Ep. 8 — Chapter 33: The Hunting Game (4)

The time was nearly up now. Iris Falcone and her guild members had already gathered a large number of followers. Of course, it doesn't include everyone.

Me and Alicia were still near the back, talking to each other whilst her supporters moved towards her to form a temporary contract to make sure no one broke their words. It was obviously something that big guilds would do. They were too careful with things and also scheming.

She's currently lowering her chances of dying in case this room fails to meet the requirements. With the contract in effect, the people in this room wouldn't be able to kill her, lest they wish to be killed by the system.

Other than the two of us, there were several other people that stayed by themselves and were not interested in her words. I could see Iris Falcone scowling at them and us, but I paid it no mind. She could give me all the dirty looks she wants, I'm going to deserve them after all, for everything I'm going to do.

The kid was also not convinced by her and watched the large crowd with judgemental eyes.

Not many people cared about him as they believe that he's only an 'ignorant child'. I thought he had good sense and was about to approach him until I see one of Iris's men coming to him first.

"Young boy, you probably don't understand what's going on here. Here, come with me and…"

"Oh, shut up. It's you old men that think you guys are so smart. Get out of my face, I'm not interested in your nonsense plans. I won't be used by wrinkly old people who think they know how to play games better than I do. I can protect myself just fine, gorilla."

"Huh…?! You…you dare…!"

"Calm down, sir." I saw Alicia walking up to them. Hey, what's she doing now?

"Will you really tarnish your guild's reputation by lashing out at a boy? It will be pretty foolish. And I'm sure other guilds such as…what is it, ≪White Apes≫ and ≪Zero≫ would also be intrigued to find out that ≪Purple Hyacinth≫ cannot control their temper."

Ah, that's what she is doing. Alicia purposefully included names of the other 2 major guilds to anger the man. It was because she knew of the ongoing guild wars.

His face became anxious and he turned to Iris, who was currently busy with the people.

"Who are you?"

"It shouldn't matter. After all, we don't intend to work with you, so getting acquainted shouldn't take priority now. Go on, be on your way."

Alicia was able to hold a pretty calm face. However, I could see just how angry she was. She was holding back the urge to attack the guy, I could tell by her scary voice.

The man was flustered and quickly left. He went back to Iris and Alicia rolled her eyes. It was the first time I've seen her with such an attitude. She turned to the boy but before she could get a word out, he dug his ear as a means of disrespect.

"I'm not interested in teaming up with you either."

"Eh? I wasn't…"

"That man was looking at me for a long time now. Other than my good looks, I also think that he's looking at me because he wants me to join him. I will reject your offer also. I'm only being nice because you helped me get that gorilla away."

Come on now. Why has he got such a nasty attitude…Damn it, this was why I didn't like teenage kids.

The kid glared at me and gave me a dirty look before turning away, shooing Alicia back to me.

Alicia got back, entirely baffled by the conversation they shared. If you could even call that a conversation rather than an outright rejection. And baseless claims of his beauty. This kid was a lot more self centred than I thought.

I shook my head at Alicia before whispering. "Nevermind, it seems he won't follow us. Let's just get ready for this to start."

[Are you all ready?!]

Iris Falcone's [Volume Projection] started again, and that was when I realised that the quest was starting.

I studied the map one last time to locate where all of the monoliths were. Then, a light blue aura started to appear around everyone including myself. My body started to disintegrate into tiny blue squares. A message appeared then.

[Transferring to the chosen map…]

When I regained my vision, I found myself in the middle of the forest. A river ran by me. I looked around. It seems everyone was moved to different locations. I wondered how we would be able to know who was in our room…

Up above, the [Cube] displayed the timer. 3 days until the end of this quest. Also three days to find and activate the monoliths.

I remembered this area on the map. It was near the river so I should be able to find my way around quickly. That is, if I could know which way I'm passing now. I stared and followed the river. It is a good start until I can properly locate myself on the map.

[Activating your ability, 'Vigilance Lv. 1' strongly!]

My ability suddenly activated and I felt a weird sensation coming from behind. It was at that moment when I heard the sounds of a gunshot coming which I barely managed to dodge.

"Ugh…!"

The bullet just barely penetrated my skin. A sharp pain came from my leg and I fell to the ground, catching myself and rolling behind a tree reflexively. Several more gunshots followed and each one of them blew up large portions of the ground, sending dirt and broken pieces of wood to fly around.

"Shit! That's why they had us wait…!"

The 30 minutes were given so the hunters could find the most strategic position and hide themselves around the map. It wasn't for us to plan. At least, that wasn't the main reason.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Everytime the bullet hit, loud explosions followed. I peeked out just slightly to locate the direction from which the bullets came from. It came from a higher ground, allowing them to have an advantage over me. Damned snipers…

I managed to get on my feet and brush the pain aside. The continuous firing hasn't ceased, but I made my way down the trail anyway. As expected, the moment my foot went from behind the cover, several bullets nearly shot me, missing only by less than a metre away.

Bullets continued to rain down mercilessly. I was sure that it's not only one shooter now. They have all been placed to outmanoeuvre the 'hunted' and make it easy to win. Shit, did the Game purposefully choose long distance fighters as the 'hunters'?

The further I moved from my original location, I was able to sense the presence of several other 'hunters' nearby. Thanks to the [Vigilance] skill, I was able to dodge and deflect the attacks. Though it still is not easy when I'm getting attacked at every turn. Gunshots became more frequent and I heard the surroundings blowing up one after another.

A side of a cliff collapsed and I watched a number of people sliding down, like they had been waiting for me.

There were around 3 of them. Unlike the shooters, they were armed with close range weapons. The firings somewhat reduced since they didn't want to risk hitting their own team. But there were still shots going off in the background, most likely to hit some other people within the area.

"Well, isn't this fun?" I tried to keep calm but I was breathing pretty hard from the running. They came closer and I planted my feet in the ground and kicked up the dirt, creating a distraction before taking off at a quick speed.

Lucky for my high strength and agility levels, I was able to pull it off and confuse them, including the snipers. No more bullets followed me and I continued to run past the trees.

"Find him!"

"Another one at that side!"

"Two to the left! Get them! I'll take this one!"

"Go and find that guy!"

I could hear them speaking. Gunshots and the clanging of weapons are heard. I quickly climbed up on a tree and hid within the leaves, watching the group coming up near me.

They were a pretty big group. It doesn't seem like it would be hard to fend them off, but the problem would come after I manage to defeat them. There were other 'hunters' nearby, so they would hear me if I did fight with them now. No matter, it was safer to stay here for the time being. Observe the area first before moving.

Though it would be bad if one of them had a detection skill.

By the time the group of 'hunters' had passed, I barely let out a peek. The area was empty. Sounds of 'hunters' talking to each other and fighting had long ceased. The distance between me and them grew, raising my confidence to come out now. I just made sure that my ability was activated, in case there were any surprise attacks.

I jumped off from the tree, landing lightly without making noise. [Lightweight] has been a big help by keeping me silent when moving around. It also allowed me to move more quickly, which was how I was able to survive the barrage of bullets earlier.

I continued to follow the path, still way of my surroundings. The forest trees became more spread out, leaving more room in between from one forest to another. And again, I could hear the sound of the river flowing. I was close to the river, which is a good sign. Though there could be many 'hunters' situated alongside the rivers.

Splish!

"Huh?"

I looked down at my feet. The ground was wet now. Raising my head, I saw that everything ahead was a swamp. A large swamp within the forest. I didn't see that on the map.

[Your ability, 'Vigilance Lv. 1' is being wary of the area ahead.]

The warning message appeared. At times like this, such an ability was the most useful. No, it will always be useful since I could tell just how risky some things are. Nevertheless, I continued to walk, trying my best not to step into deep parts of the swamp. In fact, I moved around it to not get any water inside my shoes.

Nevermind the discomfort, it would hinder my mobility by a ton.

My feet continued to splash on the muddy floors of the forest. Luckily, they were just below the ankle so it didn't come into my shoes or would affect too much of my running. I continued to walk, also careful not to raise too much suspicion in case there were 'hunters' near me. They could appear from the swamp, for all I know.

It was then when I realised that there was a building ahead of me. A large worn-out building. The building stood ominously tall, in a weird location as well. It is like an industrial building that would attract a lot of attention.

A weird location for a building like that to be in, that's for sure.

If anything, going near it would be the most terrible decision, as it would most likely be filled with 'hunters' by this time. Since it was so out of place, it is sure to gather attention and bring the 'hunted' to it. And once they enter, the large number of 'hunters' would pounce on the person all at once and eliminate him instantly.

But that was precisely why I continued to walk up to it.

The wall of the industrial building was before me. Now that I was directly in front of it, I realised just how massive the building really is. Just the outer walls being nearly thrice my height. The walls of the building itself were much bigger than that. As I continued to walk around to find the entrance, continuous warnings flew in my direction.

[You are currently in a high-risk area!]

['Vigilance' is advising against entering.]

That was exactly why I needed to move here.

If so many people are protecting this area, it could only mean that there is a monolith situated here.

I finally found the front gates to the industrial building. When I entered, an eerie sensation brushed against my entire figure. I looked around the place for anyone, but it was quiet. Too quiet.

At that moment, my [Vigilance] ability activated strongly and my body quickly moved back. Several people appeared at once and surrounded me. They came from the windows and behind the bushes within the building. More and more appeared from inside and now there were easily over 10 people all surrounding.

"Unfortunately for you, we can't let you have the monolith." One of them said, confirming my suspicions.

"So there is a monolith here? Great to know."

"Urk…!"

"Even if there is, do you think you can get to it?" The one to my left spoke and snickers came from the group. "We're all humans here and we don't want to do this. But…we all need to survive as well. You do understand that, right?"

At his words, the group closed in.

It was then that someone walked forward as the group stayed still. They all just watched, as if they feared the man. The scene was like the leader of a gang was going to kill one of their victims whilst the other just watched as their boss did the deed.

Fortunately for me, their 'boss' was someone I was somewhat acquainted with.

The tip of a sword pointed at me. The pitch black obsidian coloured blade reflected a glint from the moonlight. He had a dissatisfied expression on his face as he continued to glare at me scarily.

"Don't move any further." Han Jiwon warned.