“No…… Why are you doing this here? Say something.”
I pretended to help the Archer up while cleverly shaking off his arm.
The Archer, thrown back down to the ground, wasted his well-customized face pouring out tears and snot.
“Kalineeee……”
“Kaline?”
The Archer and I are meeting for the first time right now, but neither of us was conscious of that. This tactless Archer bastard was looking up at me like a savior, and I was dying of curiosity about the Archer’s next words.
“He’s blocking this slum. Looking for meeee……”
The bastard who couldn’t even finish his words started crying *huuuung*.
Because of the possibility the Archer might be acting, I also prepared to activate the subspace entrance and flee at any time. But the more I listened to the story, the more the Archer seemed to have truly become a rag.
So hearing the whole story.
—I missed him. Again this time too.
In the game, one of the two must die, so I’d never seen the current situation where Kaline misses Belsus. So I couldn’t predict Kaline’s actions afterward.
But…… to think he’d lose his reason like this.
Kaline, who thought this was the golden opportunity to take Belsus’s experience points, ended up running wild. Right, he got pissed off beyond words.
—It’s a rat in a trap anyway! Keep chasing. I’ll cover you!
The Archer bastard kindly spouted off from the side without knowing that…….
—…….
The moment the Archer faced Kaline silently staring at him without response, he instinctively felt goosebumps rise.
That very moment’s body movement was the Archer’s best judgment of the year.
—Hiiik!
By a hair’s breadth, he avoided the blade eerily stabbing up from below.
Even after the Archer nimbly leaped away with a ranker’s instinct, his legs gave out and he collapsed.
He crawled up and fled. Fled and fled again. Circling around and around inside this slum.
And now.
“Fuck…… That crazy bastard with no blood or tears…… He’s trying to kill and eat me along with Belsus……”
The Archer, who had been chased around without eating and only catching winks of sleep, seemed one step away from going crazy. He grabbed onto me, someone he was seeing for the first time, and cried profusely while pouring out his grievances.
Actually, Kaline realized it quite late.
The Archer who suggested teaming up with him—come to think of it, there’s no reason to spare him…….
A ‘Hunter’ who knows about his overpowered ability is prey, not an ally.
“The Predation ability is fucking overpowered…… I thought of course choosing Kaline would be the best……”
Well, it’s not self-praise, but here my choice proves correct compared to the Archer.
Even if Belsus is weak, he accepts my sudden existence favorably. Even though I know about his ability and go one step further by having the same Reading ability, he doesn’t feel threatened.
‘If I had chosen Kaline, I would have first built up strength with the Predation ability, then subjugated that ferocious bastard later.’
I was sitting with the Archer in a deep spot even within the back alley. The Archer would sniffle then flinch at every opportunity or constantly look around.
He must have been chased quite a bit by Kaline, scared like a rabbit.
The Archer stopped sniffling. And finally took interest in me too.
“Then you’re Belsus’s chooser?”
Hiding it here won’t work at all…… I nodded roughly.
The Archer combed down his disheveled blond hair with his hand. Though confused, he seemed to quickly accept it.
“Then 9 characters and 9 people. Perfect match. I thought eight people was strange.”
The Archer’s pupils wandered through the air briefly. He seemed to be checking once more if I was in the chat members.
“Why don’t you have chat?”
“I’m curious about that too.”
I talked about the ‘error’ the system mentioned when I just possessed. The Archer seemed half-doubting.
He didn’t bring up anything particular, perhaps not catching evidence of lies in my tone or expression. Probably because he doesn’t have the leisure to seriously worry about his own situation.
“What’s your class?”
This too, well, lying would be exposed quickly.
“Farmer.”
“Farmer? A lifestyle class? That has rankings too?”
It does. I don’t know about you great combat rankers.
Those who fly around with every dungeon update and stake their lives on first clears wouldn’t know the lives of those who take up farming diaries and cast fishing rods in the outskirts.
“Ha fuck…… What can you do as a farmer? Is that thing you do teleportation? Then can’t you help me escape too?”
“It’s not teleportation.”
“Then?”
The Archer stubbornly asked, but I kept my mouth shut and looked at him with an expression like ‘why should I answer you?’
The Archer cursed for a while asking if I’m even human, then quieted down.
I took that gap to open my mouth.
“Kill him. Kaline. Then it’s solved.”
The Archer made a face like he’d been hit. Soon he completely distorted his face.
“This bastard! It’s not your problem—!”
“That bastard is trying to kill you first. You chose the Predation ability, what are you hesitating for?”
“……”
“The ability you chose requires killing people to activate. You didn’t prepare for this either?”
Once I spat out words, the next words flowed smoothly. The Archer turned completely pale.
Honestly, I’m not really qualified to corner him this much. What am I anyway?
But to emphasize, I’m doing this on purpose. I’m being scary before the Archer realizes so he won’t have time to think.
“If you’re going to hesitate.”
That way, even as the weakest farmer, I can take the upper hand in this relationship.
“Why did you shoot Belsus?”
The Archer, frozen solid, couldn’t even blink. Cold sweat seemed to faintly seep from his pale forehead.
I lightly pushed the Archer’s chest with my elbow so he fell back with a thud.
“Should I tell you? Why you can’t kill Kaline? Actually it’s easy. Not just me but all the other rankers probably know too? ……Even if you kill Kaline, you don’t get experience points.”
The Archer’s eyes shook mercilessly. The Archer trembled his head denying my words, but still couldn’t create an excuse.
Kaline’s Predation ability is uniquely overpowered. The clear difficulty is also ‘Easy.’ It’s balance-breaking.
So there are two penalties to offset that overpowered ability…….
First. Even if you’re lucky enough to kill an opponent stronger than you, the ability doesn’t activate. You can only absorb experience points from opponents weaker than you.
The other one…… there’s no need to recall now.
Conclusion. Even if the Archer somehow succeeds in killing Kaline, because Kaline’s stats exceed the Archer’s stats, not even 1 gram of experience points will come in.
‘Well, it’s actually complex reasons, but I unilaterally condemned him.’
This much should be enough to break the Archer’s spirit.
I stood up leaving the Archer behind.
“Sorry but there’s nothing I can do for you.”
Actually I could take him into the subspace, but I don’t see why I should do that.
Shooting Belsus…… I can let that slide as not knowing about my existence. If he simply regarded Belsus as just a game character, there wouldn’t have been any other option besides following Kaline’s original route.
But aside from that.
This bastard is a competitor. Moreover, he has an overpowered ability to the point of being checked by other rankers.
If the Archer gets higher than me later, I’ll be defeated and die. He could become the very person who takes my life in the future.
I turned my back on the Archer and walked several steps. ……Not forgetting to prepare subspace movement in case that bastard’s eyes roll back and he shoots me from behind.
The Archer who jumped up belatedly shouted.
“I’m serious, that I can’t kill people! I can’t kill them because I’m scared! I’m not a psychopath, how can I kill! Shooting Belsus…… Yeah, I’m sorry! I said I’m sorry! I was just aiming and panicked when Belsus ran away so I let it go!”
I turned around slightly. The Archer’s desperate face caught my eye.
The Reading ability extending from me quickly crossed the slightly distant air and dug into the Archer’s head.
{When Belsus dodged…… I was relieved. Really. But you won’t believe me.}
That face was the face that grabbed onto me and cried profusely without even knowing who I am.
Even though we’re meeting for the first time, casual speech flowed smoothly and it was comfortable to talk like we’d known each other long.
‘I’ll know if I talk more. Unless he’s really doing advanced acting…… he’s not a bad guy.’
Well, not that I’m going to let my guard down and treat him immediately though.
“Can you raise your voice that loud?”
Because knights hear daytime words and knights hear nighttime words too.
The Archer shut his mouth. After acting stupid going “uh, uh…” for a few seconds, he soon became agile. With a gaunt face from not eating for days, he quickly leaped and disappeared from my view.
I left the alley as is and walked.
After a while, a Royal Knight ran past me making heavy military boot sounds.
After the dust Kaline kicked up settled, I slyly looked back. Before I knew it, cold sweat had flowed from me too.
‘As expected, Kaline doesn’t know me.’
I moved to an alley with a security guard and shops in this neighborhood. I entered the nearest restaurant and told the owner I wanted to buy ingredients.
The basket was filled with vegetables and eggs. I was about to ask for two chunks of salted pork—.
“Give me three chunks please.”
A sigh came out. Even thinking I got caught wrong, I purchased food for the Archer too.
‘One house dog. One stray dog.’
