Fang Raon stepped outside.

The snow landed on the hood of his winter coat, a stark contrast against the dark fabric.

In front of him, the snow fell sideways in the wind, and since it was already pitch dark, it was nearly impossible to see ahead.

"What is exactly your plan, stupid brother of mine?"

Anna followed him outside, wearing one of Opal’s old coats that was much too big for her, but it did the job of keeping her warm.

"I am going to talk to the players. They should be hanging out over at the inn by now, right?"

Fang Raon said and started walking through the falling snow, and Anna quickly followed him, her oversized coat trailing behind her.

"What exactly are you going to tell them? They are not going to follow you into a certain death, especially for free!

"Unless you plan on paying them all? But you are poor. So what are you going to do?"

Anna asked.

"I’ll just ask them to be part of something bigger than themselves. Aren’t you happy, Anna? We get to spend more time together."

Fang Raon said jokingly.

It had already been an hour since they logged in, and under normal circumstances, he would be online only for another hour.

However.

They weren’t definitely going to be done with this in just an hour, so he was going to be doing some overtime.

’I am definitely not going to get good sleep tonight.’

Fang Raon grudgingly thought to himself.

"I am not coming with you to that place. It is suicide. And neither are you. I will stop you with force if I have to."

Anna said.

"Then I’ll fight you."

Fang Raon stopped walking, turned to look at his sister, and his eyes started burning with beautiful flames.

Anna looked at his burning eyes, and then she pouted, and she kicked him in the leg, but without any force behind it.

"Just trust me on this, Anna. I thought you had faith in me. Trust me, this is going to be a night that you’ll remember for the rest of your life."

Fang Raon said with a grin and continued walking, and Anna kept following him with a stunned look on her face.

She couldn’t understand... why he was so confident about such a suicidal mission.

A while later, after trying to navigate through the snowstorm, they arrived over at the Winter Inn with honey-colored light flooding out of the windows.

Music blared inside. Shouting of players and clinking of glasses could be heard even from outside.

"Good luck. You’re going to need it. These greedy, drunken players won’t listen to a word that you speak to them.

"They only know three things—money, alcohol, and valuable items. You cannot offer any of them to them."

Anna said.

"I can offer them glory."

Fang Raon said with a smile.

"Hahahaha!"

Anna laughed, but it wasn’t because she thought it was funny, but because she thought that he was being completely ridiculous.

Glory? Pride? As if any of that mattered in the face of danger.

In that moment.

Fang Raon pushed the door open and entered the loud inn.

"...This stupid weather. It is always snowing in this shithole. I can’t wait for the day when I reach the 6th floor. I’m never leaving that place!"

"...Ah, 6th floor. I’ve seen pictures of that place. Beautiful bikini-wearing girls everywhere, a beach with clear blue water, and a never-ending party! I can’t wait to get there!"

"...Hell yeah, brother! Maybe I can finally get a girlfriend... I’ve heard that some players have managed to get a local girlfriend!"

"...Really?! Holy shit. I don’t mind some beautiful tanned local girlfriend action, that’s for sure!"

The players spilled beer.

Local cleaners came to clean up the mess, and the waitresses tirelessly helped serve more drinks and food to the rowdy group of players.

"Apologizes, but all rooms are booked for the night!"

The innkeeper apologized to a couple of drunken players—a man and a woman—they didn’t like the news.

"Then make some more room!"

The angry male player shouted as he wrapped his arm around his girlfriend, and they wanted a room for some alone time.

But now they were told that there wasn’t any place for them to go!

"T-There is nothing I can do."

The innkeeper apologized, but then the male player grabbed him by the collar, shaking him with frustration.

"Eeek!"

The innkeeper looked scared.

The workers in the inn didn’t know what they should do. It was dangerous to make an enemy out of a player.

"Stop that, honey... If you aren’t careful, you’re going to get banned from the village, and then you’ll be leaving me all alone."

The girlfriend said with a giggle.

She didn’t care what happened to the innkeeper, but she didn’t want to be left alone, so she quickly warned him of the consequences.

With a scoff, the male player shoved the innkeeper against the wall and returned back to the table with his girlfriend.

"Good luck~"

Anna said and went to some corner table and sat down all by her lonesome, and some players looked over at her.

Her beauty attracted a lot of attention. Some of them wanted to approach her.

But then, Anna just glanced at them once, and they immediately looked away, intimidated by her.

There was something about her... that was just so scary and dangerous.

"...Let’s do this then."

Fang Raon mumbled under his breath.

He then saw that there were some locals on the stage. A band. Playing different instruments and singing with nice voices.

Since they didn’t have microphones, they had to sing louder because of that, but it didn’t seem to matter.

In that moment.

Fang Raon stepped onto the stage, and the band looked at him strangely and slowly stopped playing.

"Take a little break, thank you."

Raon said with a smile.

The band looked at each other with strange looks. They then nodded. And they went to the back.

They didn’t want to go against a player, so they just listened and did what they were told to do.

With the music gone, the players looked strangely over to the stage, and they saw that someone had taken control of the stage.

A player. Just like them.

"What gives?"

"Who the hell is he?"

"...Why did he stop the music?"

The players were confused.

"Everyone, please, can I get your attention?"

Fang Raon said.

He didn’t raise his voice, but his voice was powerful enough to make everyone stop talking.

The innkeeper. The waitresses. And even the cleaners looked over with confused looks on their faces.

They were wondering what the hell was going on.

’It looks like I’ve earned everyone’s attention. Now, how should I approach this topic?’

Fang Raon caressed his chin and saw that the players were getting impatient, as they already wanted to know what the hell he wanted.

’Fuck it. I’ll wing it.’

He shrugged his shoulders, and after clearing his throat, he started speaking:

"The guards of the Winter Village discovered an Ice Goblin colony not far from here. Thousands of them.

"In due time, those Ice Goblins will turn their gaze to the Winter Village, and without a doubt, they’ll kill everyone here.

"If that happens, it isn’t just the population of the 2nd floor that will be affected. It will be the entire player community.

"If the Ice Goblins take over the Winter Village, new players cannot access the tower and thus cannot progress in the game.

"It’ll be a huge issue."

Fang Raon said.

When he spoke, the locals had the strongest reaction. They looked shocked and scared. It was the first time that they had heard anything about this!

Players, meanwhile, frowned.

It indeed sounded bothersome. But there were thousands of Ice Goblins, so they weren’t exactly sure what they were supposed to do about that.

Most of them already planned to head to the 3rd floor as soon as possible!

"I’d suggest that we take action first and get rid of the problem. We can’t just sit back and let that happen."

Fang Raon said with a smile.

The players looked at him, but then they just scoffed and waved him off like he was some idealistic moron.

"What the hell are we supposed to do? Thousands of Ice Goblins! Hello? There are barely fifty players here!"

"It’ll be a problem of the future. We’ll let the new players handle that problem. We should get the hell out of here!"

"Right!"

The players turned rowdy and loud. Some of them jumped to their feet, planning to leave already.

Anna watched with her legs crossed. She expected this to happen. Just like clockwork.

"There is a reward!"

At that moment, Fang Raon shouted.

When the word "reward" left his lips, the players turned quiet, and they raised their eyebrows in curiosity.

’Reward? What the hell? Brother, don’t tell me...’

Anna was the first to catch on to Fang Raon’s scheme, and she immediately had cold sweat run down her forehead.

’You’re going to trick them to participate? If you guys somehow survive, and they find out that there is no reward, they’ll kill you...

’But you don’t care.’

Anna thought with a dark look.

She realized that her brother had already planned to die.