After leaving the team, the adventurers regretted it

If the team doesn't become popular, it would be fine if it just stayed ordinary.

This thought flashed through Linda's mind.

Suddenly, 'Liya' who was sitting across the round table stood up.

She pursed her lips, lowered her head slightly, and clenched her fists tightly, as if she was about to say something.

Everyone looked over in surprise.

Linda's expression froze. It was here that Leah asked him for help.

"Today's failure is my fault. I shouldn't have ventured into the heart of the giant water snake. Everyone came to save me...! It was because of me that the team was almost wiped out!"

Echo hugged the trembling Leah and whispered, "Captain, don't blame yourself. We are teammates. We will need you to lead us to conquer higher levels."

“But, but!”

"Sister Leah, my brother and I won't blame you, okay?"

"No, I know everyone is trying to comfort me!"

Leah wiped her red and swollen eyes, looked at Linda who was sitting silently across the round table, gritted her teeth, and said, "If you had listened to Linda from the beginning, if you had retreated, you wouldn't have..."

"Take this as a lesson. Be more cautious next time and enter the World Tree only when you are sure of victory."

After hearing Linda say this, the self-blame on Leah's face was obviously less.

But she didn't sit down, she suddenly bent over.

Leah's voice was loud and she asked earnestly, "Linda, please help the Snow Goose Adventure Team and lead everyone through the World Tree Secret Realm without leaving anyone behind!"

Linda remembered it very clearly. From that day on, the level of detail in the guides he made was several times more than before, and so was the time spent on them.

All kinds of situations in defeating monsters have been anticipated. As long as the adventurer's level meets the requirements and he strictly follows the strategy, he will definitely be able to pass the level without any damage.

"This kettle is so broken, but it can still be used. It's really a big help."

A discordant voice suddenly appeared in the memory illusion.

The surrounding scenes were like shattered glass, and Linda returned to the musty and deserted rental house in a daze.

The round table was much more tattered than he remembered, and the outspoken red-haired girl opposite it had disappeared.

Linda looked at the person who pulled her out of her memory. Kafeni used an old hot water kettle to boil a pot of hot water and slapped it on the table: "Would you like to drink it?"

"Ah."

Linda opened the cup she carried with the magic potion and filled it with hot water.

He saw that Kafni was using a pink mug with a fire-breathing dragon pattern on it.

"This cup is still here. It wasn't thrown away by the aunt."

Linda was a little surprised, because this was the cup that Leah used when she lived here before.

He walked to the small bathroom and looked. In front of a broken mirror that was glued together with tape, there was a wooden basket for toiletries. Inside, there were several cups of different colors covered with a thick layer of dust.

Linda looked at the wall to the right of the mirror again, and sure enough, those crooked words were there.

Too much time has passed, the text has turned yellow, and some parts are blurred, looking like messy graffiti.

'Become the first adventure group in Baige City.'

'Cure my legs and open a lingerie store in the imperial capital.'

'Buy all the toys and customize the bunny armor!'

'Be with my brother forever!'

And at the very bottom, squeezed into a corner by the huge font, a line of words written in mosquito-like small letters: "I hope you can reach the top of the World Tree safely."

Seeing these words, Linda rubbed his eyebrows and sighed.

Two of the five people who founded the Snow Goose Adventure Team have already withdrawn, which makes one feel that things have changed a lot.

Leah's dream has not changed, but she herself has changed a lot.

Coming to the living room, Linda sat on the long sofa covered with cotton and stared blankly at the dark ceiling.

"What about food?" Kafni asked with a frown, holding his stomach.

"Go to bed early and eat tomorrow."

Linda said.

"Ah?" Kafni was surprised.

Linda, however, had no appetite, so Kafni asked for a silver coin. When he was leaving, he asked him if he wanted to go eat, but he refused.

His mind was in a mess. After recalling those memories, he felt a little strange about meeting Leah tomorrow.

How did the 'Flaming' Leah in the game become like this now?

Linda agreed to form a team together not only because they shared the same ideals.

Moreover, he recognized the red-haired girl the moment he saw her.

The other party is a very popular NPC in the game of the Secret Continent, 'Burning Flames' Leah!

In the Blood Moon version 1.1, Leah is level 40 and is the leader of the Rising Sun-level adventure group.

He is mature, steady and responsible. His heavy sword wrapped in flames has captured the hearts of countless players.

But the Leah that Linda met was completely different from the "Burning Flame" Leah in the game, except for their appearance, their personalities and other aspects were completely different.

The latter is mature, stable and popular.

The other one is spoiled and willful and only knows how to pass the buck.

"Is reality different from the game, or is it that my appearance caused a 'butterfly effect' and changed the plot?"

Linda thought about it carefully. It seemed that since he joined the Snow Goose Adventure Team, he was in charge of cooking, finding the strategy for the secret realm, preparing supplies, calculating the price of spoils, and distributing rewards. He was the one who did it all...

Most of these tasks should have been done by Captain Leah, but in order to let Leah concentrate on training and improve her level, and accepting Leah's request, Linda took over all these tasks.

"Could it be... that I caused the mature and steady Leah in the game to disappear?"

Linda was stunned by her own thoughts.

Before, Kafni said that he was too pampering to the members of the Snow Goose Adventure Team, but he didn't take it seriously. Now that he thinks about it, there may really be some reason for it.

Linda couldn't help but sigh.

Now that things have come to this, there is no point in trying to save the relationship.

Now that I have become a hero and am with a useless goddess, I must build my own team.

So even if Leah really regained her original personality, it would be impossible for her to return to the Snow Goose Adventure Team.

With the help of the moonlight outside the window, Linda found a pen and paper and sat at the table to draft a statement of withdrawal from the team.

The room was filled with the sound of quills scraping against paper.

After a while.

Linda put down his pen and put the written document in his arms.

After writing this statement of resignation, his vaguely uncomfortable mood dissipated and he calmed down completely.

After taking a look back, I really have no regrets.

Although he has not yet registered his formal withdrawal from the Adventurer's Guild, in Linda's heart, he is already a 'free man' in the opposition.

Chapter 19: The Useless Captain

It was past eight o'clock in the evening and the Sparrow District on the edge of the city had fallen silent, but the White Pigeon District, where the wealthy gathered, was still brightly lit.

The bustling shopping streets are lit up with various magical signboards. There are many fashionable men and women on the streets, and occasionally you can see orcs and elves walking hand in hand in a strange sight.

Starting from an oracle from the World Tree Goddess three hundred years ago, the war on the continent ended and entered a peaceful era of multi-race coexistence.

According to the oracle, the 'Devil King Satan' who was sealed by the previous generation of heroes is about to return from the bottom of the demon world. In order to select a new hero, the World Tree Goddess placed the strongest weapon [Sword of the Brave] on the top of the World Tree Secret Realm.

This further enhances the status of adventurers. All intelligent life forms living on the secret continent aim to reach the top of the World Tree and pull out the Sword of the Brave.

At this time, in a luxurious villa in the inner city.

In the luxuriously decorated living room, a girl in a loose orange dress fell asleep on the sofa.

The long red hair like silk fell to the ground like a waterfall.

After taking a shower, Leah felt relaxed all over. She planned to rest on the sofa for a while, but she fell into a deep sleep unexpectedly.

"——There is no doubt that the continent prospers because of the existence of the World Tree!"

Leah dreamed that ten years ago, she was hiding outside the window of the aristocratic college and eavesdropping on the teacher's lecture.

"But what I want to point out is that the World Tree we see is not its trunk."

Isn't it? Leah thought to herself.

She put her ear closer.

"The roots of the World Tree are all over the continent. Those roots that break through the ground become small World Trees, which are the ones we see. Each World Tree has a different upper limit, some have only 5 floors, and some have 20 floors. Only the sacred World Tree in the Holy Land at the center of the continent can lead to the top floor!"

"With the World Trees as their center, the first adventurers gathered together. They multiplied and formed villages. As their numbers grew, they gradually became towns and cities."

"This is the origin of our Red Heart City!"

"Don't be ashamed of your status as the descendants of the city's founders. Work hard to become an adventurer and aim to reach the top of the World Tree!"

"Ohhhhhh!"

The children's excited shouts broke through the window.

Are the descendants of the founders so great?

Under the window, Leah, who was wearing dirty civilian clothes, seemed to be stimulated. She clenched the straight wooden stick in her hand, her eyes full of indignation at her own situation.

She thought that sooner or later she would become a top adventurer and be respected by everyone, instead of hiding in other people's classrooms to listen to lectures.

The flow of time seemed to be accelerated tens of thousands times. After a disgusting spin, Leah found that she had left Red Heart City and came to a dirty and dilapidated rental house in White Dove City.

The bumpy mahogany round table has a musty smell that will never go away.

A bunch of people were crowded together, the air seemed to be sucked thin, and every breath required a lot of effort.

Those memories of poverty hurt Leah's nerves every time she thinks of them.

"Please lead everyone to the top of the World Tree without leaving anyone behind!"

The sudden sound of a familiar voice made Leah's eyelids twitch. She saw that among the five people gathered around a round table not far in front of her, a red-haired girl who looked obviously younger than her suddenly stood up and bent down to beg the healer in the team.

Leah's face turned dark on the spot. Why did it happen that day?

She woke up with a start as if from a nightmare.

I sat up from the sofa in a daze and touched my forehead, which was covered in sweat.

"Clear all the way to the top of the World Tree?"

She was so naive at that time, and Linda actually agreed with a serious look on her face.

Leah found it a little funny. Any adventurer would know that it was impossible to reach the top of the World Tree without personnel changes.

There are a total of fifty levels of secret realms, and each level has several random maps with various guardians.

It is impossible to deal with all the guardians by relying on a few fixed team members.

Personnel changes are very normal. The main members of the Snow Goose Adventure Team have not changed in the past three years, which is "abnormal" in the eyes of other adventurers.

As the captain of the Snow Goose Adventure Team, Leah should have kicked Linda, who was at level 15, out of the team long ago. However, out of consideration for their old teammate, she kept Linda and paid him the salary of a main team member.

After returning from the World Tree, Leah thought about it for an entire afternoon, but still didn't understand why Linda quit the team.

She took out a bottle of juice from the refrigerator sullenly, held it in both hands and drank it in small sips.

Leah thought of the time when she asked Linda to take everyone to the top of the World Tree in the rental house. Linda was very capable and was able to lead the team to pass the high levels at a low level.

But ever since we asked him for help, even though the team's level had clearly surpassed the strategy level recommended by the Adventurer's Guild, he still refused to advance and insisted that everyone become skilled enough to deal with all bosses on the level without taking any damage.

As long as Linda can use his previous abilities, he can get by easily, right?

The more Leah thought about it, the angrier she became.

"Is the meal not ready yet?"