Chapter 117: Embracing the Light of Ambition Part 3 Part 2

「So if we do this, you’ll explain to us what is going on?」

「Fufufu…… You see, we know. Oh, we do know. About the condition of the EX Quest you were so desperately trying to keep hidden from us.」

「Excuse me?」

Could it be that the existence of “The Epic of the Vorpal Bunnies” somehow got leaked? No, that’s impossible. At least I want to believe that’s impossible.

Even if it got revealed by the most probable source, Akitsu Akane-dono, it would be about “Invitation to the Bunny Country” not the “Epic of the Vorpal Bunnies”.

「And what is the source of this information, if I may ask?」

「You can thank your great leader for that.」

「Alright, time out for a sec!」

I make a gesture of “Time Out” with my hands and then quickly check my inventory. I confirm the setting of my items, set up an appropriate chart and make some additional adjustments just in case sh*t hits the fan really fucking hard.

「Right, please continue.」

「…… What was that just now?」

「Aah, you know. I just had to make sure that once I get my hands on that retarded fucknugget he’ll be turned into a bloody mess for sure.

For now I’ll keep Yuzuki on hand and ready my Scorpion Gauntlets as backup just in case. Animalia seemed to be really suspicious of me out there, but nevertheless she kept on talking.

「I, I see…… Ekhem, what I wanted to say, we have already established that in order to gain free access to Rabbitz, you must encounter “Night Prowler Luukan” and land one hundred successful critical hits on him. This will unlock the EX Quest that will grant us access. So we don’t need your help with that anymore.」

Animalia continues speaking.

All the SF-Zoo members in this party are debuffers that can stop monsters from moving.

They believe that stopping Night Prowler in its tracks will allow them to land those one hundred critical hits, thus giving them access to Rabbitz via the EX Quest.

It is also said that when it comes to raid battles, SF-Zoo can be equal in power with Black Wolves, so thinking logically, they had a huge chance of success with this strategy.

Listening to Animalia’s explanation, I became genuinely intrigued, and the plan of bashing Pencilgton’s fucking face in was gradually being pushed to the side.

Then, after explaining it all, the raid party started to dash off into the distance, ever so confident in their strategy that they formulated the intel given to them by Pencilgton. I guess they were so absorbed in them that they didn’t even consider the possibility of Pencilgton playing them like a god damned fiddle through me.

(That bastard really has a way with words……)

Meeting me here was a mere coincidence, but I guess he wanted to worsen their relationship with me thanks to that plan. And as a result, he would feed them false hope and they would waste a tremendous amount of their resources betting on that gamble.

(Dealing enough critical hits to Night Prowler is not the only condition needed for the EX Quest to appear. So technically he didn’t lie to them, but instead fed them only partial intel.)

They believe that the only factor here is the “specific number of critical hits”, completely disregarding things like “Number of people”, “Level”, and “weapons”. And the truth here is, no matter how many times they critically hit Night Prowler, if they do that with that many people on board, this won’t count as displaying the true Vorpal Soul.

And once they learn the hard way that Pencilgton fed them partial information, they will be furious…… or they will simply fall right into Pencilgton’s hands, who will definitely promise to feed them the right intel this time around for an even greater price.

Certainly, Pencilgton sold SF-Zoo a rotten apple as if it was a perfectly ripe one.

However, they couldn’t possibly know that this apple was not only rotten on the surface level, but deep down to the core as well.

(Besides, as long as both Katsu and I remain silent about that, there is no way for them to prove that Pencilgton played them for fools, since he can always say “That’s what I’ve been told as well”.)

Pencilgton knows about the Vorpal weapon and level bits, but the only person who could prove his words to be false is me. So in the end the SF-Zoo will get their asses handed to them on a silver platter, waste their time and resources, and Pencilgton will still be in the clear…… I don’t know if karma exists in this world, but it should certainly bite him in the ass quite hard one of these days.

I feel like we were holding the detonation switch for a nuclear bomb here…… Or were playing with scissors around the threads of a puppet.

I know that Animalia-san is not a bad person deep down inside, but even if I wanted to warn them about the trap that was set for them, there was no way for me to do that without sticking out my neck.

「Okay, I understand. But one more thing…… What are you guys doing here of all places……?」

「Fufufu…… So I see you’ve noticed that as well, huh?」

Cold night’s wind blows. For a moment out there my cyber brain felt an otherworldly chill running down my spine and I thought that for but a moment every other noise except for Animalia’s voice disappeared from the world.

「This is the information that only we SF-Zoo know, our Ace in the Hole…… We’ve managed to figure out the place in which Night Prowler Luukan appears most frequently.」

The cold wind blows again. However, it was not a wind current brought as a natural phenomenon. It was a phenomenon brought about by the appearance of a huge unnatural mass.

「And seeing that the two of you are here, in this place of all the places to be, away from the area boss…… Don’t tell me you’ve managed to figure that one as well?」

The cold wind blows…… Wait, away from the area boss? Does that mean Rei was guiding me towards somewhere else this whole time?

I tried to look at Rei for answers, but she only turned her head away, in a very apologetic fashion.

「To be able to determine not only the general area but also the exact location…… Guess the SF-Zoo will need to re-evaluate the worth of your small guild after all……」

「For me, it seems that you guys came here with the same goal as us: to defeat the Unique Monster.」

The cold night’s wind blows again. This is……