323 Chapter 323 - The Number One Trap Exper (1/2)

In their moment of peril, a majority of the players seemed to have forgotten that their reason for being in this location was because of a mission, and all they thought of was how to escape their current predicament. Young Master Han's prediction about the unreliability of this army gathered at the last minute had now come true. Deserters, mostly Thieves, could be seen from the various mercenary groups. As long as these deserters moved carefully toward the jungle exit and avoided any set traps after activating Stealth and such, they should have no problem escaping....

And yet, the screams of these fleeing Thieves were soon heard coming from various directions. With their Stealth interrupted, they found it hard to maneuver about and were quickly ensnared by the enemies' traps. The hidden enemy Mages took this chance to unleash Fire Affinity spells that killed off each of the deserters.

Not only did these players die, they also experienced great embarrassment upon their death. When they stepped on the traps, their intention to flee was made known to everyone watching. While the loss of a level upon death was temporary, the damage dealt on their reputation by their act of fleeing could be considered as permanent. Plenty of them were even informed by the system that they were kicked out from their respective mercenary groups as they respawned in Baishi City.

The leaders of the mercenary groups where those deserters had come from were utterly embarrassed by this, thinking that everyone must be looking at them with contempt right now. In actuality, they were all busy preserving their lives and no one really cared about anyone else's actions. Under Youthful Reflection's instructions, all the mercenaries as well as the Traversing Four Seas' players hurriedly formed a huge circle facing outward; Warriors and Priests formed the outer circle. Surviving the enemy Mages' assault was not difficult as long as these two job classes with the highest HP were assigned to tank their attacks.

Doing a quick headcount of the remaining players, Oathless Sword's expression turned ghastly. Just that short moment of carnage that they had experienced actually lost them two hundred seventeen men, a hundred of which were players from Traversing Four Seas. This was perhaps the heaviest attack that they had come under ever since the start of their expedition. The remaining members of Traversing Four Seas now barely reached six hundred.

Once more, the jungle regained its stillness, as all the players monitored their respective front with bated breaths. Now that they had assumed a defensive formation, there was no way the enemies could find another opportunity to silently pick off their comrades.

The players from Yunduan City were not satisfied with just achieving this stalemate, though. What they currently wanted was to break out and properly escape from their predicament. However, without knowing their enemies' hiding places, they could only stand their ground here.

”Who are you people?! Come out and show yourselves if you dare!” Oathless Sword was obviously driven to the wall by this point.

”He he he…” A soft chuckle came from within the trees in response to Oathless Sword's declaration. All of them turned their heads in that direction even as Youthful Reflection quickly bellowed, ”Don't be negligent! Continue keeping an eye on your assigned direction.”

All swiftly retracted their heads; some even sprained their necks with how quick they had shifted their heads back. With the pressure mounting, even their muscles were tensed.

”Who are you?! Come out and speak face to face!” Oathless Sword yelled. Being a Warrior, he was among those standing in the outermost circle. Meanwhile, the corrupt ex-official Todd was at the very heart of their formation.

One player emerged from the jungle, stopping a short distance from everyone. The jungle was dim, so it was difficult to make out his face, yet his lips seemed to be curled up into a smile. This man raised his arms up, waved, and shouted, ”Greetings, everyone! Linyin City welcomes you all.”

Everyone was speechless. Some of the players that were facing a different direction from the voice really wished to turn around to take a look at the man, but they were afraid that this was just a ruse to draw their attention away. No one dared to move. Vigilantly watching their front, they tried to hear the man speak from behind them – it was truly depressing.

”Who are you?!” Oathless Sword was in charge of this expedition, so it made sense for him to be the one to speak with the man. The person faced Oathless Sword and the two stared at each other from afar.

The man did not answer his question; instead, he posed a question to Oathless Sword, ”How do you like the taste of my traps?”

Although the Mages' and Thieves' attacks dealt most damage to the players from Yunduan City, it was undeniable that the traps had controlled the entire situation. The existence of this web of traps caused everyone to move about gingerly, like fish trapped in a barrel.

”Hmph. It's nothing much.” Oathless Sword only had utter resentment toward the traps, so in the moment before he could answer, the trap expert Sakurazaka Moony actually budged in and spoke in his place. However, his statement only made the people behind him feel sheepish as they glanced at one another. It was nothing much... yet they were completely entrapped by those. Was his statement not just a blatant lie?

Indeed, the man laughed at his words before asking, ”And who might you be?”

Sakurazaka Moony was standing beside Oathless Sword when he leaped up to steal the latter's thunder. Patting his chest, he answered, ”The name's Sakurazaka Moony, and I'm the number one trap expert in Yunduan City. Challenge me if you've got the moxie!”

Unfortunately, Sakurazaka Moony's name sounded adorably whimsical and was far from being imposing. Although his words sounded arrogant, the manner in which he delivered his rebuttal made it sound as though he was simply boasting in front of a true expert. Even his bunch of skeevy friends from his mercenary group immediately ridiculed him, ”Ha ha ha ha! Moony's making a fool of himself again!”

The man joined in as well. ”What's so great about being number one in Yunduan City? I'm sorry, but yours truly is the number one trap expert across Parallel World!”

”And just who might you be?” Sakurazaka Moony demanded.

”Deep Waters.”

The crowd buzzed. This name was far from ordinary for it happened to be the IGN of one of the Five Unyielding Experts that were largely regarded as indomitable existences in Parallel World. Although plenty of players leveled up after the conclusion of Parallel World's PvP event and level 41 was no longer exclusive to the Five Unyielding Experts, their position in the game's experience leaderboards remained unshakably unchanged; the five of them were still the first five names ranked on the list.

Being among the top five of the overall leaderboard, he was naturally ranked first on the Archer experience leaderboard. If he advanced to a Hunter, his claim of being the number one trap expert in Parallel World would not be an exaggeration.