’s new information.’ Zen thought as he tucked his hands into his pockets while carefully listening to everything the others were saying. His eyes narrowed slightly, his usual sharpness on display.
"Also, we are just five that are currently in the ga..."
"Wrong. We are more than five." Zen quickly cut Vynn off with a sigh, his tone blunt. Instantly, everybody turned toward him with questioning looks.
"Meaning?" Jace asked with a raised eyebrow, skepticism dripping from his voice. "If there were more, I should have known, because I was able to fish out these guys."
"Clearly, it’s not everything you know. Like for example, did you all know that this whole world is run by something or someone called the game lord?" Zen asked, his gaze sharp as he stared at each and every person in the room.
"The game what?" Aria asked in shock, her reaction mirroring the stunned expressions of the others.
"And we aren’t the only ones here either. There are still countless more real in-world players scattered across different parts of Arcad. Some might even be hiding in plain sight. More could still be within our clan, who knows?" Zen added with a casual shrug, though his words carried heavy weight.
"Sheesh! My head hurts all of a sudden with all this new information." Vynn groaned while rubbing his temples, his expression twisted in frustration.
"New plan." Jace finally said, his tone firm as he stepped forward. "There’s no need for us to go around asking who is and who’s not a real player. Doing that will only raise suspicion and could alert this game lord persona Zen just spoke of."
"How do we even know if Zen is speaking the truth?" Erin asked with a furrowed brow, her voice cold as her glare locked onto Zen.
"That’s your own business. If you want to believe me, then believe me. If you don’t want to, go slam your head against a brick wall. I honestly don’t give a fuck." Zen scoffed, his voice dripping with disdain, causing a vein to bulge across Erin’s forehead.
{Dayum! Looks like bro is on fire today}
Jace just sighed and dragged a palm across his face, facepalming at the growing tension.
"So what now?" Aria muttered quietly, her eyes darting between Zen and Erin, unsure if a fight would break out.
Before they could respond, a loud knock echoed against the door, startling them all as their heads turned sharply toward it.
"Zen! Are you in there? If you are, come out now because the master demands the presence of all Reavers immediately." A muffled voice called from outside.
"Huh? The fuck?!" They all mouthed in unison, their shock hanging thick in the air as silence fell over the room.