Artificial Fantasy

Chapter 23: Marksman

I gasped in exhaustion as I hid under the row of desks. I couldn't keep this up for much longer. If only I hadn't gotten so careless, this wouldn't have happened in the first place! Regardless, there were only a few steps until the exit. Just a bit more and I'd be home...

"Hey, I got the cook!"

I froze as I heard a man's voice. In fact, I felt as though my whole body was literally floating in mid-air. It wasn't until the table above me is gone. I looked up and saw a man wearing armor grinning from ear to ear carrying me under his left arm like a log. Not only that, I saw several people standing in front of us with some hunters carrying a bunch of ingredients in their hands. Then a realization struck me: I was completely trapped with no way to escape this. All I can do now is to scream in horror.

"Hey, when will you start cooking that awesome rabbit steak of yours?!"

"Come on, my mouth is watering just thinking about it!"

"Don't keep it all to yourself, kid! We just want a taste of it!"

"Can you at least tell us the recipe so we can make our own?"

I groaned in frustration as more players demanded that I cook my rabbit steak. Ever since I cooked that [Gourmet Spiced Rabbit Herb Steak], everyone kept hounding me to cook more of it for them. But the main reason I even used this skill at all was to train myself and gain literal [EXP] for it for future situations. Even if I could accept their requests, I didn't have time to do all of them. At this rate, I was going to be trapped in the game and I might be late for tomorrow's class. How in the world was I going to get out of this?!

"Wind, where are you? We need to log out and go to bed right now!"

My eyes widened as soon as I heard that familiar voice. Turning around, I saw Kaz coming down the stairs. He saw what was happening to me. "Umm... What's going on here? Did you get invited to some sort of quest or event? I thought you said you want to log out so we can sleep early today."

I just frowned in response. "Do you think I want to join these guys for quest?! You have to help me out here, Kaz!"

However, Kaz just stared at me and the people swarming around me. I guess he was too focused on his [Alchemy] crafting that he didn't notice my disappearance. Then again, I couldn't blame him for his obliviousness. "Okay? I guess I can help you out there for a bit."

Unfortunately for me, most of the players didn't seem to be very keen on my pleas they began to frown and glare at my brother for some reason. As he tried to approach me, the armored players blocked his path. It seems that they were not letting me go without a fight. I watched as a woman in a witch outfit approached Kaz. "Who asked you to interfere, Lame-signis? Can't you see he's busy taking our orders for a moment?"

"I didn't agree with them at all!" I screamed as I struggled to get out of the armored player's grip from me.

"But we really need to go now, miss. We have school tomorrow and we have to get there early." I mentally slapped myself in the face as I heard his answer. Taking their expressions and reactions into account, I knew they weren't gonna let me go with just that reasoning.

"Who told you all of that? Your mommy?," the man in a leather clothing and scarf snarked as he approached Kaz and glared at him. "Look, most of the chefs we know are really busy with other players and we really need some food for our next set of quests. So we're going to borrow him a bit..."

As I continued to struggle, I noticed that Kaz was starting to back away from the older players, at which I guessed he was intimidated by their glares. Yet, he just stepped forward and narrowed his eyes towards the players. "No, you're not! If we don't log off right now, we will be late for school and our mom will kill us."