Game’s Dogma

Handsome Scholar had quick reflexes from having trained hard in the army. Almost right when he landed, he pushed his buckler forwards. Even if he didn’t hit Mask, he’d block off his vision for an opportunity to break away.

Drako Yau ducked and evaded the buckler, exactly as Handsome Scholar had expected. He was just buying time after all.

What?

Even though Handsome Scholar couldn’t see it, he felt Drako Yau’s arm entangling his left arm, which wielded the buckler, like a snake. Drako Yau then released the blade in his other hand and chopped at Handsome Scholar’s throat with a knife-hand strike.

Handsome Scholar turned pale; it must hurt a lot if struck by the flaming knife-hand strike. He tried to break free, but Mask’s arm strangled him stiffly. He had never expected Mask to be so proficient in grappling range when he wielded the lengthy spear.

He’s too quick!

The knife-hand strike chopped down onto Handsome Scholar’s throat in a blinding flash of red—Weakness Exploit! Drako Yau pressed his advantage and wrapped his legs around Handsome Scholar like a tight clamp. Such were the ground grappling techniques from the ancient martial art, Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

Handsome Scholar struggled but could only flail his arms around in a futile attempt. Before his arms could even gain strength, Drako Yau would already block his movement with a simple push or tug.

Even Ichor Hon was taken by surprise by Drako Yau’s combat style, let alone Handsome Scholar. With his flaming fist raining down like meteors, Drako Yau pummelled Handsome Scholar’s face until he vanished in a flash of white.

Pzz…

A piston door opened up. Handsome Scholar sat up stark naked from the game pod, his eyes full of frustration.

I’m too weak.

He originally thought he could go against Mask using backward chaining, but it turned out that he was too naive. Once Mask changed his combat style, the so-called counter was already rendered useless.

Mask’s tactic against his “counter” could be summed up in one word—speed. His predictions were made based on the assumption that Mask would always attack his openings.

Mask’s answer to that was simple: “If you’re going to predict my moves, I’ll strike fast enough that you can’t.”

In their close-range melee which eventually turned into grappling, they were barely an arm’s length apart. Mask could punch as many as five punches in a second with all his buffs and attributes. Handsome Scholar was also unused to grappling-range combat, and that led to his defeat.

Looks like I’ve been obsessed with the wrong goal.

Handsome Scholar stood up and dried himself up with a tower as he made a wry smile. He had been too occupied with how to defeat Mask instead of honing himself—a stray path.

When I’m strong enough, I can naturally defeat Mask. Handsome Scholar closed his eyes. He could still see the flaming fists raining down upon him. Guess these fists will be showing up in my nightmares for a while…

Lothbrok calmly strolled past the trembling villagers without anyone sighting him.

He had the hidden class Silencer, which was similar to Assassin but pushing it even further. Silencers had higher Attack at the cost of low Defence and Health. Their lurking skills were of a higher tier compared to assassins, so he could walk in front of so many high-level NPCs without worry.

Of course, Drako Yau was an exception because he detected lurking players with airflow, temperature, and various other senses, an inexplicable feat to other players who relied on the game system.

Lothbrok hated Mask because Mask saw through his lurking. The blizz he felt from giving others the middle finger literally without them noticing was simply amazing.

Without wasting more time, Lothbrok started his search for the quest target: a young lady with black hair.

A young lady? All I see are aunties and grannies!

However, Lothbrok failed to notice a pair of purple pupils had already locked onto him in the shadows.

After snooping around the village for a while, Lothbrok saw a little girl running towards a small house while sobbing and stuttering, “Sis… Sis!”

Moments later, the wooden door swung open. A dazzling figure walked out of the house.

Lothbrok froze on the spot. The young lady wasn’t tall, but her proportions and physique were perfect. Her smooth skin had a healthy glow to it and her wavy black hair reached her slim waist, giving off a vague fragrance as it fluttered along with the breeze. With a gentle smile of a saintess, she knelt to the ground, embraced the little girl, and comforted her.

Lothbrok was completely stunned by the scene. Even famous actresses couldn’t rival the lady.

Beautiful… No, she’s perfect!

For the first time in his life, Lothbrok had regretted not studying hard in school. He hated himself for being unable to come up with the vocabulary to praise the lady.

While Lothbrok was awe-struck by the mysterious young lady’s charms, two bolts of purple cut through the air and smashed into his back. As if hit by a maglev truck, Lothbrok coughed up a mouthful of blood and had his lurk terminated.

The nervous villagers immediately rushed over upon hearing the explosion to find him lying on the ground. They yelled and swarmed him with their cooking knives, rakes, staves… anything that could be used as a weapon.

Lothbrok’s strength lay in his ability to deal burst damage when sneaking up on the enemy. He could even burst through Handsome Scholar’s tanky equipment and Health with a combo given the right circumstances.

However, open fights were not his trade when his survivability was even worse than assassins. Surrounded by so many Level 35 NPCs, it didn’t take long until he died to the enraged villagers.

The third wave was over.

Greenstone and Yim Ho had it easiest this time round. Goemon abandoned the quest after learning that Mask was clearing the quest, leaving Redhound behind.

Yim Ho was like an undying beast with Greenstone’s aid. Redhound also had his lurking advantage robbed by Greenstone’s needles, and he could only grit his teeth in resentment before he died.

They were back at the village centre, this time with one less member. Bloodless Bladester, Chau Yu, Greenstone, Drako Yau, and Yim Ho were the surviving members.

At just the third wave, they were already one man down. The quest was impossible to clear with seven more waves ahead of them. Even though Bloodless Bladester took down three enemies alone, no one bothered to ask him how he did it.

No one was in the mood for scheming among themselves now.

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-Salty​​​​​​​Tank

​​​​​​​14th March, 2020