Infinite Realm

"Die."

Yukino lunged at Sato with her great-sword in hand, forgetting that she wasn't his match due to the level difference.

*Vroo*

As the Snow Goddess brandished her sword, a crystal-like beam shot from the tip of the blade and headed towards Sato. Sato almost couldn't react to it because he had never seen her use such a skill before. Luckily, he had been on high alert ever since his presence was revealed so Sato was barely able to dodge it, albeit at the last second.

*Boom*

The beam landed on the ground and formed a crater with burn marks at the spot. The nearby NPCs who stood close to the gate were shocked and they began to panic. The guards hurried to calm them down as they glanced at Sato and Yukino who stood still in confrontation. However, neither of the guards made any move against them.

[[ System notification :

You are close to a safe zone. Disrupting the peace in the area would result in you getting punished by relevant authorities. ]]

Both Sato and Yukino paused their movements as they took note of the system notification. The notification alone was able to calm Yukino down as she had to consider her options properly.

As most players had yet to know of the mechanics surrounding the game, there were a few select types of notifications that would appear when a player was about to cross the line and break a rule. The notifications served as a form of warning to the players concerning the event around/pertaining to them. A good example was the current situation.

While it was true that the area outside of town wasn't classified as a safe zone, the NPCs in the game weren't so stiff elements that abide by simple programs. They were made with certain natural human reactions in mind. Depending on the exact situation, they could react opposite to common knowledge.

Sato and Yukino's short clash had resulted in scaring the low-class NPCs and citizens so the guards wouldn't tolerate it if their fight went too far and affected the onlookers, hence the warning in the form of a system notification.

"You can't attack me and I don't exactly have a reason to attack you. Why don't you cool off and let me pass." Sato glanced at Yukino as he spoke.

"Who says I can't attack you?" Yukino stared aggressively at him.

"The closest NPC to me is just 15 metres away. Are you sure you can stop me from making it?" Sato replied nonchalantly.

"You…!!" Yukino couldn't help but get angry as she realised the meaning behind Sato's words.

"You're already ahead of me in level but you still dare to use an innocent bystander as a shield?!"

The meaning of Sato's words was just as she had said. The system notification that had appeared on the duo's interface was merely a warning and a hint that they should avoid dragging the bystander NPCs into their fight, otherwise, they would get attacked by the guards. Sato discerned this almost immediately, and though unscrupulous, he decided to use it to his advantage. There were 3 reasons why he did so.

First, it was the fastest and safest way for him to escape. The others had already arrived and for Sato to get away safely would be a bit difficult. If he were to use another player as a hostage, no one would care especially so for the dark players and NPCs. However, using the citizen NPCs would prevent even the craziest of players from attacking him. The repercussions a player would suffer under the hands of the NPC guards wasn't a joke and could even cripple one's gaming account.

Secondly, Sato didn't want to breed too much bad blood between him and the super guild. Currently, he had only killed a handful of their players and the numbers didn't matter much as these players were just average in the eyes of the upper echelons. But if he were to attack a prodigy like Yukino, the main branch might end up turning an eye towards him. 

Unlike the branch division here, the main branch was a true monster and the home to some of the most popular and strongest VR gamers in this era. The guild leader, the Emperor, was a good example and he resided with the main branch. Even if the main branch didn't make any moves, some of the stronger branch divisions might and this was something Sato desperately wanted to avoid because there were some scary figures among them. Hence if possible, he wouldn't turn to violence if he had a much simpler option.

Finally, apart from his fear of the main branch as well as the stronger side branches, Sato had to make sure that the damages he caused here were reduced to the minimum, preventing the current branch from having any reason to pursue this to the end.

As it stood now, Sato was mostly guilty of killing the Kobold King(which isn't a crime) and ending a few of the players from the branch guild. This wasn't a viable reason for Azure Dragon to turn it into a blood feud. Eventually, there will be more world-class BOSSES in the game and the players of the guild would end up dying at the hands of others. If Azure Dragon were to pursue every single one of such incidents, he would get drained and die early with white hair. 

This meant that with time, this incident would be put to rest and the two parties would be able to confront each other without any detestation. They might even end up working together in the future. Of course, this was all on the premise that Sato didn't cause irreversible harm to the guild especially by killing off their peak units. It was exactly for this reason that Sato didn't attack Black Tempest or Yukino, even though he could kill them with ease.

"Yukino, what's going on?" Azure Dragon finally appeared.

Seeing her in a standstill with Sato, he felt that things were weird and so, didn't order for his men to attack.

"We can't do anything." Yukino sighed as she explained everything to Azure Dragon.

Azure Dragon narrowed his eyes as he got the gist.

At the moment, a lot of players had gathered at the west gate. This included those who were interested in the bounty as well as those who just wanted to see some fun. If Azure Dragon didn't solve the issue at hand, he would be dragged by the player community for being a wimp and the dignity of the guild as well as its guild leader would be severely harmed.

"Let him go; that's the only thing we can do." Chesces sighed.

Even though as a member of the guild, he shouldn't be saying such, Chesces already knew the truth and he knew that Azure Dragon did too. Unless they could instantly kill Sato, there was nothing they could do. Even if they could, the very second they try to give a command out, Sato would make his move at the slightest movement from them. Chesces knew this simply from a glance at Sato's posture. 

Sato was already prepared to sprint away and with his speed, no one would be able to stop him from crossing a 20 metres distance much less 15 metres.