Hovering above the town, shackled and caged inside a pale yellow orb, was SV.
The threads emanating from him clashed against the orb to no effect, but his efforts remained undiminished.
He looked below at the scene of the BOSS speaking with the group.
Martha screamed, and the group turned and convened a brief meeting, the details of which were a mystery to him. It was truly a shame that he didn't know lip reading. But then again, were they speaking English? He never knew how he understood them in the dream. What was the principle?
Then, the group scattered and rapidly scoured the town.
"Hey! Yun Jierou! Up here! Can you hear me? I'm up here!" SV said as his eyes intently followed Yun Jierou, wishing he could bore into her.
"Save your breath, kid, she won't be able to save you," a raspy voice sounded near him.
SV turned to look and saw a scrawny old man with sporadic white hair on his head. The old man had pitch-black eyes that devoured all the whites in his eyes, making it difficult to discern what he was looking at. He had a scruffy white beard and wore a simple black robe.
SV smiled, "BOSS, you look so ugly. No wonder you possessed the mayor."
The BOSS looked unbothered, "laugh all you want kid, your little lover is going to die soon anyway."
SV corrected him, "she's not my lover."
"Then why go to such lengths to help her? If you're not her lover, then you're a simpering fool. Are you pining after her smile?"
SV looked at him strangely, "you're trying to sow discord?"
The BOSS smiled, revealing his set of crooked teeth, "this old man is merely curious. I haven't talked to anyone for a long time, you see?"
SV raised a nonexistent eyebrow, then shrugged, "then tell me why K shouldn't be helping her. She owes me her life, and she promised to repay me, and I don't see myself losing anything by helping her."
"But she tricked you," the BOSS suddenly said.
"So?" SV said, not understanding the BOSS's thoughts.
"What do you mean 'so?' She tricked you, and you don't have any reaction?" The BOSS said, slightly agitated.
"What reaction should I have then?" SV asked, genuinely curious.
The BOSS stared at SV in astonishment, not understanding this kid's brain activity at all. Then he held out his hand as if to tell SV to slow down.
"Let me get this straight: she tricked you into working for her and didn't tell you anything, nor did she give you anything. You know all this, yet you're still willing to help her? Kid, do you have no concept of dignity in your world? Where is your self-respect? Do you even understand the meaning of these two words?"
SV smiled and then shook his head, "hey BOSS, you're one grumpy old man. I don't think my decisions have anything to do with you."
"I beg to differ. Your decisions are quite literally going against me, so they do have something to do with me."
SV blinked, feeling that it seemed to make sense, "eh, how about you release my shackles, and I'll tell you the answer."
The BOSS looked at him with a look one gave to the mentally challenged patients.
SV chuckled, "I'm just saying. It's fine if you don't want to listen."
He then turned his gaze back to the town.
SV's gaze landed on Yun Jierou's figure searching around the town, and he heard the BOSS say, "she's one stunning girl. No wonder you're smitten with her."
"BOSS, I think it's you who's smitten with her."
"It's fine if you want to delude yourself kid, but don't bring an old man like me down with you. I have quite literally shredded her to pieces before."
"Eh, you're quite ruthless old man. You probably died single."
"...Kid, I haven't died."
"Then you're going to die single."
The BOSS clicked his tongue, "we'll see about that."
SV wanted to add another witty remark, but the BOSS simply zipped up his mouth. SV was speechless, everyone around him liked to just zip him up.
Helpless, he could only refocus his attention on Yun Jierou, wanting to know what she wanted to gain by scouring the town like this.
The time passed slowly, and Yun Jierou's objective didn't seem to have been realized.
Not only her, but her group didn't seem to have found what they were looking for either.
They convened again and seemed to arrive at a decision. Immediately after, they spread around the town and started wreaking havoc.
Spells, fires, and lightning razed the town to the ground, but surprisingly, the houses restored themselves in the next second as if nothing had happened.
The townspeople were in a frenzy, scattering around like rats, but no ill befell any of them. At most, their clothes needed some mending.
SV looked at the scene, wondering what they were trying to achieve.
The ever-helpful BOSS seemed to be bored waiting and provided SV with an explanation: "They're trying to exhaust the dream's energy."
SV turned to the BOSS and had an inquiry in his eyes, but the BOSS ignored him. He wanted to know if their efforts were in vain. Alas, he couldn't extract any additional information.
The BOSS chuckled, "kid, you think I haven't noticed your little moves? Save your breath and just enjoy their swansong."
SV smiled sheepishly, but he still tried to free his fingers from the gloves. He didn't believe he couldn't activate his talent if he tried hard enough.
From his previous conversation with Yun Jierou, SV had a strange thought. If they didn't have access to their panels, how could they access their talent and skills? He had seen them perform hand gestures, so he had a guess that it was possible to somehow set up actions for their skills without direct access.
He just didn't know if it depended on external influences or not. But that didn't prevent him from trying.
Of course, he also had another option, but that option was very hard to achieve, so SV simply didn't consider it for now.
He simply tried to close his middle and ring fingers while trying to activate his talent.
The BOSS ignored SV's attempts as if they were doomed to fail and simply enjoyed the view of the scene below, giving out sporadic comments.
"These charlatans have come a long way. They used to scamper away the moment things got serious."
"I'm kind of envious of their skills now. The arsenal is quite impressive."
"But, how should I say this? They seem to have a bit of a mage's skills mixed in. It's not pure Taoism. This would be considered heretical back in the days."
"It's quite funny when you think about it; all paths are supposed to reach the same destination, which contradicts their dogmatic view that Taoism is superior—not that they ever acknowledged any other path."
"They used to be rats surviving in the gutters, touting their superiority, but they seem to have gotten better now. At least your lover's deductions are pretty much right on target. If it were back in the days, they would get six out of five sentences wrong."
"Yeah, yeah, she's not your lover. You don't have to look at me like that."
...
The BOSS commented, and the group repeatedly destroyed the town over and over again. SV could feel desparation seep into their actions as time passed. A spell destroyed more houses in a row, the speed of their flight increased, and more townspeople were intentionally targeted.
But alas, time ticked forward, while the town remained in its pristine state.
Seemingly bored from talking alone, the BOSS turned to SV and asked him, "hey kid, will you humor this old man with an answer now?"
SV felt the ban on his mouth disappear and turned to the BOSS, "why are you so curious?"
The BOSS smiled widely, "why don't we share our answers then? You tell me your reason, and I'll tell you mine."
SV shrugged, "I don't even remember what you wanted to know."
The BOSS was speechless for a moment, "my question is, why are you helping that girl? Dignity, remember?"
"Ah!" SV nodded, then seemed to be in deep thought. It took him a while to gather the right words, "honestly, I just did it. I don't really care that much that she tricked me. She's just trying to survive. What's wrong with that? And it's not like she did something adverse against me."
Then he added as an afterthought, "Don't get me wrong, I am miffed, and I did think of ditching her, but leaving her to die for something harmless didn't sit well with me."
"Didn't you say you almost died in your trial?"
SV raised a nonexistent eyebrow, "how long had you been listening in, old man?"
The BOSS smiled and offered no explanation.
SV shook his jead and said, "while that is true, she doesn't control the trial. I would have taken the trial sooner or later. It is a matter of time, and she simply brought that time forward."
"But the fact of the matter remains that she did trick you, you won't do anything about that?" The BOSS pushed relentlessly.
SV was truly speechless now, "why are you so curious? How is this related to anything?"
The BOSS smiled, "I'm just curious, when you get to my age, you like to get to the bottom of things. I don't like having half-formed answers."
SV was seriously doubdful of that claim but complied nontheless, "I think I already said it. I will save her, then I will ask her to explain heraelf. If her explanation isn't good enough, then that would be it. I will go my way she will go hers. But I will collect what she owes me, one way or another."
The BOSS nodded with approval, then smiled, "but I, too, just want to survive, why are you going against me when I've never gone against you?"
SV smiled, "when we first met, you had BOSS written all over you. Who was I supposed to target if not you?"
"What is this BOSS thing you keep mentioning?"
"BOSS is the BOSS, the guy you beat at the end of the trial to clear it."
The BOSS nodded, seeming to understand, "oh, so it's because of the quests."
SV nodded, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. As a player, wasn't it par for the course to blindly follow mission descriptions and slaughter whoever is meant to be slaughtered? Very few cared whether who they slaughtered was innocent or not, only what the reward was.
SV started with that mentality, and although it changed now knowing that this wasn't a simple game, it didn't prevent him from trying to go against the BOSS.
"And it's not like you're some innocent victim. Look at your masterpiece below; even I haven't enslaved a whole town before like this, and I call myself Bandit Emperor."
The BOSS grinned and started cackling, "that's a good one. A gullible guy like you calling himself a bandit. I doubt you've actually ever killed someone before."
"I have! I've killed plenty! Heck, I've razed empires to the ground before." SV declared, not wanting to be underestimated.
Of course, those things happened in other games, but that didn't prevent him from boasting.
The BOSS, however, utterly disregarded his claims and doubled over laughing, "razed empires! Empires! Of course you did! Oh, my stomach, I can't."
SV simply stared at the BOSS with righteous indignation, feeling that his banditry reputation was being tarnished for no reason.
The BOSS gradually calmed down and wiped a nonexistent tear from the corner of his eye, "sorry, sorry, that made me laugh more than it should have. Got any more?"
"Fuck you!"