Trapped in a Game That Flopped

Chapter 141

Episode 141

While I was scanning Adam, he was doing the same to me.

"Furthermore, that bastard."

Suddenly, Adam gestured with his eyes toward the back, where Elaine was.

"That green-haired thief is known to not have any party members."

He remained facing me, not bothering to turn his body.

Thanks to that, I could freely check the area behind Adam.

The spot where Elaine, who had been slammed to the ground, had been, was empty.

I had cursed internally when I saw him slung over his shoulder like a piece of luggage earlier.

But maybe it was a good thing that Elaine had been discovered by Adam early on.

'He must have thought he couldn't use his abilities anymore.'

That must be why he'd just tossed him aside and left him.

Or it could be that he just saw Elaine's abilities as fucking weak...

Whatever the case, his carelessness was my opportunity.

"What are you looking at..."

Perhaps because I was just staring at the spot where Elaine had disappeared, without answering Adam's words.

[Adam Hailey feels a glimmer of doubt at your actions.]

With the system window, he suddenly tried to turn his head to follow my gaze.

"Sorry to get your hopes up."

I quickly opened my mouth to draw his attention.

"I don't know who those people you mentioned are, but I'm neither of them."

Since I was going to deny it anyway, I decided to drop the polite speech I had loathed all this time.

At that, Adam's eyes narrowed again.

He seemed completely uncertain because of my changed tone.

'Nice!'

A triumphant smile spread across my face as the trick that hadn't worked on that Kassel-bastard, worked.

To be honest, Adam's reaction was normal; that crazy bastard was the weird one.

"I am not the person you mentioned, Shari Azrael."

"...You're not?"

"Yes. I am not."

"Fine. Then I'll call you as I please. Shari Azrael."

I mean, does it make sense to just forcibly call someone by a name they keep denying, just because you want to.

Besides,

'NPCs all wear the same robes, and humans with similar outfits are all over the capital, so how the hell did he recognize me.'

As I was clicking my tongue at that Male Lead bastard's ghost-like intuition.

Adam, who had been studying me for a long time as if to gauge my true intentions, finally opened his mouth.

"...Then who are you?"

"As far as I know, there's no rule that participants who run into each other in a dungeon must reveal their identities."

I retorted immediately.

That was why Elaine, too, could maintain his weird alias 'Green Mask' without having to reveal his real name.

Despite my playful tone, Adam asked back quite calmly.

"Are you a participant?"

"Then what else would I be?"

When I shrugged shamelessly, he finally nodded his head.

"...I see."

In truth, if I wasn't a participant, catching monsters in a dungeon wouldn't make sense.

Adam, who knew that well, seemed to accept it.

Then, he suddenly added, as if catching me off guard.

"The person I know at least knew his place, so he wouldn't have illegally entered the tournament without knowing the world."

"..."

"My apologies."

'Ugh. Th, that bastard.'

It was clearly an apology for mistaking me for someone he knew, but I had no idea why it felt so bad.

'Knew my place? I only put up with you back then because you were my sponsor!'

How on earth was I imprinted in that bastard's mind that he could be fooled so easily.

This, in its own way, was pissing me off, and as I was swallowing my rising anger.

"However."

Adam spouted words that fanned the flames.

"If what you say is true, then you must also be well aware that there is no rule against snatching a monster that has already been caught."

"What..."

"That's why you must have gone around from one person's dungeon to another like a band of thieves, sneakily aiming for just the bosses."

"Ha. Are you kidding me? Is that the same as last-hitting?"

The boss respawns every 24 hours, so you can just catch it again.

But if someone steals your last hit on a monster you've all but caught, you get zero credit for all that hard work.

On top of that, this bastard didn't even seem to have any intention of sharing the items.

"That's what I want to say. You're a whole Count who rules a territory, yet you have no self-awareness that you're acting sneakier than the thieves you despise so much?"

At my full-on taunt, Adam's expression became ambiguous.

"You seem to know me quite well."

"It'd be weird not to know the competitor who took first place in the preliminaries."

You think that's all? I know your whole family tree!

But I managed to hold back my sarcasm and answered within a range that wouldn't arouse suspicion.

Fortunately, both that bastard and the system window were quiet.

I glared at Adam, who had stolen my last hit, as if he were my mortal enemy, and taunted him to my heart's content.

"And. Aren't you targeting other people's dungeons too?"

"We received a request for help from the participant assigned to this dungeon and are in a formal party."

"..."

"Anything else to say?"

I had nothing. Shit.

'Agh. Elaine, what the hell is that bastard doing. Why isn't he stealing that back!'

Embarrassed, I looked for Elaine out of habit and hurriedly shifted my gaze to the Queen Siren's Essence in that bastard's hand.

"...So you have no intention of sharing it, is that it?"

"If I hand over this essence. Can I learn your identity?"

Toss. Toss.

As if he felt my gaze, Adam lightly tossed the blue orb he was holding up and down.

While I was carefully side-eyeing it, I feigned indifference and retorted coyly.

"Why are you so curious about my identity?"

"That is, of course, for the purpose of keeping track of the party using despicable tricks in this sacred tournament."

"Is that really all?"

"What do you mean?"

Adam, falling for my provocation, abruptly narrowed his eyes and asked back.

A look of deep concentration on our conversation.

Tuk.

It was at that moment.

The Queen Siren's Essence that Adam had tossed up one more time stopped dead in mid-air as it fell.

My eyes flashed as I captured its disappearance without missing it.

'He acts like he's not, but he's a surprisingly careless bastard.'

Although I was extremely furious that he had stolen my last hit, I was grateful that it was Adam here and not Kassel.

With that Kassel-bastard, I would have gotten nothing.

Now that I had snatched the essence, the leisure was all mine.

I smiled slyly, like a villain toying with an innocent maiden, and said.

"Not because you have dark intentions for Shari Azrael or the Princess of Solenia?"

"What..."

"How am I supposed to know if you're asking because you want me to be one of them?"

Adam's face hardened frighteningly.

He, who had shown almost no change in expression like a wax doll, glared at me with uncharacteristically murderous eyes and bit out a reply.

"Nonsense."

"Right, it's nonsense."

I nodded, obediently admitting it.

Even I thought it was nonsense.

Because I had just spouted whatever I could think of to stall for time.

"..."

But for some reason, Adam's face was strange.

He seemed a bit dazed...

It had been quite a while since the Queen Siren's Essence he'd tossed in the air had failed to fall back into his hand, but he didn't seem to have noticed at all.

'What's with him?'

I tilted my head at his faintly trembling blue eyes, but soon decided to ignore it.

This wasn't the time for that.

Realizing that Elaine was overdoing it to the point of abusing his eyes with onions, I decided to wrap up the situation here.

"You have a teleport scroll, right?"

At the random question, Adam abruptly snapped out of his own thoughts and stared at me.

"What..."

"Ah. I wasn't talking to you."

I gave a small smile to Adam, who still looked confused.

Though he couldn't see it, hidden by the hood.

"In the future, don't go around snatching last hits like a thug. Got it?"

"..."

"Here, I'm feeling generous. Consider it a harsh life lesson, and you can have the rest. It's on the house."

The Queen Siren's scales, claws, vocal cords, etc.

I magnanimously gave away the other items still floating on the water's surface, pointing at them.

"...Wait."

Click.

As if he sensed something was off, Adam aimed the crossbow at me again.

Then, belatedly realizing the 'essence' was missing, he looked around with a serious face.

"Where... is the essence? Hand it over before I shoot."

He growled, threatening me.

I waited for a moment, thinking he might shoot me right away like before, but he didn't attack recklessly, perhaps because he hadn't retrieved the essence.

'Tch. If you shot, you'd be doing me a favor.'

I licked my lips in disappointment.

In the meantime, Elaine seemed to have already escaped on his own.

The behavior of that bastard, who was usually so disobedient but understood this kind of thing perfectly, was absurd.

In any case, since Elaine had left, I had no reason to delay further.

The problem was how to get out of this damned Weight Artifact that was holding me immobile...

'Maybe I don't need to get out of it.'

I, who had been looking down at the water's surface, suddenly grinned and raised my head.

"Why don't you dive in and look for it yourself."

"What are you...!"

"Onslaught!"

[Lv.999 Onslaught skill has been activated.]

Splash!

I, who had activated the skill by wringing out my remaining magic power, dived straight into the water.

"What... Hey!"

Adam's panicked voice, flustered by my sudden bizarre behavior, sounded muffled, but I didn't care.

Having sunk into the water, I reached my hand toward my left foot, where Adam's 'tracking arrow' was embedded.

Because the Weight Artifact was combined with it, the arrow couldn't be pulled out, nor could it be removed with a skill since I was underwater.

If that was the case, I had no choice but to use it in reverse.

I grabbed the end of the arrow with my outstretched hand and, putting my strength into it, pushed it in.

Puuk—

"Ugh!"

Along with the eerie sensation of the sharp arrowhead digging into my soft shoe, I felt a burning pain in my foot.

And at that moment.

'-99'

HP 9

[Warning! HP is below 10%! You will be automatically summoned to your NPC affiliated area.]

As the familiar system window popped up, my vision distorted.

And when I opened my eyes again, a familiar scene greeted me.

[You have arrived in Dover Village.]

"Ha... So it ended up like this after all."

It was another forced summon.

It was a relief to be back in time, and just as I was letting out a sigh.

"Oh? Pwetty onni!"

"Oh my, Shari! When did you get here?"

Lucy and Elena, who were just coming out to the stall with an armful of potions and herbs to sell, greeted me happily.

"But, were you in a place where it was raining? Why are you so soaking wet... I'll go get a towel right away!"

At the sound of Elena moving away with a worried voice, I finally checked my own appearance.

The hem of the robe, cut by Adam's blade, and my injured foot were all restored to their original state.

But for some reason, my body, drenched from falling into the seawater, was still the same.

"Onni! What'th this?"

Lucy, who had approached and was peeking around, suddenly pointed at the top of my head.

"What is... Agh!"

I, who had reflexively felt my head, grabbed a clump of slimy seaweed stuck to it and threw it off roughly.

"Hyeek! A weird monster plant!"

Lucy jumped back.

Soon, after putting on a fire show in front of the elves who had gathered with towels, I asked them in an exhausted voice.

"By any chance... do you have a lot of ingredients for defense potions?"

Since the tournament wasn't over yet, I had to go back to the Imperial Palace without a moment's rest.

However,

'That Adam-bastard is definitely going to be looking for me with fire in his eyes, trying to kill me.'

As I hurriedly crafted defense potions and health potions, filling my inventory, I was suddenly hit by a massive wave of burnout.

In this game, the user was supposed to become the main characters' comrade, helping them save the world.

'So why am I...?'

I was increasingly becoming the main characters' mortal enemy.

I really couldn't understand it, and a tear welled up.

Sob.