Chapter 31 Consume (6) (2/2)
‘Secretly, but swiftly.’
*Pat*
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A pair of Will-o’-wisp were darting across the woods.
* * *
It took a long time before the scavengers waiting for Ethan realized something was wrong.
– Fuck! What’s taking him so long?
– No kidding. Did he get caught or something?
– He’s brought small fries before, but he’s never got caught, has he?
– That’s true but, shit. I’m just fucking bored.
When the scavengers were on their ‘mission’, they usually wore a piece of cloth to cover up their faces, and called themselves with numbers such as Eins, Zwei, Drei, etc. It was a measure to prevent giving out their identities when confronting enemies.
A long time ago when the whole criminal syndicate was on the brink of annihilation, the remaining players adopted this method to conceal themselves from Arthia, or that was what they heard from senior players. And even after Arthia’s disappearance, it stuck around and became sort of a custom, still being practiced until now.
Unlike how their seniors used to keep their identities secret even between themselves, the scavengers at the current time knew each other. But by covering up their faces and names, they could somewhat erase the guilt of ‘doing bad things’.
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Strangely, however, they weren’t getting any notice from Dreisig, or Ethan, who was supposed to be here with their prey by now. They were still waiting for their prey to appear.
– Huhu. The real Blood Sword and Foxy Tail. If we can actually hunt them down, wouldn’t they be the biggest catch we’ve ever had?
– Except for Phante and Edora, those crazy siblings, they’re actually the best team in the tutorial right now. It’s going to be really fun destroying such strong players. Not to mention the stuff they’re carrying.
– The sword that Blood Sword is carrying, Dragon Slayer(屠龍劍), was it? That’s mine.
– The hell? I called dibs way before, you dumbass!
– Whatever you say. But finders keepers.
– You two, knock it off. The boss will take care of the distribution, so stop squabbling. Let’s just talk about something useful, like how to spend the rewards from the Lizardman King.
After some cackling and chattering, they lifted their heads.
– Damn, he’s taking really long. I think something’s happened there. Siebzehn, try contacting Ethan.
Zwei grumbled and gave orders to Siebzehn who was hiding in the bushes some distance away from to him.
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The communication artifact commonly given to all scavengers was emitting light, waiting for a response. But no answer came back.
– Siebzehn? Siebzehn! Where the hell did he go?
Zwei knitted his brows and turned his head sideways.
– Neun, is Siebzehn there? You go ahead and contact him.
– ….
– Neun? Neun!
Neun, who had just been arguing over Dragon Slayer with Zwei, gave no response either.
Zwei suddenly felt a shiver down his spine. His teammates had been going missing without him knowing. Which could only mean…
‘We are being attacked!’
Zwei sprang up to his feet.
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Zwei placed 15th in tutorial rankings. And he prided himself in his skills, saying they were comparable to those in the top 10. But a player such as himself hadn’t been able to notice the enemy’s presence until all of his teammates had already died. The stealthiness the enemy possessed was beyond his imagination.
Just then,
*Rustle*
“Where the fuck are you?”
Zwei quickly turned towards the direction from where he heard a sound coming from. There, however, he only found bushes swaying with the wind. No player to be found.
“You son of a bitch!”
Once more, he turned to his back as soon as he heard another sound. And again, there was no one.
Zwei frowned irritatedly.
“I see you don’t have guts to fight me head-on. If you’re trying to break my fighting spirit by doing this, it won’t work.”
He was talking to himself with his teeth gritted. It was more of a self-hypnosis than a threat.
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The more sounds he heard, and the stronger the wind became, the more intense the chills that ran through his spine grew. Fear was rising from under his feet and it was slowly squeezing his heart. His mind was filled with a single desire, that was to quickly kill him and to get out of there.
*Rustle*
He spotted a presence coming from his blind spot.
Zwei quickly threw the sword he was holding.
*Puck*
‘I got him!’
He clearly heard his sword hitting something.
Zwei immediately threw himself in that direction. But instead of his enemy, he only found one of his teammates, Vier, panting for air with a sword stuck in his heart.
Vier’s face was so pale and filled with one clear emotion.
It was fear.
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“R, run… Gho… st!”
And Vier dropped his head, leaving only those words behind.
Zwei felt that the fear that had only been squeezing his heart had already climbed up to his throat. At that moment, a white mask dropped down in front of Zwei. Along with terror, despair, and then, death.
*Shluk*
* * *
Khan and Doyle were still having a tense confrontation.
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“What the hell is Arangdan doing?”
Khan felt a surge of anger.
Arangdan professed themselves as a vigilante group. But they didn’t know that crimes like this were prevalent in Section E.
On a second thought, he wondered about Yeon-woo. He was currently on his way to catch the fleeing scavengers. He couldn’t have shown such fast judgement unless he knew about them beforehand. But how on earth did he know these facts that even Arangdan didn’t know?
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His question, however, did not last long. The scavenger who identified himself as Eins was making his move, and the other players were also slowly narrowing the distance between them.
The moment he tried to clear a path with Doyle,
*Whistle*
“What?”
“Enemy? Ally?”
Suddenly a presence was heard from the sky.
All the players, including Kahn, Doyle, and Eins, stopped moving and raised their heads.
*Fa-thud*
A bunch of unknown objects fell from the sky. Then one of them came rolling towards Eins’ toe.
“What the hell is this?”
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As Eins narrowed his eyes to confirm what it was, he soon stood frozen to the spot with his mouth agape.
The object that had rolled next to his feet.
It was the head of Zwei, his face filled with fear.
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