Dark Warlock in the Apocalypse

Chapter 11: The Quest Divergence

Rachel's eyes trembled at Justin's response. It was clear she hadn't expected to be rejected.

"Is there something wrong with me?" she asked, her voice trembling with anxiety.

The cheerful and confident demeanor she had shown earlier had completely disappeared. In this situation, anyone would lose confidence after being refused, especially when they had offered to act as a meat shield without hesitation, only to be turned down so quickly.

"If there's a problem, please tell me. I'll fix it right away," she pleaded.

"No, Rachel, there's no problem with you," Justin reassured her.

"Really?" she asked, surprised.

Her willingness to fix any perceived issues, even after being rejected, was admirable. If it were up to him, Justin would have gladly accepted her into his party. But this wasn't a matter of personal preference.

"The problem isn't with you. It's with the quest," he explained.

"The quest?" she repeated, confused.

"You fought the goblins, right? So, you must've received a quest to head to a safe zone," Justin said.

Rachel nodded, then quickly pulled up her status window to check. Justin couldn't see her status details, as they appeared blurry, obscured from his view. Apparently, the system didn't allow players to see each other's status windows.

Rachel scanned the quest section and nodded again. "Yes, I have. The quest is called 'Find Shelter.'"

"There should be a direction and distance displayed as well. Where does it point to?" Justin asked.

"The overpass down this street," she replied, pointing below.

"I was directed to the hiking trail up ahead," Justin said, pointing in the opposite direction.

Both their hands pointed in completely different directions, and Rachel blinked in surprise. Despite receiving the same quest, their destinations were entirely different.

"Why...?" she asked, confused.

After parting ways with Rachel, Justin's journey to the safe zone continued smoothly. In fact, it was going so smoothly that it felt strange.

"Why haven't I encountered any goblins?" Justin wondered.

The streets weren't packed with goblins like in a zombie movie, but up until now, he'd encountered at least three goblins per block. However, since reaching this area, he hadn't seen a single one for several blocks.

There should have been at least 20 goblins by now, yet none appeared. Something was off. As he turned the corner into an alley, he finally understood why.

"They're all dead..."

Goblin corpses were strewn all over the ground, many of them torn apart. Some had been sliced clean in half. Upon closer inspection, it seemed they had been killed by a sharp weapon before their bodies were brutally mutilated.

"Was this the work of another beta tester?" Justin thought. It was likely another beta tester, someone who had chosen the warrior class like Rachel. Based on the clean cuts, the person had probably chosen a sword as their starting weapon.

Whoever they were, they had to be a lunatic. Killing the goblins for experience was one thing, but why go through the effort of tearing the bodies apart afterward?

"What kind of psycho..." Justin muttered.

"Justin ! YOU SON OF A BITCH! COME OUT HERE!" a voice screamed nearby.

"...."

Oh, right. He had almost forgotten. There was a psycho around here.

Gavin , that idiot. Of course, he'd come looking for Justin, going as far as tracking down his apartment address from the resume Justin had submitted. And now, Gavin was probably flipping out after not finding him at home.

"Great... this just keeps getting better," Justin sighed.

Of all the people to be angry at, why was Gavin so hell-bent on killing him? Fine. Justin decided he'd deal with this once and for all and headed toward the source of the yelling.

The voice grew louder as he approached, and it wasn't hard to find him.

"Justin ! COME OUT HERE, YOU BASTARD!"