The thief

"Lala! Did you catch the scammer? Where is he? I will not forgive that thief!" Said the newcomer after she arrived at them.

"Ah, Melly, the thief is—"

Before Lala could finish what she was about to say, her companion Melly suddenly turned to Ranz. As a result, she was interrupted. So Lala wasn't able to finish her words.

"Wait, who is this? Is he the thief?" Melly asked as she approached Ranz.

Stare~

Noticing the girl, a head shorter than him, looking at him as if he was a criminal, Ranz was slightly taken aback. He was surprised by what she was saying.

"That's—"

He was about to say something but paused for a moment because he suddenly heard some prompts, notifying him that he had received some mail.

Ranz ignored it in the meantime and he continued saying, "That's rude," He said.

"Ehh~ denier!" The girl yelled as she knitted her brows.

'This girl is accusing someone without a proof!'

Ranz wondered what kind of fate was playing on him in this game to be mistaken for a thief after barely surviving death.

"I'm sorry but I don't know what you're saying. I'm not a thief. And even more, I didn't steal anything," Ranz replied, denying her claims.

'Rather, there are no thieves here, there is only an opportunistic person!' This was exactly what he wanted to answer. But, never mind, he didn't want to offend anyone. Besides that, he was grateful for what she did. It was okay that she took the drop items. Because of it, he wouldn't be indebted to her.

"You still want to deny it?! Admit it, scammer, admit it!" Melly said as she pointed her double-edged sword at him.

Ranz froze on the spot. 'This girl is dangerous!' He screamed deep inside.

To his knowledge, such a sword was not in the basic weapon choices, so that means her class must be not a basic class. He also suspected that the other girl was also the same since she used her healing ability to heal him.

These two must be an experienced player here.

In any case, he needed to explain himself genuinely and finished this talk quickly.

Ranz scratched his head. "You're wrong. I'm just a new player who have just entered this game."

"Admit you're a scammer!" Melly shouted at him.

'This girl isn't even listening!'

While he was trying to find words to convince her, Lala suddenly interjected while slightly shaking her head as if having a headache.

"Stop it, Melly. He's telling the truth. Besides, if you take a good look at him, you will immediately know that he is a novice player."

"Eh?" Melly blinked her big round emerald eyes when she heard what Lala said. She saw that the player in front of her was wearing only a beginner's garb. A sleeveless light blue shirt. Paired with old-looking knee-length pants.

There was no doubt that this was the attire of novice players. She was wearing the same thing when she first landed in this game. Though, for female players, they wore not pants but skirts.

Melly glanced at Lala and returned her gaze at Ranz. There could be seen a large bead of sweat on her cheek as she tried to force a smile.

"Ehe-ehe-he… I… I see. Uh, I'm sorry…" she said while awkwardly trying to hide her double-edged short sword behind her back, though there was a scabbard hanging on her waist. She must be embarrassed for faulty accused him.

Ranz just sighed. He immediately said goodbye to the two because he didn't want to get involved with them. Moreover, he noticed the crest on their blue short cloak. If he's not mistaken, it's the same crest on the player's armor that he saw on one of the billboards.

Chances were high that those two were members of that guild.

'Anyway, isn't this game so violent?' This thought came to his mind. 'Ah, nevermind, that didn't change the fact that this world is also just a game world. Everyone could die and revive here. The only problem in this game is the pain rate. Even it was only 50% of the real world, it is still very high. It may cause trauma to some people.'

'The status ailments in this game are even more shocking. They came in great numbers. If I didn't choose Dwarf race as my avatar I would have died already. Thanks to its Ailment Resistance, I lasted till someone came and healed me.'

As he was mulling, he suddenly stopped walking when he remembered something.

'Wait, speaking of status ailments, how did I end up getting that poison status? Does this game have bugs?'

"Ah, nevermind…"

He only needed to focus on his goal. He came here to earn money. This was the only real reason he wanted to play it, enjoying it was just secondary.

Perhaps if he was strong enough, he would find the two who tried to kill him and hold them accountable for what they did to him earlier. His eyes showed glint when he thought of it.

After Ranz left,

"Is that player your friend?" Melly suddenly asked Lala.

When she heard it, Lala who was currently looking at the receding figure of the newbie player, turned her gaze to Melly.

"No. I don't have a novice friend. And I have no intention of making friends with them because most of them are just leeches. They often ask for help from high-level players. But once you help them once, they will never stop begging for help from you. So you, don't make friends with them either Melly. And if you want to help there must be an equivalent price. This is no longer the game we used to play. So you must be careful and aware of the things of this game world."

"Okay, understood!" Melly replied, at once saluted at her.

Suddenly, she tilted her head, as if remembering something. "But isn't Rolling Judgment's job… is to help? So because we're members of the guild, that means we should also help."

Lala showed a tired face as she tried to hide her disappointment. "Uhm, Melly, the Rolling Judgement is not a charity guild. Our job is to execute law and orders in this game, not to become someone's assistant or attendant."

Melly's mouth became like a letter 'o'. "Ouh~ you're right. He-he, I'm sorry I misunderstood the meaning of the two even though the difference is obvious..." after saying that, her face turned serious. "Okay, I will be sure to remember it, thanks ma'friend!"

Lala slightly sighed and shook her head when Melly started rubbing her body onto her.

Without trying to free herself from Melly's grasp, she said, "Anyway, you asked earlier where the real thief is, right?"

Melly blinked her beautiful eyes and said, "I did."

"In that case…" She pushed her away and walked towards the haystack, where Ranz landed earlier.

She stopped right in front of it. While holding her staff weapon in her left hand, she suddenly swung it up into the air and said, "Here he is!"

It seemed like some kind of magical force brought the straws to fly up in the air, clearing the area where it was originally sitting and revealing what was hiding within it.

Melly's eyes widened when she saw a man lying on the ground. However, he looks unconscious and his face turned blue. Next to the man was a broken small bottle and a box with skull logo.

Ehhh! Melly exclaimed.

A moment later, the man's body turned into light particles and disappeared into the air along with the bottle's remains.

…

Somewhere in the real world.

[You died!]

[Your account is temporarily closed!]

"Gya--!"

Reading such a message, the man furiously took off the gaming helmet on his head.

"What the hell had just happened?!" He could not understand why he died.

He was just hiding on the straws to escape from the chasing members of Rolling Judgement.

"Grr! I must check the history log to figure out how I died."

He took off a chip that could be seen inside the helmet. It was like a memory card but the only job of this thing was to record events like the death of the player.

After he retrieved it, he connected it to the computer to check the saved data.

He later learned that he had died of poison gas. That poison gas he stole from a player. It was strong and could knock down monsters and even players.

Although the reason for his death was poison, he was more indignant to the next thing he found out.

[Player Jack No Ripper Knocked you down.] It was this message that ignited his anger.

"Jack No Ripper! You're the reason! Get ready for my return! I'm going to take revenge!"

He screamed at the top of his lungs.

Around this time, inside the game world, Ranz was checking the mails he received a while ago.