84 Coincidence

I hurriedly dashed towards the location that the culprit behind the theft was. Surprisingly, it wasn't far as it seemed that the culprit was hiding behind one of the nearby tents. I activated my {Ghost Emperor's Voyage} and slowly crept up to the location.

It seemed the culprit did not notice me as I was able to creep up behind him. As expected of a thief, I saw a frail looking young man wearing plain clothes. Unexpectedly, this jerk was actually watching the show with excited eyes. Heh, I'll be showing him a real show soon.

I took out my sword and prepared to give a death blow to the jerk, solving this society of one of its scourges. However, when I swept my sword down, the culprit surprisingly disappeared with a blur.

"Hohoh, that's an interesting ability. Unfortunately, even though I can't see you when you are in stealth, when you attack, that's a different story," a cheeky voice resounded behind me.

I hurriedly turned around to see the culprit giving me a mocking grin. I frowned as I realized that this might be a difficult kill as both his movement and reaction speeds are high.

"Heh, a mere yellow Dan trying to kill me. I think I should return the favor!" the culprit said before dashing towards me with a blur.

I hurriedly activated {Ghost Emperor's Voyage}'s void form, allowing an attack to sweep right through me. Then I side stepped and swung my sword at the shocked culprit. Unfortunately, the culprit reacted in time, barely dodging the attack with a small scratch. He frowned before he swiftly attacked once more, which resulted in the same ending.

"Tsk- it seems you have an annoying ability to dodge my attacks. This is no fun. Let's just let bygones be bygones and stop wasting time shall we?" the culprit said with a grin.

"You dare to frame me and you want to just drop the issue?!" I growled back angrily.

"Heh, that's because you deserve it. Evil ones like you deserve death, let alone a simply trip to the prison," the culprit responded.

"Evil? I did nothing evil! What do you mean by that?" I retorted.

"Oh? Denying it? Or do you truly not know? Mah, doesn't matter. I won't tell you," the culprit said with a cheeky smile.

"Oh? Then I shall make you tell me!" I yelled before charging at the culprit.

"Ah~ That is if you can catch me!" the culprit said before he dashed off, leaving me staring into empty space.

Heh. With my {Hunter's Mark}, I can chase that culprit all day. I hurriedly chased after the culprit, and found him chilling in a busy area not long after. Let's see if you can escape! I crept up behind him, but before I could attack him, he dashed off once again.

I frowned as I continued the chase, going all over the camp.

---Dusk---

I breathed hard as I stared at the young man in front of me. The two of us had participated in a game of chase for pretty much the entire day. Right now, we have faced off in a small open space in the forest as both of us are exhausted.

"The f**k man? How the f**k you following me like a widowed ghost?!" the young man questioned while breathing hard.

"Heh, you'll never be able to escape. I'll be able to track you down even if we have to spend the rest of tomorrow doing this!" I growled back in anger as I took deep breathes.

"F**k, you really put a tracker on me! Uggg! I thought you would get tired of this sooner or later, but I didn't expect you to be so stubborn! I didn't want to use this, but let's see how you chase me after this!" the young man said before pulling out a talisman which he inserted Qi into.

A golden glow then surfaced on the talisman which then extended to his body. Not long after it disappeared as it seemed nothing happened, but I knew that my {Hunter's Mark} was gone as a notification popped up saying it was removed forcefully.

"Hahaha, see you later chump! You'll never catch me!" the young man said before dashing off once more.

I could only angrily glare in the direction he dashed towards because I could no longer see his shadow nor sense his location. Although I wanted to stop him from using the item, I was simply too tired. Plus, I didn't really have any movement skills that could bring me up to him to stop him. I dejectedly decided to go back now as it was already almost night. A day of chasing without food is really taking a toll on my body now.

As I slowly tramped back to the camp, I could feel my stomach growling as if I hadn't eaten for weeks. After I reached camp, I tried to look for some stall that sells food, but it was like no one wanted to cook for others as nobody bothered selling food. Probably this was due to vigilance against poisoning, so, I could only stare at the money that I had no use for. My only option was to head back to the supposedly friendly host, aka Fatty's place. I hoped that I wasn't overthinking things as I seriously got a bad vibe from that Uncle Pan guy. Maybe it was just my Protagonist's instinct kicking in. Oh, wait that's not even a thing.

I was glad that I placed a location marker at the tent before leaving because I decided to go back to save Fatty if needed. Now it served as my GPS because if it wasn't there, I seriously would not have been able to tell which tent was which as most of them looked similar, albeit different sizes.

I finally found the right tent when the sun finally set, signifying the night's return. My stomach gurgled as I tried entering the tent, but realized that I could not because I didn't have any key to it.

Suddenly I felt a chill down my back as I hurriedly turned around; however, I saw nothing. I frowned as I felt danger for a moment, but a cool voice resounded behind me like a ghost, shaking me from my thoughts, "Oh, young man, you are back. It's good to see you."

I shivered before looking back vigilantly to see Uncle Pan standing there at the opening of the tent.

"Please come in young man. Young master is now awake and is waiting for you to dine with," Uncle Pan stated before lifting the tent flap for me to go in.

I nodded silently as my thoughts were sent into a whir. Was it a coincidence? However, my thoughts were interrupted as I entered the tent for I saw a much too familiar person. Isn't this too much of a coincidence?!