by Rick Scar
Dodging a carnivorous plant – one of many inhabiting this area – Raven slashed open a wriggling ivy wall and barged into a cave.
“Fuck you!” Pressing his back against the wall, he stood still to avoid triggering any of the AI’s traps. He needed time to restore his HP and skills. He hadn’t been able to use Wings in any of the last four areas he had passed because of all the flying mobs in the air.
The timer showed that two and a half hours had passed since the beginning of the race. Straightening up, Will sighed as he checked the remaining scrolls and potions. He had spent too many, but he had had no other choice.
He had no time to waste. Kurt had already announced nine of the winners, two of which were Crimson Berserker and Perdition.
Putting a hand on the moist wall of the narrow passage, he moved on. The first trap was a rope that stretched across the floor in level with his knees. If not for the Night Vision potion combined with his Observer’s Eye, he would’ve triggered it. He had lost or used all his torches and light scrolls in the other caves.
Will stepped over the rope, paying close attention to where he put his feet. Monitoring his surroundings as he walked on, he shot his crossbow at every suspicious-looking stone.
He walked on, never breaking into a run. The passage forked. With guesswork being his only guide, he turned left.
Having killed a couple of mobs that seemed to appear by random, he did his best not to ruin his chance of victory by being hasty. Still, despite his efforts, he couldn’t ignore the fact that time was running out and that other players were probably sprinting for the finish line. He couldn’t hear Kurt’s voice in here. The silence was unnerving. Avoiding another trap (a volley of spears shot from a wall), Raven found himself in a spacious cave that had no way out.
Shit.
He had gone the wrong way.
Chapter 245. Round Two Results
A s Will considered his next step, the spiders climbing up from the bottom of the cave were spreading across the surface. Like a living avalanche, they crept after the players who were still fighting their way into Round Three.
Kurt immediately commented on that, and the contestants hurried on, which only made them make more mistakes. Only several minutes later did he realize that he probably shouldn’t have warned them. If the spiders had remained a surprise, more players would’ve been eliminated. Unfortunately, he couldn’t take it all back.
Raven had already examined the whole cave, but saw nothing that could help him. He didn’t really want to waste time going back the same way as the other path was probably a dead-end as well.
Having grown tired of straining his eyes and brain in search of a way out, he activated the Golden Dragon form and started another walk about the cave. Mid-way through it, he heard a drum. The echo of it made him uneasy; it sounded like a signal, the meaning of which he didn’t know.
His gut feeling screamed that he should hurry. He had no objections to that. As he hastily examined the cave, a sudden twitch came to his tail as it reacted to a flash on his right. Turning in that direction, he could see nothing but a wall with small cracks webbing all over it. Returning to his normal form, he ran up to the wall to feel it all over in hope of detecting whatever had triggered his tail, when he heard a deep, humming sound from the depths of the tunnel.
Shit! What am I even looking for?
Feeling that his situation was about to get much, much worse, Raven hurried but the wall refused to reveal its secrets.
The approaching sound called for taking a greater risk. Will activated Through a Wall and started to slowly disappear into the stone when a strong flow of water hit his back.
Phew. It’s just water, he realized, relieved. I thought that the spiders were still after me. Luckily for him, he had an item that allowed him to breathe for thirty minutes under water in his inventory.
Soon, he came out on the other side of the wall and nodded with satisfaction. His spirits went up as he saw another tunnel going far ahead.
Five minutes, and many avoided traps later, he reached the exit by this twisting tunnel. He could finally run again. He had wasted too much time in those damned caves, and now he was at risk of losing the race and sending all his hard work down the drain.
Will dashed ahead, hurrying as much as the other fifty players who were still alive but who hadn’t yet reached the finish line. The Race for Life was nearing its culmination, and the excited audience held its breath in anticipation of the finale.
Deserts filled with small scorpions and flesh-eating scarabs led by mummies. Lakes packed with monstrous fish and alligators. Plateaus covered with magma spat out by flying skulls that were the size of monkeys.
As Raven slipped under the belly of a fat but quick monster, he used Double Attack to sever one of its eight limbs and slow it down. He preferred not to waste time on killing the creature. Not with the back of another player moving too far ahead for him to see their name.
Hurry! Hurry up!
The distance was closing quickly; the other player had no pets to use for speeding up. Thanks to his passive skills, Will soon came close enough to apply Not Me and exchange places with a player named Terracotta Warrior. Taken aback by this change, Terracotta Warrior stumbled over a rock in his way and fell face-first to the ground.
A little bit more!
Far ahead, Will could see a looming building that resembled some sort of an ancient temple appear at the finish line. A quick glance to the side revealed a couple of other players about two miles away from him. They, too, seemed to be on their way to this colossal structure.
“Here are the new runner-ups! Raven used his secret weapon again, making one rival eat the dust! I can see twelve other players competing for the twenty-fifth place…”
Twelve? That’s too much. As he listened to Kurt, he scrutinized the landscape ahead of him for any opportunity to gain an edge, but none caught his eye. It was just a bare plain with lone mobs. He couldn’t fly because of the winged monsters plummeting down on their prey with their entire weight. Their bodies left such deep pits in the ground that Will wondered what kind of wings could support such a heavy thing in the air. Having barely avoided an attack by one of these monsters, he preferred to stay on the ground.
As he ran on, looking for a way to gain speed, he suddenly smiled and slowed down. Having summoned Shimiraz, he blurted out a command and extended an arm to the Ogre.
What happened next made the audience gasp with surprise and then laugh at the rogue’s resourcefulness.
The Ogre picked his master up, tossed him, and disappeared. Flying through the air, Will activated Wings, gained speed, and raced past several other players. Unfortunately, he caught the attention of the winged mobs. Two of them plummeted to grab him, but he summoned a clone that leaped toward the mobs, distracting them.
Like an arrow, he flew over the ground, making small turns to avoid the monsters’ attacks. The temple was growing closer. Having left the flying mobs’ area behind, he could finally gain height. That is, he could’ve, had the skill not expired.
Landing, he continued on foot.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
An icy rain reduced his HP but failed to put a debuff on him. Will’s magic resistance was too strong for his opponent to overcome as their skill was currently too weak.
Glancing around, Will spotted the player who had summoned the hail. Riding his pet (a lizard with a scorpion’s tail), he was preparing another spell. His attacks had a longer range than Will’s, and he was making most of this advantage. In order not to waste any time, Will did his best to get away quickly.
All he wanted at that moment was speed. His greatest regret was that Hade was still asleep. If he could ride her, a quick and agile runner in her canine form, he would’ve overcome half of the obstacles easily.
“…sudden turn!” Kurt screamed overhead. “Koshie ran into a strong monster. If he gets involved with it, he won’t reach the finish line in time. And he’s not the only one! Just look at Light Missio
nary and Nabila! They got trapped in the quicksand. It’ll take them luck and effort to get outta that predicament! And if that ain’t bad enough, snakes are coming to make their situation even worse! Oh, Raven got attacked by Xiang Hu and made a run for it! Time’s playing against him, ladies and gents. And against all the rest! For those who’re not paying attention to their screens, there thirty-two players left and only fifteen vacant spots!”
The closer Will came to the temple, the more players he saw. Keeping his guard up, he rushed for the finish line, leaving the Chinese player far behind. Having realized that Will was now out of his reach, Xiang Hu focused on destroying those who were still within it. With his speed fully depending on his pet, he could afford this tactic.
On the run, Will rounded or jumped over the rocks that formed a larger version of Stonehenge over the vast area right before the finish line. The problem wasn’t the fact that the massive rocks were slowing him down, but that some of them turned out to be mobs in disguise. Their attacks were simple, but they were undetectable until they moved.
Unable to use the Revelation Sphere on the run, he activated Wings once again… and immediately suffered a hard blow that knocked him down. He rolled on the ground, spitting blood as his body hit the broken fragments of stone. Then he jumped up and ran on, reeling from the impact of the Emperor’s blow.
Fucking fuck!
He saw a system message about his character’s broken ribs, but the finish line was too close to let the pain stop him.
Three hundred feet left.
A monster shed its disguise, targeting his back, but he cast Air Knife over his shoulder, slowing down the sly mob.
Will and the other players ran on and on like blind kittens, avoiding and debuffing the mobs that had been placed all around the place to slow down the contestants.
On the platform in front of the temple stood those players who had already reached the finish line. Having used Double Jump as his springboard, Raven barely avoided hitting them as they stepped aside. The rogue rolled several feet on the ground. When he stopped, the crowd saw a few HP potions in his hands.
“Welcome aboard.” Perdition came up to squat by his side. “I’m surprised it took you so long. Stopped to grab a handful of gold coins, have you?” She laughed and looked up where the sun was barely discernible through the swarming spectators.
Round Two was over. The end result surprised many. Much of the outcome had been decided by the initial choice of the contestants; those who got it wrong could only lament their bad luck. Koshie (the last round’s leader) and Buckshot had failed to make it into Round Three. The former took this news with no emotion on his face; then again, he never showed any. Mystical Darkness had surprised everyone by coming thirty-eighth. She smiled like the happiest person on Earth.
This time the winners got two days to rest and prepare. The rules of Round Three were to be posted the next day. Players were making guesses about what the devs had prepared for them, and anticipated another epic adventure.
No one had any idea that the devs had no say in any of this.
Chapter 246. Dis-Insection
“Y our order, gentlemen.” A pretty waiter with a professional smile on her face put the dishes down on the table and, making sure that the patrons needed nothing else, left to wait other tables.
It was a rare occasion when Jacob and Glen left their headquarters to enjoy themselves in a restaurant around the corner. They were unlikely to get recognized. For all those years since founding their start-up, they had avoided the media spotlight, staying low and keeping their lives private.
If only they knew back then where this road would take them.
After the spectacular Round Two had come to an end, both of them were feeling depressed. They badly needed a break, away from the room containing The Emperor.
“You know, I’ve tried to make sense of all this…” Having caught a piece of well-done steak with his fork, Jacob squinted at it, looking for the right word.
“Shit?” his best friend, who had always been good with words, suggested.
“Yes. Shit,” Jacob accepted. Having put the meat in his mouth, he looked at Glen. “Doesn’t it seem weird to you? That bastard, with his fucking incredible powers, coming to us and no one else? To us, people, I mean.”
Glen smirked faintly. “I would’ve been seriously concerned about my intelligence otherwise. That’s not a question we’re likely to answer any soon.”
They spent the next few minutes in silence, eating, until Glen put his knife and fork aside and stared at his friend. “Let’s discuss a more important topic.”
“Do you mean…?”
“Yes. That. Have you come up with a way to monitor its progress?”
“Listen...” Having reached for a glass of wine, Jacob sighed and twirled it, watching the drink change its color. Without taking a sip, he put it down and laced his fingers under his chin. “You know it’s not only our hands that are tied. I don’t know how it’s even possible, but it is watching our every step. I’m not yet sure if that letter escaped its attention.”
“Hush. I know. But I hoped that you found a way.”
“Quiet.” Shooting a quick glance at the other tables, Jacob smiled a guilty smile, as though apologizing for his companion being too loud. “If I knew anything… Don’t you think I would’ve told you immediately?”
“Sorry... I’ve been really stressed out these days...” Covering his face with hands, Glen calmed down and took a breath before he continued: “I wonder what the next round will be like.”
***
The morning after the Roller Coaster was marked by a piece of good news: Will’s father was coming home from the hospital. With him came another, somewhat shocking piece of news.
“I’ve had the time to think it over.” Darius scratched the back of his head. He was apparently confused about how to put it to Will who had already finished his meal and was about to go back into the game. “Er… Do you think I can learn to play it? That game you like so much...”
Will staggered at that and looked at his father in confusion. Does he really want to give it a go? he wondered.
“Sure! You did well last time... Though, there’s a bit of a problem: the company has recently changed the rules. The sensitivity level has to be fifty percent or higher. That’s rather strong pain. If I were you, I’d give it some more thought.”
“Hmm... Is that mandatory? I never really understood the rich folk...” Darius was about to take a sip of coffee but stopped his hand in the air, looking at his son. “I don’t mean you, Will. A typical rich guy, not you. No offense.”
“None taken, old man. Relax.” Will smiled and headed for his capsule. “Give it a thought. I’ll pay for your subscription and gear, but only if you’re serious about this. By the way...” He stopped in his tracks and turned around. “I don’t remember if I told you or not, but – could we look for a place closer to Leah’s school? I don’t have a lot of time and all because of work, so... Could I bother you to look at some apartments in her area?”
“Move closer to Leah? I’ll give it a look, don’t worry.” Taking a sip of coffee, Darius waved at Will to signal that things were now under control and that he could go play the game.
As Will entered Ascension, he remembered Curtis and made a mental note to ask how he was doing. But before that…
Today was the day he had planned the purge for. He had been postponing this task for too long already, although he knew there was no way to escape it.
“Emin!” Raven found the captain in the barracks where he was giving a pep talk to a bunch of new recruits and waited for him to finish the speech before calling out to him.
“Your Majesty? I’m so sorry. I wasn’t informed about your arrival.” Emin nodded. “If you came here looking for me, it must be something really urgent. What can I do for you?”
“You’re right, it’s urgent. Now, listen carefully, I need you to…”
***
It was a bright noon.
Tired of standing behind the counter, Tess came out of his shop and looked around. Business had been surprisingly slow; his only customer this morning had been a loathsome hag.
The warm weather was depressing him, and the sight of the bustling young was even more pain. He wiped the saliva suddenly wetting his lips and, shaking the sensations off, came back in to catch his breath. Closing the door behind him, he barred it with his shoulder.
“A powerful temptation. But I’m patient. I’m patient.” Having opened the door, he came back to the counter to wait there until night.
The shop’s location was perfect for praying upon drunken girls in the evenings.
Having moved to the sleepy town of Dolpar, north of Adamarona’s capital, three years ago, Tess never regretted it. His boss was happy with how he was doing his job.
Deep in thought, he heard the newspaper boy’s voice from the street.
“That nasty boy. I’ll give it to him.” Grinning, Tess came out to drive the boy away as he always did, but the news being screamed by the nasty bugger stopped him in his tracks.
“Attention! Attention! Attention! Breaking news! As breaking as it is fresh! The Swarm queen will be executed next to the city of Kadil! Tomorrow at eight in the morning, capital time! Our glorious king is inviting us all to come and see history in the making! Don’t miss out on this…!”
Tess slammed the door shut and stared at his trembling hands.
It can’t be true. It can’t. That bastard couldn’t have possibly taken my queen captive. Or… could he?
Judging from the reports the boss had read to all of them, Adamarona’s king was a messenger. And messengers could make incredibly fast progress. Like that upstart had.
He had to contact his officer to check if the man had heard from the Swarm.
The whole country was buzzing. This scandalous piece of news spread through Adamarona like wildfire. Thousands of people were setting off for the capital to see the queen that had ruled the Swarm since their great-grandfathers’ young years being executed in public. In every corner of the country, you could hear conversations like this one: