Taken

Looking at the notification from the bank stating that there was a transfer of $99,317, he was ecstatic. It still feels surreal that playing a game in a few days could give him this much money, this is way more than his annual salary.

'Hah! Eat that you corporate rats, I'm richer than you guys!' Blake thought with a smile.

If any of his co-workers knew that he got this much money from playing a game for a couple of days, most of them would definitely vomit blood considering the fact that they need to work late and shed tears for not even half of the money Blake got now for a whole year.

Just from looking at his bank balance, his mood becomes better almost instantly.

'Hmm... what should I buy? Should I go eat out in a fancy restaurant? Or should I buy something for myself for going through these hard couple of days?' Blake was smiling like an idiot while imagining himself throwing money at the store clerk.

Spending money like there's no tomorrow, and endowed in the realm of worldly richness.

But he quickly shakes his head, he needs to focus on surviving first.

Now that Maura and her comrade could find him rather easily, then the other mercenaries employed by those who wanted the Limited PK VR Helmet for themselves could definitely find him easily.

Considering his apartment room has many windows and even a balcony, it's natural.

Anyone from around the same floor as him in the building across could definitely see him sitting on his gaming chair wearing the Limited VR Helmet, so he should really move out of this place if he wanted to lay low.

'Those police officers definitely worked for the powerful people, I'm not ready for this...'

Blake could only sigh to himself as he now was basically being hunted by many people.

Worst of all, even the police are involved in this. About a couple of days ago, he was only a regular office worker, and now he was susceptible to this kind of life that he has never prepared for.

Of course, he wasn't ready. But he needs to, or else he will definitely die.

Pondering for a moment, he then takes a second to glance at Maura who is still unconscious on the bed, "If it's her, then she might know what to do. After all, she's a mercenary and definitely has been in this line of work for quite some time"

Deciding to ask for input from Maura, Blake decided to play the game first.

Now that he could actually use the Spectral Vampire's ability in the real world, he reckon that his body probably isn't capable of being sleep deprived. So there's nothing more to do except play the game and get stronger.

In this kind of scenario, getting stronger will never be wrong, he needs to protect himself.

"Also, more than a day already passed in the game. I need to check on Linthia and Tara, both of them must be worried that I went unconscious for so long" Blake thought. With that, he sat back on his gaming chair and logged into the game.

~

Meanwhile, inside the room, Blake's avatar was in.

Linthia seems to be alone inside the room, sitting on a chair while looking at Blake who seems to be sleeping peacefully. "What's wrong with him? Even the healer said that there's nothing wrong with him, he's only sleeping. But sleeping for almost two days now is not normal, right?" she mused to herself.

It's already the night of the second day after Blake went to sleep without explanation.

Of course, Tara already complained that if they stay here then they would've put Blake's life in danger, the assassins have already arrived and are still somewhere inside the city. It wouldn't take long before the assassins find them.

But despite that, Linthia and Tara couldn't leave Blake in this state.

Nobody would tend to him, and he was already too helpful for Linthia and Tara to just leave.

Just then, the door was opened and Tara walked inside as she takes down her hood. "How's the situation outside? How long are we going to be on the run? Tara, why is this happening to us? Did my Father do something bad?"

A series of questions left Linthia's mouth, she was confused, scared, and felt lonely.

Upon hearing this, Tara walked and sat beside her with a tender look. She reaches out her hand and rubs Linthia on the head, "I don't know, Lady Linthia. But I do know that your father didn't do anything wrong, he has a code of his own and is honest with himself. It's best that you don't know, Lady Linthia. Just trust your father, we'll eventually get through with this"

Wiping the tears drizzling down her face, Linthia faced forward again and tries to calm down.

"Even if I want to trust, Father. We couldn't stay here for too long, the governor could only act like we're not here, he couldn't help more than that. Those assassins that were sent by Grandmaster Mallory will not stop searching" Linthia said helplessly

Tara could only sigh as she can't rebut what Linthia is saying, it was true.

But then again, the situation outside is bad, and out of luck earlier she managed to catch an assassin with a blue dagger. It was the ceremonial dagger of the Infernal Veiled Assassins, indicating that this assassin has already reached Nightblade rank.

An assassin of a higher rank than Tara, and it's clearly not something good.

Just from that alone the only safe place that she could go and is not obvious is probably this crowded inn, she already prepared various traps around the building in case the assassins managed to find them here.

It was then, Tara's heart dropped when she heard a ringing sound from a bell.

Ring!

Upon hearing this piercing noise, she sprung up from her seat and her body instinctively tensed in response. Taking out her daggers, she then looks at the ceiling with extreme caution in her eyes.

"Is that the bell trap you put on the roof?" Linthia asked, she was also tensed and stressed.

Tara nodded her head as she deliberately puts more traps on the roof knowing how these assassins operate as she was one herself. Before an attack on a building, there will always be a couple of assassins stationed on the roof.

Having eyes from the upper ground helps the assassins to spot if the target tries to escape.

Moreover, the assassins sent to be the eyes on the roof are usually the weaker ones, the rough business is usually dealt with by the stronger ones to be more efficient and clean when assassinating a target.

Knowing that fact, she gestured at Linthia to become completely silent.

Following that, the crowded sound from outside started to become muffled in their ears.

Each of Tara and Linthia's minds was fixed on catching any other sound than the crowd outside, and this increases the tension as the only thing they can hear is their breaths which get increasingly heavier.

Striding slowly without a sound, Tara headed towards the window beside the bed.

Looking outside of the window, she didn't find any glimpse of the assassins. Taking a deep breath, she then pulls up the window and reaches her trembling hand outside, and chanted, "Shadow Household..."

Upon chanting that, the shadow around her hand gathered and create a shadow cat.

Meow!

Instructing the shadow cat through her mind, the shadow cat quickly climbs the wall silently and heads to the roof. Tara, on the other hand, went away from the window and closes her eyes for a moment.

Surprisingly, her ability enables her to connect with the vision of the shadow cat outside.

As the shadow cat climbs the wall in complete silence and even merges with the darkness of the night, the ringing sound resounded a couple more times, and this puts a frown on Tara's face instantly.

Tara only expected the bell to ring once, the assassins shouldn't be this dumb.

Considering that the piercing sound is quite loud and even reaches the room Linthia and Tara are in right now, the assassins should've heard it and disarmed the trap, it's only a warning trap so it only needs to ring one time.

But as the shadow cat climbs the wall, the bell rings about three more times.

Upon reaching the edge of the roof, the shadow cat leaped and landed on the roof. Through the shadow cat, Tara looks around the roof before her heart skipped a beat and her breath got stuck inside her throat at the sight of what she was seeing.

In front of her vision is a figure clad in black and is also staring at the shadow cat.

Judging from his outfit alone, this figure is definitely an assassin. He was crouching beside the bell trap, and his left index finger flicked the string to ring the bell once again while he maintained a devious expression on his face.

"Find you..." the assassin utters as he licked the blue dagger in his right hand savagely.

Such a sight knocked Tara out of her ability and forced her to let out a gasp, a sense of dread appeared on her face realizing that it was not that assassins were dumb to not realize the ringing bells.

But the Nightblade-rank assassin played with it to toy with her.

Tara quickly darted her eyes toward Linthia and shouted, "Go to the corner right now!"

As soon as she shouted that, the door suddenly blasted open and two assassins sneak inside ready with daggers in their hands. Each of them scanned the room and quickly dashed at Linthia.

Linthia is clearly the target of this mission, and the assassins proved that in the first second.

Not intending to let the assassins get to Linthia easily, Tara quickly jumped over the bed and stands between them, her eyes glowed for a second as she activated a skill of hers, "Heightened Reflex!"

Clang!

Surprisingly, Tara managed to parries the assassins' attacks perfectly.

Although she was still not in peak condition thanks to the injuries she suffered before and the lack of sleep, she managed to jump and kick both assassins in the chest and flung them back to the wall.

She did a kip-up with the intention to follow up on her attacks on the assassins.

Just then, another assassin came inside the room, he was a level 37 assassin. Tara tries to defend herself but she got kicked in the stomach, and grabbed by the neck before being flung the wall on the assassin's left.

It was so fast that she couldn't even react properly, that assassin is way stronger.

Not showing any sign of hesitation, the assassin went over to Linthia and stab a needle dart into her neck. In a matter of seconds, she lost consciousness before the assassin carry her and jumped out of the window.

"LADY LINTHIA!" Tara screamed in terror.

Upon seeing this, Tara looks at Blake on the bed one last time before she gritted her teeth.

Deciding that she couldn't let the assassin get away with Linthia, Tara tries to follow after the assassin but stopped abruptly when she was about to jump over the bed. From outside, she could see three needle darts fly toward her quickly.

It was too fast for her since she was caught off guard, the needle darts are hard to spot.

Splash!

Tara managed to parry two of the needle darts but one hits her on the chest, knocking her back to the wooden floor. She groaned in pain before his eyes saw the green substance that is coated at the needle's tip.

Realizing that it was poison, she quickly takes the antidote from her waist bag and drinks it.

While he was doing that, one of the two assassins got up and try to attack her once again. Now that she was hurt, she wouldn't be able to defend herself properly, and she realized it clearly as her face turns pale.

But when the assassin swung his dagger, a hand suddenly grabbed the blade.

Clank!

Surprised by this, Tara glanced at the bed and finds that Blake has his eyes opened.

"B-Blake!"