Felix approached the blackened standing corpse of Pure Muscle, who still had an agitated expression affixed on his face. Then, he snapped his finger, withdrawing the black mist, and exhaled a long breath through his mouth.
Whoosh!
Pure Muscle’s blackened body immediately collapsed on itself, pilling up just like the rest.
Calm and collected again, Felix looked around him and noticed that only three black small mounds were left in the area. He lifted his head and saw the blue barrier in the sky.
Spirit Visage was nowhere to be seen.
‘It’s finally over.’
Relieved, Felix let out a long sigh while closing his eyes for a while. So many things happened in such a short amount of time that made him feel like he played three games in a row. But, it was finally over.
He still had some unanswered questions, like how did they find him in the first place or who were the four players he spotted with his infrared vision at the time of the ambush?
However, he soon stopped caring about them and just relaxed his tense shoulders.
The game had only three minutes left in its lifespan, and he didn’t want to spend it overthinking unnecessary problems. Plus, He already had plenty of unanswered questions concerning Asna’s reason for not telling him about her hidden energy stash. But, he would grill her after the game.
Right now, he just walked to the wall and leaned against it, waiting for the final buzzer.
If only he knew that above the wall he was leaning against, Mastermania was looking at him inside the shadow with eyes filled with raw emotions. He was scared, anxious, but hatred was still apparent in his eyes.
He watched everything that happened since the moment Solar Mist’s party started the ambush. Every time Felix was in a dire situation, the same weird laugh escaped through his rotten lips.
Sadly, his laugh never lasted for even a few seconds, as Felix got out alive from every certain death situation.
It got to the point that he started to believe that even his bounty hunt plan wasn’t going to work against this cockroach. Especially after he saw that pitch-black aura, that appeared more like a fat grim reaper without a scythe.
He doubted that anyone who saw that ability would actually dare approach Felix for a mere couple hundred million SC.
Players weren’t stupid. If the bounty’s danger exceeded their expectations, they could only give up on it and focus on the game. Only desperate or ignorant fools would still attempt it.
‘Why am I even thinking about killing him with a bounty?!’ He narrowed his eyes at Felix, who seemed like he had his guard down, and thought, ‘One shadow spikes and he will die. Just one.’
He pointed his finger at Felix and then…nothing. He just froze after remembering what happened to him against Felix. He bypassed those hurtful memories of their fight and focused on the time he was spotted while still hidden in his shadow.
Nervous, he withdrew his shaking finger and removed any thought he had about ambushing Felix. He recognized that Felix had knowledge about his position!!
‘The f*cker is waiting for me to strike!’ He thought to himself.
He realized that inside his shadow, he was completely safe from Felix’s poisons. However, if he wanted to use his *Shadow Spikes*, he needed to exit the wall’s shadow first!
It was a trap! a deadly trap!
In his mind, Felix didn’t choose the wall randomly, but picked specifically to be close to him! This scene resembled exactly what happened during their first fight. Felix feigning weakness and ignorance to make him lower his guard and expose himself!
He was waiting, waiting patiently for him to make a move. Mastermania felt like he was about to make the same mistake.
‘Not this time you crafty f*cker!’ he cursed Felix and withdrew himself deeper into the shadows, not daring to remain above him anymore. However, a slight proud smirk suddenly emerged on his face.
He honestly believed that he outwitted Felix. Too bad, he just outwitted himself, no one else.
Felix truly had absolutely no idea that Mastermania was above him. His mental energy didn’t recover with his elemental energy. They were two separate energies. Thus, his infrared vision was totally offline.
If his revitalization passive needed mental energy to activate he would have honestly died after that attack. Thankfully, it was always in active mode just like his superstrength. Though, it belonged to a completely different type.
Felix just needed to give the order for his poison to be absorbed, and it would start doing its magic. It all depended on the potency of the poison. In other words, this passive was indirectly linked to his elemental energy. The more he had the better this passive would perform!
After seeing that Mastemania left, Felix’s fans sighed in relief then…their deafening chants uplifted the silent stadium from its graveyard.
“Landlord!”…”Landlord!”…”Landlord!”…
When Felix was fighting using his corruption inducement, everyone was just watching silently how one ability changed the course of the battle. Whether they were commoners or VIP viewers. No one had a single idea of what was that damned inducement and why was he saving it even when he almost died. Most importantly, How did he get his energy back!!!
So many questions were eating them up, making them confused, uncomfortable, and especially curious. Yet, based on Felix’s personality they knew that he would probably escape the moment he obtained the victory.
“Landlord brought too many surprises in this game to just shrug them off!” Zoe spoke with a crafty glint, “If he dares to ditch the ceremonial trophy award or not give us a proper interview to clear our doubts about his ultimate ability, black inducement, and specifically his sudden energy upsurge…” She brought the mic near her lips and yelled with her eyes closed shut, “WE WILL BOYCOTT HIIIIM!!”
“BOYCOTT!”…”BOYCOTT!”…”BOYCOTT!”
Suddenly everyone was screaming to boycott Felix at the top of their lungs. His fans’ chants got easily drowned by the spectators’ combined voices.
Yet that wasn’t even it, as even in the stream chat room, viewers were spamming BOYCOTT as well! Heck, even a couple of VIP viewers joined the excitement.
Stupefied, Leader Emma and her followers just kept watching their club chants get overwhelmed without a single ounce of resistance. She had no idea how things quickly derailed to this point. She was expecting the stadium to follow their cheers and chant with them as well.
After all, Felix literally gave them a spectacular game that was hard to find another one as good as it for the next month. Yet, the bastards only thought of grilling him after he left the maze.
She understood their curiosity as she also wanted to know everything about Felix. But still, it was too much to call for a boycott if he didn’t please them.
“You ungrateful bastards!!” She yelled with flushed cheeks, scaring the shit of those around her.
…
In an area near the golden chest that Felix opened, next to a wall, two players were staring at a corpse lying on the ground. One of them had a hound’s head stuck in his stomach, and the other was a tall macho man.
Disappointed, Hound Stench shook his head at the sight of Spirit Visage’s corpse disintegrating into light particles, marking 30 seconds after his death. In the SG, corpses remain 30 seconds max before getting removed from the game.
When Spirit Visage failed to fulfill the contract, his consciousness was destroyed by the Queen, killing him for real. However, his corpse remained unmoving throughout the process. It was neat and painless. Yet, the Queen’s neatness brought an issue for Hound Stench.
He thought that Spirit Visage used an ability in his ethereal form that made his shallow breaths stop for a while.
But after seeing with his own eyes that his body disintegrated, he knew that their hunt must have ended unsuccessfully.
He didn’t know what happened there or who died or lived. Regardless, the fact that Spirit Visage actually died made him pretty certain that the fate of others was as doomed as him.
It was only common sense.
Spirit Visage had the greatest survivability in the game due to his untouchable ethereal form, especially if his real body was protected like in this case. Yet, he still died.
This made Hound Stench wonder how did it happen and if Felix was the one who killed him, how exactly did he achieve so?
If his elemental energy wasn’t almost dead due to overusing it to track Felix for such a long distance, he would have gone with them instead of staying here doing nothing.
If only he knew that his exhausted energy was what saved him, those thoughts wouldn’t even cross his mind anymore.
Soon, he stopped caring about the fate of his allies and started closing his coat back on under Coco’s whines.
“Good game Sir. Machon, and congratulation on getting the hundred mill.” After putting Coco away, Hound Stench offered a handshake to Machon with a polite smile.
“You too Sir Hound, and thank you.”
Machon nodded his head respectfully while shaking his hand. His respectful manner made Hound Stench a bit curious.
“Don’t you hate us for making you sign a slave contract?” He asked him.
“Hate you?” Machon scratched his head in confusion and asked, “Why should I?” He gave him a sincere smile and clarified, “I was supposed to die when you caught me. That was simply how things are in this vicious platform. I had no reason to complain. However, instead of killing me, you gave me a choice.”
“That choice, I will pick every time someone gives it to me.” He shrugged his shoulder, “I would rather bet on luck that I will live after signing the contract than accepting death straightaway.”
“Am I not standing here alive and kicking the best proof that I made the right choice?” He laughed in pure delight, making Hound Stench smile bitterly.
“You were indeed lucky. all of you were.” Hound Stench murmured under his breath while gazing at the sky of the maze.
Memories of the time Solar Mist proposed using the slave contract resurfaced in his mind. After seeing them again, he felt relieved, relieved that their plan never reached the 3rd stage.
He was guilt-ridden the entire time, that if they managed to kill Felix successfully, he would have done something he realized late that he shouldn’t have.
Zoe, the spectators, and even some VIP viewers all thought that the reason they caught players and forced them to sign the contract slave was to ambush Felix if he came, and also protect the exit. However, the real reason was to gather as many players as possible in one spot and herd them akin to sheep, waiting for the day of their slaughter!
That’s right! The real existence for those 22 players was to simply get harvested for GPs after they kill Felix! 22 players meant, 4400 GP!
They knew that Princess Bird was ranked as 2nd, and they didn’t have the guts to kill her after removing Felix from the 1st rank. However, they were certain that she wasn’t ahead of them like Felix was. They could catch up to her if they somehow obtained 1000 GP to 1500 GP.
Hence, Solar Mist immediately proposed the idea of catching players, who reached the exit by themselves and leave them as backup points. Of course, his proposal wasn’t said in public but in private by using the Queen’s voice.
At that time, Pure Muscle snapped on him not because he didn’t want the idea of signing slave contracts with those players, but due to his party wanting to massacre them for points later on!
His pride and dignity didn’t let him accept such a heinous crime. He had no problems fighting or killing, but suggesting to give players a false hope of survival when they really were just a bunch of walking dead, he just couldn’t…
No matter what they said or promised him, he was uncompromising in his decision. Sadly, it didn’t really matter as they were three and he was one.
Their alliance was all based on votes. Thus, their hidden plan was decided on.
Hound Stench was hesitating to vote yes at first, but after remembering the massive GP amount he needed to buy an expensive potion in the prize pool, he could only bury those guilty feelings deep within and vote yes.
Unfortunately or fortunately for him? Felix didn’t come to the gate as they expected but remained far off, forcing them to change plans and hunt him down instead.
What they didn’t expect as well, was for the bastard to be at the very edge of the northeast side of the maze, putting them in a long path.
The journey itself took an entire half an hour of constant running to barely make it.
Their plan of massacring the players went down the drain the moment they noticed that time wasn’t going to be enough to make another journey back, even if they killed Felix within an instant.
Pure Muscle gloated at them, making Solar Mist furious and Spirit Visage a bit upset. However, Hound Stench only felt a burst of relief.
He knew at that moment he wasn’t a cold-blooded killer in his core even if his dire circumstances forced him to be one.
‘Sorry, my love. Dad really, really tried his best.’ A sudden tear dropped down his cheek as he gazed at the blue barrier getting darkened.
He wanted to win the bet so badly not for him, but for his daughter, who was born with a fragile consciousness barrier, that could collapse by a single gentle breeze.
Anyone with her condition could not awaken and integrate. In other words, her maximum lifespan was bound to 500 years. No one wanted to bury their children, all parents wanted it to be the other way around.
He, just like the majority of the players had their own reasons for joining the platform. Some do it for entertainment, power, richness, wishes, and some do it for others.
All it mattered was the Supermacy Games platform gave everyone an equal chance to fulfill their desires and hopes.
Sadly, this game wasn’t meant for Hound Stench. Because Felix was on it.
He wiped the tear away unnoticed by Machon and the spectators, who were still shouting boycott. His sorrowful gaze was replaced instantly to indifference and determined again.
‘But don’t worry, your dad will never stop trying. Not now, not ever!’ He thought one last time as his body started to disintegrate into light particles, indicating his teleportation.
Behind him, Machon’s body was also experiencing the same process.
“Good luck out there Mr. Hound.” Machon waved his hand with a sincere smile.
“You too.” Hound stench nodded his head mildly before he drifted in the air, just like the remaining players in the maze.
Light particles were going upward from every spot in the maze. But still, the biggest cluster was the one in the middle of the maze.
Throughout the entire hour, the players were near the maze exit, none of them managed to touch the cold metallic luster of the gate.
It was near, yet far at the same time. However, feelings of regret, envy, or greed didn’t cross their minds. They just felt relieved that the game was finally over. And they remained alive until they heard the last buzzer.
Peeeeeeep!
