Chapter 72 - Eliminator Rocket

Hiro decided to take the right path even though he knew he might regret it later.

Tap! Tap! Tap!

While time was running, Hiro ran as fast as he could.

He tried his best to drown out the sound of his footsteps.

“Help me!” The woman continued to scream until her voice turned hoarse. It sounded as if she was crying out of frustration.

Hiro wasn’t sure what exactly made the woman scream in fear. If she was captured by a player playing the role of a hunter, she shouldn’t be in that much fear. He thought.

Rustle!

Hiro stopped his footsteps when he found the right position.

In front of him, as far as three meters, he could see a woman who was tied to a pole-shaped rocket that had been ignited.

“Help! Get me out of here!” The woman noticed Hiro’s appearance in front of her.

When the countdown of the waiting time was up, the eliminator rocket would fly up to take the woman out of the haunted maze and automatically eliminate her.

But—

“Where did the hunter go?”

Before Hiro could search any further,

suddenly a dagger flew towards his face from the gap in the plant giant wall.

SLASH!

[HP -250]

Hiro jumped backward and wiped the blood from his bleeding cheek due to the the sudden attack. He didn’t notice when it came to him.

Then, he got ready and drew his sword from his back.

But, it was indeed a wrong move. He grabbed an empty air instead.

Hiro forgot that the legendary weapon was no longer there because it was gone since he was teleported to the survivor’s special venue.

He had nothing other than his fighting skills for now, something he might not even realize yet.

Meanwhile, the hunter who attacked him had finally come out of his hiding place.

He hid in the gaps in the plants, blending into the wall.

Even Hiro didn’t think something like that was even possible to do.

The first hunter that Hiro encountered was a tall African-American man. He wore a mask that reminded Hiro of an old movie called ‘Scream.’

At that moment, Hiro finally understand why the woman survivor who got caught by him was so scared.

“Dammit.”

SLASH!

Hiro managed to dodge in time. The man was a dagger-wielding ranger. Even so, he was very keen on finding openings to attack.

“Help me!”

Hiro ignored the woman and focused to dodge the attacks aimed at him.

Jumping backward for many times until his back finally hit the wall. Trapped.

He couldn’t move or even properly defend himself because he didn’t have anything on his hands.

SPLAT!

[HP -350]

“Arghh…”

For one more time, a dagger slashed him. This time was targeting his front body.

Hiro managed to bend down but was slightly slower than the attack coming toward him.

The blade, however, managed to cut his shoulder and soon it started to bleed.

In a threatened position like this, Hiro finally realized that one of his skills didn’t require weapons.

At this time, not depended to any weapon that he didn’t even have is a wise choice.

“Martial Arts.”

Without further ado, Hiro started throwing his fists toward the opponent’s stomach.

BANG!

“Punch! Punch!”

“Sidekick!”

“Double Kick!”

BANG! BANG!

[Health -1500]

Hiro shouted his movement while punching and kicking the tall man in front of him. Because one mistake could stop the special arts that he only have at that moment.

Finally, he managed to knock the tall man in front of him, lying on the ground after receiving a hard double kick.

His nonstop attacks didn’t kill the hunter, but the total damage he dealt managed to make the hunter get a red filter in his vision because his HP was drained.

Hiro rushed to run towards the woman survivor to release the ropes that tied her with the rocket and he succeeded.

At that time, it was only one minute left before the woman got eliminated.

“Are you okay?” Hiro asked right away.

“Thank you!” Answered the woman.

She hugged Hiro so tightly as if she had been saved from a cruel kidnapper. The real one.

[Survivor: NightFall has saved a survivor]

[NightFall gained 10 game points]

But in sudden—

“Give me back my prey!”

The hunter had managed to get back up and grabbed the woman’s body roughly and then punched Hiro in the face with his big hand.

Bang!

[Fatal damage]

[Health -750]

Hiro fell to the ground. His head ached so badly after getting a direct physical attack like that. Blood drippes out of his nostrils. He got a nosebleed, something normal in the real world when someone just got punched on the face that hard.

“Ouch..” Hiro struggled to stand up because his head felt so heavy. He swayed slightly to the side as he tried to get back up on his feet.

However, before he regained his balance, the hunter had tied the woman back to the rocket pole beside her. And the fire that burned the rocket’s wick was ignited back.

Right at that time, an unexpected thing happened.

…

The burning wick seemed to be rapidly depleting. Very different from before, as if the time’s left was only seconds.

It wasn’t only Hiro who couldn’t believe it, even the hunter was just as confused as him while watching the burning wick.

However, before they even moved from where they were standing, another notification popped up.

[Time’s up]

Whoosh!!

“Nooo!” The woman screamed in a loud voice as the rocket suddenly flew her body away from the arena.

[Survivor: 1 survivor has been eliminated]

From that incident, Hiro realized one thing that GM Juno didn’t explain.

After he saved a survivor and succeeded, if the saved survivor was again caught by a hunter and tied to a rocket, then the 3 minutes countdown was no longer valid. Survivor would be eliminated right away.

That was the only thing that could answer the question in Hiro’s mind right now after seeing the survivor he just saved get eliminated just like that.

“Tee…hee…I got the point.” said the hunter while laughing happily after successfully eliminating one player.

Hiro gulped. Now it was just him and the hunter.

The difference was that Hiro didn’t have any weapons, putting himself at a huge disadvantage.

And to use martial arts combos once again seemed impossible because the hunter already knew the tricks of his movement. Hiro felt unlucky this time.

“Look! She’s falling!” Hiro shouted while pointing his index finger at the sky where the eliminator rocket had disappeared.

The hunter who was surprised to hear that immediately looked up and that was when he realized that Hiro had just tricked him with a very classic children’s trick.

“I got you! Bye!”

Hiro quickly ran away from the place into the darkness. This time, he didn’t care if his footsteps could be heard or not. He only focused on running fast to get further away from the hunter who must be hunting him right now.

Tap! Tap! Tap!

As he ran farther, the ground that Hiro stepped on suddenly changed.

It was previously made of hard clay only, but now he stepped on the ground covered by a layer of snow, thick enough to drown his ankles.

“Cold….” Hiro regretted leaving his boots out there. But he continued to run through the layers of snow that made the nerves in the soles of his feet feel frozen.

But before he went further into the snowy area, he stepped on something and made a sound.

DANG!