The battle ended quickly. An invisible aura encased the falling hammer, increasing its area of damage and offense. Before the hunting hound could even groan in pain, the hammer slammed right into its waist, cutting the dog’s body into two. Not a Scaredy Cat’s skill was called ’Stampeding Leap’. As an exhaustible skill, its learning requirement was fighting mastery D or higher; therefore, its power was understandably high.
Of course, One Sword would not have access to such data. All he could see was the creature that was almost as powerful as he was getting taken down with just one hit after being ambushed by the soft-looking Not a Scaredy Cat.
When One Sword first reached level 15, he had given Killing Game a try, and from his experience, when facing an opponent like Not a Scaredy Cat, he would end up in the same state as the hound should he expose any temporary weakness.
Seeing the expression on One Sword’s face, Not a Scaredy Cat knew that there was no reason to put on her disguise anymore. The innocent and cute girl disappeared without a trace. Even the cutesy tone and demeanor had been abandoned. Instead, her voice took on the color of a bad girl. “Sigh… This sucks, and I thought I wouldn’t have to lift a finger for this scenario.”
She held the large hammer with one hand and moved forward. The sound that was created by the hammer as it was dragged across the floor showed how heavy it was.
“Kid, how can you be this weak?” She walked to the dog’s side, raised her arm, and twirled the hammer in the air before lowering it on the victim. After the hound was split in two, the first half of its body was still twitching, but this time, the entire head was shattered into a pulp. This cruel last hit splashed One Sword’s face with dog’s blood. He was confounded and stood there like a trauma victim.
“Ah…” Until moments ago, One Sword had been acting like he was the big brother who would protect the innocent girl, but at this moment, he did not even dare raise the volume of his voice and said in a cautious tone, “Ha… ha ha… I had no idea you are so powerful… but… then when we ran into the wild boar and tiger earlier…”
One Sword wanted to ask why she was hiding in fear, but before he could finish, he was interrupted by Not a Scaredy Cat.
“What did you say?” Her tone was no different from a local goon. “Hey, kid, are you looking down on me?”
She titled her head to the side and glared at the young man fiendishly. The hammer was raised high.
“How dare you use such a tone when addressing me?” An oppressive pressure overwhelmed One Sword. “Do you want to die?”
“Big… Big Sister… I’m sorry.” One Sword leaned against a tree, and his face was sweating heavily. Even though teammates could not attack each other, in terms of presence, he was as good as dead. “What, what was I saying… With my power level, I am only able to kill small mobs. It is my honor to help clear the way for you, big sister… ha… ha ha ha.”
When he forced out the laugh, tears were also forced out of his eyes.
“That’s much better.” Not a Scaredy Cat placed the hammer back into her inventory and crossed her arms before her chest. She continued in the tone of a female mafia boss. “By the way… it looks like that ’Feng Bujue’ is quite a professional player. Even now, we have not heard the system announce his death. This means that he was able to take down the hound alone and thus is more powerful than you.”
“How do you know he was hunted by the hound as well, big sister?”
“Isn’t that a given? Haven’t you seen the number of hunting hounds at the castle? I believe that no matter how many groups the players were split into, Zaroff would release the same number of hounds to chase after us or even more.”
“Erm… Actually, if I was fighting the hound one on one, I might be able to be edge out a victory…” One Sword added feebly.
Again, before he could finish, he was scolded. “Shut it, baldie!”
“Bald… baldie…?” One Sword, who had the appearance of a long-haired swords master, could not understand why he was called baldie.
“You have the additional buff from your guild, and your level is one level higher than his, but the fact that he’s able to do what you’re able to do means that he’s more powerful than you.” Not a Scaredy Cat was not scolding the man for fun; her words had rationale behind them. “Tsk… If I’d known this, I would have chosen to follow him instead. This is my fault.”
One Sword was critiqued until he had no idea where to put his face. He lowered his head and mumbled, “I’m… I’m sorry for being so weak to cause you so many problems…”
“Oh well, baldie, you will always be a baldie.” Sister Scaredy Cat very generously ’forgave’ him. If there were emotes in the game, One Sword’s head would have been surrounded by a clump of gray clouds.
“In any case, now is not the time to beat ourselves down.” Not a Scaredy Cat raised her finger. “That is the northwestern side. Continue to scout ahead for me.”
“Erm… but I already know which side is north…”
“Shut it! Are you going to do what I say or not?”
“Yes… yes… big sister…”
…
It was still a darkened forest before his eyes. The terrain rose and fell unevenly with rocks jutting out everywhere. Occasionally, there would be muddy flats, and at other times, there would be a pebbled path under the feet.
After some trekking, Feng Bujue had started to get numb to the discomfort, and with this numbness came the lowering of his guard. Fatigue was like a heavy burden that he could not shake, pressing down on his body. His Life Points did not have a chance to recover under those conditions, and the rate at which his Stamina Points were falling was worrying as well. Even though his active skill, A Hasty Repair, was useless in this kind of scenario where no technological objects could be seen, the remaining two shots of Below-the-belt Shin Kick required at least two hundred Stamina Points to be activated. So, if his Stamina Points were lowered past a certain threshold, he would be an easy target.
Time until sunrise: 153 minutes.
By then, Zaroff had been out of his castle for more than half an hour. Technically speaking, if the time was counted from the moment the players accepted the quest, then they would have been trekking and running for 146 minutes already. Of course, not all 146 minutes were used in the escape. Explaining the situation to his teammates and returning to the castle to ask for equipment would have consumed some time, but one thing was for sure—he had at least a forty-minute lead on General Zaroff.
Feng Bujue did not think that he had exhausted too much time killing the hunting hound because he picked up his speed after the battle. In the journey after that, he had run into other events that were similar to the anaconda ingesting the wild boar. Thankfully, he had always noticed them beforehand and ensured that he stayed away from the party and slipped away before the beast even noticed his presence.
By now, half of the five-hour survival requirement had passed. Assuming that Zaroff’s movement speed was faster than the players’, assuming that Zaroff purposely did not move at his maximum speed, even so, by then, he should have caught up to the players already. So, in the next twenty minutes, if Zaroff still did not show up, there was only one possibility. He did not come his way but chose to chase after the other team. Therefore, Feng Bujue prayed sincerely and desperately that he would hear the death announcement of the other two from the system soon.
It was not that he had anything against his teammates, but such was the nature of the scenario. Someone had to be the sacrifice, and the chance for each was fifty percent. In fact, he was sure his teammates were feeling the same way. Another ten minutes passed, and Feng Bujue stopped moving. He sat on top of a relatively flat rock and massaged his tired legs. He was going to enjoy this relaxing moment.
Obviously, at this juncture, the plan to trade space for time could be deemed successful. Even if the general killed Feng Bujue or the two other players now, it would be very difficult for him to start chasing after the other survivors on the opposite side of the island.
Therefore, at this point, Feng Bujue’s plan entered its second phase—which was to slow down his speed to ensure his survival. His teammates did not need to prepare for this phase, and the reason was simple… there were two of them. Feng Bujue was alone. If General Zaroff really did come after him, then he would have nothing to say. However, if the General went for the other team, Feng Bujue would need to be extra cautious from then on. If he was not chased by the general but ended up being killed by some other creatures, causing a group wipe, it would be a great tragedy.
“Team Member: Conquering the Castle with One Sword, dead,” the system suddenly announced. When Feng Bujue heard that, he shamelessly revealed a smile, but several seconds later, the smile froze on his face. “Why is there only one death?”
He waited desperately for the death announcement of Not a Scaredy Cat. He would only relax once he had confirmed the death of the two players. Because he believed that with Zaroff’s power level, no matter what skill Not a Scaredy Cat might possess, it would be useless. At most, it would help her survive a little while longer.
But… if Not a Scaredy Cat’s death announcement did not come, it would introduce many changes. The chance that she would be able to slip away from the general was very low, so the bigger possibility was… One Sword’s death had nothing to do with Zaroff, and he was killed by some other creature.
If that was the case, the worst possible scenario was that General Zaroff was actually tailing Feng Bujue, and One Sword and Not a Scaredy Cat had run into some other kind of danger that caused one to escape and the other to die. In the next two hours, Not a Scaredy Cat would be moving alone, facing various threats to her life while Feng Bujue…
Thinking about this brought immense pressure back to Feng Bujue. His lips puckered, and he blew air at his hair. “This is bad… Now, there’s no way of telling which team the boss has decided to chase after.”
At that moment, the system announced, “Team member, Not a Scaredy Cat, dead,”
“Huh?” Feng Bujue was startled before letting out a long relieved sigh. “Phew… Now I feel much better. It does seem like they’ve run into Zaroff.”
After reaching this conclusion, Feng Bujue relaxed. All he needed to do was continue moving in the northeastern direction while ensuring his own safety. Actually, it would have worked if he just stayed where he was. For a scenario like this, the rule of AFK-like behavior would not be applied. However, Feng Bujue was cautious of Zaroff. If the General turned around and moved as fast as he could, the distance that Feng Bujue had placed between them did not provide the former with enough security.
So, after another ten minutes of rest, Feng Bujue resumed his journey.
However, this time, he stopped after moving three hundred meters. This was because when he passed a decline, inside a small indentation carved into the mountain, he discovered something.
A set of human remains.