The white-haired man yawns while dusting his green robe. While it was already nighttime in the forest, he only stayed there for 5 minutes. And by the time he heard the announcement of the 20-minute mark, he smirked as he stared at his clock on the HUD.

  [Activate.]

  As soon as he heard that keyword, he watched as a bright white light flashed right in front of him. When it disappeared, he saw silhouetted figures moving around behind the trees and bushes.

  "So they don't really want squatters in the event, huh?" He muttered. "Compared to my previous experience in other battle royale games, this is actually a good way to speed up this event."

  He then scanned around the area and frowned at what he saw. "So he's not here, too. Figures, that guy has a habit of moving around without rest." He smiled again as he started leaving the forest. "Well, sooner or later, those two will meet each other once we thin out the number. Knowing him, they might hit it off very quickly."

  [At the same time in the jungle biome...]

  "Uwaaaa... This is getting boring already," a player wielding two daggers groaned as he was walking with another wielding a longsword. "How long till they reveal the players' locations?"

  His partner stares at the clock in his HUD and turns to him. "Only a few seconds left. Our locations will also get exposed, too. But you should be ready for any campers nearby."

  His twin dagger partner yawns and says, "Yeah, yeah. It's no problem for me once I see those campers hiding in the bushes. You know my current [SPD] right now. There's no way they will outrun me!"

  "Well, let's see... The mark is already here."

  [Activate.]

  Both players cover their eyes just as a bright white light flashes right in front of them. When they open them, they see a lone silhouetted figure crouching down in the bushes.

  "Huh. What the h*ll is that guy doing anyway?" The longsword player muttered. "Is he expecting us to come over there and ambush us right after?"

  "I don't know. But looks like he has no idea about the 20-minute location reveal rule. Let's put a jump on him while he's lost in thought."

  The longsword player grins. "I like the way you think, partner." They slowly approached the figure with smirks on their faces. Once they got close, he pulled out his longsword and raised it above the bushes. "Time's up, camper!"

  But just as he swings down the blade, a green blur suddenly grabs the longsword player and pulls him away as his partner stares at him in horror. "Dudley!"

  "Get this thing off o- ARGGGHHHH!!!" The longsword player screamed. "Dale, save me!!!"

  The twin dagger player grits his teeth. Yet he notices that the silhouette is about to fade. He hums in thought and turns to the bushes instead.

  "You bastard! Are you betraying me?! I thought we were partners!"

  "Yeah, partners for this event," the twin dagger player grins. "When it comes to free-for-alls, it's a dog-eat-dog world. To me, team-up is for chumps!"

  "The feeling's mutual."

  Dale's eyes widen when he hears this. Before he can react, the figure jumps out of the bushes and stabs the twin dagger user with one of his claw gauntlets. At the same time, the longsword player is struggling to get out of his bindings when he sees his betrayer's attacker.

  "The Bear Slayer?!"

  To their shock, their attacker is none other than Lunar smirks while wearing his [Bear Claw Gauntlets]. "That's why I prefer to fly solo," he finished. "I can't believe you two managed to fall for my location."

  Dale gasps upon staring at his blue eyes. "You crouched down like that on purpose?!"

  "Bingo!" Lunar answered with a wink. "Since there's no time for me to relocate on time, I did the next best thing: Using the reveal to ambush oblivious blockheads like yourselves into ambushing this exact location for me."

  Dudley's eyes also widen at this revelation. "So you deliberately pose as a camper to..."

  Lunar flashes a grin as a vine starts moving by itself. "Yep. To trap you guys thanks to my little friends here."

  "Oh~ How cute!" Nelli squealed. "You didn't tell me there are cute plant monsters in the game?"

  "Well, not all of them are cute," Lyco interjected. "That guy must be part of the hazards for the event. According to the MC, players only need to activate it by hand to attack others. Lunar must have found them before the reveal and took advantage of their abilities to trap his opponents like that."

  "Wow... And gross... Don't tell me he's going to use them to..."

  "Not exactly. If what the other players said is right, they only meant to aid the players to snare the others, but never killing them since it's against the rules," Hiromi explained. "If they want a kill, they just need the hazards to trap their opponents so they can deal the final blow to them. He barely used them for a minute, and he managed to master them in seconds."

  Lyco nods. "Yep, that's our resident walking library for you. He always has a way to use everything as his weapon."

  Upon seeing the vine next to the [Insignis] fighter, the twin daggers guy, Dale grits his teeth and twirls his twin daggers. "So you're using hazards this early? Too bad that's your downfall!"

  He then swings one of them near my neck. I managed to back away with only a graze, but I didn't expect him to use a skill while being stabbed.

  "You dumb*ss! Do you expect me to go down while I was stabbed?! I'm wearing chain mail for that moment!" He starts rushing towards me with a grin. "Now you're dead!"

  I can see he's about to use another after his last skill's cooldown. But there's no way for me to let him attack again.

  "[Claw Grab]!"

  I quickly use my [Claw] skill to grab his face like last time. But rather than burning his face like I did with poor Waz, I have a better finishing blow for him.

  "[Claw Sharpening]."

  I let my claws glow white, and I raise my other hand towards Dale.

  "W-Wait, what the h*ll are you doing?!" He started screaming. "No, wait! Don't do this! I have a wife and kids!"

  I roll my eyes at that dumb and overused excuse. "Why don't you use that while you're being threatened for real? Until then..."

  I swing my arm and let my claws do the rest on his neck.

  "Throw your dumb complaints about the rules to the devs and mods."

  One down, one to go. Of course, I realized too late that his partner had already freed himself as I saw his shadow and looked up to see him dropping down with his longsword. Thankfully, it's only a basic slash, so I jump back and let him crash into the ground to create another crater.

  "You sneaky b*st*rd. Do you think you're gonna get away with this?!" Dudley shouted. "You're not gonna leave here alive once I'm done with you!"

  "I was about to say the same to you," I crack my knuckles with a grin flashing on my face. "You should be worrying more about your current placement in the event."

  I can tell from his twitching eyes that I might have struck a nerve on his ego.

  "You are dead! [Cross Slash]!"

  Yep, I was right with a cross-shaped slash coming towards me. Thankfully, it's easy for me to dodge as I jump away from the beam and run towards him while he's on cooldown.

  "[Wild Barrage]!"

  As the skill name says, this lets me unleash a flurry of claw scratches at my enemy with a random number of attacks between 5 to 10. It has a large cooldown compared to my low-level [Claw] skills. But it's worth it if I want to finish an opponent without relying too much on my [Lycan] skills. Eventually, I stop at 8, and I see his [HP] down to 0.

  "D-D*mn it... If only that b-"

  That's the only thing I heard from him before he disappeared from the arena.

  If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  And that's another two in the bag. I can't believe these [Remote Vines] and [Berry Traps] really helped me a lot here. With the location reveal, I can lure a bunch of newbies in and clear them out in one sweep. The only downside is that I can only use them in the jungle biome for 30 minutes, so I have to use them sparingly. Not only that, there's a chance some players already saw through my trap from afar. If I want to thin the herd, I need to use them immediately and move on to the next. In the meantime...

  "Hey! I saw some people fighting over there!"

  "Hurry! Someone has already defeated two players before us!"

  I have a lot of cleaning up to do.

  Damn... That guy never ceases to amaze us. First, he took out the pros. Then he mastered the hazards in a short period. Now I'm seeing him decimate a lot of players, ambushing them after that fight with those turncoat players.

  Lyco wasn't kidding when he said he researched a lot about [Isekai] for his guides. At this rate, he might become one of the top rankers before he knows it. But he might also create new enemies out of jealous players, not just the Vipers. Either way, I begin to have hope for this crazy guy.

  "Oh man! I don't want to see this!" Nelli screams as she tries to cover her eyes. "But I can't cause I will miss Lunar-sama's handsome face!"

  And I'm beginning to fear Nelli's mental state. She's starting to call him with a Japanese pronoun already. And as much as I want to watch the carnage, I notice something suspicious on the central street. I see the robed man again. This time, he's eyeing me and my sister with his auburn eyes shining like yellow. I have a feeling we might bite off more than we can chew. But since he's our target, I have no choice but to let him gain his attention on us. And with the right timing...

  "And oh lord, look at the bodies disappearing one by one!" Venus's voice rang out from the stream. "Looks like they can't handle Lunar's vine trap combo after all! That just leaves only 183 players on the board! It seems like no one is stopping the underdog of at the moment! But with the 30-minute mark about to end, how will he fare against the guilds and parties joining the arena event? Since no one dared to attack the Bear Slayer, let's go over to the members of [Force Blade] at the moment..."

  Nelli stretches her arms out with a big grin. "I still can't believe Lunar-sama managed to defeat all of those players with his wits and bare hands! And he didn't use any magic this time, too!" She holds both hands on her cheeks with a grin. "Aah~ If only Lunar-sama jumps in to save me, he might become my monk in shining armor!"

  I raise my eyebrow at the sight of my sister swooning at a guy who once called a "lousy player" before Lyco approaches me.

  "Are you sure you didn't tell her that's Lowry?" He whispered.

  "Just let her have this moment," I whispered back. "We don't want to give her a shock this early in the event."

  But fawning Lunar aside, I take another glance at the robed man, and it seems like he's leaving his seat the moment we get up after the stream. Looks like he's making his move.

  "Hey, Nelli. Why don't we check out at other shops at the moment?" I suggest with a cheery facade. "I've been craving choco chip brownies lately, and I want to try out that player stall before Lunar's feed gets back."

  "Oh, no problem, sis!" Nelli answered while I try not to flinch at the "S" word. "Lyco, you don't mind checking in to see if Lunar-sama comes back, right?"

  Lyco looks at me with a brief frown before he smiles back when he turns to Nelli. "Sure! I'll DM you when he gets back on stream."

  "Good. Let's go, sis."

  With that, I left Lyco at the bakery as we headed off to the stalls. While I didn't say anything to Lyco, it only took a DM notif to see his answer.

  [

  Be careful, Romi. I don't know if I can do double-duty with Lunar's feed and being your cavalry. But I have a bad feeling about that NPC.]

  I share the same sentiment, Lyco. Nelli might be damn annoying. But if he dares to touch her hair, I'm gonna kill him.

  I sighed in relief. I've been repeating myself over and over after I fought them, but just how many newbies did they allow in this event at all? I'm surprised they managed to reach Level 15 at one of their [Masteries]. Still, not all of them are incompetent, as they tried to be careful not to exceed the 10-person team-up clause. If anything, they made up for their lack of PVP experience with teamwork and strategy, with some veteran players by their side. If it wasn't for my traps, I wouldn't be able to survive their onslaught in seconds.

  But it's already passed the 30-minute mark, and the time limit of my traps is starting to expire. I need to move to another biome soon, before another 20 minutes reveal my location again. I can't use the same strategy, so using other hazards should be enough to throw them off my game.

  Rustle...

  Huh? I thought I heard someone was about to make an ambush just now. But when I turn to the source of the noise, I see nothing. Odd... Did I just imagine it?

  No way... I'm mentally exhausted from many players trying to jump on me. I should move immediately before I end up being paranoid over everything.

  I said my farewells to my trap friends before I ran off to another biome.

  What I didn't know at that time was that someone was watching me. But he didn't choose to ambush me for a reason I couldn't believe.

  ...I begin to regret using desserts as an excuse.

  Before I know it, I end up with two boxes of brownies in my inventory while Nelli ends up with two boxes of red velvet cake slices and three boxes of brownies of different assortments. I get she is gluttonous with sweets, but I didn't expect her to take advantage of the game's realistic taste to try so many sweets available here!

  "Hehe~ Aren't you glad you're shopping with your good ol' sister? It's not the same without you in real life."

  The only reason why I didn't shop with her is that she keeps buying dresses and skirts that I don't like! And even if I tried to tell her, she would be too stubborn to listen anyway! Regardless, the shopping is a good excuse for us to separate from the crowd for a while. Because while Nelli is busy picking out a lot of brownies, I notice the same robed man from before is still following us from behind. I didn't do anything to put him on a wild goose chase, thanks to my sister. But since he looked a bit impatient, I think I should end this and confront the target by myself.

  "Uh, yeah. It seems like we're a bit far away from the bakery now." I pretended to look around until I "found" an alley nearby. "How about we take that as a shortcut?"

  Nelli then squints her eyes to see the said "shortcut". "In that dinky alley? No thanks!"

  "But if we take it, we might be able to rejoin Lyco and get to Lunar's next fight in time!"

  Please take the bait!

  "Really?! Then let's go~!"

  Thank god, she took it. This way, I can lure the NPC away from the crowd to avoid any potential hostages. Now all that's left is to confront that bastard.

  "Are you sure this is a shortcut, sis? It seems too long and wide to be one."

  I'm afraid she's right. The moment we enter the alleyway, my eyes widen to see how long this path is. I get this is a virtual road, but there is no way a town alleyway is this big! Thank god for mini-maps to save the day, but Nelli doesn't know that yet. So I'll take advantage of her obliviousness for the confrontation.

  "Yep! I know my way around town, so just follow me and you'll be okay," I assured her while keeping my eye on my mini-map.

  "Okay... But I don't like it when you..."

  [Excuse me, ladies.]

  We quickly turn around once we hear the snake's voice. So he did follow us. Guess I'm more of a psychic than Lunar and Lyco are.

  "And who are you exactly?" I asked the robed man. "Our parents taught us not to talk to strangers. So I suggest you buzz off before we call the town guards."

  "Yeah, yeah! How can we trust a creepy guy like you?!" Nelli jumped in without my consent, as usual.

  [Relax... I'm not here to rob you. Rather, I'm here to offer something grand,] the robed man said with a sneer enough to shake my boots. [Besides, I can tell you two are strong adventurers of your own right.]

  Well, he's not wrong. But I still have a bad feeling about him.

  "And what's it to you?" I asked aggressively. "What makes you think we're working for you? We only take [Quests] at the guild or from the townsfolk who got their official permission from them."

  [Because this one is not like any [Quest] than you girls imagined. I mean, from the way you dressed, I would have mistaken you two as dainty maids from the bakery.]

  "Dainty maids"?! This a- GAHHH!

  If Lunar and Lyco didn't allow me to kill this guy with my dagger, I would have cut his throat now.

  "Well, you can just forget it a-"

  "Hiromi! That's not nice of you!" Nelli interrupted. "He looks kind of scary, but there's no way he can hurt us. Besides, I feel like he needs our help."

  Oblivious Nelli strikes again. Although this time, she managed to stop me from being hasty here. I still need to gather information as per their request. Might as well follow her advice.

  "Fine, I'm sorry. What do you want from us?"

  The man starts snickering after I respond. [Well, have you gals heard of a certain forest not far from ?]

  A forest? Wait, is he trying to offer us to...

  "And what kind of forest is it, sir?" Nelli asked.

  [A forest called the .]

  Luna... No way...

  [And I want you girls to raid through it and bring back its glorious treasures to us.]

  Before I knew it, a notification and prompt appeared in my HUD.

  Dammit, Lunar... What kind of messed-up [Quest] did you rope me into this time?!

  Christine Luu, then check out my for advanced chapters and bonus content not found in the main stories.