Two players with an axe and a sword stood side by side, slashing at the wooden monsters coming toward them with their open mouths and creaking arms. There were no organs in their bodies, yet they still made an annoying howling sound as if they were dying inside. The two players quickly killed them and stored their cores inside their inventories.
However, just as one of the players was smiling at his success, a dagger suddenly pierced his neck. A bleeding status appeared in his interface, along with red -30, -25 damage indicators above his head.
"Lena.. how could you?" Fexa said, his voice pained. Though anyone could tell he was acting, Fexa himself was already thinking about turning his new friend into a pile of loot.
With an evil smile, Lena pierced his friend's chest again and said, "Sorry.. I told you I wanted to buy that new fancy looking sword! It's not my fault they're so pricey!"
"You bastard!"
With that, Fexa collapsed into a pile of loot, the final -35, -20 flashing above his head.
"Ah! This hurts!" Lena exclaimed while collecting all the loot. "It's not easy betraying people. But for your sake, my friend, I will carry on!"
"If it hurts so much.. why don't you join him, then?"
Lena's eyes widened as he heard a voice behind him. Before he could react, two players hacked him to pieces with their swords. His pile of loot mixed in with his dear friend's.
"HAHAHA. HAHAHA…" The two unknown players suddenly started laughing like maniacs.
Suddenly, with a shum shum sound, two arrows whistled through the air and buried themselves in their heads effortlessly. Blood spurted out, and in the next second, the pile of loot grew even larger. As the bodies disintegrated into red digital particles, the arrows from before landed atop the loot—until one was replaced by Kai's humble body.
'The fuck were these people doing?'
Kai hurriedly collected all 27 cores and, and with another shot of his bow, disappeared into the forest again.
It had been half a day, and he was playing hide-and-seek with half the player base. With the help of Godstep, he had become a menace to anyone trying to farm monsters for more than a minute or two in open areas.
The second someone revealed their bobbing head in the monster-infested area and collected more than five cores, Kai's arrow found their smooth brains and sent them crying back to the start of the forest—where they had to return naked if they wanted to keep participating in the challenge.
Only a five-person alien group and another four-person alien group had adapted to his tactics. They changed their approach so that only two people killed monsters while the others covered their heads from three sides with large wooden planks. The second Kai attacked, they immediately took cover and moved toward his position while staying shielded.
Of course, they never found him.
Kai simply moved on to harass another group of players carrying a lot of cores—then returned when they least expected him. By now, everyone was sticking to the forest's edges, avoiding the middle of the open area, even though many Barkspawns stood there, snarling and moving slowly.
But the person Kai wanted to kill the most always managed to deflect his arrows.
Once again, getting a good angle from a tree branch, Kai released a full-power arrow at Deimos's head. As if she had eyes on her back, she immediately judged the arrow's angle and raised her black-scaled hand, hardening it. Her scales became rock-hard, and even Kai's best wooden arrow with iron tip only dealt a measly -3 damage to her. With a smirk, she continued killing the Barkspawns.
Monsters weren't the only thing she killed, though. She was opportunistic and sharp. She never started a fight with a group—only joining in when most of them were already injured, either from infighting or battling another group. Solo players were terrified of her. After she killed every single one who attacked her or got in her way, they started avoiding her, giving her a huge area to hunt monsters freely while they stuck to the forest's edges.
Kai had killed a lot of players by now, many of them several times, and had collected over 322 cores. But she hadn't died even once. She just kept killing monster after monster.
If Kai wanted first place, he had to kill her.
She also had some strange sword skill, and it was hard to tell if he could defeat her in a one-on-one fight or not.
But it was time.
Just in case, Kai buried one arrow into the tree branch he was standing on. If he used his bow, no matter how small the distance, he could use the arrow as an exit point for Godstep. The arrow had to be one he shot himself, though. He could also teleport to any arrow he had fired within a 50-meter radius—he just had to visualize the moment of a specific arrow's launch, and he would replace that arrow with himself.
He could only do this with ten arrows before the ability reset. Maybe upgrading Godstep in the future would increase that limit. It would be a pretty broken skill if he could travel entire cities with this ability.
Kai took a deep breath, focused, and released another arrow at Deimos's head. The moment he fired, he slipped his bow back in the inventory, drew his knife, and purposefully let himself fall from the tree branch.
He had eight arrows left to pull this off.
Once again, Deimos raised her hand, hardening her skin.
But this time, as the arrow struck her scaly hand and started to drop onto the red dirt below, Kai shot out of it—teleporting from the arrow's long side, replacing the arrow. The momentum from his fall carried through, and his foot slammed into Deimos's stomach. She groaned as she flew back and crashed into the Barkspawn behind her, shattering it into pieces.
-20, -15 appeared above her head.
Kai landed nearby and immediately retrieved his bow from his inventory while rolling for several seconds to avoid another monster nearby. The bow took 20 seconds to materialize in his hands.
The moment it did, Kai forced himself to stop, aimed at Deimos, and pulled the bowstring—without an arrow.
An arrow materialized a second later, but Deimos was no longer where he had thrown her.
She had already dashed toward him, closing the gap with a few quick steps, jumping high in the air, her sword glowing menacingly dark green.
Kai just calmly adjusted his aim upward and released his arrow at her head.
She flipped her blade in mid-air, effortlessly reflecting it with the long side of her sword.
But he hadn't shot just one.
A second arrow flew toward her shoulder.
She made the mistake of lowering her left side and letting it through.
Kai smiled.
As the arrow flew past its target, he used Godstep again—teleporting behind her.
He pulled the bowstring again and launched another arrow—this time, at the back of her head.
This one had to hit her!