Chapter 52: [Avida!]

About an hour later, I was back at the fountain area where we had spawned first. My eyes looked at the timer, and from what I remember the tutorial should end anytime now."Huh?"

"We are safe!"

"Wait! What's this timer?!"

"I am tired!"

"…"

I saw 5 people appearing out of thin air, before a dozen more appeared. Then a dozen more as they all looked at the place around. Their eyes wide opened up as they tried to adjust their eyesight with the surroundings.

I scanned them all, but sadly not one of them had a face that I recognized. And from what I could see, each of them were weaker than the other one. Even Mark alone could handle all of them by himself.

'Did they do nothing but survive in the safe zone? Well, I guess not everyone is as enthusiastic as the young teens,' I reached a conclusion before looking at the map at various areas where the density of players were more.

'Oh!'

And to my surprise, the spawn point of the players was rather symmetric along with the radial circumference of the circle of the city which was crossing this fountain point. It was on an equal distance from each other, and there were probably hundreds of spawn points, with each having at least 50 or so players there.

Since this place pretty much contained all the garbage players, I moved away from here before reaching the nearest place where the next spawn point was. The players were still there, even a few strong ones. But none that I was familiar with.

'Next one,' I didn't give up as the search had only begun. I knew that it was going to be a long ride and it was probably going to tax me a lot today… but it was still fine. If I could find even a single person from the group that I was searching for, it would make the entire effort worth it.

By the third point, the players had started scattering. By the fourth, they were more or less gone. By 5th I had to look around the area as well. By 6th and 7th, I more or less lost them.

"All right. Let's change the way now," I mumbled before finding a high ground nearby. It wasn't exactly the best way to search given how big the city was, but given the choices that I had, it was the best that I could do right now.

Moving to the high ground, I used my [Perception] and looked at the places on the map where the number of players were more than 5. Then focusing on that area, I tried looking out for the people one by one.

"Not you. Not you… not you either… Hmmm. It's like finding a needle in a haystack. Not you either. Nope. Nope.

Na," I kept searching as much as possible while also noticing the expression of those people.

Some of them were confused at first, while others were excited. Though in the end, all of them were relieved to find a safe place. Some tried to buy the food around them, while others were enchanted by various items present on the stalls. It didn't seem like they were much disturbed by the tutorial.

Though I still found a couple of people that were showing grief, probably for the people who couldn't make out of the tutorial. I wonder what kind of face they would make when they would get to know that all those people have come back to life already.

And as I was looking through, I found a face. One of the people that I was searching for, a blonde girl wearing a black cloak similar to mine except the stealth was easily noticeable. Perhaps because of my [Perception], I was able to see through the stealth?

Anyways, now that the first part of the hunt is over, let's move to the next.

Jumping off the small apartment, I then began running towards the area where she was walking towards. Even though I lost sight of her as soon as I jumped off the building, I was still able to keep her position in check on the map.

And 5 minutes later, I found her walking on the street all by herself as she kept checking her surroundings. There was a silver dagger in her hand, that she held on to tightly.

'?' I observed her from a distance for a few moments before slowly moving towards her.

"WHO IS IT?!" She suddenly shouted as she turned around, showing her beautiful face that was comparable to Alice, or perhaps even more than hers. Her golden yellow eyes looked around her trying to see if someone was following her.

She can't see me, but she was still able to sense me, huh?

I saw the surrounding people observing her with keen interest, smiling at her and passing comments. They waited for a few more seconds, before they moved on with their own work while she kept staring in the empty space in front of her.

Though instead of directly appearing in front of her, I created a black butterfly with my [Illusion] skill. It was a noticeable butterfly that appeared out of thin air in front of her. Though cautios of it, the yellow eyes girl kept it in check as I circled the butterfly around her before making it fly in the nearby empty alley.

Understanding that someone was calling her out, she walked behind that black butterfly with her knife still held tightly in her grip. I made her walk a bit more, until we were much away from the general public. And once we were done with that,

"As cautious as ever, huh? It's been a while you Thieving Cat," I appeared in front of her as I removed my illusion, cloak and mask. Normally I wouldn't have done that, but this girl was one of the very few people that have helped me in my darkest times.

"ADRIAN!!" And her mood changed 180 degrees as a deep smile blossomed on her face and she ran all the way towards me.

"It's AVIDA, you son of a bitch!"

-POW!

[-20 HP]

And punched me really hard as I fell down on the ground. The next second, she jumped over me and sat on my chest, as she looked at me with the same smiling face as before.

"So you lived, huh? Didn't think the first person I would get to see after getting out that hell would be our damned former mastermind. Been a while dude, how you doing these days?" And that's how our Thief- I mean, Avida, usually greets me.

"I could say the same for you. I was hoping to find someone from the back alley days given how messed up the situation is right now, but to think the first person i would find is a small time pickpocketer-"

She raised her hand making a fist, before I changed my words immediately…

"-I mean the greatest thief of all time. It's an honor. I am fine by the way," I answered her as she smiled before putting her fist down.

Getting off me, she sighed as she looked at me with a deep look. Her eyes turned sad again as she spoke," Adrian. Reban died."

My eyes shook for a moment as I looked at her.

"It can't be. That guy is…" he was the fighter of our group. One of the best streetfighters among the back alley people. I wasn't sad that he died given that he would come back to life but… I believed that he had the most chance of survival in this stupid Apocalypse mess.

"What happened?" I asked with my eyes narrowed at her and she spoke with a hint of glare in her's,

"We were cornered by a bunch of rats. You know those shittwerps! Their [Gifts!] somehow were in favor with the tutorial's setting. We fucking tried our best… gave our best… yet… yet…"

I saw tears appearing in her eyes. I kind of wanted to enjoy the moment of her agony given how many times she had punched me, but I guess I am not that type of person.

"He is alive. Rebas, I mean," I told her, making her widen her eyes. She looked at me with a dumbfounded expression as I explained,

"Well. You see. My group finished the tutorial 16 hours earlier. And I have been collecting information as much as I could. And it may come as a shock to you but the people who died in the tutorial come back to life here in the safe zone."

"YOU! ADRIAN! You… you aren't lying right?!" And once again, I saw the desperate attempts of hope in her eyes. Rebas was her blood brother, the only person left close to her. I could never understand what she had been through. But at least I am happy that these words that I am speaking aren't just empty lies.

"Nope. There were people who died in our tutorial and I saw them alive here," I answered her, making her even more happy. The tears were still there but they weren't of sadness anymore.

There was pure joy in her eyes as she looked at me with hope and then running close to me she jumped at me again, this time hugging me tightly, as I patted her head silently. But then again… there was a flare in my eyes too… as I spoke these words to Avida…

"Avida. Can you tell me who those bastards were?"

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