NPC Code: Red Riding Hood

"I can confirm the wooden planks and a piece of the wheel near the bushes, Mer. I think this belongs to a cart, as you've said." The four-eyed man waved his hand, hoping that Mer could see his figure below. "It looks like a royal one from the Mainland."

The captain gave him a thumbs up and sent him a text message in the group chat.

"Okay. Continue moving forward. There's a cave up ahead. You won't miss it. It serves as a landmark for the entrance into Nirvana," Mer replied, and posted his message. "Our forces will resume searching in a bird's-eye-view. We will tell you what we can find up here."

Their information was on the mark. The Elven Kingdom hid their empire inside a magical cave, cosmic enough to fill hundreds of thousands of long-eared elves inside their town. They even had their citadel standing at the centre of their kingdom, if my memories served me right.

However, these features were not visible from the outside world. A barrier of some sort concealed this place, blocking any entrance coming from strangers. The faint simmering magic heated my skin, mixed with the air.

If I were a novice who barely knew Code, I would not notice this subtle sensation.

Mer opened his monitor and studied the arcane swirling around the alp, but he did not know where those enigmatic auras come from. His scanning ability failed to do its work, showing that it had sensed anything extraordinary. I could also perceive this circling magic since I heightened my senses using my Lycanthrope class. But this feature was not present in all players, showing that the members did not notice the strange aura surrounding the summit.

If Mer could perceive the indistinct aura, his class and equipment must have done something behind the scenes.

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"Can you see those arcane magic, too?" Mer glanced behind and asked me a question.

I jerked back and widened my eyes at the sudden question. Mer knew I was an unordinary fellow, a smurfer, who joined their team. I returned her gaze and opened my mouth.

"I do, and the energy is becoming rampant the closer I look." I answered. "That place must be the kingdom. It's so obvious now that I can see it firsthand."

Mer could only chuckle to himself, knowing that he was correct all this time. He spared a glimpse at my side and gave me a wry smile.

"You're a big shot in Code, but refuse to show it. You must have your reasons for doing so, but we need your help right now. I believe you know the place better than I do."

"No. I have never visited Nirvana, not even once in my lifetime. Well, maybe I will during this trip," I retorted.

Mer averted his gaze from me and fiddled with his system. He stood at the stone and shifted his view, directing his eyes at the crowd behind us. All five hundred players who continued following his lead raised their heads and lent their ears."

"Keep your eyes peeled for a cave with vines," Mer announced and ordered the players to continue forward. "Or even better, an entrance to that cave. That place is Nirvana. We just need to enter that damn fortress."

We arrived at the forest's heart and met with the various brown barks and humongous looking leaves. The mushy ground absorbed our feet and left a thousand footsteps as we marched ahead. Beside our trails lay footprints left by the monsters within our vicinity, hunting for their prey. It was only a matter of time before we could discern one of those before entering Nirvana, the Elven Kingdom.

The suspended bridge led to the ground and onwards, around the mountain. The towering trees served as a panel at each side of the viaduct, creating a forest setting as we went further inside the woodland, despite the elevated platform.

We could not proceed towards the summit, telling us it was an obstruction that we cannot enter. But I knew too well that place was the Elven's empire.

"Use your scanning abilities and find any monsters in our area. Do not engage in combat. I repeat, do not engage with these monsters in combat." Mer shouted and also sent the announcement into texts to the group chat.

The assistant below did the same and instructed the players to avoid fighting against these beasts. Every player heeded his advice and became wary about their surroundings. Some mages even cast preemptive shields to safeguard the players, while other warriors revealed their blades.

However, the fiends had an original plan.

The grizzly bears and other creatures appeared behind the bushes. Their scarlet orbs peered through the weeds, showing dread and terror to our group. The monsters followed their presence with a clamour growl, signalling the start of our battle.

"To arms, players! Charge! Don't let them go near you!"

Mer shouted at the top of his lungs and swung his two-handed blade below. The force coming from his weapon generated a fierce gust of wind that pushed the monsters at bay. To those who had withstood the attack, the fiendish mammals looked up at him with intense hatred in their eyes.

The monsters changed targets and leapt across the ground, carrying their raging anger carved on their orbs. These four-legged monsters landed on the viaduct in front of us. They bared their claws and gritted their nasty teeth as they met our eyes.

We saw no demonic possession or curse in them while using our scanning ability. These creatures were just animals lurking in the forest, hunting down their next meal.

Those walking creatures were the least of our problems. As we lifted our heads, the flapping of birds in the distance echoed through our surroundings. These winged beasts were flying dinosaurs, Pterodactyl maybe, as they continued hovering in our direction.

"It's one monster after the other," Mer grunted while tackling the charging bear towards him.

He mercilessly beheaded the monster before him and tossed it at the side. Mer lifted his weapon and pointed the tip of the blade at the hundred grizzly bears waiting in line.

Their numbers were just half of their army who had climbed up the bridge. The rest of their forces were busy fighting against the ground, with the assistant guiding the players.

The number of players alive on the screen decreased continuously as the fight continued to prolong. We had not even started breaching Nirvana, yet we lost a hundred players already.

Our future looks grim the longer we clash our blades against these beasts.

"This is nothing compared to the earth-dragon last month!" Mer yelled, and leapt from the ground.

His figure shrank as he reached the heavens above. After a few seconds, Mer returned from the sky and slammed his weapon at the bridge, creating a magnitude strong enough to destroy half of the platform. Amidst his flight, Mer sent the players a message, telling us to head to the ground and find shelter. He did not want the novice players to die from these monsters before rescuing their loved ones from the elves.

All the adventurers descended from the viaduct, like Mer had ordered, and joined forces with the assistant. I stayed put on the bridge and watched the entire scene unravel in front of me. A mere earthquake would never be enough to frighten me.

This attack could hardly even damage, let alone kill me.

"You are a peculiar one, aren't you?" Mer exclaimed as he saw me balancing my body from the falling debris of the concrete bridge.

"What can I say, I'm a smurfer." I grinned.

The two of us landed on the ground, unscathed. Upon looking at the death count, Mer killed one hundred monsters, apart from the flying ones above. We glanced at our side and met with the four-eyed man running in our way.

"We lost one hundred players, Mer. We haven't reach Nirvana yet-,"

"We can make it, okay? We just need some time." Mer cut off his sentence and tapped his shivering shoulder.

His words were reassuring, but the threat was still surrounding our army. My eyes wandered around and met the situation at my fore. It was the same as the assistant had said.

Corpses welcomed my eyes, with the players dying in the battle. Millions of spells loomed above head, hitting both the trees and nearby trees, creating a sudden wildfire in our surroundings. The blaring growls coming from the bears reverberated in the forest, creating dread and hopelessness to the players.

Some of them even ran away and disbanded with the guild, and others had resigned defending their lives.

But all those scenes changed when Mer entered the fray. Like a hero born to lead, he used his weapon to cleave the rest of the monsters in half in a straight line. Those grizzly bears did not stand a chance as they lay flat on the floor.

The floating monsters dove from the sky, hoping to ambush Mer. However, he expected this to happen already. The mighty warrior used [swift slash] in his surroundings and ended the miserable lives of these foul beasts. Those who witnessed their friends chopped off before they fled from the scenes. They knew that the player standing in front of the battle was not an opponent they could face.

We thought the skirmish was over, but we were wrong. Like a bullet passing through, an arrow pierced through Mer's shoulders. It was near his chest, so the damage was critical.

"I knew those long-eared bastards would show up," Mer muttered, and fell on his knees.