I Have A Plan

Nick, the brown-haired player, looked at the player in front of him with shakiness in his eyes. His confidence and pride as an older player crumbled to pieces.

While he and his friends around the table were more experienced players, around two weeks older, they were still level 0 and in the same rank as everyone else—Coinfeeders.

Connie, his friend, felt the cold blade against his neck and gulped dryly. He moved his eyes around, trying to see what his friends were doing behind his back and if they were planning to help, but they were all sitting calmly, watching the scene unfold.

"Well?" Adam raised an eyebrow and squeezed Nick's throat tighter.

"Ngh…"

After feeling the difficulty of breathing, Nick gasped and nodded as well as he could.

"C-Clown Boy appears…"

"Louder!"

Adam shouted right into his ear.

"Clown Boy appears right after midnight!"

Ramon, Donald, and everyone else at their table felt their eyes widen, and they then conversed between each other, trying to remember when the Clown Boy appeared last time.

They came to the conclusion that it must've appeared around midnight—therefore, the information seemed correct.

"Now, how can we defeat it?"

Adam asked in a calm yet powerful voice.

"Ngh, you have to beat it in its game!" Nick shouted out. "Once you beat it, it will start crying, and since it's health is low, one hit is enough to kill it. Otherwise, killing it is much harder since it is so fast!"

"Is there anything else?" Adam asked with a frown.

"N-no…" Nick shook his head, but his lips had turned dry, and he couldn't stop the trembling in his hands.

Adam removed the cold blade from Connie's neck and placed it against Nick's abdomen, around where his belly button was.

"W-what are you doing?"

Nick asked while his face changed shades from bright red to pale white.

'D-did he catch my lie? There is no way…'

"Last time, the Clown Boy disappeared quite soon; you wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"

Nick's heart almost dropped to the bottom of his stomach. He was gambling with the truth, hoping that Adam and no one on his side were able to figure that out.

After all, from his knowledge, this group shouldn't have visited the second floor that often.

"A-ah right, I-I forgot something!" Nick shouted, realizing that speaking the truth was the only choice.

Donald watched everything happen and chimed to his friends, "There is something else? Could it be that there is a time limit?"

"The Clown Boy disappears after one minute of its appearance!" Nick shouted for everyone to hear.

"One minute…" Donald and the rest looked sour-faced, as that was not a lot of time.

However, if they only needed one strike to end it, it should be enough.

"Thank you…" Adam slowly sheathed his weapon and, with a smile on his face, turned his back to Nick and started walking towards Donald and others.

Nick gritted his teeth and rubbed his bruised neck, feeling defeated and humiliated.

"Guys, follow my lead."

Nick said to Connie and everyone else in their group—they all nodded and stood up from the table.

"You bastard!"

Adam, after hearing the enraged shout, came to a stop and looked over his shoulder at the red-faced Nick and his friends. They were all wielding various weapons.

In terms of experience and numbers, Nick's group was adventegous.

A few of them had even bought their first-ever skill scrolls, but so far, they hadn't been able to learn them. Those skills were the lowest-ranked, but against those without any skills, it was an incredible advantage.

"A fight, heh." Ramon and Hannibal stood up with grins on their faces.

They didn't like Adam, but they weren't planning to fight to help him. Instead, they wanted to fight because it seemed fun and exciting.

Donald and everyone else around the table hesitantly stood up from their chairs. They didn't really want to fight, as they weren't confident enough in winning.

However, since Donald stood up, they simply followed his lead.

He, on the other hand, felt like he needed to repay Adam by saving his life on the second floor and now sharing very important information with them.

Adam could've just kept the information to himself and gotten a free boss kill, but for some reason, he wanted them to know as well.

Anyway, Donald was feeling grateful.

Adam looked at them briefly, and instead of unsheathing his weapon, he simply smiled and took a seat around the table. He didn't look like he was planning to participate in the fight.

"What are you doing?" Ramon asked with a frown. "Feeling tired or what?"

"There won't be any fighting," Adam said. "Please, sit down."

"Huh?" Ramon asked, confused.

At that moment, as Nick was about to launch his attack out of fury, a loud cough sounded from the entrance of the cafeteria.

"What is happening in here?"

After turning their heads around, they all saw Ron standing at the entrance of the cafeteria with his hands behind his back. He didn't look too pleased.

"W-we…" Nick's face paled, and he quickly pointed in Adam's direction. "T-that bastard attacked us!"

"Hmm?"

Ron raised an eyebrow and looked in Adam's direction, who was scratching his cheek and looking in their direction with a confused expression.

'I was called here as there was apparently a disturbance in the cafeteria.' 

Ron thought nonchalantly.

'It seems that Adam is using the fact that we aren't around in the mornings to cause some disturbance. Oh well, as long as no one was killed, I don't care.'

"Sheathe your weapons." Ron instructed as he walked over to the end of the cafeteria to get some food to get the day started.

"T-that's all?" Nick asked in shock. "H-he should be punished!"

After Ron took a tray from the stack and started loading it with breakfast items, he replied calmly, "No one was killed, I don't care."

"W-what!" Nick cried out in disbelief.

Ron finished loading up the tray and walked out of the cafeteria, leaving a stunned group of players behind. 

With frustration visible on their faces, Nick and the rest sheathed their weapons and sat down in anger. They started whispering something while throwing hostile gazes in Adam's direction.

Even though Adam had his back turned, his lips curled into a knowing smirk as if some kind of plan was finally coming together.

'That's right. Make your plans and come after me.'

"Ron actually let that slide?" A player chimed in from the table, surprised.

"You knew that would happen, didn't you?" Ramon asked as he eyed Adam's obvious smile.

"Perhaps," Adam said coyly.

"Why did you share the information with us?" Donald asked.

It was a question that most of the players had in their minds.

At the corner of the table, Seth ate his breakfast silently but was secretly listening to every word that was said. He was still quite pissed about losing his sword, but he couldn't help but be impressed by Adam's guts.

"I have a plan." Adam said.