Trust Issues

"Percy," Tiara drawled as he followed him through the game world. She skipped for a while, or walked, or sometimes jogged, but always stayed behind his back while Percy led her to the Mountains.

"Yes, Tiara?" he asked without looking back. He hopped over a log and told Tiara to be careful.

"What do these flowers do anyway?"

"I don't know, guess we'll find out when we reach there. 50 for you and 50 for me, I wonder if there will be that many."

"Oh…" Tiara looked around them. They had come out of the forest and had trotted through the suburbs of an abandoned village. Now they were slowly entering a colder zone, she could already see the trees losing its leaves as they moved farther in. A cold wind blew, accompanied with a bizarre feeling filling up inside her. "What if there are fewer than a hundred? Who will take the first 50 among us both?"

Percy was silent. His mind instantly knew the answer, but his mouth wouldn't move. He felt like he had hurt her already. But the scene and the threat by the Emperor replayed in his mind. If one of them two needed to get to higher levels, it should be him. Achieving third stage in one year… if he doesn't do it, he'll have to die by Prince Hao's father's order.

"Tiara," Percy stopped walking. "I need to tell you something."

Tiara looked up at him as he turned back with a remorseful look on his face. Tiara felt her heart breaking as he saw that look on his face. "What happened, Percy?"

In the next two minutes, Percy told her everything. About how he tried to not get her executed and ended up under a deadline of one year drawn by the Emperor. He had planned not to tell her anything and do it by himself as she was just a kid inside.

"If I don't achieve the third stage of cultivation by the end of this year, he'll have me executed."

Tiara covered her mouth in shock. He had hidden this from her all this time? "You did it to save me…?" She looked down at her feet. "But the Emperor is your, I mean Prince Hao's, father! Why would a father kill his own son?"

Percy shook his head. "It's actually more common than you think."

"That means… you need this. You need to cross Level 5, take the Qi test, find a teacher as soon as possible and defeat the Obsidian Lord to free Zirlock."

Percy nodded. Hopefully, she understands. He was reluctant to force his orders upon her to hand him the first fifty flowers. But this way, she would come to the conclusion on her own. That's why he had explained his situation to her.

"So…" Tiara finally realised. "The first 50 flowers should go to you."

Percy nodded. "I think that's the best ide-"

"Wrong," another voice approached them from behind. Percy and Tiara looked back in surprise and saw a female walking towards them. Her untied hair was whipping frivolously behind her in the cold wind. She had a longsword hanging by her waist and was dressed up in a heavy warrior-like outfit.

"Who are you?" Tiara stepped back, closer to Percy while he stood his ground and studied the intruder. "What do you want?" he asked.

The female turned her head towards Tiara. "I've been watching you both for sometime. He's trying to get you to be his sidekick. You can't give in!"

Tiara frowned, her eyes shaking with confusion. Percy stepped forward on the defensive. "How much do you know? Are you a Player?"

The lady extended her hand, "Nakano. From the Project Dream System of Country Y, nice to meet you, Stamen." She turned to Tiara, "Nice to meet you, Carpel."

The language she used seemed awfully familiar. "You are that friend Karmet talked about!" Tiara exclaimed.

Nakano winked, "I was the one who took him out of the equation a while ago. Who do you think sent that Dramon after him in the first place?"

Percy frowned. "You sent a Grade 2 Dramon after your friend?"

Nakano cackled and stood on her tip-toes to get on eye-level with him. "Ever heard of pranks, pretty boy?" She stood back down and smiled at them both. "Anyway, Tiara, I guess your name is, you can't let this arrogant bastard let him take over you so easily like that."

"But he will get killed in one year if he doesn't…" Tiara hesitated. Of course she wanted to learn cultivation too, but not at the cost of another's harm.

Nakano shook her head. "He's not going to die, right? And if you learn cultivation too, you can save him right?"

Percy pushed her back harshly. "Get out of here! You have no business in our matters." But he was immensely worried about how much this Player knew about the existence of the system.

Nakano held her step and smirked. "You're just scared I'll knock some wisdom into that girl. Don't you have any shame, taking advantage of her ignorance like that?"

"I'm in charge of her, so I decide what to do here. I do not know what you and your friend are after, but please leave us alone."

"I'm afraid that's not possible. My goal is to protect the Carpel," she declared, extending her right arm and pointing at Tiara. The tip of her index finger touched Tiara's nose and she squinted down at it in surprise.

Percy swatted her hand away and stood in the middle of both of them, shielding Tiara from the other woman. "What proof do you have that she is the one you are looking for, whatever a Carpel is?" Percy narrowed her eyes and his entire brain started working furiously.

This woman… What if she was sent by the group of people that killed Doctor Zha Huang? She and her friend were behind the two kids that tried to bring cultivation back to the world again, weren't they? What started as a small doubt had now taken full shape inside his mind. They needed to get out of here right now.

"She said it herself… that you both are Players from Country X. And there are only two players from there who can exist for more than 15 minutes inside this Dimension. You both," Nakano explained. Back when she was watching Tiara fight the Dramon, she had figured out that if Karmet and Tiara started fighting each other for some reason, she couldn't truly pinpoint if Tiara could stay in the game for more than 15 minutes or not. And that's why she had teleported Karmet out of the place for a while and followed Tiara... only to find out that not only her, but also her friend Percy could stay longer than 15 minutes inside the game.

Percy shook his head and took Tiara's hand. "Tiara, let's go, she's dangerous." Tiara nodded like a child and followed Percy loyally. Once they were a few steps ahead, Nakano spoke up.

"I wouldn't go there if I were you."

Before Percy and Tiara could make sense of her sentence, the snow covered ground started rumbling, sending snow sliding down a few of the small hills around them. Tiara found it difficult to keep her balance and she held on to Percy's strong arm for dear life.

Then their ears caught on to the direction of the big shakes and looked up forward to see a man casually walking towards them. There were several monsters following him, all of different shapes and sizes, either bearing fangs or horns.

Tiara stepped back in awe and fear before she recognised the weapon of the man leading the animal horde. She had held it in her own hands not so long ago, against the Grade 2 Dramon.

"Karmet…" she realised and his face came into the light.

He had been teleported to the mountains and the moment he opened his eyes here, he knew Nakano's plan: to confront the two at this place. On the other hand, Tiara could only stare with her eyes almost falling out of her sockets, 'If he had such power, why didn't he use it back then?' The young woman felt like she was being betrayed again and again ever since she woke up from coma.

"You can try to run," Nakano explained, "But you guys are just Level 2 players. Total wimps compared to the beasts Karmet is controlling right now. What are you going to do? Run and die… or be patient and listen to what we have to say?"

Tiara tugged at Percy's sleeve. "Percy, let's listen to them for now…"

"No!" Percy ripped his hand away from her grasp. "Tiara, they're trying to kill us! Just like they did to the doctor, why can't you see that?" Percy bent down and looked into her eyes to get some sense into her. He sounded desperate.

"But… but Nakano and Karmet seem nice. They want to protect us…"

"Humans will say filthy lies to get what they want, Tiara! That's how the world is!" He wiped his face in frustration. "Right, you're just a kid. You won't understand. Follow me if you want to live."

Percy walked away from her and Tiara looked back at Nakano who simply shrugged as if to tell her that it was her choice to make. Tiara glanced back at Percy who was edging closer to escaping.

As the first massive roar reverberated through out the snow covered field, Karmet let his first monster loose.