Chapter 139 -139-Boss’s Friend Is My Friend!
John barely hesitated.
An A-Rank Hidden Quest.
A large amount of EXP.
Gold Coins.
A title.
A recommendation letter.
And he could loot the Church’s warehouse while he was at it.
More importantly...
he already had a grudge against the Church.
That deacon from Sunset City had been trying to hold him responsible before.
Even the official notice in Loki’s hands had been issued by the Church.
And now—
Raymond had directly handed him a perfectly legitimate cleanup mission.
The corner of John’s mouth slowly curled upward.
"Accept."
[You have accepted the A-Rank Hidden Quest — Decaying Sanctum!]
Raymond looked at him.
"You’ve thought it through?"
John stood up.
Then held out a hand.
"Pleasure doing business."
Raymond looked at the hand.
After a brief silence,
he finally reached out and shook it.
"Pleasure doing business."
John turned and walked toward the door.
After leaving the City Lord Mansion,
he stopped by the roadside.
He didn’t immediately go looking for Aya.
Instead, he opened his friend list.
A familiar avatar quickly appeared before him.
[Staff of Judgment]
Nonoa.
Their chat history was still stuck at the time when Black Rose had been attacked by Gray Ledger.
[Nonoa: Boss, help!!!]
[Nonoa: The Guild Master and the others can’t hold on much longer!]
[Nonoa: Where the hell did you go?!!!]
There was also a long string of unread messages afterward.
At the time, John had been in the Dark Realm.
After returning, he had immediately dealt with Gray Ledger, trouble in the real world, and then the Dawnstar City war.
He had never gotten around to replying.
John opened the chat window.
[Endbringer: You there?]
The message had barely been sent
when the other avatar instantly lit up.
[Nonoa: YES!!!]
John raised an eyebrow.
That fast?
[Endbringer: I’m back in Sunset City. Come over for a bit.]
[Nonoa: Okay!]
...
Not long afterward—
white light flashed across Sunset City’s teleportation plaza.
A petite figure rushed out from the formation.
Nonoa spotted John standing beside the plaza at a glance.
"Boss!"
She quickly ran over.
The joy on her face was impossible to hide.
But once she actually reached John,
her mood visibly sank again.
"You’re finally back..."
John nodded.
"Just got back from Dawnstar City."
Nonoa pursed her lips.
She clearly had a lot she wanted to ask.
In the end, she couldn’t hold back.
"About Gray Ledger..."
"I know you went there afterward."
"The forums completely blew up."
Her expression became a little complicated as she spoke.
The first time John went there,
he had directly reduced Gray Ledger’s headquarters to ruins.
The second time he logged in,
he saw that they were rebuilding—
and casually blew it up again.
By now, the entire server knew one thing.
Once you offended Endbringer,
even rebuilding your base had to be scheduled for when he was offline.
But none of that had changed what happened to Black Rose.
Nonoa lowered her voice.
"Black Rose has completely disbanded."
"And the Guild Master still hasn’t logged in."
"Her friend icon has stayed gray this whole time."
She looked up at John.
"Boss."
"Do you know what actually happened to her?"
John was silent for a moment.
There was no real reason to keep this from Nonoa anymore.
Once Zoey logged back in,
the two of them would most likely continue acting together anyway.
"I know a little."
Nonoa immediately focused on him.
John briefly explained what he knew.
The Rosewood Consortium.
Zoey’s true identity.
The board of directors behind Gray Ledger.
And the wager between father and daughter.
As Nonoa listened,
her mouth slowly fell open.
By the end,
it had formed a perfect "O."
"The Guild Master..."
"Is the young heiress of the Rosewood family?"
John nodded.
"To be exact, she’s also one of the heirs."
Nonoa was completely stunned.
She had known Zoey for a long time.
Of course she knew Zoey came from a well-off family in real life.
But she had always assumed it was just an ordinary wealthy household.
Who could have guessed
there was a consortium of that level behind her?
"No wonder..."
Nonoa suddenly remembered a few things from before.
"Whenever we talked about our families in real life, she always changed the subject really quickly."
"And whenever someone asked what her parents did, she never answered directly."
"So that’s why..."
Then her expression turned strange again.
"So she fell out with her family like this..."
"Just because of a game?"
Nonoa scratched her head.
She genuinely found it hard to understand.
Rich people’s family relationships...
were complicated.
John had no interest in commenting on the Rosewood family’s parenting style.
"She’ll only be restricted from logging in for three days."
"There’s still the national tournament afterward."
"As long as she still wants to keep playing Apocalypse, she’ll most likely contact you again."
Nonoa’s eyes immediately lit up.
"Really?"
"Yeah."
John glanced at her.
"So Black Rose disbanding isn’t that big a deal."
"As long as the people are still around."
Nonoa’s previously gloomy mood finally improved.
She nodded firmly.
"I understand."
John casually sent her an invitation.
[Player "Endbringer" has invited you to join the party!]
Nonoa froze.
"A party?"
"I just picked up a quest."
John said,
"The EXP should be pretty good."
"You can tag along for a while."
Nonoa’s eyes grew brighter and brighter.
After everything she had experienced before,
she now had a very clear understanding of what the words—
"party up with Endbringer"
meant.
Leveling up.
Very quickly.
[Player "Staff of Judgment" has joined the party!]
Nonoa immediately smiled.
"I’ll definitely follow orders today!"
John nodded.
"First, we’re going to find someone."
"Who?"
"Aya."
...
Near the tavern—
John followed the location they had agreed on earlier.
But the moment he reached the back street,
his steps stopped.
Ahead was a relatively quiet alley.
Aya was crouching there.
Her white hair hung over her shoulders.
Both hands were busy.
Clatter.
Several Gold Coins rolled out of her sleeves.
She shook them.
Another string of coins fell out.
She shook again.
More.
Nonoa stood beside John.
Slowly becoming dumbfounded.
Before long—
a small pile of Gold Coins had formed in front of Aya, reaching all the way up to her knees.
The final Gold Coin slid from her sleeve.
Ding!
It landed right on top.
Aya nodded in satisfaction.
"That’s all of them."
Then she looked up.
Her gaze fell on Nonoa.
And she gave her a bright smile.
"You’re Boss’s friend, right?"
Nonoa nodded blankly.
"...Yeah."
Aya slapped the pile of Gold Coins with great generosity.
"Boss’s friend is my friend."
"First time meeting."
"Consider this a little greeting gift."
"It’s yours."
Nonoa: "?"
She looked down at the Gold Coins.
Then back up at Aya.
What truly shocked her wasn’t even how much money was sitting there.
She just wanted to know—
where the hell had all those Gold Coins been hidden?
Her sleeves?
There was no way those sleeves could hold that much!
Nonoa instinctively walked around Aya.
Then carefully inspected her clothes.
"You..."
"Have some kind of dimensional pocket?"