Evolution Online: Building a Kingdom with 100\% drop rate-Chapter 9: Ch-: Trial (2)
He turned to spot the attacker—a pale, thin man in a black cape, armed with a bow. His teeth were exposed in a wicked grin.
"Hehehe, let’s see how you dodge this one!" the man shouted as he nocked another arrow.
Whiz.
Before it could even hit him, Victor had already moved aside swiftly, letting it fly past him.
Whoosh. Whoosh. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺
"Hmm?" Victor raised an eyebrow when he sensed three more arrows coming toward him from three different directions.
"Got him," the players who were hidden muttered in excited voices, certain their attack would land. But their smiles froze when they saw Victor dodge them with ease, as if he already knew where they would land.
"I see, a temporary partnership. And from the way you all sneaked up on me, it looks like you’re pros in the gaming world—but that won’t work on me," Victor said in a mocking tone, causing their expressions to darken.
They were about to launch another attack, but—
"Purgatory Lightning Bullet," Victor muttered.
Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.
He watched as four black bullets of lightning shot from his fingers and directly struck them. He was a bit surprised when he saw half of their bodies explode from the inside out.
He had already taken lives before. He didn’t feel much of anything and simply kept moving.
As he moved, he encountered more monsters, which he killed, until his steps paused when he saw more humans. He was about to ignore them, but the four players lunged at him.
Victor didn’t hesitate. This time, he did not use any skill and relied purely on raw strength to punch them. To his surprise, he blasted holes through their bodies, and they ended up dying instantly.
Eight kills total.
Rustle.
"I almost forgot," Victor said with a chuckle as he moved toward a bush.
"Found my next target," Victor said out loud and aimed his hand toward the player hiding there.
"Please don’t kill me!" a voice pleaded from the bush, catching him by surprise as the player stepped out.
"Please don’t kill me. I could work for you. The test giver said that we have to reduce the number of players to 100, but he didn’t say that we can’t team up to do it," the player said nervously.
"What makes you think I would even need you in the first place?" Victor said with a smile. Seeing that Victor did not seem too resistant, the player’s eyes lit up as he started walking closer.
"Have you ever heard of the term ’strength in numbers’?" the player said.
"Oh, I have heard of it—but why would I team up with someone who wants to poison me?" Victor said with a chuckle.
The player who heard this stiffened and broke out in a cold sweat.
Clang.
Victor looked at the dagger he had just knocked to the ground, which seemed to be coated in purple venom.
"Bye," Victor smiled and formed a Black Lightning Bullet.
The player who saw this turned and started running, but before he could get far, it struck his head, which exploded like a watermelon.
"Oh right, I completely forgot—this is the best time to make money. Let me put all my stuff in the market," Victor said. But before doing so, he opened the leaderboards to check the progress of the others.
[Player Leaderboards]
1. Faceless (Level 19)
2. Olivia (Level 6)
3. Andrew (Level 5)
4. Rachel (Level 5)
"They are still at the top," Victor mused and then looked at the panicked players.
"Well, someone once said it correctly—war is the best way to make money," Victor mumbled as he put all the weapons he had obtained from killing and crafting onto the player market.
Victor watched with an amused smile as he read the comment section.
-------------------
NoobMaster69: No way, how did this guy get so many items?
Playerone1: Even in a week, it’s impossible, and some of them have such low drop rates that even killing 100 makes it difficult to get one.
Blacksmithingpro9: Could he have crafted them himself?
Blacksmithexpert: Impossible. Do you even know the failure rate of creating an item?
Expertgamer555: Damn, am I seeing things or are my eyes playing tricks on me... I think I saw that he is Level 19.
Gamergirl12345: How is this possible? Is he a hacker? The second place is only Level 6.
Noobie66: It’s great. Come on @Faceless! Just one more level and we can exit the game!
-----------------
Victor closed the chat and thought, "Looks like no one checked the leaderboards due to the tension of the trial in the last hour."
Victor had killed a lot of monsters and had accumulated a significant amount of experience. He dumped all of it into leveling up just one hour ago, right before he was called for the trial, so it went unnoticed.
Under his watchful eyes, all the items he had put on sale for exaggerated prices were sold out within minutes.
------------
Name: Victor Silvernum
Race: Human
Bloodline: Origin Bloodline (SSS Rank)
Class: Warlock
Tier: 0
Exp Stored: 19,000
Free Stats Points: 1
---------------
"19,000? Not a bad haul at all," Victor said with a satisfied smile as he closed the tabs and then frowned as he looked around.
"I should quickly get the item before anyone else can..." Victor mumbled as he looked into the distance and sprinted.
Few minutes later.
Victor looked at the hole with narrowed eyes and said, "Yep, this is the exact place where the dungeon is."
The cave showed signs of having been dug out, yet parts appeared natural. Clearly, it had originally been a natural cave that some monster had expanded, which later became a dungeon.
Like in most games, dungeons are separate spaces where richer treasures can be found.
The claw marks on the dug-out sections were already somewhat faded. Based on Victor’s knowledge from his past life, it was clear that these marks could not have been made by a low-rank monster.
Victor then activated his Danger Sense technique to scan inside and found no immediate danger.
Victor took a deep breath and walked forward.
Woosh.
As soon as he touched the hole, his whole body was sucked inside.
---
Bang.
"Nice shot, Andrew," Rachel said with a smirk.
"Thanks," Andrew replied as he reloaded the gun he had just bought from the player market and frowned as he said, "But this gun is only good for weaker monsters and maybe players."
"Well, we bought it because we don’t have any good ranged weapons," Rachel pointed out.
"How on Earth did that guy Faceless even get a gun?" Andrew muttered.
Rachel, hearing his words, just shrugged her shoulders.
"Hey, Olivia, what are you looking at?" Rachel asked curiously, watching Olivia stare at the screen that had appeared in front of her.
"You might want to check the rankings," Olivia said in a neutral voice, but one could sense the slight nervousness in her tone.
"Rankings?" Both Rachel and Andrew raised an eyebrow and opened the player leaderboards...
"!!!" Both of their pupils constricted to the size of needles when they saw that Faceless was already Level 19.
"This person must be hacking, right? How is his progress so high?!" Rachel exclaimed while the other two frowned.
"Maybe I could recruit him later," Andrew mumbled.
"What, you want to form an e-sports team or something?" Rachel asked, bewildered.
"No. I have a nagging feeling that this is more than just a game... I have a bad feeling that players will have a huge impact on the real world," Andrew said solemnly.
"I also want to recruit him," Olivia said, leaving Rachel even more bewildered.
"You too, Olivia?" Rachel said in a surprised voice.
"Yes. Think about it—what kind of game has players dying in real life if they die in the game?" Olivia said calmly, which caused Rachel to frown and then grow nervous.
