Emperor of Solo Play Chapter 76:
Chapter 76 - Battlefield (3)
9 .
When one went across the castle walls, the first thing one saw was the bones of unknown remains . One could see some human bones, but it was mostly littered with large monster bones . It was basically a wasteland with all kinds of bones decorating the land .
It was basically a field of bones . Across the plains, there was a forest with large trees . The horizon was visible above the large forest, and the forest was more terrifying than the field of bones . The forest shook intermittently, and at times . . .
Kooh-oh-oh-oh-oh!
A roar rang out .
The forest itself was a monster's nest . Those who invaded the body of the forest could feel it with their five senses .
“So this is what a Battlefield is like . ”
“It looks harder than I thought it would be . ”
This was the first time the Tinkerbell Party was running the Battlefield . The stage that opened up beyond the castle was much more than they expected .
Of course, they had a hard time immediately adjusting to the stage . When the castle door opened, they were the last one to reach the forest . Even after reaching the forest, they were filled with nervousness . The nervousness filling them ate away at their composure .
They started walking into the forest, when they were immediately thrown into battle .
“Ah! You guys?”
The people they had faced only a couple dozen minutes ago showed up as enemies .
“W . . . what?”
“What do you mean what? This is a hazing ritual for you rookies . ”
It wasn't just one party . Five parties appeared, and they surrounded the Tinkerbell Party . They didn't even hold a conversation . There wasn't time to exchange curses and excuses . The battle ended before it started .
10 .
‘Look at what these **** are doing . ’
Hyrkan had his hood on, and he was doing his best to crouch on top of the tree branch . He saw the sight of the Tinkerbell Party perishing from start to finish .
‘When they became surprised when I stormed out of the door, I knew something was amiss . . . The 5 parties are working together?’
It was a common sight to see a party like the Tinkerbell party suffer in the Battlefield . Normally, the parties fought with each other, but the bloodshed were clustered in the beginning or the latter half of the Battlefield . It was very important to eliminate the competition either before the main monster hunt or before one takes on the Event Monster . The middle part is mostly focused on hunting monsters, so there was an implicit understanding to not attack each other . In the end, one of the reasons why users come to the Battlefield was the overabundance monsters . They were here to level up at a much faster rate .
This time it was clear why the Tinkerbell Party was targeted . At a glance, one could tell they were new to the Battlefield . The experienced users didn't pause to see the Battlefield stage in surprise . They immediately moved into the Battlefield, and they looked for a place to hide in the surrounding . Basically, anyone who stayed in the entrance was asking to be targeted in the beginning . The Tinkerbell Party didn't just paint a target on themselves . They were basically begging others to kill them!
However, Hyrkan never expected 5 parties with over 30 members to rush forward .
‘Five…… If my memory is correct, the 5 parties have a total member of 20, 28 . . . Is it 38 people?’
The 5 parties were working together .
He knew why they joined hands with each other .
‘They are really determined to catch me . ’
Their target was himself . It was Hyrkan .
The quality of users participating in the Battlefield was about the same . The level limit made it so . If there weren't any level limit, the high level users would come here to wreak havoc . Many felt an irrational feeling of unfairness when Hyrkan appeared on this stage .
The 5 parties didn't hesitate to make an alliance .
‘Also, didn't those **** act all friendly when they wanted to take photos with me? Assholes . ’
From Hyrkan's perspective, nothing about this situation made him happy .
‘Still, this is a bit weird . ’
At the same time, he harbored a suspicion .
‘No matter how I see it, they are going all-in on catching me . Wasn't this a little bit excessive even for a Unique Skill?’
He somewhat understood what was going on, but he did feel their actions were a bit excessive .
Hyrkan narrowed his eyes .
‘Did I steal a watch from one of them in the past?’
Of course, there was practical or economical reasons . However, there could also be personal reasons mixed in there .
Revenge!
It was a very emotional and unproductive reason, but it was also a motivation that made people move .
If he was being truthful, Hyrkan's gaming history wasn't squeaky clean . He had ruthlessly killed anyone, who bothered him . The fault was with his opponent, but they weren't the kind of people, who would admit to that in the first place . They wouldn't have fought if that was the case in the first place . If this was about revenge, this outcome wasn't too strange .
‘Is it perhaps those **** I screwed over before? Was one of their white knights in that group? Probably not . Did those guys somehow find out I'm the Hahoe Mask? Is it the friend of that guy I screwed over when I caught the Golden Skeleton?’
Any ways, there were a lot of people dying to catch Hyrkan . There were too many that Hyrkan couldn't pinpoint the source .
Of course, Hyrkan didn't have to think long on it .
‘Well, whatever . The 5 parties of 38 people is my target . ’
Hyrkan watched as he saw the 5 parties take the Tinkerbell party members' watches . He stopped his trivial thoughts, and he started making his plans in earnest .
‘If I follow my heart, I would want to record footage for the entire 144 hours . I want them to feel as if they were the supporting characters of a live Saw movie . However, that'll waste my hunting time, so I'll finish them within 24 hours . ’
He made his plan in a flash .
This was all routine for Hyrkan .
11 .
“What a really **** up situation . ”
It hadn't even been two hours since the Terube castle wall's gate had opened . Before they could even properly start their monster hunt, the Mongmart Party was surrounded by other users .
Mongmart Party's Tanker Board was angry when he saw the several dozen users surrounding them . He yelled with an incredulous expression on his face .
“Even if this is the Battlefield, aren't you guys taking this too far? What's the meaning of coming at us with an alliance of 5 parties?”
His shout was filled with anger . As if they agreed with Board’s anger, the two priests, 3 magicians, and swordsman of the Mongmart Party also had expressions filled with anger .
On the other hand, the 30+ people didn't have any expressions on their face . They were calm and it seemed they weren't going to respond to the Mongmart Party .
“You've run the Battlefield numerous times . You should have known you might run into a situation like this . ”
“Let's end this quickly . ”
These were users, who were used to such tactics . This was why they participated in the Battlefield . This didn't happen all the time in the Battlefield, but it was something that could break out at any time . If one felt embarrassment, shame, sorriness, or guilt then they didn't belong on the stage called the Battlefield .
“Even if there is no rules in the Battlefield, isn't this too much?!”
Since they were the ones holding the short end of the stick, they could only curse . They could probably swear for 24hrs straight in this situation .
With a proper battle about to happen, Cho-oohroong looked on in silence as the parties exchanged words . Then he discreetly gripped his sword .
‘There is no need to drag this out . ’
The Mongmart Party wasn't their main target .
‘If Hahoe Mask notices something is amiss, he might go into hiding . That would put me in a tough spot . ’
The main target was the Hahoe mask . He had to take care of this situation before the Hahoe Mask realizes what was going on .
If Hyrkan realizes the groups had allied with each other to catch him, he would act according to the situation .
He wouldn't fight upfront . He'll most definitely be on the run, and he'll try to take advantage of opportunistic moments . It wasn’t easy to chase after a single fleeing user in the Battlefield .
Moreover, there was an additional reason why he had to catch the Hahoe Mask .
‘I have to catch that **** . . ’
Once he catches the Hahoe Mask, he'll immediately receive a reward of a million Yuan . This was the bonus pot put on the line for the Hahoe Mask hunt by Apollo .
‘Million Yuan…… . ’
For killing one user, he would easily earn more than $100,000 here . Cho-oohroong was already planning out what he would do with that money .
Anyways, if he wanted to quickly settle this situation, he had to do the dirty work .
Even if over 30 users surrounded them, their opponents were veterans of the Battlefield . Their levels and Item Settings were similar all similar .
The result was obvious if one considered the numerical advantage . However, the situation could always change . Basically, there was a high chance that some casualties would occur if the Monmark Party struggled against them in their death . No one wanted to become the casualty .
This was why someone had to take the bullet . Someone had to lead this battle if one wanted a quick resolution .
This was why Cho-oohroong moved . When he moved, the users of the Swordsman Class moved slowly as they took on the role of Tankers and Strikers .
The magicians started to cast magic from behind them . The priests readied themselves in the backline, and they focused on the upcoming battle .
It happened when everyone's attention was focused on a single location .
“Huh!”
The perimeter was tightening when someone breathing their last breath was heard .
‘What is it?’
Cho-oohroong was looking at his targets, when he heard a sound from beyond the Mongmart party .
Cho-oohroong's gaze moved quickly .
‘Huh?’
Cho-oohroong's eyes picked up the Skeleton Warriors . There were 3 of them . The three Skeleton Warriors ran towards a priest, and they stabbed the priest . The Skeleton Warriors withdrew their sword, then they stabbed once again .
“Ooh-ahk . Shit!”
The priest let out a yell, and he alerted the others of his emergency situation . However, by that time, the three Skeleton Warriors had already stabbed the priest's body a dozen times .
The priest's defensive gear wasn't that great . The defensive gear was dependent on one's level, so the priest's body was basically pudding . Moreover, the attack power of the Skeleton Warriors was on a frightening level .
Before the priest could cast his healing spells, he was turned into a mess .
“Shit . What's going on over there?”
One of the priest's companion saw him go down, so he turned to run towards the Skeleton Warriors . He ignored the Mongmart Party . At that moment, everyone was filled with thoughts of saving the priest!
‘We'll be in a dangerous situation if the priest goes down . ’
Cho-oohroong thought along the same line . A priest was of great importance to a party . Priests were more important in the Battlefield than the mages . If one didn't have a priest, it was better to logout and wait for the door to open .
As befitting the status of Heh-bibin's rising star, he started thinking about what would be coming next .
‘Wait a moment . ’
The Skeleton Warriors wouldn't just show up by themselves .
Cho-oohroong turned his head .
‘Ah!’
Four Skeleton Warriors suddenly appeared from a different direction . Everyone watched in surprise as the group of Skeleton Warriors jumped another priest .
Cho-oohroong's thoughts naturally moved onto the next thought .
‘Where's the Hahoe Mask?’
Since the Skeleton Warriors were here, there was no way the Hahoe Mask was not here .
As Cho-oohroong expected, the Hahoe Mask appeared .
“Ooh-ah!”
From behind Cho-oohrong, he stabbed a priest affiliated with Cho-oohroong's party . Hyrkan immediately withdrew his sword, and he struck the priest's neck . Afterwards, he sawed at the priest's neck . In a flash, the priest's neck was half-severed .
Hyrkan had appeared in this fashion, and he made sure the priest was dead .
“Charge!”
When Hyrkan appeared, the Mongmart party moved as if they had been waiting for this .
No, he was sure they had been waiting for Hyrkan . The Mongmart party moved towards the opposite direction from where Hyrkan had appeared .
They were splitting up their troops .
If one wanted to catch two rabbits, they would inevitably have to divide their group into two .
The problem was the group surrounding the Mongmart party . There wasn’t a normal power structure between these parties . One needed to go through the process of suggestion and negotiation when dealing with them .
One had to consider the situation, assess what method one had to use, suggest the method, and the group had to agree with said method . It was a frustrating process, and it wasn't something that could be done in a desperate situation where 1 second could mean the difference between life or death .
‘Fuck!’
Even Cho-oohroong was taken aback as Hyrkan used his blade on his party's priest . The way Hyrkan killed the priest was close to torture, and Cho-oohroong could only look on .
After killing a priest in a flash, Hyrkan's eyes met Cho-oohroong's gaze .
It lasted only for a brief moment .
Hyrkan immediately turned his head around, and he started running towards a different user .
“He…… . ”
He was also a Priest .
Poohk!
The Priest was about to yell out for help, but Hyrkan stabbed his sword between his eyes . Hyrkan didn't stop running as he carried off the Priest on his shoulder .
He was running away .
“Follow him!”
“Uh?”
“It's the Hahoe Mask!”
At that moment, a group of users followed after Hyrkan . How could they do nothing when the target was running away?
At that sight, Cho-oohroong swallowed his saliva . Cho-oohroong was at a loss for words .
‘H . . . he got us . ’
Cho-oohroong was struck dumb, and he couldn't say anything .
12 .
Pook pook!
With the priest on his shoulder, Hyrkan ran as he repeatedly skewered the body of the priest like a shish kabob . Until a moment ago, the priest had shouted all kinds of curses at him, but now his body was slumped over like a corpse . Hyrkan laughed when he saw this .
‘He forcefully logged out . ’
The user had been slung across Hyrkan's shoulder like a luggage, and he stabbed as he retreated . It seemed it wasn't fun to experience it live .
Finally, Hyrkan turned to look for the first time at the 3 people chasing him .
‘They are following me like dogs . ’
The three of them had successfully chased after Hyrkan . This meant these users had Stat that was comparable to Hyrkan .
They were Strikers .
They were users of the Swordsman Class, who mainly focused on their Strength Stat .
Hyrkan had slowed down just enough, so they had an easier time following him . Then he allowed them to incrementally close the distance .
In the end, he had stopped .
‘Is it here?’
After stopping, he discreetly turned his head to look around his surrounding then he dropped the priest from his shoulder .
Chul-puh-duhk!
He wasn't dead yet, but the user had given up on this character . The priest's body was basically a corpse .
Poohk!
Hyrkan planted his sword into the priest's spine . He placed two hands on the sword, and he looked at the three Strikers .
The sight of Hyrkan was intimidating and frightening .
“S . . . stop . ”
“Hoooo!”
Even the veteran users couldn't attack Hyrkan immediately . The imposing feeling comming off of Hyrkan had made them come to a stop .
The three users, who had stopped after feeling the imposing feeling, came to their senses, and they ordered their thoughts .
‘Ah, **** . ’
‘We're the only ones here…… . ’
Their battle capability was most definitely outstanding . They were of the Swordsman Class, and they had focused on raising their Strength Stat . No one would choose to grow this Class if it was weak .
However, the opponent was the Hahoe Mask .
‘Can the three of us take down the Hahoe Mask?’
‘He doesn't have his Skeletons?’
He controlled 10 powerful Skeleton Warriors . He was strong enough to solo Boss Monsters with them . He was someone, who possessed a ridiculous amount of skill . Will three Swordsman be enough to take him down?
It was possible .
However, it wouldn't be easy .
‘Should we just run away?’
‘We don't have priests any more . What should we do?’
Everyone was filled with nervousness as they raised their weapons . Those with shields raised it in front on them .
Hyrkan wordlessly looked back at them .
Pook pook!
He took out the sword stuck in the priest's back, and he kept repeatedly stabbing the body . It seemed he wanted to be sure that the priest was dead .
‘Crazy son of a bitch!’
The sight was so frightening that the three of them couldn't even come up with a way to buy time or try something else .
It was at that moment .
Koo-uhhhhh!
Accompanying a terrifying roar, four monsters ran towards them . They were horned Trolls with gray skin . The three Strikers could only look at the four Trolls with a dumbfounded expression on their face . Hyrkan put a big smile .
‘That Golem is slow, but its timing is pretty killer . ’
Hyrkan had unsummoned his Golem, and the monsters had come to kill the Golem's master . Hyrkan had readied a monster bomb .
13 .
“How many of you are left?”
“Six . ”
“Nine . ”
“We…… . ”
They had started out with 38 users, but the number had been reduced to 30 .
In a flash, 8 users suffered a Game Over .
Of course, it wasn't as if they hadn't gained anything . As the Mongmart Party was running away, they were able to eliminate 3 of their users .
However, their current situation was embarrassingly bad even if one added in their gains .
The biggest problem was . . .
‘We lost 4 Priests…… . ’
Eight users had suffered Game Over, and half that number was priests . Amongst the the 5 party, there had been a total of 8 priests, and now four of them were gone .
‘We've be perfectly undone . ’
It was a frightening situation .
Even though this was only a game, Cho-oohroong felt a chill run down his back .
Currently, the community was formed with 5 parties, yet they had lost 4 priests . If the community dissolves, one party would be without a priest . Basically, it was a death sentence .
‘I never expected the Mongmart to join hands with the Hahoe Mask . ’
They were in a critical situation only because Mongmart Party had joined hands with the Hahoe Mask . That was the only reason .
When they surrounded the Mongmart Party, they pulled the priests to the back to protect them . It was par for the course . The Strikers and Tankers were sent towards the front line to start the engagement . Since they had surrounded their enemies, this was the most logical and suitable tactic .
However, no one expected the Hahoe Mask to appear then and there
To make it worse, the Hahoe Mask divided his Skeleton Troops into two groups, and he killed two priests in a single strike . Afterwards, Hyrkan quickly killed one priest himself, then he ran away with another priest on his shoulder .
‘The Hahoe Mask has never run the Battlefield before, so how is he able to come up with these tactics?’
It was a very smart play . Instead of killing the priest on the spot, he carried the priest, who had no battle ability . He killed the priest as he carried him around . He was crafty . Hyrkan had a craftiness that could only beasts could come up with .
This was how Hyrkan killed four priests by himself . The 5 parties had combined forces, yet he was skilled enough to pick off the 4 priests . His skill gave Cho-oohroong goosebumps . Furthermore, he had intentionally baited the Strikers, and he used the monsters to turn the Strikers into road kills . Even though he was on the losing end of it, he almost let out a sound of admiration .
This clarified something . Hyrkan had perfectly read the intent of Cho-oohroong and the others .
This basically meant… .
‘This isn't the end . ’
It basically meant this was the beginning .
Cho-oohroong and the other parties were the first ones to proceed with no rules governing their actions . If their opponents didn't follow the rules, they didn't have the grounds to complain .
One had to be ready to battle with monster at any time especially in the Battlefield . The Battlefield had so many monsters that the monsters came looking for the users . On such a stage, it was impossible for 4 priests to cover over 20 users .
The worst part was the rest time . It was impossible to game for the whole day . In several hours, everyone was going to logout to rest . Several people were saying they weren't going to log back until the 144 hours was up . Instead of being blindly hit with Game Over, some thought it would be better to take a 144 hours break . They would avoid the Game Over, while they take a week worth of break .
This meant their numbers would shrink once again .
Eventually, they wouldn't have a numerical advantage .
‘I can't let that happen . ’
Cho-oohroong felt the need to organize this situation . He gathered the leaders of the other parties .
“We have to continue to work together . If we go our separate ways, we'll just become targets . ”
“You want us to hunt together in this state?”
“If we stay together, at the very least, the enemies won't attack us directly . We still have a decisive numerical advantage . Don't we need to put our survival as our highest priority?”
There wasn't any pushback .
‘Shit . ’
However, when Cho-oohroong looked at their expression, he could sense they weren't happy with him .
‘They are trying to put the blame on me . ’
In the end, Cho-oohroong was the first one to suggest the attack on the Hahoe Mask . It was human nature to blame someone else when things don't go your way .
“Well, let's do that then . ”
They gave their assent, but they weren't explicit with their answers .
Cho-oohroong realized something was amiss .
Hyrkan appeared in front of them once again about 5 hours after the castle gates had opened . Everyone was getting ready to logout, so they were looking for a safe zone when it happened .
“Who's the mastermind behind all of this?”