My breath caught in my throat.
My lungs felt as though they were being torn apart.
This was not a metaphor.
The toxicity of the stimulant I had swallowed was burning through my entire body from within, while mana frantically fanned its effects. I wanted to vomit it up immediately.
Of course, I had no time for that.
CRUNCHCRUNCHCRUNCHCRUNCH-
The sound of leaves being trampled.
THUD, THUD, THUD, THUD-
The sound of them rhythmically kicking off the earth.
TIK-TIK- TIK- TIK-TIK-
The sound of pebbles and other debris ricocheting away.
GRRRRRR!
Even their grotesque cries, like phlegm boiling inside their throats, bored clearly into my inner ear.
Those sounds never left my surroundings.
I glanced behind me.
A pack of around fifteen monsters had spread out in every direction and was pursuing me relentlessly.
Naturally, I had no intention of letting them catch me easily.
Why else would I have swallowed a damned stimulant and used mana that I had not touched in years? It was all so that I could survive this chase with the pack of wild dogs.
The fact that I could maintain this precarious distance meant that my speed was not inferior to theirs.
They were more agile than ordinary beasts, but my own legs were just as fast.
It looked dangerous, but I could still endure it for now.
Then I saw the workshop.
It looked as small as an ant.
Even so, at my current speed, I could reach it within a few minutes.
‘There’s no problem.’
Everything was proceeding smoothly.
The instant I had that thought, a chill ran down my spine.
I instinctively ducked.
SWIIISH!
A sharp foreclaw hurtled past with the sound of the air being torn apart, ripping the bark from a nearby tree.
Had my judgment been even slightly slower, it would have been my neck instead of the tree.
GRRK─!
I had no time to feel relieved.
A vile stench suddenly assaulted me from both sides.
The monsters thrust their enormous jaws toward me, trying to tear off my head.
WHOOSH, WHOOOSH-
I twisted my body.
Their massive bodies grazed over my head and past my side, while one of their foreclaws raked across my shoulder.
SPLAAASH!
Blood surged from the wound.
Burning pain overwhelmed me, but I did not simply stand there and take it.
BANG!
I seized the hide around the neck of the beast that had passed over my head and slammed it into the ground.
I immediately reached for my dagger.
Then.
WHINE, WHIIINE-
My eyes met those of the wild dog beneath my feet.
“……Damn it-”
My hand stopped.
‘There’s no point in killing the wild dogs.’
Of course, killing them would have gone some way toward avenging what happened five years ago, but the two players were the only things occupying my mind now.
I was not permitted to lay a hand on them.
These mongrels, however, were different.
They had the ‘right’ to kill the players in my stead.
They had to.
They absolutely had to.
I had not considered any other possibility.
Therefore, I could not kill the wild dogs.
I had to lead as many of them as possible to the workshop with their strength intact.
GRRK- GRRRRR-
GRRRR? GRRRRR-
GRRK, GRRK. GRRRRRRR!
KRRRRRRRRAH!
Even if it killed me.
Keeping the distance between us in mind, I slowly backed away.
Then I began running toward the workshop once more.
THUDUDUD, THUDUDUD, THUDUDUD, THUDUDUDUD-
The sound of their footsteps followed me again. The intervals between them were even shorter than before.
The slope became steeper.
I was struggling merely to keep my balance, but rather than losing speed, the beasts were moving even faster.
‘They’ll catch me at this rate.’
I had to reach the workshop, at the very least.
If they caught me already, everything would be for nothing.
I bit down on my lip and focused on my heart and blood vessels.
HISSSSS……!
The faint red mana leaking from my entire body became much more distinct.
The world slowed slightly.
TATATATAT!
I drove my legs onward and raced down the slope.
My running was anything but stable.
My body was tilted at an almost diagonal angle.
If I slowed down even slightly from this point onward, I would pitch forward and grind my face against the earth.
That was when it happened.
‘……Ah?’
My legs suddenly lifted into the air, and my body completed half a rotation above the ground.
The uneven earth rushed toward me at an alarming speed. I squeezed my eyes shut and covered my head with both hands.
‘Fuck…….’
I had tripped over a tree root.
There was nothing left to think about after that.
I could only pray that I survived─
CRAAAAASH──!
The hard ground and carelessly overgrown grass battered me. Stones and branches scattered everywhere stabbed and struck my body as though they were assaulting me.
I rolled down the slope.
I had no idea where I was going.
I could not even open my eyes.
BAAAANG-!
My body suddenly stopped.
My back had slammed into a tree growing diagonally from the slope.
Groaning weakly, I tried to force myself upright.
THUD-
My vision spun.
Before I realized it, I was sprawled on my stomach like a dead frog, stuck flat against the ground.
I forced my closing eyes open.
GRRRRRR-
In a world turned ninety degrees sideways, the pack of wild dogs walked toward me along the wall.
‘I have to run…….’
I could not move a single finger.
I could not even open my mouth properly.
【The effect of Status Effect - [Lv 55. Stimulant] has expired.】
【You have entered a state of severe exhaustion.】
The guide was saying something, but I could not hear it.
My ears felt blocked.
My vision was blurry as well.
GRRRRRR…….
An especially large wild dog approached.
It thrust its jaws toward me as though it intended to kiss me.
‘……This is as far as I go.’
I closed my eyes.
【Patch in progress. 59%】
* * *
【Patch in progress. 60%】
“The patch is progressing faster than I expected…….”
The male player inside the workshop muttered as he watched the patch progress.
His voice sounded somewhat anxious.
‘……How long do we have to keep doing this?’
In truth, he was not at ease.
Because this was Arche, of all places.
It was a backwater village that had proudly secured a place in the ‘Top 20 Trash Regions in Amuse Online’ on the Player Board.
There were countless reasons players avoided it.
Conversely, there were only two paltry reasons anyone liked it.
First,
The young female NPCs were pretty.
Second.
Killing Golden had a certain chance of dropping the accessory item 【Lv 20. Golden’s Wedding Ring】.
There was no need to explain the appeal of pretty women.
What mattered was Golden’s ring.
Despite being a low-level item, its effects were quite useful.
Merely wearing it on one’s finger provided a worthwhile bonus to apothecary work. It allowed the wearer to create superior potions and far more vicious poison potions.
Therefore, any player who worked with poison or medicine was expected to obtain it whenever possible.
The male player’s girlfriend followed a Skill Tree that combined Necromancy and poison.
Before leaving Arche, she had insisted that she absolutely had to obtain the ring.
Her reasoning was understandable.
He had no intention of criticizing her judgment.
However, that did not make the process any less tedious.
‘It’s already been about an hour…….’
They still had not obtained the ring.
The only things that had entered his Inventory were cheap potions and a pitiful amount of money.
Then.
DING-A-LING-
The timer they had set rang, and the two players turned toward the rocking chair.
Golden remained seated there with his head severed.
The blood gushing from the cross section of his neck looked as vivid and horrifying as real human blood.
The flow of blood stopped in an instant.
Immediately afterward, the rocking chair between the two players was enveloped in blue light.
Golden’s head, which lay abandoned beside the window, also began radiating blue light.
FSSSSSS-
The head collapsed into blue pixels.
The scattered light crossed the air like a flowing river and reached the empty space above Golden’s neck.
It soon gathered into a sphere.
The workshop was flooded with blue light.
“Mmmmm-”
An old man’s groan came from the rocking chair.
“……Hmm?”
Golden returned to life completely unharmed, as though nothing had ever happened.
It was a Respawn.
A five-minute cycle.
“What is…….”
Golden looked around with vacant eyes before meeting the gazes of the two players.
At that moment, his blank expression gradually became animated.
His complexion grew redder and redder.
A curse burst from between the golden mustache and beard growing beneath his nose and along his chin.
“W-What did you do…… to me, you bastards……!”
Golden hurriedly rummaged through his clothes and pulled out a glass bottle filled with purple liquid.
The moment he tried to throw it at the man’s face.
BAAANG!
The man’s greatsword pierced through both Golden’s abdomen and the backrest of the rocking chair.
【-111】
A red number appeared above Golden’s head.
“Ghk, gaaaaagh-”
A dry death cry echoed through the workshop.
Golden’s body rocked backward and forward before his head dropped.
The blood pouring from his wound formed a red pool on the floor.
SCHLK-!
The man pulled out his greatsword.
He wiped his cheek with a finger.
A drop of blood clung to it.
Its texture and warmth were far too vivid. The corpse before him was also as horrifying as that of a real human being.
‘……The graphics have advanced too far.’
It felt as though he had killed a real person.
It was as though someone were stirring his heart.
However, it was ultimately only a feeling.
No matter how human an NPC behaved, it was still nothing more than a digital fragment composed of zeroes and ones.
The experience could feel unpleasant, but there was no reason to feel guilty.
Instead of wiping away the remaining blood, the man checked the System Log.
【Golden’s magnificent beard was stained red.】
Golden was dead.
He then checked the new items that had entered his Inventory.
【You have obtained Lv 10. Health Potion(3), Lv 10. Mana Potion(2), and 32 Bronze.】
There was no ring.
It had not appeared this time either.
“Ah, seriously…….”
“Oppa, what did you get?”
The woman asked without reading the mood.
“Junk items.”
“What about the ring?”
“It wasn’t there.”
“Aww…… It really won’t drop.”
“Could you please be quiet?”
“Fine, fine.”
Despite what she said, she continued looking around the workshop.
The broken bottles.
The overturned basket of medicinal herbs.
The blood splattered across the wall.
The copper-colored liquor bottle on the table.
Her gaze stopped before the liquor bottle.
“Oppa, what’s that?”
“I don’t know.”
“Touch it.”
“I don’t even know what it is. Please stop irritating me.”
“It could be a rare item.”
……Could it?
The man picked up the glass bottle from the table beside the rocking chair.
It was a copper-colored liquor bottle filled with all manner of plants, fruits, and branches. It looked like something a group of old country villagers had brewed as a joke.
However, this was an apothecary’s workshop.
‘There’s no way it’s ordinary liquor.’
He shook the glass bottle with a suspicious expression. The poisonous plants, fruits, and willow branches inside moved sluggishly.
An Item UI soon appeared.
【The target’s level is too high to identify.】
【Information is restricted.】
【Lv ■■. Unknown Infused Liquor】
“Unknown Infused Liquor?”
The man’s narrowed eyes gradually widened.
The woman immediately added,
“That’s perfect. You like drinking, Oppa.”
“But I can’t see its level. That means it’s higher than mine…….”
“Wouldn’t that make it even better?”
If it provided some kind of Buff, it would make their activities easier for a while.
“You might even be able to take on the high-level players in the village right away, Oppa.”
“…….”
“Are you scared?”
“Be quiet for a moment.”
“Do you expect your girlfriend to drink unknown liquor first? Wow~ That’s a little disappointing.”
“……Ah, fuck.”
The man removed the stopper.
The scent was not bad, at least.
It was unusual, but it did not smell rotten or medicinal.
More importantly.
‘If it were poison, the UI would have said so.’
He decided to believe that.
“Hoo.”
After taking a small breath, he raised the bottle and drank directly from it.
The woman cheered and clapped.
【Patch in progress. 62%】