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Chapter 538 - Who Killed Me?

Octagon Aniseed and Sword Bean felt ill-at-ease. Although they could still console themselves with the fact that they were the victors, they were still shaken by their opponent’s remarkable shot.

If we have to go up against someone like that, will we be okay?

They didn’t say it out loud, but they gave the question a long thought. At the same time, they searched out all the Gunner experts from the other guilds. With such skill, the person couldn’t be some normal member of a guild unless he was just lucky. He or she had to be a famous core member of a guild.

“Who could it be?” Both of them made wild guesses, but information quickly arrived from their Guild Leader Arisaema.

“We’ve found out the identity of those two. They’re from Blossom Valley!” Arisaema said.

“Blossom Valley...…” With a narrower range, Octagon Aniseed and Sword Bean began to ponder over who the Gunner expert in Blossom Valley might be. However, they could name numerous possibilities. There could be many who unknown experts. It wasn’t rare for Blossom Valley to have a lot of Gunners. The famous character Dazzling Hundred Blossom itself was a Spitfire in their pro team, so there would naturally be a lot of Spitfires in the guild. Even though they relied heavily on the special effects of their ammunition, marksmanship was also a fundamental that every player needed to learn.

Herb Garden learned of the identity of the two assailants at the same time as the other guilds. At that moment, only Blossom Valley’s grasp of the situation was different from the others.

“These two don’t exist.”

This was the message obtained from Blossom Valley’s spies in each of the guilds.

“They’ve even dispatched open accounts?” Not knowing that these two characters were from his own guild, Blossom Valley’s guild leader Blooming Blossom was astonished. With tens of thousands of players in a guild, only a few of the experts were well-known. Wei Chen’s brothers tended to lurk in the guilds for their extra bonuses and stats. How would such characters be remembered? When the guilds began their investigation on the two mysterious characters, they started from the other guilds because there was no reason to suspect one of their own.

This resulted in a situation where Blossom Valley wasn’t aware of the situation, while still thinking that the other big guilds were using their open accounts.

Despite knowing the truth, the other guilds remained silent. Even those that didn’t began to do do so. If they used that as an accusation towards Blossom Valley, it would be meaningless.

The rivalry in Poison Fang Swamp continued. With the additional information, Octagon Aniseed and Sword Bean’s speculations increased. They still had the boss in sight. After all, it was quite conspicuous! However, with players from the other guilds beginning to operate in a sneaky manner, they soon lost their target.

The sudden realization surprised them.

The situation didn’t look good. The enemies were lurking in the shadows. With this, they had to take on a more passive stance. Were they being targeted? Was there a trap lying in wait for them?

The two hesitated. They didn’t dare carry on their mission separately. They used each other as a source of strength. They crouched and crawled the entire way. They bent their bodies so far down that their heads could almost reach their own crotches.

With all of their attention focused on moving around, they neglected the terrain of the Poison Fang Swamp. During a short moment of absent-mindedness, Octagon Aniseed missed the timing of using his repellent, startling an entire swarm of venomous flies.

“What bad luck...…” The duo cursed under their breath. The flies weren’t organized, so they weren’t afraid, but the flies were still annoying.

The duo failed to notice two other players who had snuck up behind them while they were busy handling the flies. A Grappler skill, Flying Hand, landed on them without warning, pushing them onto the ground.

With their characters buried in the mud, the two could do nothing but watch as their health slowly disappeared. They couldn’t even find out what skills were used in the attack. As they struggled to regain their footing, their opponents were nowhere to be found even after they did a 360 degrees sweep on their surroundings.

Where could they hide in such a short time? Their view shifted to a pile of rotten wood. But even if the enemy players hid themselves, the venomous flies were still continuing their attack. If they chose to deal with those flies, their enemies would attack them from the rear, but they couldn’t ignore the flies either. Those bites could kill!

The two were in a dilemma. They decided to bear with the lesser of the two evils. Players were way more terrifying compared to flies, so they decided to storm the wooden pile after a brief discussion.

There was nothing behind the pile of rotten wood except for a ditch full of mud. With their approach, more venomous flies appeared from within the ditch.

With more venomous flies, they could no longer ignore their damage. Experiencing a sneak attack while fighting against mob was always something unavoidable in the game, but this was exactly what the duo was facing. Moreover, while trying to attack the enemy players, they only attracted more flies…..

They knew that with the huge venomous fly swarm attacking them, they would certainly die if the enemy players made a move. However, the enemy seemed intent on hiding their identities.

Was it necessary to play hide and seek in this situation though? Everybody else had the same plan anyways. There was no point in hiding. Weren’t the last ones standing the ones with the rights to get the boss?

Just when Octagon Aniseed and Sword Bean were trying to figuring out their opponent’s intentions on staying hidden, their opponents answered their questions. They attacked without mercy as soon as the duo was swarmed by the venomous flies.

Because they weren’t afraid of being exposed, there was no need to be quick and decisive. Octagon Aniseed and Sword Bean knew that they would die. They did their best and tried to take out at least one of their opponents, but their opponents calmly took advantage of the venomous flies. The duo could do nothing but watch as their characters became two rotten corpses.

The swamp hunting game had begun. Ye Xiu and his gang weren’t the only ones looking for the chance to strike. Even the other guilds were starting to look for others to kill.

Meanwhile, the guilds stayed in a deadlock. All of them wanted to call for reinforcements, but none of them wished to see the opposing guilds getting reinforced as well. This resulted in a stalemate where they could only wait for the reports coming out from the swamp.

Dead.

Dead.

Another dead.

One by one, the players that were sent out to track down the Boss were killed. It was meaningless to even find out which guild did it because everybody was doing it. The more meaningful matter at hand was who would be the last one standing. Nobody knew how many players were sent out and nobody knew who killed the boss in the end. Since nobody knew, they could achieve their means through underhanded means and ignore the proof post.

Five out of eight guilds competed. Apart from these five, Samsara and Excellent Dynasty were still at war and Blue Brook Guild never sent anyone after the Boss. True to Changing Spring’s words, Blue Brook Guild didn’t send any players out. They only watched as the situation unfolded. Each guild had the urge to make the first move, but they kept silent because their actions were being watched closely by the other guilds.

The guilds hadn’t sent many players out, three or five at most. With news of loss after loss coming in, Herb Garden was the first one to lose all four of the players that they had sent into the swamp.

Arisaema was sad! Four of his men had died and not a single enemy had been killed.

His moment of depression didn’t last long though. Arisaema found the perfect opportunity. All of them were moving in the dark and nobody dared to bring it to light. But with Herb Garden players killed, while not killing anyone else, weren’t they the victim? Arisaema could seize the opportunity and make an issue out of it!

Arisaema wasted no time to suddenly jump out and shouted with a face full of anger, “F*ck, which of your despicable b*stards killed all the men that I’ve sent out? What’s the meaning of this? Are you guys secretly preparing to kill the Boss? Was our previous agreement just a joke?”

To be a leader of a guild, one had to have very high levels of the skills “thick-faced” and “deceitful” on one’s skill tree, but Arisaema’s words still shocked the other guild leaders.

There had to be limit to the amount of skill points invested into the skills “thick-faced” and “deceitful”, right? The level of Arisaema’s skill was so high that he must be hacking!

Despite Arisaema’s sudden outburst, the other guild leaders had to maintain their mask of deception. Such matters could be done secretly, but things would get out of hand if light were to be shed upon it because not everybody’s hands were dirty. Excellent Dynasty, Samsara, and Blue Brook Guild didn’t participate in the foul play. If their betrayal came out, the proof post would be seen as a joke. Everyone would look bad. How could they let that happen?

The other guild leaders could only maintain a calm demeanor. “What do you mean? Aren’t we all trying to help track down the boss so that it wouldn’t be stolen?”

“Then how did my men die? Are you telling me that they accidentally fell in a ditch somewhere and died? Can Tyrannical Ambition, Blossom Valley, Misty Castle give me an explanation?” Arisaema refuted. After a thorough investigation, he concluded that players from these three guilds had killed his subordinates.

The leaders of Blossom Valley and Misty Castle remained silent, while Jiang You of Tyrannical Ambition replied, “An explanation? I think you’re the one that owes me and explanation!”

“F*cking explain what?” Arisaema shouted.

“‘Backwards Strike’ and ‘Tiger Sigil’? Which guild killed these two pieces of trash?” said Jiang You, while shifting his sight towards the leaders of Blossom Valley and Misty Castle.

The leaders of the other two guilds, Blooming Blossom and Misty Lock were stunned. They had each taken out a Herb Garden player, but their names were Perfect Milky Way and Hugging Is Healthier.

“Who are those two pieces of trash? What do they have to do with me?” Arisaema was puzzled by Jiang You’s words.

“What do you mean ‘what do they have to do with me’? Are you f*cking blind?” It was Jiang You’s turn to be stunned. He was expecting Arisaema to kick the two players out from the his guild, but according to the spies in Herb Garden, the players were still members of the guild and were still online. Was Arisaema’s “thick-faced” really buffed by a cheat engine?

“What?” Arisaema finally realised that something was wrong. He was able to find the two names after a brief search. They definitely weren’t part of the men sent out by him.

“Ha ha ha ha…. What are you all chatting about?” Changing Spring of Blue Brook Guild suddenly spoke up.