An Impostor Blended in

「That was close…」

「Yeah. I’m just glad we made it in time.」

◇

Five days later – the day of the Stampede.
I woke up early to see the whole town covered in a green barrier.

「Looks like the barrier is active.」

「Yeah… This is the first time I’ve seen an anti-Stampede barrier. Can it really stop the onslaught?」

「Yup. The barrier actually doesn’t stop the monsters’ attacks. The town is just covered in a special kind of magic that the monsters despise so they don’t come close. So they turn back.」

I’ve seen this type of barrier in BBO when there’s a Stampede event. The best part was watching the monsters turn back all at once when they reach the barrier. Then all of a sudden, the barrier vanished.

「Does the barrier turn invisible?」

「I don’t think so…」

As I was talking to Mylia, I spotted a disturbance in a nearby guild warehouse. If I recall correctly, the device was in there. Something must’ve happened.

「Hey, what happened?!」

「The guard who was supposed to protect the device, destroyed it!」

「This guy is an impostor!」

When we arrived at the warehouse, I got a good grasp of the situation. It looks like an impostor mixed in with the guards. The barrier disappeared because he destroyed the device. What a sloppy management…

「Good lord… can we fix it before the Stampede?」the branch manager asked a guild staff.

He arrived a little after we did.
…The guild staff shook his head.

「We can fix it. But even if we did, we’d have to start the activation process all over again.」

「So the whole thing will take five days…」

The Stampede is forecasted to arrive at noon today until tomorrow morning. Obviously, we won’t make it in time.

「Tell the residents to evacuate! We’re abandoning the town!」

The manager was quick on his decision. If we can’t protect the town, then at least let the residents escape. A sound judgement.

We should evacuate as well. I shot a glance at the impostor. He was already dead, a sword stuck in his body by another guard. I recognized the tattoo on his neck.

It’s the crest of the Garden of Despair. Upon seeing it, I knew right away that the casualty will be more than just this town.

The Garden of Despair work countless evil deeds with casualties ranging from a few to many. But this time it’s different. They sacrificed a member; which means the damage will be colossal.

The Garden of Despair I know won’t sacrifice a member to destroy just one town. Not because they’re nice, but simply because it’s inefficient. They will pull all the stops to destroy humanity. That’s the Garden of Despair I know.

My guess is even if we got out of the way of the Stampede and escaped, we still won’t be out of harm’s way. It’s most likely that there will be an earthquake caused by the Stampede, shaking magical power stored under the earth.

There was an event in BBO where a whole continent was wiped out from an earthquake caused by a Stampede. If that happens, there’s no escape. I’ll go down as well.

…We have to stop the Stampede no matter what. There’s not a lot of time. We have to hurry.

「It looks like running is no longer an option.」I said and sprinted toward the Forest of Death.

「What’s gotten into you all of sudden?! You’ll get caught in the Stampede if you go to the forest!」

Mylia called out to me. But I don’t have time to stop. I answered her back while running.

「I’m going to stop the Stampede!」

「Stop the Stampede? There’s tens of thousands of monsters out there! Even you can’t stop it!」she said, trying to prevent me from going.

Lucky for me, I had a chance.