139 Final Decision
They discussed. With their total BR only amounting to 268,500 at the moment, they didn’t immediately agree with Hiro’s suggestion.
Dominic was fairly wise. Rather than insisting on forcefully entering the boss area before him, he prioritized the safety of everyone in his party more.
“I don’t want to lose anyone,” he said with a serious gaze, looking at Hiro who only had a neutral expression on his face.
As someone who grew up as a fan of Immortal Knights, he knew that Dominic would reject his suggestion. But that didn’t mean he was willing to give up.
While the others only sighed in disappointment, Hiro walked past the members of Immortal Knights until he stood right in front of the giant wooden gate. He put his left hand to the surface of the gate, hoping to find another clue aside from the recommended BR.
When his palm touched the gate, the black sigil on the back of his hand glowed black, causing the lines of its details to seem thicker.
The voice of a woman echoed in his mind.
“I can feel another curse behind the door.”
“Hm?” Hiro subconsciously frowned.
“This power, it’s the power of curses. It feels very weak, but I can tell it’s actually strong. It’s just pretending to be weak.” The voice was Meta’s.
Hiro still didn’t understand what this demon inside him meant.
“The absolute demon’s favorite meal is the power of curses. Consume it and you’ll be stronger.”
Hiro gulped. Meta’s whispers were extremely tempting, causing a thin layer of sweat to trickle down his temples. He suddenly felt the urge to open the door without a second thought, perhaps even kick the gate down or break it directly at this moment if he could.
“Al… Spyro, can you hear me?” Hiro whispered in a very low voice.
“Sure. I can communicate with you through telepathy.”
Another feature that made the bond between a pet and its master special.
“Great. Can you open the door for us?”
Hiro was thinking of forcing them to enter the room behind the gate.
“Which door? The one in front of you? You can just enter. You can even enter alone.”
“…?”
Hiro was surprised to hear Alice’s answer. Enter the boss area alone?
‘Is she serious?’
To see whether what she said was true, Hiro touched the surface of the gate again, this time with his right hand.
Ding!
[Current Party BR is lower than recommended]
[Recommended BR: 300,000]
Hiro almost missed the small text under the BR recommendation.
[You can ignore the BR recommendation if you are ready to die]
[Only those who are ready to die can enter the boss area]
Getting the new piece of information Dominic didn’t give caused Hiro to smile in satisfaction. At least he had something to defend his argument with at the moment.
“We’re already here, why don’t we just enter? Are you sure that those player killers wouldn’t raid this place if you postpone it again?”
Hiro’s question took the others aback. DemonHunterz, the ranger in his party, even seemed confused when he heard the information.
“Wait, what do you mean ‘those player killers’?” he asked like an absent-minded person.
Hiro didn’t know that the topic was being kept a secret by their leader, but before he could give them an explanation, Jacob spoke first.
“You didn’t know? Hiro and I came answering your leader’s emergency call. When we arrived, they were already paralyzed by 15 player killers in black robes.”
“What?”
“Is that true!?”
Dominic looked at his unknowing guild members with guilt. However, he didn’t blame neither Hiro nor Jacob for unintentionally divulging the information he and the main party of Immortal Knights hid.
On the contrary, Dominic bowed to apologize.
“I’m sorry, this was all my idea. I didn’t want to make you all panic.”
“So it’s true? The dungeon guardians were killed by those player killers?” DemonHunterz annoyedly asked and clenched his fists.
He was referring to the two Immortal Knights members who guarded in front of the cave entrance several hours ago. They were killed while they were guarding the cave and received the penalty as a result.
“This isn’t the right time for sin confessions. NightFall is right. If we don’t enter the boss area, they might come again tomorrow with even stronger people,” Draco, the mage of Immortal Knights, spoke and patted Dominic’s shoulder.
Hiro smiled. One person convinced.
“Come on, man, we just need to try. Relax, you have me who always pays attention to your HP bars,” TheWitchDoctor, Alan, also tried to convince the leader to try the challenge.
“Yeah. This is just a game anyway, let’s give it a try,” Val agreed.
TheNinja didn’t say anything. His mouth under the tight mask was shut, but he nodded to show his agreement.
Hiro hadn’t even said a word about the additional sentences below the BR recommendation, but he felt that victory was already in his hands.
“You sure look happy,” Spyro’s voice sounded in his head, causing the smile on his face to disappear instantly.
Dominic thought about it for a moment. No matter what, the final decision was in his hands.
He already disappointed his party member with the information he hid. As their leader, he didn’t want to disappoint his guild members even more.
“All right, we’ll enter the boss area. However, only those who are ready to die outside the safe zone will fight together with me. Whoever minds, you may leave.”
It seemed that Hiro didn’t need to use that sentence. Dominic already represented it.
Now, he just needed to see how many of them would stay, and…
To his surprise, none of them left. Even after Dominic started counting to 10, nobody moved from their spots.
Hiro didn’t expect that the members of Immortal Knights would be so loyal and unafraid of death.
“We’re going with you, Capt,” DemonHunterz said, representing how the other members felt.
His words put a smile back onto Dominic’s face.
“Thank you. Your loyalty will definitely be rewarded.”
“And you, young man. This old man makes selfish decisions sometimes, so thank you for disagreeing with me. You’re right. We should take the chance before it’s too late.”
“It’s nothing, sir.” Hiro humbly smiled.
He then glanced at Jacob, Noah, and Cara, who had also wanted to complain about the same thing he did. The vigor of young players is indeed different from the vigor of adults.
They pushed the giant wooden gate together. Its weight made it tremendously difficult to open. Furthermore, it had to be opened manually, so they made a line to use all the physical strength they could muster.
Ding!
[You have entered the boss area]