Chương 136: Reborn as the Dragon — Chapter 136 - Sweetheart, I've Missed You

Blaze Rabbits. Ohguchi Akase had seen plenty of those. There were actually quite a few near the Sakura Island No. 2 Starter Village. Weak, low-level monsters, universally treated as food ingredients. With the average player now pushing level 20, nobody could even be bothered to grind them. The experience they gave was pathetic. Not worth the trouble. So what was going on with the Blaze Rabbits in that recording? Never mind the fact that they were walking upright. The sheer size of them. The coiled muscle.

Those frenzied, murder-bright eyes. Were these actually the same fragile, brainless rabbits that used to go sprinting into their burrows at the first sign of danger? Ohguchi Akase glanced at Yamaguchi Mura Chicken, and something uncomfortable stirred in his chest. It seemed the monsters facing the First Beginner Village were, in fact, genuinely unusual. But the scolding was already done. He was a senior. He wasn't going to apologize to a junior like Yamaguchi Mura Chicken. That wasn't how things worked.

Still, his tone softened.

"Murakkei-kun, these monsters are indeed a bit strange. But that is not why you failed."

"We are Sakura Players. We do not fail. Especially not to creatures like these."

"Do you understand?!" Yamaguchi Mura Chicken nodded. Ohguchi Akase was technically still reprimanding him, but anyone with ears could hear the encouragement buried inside every word.

"Lift your head. Puff out your chest!" Ohguchi Akase bellowed. Yamaguchi Mura Chicken straightened up without thinking. The defeated slump that had been dragging at his shoulders evaporated on the spot, and his whole bearing sharpened in an instant.

"Good." Ohguchi Akase gave a satisfied nod.

"Murakkei-kun, I have heard your grievance."

"You don't need to worry. These strange monsters are not unbeatable."

"Because we are stronger than them!" His voice rang out with conviction. He rose to his feet, and a scarlet aura blazed around his entire body. The players nearby felt a sudden chill crawl across their skin. Their vision darkened at the edges. The wailing of ghosts screamed through their ears. All of it, clearly, coming from Ohguchi Akase.

"Since everyone is gathered here today, I have some good news to share."

"Just yesterday, I discovered a broken sword inside a mysterious cave — and that sword unlocked a hidden class for me. The Ghost Swordsman!" Ohguchi Akase grinned, something sharp and wicked in it, and drew the tachi from his hip. He gripped it with both hands and slashed forward. The air split with a shriek. A blood-red sword aura tore through the room's door, one clean stroke, two pieces, the wails of wraiths trailing behind the cut like smoke.

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"As you can see. Hidden classes are extremely powerful. We players have limitless potential."

"They're just a bunch of strange monsters. Nothing to worry about." Yamaguchi Mura Chicken watched Ohguchi Akase burning with that wild, untouchable confidence, and something ached in his chest. If he'd had that kind of strength back then, maybe Mei Magogoko never would have been taken. Maybe she never would have tricked him. And his Sakura No. 1 Starter Village wouldn't have been wiped off the map so easily.

"Yamaguchi Mura Chicken. You are a member of my Yamaguchi family. I will help you get your revenge, but you need to have the courage to take your enemy's head yourself." Ohguchi Akase said it with weight behind the words. Then he stepped to the side. Behind him sat a massive wolf's head, mounted like a throne piece. The entire room was filled with his trophies. The giant wolf's head was the centerpiece.

"However." He stroked his chin, fingers running along his beard.

"To ensure we win this cleanly, I'm going to invite two foreign friends to come fight alongside us."

"They are powerful hidden class players as well."

"Their levels are even a bit higher than mine."

"This time, we will make those monsters die under the Yamaguchi family's blade."

The next day. Before dawn. The hidden class players Yamaguchi Mura Chicken had been waiting on finally arrived. Their IDs were David Jones and Medraco. Two players from the Beautiful Country's No. 4 Starter Village, a village relatively close to the Anlius Kingdom, and quite far from here. The reason they'd made it to the Sakura Island No. 2 Starter Village overnight was simple: they'd already been hunting materials in the area.

They'd arrived some time ago, actually, and had run into Ohguchi Akase more or less by chance. Thanks to Ohguchi Akase's extremely enthusiastic reception, the three of them had swiftly become... close. Closer than most people were entirely comfortable watching. David Jones was enormous. Brown hair, eyes narrowed to two tiny slits buried in folds of fat. Four hundred kilograms, at a conservative estimate. The excess flesh was threatening to burst right through his armor.

How he managed to move freely in the game with that body was genuinely beyond imagining. His speed stats might have been adjusted. But his collision volume was still very much present. What struck Yamaguchi Mura Chicken as the strangest part: this mountain of a man, this David Jones, had a hidden class called Shadow Assassin. Could someone built like that actually function as an assassin? Yamaguchi Mura Chicken had his doubts. Medraco, by comparison, looked entirely normal.

Blond hair, blue eyes, classically handsome features, a pair of deep-set eyes that gave him an air of easy authority. He wore a well-fitted black mage's robe. His hidden class was Necromancer. Yamaguchi Mura Chicken trusted him most on sight alone. Necromancer. Even the title sounded imposing. Before he could say anything, Ohguchi Akase, who had clearly been waiting at the door, surged forward wearing the most fawning expression a nine-foot wall of muscle had ever managed to produce.

It was difficult to explain how a man that size could look that coquettish. But he pulled it off. Say what you want about this Sakura Player starter village chief. The man had range.

"Oh, God — look who it is! My dear Mr. David Jones and Mr. Medraco!" Ohguchi Akase bent at the waist, bowing so rapidly it blurred into afterimages.

"Sweetheart. I missed you~" A low, muffled voice. Yamaguchi Mura Chicken tracked it to its source. David Jones. The flesh on his face had packed itself so densely that his mouth was barely visible, squeezed into a shape that resembled nothing so much as a puckered little circle, making it genuinely unclear whether the lips were moving at all.

"Oh, please don't call me that in public — it's embarrassing~" Ohguchi Akase's enormous hand swatted David Jones's chest like a fan, playful and mock-scolding. Across his broad, bronze face, an unlikely blush crept to the surface. They pressed together. If David Jones's belly hadn't been quite so vast, they might have actually kissed. The atmosphere was escalating. The situation was developing in a direction that was genuinely painful to look at directly.

Medraco, the only member of the group still operating at a normal register, cut in quickly.

"Oh, God. Please. Stop flirting."

"I'll arrange a sufficiently large carriage for just the two of you on the road. You can do whatever you want in there."

"Right now, the most important thing is working out a solid plan." He turned. His gaze settled on Yamaguchi Mura Chicken.

"I heard the one that hit you hardest was a powerful black dragon. Level thirty-two. Is that right?"

"Yes." Yamaguchi Mura Chicken bowed again, automatically.

"That's correct." Medraco stood composed, unhurried, radiating the quiet certainty of someone who had never seriously entertained the possibility of losing. The aura rolling off him was almost physical. Yamaguchi Mura Chicken found himself instinctively straightening up, treating this stranger like a commanding officer. ➤ Next: The Beautiful Country Player's Gun