Chapter 116
Chapter 116
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 116
Chapter Title: Confronting Beauty Art
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Somehow managing to persuade the others—though the process to reach that point had been utterly brutal—Halloween Pumpkin turned on his stream before searching his own assigned area as he began scouring the wasteland.
[Huh?]
[Oh? Halloween Pumpkin went live?]
[How long ago did Method go offline?]
As expected, his viewers had apparently been watching Method's stream too.
[What's the situation?]
[LOL, is Method still freaking out?]
The viewers chimed in with various comments, but he didn't have time to chat with them right now.
"Shut up. Are there any of you noobs who came to Blandel Wasteland chasing Yuseong that know him?"
[Whoa, check out that attitude.]
[Method's the same way, those crib babies.]
"I'll make the reward worth your while. Just connect me."
After that tussle—not quite a battle of wills, but close—with his viewers, he managed to make contact with those who had come to Blandel Wasteland following Yuseong and his Necronomicon copy.
Halloween Pumpkin commissioned them to find Yuseong and, if possible, take him out.
There was a risk that if they killed him, Yuseong might drop the Necronomicon copy.
But he judged that blocking Yuseong's meeting with Beauty Art by ejecting him from Blandel Wasteland as soon as possible was better than fretting over such a rare probability.
After hiring a considerable number of people to search the wasteland, Halloween Pumpkin began rummaging through his own assigned zone.
He launched zombie birds into the sky and spread out his black skeletons widely. Then he moved.
It was while he was sweeping the surroundings like that.
Snap!
His connection to one black skeleton cut off.
'Hm?'
Halloween Pumpkin frowned.
A severed link to a servant undead usually meant one thing.
The servant undead's destruction.
But no matter that his black skeletons prioritized quantity over quality as servants, they weren't so low-level as to fall to the monsters in this wasteland.
There had to be another factor.
'A player.'
So who could it be.
'Beauty Art, no doubt.'
Even if his servants were weak individually due to emphasizing numbers over quality, they shouldn't die in one shot like this. Nor was it easy to imagine anyone of that caliber in this area.
'Unless it was that Yuseong.'
But Yuseong didn't have the skill to kill his skeleton without any warning like this.
He didn't have abilities like sharing vision with skeletons. Unless he'd broken through the level limit and gained new skills, it wasn't possible now.
However, he could issue simple commands like "send a signal if you spot this target" under rough conditions.
But the black skeleton hadn't sent any signal.
'That said, it doesn't rule out the chance it's not Beauty Art but someone else.'
Still, he was fairly certain Beauty Art's perverted undead had ambushed and smashed the skeleton.
The problem was the location where his skeleton had been destroyed.
'Why was it a skeleton near Moros Canyon on the edge, not the central area?'
If it was Beauty Art, whether heading to meet Yuseong at Silaremit or agreeing to rendezvous in the wasteland, she should be in the central area at least. That's why he'd had the zombie birds fly biased toward the center.
'No way...'
An ominous thought crossed his mind.
'First, I need to confirm if that's Beauty Art.'
He immediately sent a few nearby skeletons toward Moros Canyon. And the zombie birds along with them.
A little time passed, and the skeletons sent back information.
'It's Beauty Art!'
It was certain.
There was no way the skeleton had misread the info. He didn't even need to input separate details about Beauty Art to begin with.
Hadn't they been fighting back and forth in Moros Canyon just recently? His skeletons had already fully learned Beauty Art's appearance.
'I need to call Method.'
He wanted to rush over and kill Beauty Art right away, but in terms of forces, he was at a disadvantage now. His main force, the skeletons, had been noticeably reduced.
In contrast, Beauty Art's sole servant was still in perfect condition.
He needed reinforcements.
It was then.
'Hm?'
A message arrived. From one of the noobs he'd hired via his stream.
'Yuseong spotted?'
How long had it been since he'd found Beauty Art, and now Yuseong too.
'Finally, luck's turning my way at the end.'
He read on with a much calmer mind. But that peace shattered more and more with each line.
'...Silaremit side? Heading back?'
He suddenly recalled Beauty Art spotted near Moros Canyon. The two who were desperate to meet were heading in opposite directions.
It completely contradicted their actions to meet each other. Hadn't Beauty Art strained every nerve to break through Moros Canyon just to meet Yuseong?
Of course, judging by various circumstances, she might already know Method's identity and this was bait.
Then, an unwelcome thought popped into his head that he didn't even want to imagine.
Didn't it look just like they'd met, finished their business, and gone their separate ways?
Thud!
Halloween Pumpkin unwittingly stomped the ground.
He'd kept his cool enough to soothe and coax the hyper-excited Method and the white skull, pushing through to even search the wasteland.
But faced with evidence that their objective was already gone, his whole body went limp.
'Still, I should contact them at least...'
Snap!
His face hardened. Another black skeleton had been destroyed.
'This guy's changed direction?'
The newly destroyed skeleton was on the opposite side from where Beauty Art had been sighted in Moros Canyon.
'No way he's coming for me?'
If so, it was absolutely not good. She wasn't approaching to say hello out of fondness.
He needed to hurry and call Method.
-Hey, Method.
-What?
-Where are you now.
-Heading to Silaremit side.
She seemed to be moving toward Yuseong as the goal. Considering her rage toward Yuseong, she'd have bolted the moment his trail was found.
In other words, she was still moving farther away from him.
-Come this way.
-What? No!
Strong refusal. She really wanted to deal with Yuseong.
Not a good sign for Halloween Pumpkin. She wouldn't want to come here.
-Spotted Beauty Art.
-Really?
-Yeah. So come here right now. We'll take out Beauty Art first and...!
-I told you, I'm killing Yuseong. We just need to kill one anyway.
-Thinking about priorities, killing Beauty Art is more certain...!
-Cut it out, Halloween Pumpkin.
Method cut him off.
-I get the gist. I'm not an idiot. Yuseong's heading back to Silaremit, and you found Beauty Art poking around Moros Canyon? Looks to me like those two already met, did their thing, and split. Am I wrong?
-Nothing's certain yet...!
-The situation makes it certain enough, Halloween Pumpkin. I don't want to waste more time chasing some improbable what-if.
-We had a deal to help each other!
-To help you snatch the Necronomicon copy. But anyone can see Beauty Art's got it now. And she's not dumb enough to carry it around. She used it the second she got it. Using an upgrade item doesn't need some complicated process or time.
-Don't make excuses! You just want to kill Yuseong!
-If you know that, stop clinging. And I'm not wrong.
Halloween Pumpkin shut his mouth. She was right. Anyone looking would see him as the one stubbornly insisting on a lost cause.
-Fine. Got it.
No point saying more. They'd roamed as allies, but he and Method weren't that close. The C.O.T.S guild itself wasn't some chummy group laughing together.
Sure, if a guild member took excessive losses, they'd step in without fail—but that was because they judged the guild itself was being looked down on, not out of affection for the member.
That was more like the guild's arbitrary attitude.
That's why Halloween Pumpkin gave up calling Method.
'No point begging a guy who won't listen.'
It'd just smash his own pride.
That feeling grew even stronger after a mercenary sent word that Yuseong and the white skull were fighting.
'She'll go even crazier chasing him.'
She might even snatch Yuseong's kill from the white skull.
He'd briefly hoped that if Yuseong died early, she might come help him out of spite. But her current actions suggested she'd more likely clash with the white skull over stealing her revenge chance.
Plus, according to the mercenary, the white skull was on the defensive, making it even less likely she'd come aid him.
'Even if it was to persuade her, maybe I broke too many Dullahans.'
With that, Halloween Pumpkin erased those two from his mind entirely.
He didn't call the mercenaries or other hired noobs either. Players at that level would just get sneered at by Beauty Art.
Now he had to choose.
'Fight or flight.'
But neither seemed very feasible.
In his wasteland search, he'd spread the black skeletons too thin. For combat or escape, he needed to gather them first.
Gathering his actual forces for battle was obvious, and for escape, he'd need to use them as bait.
No way to shake Beauty Art hugging her servant and fleeing normally.
'If she hadn't spotted me, maybe, but it's too late now.'
A black dot was visible high in the sky. Too far to see details, but he instinctively knew what it was.
Zombie bird.
Not his. So it had to be Beauty Art's.
'It's over.'
Still, he gathered the skeletons while moving opposite Beauty Art to buy as much time as possible and rally his forces.
But that didn't last long.
A hazy shape appeared in the distance. It pursued Halloween Pumpkin at terrifying speed.
'Already here.'
In contrast, he'd barely gathered half his forces. What could he do with this?
Halloween Pumpkin ordered the skeleton carrying him to halt. And with what he'd rallied, he hastily formed a formation.
Moments later, the opponent arrived.
Boom!
The sound of feet hitting the ground was intimidating.
"Found you!"
He'd clung to a sliver of hope it wasn't her.
Halloween Pumpkin looked past Beauty Art to the servant holding her.
Full-body armor covering it entirely, a greatsword in hand.
At a glance, it resembled the white skull's Dullahan.
But there was a crucial difference.
Its head was properly attached.
However, that didn't mean the servant was a living person.
Pale skin, eyes like rotten fish, hair devoid of any life.
That face was unmistakably a corpse, to anyone.
Death Knight.
That was the one undead Beauty Art commanded.
Confirming the Death Knight, Halloween Pumpkin clicked his tongue anew. Not because of the unfavorable situation. Beauty Art's Death Knight just looked ridiculous no matter when he saw it.
Yuseong didn't care, but Arc had plenty of ways for players to customize their avatars. That's why many players decorated theirs to express individuality.
But Beauty Art applied those to her Death Knight instead of herself.
Its originally white hair was fully rainbow-dyed, glitter sparkling around its eyes.
Red heart tattoos on its cheeks, bright red lips smeared with lipstick, earrings dangling from its ears.
Not just the head. He knew she'd decorated inside the armor too.
'Nail art and everything, they said.'
Going to such lengths even on parts hidden by gauntlets.
It might've been fine if it suited it.
But Halloween Pumpkin, no stranger to being distant from makeup or decoration himself, could at least say for sure that what she'd done to the Death Knight didn't fall into cool or pretty territory.
'And she calls herself Beauty Art.'
Her real talent might be that confidence.
Beauty Art. She was definitely the kind of arbitrary type that fit right in.