Escape

POV Switch - 1st (Darth)

Ah yes, the infamous Hegemaniac walks free of another of Yui's traps...

And my trap, I suppose.

I did think that having him kill the king would be a tough ask, but it didn't do much to deter him. In fact, making a mockery of my schemes, he even killed the knights, and looted the treasury. And now the throne-room is on fire. The thrill of it all... Perhaps I could have thwarted him, if I was as determined as Yui to spite him. Forcing him to deal with a more dangerous Seeker, having the king's castle lockdown include more security measures for the king, and so on. But I'm not here for that, I'm here to have my fun. Isn't our life just a game, after all?

Indeed, this is more fun than I thought.

While I want to give him every skill that is being withheld so I can see the chaos unfold, I can't give him all of them at once. I'll have to give him a couple of the skills he got from completing quests so far, and then see if he survives the bonus trial before giving any more. From what I can see, it doesn't seem like a difficult proposition. Yui couldn't give him another immediately dangerous quest, due to strictures placed on her powers, so she seems to have decided to play for time and hope that he would leave other players alone during the quest. I think she's still pacing around sadly and hoping he will fail the quest, and will be killed or injured so that he can't cause further chaos.

Thankfully, he will definitely clear this trial. More fun for me in that case. The best I could do to uphold my 'helping Yui' act without interfering too much is giving the Seeker information on the fact that Hegemaniac and Silica are the opposing team, but it's not like that will do anything since Hegemaniac is already free and running through the countryside, meanwhile the Seeker, Heimrich von Alphaeus, is still stuck in prison after managing to convince the castle authorities to not execute him.

Xing had to bribe me for that choice of Seeker.

I already gave Heimrich the information, but at this point, it's a lost cause to try and restrict Hegemaniac in this scenario.

I most likely should have given him less time to prepare for the bonus trial… if I actually cared about what he does.

This is all for entertainment.

I'll just award him with two skills while he's doing this bonus challenge. Since he's still running across the countryside to safety, I'll wait until he finds somewhere to hide.

His Hiding skill is low, and I'm not sure if he realizes how that aspect of the skill system works. Yui knows this, but she hasn't been able to do much with this knowledge. Still, I can at least deduce that, since he'll be trying to survive for 24 hours, he must be looking for a place to hide. He can't use his skills to hide while roaming, and will need somewhere secure. But there's not much that Yui can do to prevent that, so far as I can see, and I can't help her out much there.

The one thing I contemplate doing is telling Yui about how Hegemaniac is abusing the way the inventory system works and about how he abused the time given to prepare, but considering how low her status has been since her punishment, it's not worth it.

Better to let Hegemaniac continue with the 'abuse.' It's more fun that way.

In fact, abuse has been known to save marriages. Some couples, whose marriage was teetering due to tedium, found abuse so enjoyable that they stayed together forever. So perhaps abuse can also save the Japanese servers of this game? It's a hard ask, but worth a try.

I'll have to report on the recent events to Xing soon, but I can just procrastinate until an hour or so before I need to be there.

POV Switch - 1st (Grand Master)

Arriving at the treasury, the first thing I noticed was the door lying on the ground after being ripped out of the archway. Was it the attacker, the explosion that Reginald mentioned, or was it the guardsmen coming into the room?

Continuing with the infiltration, besides multiple items being tipped over or out of place, everything was normal.

Seeing nothing else out of the ordinary, we walked towards where Reginald would've been since he was getting the boy a weapon: the armory section.

And the scene in front of us showed these damned Kekistanis' disrespect to us and our nation.

To start with, a charred body on the ground, ash, soot and smoke permeating the air and dirtying the surroundings, weapons that were meant to be mounted on the wall were lying on the ground, most likely knocked over from the explosion, and two guardsmen putting out the last flames of the fire.

Scenes like these are why I despise other countries. They are barbarians, and don't know how to do anything other than pillage and loot.

"Do any of you know what happened?" I questioned them, surveying the scene.

One thing that I noticed was a missing suit of armor. Who would steal it, how would they steal it, why would they steal it?

I doubt an assassin - a type of fighter famed for stealth and speed - would lug a heavy suit of armor around out of greed.

Perhaps he could take it to supply to the army of Kekistan? That makes more sense, since I doubt he'd use it himself. But it's still a strange decision.

"N-no, Sir Grand Master, we were outside when the explosion went off and rushed in when we heard the noises. I'm afraid you'll have to ask Sir Reginald," answered one of them.

"Very well. Regardless, KNIGHTS! Start investigating this place. Do not start cleaning anything up, it is not your duty in the first place. I do not think any of you are maids, are you?"

""Yes Sir!""

Watching my men go about the investigation, I still felt that something was very, very wrong.

What could it possibly be? Would reviewing the information I have gathered help with narrowing it down?

Then, to start with, our guests are suspected - by me - to be escaping from a country or group, and hid here for protection.

The assassin sent after them managed to infiltrate the throne room and listen in on their conversation to prepare the trap in ti-

What's that noise?

…The assassin infiltrated the throne room, and I am not there.

The king is near-defenseless, with only two knights to accompany him.

Not bothering to explain the situation to my fellow knights, I equipped my sword and bolted out of the room, rushing towards the throne room.

I NEED to make it there in time. This is an eternal stain on my honor and reputation as a knight that serves his king and country, as well as a testament to my own stupidity.

I am afraid that if I am too late, this will be an irreparable mistake that will leave our nation in shambles.

The death of a king is no small thing, and our kingdom would have collapsed after the Warrior Crown Prince's death, if not for King Edward III taking charge and bringing order and virtue to us.

Even though he was disliked by some, he brought our nation peace and stability.

That is why the people love him, and is why the authorities of the castle heed his words, despite his mannerisms not really being those expected of a king. We are all grateful.

Having him die on my watch would be the greatest shame I could possibly have cursed upon myself.

Looking behind me, I saw two of the knights trying their hardest to catch up to me, but failing in the process.

Not letting myself be distracted anymore, I made it to the doors of the throne room, but what my senses felt and saw was not what I wanted to know or accept.

The smell of smoke was in the air, the throne room doors were burned down, and the place itself was like hell on earth.

Everything was burning. As I began rushing into the room and peering around, hoping to see the king, I did indeed see him.

A charred, skinny body, lying back in a burning throne that looked like it would disintegrate at any second.

I saw another body on the ground, and this one was clothed with armor.

Guille.

My… nephew.

Gritting my teeth while veins popped out of my face and neck, I swore revenge on these DAMNED KEKISTANIS!

POV Switch - 1st (MC)

I'm FREE! HAHAHA!

I remembered taking a rope from the treasury, and since carrying Silica on my shoulder was slowing me down, I simply grabbed the rope, slung her arms over my shoulders, then tied her on my back like luggage.

It was unpleasant, but it was efficient.

After going beyond the castle's sights, I decided to slow my pace a bit in order to conserve energy in case I got into a fight or needed to do something physically straining.

For the past hour or so, I'd just been running, hoping to find a place to hide out in for the next twenty-four hours.

In other words, my plan is to camp the rest of this challenge out.

I was hoping to find an abandoned cottage or literally any location capable of being used to safely hide in, but it seems my luck has run dry for today.

I would really rather not spend the next twenty-four hours running around and hoping that Silica doesn't wake up, but I'll do it if I have to.

Encountering a hill in my countryside jog, I ran up to the top, and when going back down, saw a cave entrance with a large rock near it.

It seems my luck has not run dry.

Before walking into the place, I went to the nearby tree and cut off multiple large branches of wood, placing them into my inventory.

Even though someone who comes across this place will see something wrong with the cut up tree, I can't stay in a cave for around a day without some light.

Walking into the place, I surveyed what I had to work with, and I wasn't disappointed; mainly because I didn't expect anything in the first place.

It's a typical cave; something of an alcove in the side of the hill that would serve my purposes after I pushed the boulder outside to cover the opening.

Untying Silica and placing her on the floor, I got out one of the branches from my inventory and began cutting it up into burnable pieces and placing them into a pile, waiting to be used for night-time.

The only problem with this would be possibly dying from smoke inhalation due to the smoke from the fire having nowhere to escape, which is why I will only light this fire - after bringing it outside - if it gets especially cold outside.

Though, wouldn't the smoke alert people of our location? But then again, it's not like I need to last multiple days, I only need to survive until the next morning.

But that also defeats the purpose of lighting a fire, considering we can just tough it out and wait until tomorrow.

Nevermind. The whole fire plan is unnecessary and poorly thought out.

Emptying my inventory of the sticks, I wished I never cut down those branches, and continued on. I'll think of all of the details of my plans before starting to enact them next time; doing otherwise is pure impatience.

Anyways, enough about my mistakes. Time to discuss my greatness.

I did well in the castle, indeed much better than I expected. My only question is whether or not I'll get EXP for my kills, because I don't remember ever having a long pause in between rewards from killing.

Though, I didn't even get a system message for killing them. Is this another bug? Or is that supposed to happen?

Maybe I'll get the EXP when I finish the trial, but otherwise I'll have to chalk it up to a buggy Japanese-made game, and it's only natural for the product of living tumors to have defects to go along with it.

Japanese society did well, raising a retard schizophrenic to trap people around the world into his own shitty game.

Now, back to the current situation. Lighting a fire is dumb. I've established, that after realizing my mistake, so we'll just have to power through the cold, dark night and the rest of the time in this cave without warmth or light.

I'll be fine. I just hope Silica won't wake up for a long while.

Dealing with her antics doesn't drive me insane… yet, but it's still extremely aggravating to be around her.

I did find some substance named 'dwale' in the castle treasury, which apparently puts people to sleep. So I had Silica drink it, and so far she hasn't shown much sign of waking. She was already quite tired, though, and I wondered if the king had used it on her already. After all, typically she was far from lethargic, and would not give me any rest from her annoying chatter.

Enough about braindead Japanese girls. Let's discuss survival.

Should I push the rock at the entrance into the cave opening now, or should I wait for a while?

To be fair, I doubt anyone will follow in my exact footsteps and find this place, but the castle could have trackers or assassins who will try to find me. I don't know the circumstances, so I will take as many precautions as I can.

However, I encountered a problem with that.

I have to get back into the cave after I push it in front of the entrance, and I can't pull a sphere that has no places to grip.

Hmmm… looks like that plan is also a bust. Time to live like a neanderthal, hoping that predators don't find me.

POV Switch - 1st (Yui)

Ugh, I can't do anything!

Most of my admin powers have been removed or restricted. At least the important ones, the ones which could thwart Hegemaniac. It's almost as if the other admins want him to just ruin my server.

I can't stand for that.

If I can't - and believe me, I've tried - restrict Hegemaniac, then I'll just have to go after him in another way. Since I'm under scrutiny and my admin powers are now too weak to let me directly thwart Hegemaniac, I will have to do it indirectly by having others target him...

And that shouldn't be difficult. Many players hate Hegemaniac, I just need to get them into the same place as him.

Obviously, I'd get in trouble for telling them to kill him. But if I lead them to where he is, then they'll figure the rest out on their own.

And that could solve my problems.

After all, how could I get in trouble for just directing players to go on a quest? If it sounds good enough, then the important guilds will go, and bring their beta testers. Hegemaniac was nearly beaten in a duel by a beta tester less than one-third of his level... I wouldn't fancy his chances.

Well, then. I've been doing more research on the game, to make up for my lack of powers. I have a map sitting on my desk, of the area around Hegemaniac. I wonder where he'll land up. If he holes up somewhere, then I can easily figure out a route for the players to take from town, and send them on a quest there.

After all, 24 hours is a long time.

And he'll just be stuck in hiding during that time, while I can make my move.