After soaking in all the fallout from the global announcement. Leo once again resumed his journey towards the treasure mark with a renewed sense of determination.
He had to now get accustomed to this life where he would have to struggle solo and constantly improve his level compared to other players for many more months to come.
If his actual level slipped too far behind the lie, it would only be a matter of chance before he would be exposed as a fraud and killed by the system.
To continue living and to continue acting as a bigshot, he had to ensure that his real level never dropped too far behind the lie on the status board and for that he needed to improve constantly.
"JUST BRING IT! I'LL SHOW YOU! I'LL SHOW YOU ALL-" Leo shouted as he puffed his chest and began walking with a renewed pump of testosterone flowing through his body.
Having just overcome depression, his state of mind was restless and aggressive where he was ready to let all of his frustrations out on the next thing that bothered him the slightest.
*Rarrrrrr*
A wild cat suddenly appeared before him from the woods, dropping down from a high tree where it was camping.
It purred, baring its fangs and shaking its whiskers as it slowly approached Leo.
*KSSSSSSS*
Leo tried his best to purr back, but ended up making a comedic sound as he drew his sword and charged towards the cat like a maniac.
For a second it was the cat who was taken aback as it had not expected Leo to suddenly lose his mind and chase it like a deranged killer as because he showed no sense of fear, it was the wild cat who fled first, opening up the path ahead.
"That's right cat, that's what I thought…. Don't mess with me today cat, today your hands are too short to box with God!" Leo said as he thumped his legs and kept on walking like nothing happened, completely unaware of the fact that the cat that he charged at was a level40 wild cat and could have easily killed him had he tried to run away or not shown this sort of confidence.
In a way, he was extremely fortunate, however, in his mind all he could think about was the lost EXP and how if he killed the cat he could have perhaps came closer to leveling up once more.
"Lucky cat…." Leo said as he grit his teeth and began to lightly jog towards his destination, desperately hoping that he found another wild animal along the way which he could confront and kill.
While walking did not put a big dent on his stamina, jogging did and after about 30 minutes of jogging, Leo lost close to 60% of his stamina bar as the rush of adrenaline died down and he once again became calm and reasonable.
As a result of jogging for 30 minutes straight, he had covered close to an hour's worth of march in half an hour and was only a few hundred meters away from his destination.
"Tired….. damn, I'm tired" Leo said as he sat with his back against a nearby tree and decided to catch his breath for a moment.
As he sat against the tree, catching his breath, he was completely unaware of the storm that he had created in the past one hour as he only felt shock and disbelief as an arrow suddenly pierced his neck out of nowhere.
-500 Critical Hit!
[ System Notification:- You have lost 100% of your HP, You have died ]
[ System Notification :- It's detected that player has the Death Evasion Token, do you wish to use it to escape death? ]
[ System Notification :- If you don't use a death evasion token within next 10 seconds, you will die losing 2 levels and shall drop 4 items out of your inventory randomly ]
A series of notifications light-up Leo's screen as he saw a huge 'You have been Killed' animation in the background.
While he had no idea as to what was going on, he was not inclined towards losing 2 levels and 4 random items from his inventory as he clicked 'Yes' to the revive option.
*********
( Shadow114's POV )
Shadow114, an assassin belonging to the Cursed Spider assassin guild was on perimeter duty when he was informed by his pet hawk that a suspicious intruder had entered the forest.
As his duty mandated, Shadow114 quickly went to scout the intruder who entered the secret land controlled by the Assassin Alliance and there he found Leo confronting a level40 wild cat.
Being a level 60 awakened assassin, Shadow114 could clearly make out that Leo was nothing more than a level 24 newbie who even gripped his sword wrong, yet that perception of his got shaken up the more he observed Leo.
The wild cat which was notorious for never backing away ran away when facing Leo and more than that, as if he had sensed his presence, just as he was about to pierce his back with a dagger, Leo began to sprint in a haphazard manner making it difficult for shadow to take aim.
For 30 minutes, Leo jogged non-stop through the forest, expertly avoiding every trap, every pitfall set by the Assassin's Alliance as if he could see them clearly with his naked eye.
Wearing a Virex mask and sprinting through the forest with precision, shadow114 deemed Leo to be a genuine threat and decided to eliminate him at any cost necessary.
When the opportunity to kill him eventually presented itself as he rested his back against a tree, shadow114 no longer hesitated and took a neck piercing shot instantly as he killed Leo with one decisive blow.
*Splat*
His arrow went clean through the opponents neck as blood splattered everywhere, killing him instantly.
"Huh- I thought you already knew I'd attack…. Did I overestimate you?" Shadow114 said as he jumped down from the tree branch he was on and walked towards Leo's corpse to inspect it.
In his mind, Leo's death was a done deal and he was completely relaxed when he inspected his corpse, never expecting that once he would come close enough and try to remove his mask, the corpse would open its eyes once more and plunge his heart with its sword.