Chapter 270: Second Day Trouble
———Lynda———
<9: 21 AM>
“So according to the map, it should be around…” I muttered as I tried to move close to the icon as much as possible. “...Is there an indicator or anything?”
“Not that I can see. It looks like we actually have to dig around.” Glery said. Are we for real? “No. Maybe it’s a fake patch of grass. Try tapping it and see if you hit anything hard.”
“Oh.” I guess that is a thing. Lemme pull my axe out and start tapping.
*Tap* *Tap* *Tap* *Tap* *Tap* *Tap* *Tap* *Tap* *Tap*
“There.” I said as I placed my axe down on top of it. It certainly doesn’t look any different from the vast field of grass. Let’s see if I could open it up… where is the edge on this thing?
“…There we go. Hup! Ugh!” The hidden door is surprisingly large, as does the stairs leading us down into it. It kinda looks like those stair tiles in old games. “Alright. Let’s go in before anyone notices us.”
Both of us walked down and explored the underground cave. It’s already lit with some torch on the wall, looking like the flames will never fizzle out.
“There’s some chest around for us already.” I pointed out as we walked over to them and started looting. Just a bunch of junk weapons, mostly. “...Welp, time to move on to the next room. Maybe we’ll get something better there.”
“...It’s locked.” Glery said as she tried to push and pull the giant stone door opened. Guess it wouldn’t be much of a secret base if we can waltz in and loot everything so easily.
“Hmm…” I walked over and pulled out my axe. If it’s not gonna budge then-!
*Smash* *Crash* *Crack*
“Huh. That actually worked.” I remarked before walking past the chunk of the bulky door on the ground and walked up to the chests in this room. “Uhhh… More explosives and… a gun. A revolver.”
“Nothing we really used, then.” Glery remarked while I checked the description of this particular weapon.
“I mean at least the gun looks strong. It’s only six rounds though.” The description seems to imply a lot of power in each shot, whatever that means. “...I want to try shooting it, but that sounds kinda risky…”
“Best to keep it in your inventory for now. Who knows if that thing will be useful. Is there anything else in here?” She said while looking around, inspecting the walls and floors for any abnormality. “Hmm… This can’t be it, right?”
“How should I know?” It is kinda weird for it to be only two rooms, but she has been searching for a while and doesn't find anything. “Wouldn’t it be better to just… go find other secret areas? I think we could sell enough stuff from here to buy the location of another secret area.”
“That’s assuming someone is in the area and we should quickly dip. I still haven’t checked every nook and cranny of this place.” Glery protested. I mean if she thinks there are more places to look at, I ain’t gonna stop her.
———Fiss———
<9: 45 AM>
Ah. Finally, another city block. Who would’ve thought one night sleeping in the woods would’ve made me desperate to see buildings again. My back still hurts…
I know I probably should get moving, I basically haven’t moved at all since I got into the safe zone. Presumably the next safe area is miles off for me specifically. I still need more time to rest. I didn’t get the best sleep.
*Boom* *Crash*
“Huh?” I let out a stupefied voice as I saw a large building suddenly get blasted by an attack and left with a giant gaping hole in its side.
I looked up in the sky and saw the number going down by one. I didn’t even realize a fight was happening until the building got eviscerated. I didn’t even notice the other wrecked buildings at first. That terrible sleep is really doing me in.
“Uwah!?” I screamed out as suddenly someone appeared in front of me.
“Heeeh… Can’t say I know you?” The one who landed in front of me out of nowhere said casually. “Too bad the leaderboard doesn’t have a portrait attached. What’s up?”
“W-What are you planning?” I said while taking a few steps back. Why isn’t she attacking immediately?
“Oh. You know. I’m just seizing you up.” She casually said before leaning forward. “Though as much as I would to socialize normally, we’re in a competition right now. I can’t really slack off.”
That… doesn’t really bode well for me. What am I supposed to say in this situation?
“Too bad there’s so much to do with so many options. Got some long-term plan to worry about as well.” She said while maintaining her grin. “You know what? Survive the next attack and I’ll forget about you for a while. I have other places to be.”
“Excuse me-
*Grab* *Throw*
I didn’t even get to finish my sentence before I was suddenly thrown high into the sky for some reason!?
*Leap* *PUNCH* *LAUNCH*
“Guagh!?” I didn’t even get to compose myself before a fist was dug deep into my stomach and I was sent flying.
*CRASH* *Crack*
“U-Uagfh…” Everything hurts… Why did she do that? Ugh… I can’t…
*Gulp*
I quickly took multiple health pills, gulping it all down using the only limb that can even move. I think she broke three of my limbs and a few more bones. I feel like my life is slipping away from me… it hurts… I can’t… gather my breath.
“Puuuwah!” …Did I just spill out blood? I can’t even tell how blurry it is right now. I thought swallowing enough pills would’ve stopped it…
…I can’t move. This is bad. I don’t know where I landed, but I doubt that no one saw me crash landed so haphazardly… I think I hit a few things on my way down as well, aside from right into the dirt.
My vision is still blurry and three of my limbs don’t work. It hurts pretty bad, and also numb in a lot of places… Do I need more pills? How much do I even have left?
At least not all of my body is paralyzed and I stopped bleeding at some point, so I guess that’s a start, but I’m completely helpless outside of an arm and the spells… I need to hide myself and recuperate, but I can’t even get out of this hole I’m in…
I really need to calm down and think of a plan, but my body still being in pain like this makes it hard to even think! I just want to wash it all away and…
*Splash* *Flood*
Maybe this will work out. I conjure a spell and quickly fill the crater the landing impact created with water. Even with most of my limbs unusable, water is my main domain with my aquatic qualities. I can’t hide myself underwater forever as far as I’m aware, but I know how to move around freely in water even without needing to move a muscle, so I can reach up for air if I wanted to.
Right now I could probably hold my breath underwater for a minute at most. It feels like even my organs are failing me with how little air I can put in there.
This is probably the best I could do right now while I recover. It could take up almost an entire day for all I know…
———Malk———
<10: 12 AM>
“Well the next zone is gonna push us into the part of the map with actual efforts put into it. We’ve been playing with nothing but reused assets so far.” I said in response. Looks like the area we’re the closest to is… a desert, which sounds like a nightmare to deal with. “So are we exploring or calling dibs on the nearest hotel? I don’t really care either way, we need to conserve energy and keep our heads on the down low. In fact, hunting the others will decrease our chances more than it helps.”
“It feels rather pathetic that we need to be this pragmatic, doesn’t it?” Qyunda asked. Now that is certainly a can of worms we haven’t fully discussed.
“Yeah, but if we’re looking to win, then throwing as much cannon fodder as we could at her would help, just a little bit.” I doubt they’ll be useful. It doesn’t help that we don’t know if the other in our classes and the other exceptional fighters would come to the same conclusion. Judging by the points and how they’re moving with the elimination it seems like they aren’t proactively hunting people down, at least.
“They probably wouldn’t even be able to scratch her unless they found a powerful weapon. Looking at the item in the shop it’s clear that there should be such a thing.” Qyunda pointed out. “I don’t think both of us need something like that. It’s the plebs that need those things to even contribute to the fight.”
“...Speaking of the plebs, would they even realize how big of a threat she actually is?” Obviously they can check the leaderboard and see her at the very top, but the fact that her score is surprisingly low for someone on her level might give them a false sense of security.
“That is a problem ain’t it? They are probably cannibalizing each other at the moment. They will probably get a nasty surprise upon actually encountering her.” She responded. “While ganging up on one person seems unfair, the fact of the matter is that she’s someone with over twice as much strength as the second strongest, and that’s being generous to the silver medal.”
“Doesn’t help that Karra and Jass aren’t here. That’s a surprisingly large amount of effective combat force lost just between the two of them.” One of the top four and a healer are absent. I doubt Seni can supply enough healing even if she stockpiled on mana pills.
“That left us with… what. Fifteen of us and those five weapon-barers?” She asked for confirmation.
“Twenty people who can even scratch her without other external factors. Right now we have five-hundred and one person left.” That number will dwindle much more tomorrow with the harsh area being hard to navigate and most likely prompting people to be left wide open to being hunted down. Everyone’s mana sense is too good to not notice a spike in usage even if it’s a mile or two away. Even if it’s just used to jump a bit higher or run a little faster someone would’ve noticed it.
“Do we have some stragglers outside of that? I can’t quite recall…” Considering what I said, she should know that I don’t have a clue on that front.
“If there was, I would've listed them by now. There is a chance we left out more than a few people who could damage her, I’m just thinking of people who would realistically be able to at least get one good hit in.” It’s hard to keep track of people in the hundreds, there’s definitely a margin of error. “As it stands, we can only hope they don’t take each other out.”
———Lynda———
<10: 29 AM>
“Come on dude, you’re a cannon fodder. Going against me is pretty ill-advised don’t ya think?” I said in a tired tone.
“Shut it! We’re getting this rematch right here and now!” The monkey boy said, not even having his little entourage with him. Now that I think about it, I haven't even seen him with a group of people for a while now. Did something happen? “If you’re not gonna make a move then say your prayers!”
I really am not in the mood to deal with this.
*Dash* *Smash*
I smashed my axe on his face and he died instantly. I can’t afford to drag this fight out with the condition of the board. There are still too many people around. They’re all playing pretty smart considering how small the percentage of them are eliminated.
“Did he even get to move?” Glery asked, clearly a bit surprised by how sudden and brutal the ‘fight’ was.
“Doesn’t matter. Let’s get outta here before anyone comes to investigate.” Even that small burst of speed would’ve caught someone’s attention. Not to mention we haven’t even reached the next safe zone yet. We need to secure a base and a place to sleep in for the day.
———Fiss———
<10: 34 AM>
Still just floating above the surface of this makeshift pond. Doesn’t look like anyone else will come to investigate, at least for a while.
I still can’t really leave. My limbs still aren’t working outside of an arm, so I have to just stay idle for a few hours before booking it. I don’t even know where I’m gonna end up without a map.
———Kenni———
<10: 37 AM>
Too bad I can’t just go to the center of the map immediately. It’s locked for two more days before I could go in and call dibs on a place to sleep off the few unimportant days.
*Splash*
I’ll just enjoy the warm bath for a while and keep myself relaxed and out of trouble.
Unlike the others I don’t really have the desire to start hunting people for fun, at least not in this state. The others can have fun thinning themselves out and have their own share of fun. I want to keep myself out of the narrative for a while and only came back for the most important part. I’m sure the others also feel something similar outside of the one with a clear target on her head.