Unconsciously, Faust sat on the edges of the meeting between the top players.

A wide circle of nervous people surrounded Diego as he outlined a plan. Invading the Gate. It sounded mad to everyone there. They gave Faust strange looks, but none said anything directly to him.

I wouldn’t mind a verbal spar.

Diego raised a black sphere of what looked like obsidian. "We’ll arm you with... whatever Keane calls these—"

"Gap generators," Keane hissed from within the crowd.

"Whatever. You’ll place these at the Gate generators and return through the gate before they detonate. We’ll have three teams. Twenty of our best players with skills and Schema to handle any situation."

Someone raised a hand. A gloomy man with greasy black hair and pale green eyes. He wore a full set of grey armor, surprisingly. None of its pieces mismatched.

Did he get that as a single reward?

Diego nodded at the man, and he rose to speak.

"Shadow. You can also call me James, if you’re weird," the man quickly introduced himself. "I’m going to ask the thing that’s on everyone’s mind: why the fuck are we doing this?"

The question had different reactions. Diego’s even face remained unchanged. He ran a hand through his black goatee. The other people hummed in agreement. Some sent cautious looks at Faust. They knew who he was, at least some of them. Others had seen him bring down the troll by himself.

"I hate to agree with that toerag," a lady said from the other side of the crowd. "But he’s right."

She had a pristine appearance. A clean and well pressed white cloak adorn her shoulder. There was a strange metallic headpiece holding her black hair in a bun. It resembled a crown to Faust.

"That nasty mouth of yours will get you in trouble, Juliette," James said back, seemingly uncaring.

Looking closer, Faust noticed the resemblance between them. Same green eyes and black hair. Siblings, he decided.

Julliette turned to Faust. "Tell the truth. Why do you want to enter that gate? Is this a trap?"

Faust felt an invisible force press against his mind and instantly used Shadow of the Mind. The force didn’t exactly try to hurt his mind, but he noticed how it bent the shadow. It was like a soft suggestion. If his Spirit wasn’t so high, he wouldn’t have noticed her trying to control him.

A dark anger fell on him. He met Juliette’s eyes firmly. "You try to twist my mind one more time and I’ll pull out that tongue," he said softly.

She shuddered; something about his blue eyes told her what was said would be done. Faust accepted a lot of challenges. He honestly liked her initiative to express her skill and power.

But he had a particular hate for anything that twisted a person’s mind.

She turned away. "S-sorry."

With that out of the way, Faust answered her question.

"There is no trap in the gate. My reason for entering the gate is simple: Profit. There is more to be taken from the system, and it is within that gate."

"Proactivity," Diego added, turning to everyone. "The more active in this game we are, the better the reward. This could also be a hidden quest. Completing it will provide us here with even more rewards."

James shook his head. "Didn’t he already say the system tried to kill him when he entered the gate?"

Everyone turned back and upward. Goblin assassins, Midnight Lynx and Void Eater were even more focused on them. As the Novice Village leader, Diego had been attacked multiple times during the Event.

Right now, people had to go out of their way to fight the monsters attacking them. Nirvana had so many skeletons fighting around them. People gave her distasteful looks.

Another top player nodded. "I don’t think the system doesn’t like what we’re planning."

"Its just applying pressure," Faust said, "that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do this."

William had been glaring at him from the other edge of the circle. Faust mostly ignored him, but the golden-haired boy seemed eager to oppose.

"It’s a waste of time," William said loudly. "The gate will close on its own. Entering to set a bomb might just bring negative consequences. I know this clown. He isn’t smart, he just likes looking for trouble."

Faust shook his head. "I guess spanking you once wasn’t enough, Willy. You’re going to make be be the bad father in front of all these—"

William marched forward. "Shut up! You psychotic—"

Someone grabbed his shoulder and roughly pulled him back. Gamebreaker glared at William with open disdain.

"I don’t think it’s a bad idea," Gamebreaker started. "Faust, or Red God as many of you might know him by, is the only one to have found a hidden quest after all."

Many people turned to him. They knew he was strong, but not that he was Rank 1. Whispers followed along with suspicious looks. James watched him darkly, but he reclined back; apparently in agreement with Faust now. Juliette stared cautiously, but he could see the gears moving in her mind.

Gamebreaker continued after a moment. "The problem is logistics. You said there’s only one tunnel on the other side of the gate. One tunnel filled to the brim with monsters trying to cross over. How will we get past them and then get back in time to escape the gate before it collapses?"

"We’ll Spatial users handling transport with their Schema," Diego reassured.

"We’ll have one chance to enter the gates during the intermission," Faust explained, drawing confused looks from the people around.

"Did no one check the streams to watch other Novice Villages go through the third wave? I guess I’m the only one that did the reading." Faust rolled his eyes.

"There will be two intermissions during the Third wave. Each time the power of the monsters will ramp up. In the first intermission, Elite goblins and Kobolds come through with Trolls carrying stone weapons."

Faust watched their worried expressions with amusement. "After the second intermission, the Chiefs of the three main monster tribes come over. Along with these things called Origin Worms. I saw one. It used a skill that almost tore my mind to shreds. Zero out of ten experience."

His words sent a chill into the crowd. Their suspicious and disbelieving looks suddenly settled. Whispers were exchanged. Faust nodded at the effect.

"But we don’t have to let it get that far," Diego reassured. "Faust left one of his golems in the goblin world. Their numbers are thinning. The intermission is a gap in the flow of goblins into the temple. During that time only a few monsters and the elites will remain. We can take them then."

William got up with a stoney face, his lackeys followed him. They left without another word, but the intention was clear.

"Pissing off the system sounds like a bad idea to me," Another person said, leaving the meeting too. "You lot will die or get into a bad situation there. I say we just go through the Trial like the good performers we are."

More people followed. Others looked unsure who to side with. But the ones that stayed were resolute. And those were all Faust needed.