One moment, Rafael was standing in that throne room with half the flesh on his fucking body missing, staring at that blurred-faced man as he raised his hand.
Then he was somewhere else.
"What the..."
He was standing in the middle of what looked like the most peaceful village he had seen since this whole thing started.
Small wooden houses were scattered along a dirt road, fields of wheat and other crops stretched out on both sides of the village.
There were even chickens walking around, but his mind was still back there.
Caelith’s head somehow appearing in Torin’s hand. Torin becoming a fucking skeleton
The Seventh Lord... and that fucking man.
"He was an—" Nothing came out. "He was an—"
His mouth moved. He felt the word forming, knew exactly what he wanted to say, but the moment he reached it, his voice simply disappeared.
Rafael touched his throat.
"He was an—"
He could see that fucking blurred face inside his head, remember the wings on his back, the golden headpiece, the way he had appeared out of nowhere and talked about everything Rafael had done since arriving in this world.
But he could say it out loud at all.
"Uh...what... happened?"
The voice came from behind him and as it looked it was her, the bunny girls up and standing.
"My mana..."
She immediately looked down at herself before raising one hand, almost as if she needed to make sure she wasn’t imagining it.
"It’s full."
Rafael stared at her for a second before it finally clicked.
The reason she had been fucking out of it throughout their whole fuck-ass adventure was mana deprivation, something that completely fucked up mage classes in the game.
That was why she hadn’t been waking up, even when he was hitting her.
But that wasn’t the part that caught his attention.
Her mana is full... he restored it for her.
"Where are we?" she asked as she finally looked around at the little village surrounding them. "And what happened? I remember falling and then..."
"We fell into a—"
Nothing.
"A what?"
"We fell into a—"
Nothing... Rafael’s voice just went away again.
It wasn’t only that word. He couldn’t tell her where they had been either.
He tried again, this time wanting to tell her about the throne, about Torin and Caelith, about the fucking thing sitting there.
Nothing.
Every time he got close to saying something that mattered, his voice disappeared.
"Forget it," Rafael said. "The event is still ongoing and we need to—"
[Event Announcement!]
The notification popped up interrupting him.
[A Special Bounty has been placed on a Participant.]
[Bounty Value: 100 Event Points.]
[The Target’s location is now visible to all Participants.]
"That’s..." she whispered.
"Enough to finish the Event," Rafael finished.
She slowly looked at him.
"We should—"
"That is suicide," Rafael interrupted her.
"I-I have enough mana!" Her voice came, but this time she was different.
It was as if something had changed about her. The way she was looking at him, that determination in her eyes, but at the same time, that fear and hesitation were still there.
She was desperate to survive.
And Rafael immediately knew that it worked on her.
This bounty was for this... to get everybody together.
A bloodbath.
"You can get points, but I can’t," Rafael answered. "I’m weak, and even if you get another thirty points, we still need forty."
"We kill the bounty!" she shouted as even more determination appeared in her eyes. "I-I can do it..."
As much as Rafael didn’t want to do it, he knew the reality.
They needed to kill fast.
We killed the first two, so there were forty-six people remaining... but how long were we down in that dungeon?
"Event Window."
Rafael said it, and the window immediately appeared in front of him.
[Remaining Participants: 38]
Without us, that’s thirty-six...
"Your mana is only enough for three of those magic attacks? The popping thing?"
She nodded.
We have thirty points... which means we need to kill Clean Players. Three of them are sixty points, and one Bloodmarked Player and we’re done...
It was a good plan, right up until Rafael realized something.
I’m fucking useless.
He didn’t even need to think about it much or look at his stats.
He was indeed useless... though there was one thing.
"Inventory."
[Inventory]
[Executioner’s Blade]
[Ring of Health]
[Dragonbone Shortsword]
[Required Level: 475]
[Deathblood]
[Poison.]
Tim... why the fuck did you give me these shits...
He couldn’t use any of them... at least none of the actually powerful ones.
I can exploit the ring again... but it’s going to break.
That was the only thing he had.
The same calculation error he had used when that girl was butchering him.
Equipping and unequipping the Ring of Health at the exact moment his Health dropped below zero caused a calculation error in the System that restored all of his Health...
But there was only one way out... getting points.
"The bounty," Rafael said as he closed the Inventory. "We are going after the bounty. If we come across anybody, we are going to run."
"O-Okay." She was a little hesitant, but she still looked ready for it.
Just think about the map... map... map.
The map appeared in front of his eyes and he could see the red skull was blinking on the map.
"The bounty is to the south," He whispered as he turned his body. "The distance is... two..."
"Two?" she asked back.
Rafael stayed silent as he took a big step forward.
"Oh," He looked up from the map. "Fuck... "
"T-the b-bounty... is me..." Tears rolled down her face, and her whole body was trembling as she looked into Rafael’s eyes.
"Hey!" Rafael grabbed her shoulders. "Don’t think about the Event. Don’t think about those people. Just look at me."
"I-I don’t want to die..."
"I know." Rafael tightened his grip on her shoulders. "So breathe."
She tried, but it didn’t help at all.
"What’s your name?" Rafael asked.
"R-Reina."
"Your real name is Reina?" Rafael asked again as he held her shoulders tightly.
"My real name is... Daniel."
"Are you... a man?"