Ep14. Player, Versus, Player. (4)
As Hasselhoff descended to the ground, dust soiled his clothes. All eyes from the players turned to the new player who had come down from the building no one had been watching.
Those who grasped the situation first aimed their attacks at Hasselhoff.
“……?!”
Hasselhoff calmly prepared his defense despite the confusion of facing nothing but enemies ahead. But Aiden, who had told him to follow and come down together, was gone.
The other players, unaware of any further ambushes, focused solely on the intruding Hasselhoff.
Meanwhile, Aiden quietly caught his breath as he observed the players who hadn't noticed him.
'Even in front of that many players, a moment of suspicion was all it took.'
Several triangles indicating suspicion levels in three stages floated before his eyes, vanishing quickly soon after.
That meant roughly six players, excluding Hasselhoff, had failed to spot him clearly and let him slip away. The realization that not all those dozens could be blind underscored the effectiveness of his genre ability.
'Let the other four draw their attention... I'll watch for a bit.'
Gripping his dagger, he moved silently to the opposite side of the players' line of sight.
A couple of suspicion meters appeared, but none escalated beyond level 2.
No matter the direction, as long as he crouched low and moved carefully, the players fell for it.
The thought that players likely used the same systems crossed his mind, but he pushed it aside for now and slipped behind a fence near the players.
A female player with a prominent yellow laurel wreath, glancing around as if she'd just arrived.
[109/128]
Recruitment of 104 additional players has ended.
She was the last guest of the day.
“……?”
The player, lured by Sephirah and bewildered by the unfamiliar backdrop, soon spotted the massive UI floating in the sky and slowly twisted her expression.
Welcome, Players.
Act until only one survives.
The player, who liked the message immensely, pulled a wand from her inventory and prepared to attack.
“Out.”
Slash.
Right then, Aiden appeared from behind and pierced the player's throat.
Worried she might not die, he grabbed her left hand instead of her mouth to subdue her, but she collapsed more pathetically than expected, losing strength.
The UI visible to everyone now would feel somehow off or awkward compared to the players' own, in some way. Sephirah had raised doubts all along.
Players who made fun choices in a situation they didn't even understand weren't needed.
'But killing them all won't cut it either.'
The player count had risen to 104. Including vacancies from dead players, it was back to 128.
That meant even aggressive culling would eventually be refilled.
Aiden was convinced from this that he needed to weed out only the non-hostile ones, distinguishing and memorizing those who attacked first from those who merely reacted.
'Those weird outfits...'
He paused.
Aiden's face briefly showed bewilderment as he spotted a strange common trait.
In cases where players fought each other, those in bizarre attire were the ones attacking first or gaining the upper hand—players in silly, obstructive clothes that offered no defense.
That made them Aiden's next targets.
“Claire.”
―Nehehe. What's up?
Her voice came as if whispering right beside him again. She even reacted instantly to his quiet mutter, making it feel like she was invisibly peering over his shoulder.
Having experienced it twice now, he was certain it wasn't an illusion.
“Got a job for you. Where are you?”
―Right on top of your head, mister.
“I know you're right next to me and asked anyway.”
―Huh? What? Wait, how. How?!
Claire trailed off there, speechless.
It might've been a test; playing dumb could've made it awkward in reverse. But she'd already shown her hand, leaving no way to smooth it over.
Hoo....
A calm breath came from just a step away, and Claire appeared there.
Hand on her chest, she took a deep breath, then vanished again as the sound stopped.
―I wasn't sticking on purpose. It's just, I used my 'sentence' to turn invisible, so I had no choice.
“Got it. We'll talk later.”
―No, it's not 'got it'...
Her breathy voice faded slightly.
Fortunately, the distance wasn't enough to make it inaudible. Having Claire nearby actually made giving orders or requests easier.
“See those two over there?”
Aiden pointed at a pair of nearby players.
Surprisingly, after eyeing each other warily, they'd silently reached a dramatic truce and were scheming to take out a player from behind together.
Far enough from the open area not to draw others' eyes, that's what prompted their decision. If they could reach such an accord, they deserved to live—and needed subduing to prevent fighting.
“We'll take them simultaneously. I'll handle the left one.”
―Then I'll do the right... Got it.
Having relayed the task, Aiden circled behind the players first this time. Claire moved at the same pace from the right.
Meanwhile, as the players glanced at their hands, bows materialized there, strings drawing toward enemies following their gazes.
Their attention would turn this way soon. They had to move fast.
'Countdown.'
Aiden spread his fingers, counting down with gestures alone.
Three. Two. One.
'Now.'
Grip.
Aiden's arms strangled the defenseless player's neck. The bow in the player's hand vanished.
Suddenly empty-handed, the player groped at Aiden's arms—that was their minimal resistance.
Even trying to pry them off yielded nothing; by now, 2 seconds, 3 seconds had passed with the chokehold.
Slash!
As the fourth second approached, the player gripped a dagger reverse-handed and wildly swung behind their back.
For a player, it was a clumsy motion—like scratching their own back, hoping to grab anything.
But the player didn't pass out.
The certainty that they should've collapsed by now lingered, yet their resistance only grew fiercer as they struggled to escape.
In the end, Aiden released his arms, backed away, and distanced himself from the combat zone.
“Fast Travel.”
Two instant jumps later, he grabbed Claire and moved a few more steps away.
Claire's hand glowed yellow in a hammer shape, showing her attempt at subduing, but the player on the right didn't look knocked out either.
“Sorry. I said I'd do it, but I failed.”
“No, let's try another way.”
If one side had succeeded, it might've been a fluke, but Aiden's instinct told him players didn't go down easily.
The time he could hold one was barely 3 seconds. He'd look into that later—not now.
“……!”
The freed player stared at their ambusher in shock.
Already confused about the situation, now an NPC had choked them from behind. Something like that.
Aiden acted immediately.
Whoosh!
Boosted by RPG effects on his physical abilities, he charged.
Unarmed for subduing. Up close, the player's bow proved useless. They flailed the drawn string wildly, firing completely off-target.
The true nature of players reliant on the system.
'Not even close to Sephirah.'
Fist clenched in his left hand, he smashed one player's face; their neck snapped back, losing balance and tumbling to the ground.
But his follow-up punch at the other whiffed.
This opponent was calmer; the arrow they loosed targeted Aiden's head precisely.
Too late to dodge reactively, Aiden instinctively raised his arm to shield his head.
Thwack.
A large miscellaneous item he'd pulled from his inventory and gripped blocked the arrow.
“……?!”
“Didn't see that coming, huh?”
Probably not. That's why he'd done it—to maximize surprise.
Aiden grabbed the fairly flustered player's head, slammed it to the ground, and called for help.
“Claire, knockouts aren't working.”
“Hold them a sec.”
Without losing consciousness, they needed binding. Claire fully dropped her invisibility in front of the players, summoned her book, and executed the order.
"Underground, underground—leave them there."
⟨ Earth Bind ⟩
Sink.
The two players Aiden held sank slowly into the ground.
Like quicksand on parched earth, they vanished. The players thrashed desperately till the end, quieting only after fully submerging.
Just bare dirt remained.
“I didn't say kill...”
“They're not dead. Just trapped underground with this power for a bit. They can breathe.”
So basically live burial with air holes. He let her you'll eat some dirt but slide.
“Now do the same as before. Killing just creates slots that refill. We keep the docile ones.”
“That's why you were struggling? Got it.”
Claire didn't question the weeding criteria. Her face said she'd bury every last one she could manage.
“Gotta tell Sephirah the same. Coming along?”
“Ah, of course...”
Claire started to answer promptly but trailed off.
Avoiding Aiden's eyes, she gave a vague reply.
“Uh, no. I'll move solo now. Burying takes some effort.”
“Understood. Call if needed.”
As Claire stopped talking, her body faded back to invisible in response to the silence. No answer even to a soft call—she'd really moved.
Now alone, Aiden first distanced himself from the buried players.
Away from players, check his hand, farther still.
The compass on his hand still wouldn't trigger Fast Travel.
The system still recognized the situation as in combat.
“Hm?”
Even after waiting what felt long enough, combat stance didn't lift. Something was off.
Non-lethal could linger briefly, but no change by now?
Aiden tapped his hand, awaiting system reboot.
Scree!
Then, as the thought struck that another player might be targeting him, a sharp arrow slicing wind pierced Aiden's shoulder.
