Slicing through fruits, Ernest was trying to catch a break from coding. He was growing more and more frustrated with coding NPCs than hed like to imagine.
He had created the Npcs and had given them objectives, however, the Npcs kept on chasing eachother instead of the user. Which had to do with the fact tracing had to deal with moving object since he hasnt found a solution.
'304, 305, 306, 307—' and so on, was the routine hed grown used to.
As he was training, a loud noise erupted with a scream of a Middle aged man.
"Huh?" He stopped the game, someones getting attacked tonight it seemed.
He brought his wooden sword with him as he walked downstairs, activating a Spell Card to uncover a See through mechanism to the closed double door shop.
What he saw was... A man lied down on the floor.
'Oh, it was just a robber.' he sighed, lately there had been more robbers trying to get in his fathers shop.
Not that it really mattered, he simply used a Force Spell Card and forced the robber into a random alley.
'I swear my father has some unknown debt I dont know about.' he deactivated the viewing spell card he used and went back up.
Opening his Qi nao, he began to think of ways to create tracing npcs.
He opened a book and skimmed through some seals, in both the intermediate and advanced file.
A few hours later, before heading to bed. He managed to create something worth testing.
'One last test before going to bed.' he activated Parkour game and opened up the UI, there he saw different options on stages, building editing and finally, NPCs.
So far he had the basic [Chaser] Npc. He just chases the player down without any ability other than parkour.
"Start." He began to run the obstacle, running over one story buildings is scary but not as scary as the first one he did.
Then, all of a sudden, a black figure chased behind him. It had a humanoid body but devoid of any light. Just pure black.
Ernest ran through multiple obstacles, jumping over walls and sliding through gaps.
The Chaser was right behind him.
"Holy crap, your one fast guy." Ernest jumped and climbed a high wall. The figure did something Ernest didnt expect.
It jumped on the wall, kicked and jumped again to the other side before making another smooth kick to land on the high wall.
'Okay, I gave it some memory of game movements in my past life and it immediately does that. Well crap.' The chaser tagged Ernest and stopped him from moving.
"Its successful atleast, it continued pursuit even though I slid into buildings out of its site."
After testing multiple NPC games twice, which got himself caught in 2 minutes. He was glad with he progress he made.
They now followed the user only.
That was it, he decided to have a shower then rest.
_a few days passed by_
'There is an oldman following me.' He wasnt sure at first, but after taking a lot of turns around the town and still seeing him he was sure he was being tailed.
'okay, dont panic, we can deal with this.' is what he would like to say, if not for the twisting feeling of his stomach.
'Its fine, everythings fine, its a minor ache from not eating anything. Everything is fine.' He unknowingly stepped into a more crowded area.
His face lost color, his brows were drenched in cold sweat. His eyes were looking back and forth trying to find the old man.
'Its just your imagination yeah... Stop being such a sissy.' Ernest sighed out. It didnt help with his emotions.
He was walking to his fathers shop when, all of the sudden. The same old man he had been weary about. Was standing right there.
'Right... If that doesnt scream I am an assassin, I dont know what does.' He backs up slowly.
The old man noticed him. He began to move towards Ernest. His posture relaxed, his steps were silent.
'I pray, that this is an old master looking for a disciple. Not an assassin.' He began to sweat and lose hope for that prayer.
As the air grew Cold and his heartbeat began to rise.
He lost the sensation of the ground beneath him, he was sent by an unseen force.
'I passed by like 6 houses and how many damn trees!' Ernest latched onto a tree with his Qi strings. He felt the mysterious force disappear.
He landed near an empty field. His breathing was uneven as he assessed his surroundings.
A shiny glint flew directly at him, on instinct, he dodged the arrow aimed for his torso.
In his peripheral vision, a few black hooded figures blurred out from bush to bush.
His heart began to beat.
'an actualy arrow almost hit.' He didnt have time to think more. As after these thoughts a bunch of flying arrows came straight towards him.
With a powerful sprint, he began to evade. Thud after thud began to chase after gis running figure.
Activating his Qi Sense, he tried to locate where the attackers were.
'Damn it! I need to escape quick.' passing by a bush, he was frightened to see an arrow straight to his face.
'Sh¡T!' as the arrow was released, with a distance of only 3 meters. He would have been doomed.
His Qi sense picked it up, he felt his qi reflexively spread through out his body.
With a motion all too familiar with him, he slapped the arrow away.
Not knowing his next action, he simply ran into a direction.
Only one thing was on his mind, arrows.
"After him!" The bewildered leader ordered. He just seen something quite impressive.
'He managed to parry that shot, in clise range no less.' He began to rush after the kid. Followed by 4 other figures.
"Boss, that kid just dodged my attack." The one who shot, had a perplexed but thrilled tone.
"We couldnt tell, mind showing it to us again, Great Archer?" A sarcastic voice called out to the shooter.
"Stop hickering! The kids gaining ground!" A worried one said.
It was the truth, looking back at the kid. He saw him move through trees and rocky hills with lifts and pulls.
'Such mastery over escape techniques, this kid is good.' The leader fired another shot. Missing the shot with a point range difference from the kids face.
More shots fired, all hitting hard wood.
"Are you kidding me?!"
"He dodged my shot again HAHA!"
"Hes getting away!"
The leader couldnt help but curse himself. "That damn Monkey, After him!"
Ernest was practically internally crying. How had this happened to himself.
He felt like he had been running forever. The forest grew darker but he could see the town lights. He was nearby help, although he felt like the town couldnt do much for his predicament.
'my cards! Im dumb, I need those!' he ran with sudden vigor. His safety depends on him getting that damn Storage Card.
It wasnt a clean journey, as the hooded figures began to close in. Their shots getting more and more accurate. They even began to coordinate their attacks.
Dodging and parrying at the same time, Ernest just kept going and going.
Eventually, he reached the house. He began to feel his stomach twist as he thought of something.
'what if the old guy is still there?' He hoped not. It seems like fate decided to be merciful on him.
He was finally close enough to recall his storage card.
A brown bag came flying towards him. It was his storage bag for Spell cards he created.
'Summon.' he quickly summoned a card. Imbuing it with his Qi, as the arrows approached him. A barrier surrounded Ernest while sucking in surrounding Qi.
The Hooded figures looked in shock. 'This Kid is a Card User?' he sent another arrow at the shield, testing its durabilty.
The arrow bounced off like it was a feather. The shield was tougher than most sold in the market.
"All of you, attack from all angles." All 5 scattered into different places.
One North, South, East, West, and one running arround. Their shots fired as it surrounded Ernest.
'Damn it, anymore of my modified gathering Qi and my shield will become a dry zone.'
He couldnt place anymore Cards, as that would lead to depletion of Qi, making his cards deactivate.
With a quick inhale, he began to dodge. One arrow, another, two at once, four at once, multiple angles.
He dodged, and parried all incoming arrows. The longer this lasted, the more the hooded figures became shock. Especially the leader.
'This kid is beyond good, with pure skill alone hes managing to dodge and parry all these attacks!'
"Hahaha!" A laugh came from one of the hooded figures, it was filled with excitement and joy.
Ernest shuddered at the laugh as he continued to dodge. 'these psychos!'
Ernest didnt know how much he had dodged, it felt like hes dodged for a few minutes now.
Arrows littered the road, as Ernest visibly grew tired.
"Continue to push forth! Hes growing weaker by the second!" The leader ordered.
One of the hooded figures seemed to be on his last arrow, with what seems to be a sigh. He gathered a lot of Qi onto the tip of his arrow.
'Yeah, I aint parrying that one.' Ernest was suddenly trapped into a weird position.
'oh sh¡t!' The Qi powered Arrow was shot towards Ernest.
'Summon!' With a command, he gathered up 2 Shields. Both broke upon contact with the arrow.
And now, Ernest was tired and depleted from Qi.
His heart began to beat. Every second faster than it was before.
'Im so dead.'
The hooded figures breathed a sigh of relief. The one who shot the Arrow seemed to be breathing Heavily. The other 4 began to rush towards Ernest.
'What did I even do to deserve this, actually, nothing! What the heck. Who even are these people, and why did that old man even attack me!'
The hooded figures began to get closer and closer. Ernest could only watch as they approach.
"Finally, we caught the brat."
"Disappointing, your tired and cannot dodge my shots anymore."
"Tie him up before he pulls a bullcrap card from his storage. God knows what a Card Maker has in his sleeves."
As they began to tie Ernest up, footsteps could be heard.
It was a carriage, a familiar one.
A well dressed man came out of the carriage.
"Fine evening, gentlemen. Well, not so gentle when your treating a child like this are you?"
End chapter