Deimos also realized their surroundings had changed. For a second, they both exchanged looks, their eyes blinking—he annoyed, she surprised—both buck naked. The players keeping an eye on the loot soon realized the original owners were back!
"Someone is there!"
"It's them! How are they back already?!"
"Fuck! My loot!"
"It's not your loot! It's my loot!"
"No! You are all trash! I am the rightful owner of the loot, being the most handsome here!"
"You look like an old-ass goblin!"
Chaos erupted as everyone who wasn't engaged in battle made a quick run for it. Only Deimos and Kai had any real chance, being the closest, but there was no store-all-loot function in their inventories. Only the things they themselves had lost would automatically return to their inventories the second they came in contact with the item. Items from other people and monster loot had to be selected manually.
In seconds, both reached the giant pile, and the heap started shrinking visibly. With intense shouting all around, everyone, including Kai, clicked like maniacs on whatever their interface showed. In mere moments, they cleared the whole area spotless—they didn't even spare the sticks and stones scattered on the ground.
The countless Barkspawns around them were left alone, as if they had ceased to exist for the players like unwanted ex.
When everything was gone, Kai saw people drawing their weapons to continue making more loot from the players around them. He only had a measly knife. Showing his middle finger to Deimos and everyone present, Kai activated his Godstep again, replacing places with the arrow he had shot in the forest from up above along with his precious bow.
He landed above a tree and started falling, but hastily grabbed the branches and pulled himself up. Before relaxing and checking his loot, Kai hurriedly scanned the clearing below, looking for his bow. The second his eyes landed on the intricately carved wooden weapon laid alone in the green grass covered land, a wave of relief washed over him. He immediately took it, checking it for damage.
Thankfully, there was none. It was quite sturdy as weapons went.
Finally back in possession of his prized weapon, Kai opened his inventory. 432 cores.. A lot of weird monster loot—some his own, but many were new. Some of his things were gone too. That rare monster core was missing. No ring.. But there were twigs and stones!
How lucky of him!
"Fuck.. Well, at least I didn't lose anything good, and the number of cores has increased.. A semi-success?" Kai consoled himself. "I will get those other losers with my bow and slowly get ahead of Deimos with these many cores.."
Filling his HP bar to maximum eating medicine, Kai used Godstep again with one arrow he had shot on top of the tree near the Barkspawn monster area before going to fight Deimos. As expected, some players were still fighting, while others sneakily gathered cores and loot left behind by the dead. Kai started from the sneaky ones.
The one doing it most efficiently received his arrow in the head after a few minutes of observation, and Kai quickly gathered their loot. He shot some more players roaming nearby. When others rushed him, raising their swords high, Kai used his skill again and disappeared.
Fighting each other was inefficient. Kai didn't mess with Deimos after that, and she didn't come seeking revenge either. He just continued abusing the other poor players until the whole crowd started thinning out, confining themselves to the edge of the clearing—only killing the Barkspawns that came near them. Deimos was also killing players left and right. None could match her refined fighting techniques, power enhanced by her higher level, and good skills.
Once the nice, ripe-with-cores players were gone, Kai also started killing monsters with his knife while still releasing arrows in his spare time to kill the extras—or whoever dared to even come near him. His bow was simply too overpowered. None of them had an ability to one-shot him or any other player, while he did—and there was just nothing they could do besides hiding and sneaking a kill once in a while.
By the time evening arrived and the forest began to darken, only 20-30 players were still at it. All others had given up or had died too many times, suffering bigger and bigger respawn penalties each time. Mostly the alien species had persisted—human players were only a few.
The bell from the village resounded in the dark forest, and the challenge came to a close. All of their cores in the inventory were automatically submitted, and the option to see the ranking list appeared in the mission completion popup.
He.. wasn't first.
It was still goddamn Deimos!
He only had 567 cores to his name, and she was just a bit ahead with 584. Well.. Guess second rank should still receive somewhat similar benefits from village NPCs. Though the smirk on Deimos's face right after seeing the list was insufferable!
They all walked out of the forest together in a group. They were too tired of fighting and killing monsters to continue doing it any longer. Most of them had made lots of enemies today, but they would deal with that starting tomorrow. Tonight, the golden mark on their maps guided them toward the village, so they walked together—at some distance from each other. Everyone just wanted to complete the mission and log off.
"How nice of you to let me win.." Deimos said with a smirk coming beside him.
Kai was tempted to put a hole through her pretty head but calmed himself down. He was too tired to go another round with her. His SP was also just 5 at the moment after continuously killing players and monsters all day.
"I am but a humble guy.." Kai said with a restrained smile.
She smiled and was about to reply when suddenly Kai, along with everyone in the group noticed a burning stone-like object streaking through the darkened sky, falling straight down in the direction of the village.
The whole forest shook with a gigantic explosion wave, hitting all of them. Only seconds before it hit, Kai realized the dark sky wasn't because of night coming fast.. but because another massive Exodian sky city island was floating above them, covering the entire sky.