Pick Me Up!

In well-unified parties, the leader’s decision could become the decision of the entire party.

Following that, another message appeared.

[‘2nd Party’ is inoperable.]

Choosing Edis as the leader of the sub-party seemed to be the right decision.

Her decision not to participate was a sign that she was thinking about the future rather than just a temporary protest.

Edis put away her daggers in the sheath and returned to the lodging with her other teammates.

There was a lot of displeasure in her departing footsteps.

[Oh no, this situation is getting bigger than I thought…!]

Iselle didn’t know what to do.

It is indeed a big problem.

Both main parties have become inoperable at the same time.

Anytng lost control of most of the functions. It was as if the operation of the waiting room had come to a halt.

Anytng was logged in but had stopped manipulating anything.

I got up from the bench and walked to the lodging.

The three followed closely behind. I said,

“We won’t follow the Master’s orders, but we’ll keep training as usual. We won’t stop training.”

“Well, if we don’t have to go…”

“It might be better to strengthen ourselves instead. We have a lot of time now.”

“Ugh!”

Eolka groaned.

While she was diligent when it came to magic-related things, she showed a reaction close to neurosis when it came to physical training. But there was no other way.

“We’ll go to the weekly dungeon though. They’ve all opened up just now.”

We could go to the weekly dungeon even with autonomous action.

Since all dungeons were open for 3 days as an error compensation, we needed to collect materials. We needed to replenish the potions consumed on the 10th floor and promote Jenna and Aaron to 2 stars.

The routine doesn’t change.

Just because we refuse to participate in the main missions, doesn’t mean we’re going to slack off.

We must prepare ourselves so that we can fight whenever necessary.

Anytng, who had stopped manipulating for a while, soon logged out.

After that.

As I was looking at the strategy table in the room, Iselle appeared with an anxious expression.

[What if the Master quits?]

“If he wants to quit, let him quit.”

If he only has that much determination, there’s no way he’ll reach the top.

[What if he synthesizes you, Loki?!]

“I guess it’s better to go without suffering too much and die rather than suffering through it all.”

Dealing with such a large-scale protest situation isn’t actually that difficult.

As mentioned in the tips, there’s an influential hero leading it. Just synthesize him away.

Although the stress level will skyrocket, and morale will hit rock bottom, they won’t refuse orders after that.

After the synthesis, it’s not impossible to restore their morale with gifts or facilities like rest areas. Although it doesn’t seem like Anytng has that kind of sense.

There are other methods as well.

The most gentle approach is to identify the heroes’ issues and soothe them.

However, I don’t expect much from this either. If he had that kind of mindset, things wouldn’t have turned out this way. So, there’s only one option left for Anytng.

The next day.

I called the party members early in the morning and headed to the weekly dungeon.

It was to collect attribute stones, which were the promotion materials. Eolka and I went together, and Jenna and Aaron formed the other pair, each went to a different dungeon. I was able to obtain the lesser fire attribute stone.

After completing the dungeons, we continued training.

My Lesser Swordsmanship level had already reached 6. I had reached a point where the level wouldn’t rise much through normal training. I had to train by finding similar skilled opponents to fight or by imposing penalties.

I gave Eolka special instruction due to her unbalanced abilities. It was to train her telekinesis magic. She would only use that type of magic until she obtains the telekinesis skill.

Eolka protested, saying she will only use fire magic, but when I threatened to only feed her potatoes, she quieted down. If she could freely use telekinesis magic, she would at least be able to defend herself to some extent even if we weren’t around.

That day, Anytng didn’t log in.

Several days passed like that. It was around the time when Iselle grabbed me with a terrified expression, asking what will do if Anytng really quit the game.

“Welcome to Pick Me Up!”

“Loading completed.”

“TOUCH! (Select)”

Anytng logged in.

It was a late hour after training, and I was drinking tea with Edis in the lobby, looking up at the sky.

Edis said, “Did he change his mind?”

“There’s no way.”

If that syndrome could be healed so fast it wouldn’t have gained so much reputation in the first place.

In any case, since both Party 1 and Party 2 are unable to participate, there are limited things the Master can do. However, it seemed that Amskana had made a decision because his control panel was moving quickly.

Soon, a message popped up.

“Master, starting Advanced Summon! You have chosen 3 consecutive Advanced Summons. A total of 1,500 gems will be consumed. Will you summon?”

[Yes (selected) / No]

“It’s here.”

It’s the third method to resolve the protest.

Changing the composition of the strategy party. Anytng still had some gems left from his previous spending, and they were added to the 500 gems received as an error compensation.

“Master, starting Advanced Summon. I’m excited to see which heroes will appear!”

*Tak-tak, dru-dru-dru.*

*Tuk-chang!*

[Rare!]

“Master ‘Anytng’ has obtained Hero ‘Stein (★★★)!”

[Rare!]

“Master ‘Anytng’ has obtained Hero ‘Majel (★★★)!”

[Rare!]

“Master ‘Anytng’ has obtained Hero ‘Tashir (★★★)!”

Looks like he’s trying to say even if you don’t want to there are plenty of people who are willing to work for me.

I finished my tea.