Chapter 35 :

Episode 8 : Faker (3)

The long-ranged female attacker retreated, carrying the injured lady in her arms while saying. "W-What the heck are they!?"

"Oh no you don't." I spoke while having Lucifer shaped into a bow.

[Strength Lv. 10 → Lv. 75.]

I pulled back the string of the bow which created three arrows in front of me. Locking on my targets that were retreating quite far already.

Then I let go of the string, shooting the arrows toward the targets. "Switch."

Once were arrows flying at the enemies, turned into axes upon my command.

The injured lady looked back to find an axe coming her way and warned her friend. "Axes!! Axes are coming!!"

Suddenly, her friend stopped running and blood started showering on the injured lady. She slowly looked up and found that her friend's head was already chopped off by the flying axe.

And with no time to scream, her head was also severed off by the axe as well. Leaving her and her friend's bodies to flop down to the ground.

[Player ‘727’ died.]

[Player ‘946’ died.]

[You have obtained two ‘Numbers’.]

The axes continued on chopping down the trees when it kept flying toward them. The trees fell down with a ‘thud’, crashing the corpses on the ground in the process.

"Phew." I extended my hand out which caused the axes to travel through the air until they arrived in my grip.

[Player ‘573’ died.]

‘Look like Behemoth finished his work.’ I thought while letting Lucifer disappear for now.

Moreover, when I turned to look at Alaine..

"W-What are you..?" She asked, trembling after seeing the fleshes and bones of the players.

The moment I walked toward her, she flinched. Her form which was ‘HwanGi-ssi’, morphed back to her original appearance.

"No need to worry. I won't kill you until you tell me why you pretended to be HwanGi-ssi." I picked Behemoth up and the loots from the bloody pile of fleshes on the grass, before storing the loots inside my inventory.

Alaine had no choice but to answer obediently if she wanted to live. So she trembled, telling me. "I was trying to help him."

[‘Behemoth’ has given you two ‘Numbers’.]

"Well done." I praised Behemoth as I put him on my head.

Then I asked Alaine who seemed to think I'm a mad man or something because I was talking to a cat a moment ago. "I see. Then do you know where he is?"

She looked at the bloody mess on the grass and soon, she appeared to stop paying attention to it. "..uh.. Yes, I do..."

"Could you show the way?"

"Why should I trust you? You might be one of those bastards.."

‘I have a strange feeling of wanting to see HwanGi for some reason.. But I don't know why..’ While I mused, I grinned sheepishly. "He helped me once. So I wanted to repay him."

"...? Wait.. Are you that guy who HwanGi couldn't save?"

"Yes, I'm that guy. By the way, my name is JoonChul or maybe you already knew it from HwanGi-ssi."

"Oh! You're actually him! Come with me! HwanGi is in danger!" She tried to move but her body didn't listen to her.

"Your stamina... Never mind, just tell me which direction it is and I'll go there with you."

"It's that way!" She pointed to the north where the ‘Kingless’ Kingdom was.

"Behemoth. Pay attention if someone were to follow us." I ordered Behemoth while placing Alaine on my back. "Hold on to me tightly. This isn't going to be a smooth ride."

[Strength Lv. 75 → Lv. 25.]

Alaine nodded as she wrapped her arms around my neck. "Okie."

[Agility Lv. 10 → Lv. 23.]

[You have activated the skill, ‘Discharge’ Lv. 2.]

The horrendously pile of fleshes, organs, and bones were flown into the trees and bushes when I dashed away from that spot.

———

While I was sprinting, I tried to start a conversation. "Anyways, what ‘Numbers’ are you?"

Alaine thought for a second and lied. "I'm player ‘999’!"

"Tell me the truth." I said while Behemoth on top of my head knew that she was lying, so he hissed at her.

"Eek! ‘998’!! I am player ‘998’!"

"998.. I see. If I remember correctly, you called 999, your brother. So you were his sister, right?"

"Yes, he was my brother."

"Aren't you sad?"

"I never liked my brother to begin with. His death was just a surprise to me so I was a bit confused in the beginning."

"Ho.."

"The most confusing part was that I got his ‘Numbers’ after his death."

"And you also got his skills?"

"Yeah? How did you know that?"

"Lucky guess." I obviously lied.

There was a function for the ‘Numbers’ that annoyed some of the players in the past but there were also some who liked this function.

If someone were to kill a player to obtain their ‘Numbers’, then they must kill the player's relatives as well.

Why? Because once the player dies, their ‘Numbers’ will be forcibly transferred to one of his or her relatives. Which was why Alaine was able to receive ‘999’'s skills, since she was his sister.

It was obvious why I didn't want to explain it to Alaine, because she might start asking me questions about how I knew this information.

"How did you meet HwanGi-ssi? And why were you helping him?" I asked when I jumped over a fallen tree.

"It's kinda silly of me, but I wanted to stay beside a strong man."

I pondered. ‘Woah.. don't tell me she has fallen in love with HwanGi-ssi?’

Alaine explained her reason. "You know how he's the ‘First’ player right? If I stay with him, I might survive in this world!"

"Just because he's the first player, doesn't mean he's the strongest."

"Y-Yeah, I know that!" After she said that, she murmured something. "I just wanted to be him so people will think I am the best.."

‘...What? Is she saying she wants to morph into him using her skill, ‘Morph’? Really..?’

Alaine pointed at the large kingdom up ahead and spoke. "Oh look! We arrived here very quickly thanks to you."