Infinite Realm

'He's already dead.' The [Cleric] thought as he sent an eye back at Sato.

He had guessed that Sato's main target would be the [Assassin] as that was the only player capable of tracking him down. While the others might seem like a hindrance, they really weren't; killing them would only depend on Sato's mood and the [Cleric] hoped that his mood was great.

[[ System notification :

You have attacked a player. Killing them would incur certain penalties. ]]

[[ System notification :

You have killed a player. Your name tag and marker would be tainted by the hatred and animosity of the player. ]]

Watching the other two flee with their tails tucked in between their legs as notification after notification appeared on his interface, Sato spared them a glance no more as he set out back on his route to town. This time though, he decided to take a different and longer path, not only because of the red name that he had to clear off but also because his position was currently compromised.

A while later, Gordon alongside the two other players he departed with had intercepted the [Cleric] on their way to the previous location.

"Hey, stop." Gordon said with an authoritative tone as he spotted the [Cleric].

'Fuck, who the heck are these guys?' The [Cleric] thought.

The guild feature wasn't available to players yet so Gordon and his teammates didn't have any emblem or uniform related to Emperor's Might that would aid the [Cleric] in recognizing them. Also, being a member of a super guild didn't mean that you would become popular; only the top ranking members and core members were. Gordon and his teammates however, belonged to none so the [Cleric] didn't know they were and presumed them to be a solo team.

The [Cleric] had actually wanted to escape but as he saw the lineup of the party, he dumped the idea. There was no way he could outrun them.

"May I ask what you gentlemen need?" The [Cleric] asked nicely.

"You're the one who sent us the information right? Clean Hands?" Gordon asked.

"Yes, that's me." The [Cleric], Clean Hands, replied as he sighed with relief. He had initially thought that they were a bunch of robbers or maybe even dark players whose markers had cleared up. Realising that he was wrong and that they were the reinforcements his team weer supposed to wait for, Clean Hands was instead relieved.

"You claimed to have spotted the target. So, where's he?" Gordon went straight to the point. 

Gordon was doubtful that they had actually found Sato and seeing Clean Hands haggard appearance, his doubts became more solid. T this point, Gordon didn't have any hope that Clean Hands had seen Sato; he just wanted to be done with this and return back to town.

Clean Hands sighed as he put on a sullen expression before replying " He escaped."

"Hmph." 

Hearing that, one of Gordon's teammates looked at Clean Hands with irritation, looking almost as if he would tear him apart at any second. The other player had already placed a hand on hilt, waiting for the command to cut Clean Hands to pieces.

While Riverdale town was the closest town to Stone Creek Forest, it still took an hour by foot to make it. In order to prevent a situation where the target would escape before they made it in time, Azure Dragon had brought out some funds for the hunt and that included transportation fees. Gordon and his teammates had spent part of their allocated money on a carriage to make it here and while it wasn't exactly theirs, they were irked that they had spent it on a wild goose chase.

'They don't believe me.' Clean Hands discerned immediately. 

"You do now the penalty for a false alert, right?" Gordon said with an intimidating tone.

"I know you guys might think that I'm a telling the truth but I have evidence; a video." Clean Hand replied.

"Ha! A video huh? Bring out and let's see it." The player who had his hand on his sword's hilt said with derision. 

They had already seen tons of doctored tapes with Sato's face on it but the guild had deployed specialists to go through every video just to realise that it was fake. The [Swordsman] thought the same of Clean Hands' video so he wanted to check it out.

Without wasting much time, Clean Hands sent the video to the trio.

"How is it?" Gordon asked the last player in his group. 

The young man was one of the video-analyzing experts the guild had called to check the so called evidence that would be handed to them by different players.

"It's doesn't look fake and looks more real than the others. I will have to check with the proper equipment later on. But for now, I'd say it's either a really good doctored vid or it's 80% real." The young man answered.

"Just to be safe, I will inform the captain." 

Though he sounded plain, Gordon became a bit hopeful that Clean Hands wasn't deceiving him. 

"In which direction was it?" Gordon asked.

"A few metres away from here. Right over there. I think he left for south from there." Clean Hands answered.

"Alright. Lead the way then." Gordon said as he stared at Clean hands.

'They're still suspicious of me. Oh well.'

"Alright. " Clean Hands nodded.

. . .

"An 80% possibility? Good enough." Black Tempest said right after he received the news. 

Unlike the others who would be more considerate and careful in their approach, Black Tempest was one who liked to go straight to the point. With an 80% chance of the video being real, he felt that there was no need to be prudent with more investigations.

"That's the highest we've had so far." A [Druid] by the side commented.

"Where do you think he's headed?" Black Tempest asked.

"Definitely a town. The question is which. But seeing as he was closer to Riverdale than the others, I think the answer is obvious." The [Druid] replied after some thinking. 

"However, chances are that this might be a diversion while he heads to either Black Mountain town or Salt Springs town. Especially the latter as it's the safest of the 3 towns. But even then, I advise that we shouldn't let our guards drop low. If he dared to attack the teams of both our guilds and Battle Wolves, he would not be scared of coming to either of the 2 towns controlled by the 2 guilds especially since towns are safe-zones." 

"If he dares show up, even if I will get penalized, I won't let him walk the streets of this town in open light.." Black Tempest narrowed his eyes.