Infinite Realm

"Ha...All I need to do should be to get past those guys and wreak havoc within the settlement." A player stared at the settlement from a distance while thinking up a plan to proceed with.

Looking at his leather based armour, one would easily surmise him as one of the lightweight classes [1]. With the absence of a bow or a staff, it could be concluded that he was an [Assassin], and indeed, he was. This was Tawaki, Emperor's Might's too ranking [Assassin] for this raid.

"No matter how good my abilities are, going in through the front gate while using [Fade] is still suicidal. The kobolds in front are most likely not for show. Making a scene at the front gate also wouldn't be enough...Hai~ Such a difficult task." Tawaki sighed.

"But the more difficult it is, the better." Tawaki licked his lips.

Emperor's Might might be the dream of all players, a super guild, but only those in the guild know the real truth. No matter the body or organization, the distribution of resources would always be limited for the majority and focused on the elites. Being one of the top ranking guilds in gaming history, Emperor's Might only accepted Experts and nothing less. With the constant passage of time, the amount of Expert rank players had increased by a lot and as a result of, the battle of resources became even more onerous as it became harder to prove one's self as the better candidate for resources. Everyone tried to make contributions in order to receive rewards or get access to the training facilities of the guild. No matter the choice, one wouldn't regret it at all.

As long as Tawaki performed well with this his task and the team succeeds in slaying the boss, his rewards wouldn't be little. If he even performs quite well in the boss fight, there might be a chance that he would be brought directly under Azure Dragon's care. At that time, his rank in the guild would soar past what it currently is. With the possibility of such a future in front of him, Tawaki decided to do all that he could to grab it.

"Alright. Let's begin."

Tawaki stood up from his hiding place and began approaching the kobold settlement at a cautious pace in fear of accidentally attracting any kobold's attention. His pace though, wasn't so slow as he had to time his actions well and attract the monsters towards the God's Retaliation crew right when Azure Dragon and the others have left a lot of space between them.

"If I'm correct, then it should be 7 minutes from now. 7 minutes, that's all I have got."

Tawaki sped up a but till he was just 200 metres away from the 'walls' of the kobold settlement. At this distance Tawaki felt that he won't be noticed by either the kobold guards or the boss. Even with a [Cloaking scroll], Tawaki tried to be as cautious as possible because his future in Emperor's Might was closely related to this mission.

'This fabrication looks so awful. There probably should be a loophole or something within. Hai~ I should have done this earlier.'

Tawaki began scanning the fence in an attempt to look for a hole or a broken down part to sneak in to the settlement.

As he was surveilling the fence, Tawaki noticed a shadow that was approaching from another direction. The shadow wasn't approaching him but the settlement. Tawaki reflexively hide himself, thinking it was a kobold, before sneaking out a bit to take a peek. He focused on the shadow of and was surprised at what he saw.

"That's...a player?!"

Tawaki couldn't believe what he was seeing but the result was clear. It was a player garbed in a black cloak. Because of the cloak, Tawaki didn't know who it was but from the physique of the creature and the green marker atop the individual, he was certain that it was a player.

'Who could it be? The God's Retaliation crew just recently arrived. They wouldn't be so dumb as to barge into the kobold encampment just like this.

"Then, is it a third party?"

Upon thinking of this, Tawaki's blood went cold wondering how the individual got past them but he eventually relaxed at that thought.

Each floor had between 5-9 Exit gates and each one lead to a different spot on the next floor. Emperor's Might had only used one of such Exit gates and arrived elsewhere. Even though Emperor's Might performed a few inspections, they couldn't keep the entirety of the 10th floor under radar. This was because the 10th floor was very big and with the little team members they had, they couldn't bear to spread themselves apart for supervisions. As such, it was quite possible for players to arrive at the 10th floor by using a different Exit gate from the one which Emperor's Might had used. The God's Retaliation team had most likely gotten their map from the same source as Emperor's Might hence the reason why they appeared at the spot Emperor's Might did before.

'But then, why is he dashing in like that? Don't tell me he/she thinks they can just rush in like that and defeat the boss?!' Tawaki stared ludicrously at the figure. He felt like the figure under the hood might be under the influence of some extremely strong drugs. However, instead of reporting this discovery, Tawaki decided not to because in his own idea, this player as doomed to die. Why bother stressing out Azure Dragon and the others when he could just sit down and enjoy the show.

Meanwhile, the figure in particular, didn't notice Tawaki. This was because he was paying full attention to the mission assigned to him. This figure was actually Lu Zhen.

Before the team proceeded with their plans, Sato had requested everyone to wear black cloaks and activate the privacy feature, shielding their facial features from being seen. This was because this plan of theirs would end up offending a lot of figures and one of them was a super guild. It was too early for them to clash with such a behemoth, even if it was just a branch. So, Sato decided that they do so while still keeping their identities a secret. Currently, there was no equipment or consumable known that could defy the shielding function of a black cloak, hence this idea was good.

No one disagreed with this and immediately donned a black cloak. As solo players, they all had at least one set of black cloaks just in case, so there was no problem with the plan.

In the mind of Tawaki, Lu Zhen looked like he was planning to dash into the kobold settlement and create a path of blood before facing the boss. Such a plan would be suicidal to anyone and this included Lu Zhen. In actual fact, Lu Zhen's mission wasn't that. Just like Tawaki, he was meant to sneak into the settlement and cause a lot of problems, before escaping with the aggro of the kobolds on him.

Usually, a normal [Assassin] would do things the sneaky way and try to find a loophole in the fence to get in, but Lu Zhen didn't want to do so. In his opinion, why go through all the stress when there's a front gate that's open?

When he was about a 100 metres from the gate, Lu Zhen immediately activated [Fade], going into stealth just before he entered the kobolds' sense range.

"What?" Tawaki was surprised. He never anticipated that the other figure was an [Assassin] since the person ran at a somewhat average speed. Seeing the character go into stealth, for an unknown reason, Tawaki began to have a strange foreboding.

With his stealth skill activated, Lu Zhen went past the kobold gurads without any problem. This wasn't just because of his stealth skill but also because of his level.

When faced against higher levelled monsters, the abilities of players face a regression due to the difference in strength. This was a common sense in VR fantasy gaming that everyone knew about. It was also because of this reason that Tawaki didn't dare to use stealth and proceed through the front gate. He was a level 7 [Assassin] and with the settlement being not only the resting place of the boss but also the HQ of the kobolds, he suspected that the guards were level 8 kobolds; possibly even being of the Elite rank. Adding the fact that his team had encountered level 9 monsters back at the 9th floors Exit gate, Tawaki wouldn't be surprised if the kobold guards were level 9 too. Against such a monster that was on alert, Tawaki didn't have much faith in getting past them, but Lu Zhen did. He was a level 8 [Assassin] and even if the kobolds were level 8 Elites or level 9 monsters, he could still get past them as long as he was cautious enough.

Once he went past the kobold guards, Lu Zhen stopped at a distance of 5 metres from the gate as he glanced at the kobold settlement with a feverish expression.

'From here on now, things become fun.'