Chapter 11

“Ninety-five… 96…”

She shut her ears and closed her eyes. She turned her back and curled her head. She wanted to open her eyes, but Lucelle didn’t. The sight of Ajin whispering towards her was so frightening that she couldn’t open her eyes. He said he would kill her if she opened her eyes. With that honest and simple threat, all a little girl could feel and do was fear and obey.

“Ninety-seven… 98…”

“What would have happened to Carl?” Lucelle recalled carls, who was beaten by the fist wielded by Ajin and vomited blood. Carls and Lucell were childhood friends. Carls’ father was a knight called Lord Rutrio. Although he retired because his right leg was broken, many junior knights used to visit him because he was very talented in the past. That’s why Carls and Lucelle became close. Because his father, Rutrio, broke his leg and retired. Lord Rutrio was a former knight, but he wasn’t such a man, so prim and proud. Although he was a noble man, he neither distinguished the common people from the nobility nor enjoyed luxury.

“Ninety nine… One hundred…”

Lucelle was a commoner. Her parents were also commoners. Her parents had a small bakery, and Lucelle grew up mediocre, and became a disciple of a wizard that was from the Callias school who happened to drop by their shop once.

“I’m… I’m done counting.”

All kinds of thoughts occurred to her at that moment. What would have happened to Carl, as well as her. Would anything change if Sir Rutrio, Carls’ father, or Gesed, Lucelle’s mentor, if they had been there? Lucelle thought of Sir Rutrio, a good natured man. A former knight with a benevolent smile. At the same time, she recalled her teacher, Gesed. A wizard with white beard and wearing a red robe. But what came to mind after that was Ajin’s face smiling at her. It was meaningless. There was neither Sir Rutrio nor Gesed here.

“Good job.”

Before she knew it, Ajin, who approached her, removed Lucelle’s hand from her ears. Lucelle was startled by his whispers. Her wet legs trembled. She wanted to look back but she couldn’t. With Ajin’s hand on her face, there was a strong smell of blood in his body.

“Don’t you wonder what happened to your friend?”

He thought so, but another voice came. There was a voice he heard from afar. The moment he felt it, Ajin collided into something. Clash! Ajin’s body rose into the air as the cannon exploded. Ajin couldn’t even scream at the sense of his body getting crushed to the bones.

“What the fuck?!”

“I was wondering what you were doing, and you’re here getting a terrible beating. Are you all right?”

“Luke!”

The woman shouted the man’s name as she hid the blood flowing from the place where Ajin had attacked. Clash! Ajin, who floated into the air and fell, looked at the back of the big man with a blurred vision.

“Are you all right, Asella?”

And saw a little woman running out of the bushes. It was a wizard with a big hat and a cane. She used healing magic on Asella’s wounds.

“I’ll kill you.. you bastard!”

Asella rushed in, pushing Luke to calm down. Asella punched Ajin in the face as she tried to stand up staggeringly. Ajin threw up blood and rolled back to the ground.

“Is he a player?”

Step and step! Luke asked as he approached Asella, who weighed on Ajin and wielded her fists. Asella, who kept putting her fist on Ajin’s face, exhaled a breath.

“Yes. This bastard, he was trying to kill an NPC. And then he came to me!”

“This is amazing. Were there any other users in the beta that went all the way to the Forest of Silence besides us?”

“No, wait a minute. Luke, he’s… wearing a beginner’s outfit.”

“Huh?”

Luke looked surprised at the woman’s murmur. Asella’s fists also stopped. Asella murmured as she lowered Ajin’s bloody clothes.

“…that’s true. This bastard… is a beginner?”

“Hey, that’s ridiculous. How can a beginner be in the Forest of Silence? You have to go through a Raging Forest first to get here.”

Luke shook his head. Asella, who was looking down at Ajin with her eyes wide open, took out an arrow and pointed it at Ajin.

“…Does it really matter? Maybe there was a bug. I can just kill him. What–!”

Asella, saying so, struck the arrow on Ajin’s head.

Watching the arrow approaching his face, Ajin thought. Luke, Asella… The two names he heard right now, he surely remembered them both. He remembered that incident he had two years ago. They were the ones who gave him the first death in another game.

“…See you later.”

Just before being hit by an arrow, Ajin bit his lip and spat out some blood. Asella’s eyes grew at a moment’s notice, but she didn’t stop and put the arrow into Ajin’s face. Squash! Asella murmured as she thrusted the arrow into his brain through the forehead at once.

“…what did you just say?”

[This player is dead.]

[Death penalty limits access for 4 hours.]