Chapter 149
Chapter 149
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 149
Chapter Title: Chapter 28: Human Hunt (3)
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“Uh, um…… What do I do?”
The sniper muttered softly in confusion, glancing back and forth between the original direction they were heading and the spot where the explosion had just occurred.
By then, I had already leaped from the rooftop of the building where I’d been waiting.
Our target had moved.
Judging from the target’s movement path on the map, it seemed to be heading toward the explosion site for support.
With the original plan thrown off, we needed to adapt quickly.
‘Most of the police deployed for the evacuation don’t know about the game.’
In that situation, if a barrier went up over the warehouse where flames were raging?
There was a high chance that a large number of people would witness the unnatural phenomenon of the fire suddenly vanishing.
‘Abandon the barrier.’
That left striking fast against the four targets—striking before they could counterattack—as the best option.
The moment a black shadow darting across the cement road caught my eye, my form was completely swallowed by the darkness.
‘Invisibility.’
I had cloaked my mana within my core and activated invisibility on top of that.
No symbol appeared on Earth, making it impossible to spot me with the naked eye.
On top of that, my body was that of a gold-badge player.
Suppressing my presence and moving while cloaked in mana wasn’t all that difficult.
To detect me in this state, one would need senses developed to gold-badge level or mana detection at level 5 or higher.
And the guy I was targeting right now was nowhere near that level.
He only turned around at the last second, just before Kerax’s spear touched his back. Obvious enough.
Stab-!
With a dull sound, the spear pierced the player’s heart in a single strike, ending him.
「Successfully eliminated the target.」
「Mana is absorbed. Some contaminated mana is mixed in.」
A quick glance at the map showed the remaining two also converging on the explosion site.
One at the 4 o’clock position, the other at 7 o’clock.
“4 o’clock direction. End it in one strike—no dragging it out.”
It wasn’t a loud voice, but it was plenty for the silver-badge to hear.
The two presences that had swiftly followed behind me vanished toward the 4 o’clock direction.
The sniper had taken Lily along.
Confirming their movement, I dashed toward 7 o’clock.
Soon, a faint smell of dirt wafted in.
That’s when I spotted another player charging toward the explosion site.
Without hesitation, I stomped the cement road hard enough to crack it.
Crunch.
I threw the shortspear with every ounce of strength, overloading the muscles in my arms, shoulders, and waist.
I had accounted for the possibility that the opponent might deploy a barrier.
Screeeee-!
A piercing whoosh echoed, loud enough to tear eardrums.
The moment I kicked off the ground to follow the shortspear—launched at a speed too fast for normal eyes to even track its shadow—
“Wha……!”
The player charging from the opposite direction activated a barrier.
An impressively quick reaction.
But against me, it fell a bit short.
Crack-!
The mana he poured into the barrier couldn’t block a full-power throw from a gold-badge.
Such was its terrifying force that the spear shattered the barrier and exploded the player’s head.
‘If I’d thrown it normally, it would’ve held.’
Then it would’ve turned into a fight instead of an ambush.
Worth the strain.
‘Two left.’
One of them was being handled by the sniper and Lily, so the remaining one was at the explosion site.
Boom-!
Right on cue, another explosion roared, and the flames shooting into the sky grew fiercer.
I pivoted directions before mana absorption even finished.
By the time I neared the explosion site, the target approaching from the 4 o’clock direction had vanished.
The sniper and Lily had succeeded in their ambush.
‘One left.’
In the brief moments I’d ambushed the others, the flames at the explosion site had intensified further.
It wasn’t just one building anymore—an entire block was engulfed.
Clicking my tongue inwardly, I leaped from a nearby rooftop toward the two players clashing spectacularly.
One man, one woman.
They were tangled up exchanging sword strikes, making it impossible to tell which was the target.
So I thrust my spear right between them.
“What?!”
“Who……!”
The two unidentified players reacted simultaneously.
But they didn’t counterattack right away.
I was still invisible, after all.
They merely swung their swords toward where they sensed I might be.
Naturally, their accuracy suffered, letting me easily kick them apart in opposite directions.
“What the hell kind of guy…… Ack!”
“Guhk!”
The result?
‘The man.’
The system had marked the target on the map as the man flung to the left.
‘The one I hit earlier was just a bystander.’
Both were fire-attribute users.
Decision made, I drew and hurled a shortspear.
Clang-!
The clash of metal rang out, and the guy—already planted on the ground—deflected the shortspear with his sword.
In doing so, he missed the dagger I’d flung off to the side after the spear.
As a result, he couldn’t dodge the dagger that suddenly appeared before his eyes.
“Arrrgh!”
No matter how awakened a player was, their eyes and other vital spots remained vulnerable.
That let me pierce his eye with object-transfer magic.
Seizing the opening, I threw another spear.
Stronger than the last, the shortspear punched deep into the cement floor.
A beat later came the thud.
The target, a hole dead center in his chest, collapsing.
He didn’t die instantly.
“Guhk, kuh!”
Twitch, twitch.
For a few seconds, the target writhed, vomiting blood.
Like desperate struggling against death.
Futile, of course.
「Successfully eliminated the target.」
「Mana is absorbed. Some contaminated mana is mixed in.」
Once the message appeared, the target went limp and still.
It had taken just over five minutes to eliminate all four targets in San Diego.
They’d conveniently gathered in one spot.
Their attention divided elsewhere made ambushing easy.
The empty streets meant no extra factors to worry about.
The situation wrapped up quickly.
Alone on the rooftop, I surveyed the surroundings.
Red flames, black smoke, shattered glass, and crumbled building exteriors filled my view.
Distant sirens wailed, adding drama to the devastation.
‘A sea of fire.’
Like a miniature version of the hellscapes I’d see in the future.
I gazed at the burning street with mixed emotions.
‘It’s been about nine months since the game started……’
Around when silver-badge players began posting about their second awakenings.
‘Honestly, silver-badge isn’t even that high a level in this game.’
Yet even those not-so-high-level silver-badges had no trouble turning a city block to ashes.
‘And that was just two of them.’
Realizing that led to grim what-ifs.
If I were standing in a facility under heavy guard, would things be different?
‘No chance.’
The easy answer furrowed my brow.
‘I get that we need players to prepare for potential wars.’
Human firearms were too feeble against higher evolved beings.
Guns could be covered somewhat by a tier-2 barrier spell alone.
Meanwhile, I had a body strong enough to pierce those barriers.
That gap alone proved players’ necessity.
But vividly imagining the worst disasters from nurturing those players left a bitter taste.
Players raised for war might be the ones to end humanity.
‘That would be the ultimate tragedy.’
With a wry smile, I let out a sigh carrying my tangled feelings.
I couldn’t cling to those emotions forever.
Like in the arena, I’d offloaded something weighing on me here.
Then I turned to leave.
Oddly, walking away from what remained didn’t feel so heavy.
That freed up some mental space, even sparking ideas on exploiting this incident.
‘Might as well make it flashy and wrap it up quick.’
Unlike Korea, America faced higher risks of armed terrorism.
With the government aware of players, disguising the incident shouldn’t be hard.
As I mulled future plans, two presences approached rapidly.
Judging by their direction, definitely the sniper and Lily.
Even realizing that, I headed the opposite way.
Toward where I’d kicked the woman earlier.
The unidentified woman stood wary, sword raised, scanning all around.
Tense because she couldn’t pinpoint my location.
I alternated glances between her and the map.
‘Not a target.’
No need to kill her right away, but no obligation to let her go either.
‘Find out why she was here and her connection to those guys, then decide.’
Judgment made, I dropped invisibility and spoke.
“What are you?”
Spotting me, the woman flinched.
Perfect timing—the sniper and Lily returned.
“Know her?”
“No way.”
No sooner had I lightly denied the sniper’s question than the woman’s eyes widened, pointing at me.
“Hey, Li, Lily Evans!”
Correction.
She was pointing not at me, but at Lily approaching my side.
“Do you know me?”
“Y-yeah, uh, I saw you at the association’s founding ceremony…… Ah!”
She answered more readily than expected, then suddenly startled on her own.
Even rolling her eyes like someone caught red-handed.
‘Fidgety one.’
Her first impression wasn’t calm.
As I observed her, Lily asked in a peculiar tone.
“Are you a player residing in San Diego?”
Before the question finished, the woman’s shoulders shook.
An blatantly obvious reaction. As if answering with expressions and gestures to avoid speaking.
‘Not a resident here, but Latin American clashing with drug traffickers……’
A few keywords plus Lily’s attitude made the answer clear.
‘Illegal immigrant.’
She’d crossed the border without proper procedures.
Hence her extreme wariness around Lily, whose CIA ties were well-known.
‘By the book, she should be arrested immediately.’
Stepping in before Lily invoked law and order.
“My question came first, though…….”
Technically, Lily had jumped into my conversation with the woman.
Even if it meant ignoring Lily, I needed my answers first.
Why she’d been fighting the target.
A chilling hunch warned me I had to hear it.
“I asked what you are. What’s your connection to the dead guy over there?”
I rested my spear on my shoulder with a clack and repeated.
The woman glanced back and forth between Lily and me.
“Need me to ask again?”
Had she noted the hierarchy here, with Lily yielding despite my intervention?
“Was here to kill that junkie bastard…… Figured I’d smoke some while at it…….”
The woman’s sealed lips finally parted.
“Uh, um…… Was trying to cut off their supply, y’know? Those guys were extracting blood from monsters to make a new drug. Y’know, the black blood. Everyone knows about it, right? But damn, the effects are way too dangerous—veins turning black and bulging, muscles bulging visibly, turning people almost inhuman. So I figured I had to stop it before it hit the streets…….”
That explained why the system had bounties on so many players.
Damn System