Chapter 156: "I've thought of something fun. Want in?"
.....
Seito and the Harbingers felt their eyes twitching.
The veteran members were truly agents of chaos. It hadn't even been twenty-four hours since those hundred thousand new players joined, and they had already been completely corrupted?
"General Baifeng, let's just head in," Seito said with a weary sigh.
"Understood!" Baifeng swept his gaze over the soldiers behind him. "Everyone, charge with me!"
"Kill!"
"Slay them all!"
Tramp, tramp, tramp!
The main army launched its assault, and the player horde surged forward in their wake. Seito and the Harbingers followed closely behind.
A short while later...
Having breached the gates, Baifeng was a whirlwind of steel, reaping lives with every swing of his blade. The players engaged the garrison in a frenzied melee. Bringing up the rear, the Harbingers began their own methodical slaughter of the defenders.
Meanwhile, Seito used Spatial Displacement to flicker deep into the heart of the city. He was mainly curious to see what his guild members were actually up to.
Upon arrival, he spotted several Fatui members standing guard in front of civilian homes. One player was assigned to roughly every ten houses. The order was surprisingly decent.
"Guild Master!"
Seeing Seito appear, the players greeted him in unison.
"Mm," Seito acknowledged with a nod before asking, "Where are the executives?"
"Uh... well..." The players exchanged glances before one pointed toward a distant estate. "They headed for the noble district."
"I see." Seito turned and made his way toward the aristocratic manors.
A moment later, Seito reached the gates of a grand noble villa. Hearing the sounds drifting from within, his mouth couldn't help but twitch.
"Everyone, line up properly!"
"Heh heh heh, what do you think you're doing? Get over here, now!"
"That's right! The pole dance! Don't tell me you noble ladies don't know how. What? You want me to teach you? I guess you don't care much for your father's life then, do you? Heh heh heh."
Seito: "..."
Just listening from the outside told him exactly how chaotic it was in there. He was utterly speechless.
He pushed the doors open and stepped inside, but no one noticed him. The executives were too preoccupied to care about the sound of a door opening; after all, plenty of their comrades had been wandering in and out.
The scene that met Seito's eyes was... explosive, to say the least.
The executives all had their backs to him, sitting comfortably. Facing them was a group of aristocrats huddled on the floor, clutching their heads in terror. The noble ladies weren't bad-looking—not breathtakingly beautiful, perhaps, but their refined air and figures were certainly striking.
Currently, they stood there trembling "pathetically" while those two idiots, Iori Kitahara and Hidenori Tabata, barked orders at them. It looked like the nobles had been in the middle of a gala when the guild members crashed the party and rounded them all up.
When the noble ladies spotted Seito, they froze.
He wore a pristine white cloak. His sapphire eyes, reflecting golden hexagram patterns, seemed to shimmer with an otherworldly light. A stray breeze ruffled his snowy hair and caught the hem of his cloak. That mesmerizing aura made the girls' eyes sparkle.
To them, he looked like a prince sent by the heavens to rescue them from these thugs.
"My Lord! Save us!" one noble daughter cried out, her face flushing crimson.
The plea made the Fatui members freeze. They turned in unison toward the entrance. When they saw Seito, the executives collectively shuddered.
"G-Guild Master..."
"M-My King..."
Every single one of them snapped into a stiff, upright posture. Their words left the nobles in a state of utter bewilderment.
What? This guy is with them? And he's the Snezhnaya Emperor?!
Seito swept a cold, indifferent gaze over his men. "What was the mantra I gave you?"
"Topple the Empire! Snezhnaya is eternal!" Iori was the first to shout.
BAM!
With a flicker of spatial movement, Seito sent him flying across the room.
"I told you! Before doing anything, elegance must always come first!"
Exactly! Elegance was paramount! Besides, he was the Snezhnaya Emperor now—could they please stop dragging the reputation of the Empire and the guild through the mud?
"Well... you see..." The group looked at each other sheepishly. Hidenori leaned in toward Seito and whispered cautiously, "It's not like we let the other players know what we were doing."
"Nonsense!" Seito hissed. "Take a look at the World Channel!"
The group opened their screens simultaneously.
Silence.
Everyone's gaze shifted toward the few executives who had just posted their inner monologues to the public chat. Those individuals began scratching their heads awkwardly. They hadn't realized they were broadcasting their intrusive thoughts to the entire server. Quite the oversight.
"W-We're sorry!" the offenders shouted in unison.
"Hmph!" Seito snorted coldly. "Go close the gates. Pull the curtains, too."
The group scrambled to obey. Five minutes later, the villa was so tightly sealed that not even a fly could see inside. Seito took an elegant seat to one side and glanced at his executives.
"Why are you all staring at me? Continue!"
"Let the music play! Let the dance go on!"
Hearing this, the executives broke into their signature wild grins once more. Hidenori and Iori quickly crowded around Seito.
"Man, that hurt," Iori grumbled, rubbing his shoulder. He leaned in and said to Seito, "I've thought of something fun. Want in?"
"What kind of fun?" Seito and Hidenori asked at the same time.
A long while later.
Seito, Iori, Hidenori, and "Old Twenty-Eight"—who had just been dragged into the mix—sat in a neat row. In front of each of them was a table, and on those tables were four scoring paddles.
At the front, the executive serving as the MC, Ranqi, cleared his throat and looked at the captive nobles.
"Attention, Lords and Ladies! Our executives have decided to host a fashion show. The families of the top three winners will be spared from execution. Your property will still be confiscated, of course, but I suggest you take this seriously."
"After all, this is your only chance at survival."
The nobles' eyes lit up with hope! This was a life-line being offered right in front of the Snezhnaya Emperor, and the Emperor himself hadn't said a word to contradict it!
...
Thank you for reading.