Chapter 8: Revelation

Ten hours have passed and Joseph could be seen leaning on a wall staring out a window. The sun is starting to rise as the sky is glowing a lukewarm orange. Joseph is staring at the gate leading into the town, he's clearly waiting for other players to show up.

Joseph starts to tap his foot on the floor growing impatient until he lets out a loud sigh and walks toward the wooden stairs before stepping down them. Joseph walks past the receptionist's desk as the blonde woman stares at his back before she speaks.

" Where are you going? "

Joseph glances back at the woman while pushing on the wooden door slowly opening it. Joseph grins before speaking. 

" I'm heading towards the entrance into this town, something is wrong. "

The woman looks at him confused as he walks through the wooden door. The door shuts behind him as Joseph quickly walks down the stairs and heads toward the wooden gate with several thoughts running through his mind...

Where are the other players? They should have arrived by now, even if they stopped to rest. I walk towards the guard who is standing motionless at the gate. I believe Aziue's opinion of these people being fake is half true. I think some of them are real and the others are fake. For example, the guard I'm walking towards is not real.

The way he talks and his mannerisms are like an NPC from a video game however, the woman from the inn acted far too real. That was the main reason I flirted with her, was to see how she would act. I approach the guard before stopping directly next to him catching his attention.

He looks at me before he grins and speaks. 

" How may I help you? "

I politely nod my head at him before speaking to him.

" I don't need anything, I was just observing waiting for the others to show up. However, they didn't show up like I planned them to. "

As soon as the man heard me speak a distraught look covered his face as sweat poured down his face, I looked at him confused as he spoke in a shaky tone of voice.

" I-I heard from a group of scouts that a group of soldiers was destroyed a couple of hours ago, they were most likely the people you were talking about correct? "

They were destroyed? That doesn't make sense, the gods wouldn't allow a group of people to be slaughtered so early into this game. Unless this is the system's way of telling me new information. But what could this mean, wait, does this mean-... 

As Joseph started to put the pieces together, Aziue could still be seen sleeping on a white bed inside a cramped small room. Aziue was fast asleep until suddenly her eyes shot open and she raised up in the bed. 

Even though Aziue was made out of robotic parts, she still requires sleep like a normal human. Aziue stood up out of the bed still drowsy until abruptly her wooden door slammed open shocking her. Joseph quickly entered her room holding onto his knees, breathing heavily. Aziue stared at Joseph confused before he spoke, taking a deep breath between each word. 

" I-I figured something out, there aren't going to be other players in this town, it'll just be us. This means it will be us versus a horde of monsters. "

Azie looks at Joseph with widened eyes before she quickly asks a question.

" How are we going to defend such an unfortified place by ourselves? "

Joseph just shrugged his shoulders, before he heard footsteps behind him making him turn around, standing directly behind Joseph was the blonde woman from the desk. Aziue and Joseph stare at the woman confused until she speaks. 

" I'm sorry for the abrupt appearance, I just saw him running and wanted to ensure everything was okay. "

Joseph quickly let out a fake smile before giving a thumbs up, the woman looked at the fake smile before scoffing and speaking.

" I'm not a child you know, I know something bad is happening but what is it? "

As soon as the woman said this a confused look appeared on Aziue's face before she asked the woman a question. 

" Do you not know about the impending monster attack? "

The blonde woman's face became bewildered as sweat started to pour down her face, her lips quivered before she murmured out two words. 

" What monsters? "

Joseph and Aziue glanced at each other both confused, they thought everyone in the town knew about the monster attack based on their depressed expressions but the woman in front of them had no clue about the attack. Joseph started to ponder until abruptly he snapped his head towards the blonde woman and spoke. 

" Did the guard not tell you about the attack? "

The woman looked at Joseph even more confused before she spoke to him in a shaky voice. 

" We don't have any guards what are you talking about- "

Before the woman could finish her sentence a man leaped down from the dark ceiling and swiftly sliced her head cleanly off with a gleaming sword. Blood spewed out her neck like a crimson fountain, Joseph and Aziue stood frozen staring at a man wearing chainmail armor, Joseph quickly smacked his lips before he twirled slamming a powerful kick into the side of the man's helmet causing him to stumble back into a wooden dresser.

The chainmail man was no other than the guard from the entrance of the city. He leaned back on the dresser pointing his sword towards Joseph and Aziue with an evil smirk on his face. Aziue scoffed seeing his grin as she extended her palm forward creating lightning in her right palm before firing a massive bolt of lightning that collided into the man's chest launching him through the dresser and slamming him through a wall until he came to a rolling stop in another room. 

The man lay face-first on the floor with a pile of rubble on top of him, he slowly pushed himself on his feet while speaking in a raspy voice. 

" Looks like you figured it out too late. If you found out earlier you could have saved that woman's life. " 

The guard stares at Aziue and Joseph trying to see their reaction to his comment, he's obviously trying to rile them up to make their movements sloppy however, the reaction to his comment isn't what the guard expects. Joseph and Aziue stared at the guard with indifferent looks on their faces like they truly didn't care that the woman died.

Joseph starts to walk towards the man as he gingerly pushes himself up onto his feet, the guard takes a deep breath before slashing at Joseph's chest. The blade slices through the air before it cuts through Joseph's chest making blood spew out onto his chainmail armor. The guard stares at Joseph confused, Joseph didn't try to defend himself from the blade or even react to it. 

The guard glances down at the massive gash going across Joseph's body until his eyes widen seeing the wound rapidly heal before Joseph's right hand shoots out grabbing onto the guard's neck. Joseph begins to strangle the man with one hand as a grin creeps onto his face. 

The guard's face turns blue as he tries to slash his blade at Joseph's arm before suddenly something grabs onto his forearm stopping his blade, the guard glances to his right before seeing Aziue standing next to him tightly gripping his forearm, seeing that his life was endangered the guard shamelessly starts to beg for his life. 

" D-Don't kill me, I was forced to sell out the location of your allies to the monsters, they would have killed my family if I didn't. "

As soon as the guard said this, Joseph started to chuckle, before speaking.

" Sorry to tell you this man, but we kind of don't care. "

The guard's eyes widened as a loud snap entered his ears, the guard's face was contorted to the left from Joseph snapping his neck. Joseph lets go of the guard's body making him loudly crash onto the wooden floor, Aziue and Joseph stare down at the corpse with cruel grins on their faces...