Chapter 78

(CH03) 0momo0: Anyway, see you in a bit!! Miu, you rest

(CH03) 0momo0: I’ll go check real quick!!

(CH03) Miu: Wait a second

(CH03) Miu: Momo

(CH03) Miu: Excuse me??????

Miu tried to stop him, but for the sake of survival if nothing else, Mo Yeonhoo was firmly set on returning to the alliance territory. He slid the chat window where Miu was calling for him off to one side. More accurately, he ran away from it.

Scary. How angry is he, exactly?

According to Mo Yeonhoo’s judgment as a baby rabbit expert and Miyoung-crazed guy, Miu’s attitude right now was subtly strange.

Normally, he would have roared like a lion and torn him to shreds with words, but the fact that he kept saying it was fine, that it was nothing... meant he was definitely planning to thoroughly strip Yeonhoo down once he got back.

I need to bring back even a tiny result.

It would be best if he could see traces of the core, and if not, then at least some leftover loot that had been missed.

Mo Yeonhoo used a Stealth item and walked into Animal Love’s alliance territory. The walls were already split to pieces everywhere, so getting inside was easy.

Wow, this really is a mess.

Mo Yeonhoo looked around, studying the chaotic interior.

“People?”

That was when he saw three users standing some distance away. Mo Yeonhoo blinked, then when one of them seemed to be looking this way, he instinctively slipped behind a structure.

Are they fixing the alliance territory?

Or were they trying to move somewhere else and searching through the wreckage for anything salvageable?

Oh—looks like they’re fixing the core. The core is right in front of them.

Something was shining in front of them. They were far enough away that he would have needed a telescope to see the item information, but the round glass-marble-like object was glowing blue, so anyone could tell it was the core. <47>’s core sparkled, too.

Wow, it looks completely different from ours. Still, since the core is intact, I guess they weren’t attacked by the spy group. They must be Animal Love alliance members after all.

Except.

What? Why isn’t their information showing up?

He couldn’t see any information at all from the people standing in front of the core. That was strange. Their nicknames and alliance names should have been floating above their heads.

Just then, the person in the center reached out a hand.

—Vmmm, vmmm, vmmm.

It was a sound like the earth itself was vibrating. Mo Yeonhoo’s eyes widened at the roar. Then Animal Love’s glass-marble-like core trembled violently before splitting cleanly in half with a sharp sound.

What is that?

They... broke the core?

Mo Yeonhoo narrowed his eyes. Something was sucked into the hand of the user standing in front. It was a blue fragment, shaped almost like...

A gravestone? But why would something like that come out of the core? Is it just a core fragment?

Did cores normally drop items like that?

Weird.

The glass sphere slowly lost its light, then began to scatter like dust. The crumbling blue core was so pretty that Mo Yeonhoo watched it as if spellbound, until a thought suddenly occurred to him.

Wait. If those people are Animal Love alliance members...

Mo Yeonhoo froze.

There’s no way they’d destroy their own core.

All three people in front of him had their hoods pulled up. And he still couldn’t see any of their nicknames.

If they weren’t Animal Love alliance members, then were they from the alliance that attacked this place?

—Graaaah.

The eerie sound by his ear made Mo Yeonhoo flinch. Horrified, he turned his screen to the side, then gaped in disbelief.

No, why now, of all times!

“Why is there a zombie here!”

—Graaaah, graaaah!

I used a Stealth item, so how did it see me?

Bewildered, Mo Yeonhoo moved his cursor over the zombie and frowned.

Zombie: Herionne de Cassian, Returned After Being Tempered Three Times in Hellfire

Heri... what?

A long name meant there was a high chance it was a zombie required for advancing the main story. And zombies like that sometimes had immunity to certain items!

—Grk, graaak.

Fortunately, the zombie was caught on a structure and only flailing its hands. The problem was its mouth. Its outstretched hands, its gaping mouth, and the teeth clacking inside it.

Stop making noise. Please!

If he moved even a little, the zombie blocked by the structure would move along with him and attack him, exposing his presence. But if he fired his gun here, that would expose him too.

If I use Skeleton...

He lowered his gaze and saw his Skeleton.

—Doo-doo-dah-dah?

He knew he had no right to say this, but today, of all days, it looked exceptionally stupid. While he was panicking, Mo Yeonhoo suddenly felt as if a gaze had stabbed into his back, and he froze.

I must be imagining things.

How could that happen? How could it theoretically be possible to sense someone looking at you inside a game—

“I’m fucked....”

...it can?

The three figures standing in the distance were all looking this way at the same time. Mo Yeonhoo’s face went deathly pale. And that was not all. The three of them paused for a moment, then began striding toward him.

Apparently, it had seemed strange that the zombie was pulling aggro all by itself.

Why are they walking over like final bosses?

The three people, the hems of their dark robes fluttering, had “???” marks floating above their heads.

What do I do?

This felt extremely bad. He did not know what they were doing here, but one thing was certain. If his presence was discovered now, something troublesome would happen.

Still, I can’t just keep shouting “what do I do” like an idiot.

His trembling lasted only a moment before Mo Yeonhoo prepared himself to shoot.

If they come closer, I’ll shoot.

Mo Yeonhoo’s side profile as he set his target now showed signs that he had grown fairly used to the game.

In the past, he would only have trembled helplessly, but maybe thanks to all the experience he had gained, on the outside, he looked rather confident and composed. Cool, even.

Please don’t come any closer! I bite. I really do.

His head was a mess. His courage, smaller than a pea—no, smaller than a grain of rice—could not be helped. Mo Yeonhoo stared hard at the screen, not knowing what to do with his pounding heart.

Looks like they haven’t noticed yet.

Judging by the way they were approaching while looking around, his stealth still seemed effective against users.

So he had only one chance. The moment they came close, his bullet would lodge itself in the middle character’s head. Then if he took one down first and fought two against one, he might have a chance...

No, I wouldn’t.

Mo Yeonhoo swiftly recognized his own skill level. Meanwhile, the three continued closing the distance.

I’m really going to shoot.

—Step, step, step.

I said I’m really going to shoot...!

Five steps, three steps, and then one...!

—Whiooo, tudududu.......

But at that moment, the sound he had been faintly hearing from earlier suddenly grew clear. No, it did not merely grow clearer.

—...tudada!

It came closer overhead.

Mo Yeonhoo snapped his head up, eyes widening.

—Tudadadadada!!

The sharp sound of rotors savagely slicing through the air shook the ground with an enormous roar. The source of that roar was...

—Slide, clunk.

At last, a silhouette set a helicopter to autopilot, opened the door, and lowered a ladder. Mo Yeonhoo saw one leg descend onto the ladder as it unfurled and dropped.

And at the same time, the three people in front of Mo Yeonhoo stared at him.

(Global) Miu: What’s this

The user who appeared with a bazooka¹ slung over one shoulder was.

(Global) Miu: Are you guys Voldemort?

Of course, Miu.

Baby!!

Miu was hanging from the helicopter ladder and looking down like something out of a movie, and Mo Yeonhoo almost forgot his own situation and burst into delight.

(Global) Miu: You used an item that hides nicknames..

Miu jumped down from the ladder and stood tall before the three. Even then, the three of them simply stood there without saying a word.

(Global) Miu: Well, of course you can’t type in chat

(Global) Miu: And you can’t kill me either

(Global) Miu: Because the log would expose who you are

That anonymity-guaranteeing item seemed to work on a similar principle to Stealth items.

It hides the nickname above their heads, but I guess it can’t stop the nickname from being recorded in the log. First, I need to tell Miu I’m here.

Mo Yeonhoo hurried to type a chat message to Miu. When someone used a Stealth item, unless they were in the same party, they could not locate each other. But then—

—Thunk, shhhhhh!

A smoke round?!

With the sound of something spraying out, white smoke rose and blocked his vision. Two of the three had suddenly set off smoke rounds and started running away. As the three disappeared in an instant, Miu fired the bazooka as if he had been waiting for it.

—...Pewww, KABOOM!!!

The bazooka on Miu’s shoulder looked as if it had a tiny rocket attached to it. After launching one shot, Miu immediately threw the bazooka to the ground.

Then out came his sniper firearm.

—Bang, bang, bang!

Even though the aftermath of the smoke round meant he should not have been able to see the targets properly, Miu stared at something and fired three shots, careful and quick.

Oh! There he is!

One person came running out beyond the range of the smoke round. They had failed to escape. And the revealed text read:

<VITA> Caldi

Translator’s Note

A portable anti-tank rocket launcher.