Chapter 64
Chapter 64
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 64
Chapter Title: It Was Fun Together, Let's Never Meet Again
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It was fun playing together. Let's never meet again.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [Uwaaaah! Aaaahhh!] A shrill scream tore through the fog and stabbed into my ears.
The gruesome sound of flesh peeling from fingertips followed right after,
and the two noises alternated like they'd made a pact, echoing back and forth.
Sssshk!
Still, the assassin had no intention of going down without a fight—the sound of a dagger slicing flesh mixed in with the screams, ringing out together.
He was thrashing desperately just to survive somehow.
But for an assassin, this was truly unfortunate.
The more he resisted in this situation, the deeper into the quagmire he sank.
A prolonged fight meant the noise was piling up.
💥 CRITICAL HIT! 💥 -Kieeeek!
Even the ghosts outside the cymbal's noise range were now being drawn over by the sounds of the assassin's battle.
His fate was pretty much sealed.
"Oof, poor guy."
Yeah, he should've just given up and died without resisting.
Then there might've been a slim chance of escaping after respawning.
— Chat -Emotion check? — Info This girl's bummed that her ghost taunting victims can't hear her. — Chat -You kill 'em and then what.. — Fact She didn't actually kill them. — Chat -True that. I didn't just take the ghosts' attacks lying down for no reason.
Fights make noise, and noise brings more ghosts.
When that many ghosts swarm in, the smartest move is to die once and bail.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [Hah!] Leaving the feasting ghosts behind, I moved on to find the last relic fragment.
Thanks to the assassin going down, the battle situation had swung in our favor, but complacency was always a no-go.
This was a tournament with a custom PC on the line.
No way was I pulling some dumbass reversal by getting careless.
As I recovered my depleted stamina from the assassin fight while scouting the ruins—
Clunk!
Finally, the last relic fragment revealed itself inside a rickety wooden box.
"Found it."
["You found another one?"]
"Yeah."
["Perfect, that's eight for us!"]
We'd gathered all the relic fragments needed for escape.
We'd already secured the altar's location too.
All that was left was regrouping with the team.
Linking up with teammates in this thick fog was no easy task.
Of course, a signal flare changed everything.
["I'll pop the signal!"]
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ System: The <Hearing Loss> curse on team 'Our Game's Still Alive' has lost its effect. -Pang!
"Ah."
The enemy team's curse wore off just one shot before Suha's signal went off.
["Not right now of all times?!"]
["This is..."]
— Chat -Whoa, they heard that — Chat -They're gonna grit their teeth and come interfere now — Chat -We had this in the bag and they ruin it? Now the enemy team knew exactly where we were trying to regroup.
The original plan was to link up while the debuff held and end the game.
But the assassin had doggedly trailed me, delaying the regroup and exposing our position.
We were still in a good spot, but now there was a non-negligible variable.
["Whoa, that startled me... it's you, oppa."]
["Scared me too... Anyway, I've linked up with Suha. Saintess, how loud was that sound for you?"]
"Doesn't seem too far... I'll head over."
There was a chance of running into enemies on the way,
but in this massive island, what were the odds of bumping into them by chance—
Thud thud.
"Huh."
Footsteps overlapped with mine—not just one set, but two.
I stopped dead and focused on the sound.
Thud thud thud.
Steady footsteps approaching through the fog at regular intervals.
"You two aren't running, are you?"
["No? We're standing still."]
If it wasn't Suha or Eder hyung, the owners of those footsteps were obvious.
Ghosts don't make footsteps, so those had to be the enemy team.
'Still... they don't seem to know my position yet, so if I just stay quiet and hunker down—'
Thud.
"—Damn it."
— Chat -Again? — Chat -WTF is with this luck?? — Chat -They're playing this game on adari mode or what What a day—everything under the sun.
One person, fine, I get it.
"But running into both? That's overkill..."
["What?!"]
["Nah, looks like they were moving together."]
The moment they spotted me, the paladin raised his shield and the warrior drew his sword.
They didn't charge right away because—
they'd already heard via team voice how the assassin got wrecked by me.
One-on-one, they might neutralize and chase me off, but—
[Saintess Nice: Saintess/Cymbals]
The problem was my weapon being cymbals.
Take on both of those with this?
Even White Dragon Pavilion's grandpa couldn't pull that off.
"Man, dying here would really screw us..."
If I died here, my team wouldn't have enough relic fragments to escape the island.
The enemy couldn't escape either, but—
ever since their assassin fell, they were already out of escape options.
In other words, we were the only ones who stood to lose.
And the fact that it all boiled down to 'bad luck' was infuriatingly ridiculous.
"What a total shit game."
This was why Ias PVP balance was trash.
You could strategize all day and set up advantageous situations all you want.
One stroke of bad luck, and you bump into them and get wrecked.
— Chat -Fr — Chat -No way bumping into both is legit lol — Chat -What's the % chance of running into both — Chat -Horrible luck Anyway, enough whining.
Now to figure out how to survive.
The silver lining: they were wary of my cymbals too and weren't rushing in recklessly.
If I could gather ghosts and turn those two into another assassin feast, Suha and Eder hyung could grab the fragments and bail.
"Should I just turn and run...?"
With the warrior and paladin's mobility, they couldn't catch my movement-spam saintess.
But then I'd have to relocate Suha and Eder hyung's positions all over again.
In the end, options were scatter and regroup or break their encirclement somehow and link up.
Two choices lay before me.
My pick was obviously—
["Should I fire another signal?"]
"Hold off, Suha. Use it when I say."
The latter.
From the enemy's perspective, their best hope was a time-limit draw.
That's why, even in this 2v1 advantage, they were content to standoff.
Gregory's Ghost Island was a map notorious for frequent draws anyway.
Their play was straight out of the textbook.
— Chat -Total trash map — Chat -If they stall like that, isn't it a draw — Chat -Camp all day and you don't lose lol At least we had breathing room to plan a counter.
Senses on high alert for their movements,
I replayed the signal flare moment in the back of my mind.
'The sound was louder than I thought.'
Suha and Eder hyung were probably much closer than I'd figured.
Not sure if we could reach even using all our movement skills, but—
there was one clever play worth trying.
"Suha."
["Yeah?"]
"When I signal, burn your movement skills and rush my direction."
If they came to me instead of just me going to them—
the distance would shrink massively, and we might link up before I died.
'Worst case... if I die, as long as we meet first, it's fine.'
["Huh? Aren't you facing enemies right now? How're we supposed to get to you?"]
"Gotta tank it somehow, I'll take the hits."
["Your HP's low! No way you survive!"]
"Counting to three, get the signal ready."
["Nooooo!"]
"One—"
One thing I'd learned training Suha:
She always did better thrown into the fire than with long explanations.
"Two—"
Good instinct or clutch performer,
I still wasn't sure which.
"Three!"
⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡ Cymbals (Max) The second I hit three, I slammed my cymbals hard.
-Paaaang!
Almost simultaneously, a signal flare burst beyond the enemies blocking me.
'Closer than I thought.'
💥 CRITICAL HIT! 💥 -Kieeeek!
["C-coming right now!"]
The warrior and paladin facing me off immediately moved to block the signal's direction.
Desperate to prevent the link-up, drag out time, force a draw.
The stakes were raised, cards on the table.
No more standing still for me.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [Hng!] I burned some movement skills to dive into the warrior and paladin's range.
They'd expect me to safely pull away, so closing in would throw them off.
Of course, they'd quickly realize I was trying to slip past to my team.
—Shing!
—Vmmm!
Confirming the paladin's holy sword and warrior's sword aura flying slowly toward me—
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [Hyap!] —I burned the rest to create distance.
My movements were tapped out, but they still had theirs.
Meaning the gap would close again soon.
[HP: 30%] -Flash!
The moment I pulled away, the paladin and warrior lunged at me in an instant.
Warrior or paladin, one solid main skill hit and I'd drop with this HP—but—
— Chat -Ah — Chat -We're screwed — Chat -Dead ⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [I'll protect you!] — Chat -????? — Chat -What — Chat -Divine shield? Only after confirming the golden protective barrier enveloping me could I finally exhale a bit.
-Ting!
God's Shield deflecting the paladin and warrior's strikes.
["It... it worked..!"]
Trusting the shield, I pushed forward, and through the fog, I spotted Suha's character holding her holy book toward me.
Perfect judgment exploiting how skill range outstrips vision range.
— Chat -Suha pulling this off? — Chat -Big Suha — Chat -Divine shield goes off lol — Chat -We win Honestly... gotta respect it.
A quick glance back: the warrior and paladin had stopped, giving up the chase.
And for them, I—
-Clang! Clang! Clang!
—rang the cymbals.
💥 CRITICAL HIT! 💥 -Kieeeek!
["Hey, hey! What're you doing! Ghosts incoming!"]
— Chat -Crazy bitch lol — Chat -Ghost taunting again — Chat -Sabotaging even in tournament — Chat -Can't stay quiet for a second lol "We're leaving soon anyway, so what."
Ghost shrieks came from all directions, but no big deal.
["Over here!"]
The altar was right there, Eder hyung holding it, so no getting lost.
Before escaping, I slowly raised my hand toward the ghosts drawn by the noise.
"Bye bye."
It was fun playing together. Let's never meet again.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ System: Team 'Nice Squad' has offered 8 relic fragments at the altar (Relic fragments remaining for escape: 0). System: Team 'Nice Squad' has escaped Ghost Island and become survivors! ◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Ias: Immortal Battlefield—after Preliminary Round 1 wrapped up.
The ops team held a meeting, sharing prelim match footage.
The goal: compile highlight reels to release before the main tournament.
"Fewer standout moments for highlights than expected."
"Yeah... prelims being prelims, the skill gaps showed in most matches."
The issue: most games were one-sided stomps.
Made it tough to pick highlight clips.
"Sigh... let's comb through them one by one anyway."
Even after being called in on the weekend to run the tourney and now this meeting, no one complained.
'Still better than the teams getting crushed on winter update prep...!'
Compared to teams buried under insane dev schedules, tourney ops had it easy.
When you thought of folks grinding day and night to make the director's wild plans real, this fatigue was nothing.
"How about the team Mr. Bada handled?"
"Hm... there's one match that comes to mind."
"There is?! Why didn't you say so sooner!"
"Well... it was on Ghost Island."
"Oh."
Gregory's Ghost Island.
The PVP island annihilation map with the weirdest win con—and the most failed one.
Matches dragged boringly, draws happened way too often, top of the user hate list.
No way to pull highlights from a map like that.
Or so you'd think—
"...Found it?"
"Why bring it up now!"
"Think we can wrap this meeting early?"
Nice Squad's Ghost Island match was definitely a different beast from the rest.
Specifically, one player dictated the flow.
"Who the hell is this player?"
"Huh, I've heard the name somewhere."
"Streamer's what I heard."
"The one we investigated thinking she was a gold farmer, but wasn't."
After reviewing all of Nice Squad's footage, the ops team's eyes sparkled.
"Found our highlight gold."
Saintess Nice wasn't just some troll anymore in their eyes.
She was the perfect spice to flavor the highlight reel.