Chapter 159 – Catch it or Be Caught (2)

4.

“Do you know the Watchman Style?”

A User wearing the Hahoe Mask asked the question.  He was standing with his sword resting on his shoulder.  Instead of an answer, the magician unfurled his middle fingers to flip him off.

The User wearing the Hahoe Mask snorted at the magician's response.

Poohk!

The magician sat on the floor with a mocking smile on his face.  Hyrkan stabbed his sword through the magician's chest.

After being stabbed by the sword, the magician fell backwards.  When the back of the magician touched the ground, the sword embedded itself deep into the ground.  The sword in the magician's chest took root.

When the magician was pierced by the sword, he didn't react in any way.  He wasn't dead, but he was basically like a corpse.

Forced Logout.

Hyrkan had the pleasure of watching the magician's death live, and the magician had given a token resistance.  Hyrkan gave him what he deserved.

Poohk, poohk!

He gave the body just enough damage that it would kill the magician.  He didn't abuse the corpse in anger.

After finishing his hunt, Hyrkan immediately became a hyena.  He searched the magician's body then he took the wristwatch.

He put the Items into the Black Box, which he had strapped on like a backpack.  A variety of consumable Items and four wristwatches was inside the box.

‘This brings the total number up to five.’

Hyrkan added the 5th wristwatch into the Black Box.  

Instead of moving on to his next target, he let out a long sigh.  It was the first time he had let one out since the mess had started.

The sigh was like a comma that allowed him to take a breather from the commotion.

After Anugas made its appearance, everything had turned into a perfect shit storm.  The Big smiles and the Clover unit decided to spread out in all direction to catch Hyrkan.

They had realized that a battle with Anugas was impossible.  A one-sided slaughter awaited them if they faced Anugas.  They came to this realization when 2 Strikers, who represented the Clover unit was killed, and RootBeer lost his left arm in his escape.

Afterwards, Hyrkan immediately recovered the Black Box he had left behind, and he flipped roles by becoming the hunter.

Hyrkan wasn't gracious enough to let go of opponents, who had messed with him.

This was something beyond being greedy for wristwatches and loots.  They dared to push Hyrkan into the brink of suffering a Game Over.  Hyrkan had to retaliate in such a way that they would never forget about crossing him.

However, it was time for him to end his quest for retribution.

‘If I do more than this, I'll get caught by Anugas.  That'll be the end of me.’

Hyrkan checked the status of his magic.  Currently, his magical energy was recovering.  It meant that the open-eyed Anugas wasn't nearby.

However, this didn't mean Hyrkan could be at ease.  There was always the possibility of Anugas tracking him with its eye closed.  While its eye was closed, its Special Ability didn't activate.  Anugas' ability only manifested when it was about to appear in front of the target it tracked down.

Basically, it was too late when one's magic disappeared.

Hyrkan clicked his tongue.

‘This is why I hate illusion type monsters.’

Illusion Type.

It was a new type of monster, which appeared in the Black Continent, in the Ruined Kingdom Episode.

Illusion.

It is as the word said.  The body of the monster that one could see wasn't the real body.

If one delved deeper into the background story, one would find that these monsters were created artificially.  A dragon used its power in the distant past to create an army as a means to defeat an ancient kingdom.  Anugas was a member of the Dragon's army.

The Frost Knight and the Blaze Slime Dragon were similar type monsters.

One of the biggest characteristic for this Illusion type monsters was the fact that they could ignore the constraints of terrains.

The most classic case of this feature being used was the Blaze Slime Dragon.  When the Blaze Slime Dragon was at a disadvantage, it gave up on its territory.

In the case of Anugas, it moved in a shape that others couldn't see, and it appeared only when a battle had started.  Moreover, there were those that could swim through the ground as if it was in an ocean, and some monsters could even ride a shadow.

This was obvious, but even if monsters had the same Spec, the difficulty level depended on the Illusion type monster's special characteristic.  The difference in difficulty could be night and day.

Basically, all the past experiences regarding hunting monsters were useless here.  If one exaggerated the situation a little bit, one could say the Users were facing a situation akin to what they faced in the beginning of the game.

On top of it all, Anugas was the most difficult Illusion type Boss Monster.

‘Of all the monsters, why did Anugas have to show up?  I'm pretty sure it isn't suppose to come out at this point in the game.’

“Hoo-ooh!”

Hyrkan once again let out a sigh.

It wasn't a sigh of relief that came from his life having been spared.

‘Ah.  This is driving me nuts.’

It was a sigh in regards to the horrible reality he would have to face.

5.

‘How could things get fucked up so badly?’

Sinclair had received live reports as the events occurred.  When he once again summarized the situation, Sinclair was baffled.

‘Were we unlucky?  Or was this also a ploy that was pulled off by the Hahoe Mask?’

The Hahoe Mask was the biggest fish amongst the big fishes, and the opportunity to catch him was right in front of their noses.  He had thought it would be safe to say the fish had been caught.  Basically, the hook had been dislodged from the fish's mouth, and the only thing left was to take a commemorative photo.

He received a live report stating RootBeer and the Hahoe Mask was exchanging blows, and the team was in position to attack.  Sinclair made a fist.  He had jumped the gun, and he had already started his victory ceremony.  He thought he had it in the bag.

However, it was all ruined when the bastard called Anugas suddenly made an appearance.

‘I know there are a lot of unreasonable monsters out there, but....’

Anugas had appeared alongside Hyrkan.  Sinclair spent more time in the game of Warlord than reality, yet he was having a hard time judging the capabilities of this monster.

It could hunt down its prey without showing any outward signs.  When it appeared, it  pretty much nullified the nearby Users' magic, magic recovery and the effects of the magic recovery Items.  

It had a terrifying Special Ability!

They had been very fortunate in the fact that only 7 members from the Clover unit and Big Smiles guild members had died.

Sinclair was now able to organize his thoughts after seeing Anugas' Special Ability, yet he couldn't come up with a plan to defeat the monster.

‘So this is what they meant when they coined the term Over Balancing......’

Sinclair had immediately sent a short report in regards to the Special Ability of Anugas to his superiors.  During their last exchange, he was ordered not to go after Anugas.

In truth, even if he had been ordered not to do so, Sinclair wouldn’t have wanted to fight this monster.  Moreover, Sinclair didn't think there was any User in Warlord, who could kill this monster.

Even the Hahoe Mask had run away from Anugas.  Unfortunately, the Clover unit got caught up in this mess.

At that moment, Sinclair's thoughts on what he would do changed.

To be precise, his orders had changed.

‘Still, this might be to my benefit.’

He needed to research it further, but he had discerned that Anugas used the Heard Fortress as its base.

This was only a conjecture, but there was a high probability that the Heard Fortress would become the first foothold within the Black Continent once Anugas was killed.  

Basically, the Black Continent will continue to be a harsh stage.  It won't allow the Users to progress in the game comfortably unless Anugas was killed.  

At the same time, it seemed inevitable that the Users would become stalled in front of Anugas.  It would be the start to a gridlock.

In this process, the ones that would gain the most would be the 5 guilds, who were trying to monopolize the Black Continent.

Currently, the influence of the 5 guilds were absolute in the Black Continent.  In such a situation, Anugas would make this place a birdcage with no exit. Basically, the other Users in the Black Continent was like rats in a hole.

Moreover, the rat he wanted to catch the most was within this hole.

‘We've located the location of the Stormhunters guild.  For the near future, the Hahoe Mask will probably operate out of the newly opened region. If I want to catch him, I'll be able to.’

He had failed in catching the Hahoe Mask this time, but while Anugas was still alive, he'll be able to attack the Hahoe Mask as many time as he wanted.

Sinclair had work to do now.

- Do you know the Watchman style?

Hahoe Mask's voice flowed out from the video at that moment.  It was a footage sent by a fallen User affiliated with the Clover unit.  

Of course, this was all coincidences.

Sinclair put on a big frown when faced with such coincidences.

‘I'll kill you no matter what, Hahoe Mask.’

6.

The coffee made by the capsule coffee machine was overflowing with flavor, yet he dropped grape candies into it.  Ahn-jaehyun brought the coffee cup to his mouth as he looked at the 6S V-Gear he purchased recently.  The machine was quite splendid.

This item was many times more expensive than the security deposit of his one room apartment.  This caused the installation engineers, who had come to install the 6S Model V-Gear, look at him with great suspicion.

“Fuck.”

Even as he looked at the V-Gear, cuss words roughly came out of his mouth.  Maybe it was thanks to the luxurious coffee, but his mouth was filled with the smell of coffee as he let out a torrent of swear words.  

Anh-jaehyun didn't have a deep understanding about the flavors of coffee, and he didn't have the presence of mind to pay attention to such things.

‘How did everything get so tangled up?’

Ahn-jaehyun sipped his coffee.  His expression expressed more than anger.  It looked as if he was about to cry.

The reason being...

‘Catch it or be caught.’

The position he found himself in right now was the cause of these emotions.

Of course, the root of his worries was Anugas.

His life was saved thanks to Anugas.  However, he wasn't in a situation where he could celebrate this fact.

Anugas had appeared as the boss of the Heard Fortress.

He couldn't turn the Heard Fortress into a foothold until he killed Anugas. He had to kill the bastard, then he had to go to the ravine that was located beyond the Heard Fortress...   

If he was successful, he would be able to walk past the Block Field .

Anugas wasn't simply a stumbling block.  It was an obstructor that prevented the Users from progressing along the road.

If he wasn't able to catch Anugas, the group of Users on his tails would catch up to him.  Ahn-jaehyun would be caught.

He had to catch it or he’ll be caught.

‘Why the hell is Anugas showing up at this point in time?  He shouldn't be out yet.’

In truth, Ahn-jaehyun hadn't been able to predict this.

To his knowledge, Anugas appeared about 2 months after the Blaze Slime Dragon was caught.  At the time, the Users were near level 230 when they faced Anugas.  The Users were able to somewhat acclimatize to the Black Continent as they went through a big Spec Up using the 2nd Advancement and the Ancient Power.

Despite all of this, it hadn't been easy to take down Anugas.

Ahn-jaehyun could clearly remember the result.

‘Sweepers, Red Bulls and the Triple Wing....  The three of them had to team up to take it down.’

The Sweepers guild boasted the strongest magical fire power amongst the 30 great guilds.  The Red Bull possessed many Tankers.  Then there was the Triple Wings, who possessed a massive number of guild members on par with the Big Smiles guild.  The combined forces of these 3 guilds failed twice, and the prior failed experiences were the foundation in how they succeeded in their third Raid attempt.

‘Is it a Balancing error?’

The appearance of Anugas meant the Warlord's game system thought this was the right time for this Boss Monster to show up right now.

From Ahn-jaehyun's perspective, it didn't make sense for it to show up right now.

‘Then there's the appearance of Frost and Fire, which are Mythos rank powers...  The events that should be happening couple months in the future are happening consecutively right now.’

Ahn-jaehyun shook his head from side to side, and his glasses went askew.  Ahn-jaehyun repositioned his glasses.

However, Ahn-jaehyun didn't have the luxury to worry and ponder about the Warlord's system.

The core issue hadn't change.

If he wasn't able to catch Anugas, Hyrkan would be caught.

Who'll catch him?  

He'll be caught by the 5 guilds, which included V&V and the Big Smiles guild.

The Hahoe Mask had already confirmed their intention with his body.  Moreover, he had felt the might of the people gunning for him.

The Clover unit was strong.  If it hadn't been for Anugas, Ahn-jaehyun would be drinking alcohol instead of coffee right now.

Still, it would be impossible to operate in the Black Continent with Anugas on the loose.  The raw number of members brought over by the 5 guilds into the Black Continent was too much.

‘If someone else can catch it....’

Of course, he could evade danger until someone else took down Anugas.  This was one of the options he could choose.

‘·····but it is unlikely.’

However, this wasn't the answer either.

One needed the 30 great guilds to step forward if one wanted others to catch Anugas.  However, there hadn't been many of 30 great guilds, who chose to enter the Black Continent right now.  Most of the forces in the Black Continent was from the 5 guilds, who had allied with each other.  The other 30 great guilds lost the motivation to cross when they saw the queue they’ll have to wait out until they’ll be able cross the Voodook's tunnel.

‘The 5 guilds don't have the incentive to catch Anugas right now.’

It was actually beneficial for the 5 guilds to leave Anugas in place.  Their first mission would be to take out the Hahoe Mask and the Stormhunters guild, who will eventually become trouble in the future.  Moreover, they would be easier to catch than Anugas.

Then there was the last option.

‘If it's the Stormhunters.....’

The Stormhunters guild also had some staying power here.  They had enough forces to attempt the Anugas raid, and they had enough power to have a chance of winning.

‘If it's the crazy bitch, she would try it.’

On top of everything, the one leading the guild was the Storm Queen Shir.  Even Ahn-jaehyun considered her to be a crazy bitch.  If she had a bone to pick, she would fight even if the battle looked impossible.

However, Ahn-jaehyun didn't consider the probability of her succeeding the Anugas Raid to be high.  

Unless Ahn-jaehyun told them how to clear this Raid, the probability of them succeeding was in the single digits.

“Fuck.”

At that moment, a cuss word came out again from Ahn-jaehyun's mouth.

This wasn’t a cuss word that came out because the series of worries he had.

In truth, it was an attempt for him to avoid reality.

Ahn-jaehyun had only one answer he could choose.

Catch, or be Caught

Ahn-jaehyun didn't plan on being caught.  He'd rather die at the hand of Anugas than be killed by the 5 guilds.

There was only one answer left.

“This fucking game.”

Ahn-jaehyun started a simulation of the Anugas raid inside his head.

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