Dying In Real Life Is Another Way To Play

In reality, Lan Ranyan sensed that Garam wasn't waiting for her to speak, as such she waited to listen.

"A few people saw Juggernaut, his sister, Snow Queen and a new face, which coincidentally has the same features as the legendary entity..." Garam started again

"Even before the images we're sent out by Snow regarding the "Pantheon", I had some of my guild members to check and follow them to see what they we're up to since we saw them towing a newbie, but I had to stop my men from further following once they went out of the city, as there isn't much cover to hide in the desert." Garam explained seeing that every one started to settle down

"When they returned afterwards, everything else happened as you all remember, I found out that the man they were with, had died to sacrifice himself in order to appease the Legendary being. Now, I didn't pull out this "tail order" even after all that's happened and they continued to monitor these three for the past few days...." again Garam made an apologizing signal to Lan Ranyan and Ye Qing.

"Okay, where are we going with this?" A guild leader spoke as he started to get bored with the way that Garam has conducted the meeting.

"Ramses, We're getting to the good part.." he said as he gestured the man to settle down.

Garam then paused for a while as he smiled to continue "Now here's the best part... The pantheon arrived to apprehend them and the legendary being, but ended up knocked out cold. It's highly unlikely that Game Moderators couldn't control a being created by the game, afterwards these three stayed in the vicinity of the portal to wait for this new guy, whom I supposed is a new player... under normal circ.u.mstances, your first death would lock you out of the game for 24 hours right?"

Everyone nodded in approval as he paused.

"Miss Snow, could you please tell us why you chose to wait for a few more days, even if he hasn't returned?" Garam followed up with a question.

Everyone's gaze transferred from Garam to Lan Ranyang at this point.

Lan Ranyang saw this and played along since it wasn't really something that's ought to be hidden for any reason.

"His online status was back on after 24 hours, since he didn't have a chance to go to any save point, that's why we chose to stay longer." she said nonchalantly.

Garam smiled and his face looked as if his hunch was right, he continued.

"Is he still online right now?" he asked

"Yes..." Lan Ranyang started to feel uncomfortable with the series of question but answered nonetheless after pulling up her interface. Both Ye Qing and Ye Qian did the same, since they were feeling bored at this point and checked their interface.

People's head had now been turning to and fro at this point of conversation.

"Have you tried sending him a message?" Garam continued to ask

"I did!" Ye Qian raised her hand as she spoke

"And?" Garam grinned

"It won't send, it says the account doesn't exist." Ye Qian answered

Ye Qing started to stand up and tried to tap Lan Ranyan to leave as he doesn't see any point in staying any further, unless Garam wants to make a joke out of them. However, Lan Ranyan didn't budge nor look at his way.

Paying no heed to this ruckus, Garam continued to speak.

"Although I haven't met the man officially in game nor did my men have any interaction with him. I would like to ask if his name is possibly , "Looter Zhang" or just simply, Zhang Shan?" Garam asked.

Ye Qing froze as he heard the name. Lan Ranyan stood up in surprise and asked. "Do you know him personally?"

"I haven't seen him personally in real life, but I'm acquainted with him in social messaging and emails... He's a famous trust worthy seller in famous online games..." Garam added, as he did, a few other people in the room seemed to have an enlightened look as they remembered this name

"Then can you tell him to come show his f*cking face! I'm gonna beat the lights out of him! How dare he keep us waiting?" Lan Ranyan said angrily

"I can't..." Garam said in a serious tone as he shrugged his shoulders.

Lan Ranyang walked forward as she grabbed Garam's collar with both hands and looked at him straight in the eyes. Garam did not flinch or move but stared at her eyes as well.

Suddenly a hand lightly grabbed her shoulder from behind and said "It's not that he doesn't want to... he really can't" said Ye Qing as if he knows something about it after hearing the name

Lan Ranyan looked behind and saw his face crestfallen, she loosened her grip at Garam.

"What do you mean can't?" she asked

Garam answered in his stead "A few days ago, news flashed regarding an IFDVR capsule that burned due to tampering. My wariness peaked as I researched more about the player that died. When I checked earlier today before logging in, "Looter Zhang" hasn't been online on his m accounts for the past few days. And as you have guessed, the name of the player on the news back then was Zhang Shan, one and the same person"

Lan Ranyan was silent as she remembered hearing the news about that event but regarded it as some random nobody. Then she asked "How can you be sure it's him?"

"As I said, we are acquaintances, that exact day, before he reportedly died from the fire, He reached out to me via chat on things about genes, how and what he could do to complement it... Besides he did mentioned getting bullied by the top two ranker's from the adventurers board."

Lan Ranyan rebutted "You're lying! You could could have guessed that if you had your men followed us. We did go to the Discovery facility afterwards"

"You can think what you want, but before I tell you another thing, I would like to inform you that I have no interest in what he told me..." Garam then whispered as he went near her ears "he said there's a secret place under the desert where he got bullied"."

When Lan Ranyan heard this, she backed away a bit, she stood there silent for a bit and then turned around as she went back to her chair, Ye Qing followed her as well afterwards.

When the others saw this, they wondered what could Garam say that would let her back off.

"I'm listening, you can continue..." Lan Ranyan said after seating herself.

"Right, as I was saying, Zhang Shan is reportedly dead in real life... My next question is this... Has he gone offline ever since he showed up online in the game?" Garam asked.

Lan Ranyan was silent for a bit and then looked at Ye Qian and Ye Qing "Whenever we swapped for the three days and watched over the the portal, had you noticed him logging off at all?"

The two shook their heads and Ye Qing said "Not once on my watch", Ye Qian thought for a while and said "Me neither."

Garam continued "Okay, it seems I now have everyone's interest and attention. I'd like to add that I did some inquiries after learning of this matter. I wanted to make sure if he really died in the fire so I asked a few friends to check on it, they said that the first people to respond there were actually from HIVE NEURAL TECH . Aside from this, the police, firemen and the people from HIVE did not discover any corpse at all, not even a trace of one."

Garam paused to let this sink in and then asked "If this game world is real and he is in here, where is he right now?" next question is "If we would also have this privilege in the future, do you want to cross over here?", and finally ask your self, "Am I prepared to face the reality that I may have murdered a living human being from this side?"

."

People started to murmur and discuss while in deep thought.

Lan Ranyan suddenly said, "that could be a possible theory.... or it can be a system bug, or he might have been abducted by HIVE instead."

"Right, again these are just things that I would like to present, however, I would like to add that this is also a s.e.n.s.i.t.i.v.e or possibly a dangerous matter." Garam added.

"Now that you presented your insight, what of next?" Lan Ranyang asked.

Garam smiled and said. "I thought you'd never ask... that made me nervous for a bit... you see a few of my guild members, and some of the guild leaders here present are already aware of these facts... however we wanted to confirm some details in which you three answered truthfully, as such we are satisfied..."

"Do you remember what you said when all of us laughed the first time you presented your theory with all your facts laid straight during your presentation?" Garam asked teasingly

Lan Ranyang remained silent for a while and then said "I'm sorry.... I can't remember aside from... turning Denaria into ruins...."

Ye Qing answered in her stead, "You guys said that if the theory is true, you'll unite and serve with her being the Matriarch"

"Thank you for remembering... as of now, we have yet to find solid proof, but most of us here hoped that it could be true... If that would be the case, we are hoping that you take us in by then..." after which Garam and a few Guild leaders in front kneeled down in front .

Lan Ranyan was stunned but quickly stated "It doesn't matter what you think, it's all in the past now... even I myself forgot that."

"I, Garam would like to apologize for my rudeness before, and as the guild leader of the Imperial Garden Guild would take full responsibilities for my actions and promises." He said as he conti nued to kneel.

The other Guild leaders who kneeled had offerred their apologies as well and promised to abide by their words before.

The Supreme Harmony, Union and Peace, Immortal Spirit and Scarlet Roses Guilds have expressed their allegiance.

Lan Ranyan was stumped and asked "W-why are you doing this?"

"We have a feeling that you're theory is correct after all, we also noticed some issues the longer we played. as such, creating a united allegiance under you, the best discoverer in the game... and if chances that we encounter "Looter Zhang" we can definitely build an empire that we can protect. We have families too in the real world, and we are preparing for the uncertain future." Garam said.

Lan Ranyan looked at him and said. "I believe this only holds, should my theory proves to be correct?"

"You can say that, but at the same time, we will still give you the same respect and assistance even if it turned out false... however we believe its highly unlikely to be incorrect." Garam smiled

"Do as you wish..." Lan Ranyan showed a cold face and tone as she signaled Ye Qing and Ye Qian to leave. As they left, Ye Qian noticed that she was shaking

After they left, the guilds continued their discussions, some of the Guikd leaders are ecstatic while others are still undecided.

After the three left, Ye Qian keptcalling Lan Ranyan to wait up as she was walking at a faster pace than them, a bit later she ran as they tried to catch up.

Once they were quite a distance away from the inn, Lan Ranyan dropped to her knees and started crying.

Ye Qian wanted to go to comfort her but Ye Qing stopped him.

"Don't, she's not sad... let her be... this is the first time she has acted like this and definitely wouldn't want others to see it... believe me... she is happy that someone aside from us would take her this seriously."

"....."

After a few minutes, Lan Ranyan stood up and wiped her face before turning around to the two with a smile, a very sweet smile and as she spoke, it was done in a very sweet manner.

"Let's go and find Zhang Shan..."

When Ye Qing saw this, he shivered...

This was the smile she wore before she laid waste to Denaria...