Hidden Piece Activated
The moment thick smoke began to billow through the arena, Yoo Heeyeon screamed at the top of her lungs.
No one knew exactly what the smoke was. But the ominous energy radiating from it was unmistakable. They had already inhaled a small amount, yet Yoo Heeyeon’s swift reaction meant the damage would likely be minimal.
-Swish.
Yoo Heeyeon scanned her surroundings. Everyone was covering their mouths with their sleeves.
‘What is this?’
She tried to identify the smoke pouring out around them.
‘I panicked and breathed some in, but there’s no physical discomfort…’
Yoo Heeyeon quickly checked her own condition. Nothing felt off or strange. Yet Lee Hyunseung was nowhere to be seen. That led her to one conclusion: had he scattered the smoke to cover his escape?
At the same time, she began gathering mana to cast a tracking spell.
-Whoooosh!
“...!”
A tracking spell could detect the flow of mana in the vicinity and roughly pinpoint a person’s location. But for some reason, the spell now revealed mana signatures coming from every direction at once.
-Grind.
‘What kind of cheap trick is this…’
Mana Detection Bypass Magazine. That was the name of the cartridge loaded with the bullets Lee Hyunseung had fired.
Huff… Huff…
Lee Hyunseung was sprinting like a madman.
‘Taking them all on from the front would be insane.’
At a glance, there were well over thirty pursuers. These weren’t random weaklings either; they were talented enough to have been admitted to Broad Academy. Among them were members of A-class, considered the true elite. Facing dozens of them alone was impossible right now.
Lee Hyunseung didn’t have an infinite supply of bullets, and more importantly, the weapon he was currently using was only a basic-grade firearm.
-Crunch!
You have consumed a magic stone.
A small amount of mana has been acquired.
Since he was using a basic weapon, his magic power stat was practically zero. That meant he had to keep consuming magic stones just to activate any skills. He only had four shots left in the Healing Cartridge that could cure his paralysis.
‘Still, I bought a lot of time back there and even managed to eliminate one of them. That’s a huge gain.’
Roughly ten minutes had passed since he fled from Yoo Heeyeon’s group, fought, and escaped amid the chaos. If he could hold out for another fifty minutes, he would be able to give Han Seonggil the artifact that let him control his Berserker Trait. Then Han Seonggil could push the trait to its maximum and buy him a full hour. After that, the crafting of an Epic-grade—or with luck, Unique-grade—pistol would be complete.
‘Just two hours…’
He couldn’t be certain what kind of weapon would be finished in two hours. It would be randomly generated from the pool of Epic to Unique pistols. Still, no matter which one emerged, the situation would become far more favorable than it was now. After all, he had already taken down one opponent with nothing but a basic pistol.
-Swish.
Lee Hyunseung glanced at the magazine attached to his basic pistol.
‘They still haven’t caught up. Looks like this cartridge is more effective than I thought.’
Mana Detection Bypass Magazine
▶ When this magazine is used, the bullets become infused with demonic energy and mana.
▶ Upon firing, the mana and demonic energy disperse in all directions as smoke.
▶ The generated smoke significantly lowers the accuracy of ‘detection’ abilities.
▶ The range of the smoke and the degree of detection reduction scale with the user’s class rank.
The Mana Detection Bypass Magazine. For an ordinary gunner, it would only produce a small cloud of smoke in the immediate area and throw off tracking spells by a few meters at most. But the final line of the description changed everything.
▶ The range of the smoke and the degree of detection reduction scale with the user’s class rank.
‘Must be because of the Legendary-grade trait. The boost is massive.’
Any cartridge or skill that carried the [Class Rank Scaling] bonus had shown incredible efficiency so far. Since Legendary rank was something only a handful of people in the world possessed, the additional effects were overwhelmingly powerful.
Even basic attacks inflicted massive extra damage, and a C-rank skill could easily surpass the power of most B-rank skills. That alone showed the sheer weight of Legendary scaling. Still, those effects had been invisible until now. Seeing the smoke actually spread like thick fog and blanket the entire area made the scale of the bonus painfully clear.
Other gunners would never be able to replicate what Lee Hyunseung had just done. That was only natural.
-Tap tap tap!
Lee Hyunseung kept running. He needed to buy as much time as possible.
-Swish.
As he ran, a cave came into view.
‘Should I go in?’
He weighed his options. Would it be better to hide inside the cave, or should he keep weaving through the underbrush?
‘No matter where I go, they’ll keep searching.’
Judging by Yoo Heeyeon’s reaction, she had no intention of simply capturing all six strongholds and ending the match early. She cared more about crushing Lee Hyunseung mercilessly than winning the Class Annihilation Match. Even now, she was leading over forty people in a hunt for him. It was incredibly inefficient, yet the fact that she was willing to accept that inefficiency proved how badly she wanted him gone.
In other words, even if they couldn’t find him right away, they wouldn’t stop searching. In that case, hiding in a cave where he could actually catch his breath seemed smarter than wasting stamina running around in the open.
-Step. Step. Step.
Lee Hyunseung stepped into the cave.
-Drip. Drip.
The cave felt strangely out of place among the brush-covered stage, but its interior was surprisingly spacious. There were plenty of rocks to use as cover. Stalactite-like magic stones hung from the ceiling, and more stones were scattered across the floor.
‘This place is overflowing with mana.’
Even at a glance, the air was thick with dense magical energy.
‘Just how deep does this thing go?’
He had walked quite a distance already, yet the end of the cave was still nowhere in sight.
‘Why would a cave this large even be in the stage?’
The current Class Annihilation Match was being held in a conquest format. Victory went to the side that captured the strongholds first or eliminated every opponent. So why include such an extensive cave? If the match had proceeded normally, everyone would have rushed straight to the strongholds. Most people probably never would have entered a hidden cave like this in the corner of the forest.
‘It must serve some purpose.’
Every structure inside the stage had been meticulously created by high-ranking mages as a virtual space. There was no reason to add unnecessary elements. Thinking they had built such a deep cave purely for decoration seemed far more strange.
‘Even I, a veteran of Broad Academy Online, didn’t know about this place?’
Lee Hyunseung had played the game for over ten years. He had gone through the Class Annihilation Match countless times. Yet he had never known this cave existed. Or rather, there had never been any reason to know.
In the game, there had never been any need to hide in a place like this. There was no reason to flee to such an obscure corner during a conquest match. If the game were a racing title, this would be the off-track area beyond the rails.
-Step. Step.
Lee Hyunseung continued deeper into the cave. Eventually, he reached its end.
‘What the hell is this?’
At the very back of the cave, the wall was blocked off. The moment he looked at it, he felt a strange energy—like something was sealed behind it with mana.
-Thud!
He gave the wall a light tap with his fist. The hidden space immediately revealed itself. A small circular indentation just big enough for two fists sat in the wall. Inside it rested a single, solitary red button.
‘……’
A strange button he had never seen or heard of before. Would pressing it bring a penalty? Or an advantage? He had no idea. He couldn’t be sure either way.
‘I shouldn’t press it.’
The risk was too great. If it granted an advantage, that would be ideal. But if it inflicted a penalty, the consequences could be irreversible.
Just as Lee Hyunseung turned to find a hiding spot deeper inside the cave—
-Beeeeeeeeeeep!
-Beeeeeeeeeeep!
A shrill warning sound suddenly blared from the button like a siren gone mad.
“Fuck…!”
A curse slipped out naturally. The alarm was loud enough to rupture eardrums. In the distance, he could already hear Yoo Heeyeon’s entire group charging toward him.
-Rumble!
The sound of dozens of heavy footsteps echoed from afar. It wasn’t just one or two people.
‘I’m screwed.’
If they hadn’t known his exact location, they might have given the cave a quick search and left. But now that this insane alarm was blaring, if Yoo Heeyeon’s group entered, they would comb through every inch—even spaces only an ant could fit through.
There was nowhere to run, and the cave wasn’t a good spot to fight dozens of people at once.
-Swish.
Lee Hyunseung stared at the button.
‘What the fuck is this thing…’
He swallowed once.
-Gulp.
-Rumble rumble rumble!
The voices were getting closer. His throat went dry. Cold sweat trickled down his back. Yoo Heeyeon’s group had almost reached him.
The instant the group closed in right behind him—
‘There’s… no other way.’
He had to press it. So Lee Hyunseung slammed the button.
-Boom!
You have activated a hidden piece.