Both Verm and Hana looked at the oversized screen on the wall. He sat behind his desk, while she sat elegantly on the couch in front of the desk.
"Aren't you watching this Irregular way too often?" Hana asked.
"I don't know, but in some way he is different from others," Verm said and thought for a few seconds.
"He only got where he is by luck. Yes, he is cunning and his tactics are unusual, but if he wasn't lucky he wouldn't have found more than a single Unique title." Verm continued.
"But other Irregulars are more interesting to me." she still thought that the person on the screen was clumsy.
"That's because they are monsters. Real geniuses, on the other hand, he is just a boy, a young man not even 20, with no talent whatsoever. That's why he is so interesting." said Verm.
"When you say so,.." Hana still didn't completely agree, she would rather watch somebody make perfect moves than watch somebody create a weird tactic to overcome their flaws.
"By the way, shouldn't you be more worried about the state of the company instead of watching the gameplay of players?" Hana asked with concern.
"Nah, I still own an absolute majority of the stock, my world is final, they can fight for whatever is left." Verm rejected.
"..."
"Did we reach our target?" he then asked.
Hana looked into her papers, "Yes, we are currently over 600% of the expected target." she replied in an answer.
"Alright, start with phase two. What was the timing to finish phase two?" Verm asked in a good mood.
"About 3 years," said Hana.
"That's too long..., if you use half of what we gained from selling stocks, how faster would it be?" Verm didn't want to wait for 3 whole years, especially when he had the money to speed things up.
"...My guess is a year at best. Even if we spend all of the money there is no way to skip the inspection, which will take at least a few months." Hana calculated the cost and necessary approvals to finish phase two.
Verm noded. One year was better than three.
His plan was getting in a good direction, it was a little bit rushed, but in the end, the rush only helped him to reach his plan sooner.
"Next update is planned once we finish phase 2? You know we can't post any changes now that Aoi is connected to the internet right?" Hana asked just in case.
"I'm the one who programmed her, you think I would not know?" Verm asked with a small laugh.
"Don't worry, We can't change anything, but we can still release updates, and she is smart enough to allow us to finish phase 2."
Hana nodded and without a word she left the office, it was time to start with phase 2, yet another overtime was waiting for her.
Verm continued to look at the monitor, the enemy bandit just exited the cave. 'Let's see what you gonna do against him.' he thought with excitement.
***
The enemy leader came out of the cave entrance and quickly looked around to determine the enemy's position. A wide smile appeared on his face as he recognized who the enemy was.
"You're a dead boy! I want to see where you'll run now!" he yelled, raising the two-handed ax above his head."Ikky completely ignored the enemy and turned his head to the bush behind him, Josh still didn't show up and it was the perfect time to make a surprise.
"Run to the right and count to seven, then charge at them with a loud yell," Ikky said as he also retreated into the bush.
When Ikky finished his sentence, he ran to the left as fast as he could. While running, he often hit the bushes with his bow and tried to make as much noise as possible.
"He's running to the right!" one of the bandits said as he saw some bushes moving.
Their leader frowned, thinking something was wrong, but he couldn't put his finger on the feeling. At that moment, a scream was heard behind them.
They all turned and focused on the position of the scream, watching a single enemy exiting a forest and charging at them.
A deadly smirk appeared on the enemy leader's face, the rat was there too, it was time to pay off their old debt.
The same thought crossed all the bandits, little did they know it would be their last thought as they unknowingly exposed their backs to the other enemy.
"Guided arrow, Mana arrow, Multishot," ~Shoot~ Five arrows left the forest and they burrowed into the enemy's backs. Three of the bandits dropped dead on the ground.
The bandit leader gritted his teeth, "You two deal with the guy on the left, I'll deal with the archer." he ordered, fixing his eyes on the archer.
Ikky looked at the two-handed ax in the bandit's hands and clearly remembered how he had deflected his arrow earlier.
'This will be a gamble.' Ikky thought and drew his bow.
"Mana arrow, Guided arrow, Chilling arrow." he aimed to the right where other bandits ran.
~Shoot~
The enemy leader saw the direction of his bow and assumed that his companions were the target. A big smile appeared on his face and he was ready to attack the annoying archer, but then a flashback of the past flashed through his mind and he remembered that an arrow shot in the distance hit his back.
'I won't fall for the same trick twice!' he thought when and turned in the direction the arrow had gone. But before he tracked the arrow with his eyes, he saw some movement on the edge of his sight.
'Oh shit!' he made a quick turn while spinning his axe, just in time to deflect an incoming arrow from the archer, but was surprised to see the enemy charging towards him instead of keeping his distance.
Ikky was only 4 meters away when he used a two-step fly at the enemy's range, stunning his enemy even more.
~(First step)~ Ikky moved to the left, forcing the bandit to follow his movement. The previous deflection caused his movement to be slightly delayed as his axe was not yet solid due to the previous rotation.
~(Second step)~ Iykki stepped back from the enemy, giving his enemy some time to catch up with his movements. When the bandit finally managed to grab the axe, a happy face appeared on his face. But that was what Ikky was aiming for.
~(Jump)~ Ikky used his last step of the skill and momentum carried him 5 meters behind the bandit.
The bandit's wide back appeared without any protection.
'Mana arrow, Poison arrow.' Ikky yelled in his mind.
~Shoot~
The bandit leader screamed as he was hit, not by one, but by two arrows at the identical time. Yes, the previous Chilling arrow arrived at the same time.
(-230 crit hit dealt), (-140 crit hit dealt)
When both arrows hit the unprotected back, the damage was considered a critical hit, the insane pain forced the bandit to drop to one knee, giving Ikky another second of enemy weakness.
''An opening!" Ikky saw the wide back of the kneeling bandit and an idea crossed his mind.
"Mana arrow, Guided arrow, Multishot!". He actually never tried to use multishot on a single target.
There was a reason he had never thought of that before. First, the Multishot was supposed to be a wide-angle attack of 120° to 160° range.
The 50% accuracy penalty was because each arrow had its own position in the bow and even if Ikky wanted to, there was no chance to get the arrows close enough to hit one enemy with two arrows. This was because the middle arrow and the arrow next to the middle one always formed an angle of at least 20° or 30°.
However, Ikky had a way around it. No matter where the arrow went, it would follow the target path if possible. He was able to bypass this penalty and hit targets next to each other precisely because of his Guided arrow skill, so why shouldn't it be possible to hit all arrows on one target?
~Shoot~
(-40), (-45), (-85 critical hit dealt), (-41), (-92 critical hit dealt)
A bunch of different numbers appeared above the bandit's head, all the numbers were different due to the difference in places they hit and how much the Guided arrow had to correct the arrow's path. Another scream could be heard across the forest plan.
The leader of the bandits now looked like a needle stick. His back was full of arrows, his legs were frozen with Chilling ice, and poison was spreading through his body. He had never felt so much pain. At that moment, single thought went through the bandit's head, the thought of death.
"I will not fall here!" he yelled and a bloody aura appeared around him.
Ikky saw a red color similar to blood appear around the bandit, this marking was similar to the green dots he had seen on the other bandit's head before.
'Could it be Seeker of Truth effect? Perhaps a danger warning?!' Ikky immediately jumped several times to increase the distance, and also looked back to check the situation of his friend Josh.
Josh managed to take down one bandit with his Leap attack skill and was currently in the process of fighting the remaining bandit. However, due to the level difference, he didn't have much of a chance and his HP was quickly decreasing, but it was only a matter of time before his skill cooldown ended and he would finish the fight.
Ikky turned back to the leader and saw that some of his injuries were recovering. 'What the hell is going on?!'