MTLNOVEL Chapter 131
“Right now, each of us has three ‘Stones of Aspiration.’ That’s a total of 18. We’re going to redistribute them.”
In fact, we had already held a meeting before the round began to discuss how we would redistribute the Stones of Aspiration.
Instead of listing every possible way to divide the stones, I let the guild members offer their suggestions one by one.
Then, I gathered the opinions.
“Kanel, Unahar, Akata, they all have brains as good as mine. I can’t hog the briefing all to myself.”
Lilith sometimes comes up with pretty good ideas, and Gio… well, never mind.
Anyway, we had narrowed it down to a few strategies, but we hadn’t settled on one during the meeting.
We postponed the decision until now.
No character had found us hidden in the forest as we decided how to distribute the Stones of Aspiration.
No zombies had passed near us either.
Lilith, Unahar, Kanel, Akata, and Gio all stared at me intently.
Even though we had all met together, the final decision was up to me. After all, I am the undisputed leader of this team.
I recalled the strategies that had been suggested.
Since these strategies weren’t unique to us, the key was to choose the one that best suited our situation rather than aiming for something groundbreaking.
[Strategy 1: Give all the Stones of Aspiration to one guild member, and the rest guard that member as a storage vault.]
That guild member would be unable to fight, but the rest would maintain peak condition.
“This might be tough. The Stones of Aspiration drain a person’s energy. So, the guild member acting as the storage vault would need to have extremely high stats. But such a person should be used as a fighter, not a storage vault.”
Unahar had immediately given this evaluation. Unahar tends to prefer stability, but his assessment was reasonable.
[Strategy 2: Distribute the stones appropriately according to each guild member’s skills.]
“It would be the most stable option. If Gio or Unahar takes a few more, it would balance out.”
[Strategy 3: Concentrate combat power. Do not give the Stones of Aspiration to the strong guild members. Instead, use them to aggressively seize the Stones of Aspiration from other areas.]
“This one could work too. So, should we concentrate our combat power on Gio?”
“Why not concentrate on Akata? Akata has lower stamina. Meanwhile, Gio would still be strong even with a few stones.”
Once these opinions were expressed, everyone fell silent, wondering if there were any other ideas.
So I was about to suggest the fourth strategy I had in mind…
“How about this strategy?”
Akata interrupted my turn. Surprisingly, his suggestion was exactly what I was about to say.
“First, let’s discard all the stones we have.”
“Discard them?”
“Yes, just throw them on the ground. Completely get rid of them. That way, no one will target us. Remember, we are the number one guild from the previous generation, so we are everyone’s enemy. This would be a huge advantage.”
“Seems risky.”
“No, it doesn’t matter in the beginning or the middle. In the end, the guild holding the stones when the final whistle blows wins. We save our strength for the later stages. The seventh round is a long battle that lasts 24 hours. When others are exhausted from fighting and stealing stones… we swoop in and take everything in the end.”
[Strategy 4: Discard all the stones initially and focus on stealing stones in the later stages.]
It’s a good idea, but it would be difficult to execute due to its high risk. However, Akata’s shining chocolate-colored eyes showed a confidence that suggested he could implement this without hesitation if necessary.
Akata’s ‘high intelligence’ is strange. He seems to be becoming more like me as time goes on.
‘A few months ago, I didn’t think he would turn out like this when I held his hand as he lay bedridden.’
Anyway, after a brief discussion, we decided how to distribute the Stones of Aspiration.
[Me: 3
Gio: 5
Lilith: 0
Unahar: 4
Kanel: 4
Akata: 2]
We went with the strategy of distributing the stones according to each person’s abilities. Those with high stamina would take more, and those with less would take fewer. In Lilith’s case, it was more beneficial for her to use her stat-boosting buffs without the interference of the stones, so we made this adjustment.
“Move while keeping watch.”
We finally encountered bald zombies in front of a large tree stump.
“Ughhhh-!”
As the zombies, with their ghastly eyes, started to stagger towards us, Lilith let out a short scream, “Ah!”
At that moment, a muscular arm wrapped around Lilith’s waist, pulling her in protectively, while the other hand snapped towards the zombies.
Snap! Snap! Snap!
With a few snaps of Gio’s fingers, the stones around the zombies exploded one by one.
The stones flew like pinballs and hit the heads of three zombies directly before falling to the ground with a thud. The unique technique I taught Gio was ‘maximum efficiency with minimal effort,’ with a touch of flair.
“Wow…,” Lilith, despite having seen it before, was amazed once again. She looked up at Gio with an expression of admiration. Due to the considerable difference in their heights, Lilith had to tilt her head back quite a bit to meet his eyes.
“Thanks.”
Gio, who had his chin held up confidently, met her intense green eyes and his face turned foolish in an instant.
“Uh, uh?”
Startled, he let go of Lilith’s waist. His arm and hand, where Lilith had been touching, turned bright red as blood rushed to them.
Let’s pretend I didn’t see that. How can he not maintain his cool for more than five seconds…?
I looked away, feeling exasperated. It seemed Kanel and Unahar were doing the same.
“Anyway, good job. When zombies or other players rush at us, don’t waste valuable resources by all jumping in at once. Just one person should handle it at a time. Can we do that?”
As we searched the forest, Kanel’s gun dealt with the zombies blocking our path.
Kanel had obtained a new enhanced item for this zombie battle: a silencer. His now silent bullets were the epitome of the silent assassin.
After circling the small forest, we confirmed that there was no subordinates group summon button here.
“Be careful not to let anyone sneak up behind us. Let’s watch each other’s backs.”
Finally, we emerged onto an open coast. The dazzling sandy beach and the clear azure sea welcomed us.
“Hand over those stones!”
“Aaah!”
“Die!”
We also encountered a chaotic battle scene, with combatants sporting one to four glowing insignias over their black combat uniforms.
Amidst the shouting, the multicolored energies of unique abilities clashed. The zombies had long been shredded by the fierce human battle.
“Let’s just pass through quietly.”
To cross the sandy path flanked by seawater, the method I, the leader of the Agasa guild, chose was to ‘just slide past.’
“Aren’t we going to fight? I can take all their stones,” Gio counted the number of Stones of Aspiration the players had on his fingers. When his count exceeded ten, he looked back at me.
“We could fight for a bit, but is it worth it? Forget it. Let’s find the subordinates group button. They say there are only about 20 on the field, and if we’re late, they’ll all be taken.”
Walking leisurely along the sandy path that divided the sea, we naturally stood out. Even the players who were engrossed in their fight paused to look at us with faces that seemed to say, “Who are those guys?”
“Agasa Guild.”
“Ugh…”
But none of them dared to attack us first. It made sense, considering we were the top guild of the first generation, had won the last warrior match, and, most importantly, all six of us were together. Few players would dare to challenge us to a duel.
Of course, the fearless zombies kept coming at us. They emerged from both sides of the path we were walking on. I had wondered where the zombies were being summoned from. It seemed they were submerged in the seabed, walking up the shore when they sensed humans above the water. Seeing zombies floating with just their heads above the water before charging at us was enough to startle even me.
Unahar, seemingly startled too, grabbed my arm tightly, and Lilith let out a loud scream.
“Kiyaaa-!”
At that moment, two phoenixes screeched and spread their wings, flying to either side. Their large, flaming beaks bit into the zombies’ heads, and flames spread from their necks, engulfing their entire bodies. The fire quickly spread to the nearby zombies as well.
“I used Akata’s phoenixes too early. Akata, are you okay?”
“Yes, I’m fine.”
Fortunately, Lilith’s warmth was well enveloping the boy’s body. Thanks to that, despite summoning two phoenixes at once without any prior warming up, Akata’s face, as he said, remained unaffected.
“Shall we let them burn those people over there too?”
The other players, who had been watching the phoenixes with a mix of fear and awe, flinched. With his cute face, Akata was saying something so terrifying. I couldn’t help but chuckle.
“No. It’ll drain your energy. Call them back immediately.”
“Yes.”
Akata took a step forward and extended his arms to both sides. The phoenixes, which had been ready to set the sea on fire, lifted their beaks and perked up. The two fiery beings created whirlwinds of heat as they flew back, seeming to be absorbed into Akata’s hands.
“…Akata, your visual effects are too much of a cheat.”
Those of us without any particular visual effects for our unique abilities—Kanel, Lilith, and I—gathered around, grumbling. Akata turned back and smiled slightly, as if he found it amusing.