Last Shelter Online

The ongoing conversation suddenly became whispers. The dwarf players' whispers to each other made Hiro, who happened to be passing by, slow down his footsteps.

Why were they whispering? Were they talking about something they shouldn't?

"Do you remember the player with the nickname Meliodas? A player killer suddenly killed him outside the safe zone right after he complained about the survivor team's unexpected defeat in the world chat after the ongoing event."

Hiro didn't know if it was because of his demon ears or if the whispers were still within the limit of his hearing, but he could clearly hear what those dwarf players were discussing.

"It wasn't just Meliodas. More than seven players were also killed outside the safe zone. From what I heard, they were talking about WynterRain's appearance and how powerful he was before he was killed."

"Be careful, keep your voice low! I don't want that mysterious player killer to come. My business will go bankrupt if I have to go offline for a whole week."

For a piece of new information, Hiro was able to get it at no cost. No wonder no one was excited about WynterRain's appearance when he logged back in. It was as if no one had seen his grand appearance.

Was someone intentionally hiding the information?

Hiro was already curious about the investigators and how they would react if one of the people they interviewed actually shared some information about WynterRain's appearance. It would surely be a significant clue about Yuujin's death for them.

Unfortunately, the night had fallen, and none of the investigators worked at night. Hiro didn't know if they were still investigating in-game or just in the developers' office lately.

Hiro continued to walk quickly after one of the dwarf players found him eavesdropping and looked at him with a cynical look. Upon spotting him, the dwarf player's forehead wrinkled in an unfriendly manner and his thick beard curled down.

After walking for about a hundred meters, Hiro finally arrived at the location he had marked on his GPS map. Before him now stood a seemingly firm two-story building made of natural stone bricks.

The size of that building was too big to be called a house. Moreover, Hiro saw a wooden placard with "Smith's Weapon Shop" written on it and a board that showed "Closed" just below the placard.

Hiro was standing in front of the only wooden door at the front of the building when all of a sudden, the door opened with a bang.

"Hiro!"

Jacob pulled Hiro's body into his arms and patted him three times. Before Hiro could react apart from being surprised, Jacob had already pulled him into the building.

"What happened?" Jacob's overreaction piqued his curiosity.

The two now stood inside a decently large room. In the corner of the room was a fireplace complete with a fire burning a pile of dry wood, while on the other side was a set of waiting tables and chairs.

But Hiro didn't see any weapons on sale as a weapon shop would normally have. The room was empty.

"There's only a purchase through order service for the time being," Jacob mumbled as if he understood the questioning look on Hiro's face.

"Here, take a seat. I'll bring out the wine I just bought."

Hiro sat in one of the waiting chairs, leaving a round wooden table and one other chair in front of him.

After a short while, Jacob came back with a bottle of wine and two wine glasses. After putting them on the table, he poured the wine into the glasses and gave one to Hiro, who felt that he still needed to adapt to Jacob's drinking habit.

"Where were you, Hiro? I thought you were one of the rumored PK victims." Jacob drank his wine with sparkles in his eyes. It seemed that he really enjoyed his drink.

"This is the best virtual wine ever. Try it!"

Hiro had no choice but to try the drink.

Although he didn't hate the taste of the alcoholic drink, Hiro knew that he wasn't a heavy drinker. Remembering how real the effects in the world of LSO were, Hiro was sure that he could also get drunk if he drank too much.

"What do you mean by the rumored PK?"

Jacob put his wine glass on the table. While staring straight into Hiro's eyes, he took a deep breath before he began to talk.

After the 'The Haunted Maze' event ended with an unexpected result, numerous players who participated in the event complained to the game masters, mainly through the world chat. Players from both the hunter team and the survivor team demanded compensation for the unexpected result.

Nevertheless, they were sure that the player who appeared at the last moment was a cheater. Some even called that player a ghost player who used cheats that allowed him to become overpowered and wipe out all the survivors.

They immediately searched the search system for the player called WynterRain, but they found no player with that name.

It was as if that player was never in the system.

Another theory besides WynterRain being a ghost player was that he was a game master's avatar who was disguised as another player and got involved in the event. It would make more sense for an avatar that strong to belong to a game master rather than a new player who had only played for three days at that time.

However, the game masters didn't say anything. They clearly wrote WynterRain as the winner of the tier 1 reward, yet they didn't know who the person the system considered the event winner was.

What were the game masters doing when everyone protested? GM Juno was the only one who responded, and that was only with a word of apology and the useless information that player WynterRain might have changed his username.

But, it didn't just end there.

When everything fell into more turmoil, several usernames suddenly appeared in the world chat and confessed to being WynterRain's fanatic fans, claiming that they would do anything to anyone who dared to insult their idol in public.

"Those players who united and called themselves WynterRain's fans are really strong. They seriously annihilated anyone who talked bad about him." Jacob let out a long sigh after passionately telling that story.

Hiro gulped as he tried to digest all the detailed information from Jacob.

Were those people the player killers he previously heard about from the dwarves' conversation? WynterRain's fanatic fans? His brother's fanatic fans?

Hiro didn't know whether he should support the PK now or do the opposite.

His fists under the table were clenched. He was also upset when he heard the baseless accusations against his brother's avatar. Still, he tried to remain calm in front of Jacob.

"Since then, no one dared to talk about that player. Besides, who is he, actually? Do you know him, Hiro?" Jacob refilled the wine in Hiro's glass, which had only lessened a little.

Hiro shook his head.

He lied. He just wasn't ready to trust anyone about this matter.

He was about to ask Jacob, who knew how to impress people, how to attract a dwarf NPC's attention when Jacob suddenly snapped his fingers as if he remembered something.

"Ah! I met Liberty this morning, and she was looking for you. Have you met her?"

Hiro instantly forgot the question that was stuck at the tip of his tongue.