Pride Online

Chapter 221: Hunters Assemble Part V

“The Hunting Gate allows players to join as a party, too?”

Shin turned to nod at him as an answer to the question.

“It does. And they don’t limit the number of party members as well. But what’s bad about it is every score an individual makes will be shared with the members equally. That’s why this tactic isn’t very popular in a competition where you must collect points to win. Because most of the time it’s faster to collect the points by playing solo.”

Hearing that, Wisana raised his eyebrows.

“Then why the hell did those guys form a party? Even though they’re in the same guild, isn’t it still better to play solo and collect scores separately? So, they’ll have a higher chance that one of them flukes and wins.”

“It’s not always like that every time though.” Shin cut him off. “Don’t underestimate these five players. You didn’t see them fighting in the qualifying round, but their techniques in attack, defense, and support were perfect. Even though they had to spend more time fighting and killing monsters 5 times more than the other to make an equal score to a solo player, their perfect team play was still scary. Especially the huge guy named Black, he’s a strength player who’s quite brutal. Apart from Marcus who is one of the four gods, I think this man’s the most perfect strength player.

Wisana paused at his words. He had never heard Shin compliment someone like this before. So, it meant that this party would totally be wicked just like he said. Especially that big guy who already looked deadly from afar.

“Okay, so, I’m going to start explaining the rules of the competition now.”

Rattana continued with a smiley face. And after her voice ended, there was a large screen that appeared for everyone to see.

“The next round of the Hunting Gate event will almost be like the ones from the previous years. We’re going to divide the competition into 5 stations and each one will have the same rules, but different difficulties, where the monsters’ levels will increase in the next stations. There’s no time limit for each one, and the event ends right away after the last station.”

After that, there was an image of a clear blue crystal in an oval shape showing up on the large information screen.

“To complete each station, the competitors have to touch this crystal that looks like this image. After one of you does it, the competition in that station ends. And of course, the one who touches the crystal will get bonus points for one hundred thousand right away.”

“And will the crystal appear from the beginning of each station?”

A voice from a player rang up, and Rattana turned to smile at him before she answered.

“No, it will not. The crystal will be like a finish line for each station of the Hunting Gate, so it will appear after one of the players has defeated the station boss only. And its location will be randomly in this Dores town and everyone has to figure it out by themselves.”

After hearing the word boss from her, a sensation came up among the competitors. As well as the people on the Light Ring, who seemed to be surprised by Rattana’s words, too.

“But there wasn’t any boss last year, Miss Anne.” A player spoke up. “The crystal appeared after the player had eliminated all released monsters, didn’t it?”

“That’s true.” Rattana smiled sweetly. “But this year, we’ve changed a bit of the rule’s details. Because we’ve seen that this year’s competitors are more skilled and at a higher level than last year. So, we’ve increased the competition’s difficulty to balance players’ levels.”

Hearing that, the player who was trying to object shook his head wearily, before agreeing to it eventually. So, Rattana continued by explaining the rules.

“About the score counting, we’re going to have the same method as the qualifying round. Only bonus scores for being the first one to touch the crystal and for killing the boss in each station will be added on. The score for killing a station boss will be one hundred thousand points as well. But in case more than one player defeats the boss, the score will be shared among anyone who participates according to the damage that each player causes.”

Rattana said then smiled sweetly.

“And for the result, we’re going to count all the scores from the 5 stations of each player as before. Of course, we’re not going to find the winner based on how many crystals they touch, or how many bosses they kill. But we’ll count all their scores from every performance they do in the competition. Attacking other players is also prohibited in this round. If someone violates this rule, they will be banned from the competition instantly. In case of dying, regardless of which station, we will consider that player is unable to continue competing, and we will stop your scores there before you get killed as well.”

After that, the image of the crystal was gone, and there was some table of names list and columns behind it appearing on the screen instead, looking like a scoreboard in a sports program, or something like that.

“This is the scoreboard that will be showing all the time for the competitors to check and calculate their scores and see if they are in the winning or losing situation.”

Then Rattana pointed at the long table that the staff had just set up before she continued.

“And over there, we have prepared all kinds of stats supporting items for every competitor already. As you know, we don’t allow players to carry their own stats items in the event at all, because we’ve prepared those items for you.”

Hearing that, Wisana who was listening to her from afar smiled widely right away. He poked Shin with his elbow.

“I was confused as to why we weren’t allowed to carry the stats items at first, too. Who would have thought that the staff would prepare them for us? So generous.”

“Generous?” Shin raised his eyebrows. “No, it’s not good like you think at all, Vincent. This is the toughest thing in the Hunting Gate.”

Wisana made a noise from his throat that sounded like ‘huh?’ after he heard that. And Rattana was the one to explain that to him.

“We don’t restrict how you use items when and where, but we’re going to limit the number of items you can carry into the battle which is 10 pieces for each player.”

“Just 10?!” Wisana yelled loudly. Of course, there were many players here who were shocked by this rule as well, while the others did not even change their expressions, as if they knew about this in the first place.

Only 10 pieces of stats items were allowed to be carried into the competition that did not have a fixed time. And Shin also said that it was going to be at least an 8-hour marathon. ...So, this was the toughest rule that people were talking about!

“That’s right. Just 10 pieces.” Rattana turned to smile at Wisana. “And you have to calculate and plan on how and when to use them. But let me remind you that using too many items in fighting would make your late game more difficult. Because in the previous competitions, there were many players who almost ran out of HP but didn’t have any healing items left, so they had to run and hide from the monsters for the rest of the competition.”

Rattana finished speaking all that smilingly, before closing her screen right away. But with both her warning and gesture, many players struggle to swallow their sticky saliva down as well.

There was only this troublemaker who creased his mouth, before leaning to whisper to Shin.

“That’s brutal, Shin. What do you suggest I carry in the battle? I think that just the Magtiria potion will be enough. My level is kind of small, so I don’t want to be adverse because of the rule of level difference when I run into monsters with higher levels than me again.”

The one who was asked raised his eyebrows like he was shocked. Shin knew that this guy’s fear gland was no longer active. But who would have thought that this guy would replace it with a crazy gland like this?!

He was really going to ask for Magtiria only?!