Second World

When Jack noticed Princess Purpleʼs name in the sky became grey, he had started running back to the starting location. His heart sank when he saw Giant Steveʼs name became grey as well. By the time he arrived at their spawning place, everything had ended. The enemies were nowhere to be seen.

”Damn!” Jack uttered. He now knew what Jet was planning. Unfortunately, the message system was disabled here. He couldnʼt contact the remaining two members of his team.

*

On the roof of a broken high-rise building, Yellow Death perched on its railing which was still intact. He had chosen this building because this was the only tall building where its surroundings were vacant lots without other buildings. This way, he could see if someone came near this building.

His Archerʼs skill, Keen Sight, gave him the ability to see things slightly further than normal players. He also had a non-standard skill, Zoom Vision, which allowed him to adjust his sight to see things even further. Sort of like looking through the sniper scope of a rifle.

These skills, in addition to Gunnerʼs Shooting Stance and Snipe, boosted with the higher elevation of his current position, he should have no problem shooting anyone that tried to come near. His current weapon was also a rare rifle that had one of its stats increasing the shooting distance even more.

His only problem was that he couldnʼt see all three hundred and sixty degrees. He had to rotate every few seconds around the four corners of the roof to make sure that no one was approaching. The vacant lots below were wide enough so he should be able to spot someone within those few seconds he was rotating. Except, of course, for that invisible one. But if it was only one person sneaked in here, he didnʼt believe he couldnʼt take down that single Bard.

He had seen the names of Giant Steve and Princess Purple getting greyed out in the sky, but he didnʼt care. He never thought of relying on the others anyway. He stayed in his position. This was the best place for him. He could fight the others on his term here. He would defeat anyone that dared to come near.

After countless rotations on the roof, something finally caught his sight. Yellow Death immediately took a crouch and used Shooting Stance while activating his Zoom Vision.

Two dwarves, the Paladin and the Druid. They were sneaking around from cover to cover. From the way they were moving, they were heading in a different direction than he was in. They were not yet aware of his position.

He watched them a bit longer. Where were the other three? Perhaps they split up? Or perhaps there were three down there? One of them was invisible?

He should be able to snipe them from this distance. His Shooting Stance was already max-leveled, giving him an additional 50 meters of range from his standard range.

Yellow Death relaxed himself, controlled his breathing. He wanted to target the Druid who had less HP, but that Druid made a better use in cover. The Paladin, on the other hand, was more careless. Since he couldnʼt target the Druid, he could only go for the Paladin.

When he had a clear shot, he hold his breath and pulled the trigger.

*BANG*

It was a headshot with critical damage. He had used Snipe skill with that shot. Too bad the damage wasnʼt enough to finish the Paladin in a single hit. His health was critical, though. The Druid started casting a spell to heal her partner. Yellow Death wasnʼt going to let her. One more shot and he would score his first kill in this match.

As he was about to pull the trigger again, he heard something snapping from behind.

He immediately whirled back, rifle ready to fire. But a hand stopped his rifle midway. Another hand with a sharp blade came punching. The sharp blade of the katar sunk deep into Yellow Deathʼs skull.

”Argghh…!” He screamed. Although he didnʼt die despite the critical damage. The pain was still unbearable.

Rapid punches followed. The katar pierced his body multiple times. Before he fell, he saw that besides the Beastmaster that was using him as a punching bag, on his left and right were the dwarven Bard and Elite Marksman. As he fell, he was wondering how these three had managed to sneak in without him noticing.

The fact was Hideout had found his position while being invisible. He then went back to inform the others. They then separated into two teams. One was to attract Yellow Deathʼs attention, making him stop looking at the other sides. This bait team consisted of Longstick and Outdoor who had slow movement.

The other three with fast movement sneaked into the building that Yellow Death was in while his attention was taken by Longstick and Outdoor.

*

”F*ck!” Jack cursed when Yellow Deathʼs name in the sky was greyed out.

He had been running around aimlessly, trying to find either his teammates or better, the enemies. But his search was fruitless. He was truly missing the feel when his God-eye Monocle was working.

There were just too many buildings on this map that blocked eyesight. Very difficult to spot anyone.

ʼThis is not working,ʼ he thought.

After thinking for a while, he headed inside one of the broken buildings. No one should be able to see him unless they came into this building. If they did, then Jack would be happy to welcome them.

Inside the building, he sat cross-legged and meditated. He concentrated his mana sense to the fullest. His awareness started to spread, he then felt his consciousness leave his body and soared. He sent that consciousness to the areas around him. Sweeping one building after another.

If using eyes, there were many places around the buildings to hide. He might not be aware of a person hiding in a gap between two fallen walls even if he passed nearby. But with mana sense, it was like a scanner. He scanned everything in the area. Even the smallest insect would not escape his notice.

He started from a close distance to the furthest he could send his consciousness to while performing a circling sweep. It took time as the area was large. After a while, he finally sensed someone. Not the enemy, it was Red Death. She was hiding in one of the abandoned buildings and peeking out from the window. She probably planned to wait until the enemy passed and ambushed them.

After finding Red Deathʼs location, his consciousness returned to his body and he hurriedly headed over to that place.

*

Inside the building Jack had seen during his sensing form, Red Death was still peeking out from the windows. She had been roaming around aimlessly for a while. When her teammatesʼ names started greying out one after another, she understood the enemy was targeting them one by one.

At that time, it was too late to regroup with the others. Also, her pride didnʼt allow her to do so. She wanted to prove that she could also take down the enemies by herself, like Jack. So she decided to hide and waited until the enemy passed. That way, she should be able to make a jump on the enemies. If she could take out one enemy with this ambush, she could disengage and then trail after them again and continue the hit and run tactic. Hence, she continued to stay inside this building even when she saw no one after so long.

Another advantage of hiding inside this building, there was only one entry point. If that invisible Bard came here, she would be able to sense him entering.

But no enemies came. Instead, she saw someone that annoyed her come running toward her position. ʼWhat is he doing here?ʼ She wondered.

”Cleo! Come out!” Jack called as he approached.

Since Jack was shouting her name, there was no point for her to hide. The enemies would have already known her position if they were nearby.

”What?!” Red Death uttered irritatingly after coming out. ”How do you know I am inside anyway? Is that tool of yours that can detect peopleʼs presence work inside this dimension.”

”No, itʼs not working. I found you by using mana sense,” Jack answered.

”Mana sense? I donʼt see you nearby.”

”I use the focus mana sense to sense further places,” Jack said.

”Huh?” Red Death was confused by Jackʼs explanation. ”Anyway, what do you want?!”

”What do I want? Donʼt you see from the words in the sky that we are the only two left in our team?” Jack said.

”So what? Even if there is only you alone. You can still kill them all when they come for you, canʼt you?”

”Thank you for your confidence. But Iʼm afraid our enemies donʼt plan to do that.”

”What do you mean?”

”Do you remember what Pallas said about the conditions to win this team match?”

Red Death frowned at Jackʼs words before she came to a realization. ”Do you mean…”

”Yes, they will wait out this match. When the time limit ended, if the opposite team has more surviving players than us, they will be declared the winner. There is no need for them to come and challenge me. They can just hide for the remaining of the match and they will win.. And we only have less than an hour left.”

😉