Ibro was attracted by her words. There were many secrets in these few words. But they created more questions too.
“What do you mean? Is my freedom lost too like you?”
“No, my lord, that’s not what I meant. Any player playing here is risking his own life and freedom. He isn’t only risking his freedom but risking all his world freedom.
I told you my lord that we are descendants of losers. That was because one of our ancestors played in this game and lost. Our world was doomed to be in slavery since then.
If you don’t trade your way carefully my lord here in this game, you might cause the same disaster our ancestors did.”
Ibro didn’t know what he should say in response to these words. Although their words seemed logical, he didn’t totally believe them. He decided to ask more:
“How can you prove the truth of your words?”
“It’s easy. You have got that heart of this area, right? Try and check its information.”
Ibro looked at her deeply then he raised this gem and used his observation skill on it.
“Purgatory heart: grade gold heart of purgatory level.
Player who holds this heart can control the area of this test. This heart is a testimony of player success in this test. Number of hearts remaining till passing the test period: 99 hearts.”
Ibro’s mind went on rampage. This heart was a test set by the game to him. There was also another 99 hearts ahead of him. He was still in the test period. He looked at Mony and asked:
“What is this test period?”
“It’s the most dangerous period in this game. This game is divided into many stages.
The first one was the preliminary stage where you had passed the test grounds. Next is this test period. Later in the competition for hegemony period. Each period had its own risks and advantages.
In general, the preliminary stage and test stage are considered as filtering stage for this game. Every player has his own conditions and tests until they pass the test period. Then all players were subjected to only one rule: compete for more strength.”
Ibro felt he entered a huge complicated thing that he didn’t imagine before. He looked at Mony then asked:
“Why does this game have such deep mysteries?”
“It’s the game that defines our entire destiny. One win and you secure your future, future of your family, loved ones and world.
One loss and you and everyone related to you lose everything. This is a game that transcends the boundaries of life and death, time and place and even logic.
I’m telling you all of this my lord so you can understand the seriousness and danger of this game. We are here not to backstab you, my lord.
We are here to strive together to win our freedom and win the freedom of our world. Our fates were tied to your fate. If you fail we all fail, if you succeed we will win our freedom.”
Ibro felt the sincerity of her words. But he still didn’t fully trust her. Who knows if what she was saying was the truth. Mony seemed to know what Ibro was thinking about, so she said:
“I told you before my lord that we live as slaves in this life. When you use your heart, you will be officially recognized by the game as an active player and lord.
You will gain a new privilege, the privilege to kill any of us. Anyone that swore his allegiance to you my lord will have his life in your hands. I believe this is enough evidence about our sincerity.”
“This is enough evidence about this game’s cruelty. Tell me; are you all from the same world?”
“No my lord. We are from different worlds but we all were subjected to the same misery.”
Ibro kept his mouth shut and his mind working. He had new info about this game. He understood some of his situations. He had some answers to some of his questions, but he also got many more questions.
“You said to me that these monsters are real monsters. Is there a monster’s civilization out there?”
“Monster’s civilization? There are uncountable monster worlds.
These monsters came from these worlds. They are like us, slaves. But they are in a different camp. Their target is to hinder players like you my lord.”
Ibro felt everything made a lot of sense. These monsters are his enemies and those people are his allies. He only needed to have this safety button that he hoped he would never use.
He said to Mony:
“Do you know any other info?”
“There is a lot of data we learned when we moved here. But each amount of data was classified according to your progress in the game my lord. What I can tell you now is that we need to move very steadily.
A sudden emergence of human power will attract the attention of many monsters. Also, our enemies aren’t only monsters, but other lords. They compete with you my lord to pass to the city stage.”
Ibro was confused. What is the relation between reaching the city stage and his relation with other players? At first, he intended to compete and conquer other players’ territories.
But when he heard the truth about these monsters, he decided to shift his target and focus on these monsters. He needed 99 hearts from here. So why were these players his enemies? Theoretically speaking, the enemy of my enemy was my friend, right?
“It’s because when our village gets upgraded to a town, it needs to absorb the territory of some other players. The same is true when it moves from the town stage to the city stage.
Every big promotion needed many requirements. You needed to pay attention to the danger on the surface as the danger here. You need to develop both on the surface and here. So you need to develop steadily and avoid attracting attention to yourself.”
It was nice advice. If he heard this advice a couple of months ago he would heed by it. But now, he had changed. That passive pathetic Ibro was gone.
He would never be in the reaction area ever again. He would always be the one who took the first move. He looked to Mony and said with gratitude:
“I want to thank you for your advice, but I need you to know about my nature.”
He then moved closer to her. He held her shoulders with his hands and raised her from the ground. He looked deeply at her cyan wide eyes and said with seriousness:
“I don’t run away from any challenge, instead, I run directly towards it. Now it’s not time for us to hide ourselves. We need more population. I need more people.
Tell me, from where can I get more?”
Mony felt this player was crazier than she thought. When she heard what Megedy told her, she ran to her as fast as she could.
Although the village just passed the first day, there were some possible fighters in the new people. She brought them here trying to save her lord from these monsters.
When she reached here, she felt a deep shock. There was no living monster here. All were dead. Her lord was standing there heroically bathed in the blood of his enemies.
She didn’t feel herself when she ran to him and knelt down. She wanted to help him more. But now he didn’t want to follow her advice.
She knew she didn’t have any real authority here and her main role was to help this young lord and gave him some pieces of advice. She wanted to try and convince him with her point of view.
Being slow and safe wasn’t a bad thing at all. But his firm look made here gave up this idea. This young lord was a really unique man. She said in response to his question:
“Population here can be acquired from certain places which are called ‘detention posts’. They are either here or stationed on the surface in the different strongholds of monsters.”
