Chapter 255. War Fortress (2)
Papapapa.
A single humanoid form was charging through the maze.
Well, through the tunnel that had been created straight towards the War Fortress.
‘… Arthus Krancheska. What a monster. There shouldn’t be any issues right?’
The woman who was running, Einchel, mumbled inwardly.
She was extremely worried only leaving behind Hansoo and the Ain to deal with a heavenly disaster of a being.
But she soon shook her head.
She wouldn’t be much help in dealing with such a monster of a being.
She would only get in their way.
And she had to focus on her own objective.
There was no time to play around.
This tunnel had been created while Krancheska climbed down.
Of course it was connected to the center of the War fortress.
‘If I drop my guard then… I’ll die.’
Einchel slowed down as she got closer to the gaping hole through which sunlight shone.
And carefully climbed up while using all of her stealth skills to their utmost.
The further she went up and the closer she got to the hole, more and more noises poured into her ears.
The shouts of the players and the residents of the War Fortress.
“Let’s go out! Come on! They’re giving out quests!”
“Jackpot! They give this much even if we just participate?”
“Yo! Tell all the clansmen to come as well! This actually seems like a jackpot!”
Einchel frowned as she heard these words.
‘… They’re using them well, huh.’
Though they were weak, they were still immortal and had many in numbers.
Though the high-level powerhouses of the kingdoms ignored them because they were merely bugs, even bugs would become terrifying if there was a huge number of them.
And these guys had no fear of death which was an important factor in a battle.
It meant that these guys were very good meat shields.
The Kingdoms knew this so they were attracting the players from all around with a tremendous amount of treasures and rewards.
It meant that they didn’t want the Ains to reach the Spirit Land that much.
Though the Ains were handling the forces of the kingdoms pretty well, the situation didn’t look very good for them to celebrate just yet.
Because if the players rushed towards them like waves then the Ains wouldn’t be able to block them either.
Einchel thought of what Hansoo had said to her before she left.
— This is a chance of some sort.
Like what Hansoo had said, Einchel carefully climbed up to the War Fortress.
And after coming up to the fortress, she could finally see the situation.
‘… Jesus. I’ve never seen it being so empty.’
The War Fortress, which had always been packed tightly, was empty.
From the guards who watched over the walls to the players who looked for quests.
‘This is why it was so easy to climb up.’
Einchel mumbled.
Of course it wasn’t entirely empty but compared to the usual War Fortress, this was the same as a deserted town.
‘It should be a bit easier to move around now…’
There was no time to waste.
Since the adventurers of the Ant Tunnels would’ve spread out far and wide already.
A risky choice the 800 of them had made due to the amount of work they had to do within this vast area in a short amount of time.
Einchel quickly looked over the area and started to run towards the center.
Then.
One of the players who had seen Einchel looked to her in confusion.
‘What the hell?’
Everyone was running out from the War Fortress.
Everybody including the ones who had been here originally and the ones who came in through the warp gates.
But for somebody to run to the center of the plaza.
‘And I feel like I saw her before.’
As the player, Karax, was lost in confusion.
One of the party members next to Karax tapped his shoulder and spoke.
“Yo, What are you doing? There’s no time. We have to go out.”
Though the history and battle-related quests were famous for having a large amount of rewards for participating, they were even more famous for their penalties.
Penalty.
A system which was applied when they did not participate.
Of course they didn’t pick on them or kill them one by one, but the players would face an annoying situation after the quests end.
Like the prices of the stores increasing or warping to certain areas being banned.
Though this could buy the hatred of the players, it wasn’t like they really died from the battle and since the rewards were good, most players participated anyway.
Karax nodded at the party member’s words.
His words were right.
‘Well. She probably has her own issues to deal with.’
Participating in the quest outside was of more importance.
But then Karax suddenly stopped.
“Yo. I figured out where I saw that girl before.”
“What. Is she like your ex or something?”
While his party membered laughed at Karax, he replied with a serious face.
“Blacklist. The most recent one.”
“Huh?”
All the party members stopped.
By saying recent, he was talking about the blacklist that was updated an hour ago.
— Great Maze massacre incident.
A huge incident where tens of thousands of players who had been trapped in the Great Maze got massacred.
It wasn’t like the war had started so due to such a large amount of people dying in such a short amount of time, the clans and groups all went into emergencies and looked into the situation.
And everyone made shocked expressions when they figured out who had caused all this.
Bug players.
The close to one thousand bug players, who had been hiding in the corners of the maze, had done all this.
Some people were even suspicious that this incident was the Ant Eater clan trying to broaden their powers.
The bug players were merely cockroaches inside the normal player’s minds, not something which would bite them back.
And for them to cause such a massacre with just a thousand in number.
No matter how strong they were, they couldn’t be that strong.
But soon their questions were answered.
The evidence from various groups had surfaced.
— Gah. We were going to fight for it but some crazy bastard… He was really strong.
— What the hell can we do when a guy like him charges onto us. What the hell is exodus doing!
— One of them… Ugh. Is he even a bug player? I thought he was some supernatural being from the kingdoms.
And a clear reward had been set.
— To anybody who kills those from the new blacklist, you could get achievement points plus a 9% reduction in price on the use of warp gates and other various facilities.
The Kingdom’s pride had been hurt so this was a decision they made to catch and massacre them all.
And there were a few other benefits.
Killing them was not a matter of experience and artifacts anymore.
The party members standing next to Karax looked at him in delight.
“Nice, how did you see that? Not bad.”
“Heheh. I knew this bastard would achieve something one day.”
Karax’s confidence spiked up as he spoke with a smile.
“So? You’re going to go out? To that battlefield?”
The 50 or so party members chuckled to each other.
“Well. That can wait a bit.”
***
Boooooom!
Booom!
“Catch her! Hey! Catch that girl! She’s a bug player!”
Karax shouted out loud while chasing Einchel throughout the plaza and pouring out skills.
The surrounding players heard this one by one, looked at Einchel and then started to send out skills as well.
“Woah! It’s the first time I saw…”
Crunch!
Einchel sent the head of a player charging towards her into a ball of golden light and grinded her teeth.
‘Fucking bastards! They react too fast!’
Because the reaction of the Kingdoms and the Ant Eater clans were so quick, these players were chasing her much more actively.
Her own level was at 240.
And because her level had risen quite a lot compared to the past, her combat abilities rose a lot as well.
She could handle the 50 or so chasing her from behind.
But then?
It was empty compared to the usual, it didn’t mean it was completely empty.
All the players remaining inside the War Fotress would charge towards her.
And her objective wasn’t to bicker around with these players.
‘Thank god… That there’s less of them.’
Einchel, who had been looking around with all of her scanning type skills, looked towards the plaza of the War Fortress and grinded her teeth.
If the War Fortress was busy like the usual then she wouldn’t even have been able to get this far.
‘But… I’m here!’
The moment Einchel stepped onto the center of the War Fortress, the plaza.
Booooom!
‘Fuck!’
A huge explosion occurred in front of Einchel and smashed her away.
And Einchel’s body rose up into the air from this.
The players who were chasing Einchel look towards the person who attacked her in shock.
‘The Ant Eater clans… They reset themselves and came here already?’
It costed more gold the longer the revival timer was.
And the Gold and Scarlet Demons standing there was known to have been the first ones to get killed down below from the massacre.
But even so, not a long time had been past which meant that those guys spent a tremendous amount of gold to get back here.
‘Tsk. Nothing will be in it for us.’
As Karax clicked his tongue like looking at the Gold and Scarlet Demons who were surrounding Einchel.
Sharon Stiller looked at Einchel, the person whom she had seen the moment she revived and the one of those who caused all this, and laughed in a cold manner.
“How lucky. We see each other again. Anyways, I don’t understand why you guys are spread out like this.”
Sharon Stiller had access to a large amount of information.
And according to what she had heard, everybody was heading towards the plaza here.
There was no reason why they would’ve been split up like this if they didn’t have any plans.
Well, it didn’t matter.
If she waited here then she would be able to kill them off one by one.
And as if Einchel read Sharon Stiller’s minds, she chuckled and spoke.
“Shouldn’t you at least figure out why we’re gathering to this place?”
“Hmm?”
Sharon Stiller frowned at Einchel’s words.
‘This bitch. Doesn’t understand the situation, huh. Well since you’re first, you can tell us.’
Though her Spirit Stone hadn’t recovered yet, she could easily handle this girl without it.
Kiring!
As Sharon Stiller pulled her sword out from the sheath and walked towards Einchel.
Papapapat!
Papapat!
The entire plaza started to shine in golden light.
Around Einchel.
And around Sharon Stiller, the Gold and Scarlet Demons as well.
Even around Karax and his party members.
And everyone freaked out as they saw this.
“What the hell?”
“The fuck! Is some clan coming over?”
“No. This… Looks like a login?”
“No way! How can they log in to the point of filling up the entire plaza!? How many are logging in…”
As the people freaked out.
Sharon Stiller clenched her teeth as she felt something ominous.
The confident attitude of the girl in front of her.
The girl probably knew about the current situation and was still that confident.
And Sharon Stiller did not like her expression.
‘I’ll kill you before that. Try smiling after you get beheaded.’
Roaaarrr!
Sharon Stiller’s blade flew across the air along with a huge noise.
Towards Einchel’s neck.
‘Fuck!’
Einchel clenched her teeth and tried to back up.
She wanted to buy some time while these guys were in a daze but for Sharon to just charge at her like this.
She had long depleted her stamina running here.
And her opponent was not some random player but a pro player whose job was killing people like her.
‘Shit.’
As Einchel fell into despair while staring into the blade which smashed apart her skills and was heading towards her neck.
Crunch!
There was a hand which grabbed her arm.
“Huh?”
Sharon was startled as somebody who had grabbed her arm but soon frowned as she pushed forward.
‘I don’t know who you are but… I’m level 250!’
Uudududuk.
Then.
She forcefully pushed through despite the arm grabbing her and then continued to slash.
‘Try laughing you bitch.’
As Sharon was about to laugh for herself.
Kwaduk.
Kwaduduk.
Over the hand which had grabbed her arm, dozens of other arms popped out and grabbed onto her.
Arms from dozens of people who came out from the golden light.
“Yo! Catch this bitch! Jesus, she’s strong!”
“It doesn’t seem like this is the girl… Hey you, the girl over there. Are you the guide?”
Sharon could handle one but multiple dozens was a different story.
“Fuck…”
As sharon cursed out in a dumbfounded manner after being immobilized.
The man who had grabbed onto her arm in the beginning shouted.
“Hey! If they don’t have the mark then kill them all! We’re organizing this place first!”
“Okay!”
Kwadududuk!
‘Fucking seriously…?’
Hundreds of thousands of golden lights.
Sharon Stiller fell into despair as she saw hundreds of spears flying at her.