After conquering the dojo and successfully executing their revenge mission, Party Freedom received a message from the guild leader requesting for runners to help her collect black eggs. Naturally, they took as many bags as they could from the dojo storage and ran to the library as fast as they could.
However, when it rains, it pours. Nobody expected the system announcement to inform them of the boss monster's awakening in the games room. The spawning location was not far from the library. In fact, it was just downstairs. Talk about perfect timing…
Akiko did not know what to do with these black eggs that wouldn't break open even when dropped. They were as heavy as grenades and were a pain to carry. After activating that device, all the black eggs deactivated and were now free to carry away.
She tried opening one, but it would not budge. These eggs were sturdy, and the Death Princess wondered if Zen would be able to manage if she was struggling so much.
Party Freedom arrived in fashion with their hands full of bags. The looks on their faces were entertaining as the Death Princess jumped off from the pile of black eggs she gathered to the library's entrance. There were more black eggs than they could fit in the bag and Tracer wondered what she would do with this many black eggs.
"Oh, we'll just announce that the black eggs are free for collection in the library after taking what we need for Zen. Those who don't value loyalty or are stupid enough will rush here to try to submit them as points. I'll just let the basilisk take care of them."
Hearing how casually the Death Princess said this with a hair flip, Tracer wondered if this would be a good time to let her know what he wanted to do.
Everyone else started filling the bags with black eggs, and the Tracer waited behind the Death Princess, who raised a brow in his direction.
"We cannot all make it back to base with the loot," he told her. "The basilisk will be on a rampage. Could I suggest a different use for these eggs?"
Curious, the Death Princess was all ears. Tracer looked at the explosives and wondered if they could defeat or severely damage the basilisk by utilising the eggs in a formation.
"So when the monster gets into the position, you can reactivate the device and detonate the eggs we have here."
Akiko thought about it. The plan sounded good, but the Tracer overlooked something else.
"What if they explode in the kitchen? I don't want to take any chances."
Tracer sucked in air at that. Of course, there was that possibility. He was too hasty.
"But it's not a bad plan," Akiko admitted. "If you can find a way to set one of these off without using the device, I can lure the basilisk in."
Hearing how the Death Princess approved of his idea, Tracer grinned. This was his chance to shine and prove that he could be of use to Zen even if he wasn't good at combat.
Gambler who heard parts of the conversation pretended not to notice. He lost the bet with Tracer and would uphold his end of the deal only if he survived this event. Nobody knew anything about the basilisk, and it was going to be very risky to initiate the first strike. He wasn't going to volunteer for this crazy plan.
The bags filled up quickly, and they heard a horrible shriek coming from the floor below as the building shook from the shockwaves of that sound. Nobody was prepared for it, and Gambler had a feeling everyone in the event was alerted of the purge.
"Hurry," Akiko urged. "Get these eggs to Zen. Avoid Carnage as much as possible. Do not get in the way of the basilisk. Leave that to Tracer and me. Once you reach the kitchen, assist Zen. He needs as many hands in the kitchen as possible to craft an item used to end this game."
This information made Party Freedom surprised. So Zen had some information that they did not know? As expected of the advisor. No wonder he could come up with a no offence strategy even though they already killed a few people in the name of cold revenge.
The horrible bird screeched and burst through the building's window, terrorising those in the open field area. Akiko quickly leaned out of the window to witness something horrific.
The basilisk wasn't a complete bird. The head was a rooster, but the tail was a snake's head that petrified anyone looking into its eyes. The Death Princess cringed at the basilisk as it turned another person's leg to stone. It did not take long for the candidate to become stone. She did not know if they were still considered dead or alive under that curse, but it was better not to take chances. The Seer would have been the best person to match up against this huge bird.
"Go swiftly," Akiko told the party members as Tracer remained behind. "We will keep it occupied. Take the longer route and meet up with the Seer. He should be on the way to escort you once you reach the garden."
Scorpion, Controlled Berserker and Gambler carried as many bags as they physically could and made a run for it while the angry boss monster was still looking for candidates to chase and curse.
Akiko helped Tracer to arrange the explosive eggs in position while keeping an eye on the rampaging creature. To her surprise, there was a huge explosion from a distance, and Akiko cussed. Did the runners get ambushed before Liu Feng could meet them? Was it Felix?
"Get out of there!" Gambler warned Tracer using the party chat. "Big Bird is coming your way! Johan, the freak, looked like he rose from the dead and went all ballistic on it but is running towards the library now."
Tracer was still in the middle of arranging the explosives when he shot Akiko a desperate look.
"Terrorist is coming here with the bird. We should go now."
Akiko hesitated for only a moment but quickly agreed. It was better to be safe than sorry. If Johan kept the bird busy, they could skulk around the area to continue keeping the bird away from the kitchen. The others could go on more egg runs if there weren't enough materials and help Zen craft that Rainbow egg.
The most important thing to do was buy time.
"Take some of the eggs and run. We can figure out how they work as we go. Stay close to me," the Death Princess instructed and removed her top, fashioning it into a cloth carrier for these eggs.
Tracer did his best to look away and did the same. If a lady could remove her top and compromise her modesty for the mission, he should do the same and not slow her down.
The black eggs were heavier than they looked and Tracer wheezed as he tried to keep up with Akiko, who gave him signals to follow or stop when they heard the ugly screams of the basilisk. Johan was just around the corner, running and dodging as the two-headed monster insisted on trying to walk through a pillar instead of around it.
The boss monster's clumsy actions made Tracer wonder if the double-headed monster had some issues with their eyes. The two heads did not seem to disagree, but the chicken head had some troubles judging distance while the snake head was constantly squinting. It could be a glare to petrify those that looked into its eyes, but the Tracer had his doubts.
"Here, give me yours," Akiko said and reached for Tracer's stash of black eggs as they climbed the stairs. She wasn't even panting, but Tracer looked like he ran a marathon, slowing them down horribly, tripping over steps.
They were heading for the roof to investigate, but Tracer needed a break, unable to run any further.
"P-please go first. I'll catch up."
The Death Princess turned around and stopped. She took a look at the feeble man and made an instant decision.
Tracer was not expecting to be lifted up by a lady and not hoisted over one shoulder by a petite lady shorter than him. The action was so sudden that the teen almost screamed before he clasped both hands over a mouth as he was looking at the stairs from a different angle, feeling Akiko's shoulder bone digging into him.
Nothing faltered the Death Princess, and compared to her, Tracer felt like the fairer sex as he regained his breath. They reached the roof in no time, and Tracer felt his legs touch the ground as Akiko let him down gently.
Then, she tossed him the black eggs unceremoniously. "Figure it out. I'll go back down to track the basilisk and keep Johan from going too far. Once you figured it out, let me know."
Just like that, she was gone. Tracer looked at the black eggs and heard the crashing sounds below.
The black eggs were hard like grenades and could not be cracked no matter how hard he hit them against the concrete floor. It was to be expected of something capable of causing an explosion radius of five metres. However, there had to be some sort of mechanism inside this shell. There has to be a way to open this.
Downstairs, Akiko stopped just before the crazy bird crashed into the hallway behind the door. She could hear Johan's taunts. That guy must have nine lives. Didn't Liu Feng say that he killed the bomber?
Johan might look more awful than Akiko remembered him to be, but he looked well enough to run after falling from such a huge height. Surely the terrorist would have severely broken some of his bones, right?
With the basilisk chasing him relentlessly, the bomber could feel his blood pumping. If it wasn't for Felix catching him halfway after he tossed that oaf away from his fight with the Seer, Johan would be a very colourful splatter at the bottom of that pit. The reunion with his ticket out of here wasn't pretty. Felix gave him a pounding hard enough to see the light, but Johan wasn't complaining. He deserved it.
Now that the basilisk was here, there was no need for Johan to hold back. He might not have any weapons left, but he remembered the crazy room that the Amazonian guarded. It was perfect for taking this monster down, and Johan did not need Felix getting in his way. The hunter had things to do and people to hunt, in particular, other true candidates.
"Over here, bird brain!"
The basilisk squawked and flapped its useless wings angrily before following Johan while smacking the snake head into another wall. Johan did not look back. He saw what it did to those pathetic fools out there. Thankfully, the boss monster wasn't very smart.
Akiko held her breath and ran from the stairwell to hide in the games room beneath the library. She waited for Tracer, who was still feeling the outline of the black eggs. At least his party safely delivered the black eggs to Zen. It was now a race against time to know how to trigger these eggs.
Frustrated, Tracer smacked the egg with his full force and glared at it. "What is your trigger? Open sesame? Abracadabra?"
The egg did not respond, and Tracer glowered.
"Zen opened it!" Scorpion reported, and Tracer felt his heart swell with hope. "He called it a 'good egg', and it instantly opened!"
As stupid as it sounded, Tracer wondered what would happen if he were to do the opposite. The teen stood at the edge of the roof and looked at his egg.
"Bad egg," he told it.
At once, a red beeping dot appeared, and Tracer cursed, flinging it as far as he could before turning around fearfully to look at the other eggs.
As the sound of an explosion happened from where he flung the 'bad egg', Tracer noticed that none of the other black eggs was 'activated' yet and grinned. Akiko would be glad to know how she could screw Johan up royally with his discovery.