MMORPG: Crowd Control

When Lei Zhen threatened to reveal that he was eavesdropping on their private conversation, Smither Gary merely flinched a bit before regaining his composure.

"No, you will definitely not tell Candice!" Smither Gary said confidently, almost as if he was hundred percent positive about it.

"Oh really, how are you so sure about it?"

"Because if you want me to work for you sincerely, then you should know blackmailing or forcing me to comply with you is definitely not the way to go. And despite how hateful you are, I can tell you aren't some dumb idiot that would attempt such a thing."

Lei Zhen was instantly rendered speechless because Smither Gary complimented and insulted him simultaneously.

What was worse was that he couldn't rebuke such a claim. It was a lose-lose situation regardless if he agreed or disagreed with his words.

Meanwhile, Smither Gary smirked evilly, almost as if he had figured out a method to deal with Lei Zhen's shrewdness.

'Heh, you're 3000 years too early to try to mess with me, brat.' Smither Gary thought to himself.

"Anyway, why did you suddenly bring me over here?" Lei Zhen finally asked, realizing that they had walked for a long time already.

Smither Gary suddenly halted his footsteps, turned around, and grinned wickedly.

And the moment Lei Zhen saw that wicked grin on his face, he had a foreboding feeling that something was up.

"You're not thinking of doing what's in my mind, right?" Lei Zhen asked, slowly retrieving his weapon.

"Bingo, I'll see you in a few hours, brat." Smither Gary taunted and crushed the Bolten Artifact that he was secretly hiding behind his pocket.

As for Lei Zhen, he already knew that he was up to no good and cast Stun at Smither Gary right away, only to fail because of Smither Gary's high resistance.

With the Stun had failed miserably to immobilize and stopped the teleportation, Smither Gary's presence vanished from sight, leaving him in the wilderness.

"..."

Unamused, Lei Zhen was really exhausted by the petty revenge of Smither Gary. Although all of them were harmless, it was enough to make him exhaust his stamina constantly.

"This damn Smither Gary is really unbelievable…" He twitched his mouth and sighed softly. He glanced around his surroundings, and sure enough,

Smither Gary made sure they were in a completely discrete area before ditching him.

And to make things worse, the commotion created by the teleport of the Bolten Artifact had attracted quite a lot of monsters, mainly because of the aftereffect of the monster screaming part.

"Sigh, if he wasn't going to work for me, then I would make sure he'll pay for this prank." Lei Zhen smiled bitterly as he stared at numerous ferocious monsters coming out from the shadow.

Although none of their levels were high enough to pose a threat to him considering how much he had grinded for experience points, Lei Zhen was still going to have a difficult time against them.

The reason?

Most of his skills are still crowd control based and barely some are damage dealer type of skills.

"Yep, I'm not dealing with this crap." Lei Zhen nodded his head, choosing to log out before the system forced him to be in combat mode which would cause him to be unable to log out.

After logging out of Magnolia, Lei Zhen made sure to text Griselda about his current location and inform Howard to head toward his location soon with a vehicle.

Griselda might still be in Magnolia but her phone was connected to it, so it didn't take a few minutes before Lei Zhen received a response. In addition to that, Griselda also notified Lei Zhen of their findings from the previously detained enemies.

'Hmm, so the affected players are being trapped in a place similar to the prison cell of Magnolia.' Lei Zhen exclaimed inwardly, feeling that this culprit should have an overpowered or broken Unique Class.

To be able to trap players and affect them in the real world. It had never been heard of until now. And if this is the case, then Lei Zhen feared that sooner or later, Magnolia would continuously corrode the real world, assimilating its place into the real world as well.

Realizing that this matter might be way bigger than they initially thought, Lei Zhen tried to dial Samantha, but she didn't pick up her phone.

Confused, Lei Zhen left the guest room and searched the house, seemingly searching for Samantha. He had searched every room in the house, including her room, but with a knock on the door first of course.

However, she was still nowhere to be found.

"Wait a minute, she couldn't be on the roof, right?" Lei Zhen raised an eyebrow and went upstairs which was connected to the roof. Except the roof was locked with a chain, prompting Lei Zhen to realize that she was definitely not on the roof.

"The balcony…" Lei Zhen then smacked his head and forgot this house had a balcony.

Since his run-down apartment never had a balcony, the possibility of her being there didn't cross his mind.

And sure enough, he saw Samantha laying on a canvas wood beach chair with a large beverage glass on the table and a small cup that she used to drink.

Just when he was about to call her, Lei Zhen noticed that she was asleep, clearly exhausted from the fatigue and problems at the hospital.

Shaking his head, Lei Zhen was helpless at her carelessness in sleeping out on the balcony when the weather was quite chilly, with the possibility of catching a cold.

Going back to her room, Lei Zhen picked up the blanket on the bed and carried it toward the balcony. Afterward, he calmly and neatly covered her body with the blanket, protecting her from the cold.

Of course, he had thought of initially carrying her back to the bed, but then it would seem like he would be a creep and he might also wake her up accidentally. Thus, he decided to ban the idea of carrying her since this wasn't some melodrama anyway.

Once the blanket was covering her properly, Lei Zhen went back inside and headed toward the kitchen to brew some warm tea. The tea was going to be filled with jasmine leaves and some honey added to it, creating a perfectly balanced tea.

Since jasmine leaves themselves are known for their bitterness, the honey would counter the bitterness and allow her to drink the freshness of the tea while not being overwhelmed by the bitterness.

Brewing it on the teapot, Lei Zhen slowly carried it and placed it on the table by the balcony. The teapot is a special design, so even though it was chilly outside, the temperature of the tea inside would not be affected.

"The hospital should be overwhelmed by reporters and parents crying for help because of their kids being trapped in a MagnoPod." Lei Zhen murmured, taking his phone out and reading the current trending news.

Just like he had predicted previously, the matter of players being trapped in their MagnoPod was simply too explosive to be covered up.

Even the rich businessmen's threat and connection to halt the media aren't enough to suppress the news.

After all, the internet was a wonderful thing with many different types of anonymous users online. And it only needed one person to spread a rumor to create a wildfire.

This was the so-called distribution of news that no one is capable of suppressing.

"I hate this distribution, but it's also needed at the same time because rich and powerful criminals could no longer attempt to use the media to manipulate public opinions to avoid the punishment of the law." Lei Zhen rubbed his temples and shut his phone.

It was time to take a break from all these as he poured himself a cup of jasmine honey tea.

Drinking the tea and admiring the balcony scenery that it offered, Lei Zhen realized just how relaxing this location was. It was so calm and peaceful, almost as if they were isolated from the troubles of the world.

And without realizing it, Lei Zhen's eyes were slowly closing down as he subsequently fell asleep on the chair.

Time slowly passed by, and Samantha made a small yawning sound as she woke up, only to realize a blanket was covering her.

"Who-" She tried to ask before noticing Lei Zhen was asleep a few meters away from her.

"This silly man… covered me with a blanket, but forgot to put one for himself." Samantha smiled awkwardly as she saw him shivering slightly.

Instead of worrying about himself, he had worried about her, and now the irony was that he was about to catch a cold.

And just like what Lei Zhen had done previously, Samantha also used her blanket to cover his body before noticing a teapot by the table and a new cup.

'You should have woken me up instead of doing all of these.' She thought to herself, pouring herself a cup and drinking a mouthful of it.