章 5: Giving Others a Chance
Plaidy Z laughed, gently rubbing his head and thought, "Maybe this guy didn't hear me right." then he said, "What I'm offering you is an invite to a very well known clan."
"Plaidy Z, am I right?" Shawn asked and Plaidy nodded, "Alright, let me get this straight..." he added and took out an invitation letter, showing it to them
It was the invitation letter to the clan called Disciples. The 3rd ranked clan in the global ranking.
"Where did you get this?" Plaidy asked in astonishment, looking closer if it wasn't fake, yet it was still an official letter.
"A friend of mine..." Shawn withdrew the letter into one of his pouches, then continued, "He said I'm able to take anyone else, long as they're capable to be a disciplined and obedient soldier. Which means, all of you girls..." he paused, pointing at each one of the girls one at a time and added, "Will be recruited there. I've already wrote your names in the list of conditions that have been proposed."
Everyone was thrilled, except for Plaidy who complained, "What about me? I'm good at being a disciplinary pupil!" he said loudly, point to himself while getting closer to Shawn
Shawn laughed, "Don't even think about hitting me, you'll only be the one who'll get blamed at. Besides, you're short-tempered, that's why you won't even get through a single day in clan Disciples." he said in an ice cold tone with sharp and piercing eyes, making an intimidating look on his face.
Plaidy felt furious and afraid. He walked away, stomping the ground as if he was like a child who got grounded and went straight to bed. He didn't talk back but Shawn didn't mind.
All the girls hugged Shawn, tightly and really really long, even Scarlett and Eve joined in the group hug.
"Finally! A place to relax!"
"Yeah, I'm kinda getting bored in the City."
"Ugh... This place creeps me out like a lot."
"Totally!"
They all chatted for a while. Shawn in the other hand, suited up and approached Eve and Scarlett who were talking, then they both noticed and faced towards Shawn, smiling happily.
"You guys head to the Guild. They'll activate a portal for you which will directly send you to the Disciples' base." Shawn said briefly.
"What about you?" after moments of hesitation, Scarlett asked Shawn who was about to leave.
"I'm heading outside the City." Shawn replied along with a smile.
"Uhh..." Scarlett was stunned by Shawn's response. Her mouth was wide enough to fit a fist in it.
"I'm curious, what's on the outside?" Eve asked, she wasn't on the same page as Scarlett, that's why she had different thoughts.
"Trust me, you don't wanna know." Shawn warned Eve and started to walk away. But she grabbed his hand tightly.
"Wether you like it or not, I'm coming with you." she said in a serious manner.
"Umm..." Shawn couldn't talk back because of how beautiful Eve's avatar was. Her look was like a duplicate of her actual face in real life, the only difference was that WARFARE is isn't real and so is her avatar, "As long as you won't get in trouble or something. I'll be taking you along the way." he finally responded after a brief amount of thinking.
They both walked away. Scarlett shook her head off the clouds and gathered all the girls before walking to the Guild. They stopped in front of the receptionist who was behind the counter and said, "Ah! You must be the new 'disciples'! Just head to that portal over there and you're through!" pointing at the portal beside the counter.
They all went in, excited, nervous, afraid, anxious, determined, they had mixed emotions after arriving at their clan base. They were all standing on a teleportation platform. Looking around, the base had a sci-fi themed layout, neon green outlines, metal walls, sliding steel doors, etc.
"Welcome to clan Disciples! I am Peak, co-leader of the clan." A player who had top notch gear greeted them by the main entrance. He looked for Shawn but he wasn't around, then asked, "Where's Bushman?"
"Had to take the long run." Scarlett spoke through the crowd in a calm manner, her arms crossed.
"Oh, I see. Well then, let me show you around!" the player replied with a smile before giving them a tour around the place.
...
Shawn and Eve were at the city gates that leads to the outside, waiting in a line for security check.
"Why'd they still need a security check when heading out? Isn't it just supposed to be for outsiders?" Eve asked, looking at Shawn.
"When I played the beta version of this, Safe Zone City was already brewing up some illegal actions such as black marketing and so on. Then the developers updated a strict security check up. As of now, lawbreakers have been trapped in this city for a long time, not giving them a chance to level up, unless they change." Shawn explained carefully and slowly. Eve kept nodding from time to time, memorizing up all the information until it was finally their turn.
Fortunately, they made it through and walked out of the city. Eve expected the outside to be a giant and wild forest, but instead, the outside was nothing but a barren wasteland. Gunshots and flashes of light from afar could even be witnessed, and they were given a minute of invisibility when they were out.
"Come on, we don't have much time!" Shawn grabbed and held Eve's hand firmly, dragging her into a safe hiding spot.
Eve was too embarrassed to say anything to Shawn, "Uhh..." she was speechless at that moment on, seeing that Shawn still held her hand.
Shawn finally let go of Eve and pulled out his sniper rifle, aiming somewhere, Eve gathered up her thoughts and got her head out of the clouds, "What's wrong?" she asked before looking towards where Shawn kept aiming, but all she saw was sand and dust, then added, "I don't see anything. What are you aiming at exactly?"
"A runner's on the loose, this noob is too dumb to get exposed on hostile terrains." Shawn deliberately made the shot. It was a hit! The EXP suddenly filled into their avatars, Shawn levelled up, while Eve was still halfway to reach level 5.
Seeing Shawn level up to 25, she became bewildered, "Completing tasks and killing players are the only ways in levelling up but, he's already in level 25! It would even take 3 months for a pro WARFARE player to reach level 20!" she thought really hard before speaking to Shawn, who was checking the area for other wanderers, "How long did you play in the beta version?"
"About a week and a half, maybe more." Shawn answered without hesitation and looked at Eve who was trapped in her own thoughts. He lets out a sigh then added, "Listen, the beta version had a simple level up system before, that's why I'm already level 25. But right now, it has become a more complex system. Now stop asking questions, we're clear to move." He was more frustrated to keep on going with her asking too many questions.
"Oh, okay then." Eve noticed Shawn's frustrated look, so she kept silent afterwards.
After an hour, they finally made it to another city. They actually racked up 9 more kills along the way, most of the kills came from Shawn but he kept transferring all the EXP to Eve. She jumped to level 6 and felt bad for Shawn who kept giving all the benefits to her.
"This should've been the moment that I would help him return all of his favours, instead I'm still getting carried by him. I'm so helpless!!!" Eve thought, looking down while they passed through the security check.
Shawn took glimpse at Eve then said while looking towards where he was going, "Don't blame yourself. I wouldn't even be here if it weren't for you. Giving me this much courage is already a big help for me." He gently patted Eve's head, but she didn't respond nor made a move at all.
They arrived in a storage depot, Shawn kept walking around a long path and Eve followed behind. The each storage room that they passed through had storage numbers on the door. Shawn took out a key card and stopped outside storage room 34, then inserted the card into a slot beside the door. It slid open afterwards and inside was two rectangular high-tech-looking weapon cases. He grabbed the first case which was a smaller than what Shawn was holding and said to Eve who caught the case in a such a puzzled look, "Open it."
Eve crouched down and opened the case. She pulled out a P90 that had a neon yellow themed paintjob, attached with a suppressor and a red dot sight. She was thrilled to receive a cool looking gun for the first time, "Thank you! For all of this, really." She said in a kind and sweet manner.
"Yeah, of course, anything for a true friend of mine!" Shawn replied with happiness in his smile. He carried the heavy case that he didn't open and looked at Eve who was blushing, "It's almost lunch. We should set our spawnpoint here first." He said while walking out of the storage room, Eve followed him and they both ended up on the spawning platform. A colourful aura came out of the floor and into their bodies.
[Spawnpoint confirmed]
They both logged out of the game and woke up into the reality, taking off their headsets, seeing that the others were already awake and chatting with each other.
"Hey, they're back!"
All of them came forward and crowded Shawn,
"Shawn, thank you so much!"
"Shawn, let me treat you to a lunch!"
"No, I'll treat him to lunch!"
"The memories of having fans..." Shawn thought, he looked quite pale and tired at the moment, and couldn't respond to what they were saying.
"Come on, girls, give him space!" Scarlett separated the crowd and saw Shawn, shivering and panting hardly. "He's too exhausted right now. Come on, let Eve take him to lunch." She took the crowd away and led them to the cafeteria. It was only Eve and Shawn in the cabin.
"You okay?" Eve, who stood in front of Shawn, was worried.
"I'm fine... I just need to eat, I'm starving." Shawn said and stood up slowly. Eve helped her up and they both went to the cafeteria after a moment.
They sat along the other members of their group and looked at Shawn. All of them were so worried about him, he was literally shivering so hard and his skin became as pale as snow. Other students glanced at Shawn and started whispering at each other.
"Here, take my food." Scarlett, who was sitting in front of Shawn, slid her meal to him.
Shawn ate so fast that it only took him a minute to finish. He took his time to catch his breath and looked at all of their concerned faces, "Thank you. Now, as you may have noticed. I have an odd and serious health condition."
Everyone on the table listened closely when Shawn was about to explain his condition.
クリエイターの想い 
IceCube
IceCube Hello. So, I made a delay on the next chapter due to some issues irl •~•
Anyways, I hope you guys are enjoying my novel. I'm still new to making this so any feedback to you would be a big help to me in improving. Whether it's a good or a bad feedback, I'll be keeping it in mind.
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