Becoming the Dark Lord

Luke stood inside the cave where he had once taken shelter with Zoe. She was there again, surrounded by the same group of friends.

She handed him a wooden bowl filled with a thin fish soup. “It’s not poisoned.”

He sat with them and began to eat. The cave was quiet. Suspicious eyes watched him from across the fire.

“There used to be five of you,” Luke said after a moment.

“Amelia died,” David replied.

He kept eating while staring straight at Luke, an axe resting across his lap.

“She drowned. Some maniac killed her while she was trying to grab the blue bracelet.”

“I’m sorry,” Luke said.

“No, you’re not. I’ve seen you around. You chop people apart like they’re toys,” Elijah said.

Luke shrugged slightly. “It’s not like any of you would feel different if it had been me who died.”

He went back to eating. When the bowl was empty, he tilted it back and drank the last of the soup with a loud slurp. Then he set it down on a nearby crate.

“That was really good.”

“Thank you,” Zoe said.

The mood in the cave remained heavy. No one looked particularly hopeful. Most of them looked tired, hollowed out. George finally spoke. He leaned against the cave wall, one hand resting on the hilt of his sword.

“So what did you come here for?”

Luke wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “I figured you might’ve given up already. Or maybe not. What’s your strategy for the Free-for-All?”

“And why exactly should we tell you?” David said.

“Between all of us, the one with the most points barely passed five million.” Zoe said.

“Zoe!” David snapped. “You weren’t supposed to say that.”

Luke nodded slowly. “Yeah. That’s… pretty rough.”

The four of them had already accepted the truth. They weren’t making the top ten. They weren’t surviving this. They were just waiting out their final days.

“You also don’t have the purple and blue bracelets,” Luke added. “At least not enough of them.”

Two of them wore purple bracelets. Only Zoe had a blue one.

“Yeah…” George muttered.

Luke leaned forward slightly. “I came to propose an alliance.”

“An alliance?” David scoffed.

“And I’ll start by offering this.”

Luke reached into his bag and pulled out several bracelets. Blue and purple ones. He placed them on the crate beside the empty bowl. “I figured this might be a decent start for you.”

David clicked his tongue in disgust. “You took those off someone’s corpse. Cold blood. Take them and get out of here.”

Luke looked at him calmly. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but if we don’t kill, we die. Between killing or dying… I choose killing.”

“Sariel,” Zoe said quietly. “I appreciate the bracelets. I really do. But… we gave up. There’s no way we can get that many points.”

“There’s an orange bracelet floating around out there,” Luke said.

George raised an eyebrow. “You mean join the hunt? That Luke Moon guy will be dead in a few days.”

David gave a humorless grin. “At least the bastard has a lot of points. And a bracelet. Two birds with one stone.”

He leaned forward. “So what’s your brilliant strategy? Unless you plan to drag that guy here and drop him in front of us, there’s no way we’re winning this challenge.”

Luke smiled. Slowly, he reached into his bag again. “Well… lucky for yo. I am Luke Moon.”

He pulled out the orange bracelet and held it up.

***

The realization finally settled over the group. The shock faded, and with it came acceptance. The man standing in front of them really was Luke Moon. Once they believed him, Luke laid out his plan.

“You won’t have to kill people you think are innocent,” he explained. “There are plenty of psychopaths already hunting me down. And you won’t waste time tracking down players who are hiding.”

He rose to his feet. “All you have to do is escort me to the third zone. You already know I’m strong. You don’t rack up the number of points I have by accident, and I did win the treasure event.”

Luke brushed some dust off his coat and continued. “When people swarm us like I’m some kind of winning lottery ticket, you give me cover. I’ll cut down anyone who gets close, especially the dangerous ones with high scores. I cripple them, hold them down. You step in and land the final blow.”

He glanced around at each of them. “You get the kill credit. You get the points. By the time we reach the third zone, all of us will be sitting comfortably on the scoreboard.”

He let the idea hang in the air. “So. What do you think of the deal?”

Luke spent the next few minutes explaining the details more carefully.

David’s eyes narrowed. “You’ll use us and then run off, leaving us behind.”

“If after a few days you feel like you’re not gaining enough points, just walk away,” Luke replied calmly. “Leave me behind and go back to whatever strategy you had before.”

He spread his hands. “So? What do you say?”

Zoe looked at the others. “Well, guys? We’re basically dead already. What else are you planning to do?”

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Elijah snorted. “At the rate the other guys are racking up points like crazy, you’re the one who’ll fall behind and disappear from the top rankings.”

“That’s why I’ll keep my bracelet with me,” Luke replied. “And I can deliver Madison and Gregory to you. I confirmed through a source that they’re moving around alone.”

He paused. “Yut Saeten is another story. He’s allied with Father’s group. Even by himself he had forty people protecting him. Now he’s surrounded by more than a hundred.”

David nodded slowly. “Yeah. We heard about that. We saw their group from a distance.”

The four of them stepped aside to talk privately. Luke was asked to leave the cave while they discussed it. He waited outside for a while, listening to the wind moving through the trees. Eventually Zoe emerged from the cave.

“We’re in, Sariel,” she said. Then she smirked slightly. “Or should I say… Luke Moon.”

“Sorry about lying about my name.”

“I don’t see a problem with it. I’d do the same thing if my name was sitting at the top of the scoreboard. You’re trying to survive, after all.”

Luke glanced down at the orange bracelet on his wrist. “The locator will activate soon. I’ll have to go alone for a bit.”

The others stepped out of the cave and joined them. Elijah crossed his arms. “Tell us the full plan. And give us the location you mentioned.”

“Paper and a pen?”

David was already digging through his bag. “Found a notebook in one of the houses earlier.”

“Good,” Luke said. “I’ve got some experience with maps. I’ll help you with that.”

For now, he would have to separate from them. They couldn’t find out he had outside help. Zoe leaned over the notebook as Luke began sketching.

“So we just need to reach this place?”

“This route is the easiest way to approach the city without crossing open plains,” Luke explained. “But there’s a group occupying this building here. Or at least there was the last time I checked.”

His finger tapped the page.

“You’ll have to deal with them. They’re killing anyone who passes by. If you want points, you’ll need to act.”

He continued explaining the route and the timing. Soon after, the five of them began walking together. David glanced at Zoe as they moved through the forest.

“So, love, what do you think?”

Love?

Luke looked at Zoe, and for a brief second his mind drifted back to the night she had offered to sleep beside him.

Don’t tell me she actually…

Zoe cleared her throat softly and shot Luke a quick warning look.

“I think it’s a good plan, David.”

The five of them continued down the trail together. Later, when they stopped beside a river to refill their canteens, Zoe quietly approached Luke while the others were distracted.

“He confessed to me three days ago,” she said.

“Oh. Right. I see.”

The air between them felt strangely awkward.

“We haven’t done anything,” she added quickly. “And I didn’t even give him an answer yet. It just feels strange rejecting someone when… in a few days he might be dead. Turning someone down during their last days…”

“Yeah. I get it,” Luke said.

Getting rejected by the woman you liked a few days before dying probably wouldn’t make those final days any better, Luke thought.

“We worked together for five years,” she continued. “And this was the moment he finally found the courage to say something.”

“Yeah…”

“And the worst part is I never even realized he liked me all that time.”

Luke let out a quiet breath. “I know exactly what that’s like.”

***

A few more hours passed before it was finally time for Luke to split off from the group.

George held up his canteen. “Mind doing that little trick again? I just filled it.”

Luke nodded and placed a hand over it, activating [Botanical Purification]. The cloudy water inside slowly cleared until it looked fresh and drinkable.

George gave the canteen a satisfied shake.

“If we’re really going through with this,” Zoe said, crossing her arms, “it’s time we reveal our skills. I’ll start. I can release a cloud of flame, and I can heat my sword until it burns.”

They all knew each other’s powers already. What they really wanted was to hear Luke’s.

“Since you’re outnumbered, we’ll go first,” Zoe added.

None of them had opened a skill chest in this zone yet. Whether Luke believed them or not, he would have to trust what they said. Their teamwork would depend on it.

David tapped the handle of the axe resting on his shoulder. “I’ve got a cleaving strike with my axe. And I can teleport between campfires.”

Luke blinked. “Teleport?”

“Between campfires I’ve lit myself,” David explained. “They can’t be too far apart, but it’s great for escaping.”

“Does the exit fire need to be burning?”

“Only the entrance one,” David replied. “It only works if I’m the one who lit it. And the exit point just needs to be a fire I lit at some point in the past. Even if it’s already out.”

He jerked a thumb back toward the mountains.

“The cave fire is still there. If I light a campfire here, I can jump straight back to it.”

“Interesting.”

George described his own skills next. Both were simple sword techniques.

Elijah followed. “I can shoot fire beams from my sword. And I can coat my fist in stone.”

Luke raised an eyebrow. “All of you have fire-related powers?”

Zoe smiled faintly. “We didn’t become assistants to the Flame Hero for nothing.”

“That makes sense.”

Eventually the time came for Luke to head out. He said his goodbyes and started walking into the forest. A moment later he heard footsteps rushing behind him. David.

“What’s up?” Luke asked without stopping. “Forget to write something down in your notebook?”

“That’s not it.”

David stood there for a moment, strangely quiet.

“I really need to go,” Luke said. “You know. The whole bracelet and plan thing.”

“I just want to ask you something.”

Luke waited.

“Did something… happen between you and Zoe?”

The question caught him off guard.

“And why would you think that?”

“I’m just asking.”

Luke shook his head. “No. Nothing happened between me and your… girlfriend. Or whatever the two of you are.”

David scratched the back of his head, looking embarrassed. “Right. Sorry about that. It’s just… Elijah told me she was wearing only a bra and panties. And she said you two… stayed like that together. Helping each other and… sharing body heat.”

“Nothing happened,” Luke repeated. He turned back toward the forest. “I need to go.”

“Alright, Luke. Good luck,” David said.

He hesitated before adding, “I hope you make it back alive.”

Then David turned and walked away. Luke watched him disappear between the trees.

Weird guy.

***

Yut sat inside Father’s main camp. Men were constantly coming and going, heading out to hunt. Now they had the reassurance that even if they got injured, Father’s healers would patch them up. It was a very convenient arrangement. Yut leaned back against a wooden post, chewing on a piece of fruit while staring into the distance. Far away, the faint glow of the orange bracelet flickered like a distant beacon.

Luke Moon was being hunted. Yut smiled. “I’ll wear you down.”

He had no intention of chasing Luke immediately. There was no need to rush. His men would gather points first. When the time was right, they would kill Father’s followers, seize their bracelets, and finish off an exhausted Luke Moon after days of running. That was how things were done back in Bangkok.

Still smiling, he turned around. Something suddenly flew out of the bushes toward him. Yut dodged instinctively and pulled out his knife.

“Which little bastard was that?!”

He didn’t rush forward recklessly. Instead he grabbed a nearby torch and tossed it toward the bushes. Nothing.

Did they run?

He looked down and finally noticed what had been thrown. A piece of paper. After scanning the area one more time to make sure no one was lurking nearby, Yut crouched and picked it up. Paper was rare in this place.

As soon as he unfolded it, he read the message written across it.

“I know the place Luke Moon uses to hide and what his next moves are. How about we form an alliance to kill him?”