━━━━━━ POV ━━━━━━━


  The next day the Village Chief turned up at D.L.'s doorstep.

  The bastard still had that same victorious grin as he showed up at the Great Chicken Arena. He didn't even bother hiding his greed toward Demonic legion anymore, his eyes glowing with avarice.

  Before, he had been very restrained:

  He couldn't do anything about the Blacksmith stealing customers away: it was the man's job.

  He couldn't do much about the goddamn pelts stacking up at Steven's place: he was a merchant!

  He couldn't do much about the Butcher either. Thanks to his secret sausages recipe, the guy was becoming really popular with the braves.

  He especially had to avoid the Training Grounds given Igor's forgotten but glorious past. He would never have dared to cause trouble previously.

  But now, everything had changed, and power had shifted. For the first time in what felt like forever, he had absolute authority in the village. (Or close)

  He was quick to work:

  1. He declared D.L.'s ownership of the arena void. It had been built with Igor's permission, but the man was no longer the Training Instructor.

  2. He, as the village chief, would become the new owner. In his "benevolence", he would allow the current chicken trainers to keep working for him.

  3. From now on, people would need to rent the training area to give lessons. He'd also have to review their curriculum and approve it. Unsurprisingly D.L.'s teachings were judged dangerous propaganda.

  4. He appointed himself as the new training instructor. He would teach his students general fighting techniques good for all braves.

  5. He declared the creation of the Incredible Righteous Legion. Using his newfound influence, he forced the other NPCs to give his faction the same discounts as D.L.

  6. He went a step further with the old and stingy potion lady since she was infatuated with him. She'd give increased discounts to the people in his faction. In exchange, he'd let her watch him teach the braves with no shirt on.

  7. He generously offered to merge with the Demonic Legion in an effort to make peace. (Or so he hypocritically called a hostile takeover)

  This new faction wasn't exactly D.L., but it gave even better NPC-related benefits and was definitely less crazy.

  Over the course of a few days, there was a shift in the players. All those who found the Demon King's faction too edgy were leaving what they believed a sinking ship.

  The entire prestige of D.L. was built on its godlike leader that nothing seemed to be able to take down! But now, he was staying surprisingly quiet and defeated.

  This led many to argue endlessly:

  "Are you freaking dumb?! You're leaving D.L.?!"

  "Fuck yes, I'm leaving! You should do the same!"

  "Hell, even the Demon King is lying low in shame!"

  "What do you know?! He's planning his revenge for sure!"

  "Yeah, keep believing that, dumbass! Didn't you hear? He's stuck here for a month! You tell him too!" He waved a passerby.

  "Yep, that guy's right. There are many reasons to leave. Heck, they're absolutely evil! They feed human flesh to their members!"

  "So freaking what if he's stuck here! You call them evil? Bunch of traitorous bastards switching allegiance like one switches underwear!"

  It was a whole shitshow: D.L. VS I.R.L.

  People were arguing in the street.

  People were fighting in the forest.

  Newbies were getting ambushed by freaking everyone as recruitment targets!

  Also, I.R.L didn't have an emblem yet. Igor had categorically and understandably refused the Chief when he had the gall to ask him to make some. The fucker had stolen everything from him!

  This often meant that the D.L. members were approaching anyone not wearing any emblem with a friendly smile.

  They would go:

  "Hello there, are you a member of I.R.L?"

  No —> Recruit! Recruit! Recruit!

  Yes —> Respectfully go fuck yourself, you shitstain! May you die in a dump fire and— (etc.)

  It gave rise to an incredible village atmosphere filled with colorful curses. Newbies entering for the first time would inevitably show flabbergasted expressions.

  They would hear:

  "Motherfucking donkey! I bet you jack-off to Natural Geographic!"

  "At least I can get it up! Do you even know what being a man is like?"

  "Fuck you, bastard! Let's go to the forest, and I'll fuck you up!"

  "Oh no! Did you become OP staring at a naked old dude all day?! I'm scared!!"

  "At least our leader isn't some pyromaniac edge-lord calling himself the Demon King!"

  ….. It kept going just like that. It was very confusing and shocking for a new player to witness all this. But it was even more so for the few youngsters that were in the same situation:

  (Parental control on)

  "Beep— Beep— Beep— Beep!"

  "Beep— Beep— Beep— Beep Beep— Beep!"

  "The other players are censored?! Do I have to get a language skill or something to understand them? How in-depth!!" A youngster exclaimed with shiny eyes.

  "Pfft— no way kid, hahaha! They're all cursing. But don't worry about them. Why don't you join Demonic Legion!!!" The kind (?) player had the eyes of a wolf staring at prey.

  The entire Demonic Legion was going insane, yet Jack's inner circle remained awfully quiet. This led to many more leaving.

  CPR dude had been one of the first to ask about it:

  "Boss, shouldn't we at least reassure people? If they know that we still have a fight in us, they'll stay for sure!"

  But he had just looked at him as if that was the most foolish thing in the world.

  Jack's outlook on the situation was unexpectedly bright:

  "Let them leave. So what if we lose dead weights? The more that leave, the better."

  "I see this whole thing as an absolute win. We accomplished so much that we drove a village chief mad with greed. Isn't that quite the achievement?"

  "Honestly, isn't it quite ironic for an NPC in a game to unknowingly create a faction called IRL?"

  "Don't worry. I've already sent Bubblegum to take care of it all. She can be a force to be reckoned with, haha."

  That's pretty much all that CPR dude knew.

  He would clear dungeons daily with her, and yet she would remain mum about the whole thing. She was gathering information and brokering deals in Jack's stead. As for the details…no clue!

  Hell, he wasn't even sure what was going on between the two, but she had stopped calling him Teacher.

  Was she officially becoming his right arm? Was there now a romantic nature to their relationship? Whatever it was, they didn't talk about it.

  But there was one thing everyone was curious about. What was Jack doing? He always seemed to be busy….