(AN : Sorry its late. There might be some errors present. Alert me if any.)

” Including you guys, there are a total of 7 official guilds and 12 adventurer guilds or groups. ” Kodak disclosed.

“That many?!” Little Song was shocked. ‘About 19 guilds just for a mission and that doesn’t even include the free players !’

“Well sadly, we might not be enough.” Pilate said smiling seductively at Little Song.

‘Please stop it!’

Ignoring his behaviour, White Zero questioned”Why do you say so?”

“From the data and info we got from the druids present, we analyzed that it is highly possible for the boss monster to be at level 15 or even level 20. At Level 10, we experience a qualitative change and this applies to the monsters too. Considering that we aren’t even Level 10, it would be hard to take down a level 15 boss much less a level 20 boss.”

“But you already have a plan.” White Zero smiled.

Kodak nodded ” It’s possible that the difference might not be so drastic. In other words, we still have a chance if we have a proper plan that accommodates various contingencies.We just need to clear the mobs first. For this, we would need everyone’s help including the free players.”

“Okay.”

. . . . .

Underneath the ground, deep inside one of the tunnels in the bee-hive structure Sato and Fudo had previously visited.

At the end of this tunnel was a spacious hall decorated with silver and golden candle-stands at the two sides. The entire atmosphere in the hall was bleak and dreary. At one end of the wall directly opposite the entrance, was a huge wall painting of a mummy wrapped up in chains that were extended in the four major directions. Beneath it was a stone altar decorated with golden and silver candle-stands. The stone altar was carved with various figures and illustrations depicting a heinous scene with barbaric acts being committed. All in all, the carvings were more like the depiction of the deeds of vicious men and creatures.

On the altar was a bowl filled with a red coloured liquid. The liquid itself wasn’t so special but the bowl seemed to be a high grade material. It continuously oozed out a bizarre and mysterious aura. The bowl, just like the altar, was modelled with grooves and gashes. But unlike that of the altar, the carvings were more of an abstract feature depicting neither creature nor scene but rather scribbles and curves.

In front of the altar, a weird humanoid creature with a single horn on its head and a black robe with white stripes at certain intervals knelt down with its face bowed low. It was uttering a couple of nonsensical words with an exaggeratedly fervent expression and tone. The air and space around the creature seemed to be twisted as quirky wave patterns took form around the creature.

Out of the blue, the creature abruptly stopped speaking and swiftly turned backwards, lifting it’s head and staring at the position where White Zero, Pilate and Kodak were. It’s face was hidden within a hood with only darkness being noticeable however its blood red eyes could still be seen. It was unknown whether if it was smiling or seriously thinking as its blood beads squinted.

. . . . .

The gang of White Zero, Pilate and Kodak, together with their guilds, had succeeded in persuading the solo players present to side with them. Truth be told, it wasn’t so had as the players present were all set on levelling up and with a mob in front of them together with the big guilds’ support, it was only normal fr them to agree. As for the other smaller guilds and adventurer guilds, they eventually decided to go with the flow as the solo players had already been persuaded. Coupled with the big guilds assisting them and the exact same reason as Pilate and White Zero; which being that they believed the difference between them and the boss monster could easily be covered up by their numbers plus they may have a shot at landing the last kill, gaining unimaginable rewards, they began to gather their forces with that of the 2nd tier guilds present.

“So far we have a total of about 126 players present. The scouts reported there being about 100 goblins on land with many more possibly underground. We don’t plan on attracting the boss too early so we eliminate the horde slowly. We use Plan B if things don’t go as planned. As for the boss, the majority of the players are tagged with damage with most of the MTs attracting aggro in teams. The mages are to interrupt his moves and the rangers to work in sync with them. Most of the damage dealt will be dependent on them As for us, we will serve as the core of each division. That’s all. For any unexpected events we handle it as we go.” White Zero addressed the entire crowd of players. “Now, let’s go!”

With that, the players headed into the mansion in groups. The assassins and a few of the rangers were charged with herding some of the goblins their way. Due to the multitude of players in each group, they were able to quickly eliminate each goblin team sent their way in less than 3 minutes.

“Haha, this is easy and fun. I”ll be able to reach level 5 in a few hours if things go like this.” An unimportant character stated.

“Infinite realm? More like Rip-off realm.” Another laughed.

“Haha, let’s call it Syncral realm instead.”

“This is a god-tier levelling hack.”

“It seems like things are going as planned.” Pilate approached White Zero and Kodak.

“Yeah. It’s what happens when you plan properly; something I doubt you do.” Little Song commented. Because the goblins were easily killed and were about the same level as him, Little Song left them to the other party members while aiding them at intervals and keeping his guard up for the boss’ appearance.

“Even still, I keep getting the feeling everything is going too smoothly.” White Zero frowned.

“And why’s that?” asked a surprised Kodak.

“I don’t know; I just have that feeling.”

“Well then it might be your imagination or probably anxiety.” Pilate snickered.

White Zero frowned, visibly annoyed at his statement after all, as a pro player, anxiety and nervousness are emotions they are trained to avoid.

“If you want, we can bump up our grinding speed that way we would be ready for any accidents. However, that might attract the boss. I heard bosses in Infinite Realm have a higher reaction time and detection radius than other games.” Kodak pointed out.

“Let’s do it. If they do have such then it shouldn’t be so absurd or else the boss would have already noticed us.” Pilate commented.

As White Zero was about to reply, alert bells rang in his mind as he sensed a large surge of a gloomy, dark mana rise from beneath them.

“Everyone be careful !”

*Boom*

The ground beneath some of the players tore apart as a huge surge of dark coloured gas exploded outwards. The ground sunk down as cracks began to form around the newly formed pit. The goblins began to scream in unison as if welcoming the arrival of a god.

“What was that?” Pilate asked while trying to keep his balance.

“I think that was the boss..” White Zero stared grimly at the dark fumes that had gathered to form a humanoid figure.