Chapter 152 - 147 : Strange Occurrence

"Next time, I'm not going easy on you."

Feelings Sato's unwavering conviction and determination, Reeves felt that what he said was most likely true. In other words, Sato was holding back when he struck at him earlier. Reeves didn't want to believe this as he felt it was really absurd. How could a player be this strong? With just 2 strikes, Sato had smashed through Reeves' confident defense and depleted his HP by more than 50%; it would just take less than two more strikes for him to be a goner. Reeves couldn't understand how such a thing had happened. He refused to believe that Sato was an Expert as none of his attacks seemed to contain any flair or overbearing demeanor, neither did it look like a martial stance as such, Reeves couldn't understand how Sato was so powerful.

'It's his equipment. It has to be his equipment!' Reeves' eyes stared at Sato, or rather his sword, with unhidden envy and greed intent in them.

Reeves wasn't the only one who reached such a conclusion as some of his teammates also stared greedily at Sato, as if staring at a big piece of salivating meat. Despite doing such, none of them dared to make a move as the strength Sato had displayed was more than enough to scare the hell out of them.

"Why did you attack him?! We aren't your enemies!" Blue Banana yelled at Sato. Seeing his strength, his will began to waver but having crossed the Rubicon[1], he had to handle this properly.

"You aren't my enemies?" Sato glanced at Blue Banana.

With one glance, Blue Banana froze as he unknowingly began to sweat and get anxious.

"Do you take me as a fool?" Sato asked him.

"What do you mean?" Blue Banana asked with a stuttering voice.

"Using Lu Zhen and Xue Yan as bait? Not intentionally planning to harm them? Only a child would believe such words." Saying up to this part, Sato then glanced at Reeves who had just found his footing. "Also, you foolishly revealed yourself. You're a vengeful schemer. Such a man won't be pleased at having his property taken."

"-" Reeves was shocked because Sato had discovered his plan just from his small mistakes. Indeed, everything he had said right before Sato had attacked him was a sham and a lie; one that would make the devil impressed even.

Reeves original intention was to eliminate Sato, Fudo, Lu Zhen and Xue Yan with Rolo's help, however, he had only been able to find the location of Lu Zhen and Xue Yan. He had wanted to defeat them while still keeping his team at optimum state so as to handle Rolo's but the appearance of Sato, Fudo and Seiichi had ruined his plans. Hence the need for a few amendments.

All the words Reeves had said back then was just to let their guards down and try to get them to work with him. Apart from getting them to team up with him, Reeves also wanted them to be less suspicious about him. Back at Black Grill's Cave, it was already proven that Reeves' team couldn't win against Rolo's so it would be weird as to why Reeves had schemed against Rolo unless he had something to rely on. Reeves didn't want them to reach such a conjecture as it would make them alert all the time, so he decided to bring their attention to a made up story. If Sato's team had now teamed up with his, Sato's mind would have been on how to attack Reeves' team at the last moment rather than suspecting his action of scheming against Rolo. But as fate would have it, it turned out to be a pointless endeavour. 

'But it seems like he still doesn't know.' Reeves thought.

Nonetheless though, it might seem pointless to them but to Reeves, he succeeded in fulfilling one objective and that was to remove any suspicion of having a trump card or aide. This was because with Sato having refused allying with any side, he would have to face the two and with him and his team focused on handling both his(Reeves) and Rolo's team, there won't be so much opportunity for suspicions.

"Doesn't matter though. You've already made a foolish decision." Reeves laughed.

"Rolo! Team up with me and let's handle him. We both know that once he's done with me, he would come for you guys next. None of us are equal to him in strength so help me out here. I promise I won't betray you anymore and our previous agreements would be doubled." Reeves yelled.

It was early to call for his support since 'he' would only make an appearance at the very crucial moment that would ascertain a 100% success rate. Reeves wanted to create this opportunity and to do so, one target has to be eliminated or both targets tired out. The most feasible option was available at a glance and Reeves chose it without hesitation or shame.

"Hahaha." A creepy laugh rang out. Contained within it was unspeakable amounts of hatred and frustration as the origin of this eerie laughter, Rolo, stared at Reeves. 

"What do you take me for? Thanks to you, my path has officially been cut here. I'm already destined to die ever since I agreed to your proposal before. This time though, I don't plan on going down alone." Rolo stared fiercely at Reeves like a beast approaching madness. 

Having fallen for his greed before, Rolo didn't plan on doing so again. He knew that there was no chance for survival. Back at Black Grill's Cave, he and his men had been killed to quickly to judge their opponents strength. But having seen the strength Sato demonstrated -beating more than 50% of the sh*t out of Reeves without much effort- Rolo knew that teaming up with Reeves wouldn't make a difference. With Sato having revealed a glimpse of his hand and with it being so terrifying, he could only imagine his full strength together with that of his teammates. Even if Fudo and Seiichi's abilities were weaker than Sato, it wouldn't be by much, after all, a lion wouldn't walk with pigs. In such a case, retaliation was futile and it was way better to end Reeves with his own hand. Who knows, maybe Sato might pardon him and only take his treasures letting him go.

They say when humans find hope in their time of peril, no matter how small it is, they hold on to it. Having found his source of hope, Rolo stared at Reeves with renewed vigor, pouncing at him like a starving lion would do upon sighting a prey.

'This bastard…' Reeves gritted his teeth as he faced Rolo's assault.

"Help the captain!" Blue Banana screamed as he rushed to back up Rolo. The rest of his teammates then attacked the remainder of Rolo's team. Having lost one of their comrades, Rolo's team had the lesser hand of the battle but with Blue Banana assisting Reeves, the battlefield was balanced. Of course this was without taking Sato's team into account.

"So what do we do now?" Fudo asked Sato after walking up to him.

"We can't just stay away from this fight right?" Seiichi smiled. Having already attacked a player and assisting in his death, Seiichi's name tag and marker had changed, turning from its usual green to a light orange almost like amber. Even with such a feature, Seiichi still wanted to participate in the killing.

"Of course not. I bet Sato wants us to wait for them to fight it all out and reap the most rewards." Fudo grinned as if having seen through 'Sato's plan'.

"So what's it?" Seiichi ignored Fudo and asked Sato.

"Something is weird about all this." Sato narrowed his eyes as he watched the two different parties face each other.

With Reeves having less than 50% of his HP left, he was in a perilous situation. In a one-on-one fight, he wasn't Rolo's match and so Blue Banana was there to assist him. Nonetheless, Rolo was still able to get the upper hand of the fight though it was just barely. As for the other fights, they were almost rounding up. Reeves' teammates were regular players who were used to PvE matches over PvP[2] whereas Rolo's teammates where dark players who slaughtered players on a daily basis so their PvP skills were worthy of taking note. It was without deliberation to say who would come out on top and the results were already beginning to show.

*Putch*

A sword drilled itself into the into a player's flesh and blood began spurted out from the wound.

"Ahhh!" 

Accompanied with the injury was a a wave of pain that almost wiped out this player's will. In Infinite Realm, though player's can reduce the pain they feel, unless they had health issues, this reduction has a limit. So players would still feel pain regardless. However, probably as a stance of showing off or something, most players leave their pain sensation at its highest and boast about it, claiming that they are training themselves(after all, martial arts is quite prevalent now). Only until they experience a heavy injury would they be able to feel the full effects of this. 

This player happened to be such a person. Back at Black Grill's Cave, one of Reeves' men had been eliminated quickly, bringing Reeves' number advantage to nil[3]. As a result of his quick elimination, he didn't feel much pain. But now, with a sword passing through his guts, he surely felt a lot of it. Most likely after this battle, he would have learnt his lesson and reduce the pain sensation.

"It's over." Sato stared silently at the fight.

Indeed. The very next second, the opponent of the injured player pulled out his sword and slashed again. But at that very second, something strange had happened. That player suddenly froze without moving, as if possessed by a spirit. Immediately after, a creepy scene occurred. 

A few eerie figures dug their heads out from different parts of the player's body. They opened their mouths but strangely, not a single sound was heard. With the appearance of the wailing spirits, the player began to age quickly.

This went on for 3 seconds before the player who had this all happening to him, suddenly collapsed. Upon contact with the ground, his body immediately disintegrated into starlight.

He had died!