Pride Online

Chapter 233: The Awakened Emperor Part IV

What the hell’s up with these guys?!

The young man cursed loudly in his mind, even though he was not sure how long he would be able to stand and stare at the others. ...Wisana clenched his jaws, totally regretting the brief moment that he was careless.

It was at that moment that he was confused about the light that suddenly shined around him. He was not sure about what was really going on. But after he touched the crystal of the Hunting Gate event, there was this huge light barrier appearing and surrounding him suspiciously.

Not even a minute after that, he saw a group of people walking toward him. Then he remembered right away that they were the only competitors who asked to join the event as a party. And the leader of the group was called Black.

Right...

So, he turned to them to talk and ask what the light was, then he got attacked by these people unexpectedly. There was this red-haired guy running behind his back in a way he could not sense his movements at all. After that, their huge combos of attacks were coming at him constantly...

It was already a miracle that he could survive them this long!

These people were so savage. They always attacked from his blind spot. And when he could not see, his instincts would not function at full efficiency.

They fought like they had studied his movement patterns thoroughly!

“What do you think you’re doing?” Wisana asked as he was seriously hurt.

The five players who were circling around him looked at each other for a second, before the one who was the nearest to him with red bizarre hair squatted down. He looked up and smiled cunningly at Wisana.

“You’ve been beaten up like this and you’re still in the mood to ask this question, huh, ...Mister Vincent.”

Getting called by his other name like that, Wisana widened his eyes, before clenching his jaws tightly right away.

“You’re the item hunters?” he asked in a harsh voice.

“Correct!” The red-haired guy named Red shouted. “So, now that you know who we are, we don’t need to say what we want from you, right, Vincent?”

The one who was surrounded frowned his eyebrows tightly as he held his wrist that had the shiny silver bracelet on. And that was all for Red to let out a smirk, while the others were gazing at Wisana.

“You item hunters are more blatant than I thought though,” Wisana said. “I knew that joining the Hunting Gate would reveal my location to you. But I never thought that you would dare to rob me during the event like this. Man, your noses are so quick like a hyena’s.”

“I’ll just take that as a compliment then.”

The tall, aged man with black hair and an angry face named Black said in a deep voice.

“I don’t think doing this is smart.

Wisana’s words and his cunning smile made Black snort and then let out a soft sigh. He asked back.

“How is it not?”

“You’ve just revealed yourselves to the public, and do you really think that the GMs are just going to do nothing? Soon, they’ll come and get all of you. And when they’re here, do you think that you will get away with this that easily?”

After he finished speaking, five of them chuckled right away, especially Black who laughed and shook his head more amused than everyone else.

“I think I have to break this to you a bit, Vincent.” He said, then pointed to the red-light wall around them. “Do you see this wall? It’s called the district seal.”

“District seal?” He repeated.

“Yes! It’s a special border that prevents anyone in and out of this area, the highest-ranked spell that temporarily isolates the area from the game server. In other words, even though they can still see it, no one can get in this seal anyway, not even number one GM like Thada.”

Hearing that, the amber eyes looked around the district seal, before clenching his jaws. This wall appeared when he touched that crystal, ...could it be,

“So, this is a trap,” he said with rage flashing in his eyes.

“So clever!” The man with glasses, Yellow, spoke up. “And if you noticed that there’re two layers of the seal, you’d understand that the outer layer surrounding the town is to block Thada from coming down to the town. And the other one that surrounds us in the range of 500 meters is to block other players and GM Anne who’s already in Dores out from getting their noses in this.”

Wisana was speechless.

“Briefly, just stop dreaming that someone would ride a white horse to save you from distress already, Vincent.”

Red stood up, sweeping the dust off his pants. And he did not forget to point at Wisana like he defied that Wisana would be their prey for sure today.

“You have all this planned so thoroughly, huh?” Wisana snorted.

“Well, yeah.” Yellow shrugged. “There are so many monsters around you. And the Element has special protection from Thada, and that made us unable to locate you. It was so troublesome before we could find out about who and where you were. Also, this plan, we didn’t...”

“That’s enough, Yellow.” Black held his hand up to stop him. “We don’t have to talk too much to the prey. Just focus on the business and forget about the rest.”

“Right, sorry Boss. Seeing this guy’s panicked face, I couldn’t help it.” Yellow grinned.

The one who was being ganged up was looking around like he was trying to figure a way out of this trouble. But it was like what these guys said, he could not run, because the district seal had shut down that whole place. Also, his body was already wounded. He was barely able to put up a fight with just one person.

So, he needed to buy himself some time for his energy to restore.

“So, what would you say, Mister Vincent?’ Black asked. “We don’t want to waste our time here so long, and it seems like it’ll be a long challenging time before we can take you down as well. So, I want to discuss business with you nicely, okay?”

“Business?”

The listener raised his eyebrows. He was glad that this man had not commanded his guys to attack him yet, even though his face looked like he was shocked. At least, he still had some time to figure out a fighting plan, ...anything!

“Correct." Black smiled widely. “Do you know a system called Jammer Effect, Vincent?”

Hearing the question, the owner of those amber eyes shook his head.

“So, you don’t. Well, sure, how could a player know about game data’s term.” Black continued rambling. “It’s the worst bug in the game that happens when Pride data gets a problem like it does right now. It causes the game’s online communication system to malfunction. And do you know what the superb problem it can also cause?”

“What?” Wisana asked with a stiff voice.

“If any player dies during the Jamming Effect, it will cause the rollback phenomenon, or in other words, that player’s level will be set back to level 1. And I think that you wouldn’t like that, Vincent, since you’ve made it up to level 76 already.”

The listener paused at those words. ...Not only did they know his name, but they also knew his level. So, he did not have to guess how much these guys knew about his abilities.

“Okay. What do you want from me?” He asked.

Hearing that, all item hunters let out a satisfied smile instantly.

“Just a few things, kid,” Black said. And after he saw that the other started to be more obedient, his voice got softer a little.

“Deliver your legendary items, the Element, and the Darkness now, and we will let you go. I assure you that we won’t get you damaged surely.”

Wisana was stunned. He already knew that these guys would try to bargain with him. Even though they were having an advantage over him right now, they still did not want to waste their time fighting any longer. He believed that they did not want to risk and wait for Thada to figure out a way to hack Dores back. So, giving him an offer to end this as fast as possible was probably the most proper way.

Even so, Wisana was still quiet and did not respond with anything, until Black let out a long sigh.

“Is your pride suppressing you now, Vincent?” He said in a deep voice. “Then I’m going to tell you something that might help you decide. About you running around, about the fact that no one would be able to follow you to the crystal, and about blocking anyone else out of the inner district seal, we have planned it all. So, right now, it’s like you’re dancing on our hand. ...Your life depends on us.”