Chapter 39 False Hope

A cold wind passed through the thick crowns of the trees, passing beside two men standing on the edge of a cliff, one pointing a sword with a red blade that exuded a dangerous smell of blood at the other.

"What...? What did you say...?" The bandit muttered in disbelief as goosebumps ran down his body.

"You definitely heard me, there's no point in making a drama. Go ahead and jump." Zayne said coldly as he took a step forward, bringing the scarlet blade closer to the bandit's chest, "You have no other choice anyway."

"But... Why? I helped you! Shouldn't you let me go?! I did everything you said!" The bandit pleaded trying to find some way to survive, "If you need it I can talk to the leader to take us in! I won't tell anyone about what you did!"

ραпdα nᴏνa| сom Zayne remained silent until he shook his head and said, "I'm not going to join you, so all this is useless. Say, did you really think I'd let you live?"

The bandit answered nothing, then his eyes only went wide as he realized that Zayne had already decided this from the beginning.

"You are a bandit and not just a thief, but a murderer, as I am certain of from hearing your conversation. If I let you go now, tomorrow you'll just go back to robbing and killing someone. If I didn't show up, you and your friend would have dealt with those three and returned to base satisfied. Am I wrong?" Zayne's sharp gaze went to the bandit as he turned the blade of his sword causing a menacing glint.

"Bastard! You think you're better than me! You are the same! You are no hero who saves this world from evil! You killed my partner and used me to get here..." The bandit exclaimed furiously, clenching his fists tightly and trying with all his might to break the ropes, but it was hopeless.

Zayne sighed, "Yeah, I'm better than you. I'm no hero, you shouldn't call me that. I'm not a person with perfect, right morals, since I came into this world with one goal and never forgot it."

"Hah, how can you be so sure of that if you are such a murderer? You're just a pathetic hypocrite!" The bandit shouted with rage-filled eyes.

"You're correct, if I kill you I'll be a murderer too, but if I spare you then you'll kill a lot more people, so killing you now is much better on all levels." Zayne muttered with a calm look, then a slight smile appeared on his face, quickly turning into a devious grin.

"You know what? You're damn right, I may be a hypocrite, but I don't care! I'm sick of running away and thinking about what's good and what's bad, I already have too many problems in my life because of it. If you don't want to jump, you don't have to!" Zayne exclaimed before swinging his sword and approaching the bandit.

Crackle.

Without warning, Zayne pushed the bandit down the cliff, with his foot. The bandit was bound and on the edge, so it was his fate to fall down with a terrified look on his face.

Zayne watched with icy eyes as the man reached the ground and his body crashed because of the tremendous height.

"Argh... I don't know if this is just happening to me, but this game is really dangerous." Zayne muttered exhaling cold steam, "Although... In this world, I finally got the advice I'd been missing. Gael, you were right. Fears don't need to be thought about, they need to be faced and acted upon, words are useless here."

Zayne suddenly remembered the greatest tragedy of his life, he clenched his fists and with an angry expression he bit his lip, until it bled, "If I had been more determined that day, this would not have happened to Mia, she would have been fine! I should have stopped that bastard, I had the opportunity to solve everything in that very place!!!"

Zayne's gaze went to the lights around the Dry Tree while he gradually calmed down and his mind became quiet.

"Well, I can't change the past, there's no point in regretting it, but I can affect the present and these bastards' money will help me do that." Zayne muttered with a deep sigh before heading forward.

The cliff was high, but it was easy to get down by any of the many paths that led to the Dry Tree. Zayne felt confident at night since he was out of sight and his skill, was much stronger, but he was in no hurry to attack the bandits.

'Damn... How many of them are there...?' Zayne muttered inwardly, looking at the bandit camp from the high tree.

There were many campfires around the Dry Tree with at least five bandits around each one. They were eating meat, drinking, and talking, unaware that anyone was spying on them.

'If there were less than ten of them I'd try to fight, they seem to be pretty weak individually, but I don't need to do that, right?' Zayne said to himself as he looked at the entrance to the cave that was behind the camp.

'Hmm... There's probably no point in sitting here until they fall asleep, they'll be here till morning, waiting for those in the caves to wake up. Since I came here, I need to get their gold, but how do I do that...?' Zayne wondered, rubbing his chin.

Zayne didn't know that the Black Wing was such a large group of bandits, but it also meant that if he could successfully get inside the caves unnoticed he would receive valuable rewards.

Crackle.

Zayne jumped down from the tree and headed in the opposite direction from Dry Tree. He didn't coward, no, Zayne was still intent on stealing gold from the bandits, as this was his opportunity to make his first money in Fallen Fate Online. Zayne had a plan since he had figured out how he could sneak into the caves.

"Well, well, as the people of this world would say, it was Fate's will, wasn't it?" Zayne muttered looking at the corpse of the bandit he threw off the cliff, "Your death will help me steal from your mates... Hah, that's rather ironic, though more of a dramatic one."

The bandits all preferred to wear free clothing that would not constrain their movements and would hide their faces well, only the color was different.

Zayne stripped off all his clothes, moved them into his inventory, and changed into the bandit's blood-stained black robes.

"Damn... If think about it, it's pretty gross, but practical, right?" Zayne muttered looking at the black sleeves as well as the gloves. Droplets of blood rarely dripped from them, but it wasn't visible on the dark clothes, especially at night.

Zayne put the dagger on his belt as the other bandits did, and headed toward the camp, with a cold and confident gaze.

Before he disappeared into the forest depths, Zayne glanced at the man's body as a glint passed over his azure eyes and muttered, "You made your own choice, and so did I."