7: Leaving the Scenario
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"What are we going to do with this one? Should we finish him off?"
Trevor poked fun of Stevens swollen face, who glared angrily at him. He wanted to cussed at them, but since they blocked his mouth he can't make any noises. Two hours ago, Dein and Fei left the hut to investigate, leaving Steven who have a rabbit identity fell under their scheme. They wanted to use Steven to capture Fei and Dein who went outside but unfortunately, the small girl is good at hiding. While the tall one, she may be battling with Sid--the hammer man.
For Ana, their teamwork was really exceptional and cunning. The first to arrive in this scenario were the players who carry the werewolves identities. The mission they received were different.
"The players have recieved their mission! Hunt down the rabbits!"
The system was very good to them and seems like on their side. They were able to develop a plan to let the rabbit players lower their guards down against them werewolves and prevent them from running to the forest. The plan was for Sid to pretend to die from going inside the forest--because he aroused the system's anger and then Sid will use a prop that can create an illusion' to make the act more believable. And it did really work.
Although, the system punishing those who wants to run away from the game is really true. It did happen in some scenario--but not here. Although one from their team died (Ryan), Ana didn't care about it as long as she survive the game.
"Let him be, we'll be able to do that once we captured those two." Ana took out a chocolate drink from her inventory and hummed a song in a happy manner.
*Ting!
"Player 0178930 who owns a rabbit identity have successfully broken the village people's curse! The game summary has been revised!"
Game Summary: The village has been terrorized by wolves for weeks now, taking away their livestock and causing troubles around the village. When the wolves discovered that there were no livestock for them to steal, they started hunting down the village people. The village chief was resentful and hired mercenaries to subdue the wolves. He offered to give them the immortality stone once they succeeded.
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Dein pulled out the butterfly knife from Sid's chest. Sid tried to cover his wounded chest while stumbling, hoping to stop the bleeding but it only made the wound to bleed more. He looked at Dein with a shock face one last time before falling down...dead.
"That girl..." Dein let out a small grin, wiping the blood from her cheeks. She had also heard the system's prompt. Fei may had successfully broken the immortality stone that's turning the village people into werewolves when midnight strikes. Now that they have turned into humans, the only wolves remaining were the players.
Will they meet a very good end in the village people's arms? Who knows? The only way for them to clear the game is to hunt the rabbits down but will they still be able to do that? The system may be good to them for a short while, but it's still the system. It gives rewards and punished at the same time.
>>Inside the hut
"What the heck? was that even possible?" Trevor roared out angrily at the system's sudden's prompt. Ana rolled her eyes and glared at Trevor.
"It's your fault! It's just one girl and you even failed to capture her?!"
"How come it's only my fault?"
"It's yours because you're a f*cking dickhead!" Ana screamed at Trevor in an hysterical manner. Before their arguments even get more heated someone pushed open the hut's door from the outside. An angry village chief greeted them, followed by the village people's dark faces who each held a weapon in hands. When they saw the helpless situation of Steven, their eyes burned even more with anger.
"Capture these insolent wolves! Dare to terrorize our village?! Death! Dare to eat even the mercenaries we hired? Death! Kill them!"
The village people tried to capture Ana and Trevor. Trevor summoned his chains while Ana summons a bow and tried to fight everyone who would try to grab hold of them, but the sea of people put them at disadvantage. Someone took a hold of Ana's bow and Trevor's chain was yanked off by a number of people.
"F*cking beasts! They even dare use black magic in our village! Burn them!"
The two players screams pierced the sky as they were captured by them. Some even stabbed them mercilessly a countless of time, leaving them weak and bloody. When the two were dragged away by the angry village people to be burned, Fei untied the bound Steven with her trembling hands. She still have a lingering fear around these mad village people. She'd been chased around by them and even suffered various injuries from their stone knives and spears.
"Thank you." Steven weakly mumbled. She handed him a bottled water before asking,
"What happened? How come the game summary change?"
"It's the Immortal stone."
A while ago, after sneaking behind Trevor and discovering; Ana, Trevor and Sid--the hammer man has planned to end the game by killing the remaining rabbit players Fei decided to use the trump card in her hand, which is the immortality stone. If the immortality stone is important to the village people, then it may hold the key answer.
So Fei went on her way to find the immortality stone inside the village chief's house. Unfortunately, the invisibility she had on had expired and she was soon discovered by the angry village people. I turned out that when Trevor meet some warriors, he told them that Fei was a wolf disguising as a human. Fei was chased by them tirelessly and she ran for her life, ocassionally crying. Her rolling pin is useless in this situation. After running for so long, she found a small altar behind the forest and saw the seemingly immortality stone which looked like a an ordinary white stone. She took the stone away before the village people could realize it and hid somewhere to break it.
*Ting!
"Player who owns a rabbit identity have successfully broken the village people's curse! The game summary has been revised!"
When the system's prompt appeared, the village people who's been chasing Fei returned back to what they were originally doing--like they were being controlled by someone. Fei used that opportunity to tell the village people that the wolves are hiding inside the village and pointed to the hut they are staying. That's what all occurred before the people went on punishing the two players.
"That's...I don't know what to say." Steven said before summoning another pair of glasses from his inventory. He was not able to use it when Trevor captured him. He seemed to have used a prop on him that could make a player unable to use the inventory--so he was helpless.
"Good job."
"Dein!" Fei stood up abruptly when she saw the woman entered the hut. She looks like she rolled on the dirt because it had left traces on her face and clothes. As soon as the three of them reunited, the system's voice was heard as if rejoicing.
*Ting!
"Congratulations! Player 0178930, Player 0000021 and Player 0015366 have successfully cleared the scenario. The players are hereby rewarded with the Immortal Stone! Usage - A life saving stone that can enable the player from leaving a scenario. The stone can only be used once."
"Player 0178930 have received an additional reward! Wolf fang! Usage - @!?"!*?#? error!"
"The scenario will now close and players will return outside the game."
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Fei stood stupidly under the glowing lights of lanterns. People are walking around the bustling area of what seems to be a night festival. Someone walked passed her, a child holding a flower shaped cotton candy. Was that a real child? There are different stores selling foods, some souvenirs shops, game booths and other fun activities. Most people are dressed in kimonos, while some are dressed casually--they're most likely the players, while the others seems to be just NPC's acting around to make the place resembled a real world.
After leaving the Forest of Terror, this is where the system transported Fei. A place that seemingly screams Japan. After spacing out for a moment, a bald man wearing a black apron and holding a huge spatula called Fei's attention.
"Hey! Do you want to try our pancakes?"
Just in time, her stomach made a noise indicating her hunger. She have not eaten well while inside the scenario so it's normal to feel hunger while seeing a lot of stalls selling food around. Fei stared at the weird pancake, it's not the fluffy pancakes that she knows, but seemingly a vegetable pancake with different topings that she couldn't name. The only thing that could keep its pancake name was the egg and flour mixture that the bald man pour. But all in all, it didn't looked like a pancake at all. After putting it in a paper plate, the man handed the pancake to Fei which she had eaten quickly even if it's steaming hot.
"Did you just left the scenario?" Fei looked at the bald man with surprise.
"You're not an NPC?"
The man let out a joyous laughter after hearing Fei's question. He handed her another piece of pancake before answering the question.
"Of course I'm not, I'm a human--a guide rather."
"What's a guide?"
"Hmm? You don't know? Are you a new player?"
Was that really obvious? Fei nodded at him. The bald man introduced himself as Taka. Taka flipped a few pancakes first before talking.
"A guide, is a guide. Most of the times we help the system punished the trouble makers outside the scenarios. For example, a player who tried to bomb an entire building was punished by the guides by stripping him off his props and other life saving tools then being forced to enter a very dangerous scenario. A guide can also become an NPC inside some certain games."
There are things like that? Then why is he selling pancakes here?
"Don't looked at me like that, I worked as a guide of course I'll get to have my day offs."
After spending time in Taka's pancake stall, Fei learned a lot of things regarding the system. After she pass her third scenario the system will give her options in choosing scenario's she'd like to clear. She could choose people she'd like to be with when entering. And may be able to form her own team for the rest of the games. Fei didn't feel happy or anything, despite all the glorious things she heard she's still inside the game ruled by a mysterious system-- and death was always a dead end.
Fei bid her goodbye to Taka and started wandering around the area. She entered a*****e selling books. There are some books here that can also be found outside, is the system creating a clone of the earth?
Fei was about to go when her eyes caught a glimpse of a certain magazine, the cover didn't even looked interesting. It's just black, but she still gave it attention. Fei really have an eye for weird things. Maybe cuz' she found weird things interesting?
The magazine only have 4 pages. Surprisingly, it's the list of 'outstanding guides the system ever had'? Fei didn't said they're really that outstanding--she just read it out because it was the headline. These are the names of the people she don't even know, why did she even bother? Is she aiming to become one? maybe...if she survive the series of scenarios. The first one, she got lucky the second one because someone is with her. What about the third scenario?
Fei's eyes glimmered when she saw a familiar name on the list.
21. Dein - X
Dein was a guide? But didn't she entered the game with her? Taka didn't mention guides can enter the scenario's as players especially in a lower level. What does the huge X next to her name mean?