Brand New Life Online: Rise Of The Goddess Of Harvest

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Arthur found himself sitting inside an isolated prison chamber below the castle of the city, his skills wouldn't activate, and he had been stripped out of all his clothes and equipment, left behind here to rot for a whole year.

He had logged out for some time and then logged back to see his current situation, he was still processing all his loses and everything, it was so much he was having a literal meltdown, screaming in the middle of the prison as the other prisoners groaned at him to shut the fuck up.

"WHY DOES THIS HAPPEN TO ME?! I DIDN'T DESERVE THIS!"

"Shut the fuck up already!"

"You are not letting anybody sleep like this!"

"Can't the guards do anything?"

"LISTEN! I'm not an NPC! I am a Player! Why am I even getting imprisoned?! This is beyond unfair! I'll sue the game company for not allowing me to play the game anymore…!"

"Why should I care?"

"You're a Player? Hahaha! Serves you right!"

"Just shut the hell up already dude."

"You're all so insensitive! How can you not relate to my suffering at all?! This shitty game is so unbalanced and ridiculous… Why does that bitch of Planta gets to be so strong?! I am literally a Hero Class! How come a farmer dragon dryad monstrosity would win? T-This is…!

Huh?"

As Arthur complained, something slowly creeped towards him. The groans and complains of the prisoners quickly disappeared, and the surroundings became awfully silent, a freezing air filled his cell.

"What's… going on?"

His eyes browsed around his surroundings, as a large shadow slowly continued moving towards him, he felt fear, stepping back in horror, and quickly deciding to log out.

[Cannot log out during Story Events.]

"Huh?! What do you mean I can't log out!"

As Arthur complained, the shadows appeared right in front of him, quickly taking the form of a lanky, mysterious man covered on a black cloak.

"W-What the hell are you?! Wait, you're a…!"

He extended his hands towards Arthur, which made the young man recoil in fear.

"G-Get away from me! Someone! Someone help meeee!"

However, they didn't intend to harm him, the hand opened, revealing a big red and black colored jewel, emanating a powerful, hideous aura, a corrupted energy from the depths of hell.

"W-Wha…?"

"ArthurPendragon," the man spoke with a dry voice. "I have come to offer you a chance, a chance to right your wrongs, and a chance to have your revenge. All it takes is for you to accept my gift and sell me a piece, a tiny piece of your soul."

"What?!"

Arthur was completely shocked, quickly realizing this was quite possibly a quest! Although no quest notification had popped up at all, he was sure this could lead to it.

"I knew it…! This game will never be too unfair! I'll get a quest to have my revenge now? Hell yeah!" Arthur laughed. "Sure, sure, take all the "soul" you want anyways, not like it matters, it's a dumb game anyways."

"Heh, so eager… Very well, take this then!"

The figure gave him the jewel and Arthur grabbed it, its powers suddenly emerging from within, covering his entire body with a black and crimson essence, a smoke that wrapped his entire body.

"Ooh! Ahah… Hahahaha! I can feel it… So much power…!"

As the young man laughed, the cloaked figure in front of him smiled, their crimson red eyes glowing brightly.

"That makes it four…"

.

.

.

"The same thing again?"

Planta noticed the Cursed Insects appearing again, not only just spreading towards the newbies, but towards all participants at the same time. Melisa was being completely unhinged, and Planta wasn't having any of that.

"I don't like this at all! Why is Melisa doing this so much?" Planta wondered. "She didn't seem to be that type of girl…"

"It seems that she has grown desperate…" said Mark. "But this is just a friendly competition, although others can attack one another indirectly, it hasn't been that incentivized."

"She's desperate for some reason, I can tell, but I think this is not her doing it, someone else is ordering her around," said Ambil.

"Why do you think so?" Mark wondered.

"Isn't it easy to tell? For the little we interacted with the girl, I was able to tell she had a rather shy and honest heart, if anything, that girl is just always… afraid," said Ambil. "She's not evil… She's being coerced, blackmailed, into doing this."

"But by whom?" Planta wondered, looking rather worried. "Who would do this to this girl?"

She glared around the audience, hoping for some clue, but truly, she couldn't find anything.

"Let's finish what we are making, I'll deal with this." Planta said, gaining a new resolve.

"What, how so?" wondered Ambil. "Don't tell me you're going to help everyone?"

"I want things to be fair," said Planta. "I don't care if the rules allow for indirect combat. As long as I am here, that shall not be allowed."

"But…" Ambil tried to argue. "We could take this to our advantage, those crafters… If you really want to win the first place, then you should definitely-"

"Ambil, she already took her decision," Mark laughed. "If you keep it up you're only going to make her mad."

"I wouldn't go as far as saying I would go mad…" Planta said. "But yeah, I'll do things my way."

Planta, Ambil, and Mark continued their work in the accessories, all while Planta spread her domain underground, generating barriers around every participant.

The insects reached and exploded into cursed smoke, only for the smoke to never reach them, the participants were surprised at first, looking at Planta.

"She's protecting us?" Goldanaba muttered.

"Hah, she really wants things to be fair, huh?" Horshen laughed.

"Such an honorable woman!" Erdragon was touched.

"Auntie Planta…" Erika smiled.

"Phew…" BlackEye sighed in relief.

And then, Melisa…

"N-No, she's protecting everyone?! But that's…!" as she panicked, Teressa's voice echoed within her once more.

"What are you doing?! Break her barriers, Melisa!" she screamed to her. "Stop being so useless! You have much more power than this!"

"T-That's…!" Melisa hesitated.

"Use the powers you have for what they truly are for!" Teressa roared. "You've been constantly trying to pretend you can use them for good, that your dream was always to make items and equipment, but at the end of the day… Your powers are made to harm and make others suffer. So do that! DO IT!"

Melisa, too afraid to fight back against her tyrannical guild master and her boss, quickly did just that, the eyes in her hands glowing brightly, releasing black and red cursed energies.

And suddenly, the insects began to mutate, fusing together and becoming gigantic monstrosities, enormous in size and power, groaning furiously, and beginning to attack Planta's barriers!

CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!

"She's going too far!" Titan said. "Is this even allowed?!"

"Nobody can tell if she's doing it at all, she's not even looking here, no traces of curses connect to her either," Planta said. "But the same could be said about me… Melisa, I'm sorry, but if you're going to continue with this, I'll have you disqualified."

Planta decided to end this once and for all.

RUMBLE!

From below the ground, giant and sharp spears of wood started emerging, coated on holy light, they pierced the Cursed Insects and made them explode into ashes one after another.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

And then, Melisa was surrounded by giant wooden roots…

"E-Eh?!"

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