Nico stepped inside the dark hall with his hands in his pockets, his expression calm but unreadable.
Lindsey approached him and apologized. "I was one of the few they caught early on... I fucked up."
"Yeah, and you won't make the same mistake again," Nico admitted as he began regrouping with the others. "Also, I should've planned as your leader."
"What can we do, Mr Nico?" the blonde woman, Carla, inquired worriedly.
"The plan doesn't change. If anything, I should've considered the odds of us starting as the runners," explained Nico.
"Just do as we discussed earlier on, and we'll win this. I won't let you die; not when you're under my leadership."
A few players smiled softly and nodded while the others simply looked at Nico, doubt still very clear in their eyes.
His calm demeanour may have ensured their success and guaranteed their safety, but Nico was pressured with each passing second.
Ace's team wasn't so convinced about his leadership. They chuckled as they watched the exchange between Nico and his group, feeling relieved that they joined Ace instead.
"It'll be bad if the losers die, won't it, Ace?" one of the ponchos teased, his voice hoarse and confident.
Ace nodded. "The Blood Fiend would've made a good soldier for Genesis. His skill is a natural gift. Too bad the boss will never get to see it for himself."
***
Nico and his team stood behind the closed doors of the hall, waiting for the headstart timer to finally go off and allow them to tag the other team.
Lindsey looked at Nico and felt confused. "How are you so composed? What if we fail again?" she whispered.
"Second time's the charm," he casually replied.
He turned to face Lindsey and smiled softly, making her eyes widen while her heart fluttered.
"The least we can do is try. It's better than doing nothing, that's for sure."
Lindsey knew he was right.
She would feel a whole lot better knowing that she did her best to contribute to winning than sitting down.
The girl clenched her fists, determined to tag as many players as she could, and focused up.
「TAG, YOU'RE IT!」
The system blared as the doors opened, allowing Nico's group to split in two:
While Nico had 3 of the fastest players with him, Lindsey had 3 of the strongest players with her and an additional runner.
They split into teams of two and ran in opposite directions.
Once 30 seconds had passed, bright white lights shone through the sky, signalling where their first victims would be.
Nico went onto the rooftops and got the jump on one of the players, knocking him out with a swift punch to his head.
Nico grabbed his wrist and swiped his beads against the player, turning them white.
「1 / 9 players tagged」
Ace scoffed as he saw the screen in the sky. Then, his eyes widened.
A second player had been tagged once again, with little breaks being spared.
'How? It's only been 30 seconds!' Ace wondered as he began running as well.
A little over 3 minutes remained and 5 players had been tagged, pressuring Ace with each corner he took to hide.
He began panicking, his heart pounding as he scanned his surroundings. In only a short amount of time, Nico's team tagged more than half of his team.
After some time, he saw Nico's team towering above him on the rooftops of the houses, their shadows looming on Ace's shallow form and even more shallow ego.
Nico and his team ran towards Ace, who put his fists up, preparing himself for a fight.
Oddly enough, they completely ignored him, ran past him and continued searching for the other players, all of them moving as a single unit.
"What... the fuck?" Ace pondered as he turned around to find them seeking out the other players instead of him.
「Time remaining: 3:00」
The beads around Ace's arm glowed white and shot a beam towards the sky, revealing his location.
A split second later, he felt an intense and agonizing pain directed at his manhood.
He groaned and gagged, his heart burning with confusion and anger before his body fell to its knees.
He slowly turned his head and Lindsey kicked him square to his nose, drawing blood and sending him rolling away.
「6 / 9 players tagged」
"Looks like Nico and the others managed to tag another," Carla affirmed as she walked toward Ace and swiped her beads against his, turning them white. "And, would you look at that? Now, we're tied, with more than 2 minutes to spare."
7 out of 9 players had been tagged.
'How...?!' Ace complained as he groggily stood up, trying to gain his composure.
Before he could, Lindsey punched him and landed more blows, sending him staggering back and forcing him to stand far from her.
"Lindsey..." he growled in a low voice.
"Sorry, Ace, but Nico said you're a virus. We can't let you go anywhere," Lindsey responded with a smile on her face.
Ace gritted his teeth and dashed towards Lindsey and her group, immediately brawling with them.
Meanwhile, Nico and his fast players charged towards the remaining players, who were scared shitless as they ran away.
Nico jumped off the rooftops and plunged his shoe straight into the man's back, making him groan as he fell to the ground.
Nico then grabbed him by the hair and forced his head onto the ground, spread his legs apart to hold his arms down and swiped his beads against his opponent's.
「8 / 9 players tagged」
The team was ahead, but they didn't stop there.
Lindsey's team finally left Ace and joined Nico as the bright white light displayed the last player's location.
All 9 players ran after him, making his eyes tear up and his heart to beat fast. "Stay away!" he exclaimed, his lungs burnt out from his loud voice.
Suddenly, Lindsey appeared in front of him and shoved him, causing him to fall.
Then, the whole team surrounded him, their eyes glaring daggers and instilling fear.
"Everybody wants to go to heaven, but no one wants to die," Nico said as he nonchalantly swiped his beads against the players, turning them white.
"It's over."
「9 / 9 players caught」
「Time remaining: 0:54」
「Team Vortex_7 wins the 4th Monthly Event!」
Ace's team began panicking and screaming from different parts of the game area, some crying while others, like Ace, silently cursed Nico.
Nico's plan was rather simple.
First, they would split into two groups, then hunt down the players one by one with higher numbers on their favour.
Nico took the fastest players so that he could cover more ground with them and find the fastest players on Ace's team.
While that was happening, Lindsey's team hunted down the slower but stronger players.
How were they able to deduce who was stronger? The order in which Ace recruited them.
Excluding Ace and his 2 goons, Nico noticed that Ace approached the stronger players and worked his way down.
The stronger a player was in Ace's team, the slower he was, and visa versa.
After taking down 4 players, the two teams joined up whenever they could and hunted the players together, narrowing down their options while saving time.
"You're a genius, Nico!" Lindsey exclaimed with a smile on her face.
"I second that. I doubted you at first, but you're a natural-born leader," Daniel added.
"Oh, fuck no," Nico said in distaste. "Never say dumb shit like that again."
Before the team could celebrate, thin, red beams appeared and landed on Team Ace's foreheads.
Ace scoffed as he sat on the road, his fate already sealed.
'Not bad, Blood Fiend. Not bad at all...'
A few seconds after the beams landed on their foreheads, their heads popped open, spewing blood and brain matter all over the area.
Carla clutched her stomach and vomited while Daniel rubbed her shoulder.
One player tried to hold her lunch, but failed and choked on her vomit, sobbing loudly afterwards.
Lindsey felt sick but was used to seeing players dying in unusual ways. Then, she glanced at Nico.
His face was stone cold, but he hated what he saw.
A piece of a player's brain hit him on the side of his cheek, his nose was immediately hit with the smell of grated metal and blood.
It was a bloody mess.
「-GAME EVENT: TAG- COMPLETED
—DIFFICULTY: D-Rank—」
「The losers have received heaven's judgement, the cleansers have been rewarded, the righteous have been saved」
「Rewards:
1. æ900,000 ÷ 9 = æ100,000 coins
2. Stat increase points: 81 ÷ 9 = 9
3. Random Rune Stone (C-rank)
4. Random Loot Box」
「Bonus Rewards
1. æ450,000 ÷ 9 = æ50,000 coins (time completion)
2. æ450,000 ÷ 9 = æ50,000 coins (players tagged)」
「Level Up! +3 stat increase points」
「Level Up! +3 stat increase points」
「Level Up! +3 stat increase points」