Chapter 71

*yawn*

"Hmm??"

Yumiko wakes up on a flat rocky surface with no one around her.

...

???

"Where am I?..."

It's currently night time and she can't seem to contact anyone even Karma.

"What..."

Suddenly, she detects a slight movement.

!!!

"Oh... Look who we have here?" Says a man in blue armour at the front.

He is holding a giant war axe with a few players behind him.

"A girl. Nice, Jacob will like this, let's bring her back." He says.

"Tch..."

Yumiko takes her stance and charges at them.

She slams her axe down on the man at the front.

He casually grabs the axe's blade and breaks it.

!!!

"Nice! So you do understand that an axe is a good weapon... For that, I will make it less suffering for you... Get her." He says.

Yumiko trembles and falls onto the floor with the broken weapon in her hand before it evaporated into nothing.

The players behind that man walk up to her and knock her unconscious.

"So who else left?" Asks the man on a circular ball. Probably a communication device.

"Two girls left. We captured the short hair girl and the girl with the ponytail. It's just there's a little bit of problem... One of the girls wields a Katana and she's... Resisting too much. 50 of our members are already taken down by her."

"I see..."

"Oh yeah and one more thing. We managed to achieve the actual level of Karma. Turns out that cuck is only level 200+, we estimate that his stats are all in the single-digit millions so this should be easy."

The man smirks. "Heh... I don't even know why Jacob wants to put such a good bounty on his head. Probably because he is pissed that Karma keeps stealing his spotlight. At this point, Jacob might as well be our wallet-"

"Shhhh!! Shut up! Jacob might be spying on us!"

"Ah yes, sorry..."

"Anyways, the elite force has already gone ahead and subdued Karma, they should be back soon. We will distribute the rewards evenly."

The man smirks. "Good. Oh yeah, what about Joseph?"

The man wearing blue armour sits down on a rock, waiting in anticipation.

"Ah... About that. Joseph..." Says the communicator device. "He is nowhere to be found yet but he can't hide for long. Sooner or later we will find him although this stupid island is big as fuck."

--------------

"Hiya!!!"

The man at the front screams as he slams his huge flail on me.

I dodge backwards to meet with another follow-up attack. The woman attempts to pierce her fingers into my body but I stop just in time for her to miss and instead plunge into the trees.

Martial arts huh... This woman.

Judging by the ranged weapons on their backs, I can safely say that they are experienced enough to know that range weapons are ineffective in close combat.

In games that allow firearms, beginners tend to use rifles or pistols even at a close encounter. This will, in turn, make them panic and decreases their accuracy by about 50% even though the enemy is very near.

Another attack came from above as I was thinking I dodge to the side. Someone threw a sword...

I see a slight shadow again and jump back before a giant player slams down onto the floor, dealing AoE damage to two teammates.

"You fucker!! We are here!!"

"S-Sorry! That guy was too fast!!"

"Tch..."

All of them look at me, putting their guards up. They are now not underestimating me and are finally being cautious.

One of them intended to open his move but stopped.

Judging by his expression, he planned to say a taunt like "is running all you got?" But he knows that it is not enough.

Good... I can see signs of a "good" gamer. Suppressing your pride and feelings...

I smirk.

"I will attack now," I say purposely.

!!!

I draw my Katana and causally stroll towards the very alerted players.

They slowly move backwards as I advance.

"What is this brat thinking? Was that just a bluff?" One of them mumbles.

This elite force of Jacob's guild... They are fun.

"With allegiance to the creed, I draw my blade and slay thee," I say and whisper. (Edited line 9 from Dark Crow, Vinland Saga opening 2)

"What...?"

I stare at them with disappointment.

"Never heard of that phrase before? I got it from a video game."

"ARGHHHHH!!!!"

One of Jacob's elite force members finally ran out of patience and attacks me.

"Wait don't attack Karma!!"

He fell for it!!

*TICK*

The player who charges at me steps onto something and he immediately jumps back thinking he triggered some sort of explosive trap.

I use that moment to charge and thrust my blade in for decapitation.

!!!!

It worked and the head was sent flying.

The "Trap" didn't activate. The "trap" in the floor itself was a trap for me to attack.

"Shit!!..." One of the players curses out loud.

"What's wrong??" I say. "Attack me."

"Fuck off!! You think we will fall for that twice!!" Says a man with a beard.

*TICK* *TICK* *TICK*

He charges at me and attacks me before stepping on something else. He, however, didn't care about that and continuously charge toward me stepping on countless traps before some finally exploded in his face.

*BOOOOOOOOM!!!*

Not even ash is left behind for that player.

As the smoke from the explosion clears out, my pleasure and smirk are revealed to the sweating players across me.

"Shit... Which one is real which is fake..."

The players start to cower a little.

I sensed these players from the start and have already secretly prepared beforehand. All I need to do was to guide them to this cliff edge.

There's no way they can attack from behind and avoid my traps unless they use a glider or something that can enable them to fly but that will be too obvious of an attack and I can counter it.

I remember exactly which route triggers the trap and which doesn't. Although it took a few minutes to memorize it, I wasn't too late.

Seeing the players not attacking, I sigh and sat on the floor. "Didn't I already say? I have time to waste on you losers."

"Argh!!! Fuck it!!!"

All of them take out their rifles and shoot.

I yawn while deflecting every single barrage of bullets.

"What the..."

...

"What? I can play the patience game." I say, smiling.

...

"Tch."

One of the players sat down as well and starts a fire.

...

The rest followed and started to rest with him. They believe that I will run out of patience soon and is willing to play the patience game.

I smirk and take control of my real body deeper into the Woods.

Those guys are too funny. With that, I should be able to bait the elite force and make them stay there.

If I simply just kill the elite force, they will know that I am coming for the rest of them so doing this will allow me to ambush Jacob.

I take the circular communication device thing and listen to it. Looks like Jacob is hell-bent on trying to kill me by using the girls as a hostage.

I also found something interesting, this thing about using the girls as a hostage was not planned by Jacob. Jacob's guild members are underestimating me.

So right now, Jacob's team are in a mess and this gives me a really good chance. One side is trying to use the "easy way" to defeat me while the other is still being patient and listening to Jacob's orders. This idiotic Jacob also places a bounty on me for some reason... He should have seen this coming right? Then exactly what is that bastard planning.

Jacob knows the human heart better than I do... So I doubt he ever predicted this...

Or am I just thinking too much?

Ugh... Uncertainty and thoughts like this won't get me anywhere, I will just become the elite force baited by my clone in the end.

Anyway, let's see here...

Judging by their movements, their base should be right here...

I mark a location in the mountains on my BOG map and smiled.

----------

This is weird...

I went to the marked location. It's a warehouse and I can see some of Jacob's men.

But...

Something just tells me... That I shouldn't go.

Should I trust my instinct?

Hmmm...

I spawn a clone of myself and went ahead to investigate.

The skill clone is, in fact, a skill nobody knows about... Well, probably one or two players who have the same skill do but most don't.

In my previous life, Jacob does not have the skill but I can't rely on that knowledge now. Who knows? He might have the skill but I'm going to have to gamble with it.

After all, if he does know about the skill, he will know that my main body is in danger when I am controlling my clone. Although I will instantly gain consciousness back in my main body if I am attacked or touched, as long as these two categories are not fulfilled I will not restore consciousness and am very vulnerable to a few things:

There's an item in FG which binds people:

Heavenly Rope of Fire

Despite the edgy name, it looks like a golden fire condensing itself into a rope. And this rope can bind people into a certain place or together. Either way, this rope is unstoppable and cannot be broken. To balance this out, they decided to give Heavenly Rope of Fire a time limit of 1 day. But that is enough for Jacob to buy another Rope and reset the timing. So if I get caught, I'm as good as dead.

The rope caused 1 million points though. As of now, I can buy 11 but I don't need them.

While captured, Jacob could continuously put me through a series of torturing machines. He enjoys those Gorey machines that splatter blood the most from his victims.

Judging by the nature of Jacob, he is probably aiming for the girls right now as hostages. Was it also a part of his plan to separate us and cut all communication? Oddly, only Jacob's associated players can communicate through this ball thingy after all.

I'm not saying that I will die and I may be able to handle... The pain but if I am captured, there's no way I can save the girls... I still need their blessing skill for the grand finale.

After thinking carefully, I decided to hide my main body in a cave. Jacob will likely find me in the "difficult to find spots" so in obvious spots like this... He probably won't...

Ugh... I hate it whenever I gamble with my luck. Let's hope my luck stats in the game does their job.

I spawn my clone and proceed to the warehouse.

"Hm? Who's there-"

I throw a dagger and it pierces through the skull of the first man I see.

!!!!

"H-He's here! Sound the-"

I quickly kill every single one of them here as they scurry around in a mess like children in a playground.

After that, I walk into the warehouse.

...

Nothing seems out of place-

The door behind me slams close and the shutter drops down before a purplish barrier was erected...

I fucking knew it...

Another unbreakable shield...

This purplish barrier is called a shield of fate... And it's unbreakable no matter the amount of stats... Or that's what people say. What if I try to break it, will it work?

But before that, let me see what Jacob has to tell me.

I see one huge telephone positioned awkwardly in the middle of the empty warehouse...

I sigh and walk to it.

Answering it, as expected Jacob is on the other end.

"What...." I say with a sulking tone as if I met someone who keeps nagging at me.

...

At the other end is silence for about 20 seconds till Jacob finally speaks. "The girls, I have them with me. So just stay there and die. Understood?" He just says and hung up without hearing my response.

Looks like that "Jacob" has also awakened...

When gaming, the only thing that clouds one thought and thoughts is emotions and pride. Jacob knows that and manages to find a way to "create" an alternate personality of himself... I don't know how that brat bastard can do it but he did. As a result, the "Jacob" gaming has a calm and silent atmosphere around him especially more when he stops to think about strategies.

Suddenly, I hear chains breaking and the back door of the warehouse explodes, revealing a long gigantic two-headed, armoured, six arms Golem. Each arm holds a different weapon like a flail and a sword, etc.

It sees me and roars in my face.

Oi oi... What is this?!

Pfft!!

Hahahahahahahaha!!!

My laughter agitated the Golem and it attacks me.

Seriously?! Is this "dark souls" or something?!

I lift my finger to immediately block stop its charge attack and with a slight push of my finger, it flys back towards the purplish barrier, crashing into it.

"UGHHHHHHH!!! ARGHH!!!!!!"

It starts to roar before attempting to get back up.

My clone teleport in front of him and I flick this monster's forehead. Half of its body immediately disappears into a messy gore.

!!!!

This time, the monster was not agitated, instead, it felt fear...

I smirk and place my fingers on the other half's forehead. It didn't do anything but started at my hand.

I then flick and just simply kill such a simple and lousy existence.

How did Jacob even get something like that?

...

!!!!!

Oh fuck......

I see...

As expected, he knew that I won't die from this monster alone... But...

I see swarms of something that look like an ant but is red in colour slowly scrambling towards the pool of blood from that monster.

I turn around and see another batch of ants.

There are so many in this warehouse!! What the fuck?!??

Huh? Wait wait wait!! Why are you trying to climb on me!!

I quickly shake off the ants trying to crawl on me and that agitated the sea of ants in this warehouse...

...

This warehouse is about as big as a soccer theatre. And the number of red ants on the floor covers half of this warehouse and is still increasing. If someone with an insect phobia is in this warehouse, they will faint immediately.

What the hell are these ants-

Suddenly, I can feel something biting me from behind.

!!

Ants are appearing from behind as well?!?

!!

These ants. I don't know what they are but Jacob sure does know a lot of aggressive ants huh...

I immediately disable my clone back to my real body, panting...

That fucking Jacob... He planned to let me die by becoming food to the ants.

Surprisingly enough, one ant doesn't do much damage, about 20 damage. But times 20 by about... I don't know how many ants, it will be a painful and excruciating death...

Ugh...

So this is facing off against a prodigy huh...

I need to step up my game more.

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