‘No matter how many beasts you kill, or how many points you collect. I will make sure that you never get to use them, Landlord.’ Solar Mist pushed his glasses upward and murmured with a hint of greed, as he stared at the drifting 3000 GP in the air, “We need a change of plans.”
Calm and collected, he lowered his head, not bothering anymore with the announcement. His emotions were completely sealed behind his stoic expression.
“Guys enough staring at the sky like morons and pay attention here.” He clapped his hand twice, trying to break off the tense atmosphere that was caused by Felix’s mindboggling achievement.
“Who are you calling a moron?” Pure Muscle lowered his head as well and stared right in Solar Mist’s eyes.
“Know your place, Mr. Solar. We might have a contract forbidding us from acting against each other. But, the next time you insult me. This will be your fate.” Pure Muscle pointed his hand towards Solar Mist, and gripped his fist tightly, making the air inside his fist explode!
The players surrounding them gasped at such a pure demonstration of overwhelming physical strength. Pure Muscle didn’t use a single ability to cause such an effect!
“I apologize for my tongue slip.” Surprisingly, Solar Mist didn’t lash back at Pure Muscle’s threat, he simply bowed his head slightly with a composed expression.
“F*cking sissy, can you act like a man for once?” Pure muscle clicked his tongue.
However, Solar acted deaf to such a blatant insult. In his eyes, there were more important matters to discuss than to argue with this bushy gorilla.
He ignored the hidden sneers and scoffs he was hearing from the players in front of him and said with a polite smile, “Guys, as you have just seen, Landlord wasn’t targeting the exit of the maze like we predicted he would after slaying the 2nd epic beast.” He sighed, “Who would have expected that he would actually continue his hunting journey, and nevertheless, target legendary beasts that we treated like a plague in the maze, avoiding them at all costs.”
The majority of the players who were standing around him, all flinched or shivered at hearing Felix’s achievement again. Until now, they still couldn’t get over it and probably would never do so. Slaying a legendary beast solo was no joking matter.
Thus, 2nd thoughts on participating in ambushing Felix were beginning to pop up in their minds. After all, the only reason they even accepted the hardcore players’ plan of killing Felix was because they were under a strict slave contract. In other words, they were under their mercy.
Felix assumed that it was due to luck that the game was prolonged beyond his expectations, helping him slay beast after beast unhindered. However, in reality, the game was supposed to end right after he slew the Terror Serpent!!
A full forty-minute delay was caused by one group, made of four players! Solar Mist, Hound Stench, Spirit Visage, and Pure Muscle.
They were the first ones to find the maze’s exit. Of course, it wasn’t at the same time, as Spirit Visage made it first and was followed by the others gradually.
They didn’t give up on the wager as the rest did after seeing Felix’s second announcement of slaying the Terror Serpent. Instead, they all had one thought in their minds, and that was to stop hunting for beasts and sprint towards the maze exit, hoping to meet up with Felix by chance and kill him. That was the only way to gain another chance at winning the bet.
However, it turned out that Felix wasn’t the one who they met next to the maze exit, but each other!
The moment their eyes made contact, they immediately knew that each of them had the same thought. Thus, instead of fighting for no reason, they made an alliance to kill Felix.
Solar Mist who proposed the rule of having no allies before, explicitly mentioned forbidding allying together against beasts, and not players!
This meant, that allying together was within the wager rules. No one knows if Solar mist planned to leave such a loophole, or it was merely by chance.
Whatever it was, an alliance was created after stamping a contract, forbidding them from acting against each other, at least before Felix died.
That being said, they had absolutely no clue where Felix’s current location was. Hence, instead of trying to find him inside this endless labyrinth, they decided to wait for him to come by himself.
After all, the first thought that should pop up on Felix’s mind after finishing hunting the beasts was to sprint towards the exit and block anyone trying to win the game by using it.
One should never forget that the player with the highest points after the game duration passes would be the champion.
Felix, if he didn’t have the golden scroll pointing at the legendary chest, would have done exactly what they have assumed.
So, their plan might not be the best, but at least it had a quite high probability of succeeding.
Too bad, they waited and waited, yet the only ones who were showing up constantly were players who weren’t part of the wager, finally managing to find the exit.
The first thought that came up to Pure Muscle’s mind was to kill them, in order to protect the exit. The last thing they wanted was for a total trash player to end up winning the game, while they won absolutely nothing!
However, before Pure Muscle made a move, Solar Mist proposed another idea, a wicked idea of capturing those players and forcing them to abide to their wishes. In other words, helping them ambush Felix when he shows up!
Solar Mist wasn’t a stupid proud player who thought that he would be able to kill Felix even after hearing that he slew two epic beasts solo. No, even if didn’t hear those announcements, he would never underestimate an opponent.
Thus, he would always use his brain to seek the easiest and most efficient plan to fulfill his desires. Using those players like slaves was but one way to demonstrate his way of thinking and acting.
However, his thought process rubbed Pure Muscle in the wrong way, as he assumed that Solar Mist lacked confidence in their collected strength to kill even one player.
However, the rest of the party didn’t share the same view as Pure Muscle. In fact, they supported Solar Mist’s plan 100%, as they believed that having more players around them would only turn beneficial. No one would say no to free help.
Ultimately, Pure Muscle’s disagreement over such a cowardly behavior was overruled based on their voting contract. So, they began their capturing plan, by laying traps and ambushes around the maze’s exit.
Any player who got captured by their ways received only two choices from the party, one sign a contract, entailing that inside the maze his life would be under their wishes and orders.
The contract turn void either by death or after the game ends. Or, they could choose dying straightaway with a bit of dignity.
This was the version the spectators had knowledge of, the version they saw and heard with their own eyes.
Of course, everyone chose to sign the contract, since even though it was a slave contract, Solar Mist promised them that killing Felix and defending the maze exit was all they wanted from them. Nothing more, nothing less. Though, he didn’t add that in the contract…It was merely a verbal promise.
Nevertheless, the players weren’t stupid to get themselves killed just to protect a bit of their dignity. In their eyes, they had done things way worse in the previous games to mind their actions in public anymore.
In the end, the party around the maze’s exit kept getting bigger and bigger, as it grew by twos and threes each time a player or a party lucked out on the exit.
This carried on for 30 minutes until the party had 25 players, all standing near the exit, doing nothing but waiting for Felix to appear.
Alas, he never did.
Only now did they understood why so. The f*cker was hunting a legendary beast, while they were standing like morons for no reason. He was never going to come and probably never planned on doing so.
Solar Mist knew that time wasn’t on their side to continue hoping that he magically shows up. Heck, after seeing that Felix slew a legendary beast, he was certain that Felix gave up on the championship!
Thus, he wanted to change the plan as fast as possible, and figure something else with his party. Unfortunately, he didn’t expect that the majority would quiver fearfully at him mentioning Felix.
“Don’t you dare have 2nd thoughts on bailing out!” Solar Mist narrowed his eyes and threatened, “If you don’t want to end up getting humiliated right now and right here, you better behave yourselves.”
Disgruntled noises began to arise within the group at such a blatant threat. However, that was as much as they did to sound their displeasure. As for rioting or crying out loud? they didn’t want to get ordered to be stripped nude on a live stream as a punishment for disobeying their orders.
It happened a few times already to not get the gest that Solar Mist and his crew meant business. Hence, they could only lower their heads and wish that Felix never shows up to ruin those bastards’ plans.
“Do you guys have a plan to salvage this situation?” Solar Mist said calmly to his main party, unbothered by their hateful glares.
After a couple of minutes in utter silence, Hound Stench’s gruff voice resounded in the area, “I have a way to find him.”
