"Interested in earning more food?"
I opened my dufflebag and revealed a glimpse of the bread I stole yesterday to the group of four soldiers.
"What?" Three of them said that at the same time, justified reaction considering how I came out of nowhere with this offer.
"Just got an extra task for you guys, thought you would like the reward that comes with it."
They're Ace's men, which means they're also subjected to even distribution of food.
Out of everyone in the group, I thought they looked the toughest, most diligent of all considering their rough skin and abundant scars.
This reward of more bread is not only what they need, but chances are it's also what they think they deserved, I had no doubts they'd accept my offer.
"What's the job?" They were reluctant, but eventually one of them spoke up.
"Kill a corrupted officer. Don't worry I will have proof that he's corrupted later on." I'm very much leaving things to chances here.
The proof is that Five will attack Two without a valid reason when Two eventually shows up, but that would mean Two needs to survive his attack.
I'm willing to bet she will though, 15th best player in the game after all, even without the hp bar.
As for why I think Two will show up, all signs so far pointed to the fact that the real target of Five is Two, not Ace.
Ace, Kenneth Spears, I checked his profile with the earpiece a while ago, his power levels are in the mere 4000 ish range, there's no reason to send Corpse to kill him if the Living Cemetery wants him dead.
It's already confirmed that Two, Shockwave is being hunted down by Living Cemetery, being the 15th strongest player in the game, Living Cemetery only has two choice, Corpse or The Reaper.
Corpse does not need to be sent for Kenneth Spears, but is absolutely necessary for Shockwave, that's why Shockwave has been absent the entire game, she's avoiding him, she's the main target, not Kenneth Spears.
Then why is Five paying inordinate amount of attention on Ace if he's not his real target? That's when I thought about how one will lure another out of hiding.
One can only do that by threatening something precious to her, I think that's what Ace is.
I'm not certain of the relationship between Kenneth Spears and Shockwave, so I've double checked Shockwave's profile with my earpiece, and her real name was Eleanor Spears.
Having the same surnames, it's fair to assume they're family. Since Ace is being forced to the frontlines for his duty both as the diplomat and the leader of the expedition, he can't hide along with Two.
Which makes him the ideal bait to be used for Five to lure out his main target, Two. In simpler terms, he's threatening her family.
Another thing I was leaving up to chance was whether Two will take Five's bait or not.
Even if she doesn't, I have an escape, I could always call off the assassination of Five, saying I was wrong and sweep it off.
Basically, I will never get in trouble with this plan.
"Who is it?" As expected, they accepted the job.
"Five. Follow me throughout the expedition, I'll show you." I delivered them each a handful of bread from my dufflebag, pretty much hiring them.
Throughout the expedition, us five were watching Five, Six and Seven from behind.
Then, when he threw the first punch.
"That the proof?" My four new employees were startled and pointed their guns towards Five, but I know I can't lie and just say this is the proof, Five has two other officers to back him up, I'm only myself.
"Calm down everyone! Ace over here is a traitor." There it is, Seven defending Five's violence.
"What's happening?" One of my hired soldiers questioned me.
"Relax, this isn't the proof."
And the proof has just arrived as Five gets his skull blew wide open with what looks like an orange beam, or more accurately, shockwave.
It was a gruesome scene, Five's flesh were flying off of him and his literal brain was visible, yet he's still fully conscious. I've played Mortal Kombat enough to not be disgusted by this scene though.
With skillfull dodges, Five launches a counterattack which, thankfully, isn't fatal, I got lucky.
"Woah what's Two doing here?"
"There's your proof."
"Finally showed yourself...Shockwave. I'll have you know before I finish you off, I only lost 9 hp from that shot. You're a disappointment."
Some generic movie villain monologuing by Five.
"Don't let him kill Two, open fire, aim at his arms."
He has a hp bar, he won't die from a regular fatal wound for humans. So the best usage of our guns would be to damage his arms, disallowing him to use his weapon thus making him powerless.
You could say we're disarming him, literally. He has no shot of counterattacking after we shred his arms into pieces.
It was never gonna be a fight to begin with, there's five of us, five guns and it's a sneak attack he wasn't expecting.
He is ridiculously sturdy with the hp bar though, he survived through 20 seconds of rapid bullets piercing through his body, ripping off almost all the flesh from his skeleton before he's finally eliminated.
"Player Corpse has been eliminated by npc #0125."
Damn it I didn't get the kill, one of the soldiers that I hired got the final shot, I would've earned so many points if I took him down, I just know it.
"Six, Seven, you guys got gaslighted by Five, he's the corrupted one." Time to explain to the two dense heads that got manipulated.
"What?"
"As you can clearly see now, his target was never Ace, he was using Ace to get close to Two. He manipulated you guys to get your support so he can beat up Ace to get to Two without interference from other soldiers around. He worked for Hearts, he was assigned to kill Two."
Lying in the process of explaining, it's not like they know anything about the game or that we are players after all.
"How'd you know that?"
"Hearts tried to get me on their side too, I pretended to play along with it so I can stop Five." A blatant lie, but I don't see any ways anyone can debunk it.
"Wait no, so, Hearts were never just here to talk?"
"Did you really thought that?"
Everyone definitely has had their fair share of suspicions that Hearts has ulterior motives, so this lie I came up with is very believable for Six and Seven.
"So you're saying, he's working for Hearts, and he was lying to us so he can beat up Ace without us interfering, and that would lure Two out so he can kill her."
"Precisely, you guys may not know this, but Two really likes Ace, she would do anything for him." Very much another lie, but I think both Ace and Two knows what I'm doing to not intervene.
"Where the hell have you been this whole time though, Two?" Six asks Two, who seemed completely flabbergasted by what had just unfolded in front of her.
"Huh?"
"Dodging Five, she realised something was off early on, that's why Hearts wants her dead." I answered for her.
"Oooooh, shit I actually almost fell for it."
"Me too dude." Six responds to Seven.
I walked up to Two, she was kneeling on the ground with her right arm soaked in blood. Luckily, she had blankets on her, which I used to tie up the wounds on her to preventing death by excessive bleeding.
"Eleanor isn't it?"
"Who...are you?" Her voice were trembling and guttaral, reasonable for what she has just gone through, she has no fight left to resist my help.
"A huge fan of yours...I guess." I answered while bandaging the bullet hole on her elbow.
"Guys calm down! You heard Three, you saw it too, Five is a traitor on Hearts' side that wants to kill Two." Seven stepped up to calm the alarmed crowd of soldiers.
"Why...why did you..." Two was justifiably baffled.
"I want you in my alliance, Shockwave."