The NPC Got A System

11. Entering The Tower

“EVERYONE, ATTENTION PLEASE!”

A loud voice came from the front side, making all people suddenly become quiet and focused their attention on the sole voice.

On a podium in front of the tower gate, a big man covered in heavy armor and brought a huge axe on his back stood with pride on his face. He looked around at all volunteers there and grinned wide.

“Welcome, brave soldiers. Thank you for coming here and becoming part of the group raid today. My name is Jonathan, your raid captain today. And the two people sitting there is my companion, who will pay you if you all manage to defeat the monster boss and finish this tower.” Jo pointed his index finger to a gazebo on the west side of the Schlydia tower, and everyone there turned their heads in curiosity.

Dimitri, who wore a noble white suit and black glasses that covered his red ruby eyes, lifted his right palm as a quick greeting while Merlene smiled genuinely. There were already some men that fell for her seduction. She giggled, looking at those hungry creatures and sipping on her wine. She glanced around to see if there was someone worthy enough to be her new man slave.

Yes. One of Merlene’s skills was a detector type to find if a player was strong or weak by looking at their magic aura. After drinking a rare serpent potion, she achieved this skill and got its powerful eye skill.

(Weak, super weak, useless, ugh, all of them are not worth looking at. Hmm, who’s that hot man?)

She covered her face using a hand fan and fixed her gaze on Siegrid, which stood in the front line while still holding at the leash with a proud face.

(He is quite strong. Is he a mid-rank player? Hmm, I think I want him, fufufu.)

“Cut it off, Merl. When you’re making that menace expression, I know you’re targetting one of them. Lower your expectation. I bet this group will not make it back.” Dimitri, who caught Merlene red-handed, rolled his eyes behind the black glasses.

Merlene scoffed shortly. “What do you know about me? And it’s my fucking business whether I want to target someone to be my new toy.”

“Whatever,” answered Dimitri before he went back to his morning sleep.

She wanted to punch Dimitri in the head. Still, she tried to hold it back because Dimitri was the important factor in their business relationship—correction, Dimitri’s money. Merlene ignored Dimitri and went back to observe Siegrid. However, her attention suddenly moved to the person approaching Siegrid from behind. He tip-toed among the crowd, and his gaze was fixed on Siegrid, no, but toward the girl that Siegrid leashed.

(Who’s that man?)

Merlene felt familiar with that man, but she could not remember him. And when she activated her skill to check him, it looked like he was not that strong. However, looking at him made Merlene feel uncomfortable.

She almost stood up and followed that strange man, but Jonathan’s voice cut her inner thought and brought her back to reality.

“AS WE’VE PROMISED TO YOU ALL BEFORE THE GATE OPENED, ALL OF YOU WILL GET 20 GOLD PER PERSON AS THE UPFRONT PAYMENT. MAKE A STRAIGHT LINE AND RECEIVE YOUR PAYMENT! CMON, DON’T WASTE ANY SECOND!”

Because of Jo’s announcement, everyone there jumbled into one long straight line, and Merlene lost that strange man from her sight.

(Shit!)

On another side, Nash, who was now quite near Siegrid, queued in that line and waited for his turn to get the payment. His goal was to release that girl from him and give that poor fox girl the freedom to choose how she would live later. He could not stand slavery. Moreover, she was a helpless girl that could not ask for others’ help because she was too weak.

If Siegrid was a common person or prior NPC, he could instantly defeat him. But he was a player, a dangerous one. So, Nash could not move rashly and needed to make a plan because he was not at the same level as him and did not have experience dealing with human players.

“Here, your payment. Ugh—man, don’t you know you smell like a horse’s dung?” The man on the payment table furrowed his eyebrows in disgust when it was Nash’s turn.

“I know that too,” answered Nash awkwardly. He quickly grabbed the money and moved immediately before he caught more attention there. The first step to making his plan succeed was not being caught by Siegrid. He needed to stay low and not gain unnecessary attention. It was better if Siegrid never knew that Nash joined this raid too, so he could make a surprise attack and knock him down in one single blow.

Nash did not know if his plan would work, but he would still try it. No one could predict a future, right?

He returned to his original place on the crowd and waited silently before the gate opened. Siegrid and that fox girl stood not far from Nash’s place. He could see some new bruises on her knees and other injuries that looked painful.

(I know this is crazy. But I think one punch isn’t enough to punish that cruel and heartless bastard.)

“WELL, IS EVERYONE RECEIVED THEIR PAYMENT?” asked Jonathan while using his skill that amplified his voice so it could reach almost 50 meters in maximum distance.

“YESSSSSS!” answered all people there in excitement. They did not know what awaited them inside and just cheered because they received money after coming to this place. There were just a few people, the actual game players, who did not join the uproar cheering because they knew the chance of coming back alive was small. They joined this raid because of the email content they received two weeks ago.

If all the towers remaining in Terraria had finished, the last tower would appear. They could return to the real world after that.

It had just been two weeks, and the real players' population quickly decreased. From 20,000 players that were originally trapped, currently, there were 12,000 players left, which means that almost 8,000 died when they tried to escape from this game or died horribly by the monster’s hand. It was a terrifying thing to experience. The remaining players now chose to act cautiously and ensure their safety first.

“SO, ARE YOU READY TO DO YOUR JOB AND GET MORE MONEY AFTER THAT?” asked Jonathan again, to lift their enthusiasm.

“YESSSSS!”

“GOOD! LET’S OPEN THE GATE! DON’T FORGET TO BRING YOUR WEAPON AND STAY CLOSE TO EACH OTHER, OF COURSE, IF YOU DON’T WANT TO BE KILLED. I WILL WAIT FOR YOUR VICTORY HERE AND CHEER ON YOU!”

The crowd became silent again after hearing the word killed. Jo knew that he was making a mistake and quickly corrected it. “I MEAN, WE CAN FINISH THIS TOWER BY WORKING TOGETHER, RIGHT?”

All people looked at each other before an uproar came again. “YESSS! LET’S COMPLETE THIS FUCKING TOWER AND GET OUR GOLD!”

Merlene giggled from afar. “They didn’t mean it’ll be their gold, right? Fufu, how foolish.”

“Huh, people like them sometimes forget their original place and try to steal what’s ours,” Dimitri added while leaning on his seat. He did not interested in joining that childish activity. Only Jonathan liked to be an attention center.

Jonathan scoffed in satisfaction when knowing the cheering was still there. He gave a hand signal toward his private soldier to push the tower’s gate. “OPEN THE GATE!”

Two soldiers in steel armor pushed the tower gate using all their strength. Slowly, the gate was opened and everyone there held their breath when the ominous aura came from inside.

DEATH.

That was written clearly on their head when that chilling aura surrounded them. Some quivered in fear, while others wanted to turn back and run. But they could not run because Tre Devilla’s soldiers guarded this place. They had no choice except to go inside and accept their death.

“Let’s go.”

“Y-yes.”

Suddenly, all their attention moved toward Siegrid, who walked first inside the tower while pulling the leash that circled the poor fox girl who followed him behind. After he disappeared inside the tower’s darkness, everyone there looked at each other and started to move inside, hiding their fear and braving themselves to get the gold.

Nash also moved forward among the crowd. Finally, his time to use the new skills came.

(With this, I’ll make sure to land one or two punches on that bastard face.)

CRIEEEEEEEEEK!

After Nash got inside, the gate was closed immediately, and everyone screamed in fear.

Suddenly, the darkness inside the tower was replaced with a torch light that flared one by one until all the tower's first floor became bright.

“Huh, what’s this? Why is this floor empty?”

“Where’s the monster?”

“I think they know my arrival and run in fear, hahaha!”

As it said, this floor was empty. There was no low leveled monster like a goblin or slime around.

Nash almost lowered his guard when he saw Siegrid pull that girl aside as if avoiding something. He must know something about this place. If it were not, he would not enter it first and act calmly like that.

(What’s that? What’s the thing he knows, and I’m not? Is the monster will come from the center? Or what)

Schreee—

“Huh, do you hear that?” A young man with round glasses asked his friend.

“What?” His friend furrowed in confusion.

Schreeeee—

“That voice!”

“I didn’t hear anything, don’t say such scary things like that!”

Nash, who eavesdropped on their conversation then quickly realized something.

(Above!)

“EVERYONE, LOOK ABOVE!”

With Nash’s loud announcement, all the raid group members looked up and dropped their jaws in fear after looking at the white cocoons on the roof. There were almost ten medium-sized spider monsters with red glowing eyes that had to target their new prey among all the people there.

“The first monster is a spider! Everyone prepared to fight!”

Nash clenched his fists and took a step behind. He whispered to the empty air. “System, activate the new skill.”

[New skill ‘Strong Aura’ is activated. Now Player Nash Ledger can attack with full force without worry about defense.]

He grinned thin. “Let’s do this.”