Tired but happy, Zen was finally allowed to leave the paint gun arena and prepare lunch. Bolt and Yelena wanted to hold a face-to-face debrief, so the young chef logged out to meet them in the kitchen.
When he arrived at the kitchen, the invigilators weren’t the only ones waiting for him.“Lunch requests?” Zen asked, tying his apron before hungry assassins surrounded him.“Wanton noodles.”“Steak!”“Waffles and fried chicken!” “Double cheeseburger and nuggets.”“Saba fish, miso soup and rice.”“Beef stroganoff!”Flooded with lunch requests, Zen busied away while his party members and invigilators watched him. Thanks to their impressive aura, nobody else dared to enter the kitchen.Exchanging information about the event with Zen’s party members, Bolt also shared with them about the special stealth training.“Huh? You mean hLiu Feng’s training game of choice? Prop Hunt.It was vastly different from paint gun fights but ten times scarier. The rules of this game were simple. Zen had to hide in plain sight or camouflaged as an item in the hiding grounds. After a minute, Liu Feng would seek for him, and he had five tries to get it right.Also, in the virtual world, Liu Feng was a murderer. Prop hunt was a horror game that allowed players to be the monster seeker who killed shape-shifting humans to win the game. Humans were naturally disadvantaged. Hence, they played in a team of four against a seeker.Zen’s team members were created by artificial intelligence and were not very good at their jobs. To avoid getting captured by Liu Feng, hiders had to fix machines to distract Liu Feng or run for their lives. However, they kept getting caught from their ruckus not even five minutes into the game. Zen was always the last one left.Unable to fix any machines because the blind man
If there was something more hilarious than waking up from a comatose, it was a civilian offering a mafiosi protection service.What was Zen thinking?Damian Gorski could not understand. It defied logic. Everything about Zen defied common sense if common sense was common. First, that kid wanted to recruit him. Then, he wanted to redeem his freedom. Now, he wanted to protect him?Damian Gorski was a science freak. He needed data and evidence for every judgement. However, no amount of data could explain the insanity that Zen embodied. He was almost as bad as Godfather Veron, if not worse. At least Godfather Veron had experience on his side. Zen was walking through a minefield with only luck on his shoulder. How did he survive probability till this point? If it were anyone else, they would need at least eighty-seven lives to get to where they were.Sighing in defeat, Damian wondered if he should reply to Zen’s goodnight message. The event would begin tomorrow,
The event dragged everyone into a virtual beach. No, not beach resorts. Just plain old sand and water under the glaring sun. It was a rude shock to most people sleeping as it was three in the ungodly hour of the morning. The more experienced assassins were used to having unusual circadian rhythms and jumped into work mode immediately while others struggled to pry their eyes open.Zen was catching up on his beauty sleep when the Godfather sprung the event on them. It was a horrible way to wake up, but Liu Feng had his back. The students were spawned in different parts of the huge deserted island surrounded by an impregnable wall of waves.“Remember the lesson,” Liu Feng reminded Zen.They were lucky to be spawned together in this event. The Godfather decided to be merciful when people of the same party were spawned in a similar location. They could also use their communication system to contact others on their friend list. Zen, the academy’s soc
Bang!Bang! Bang!Frustrated, Sasha gnashed her teeth. She’d never missed this many shots in her life after she received her customised rifle. It was humiliating, but she put up with it as they were facing a difficult opponent.“Run!” she yelled at the terrified student beneath her perch. Oritha was doing her best to face off with Felix, but it took their combined efforts and shaky teamwork to keep him at bay.Watching his prey get away, Felix’s grin turned into a scowl. Facing a guild defector was bad luck. Running into a pesky sniper was worse. The blonde bitch in the tree was a pain to deal with. Even if he knew where her blind spot was, he couldn’t get to her.Oritha was on guard. She thought they would find Johan first. That terrorist was a less terrifying person to deal with in comparison. Liu Feng was the only person on their team capable of fighting the Hunter. Both men had similar abilities to spot a person’s weak
Nearly forty minutes into the event, Zen and his guild members confirmed they had enough map parts to finish two of five treasure maps. Akiko had a run-in with Johan, who escaped, and was frustrated when she could not locate him with the area tracker.“He must have used the teleportation item. It’s ok,” Zen consoled Akiko, who must be berating herself for failing to capture the bomber. “We have two completed maps. Could you help to retrieve it? I’m sending one to you and the other to Oritha and Sasha.”Listening to Zen’s soothing voice, Akiko calmed down. It was a shame she failed to finish Johan when she had the chance, but there was always next time. Besides, they had a more important task at hand. Even after gathering so many map parts from more than half the remaining students, they only pieced two of the five treasure maps. She should have ripped out at least one of Johan’s arms.At the same time, Sasha and Oritha c
When Zen and Damian arrived at the rendezvous point, Liu Feng was already bored out of his mind. He’d killed several monsters that charged at him and earned some interesting items. The injured student was slowly recovering but not fast enough. The recovery told Liu Feng that the injury during the event would not be permanent. It was a concerning confirmation.“You’re here,” the long-haired man smiled.Zen nodded and looked at the number of unusual animal corpses surrounding his terrifying sworn brother.“What are these?”Shrugging, the Chinese man expressed disinterest. However, he held up the new loot he collected from killing these beasts.“I got these from killing them. Are they useful?”Confused, Zen came closer to Liu Feng, side-stepping the corpses carefully. Damian ignored their discussion, more interested in the corpses as he questioned the other students for a personal recount.Reaching for w
Just an hour into the game, everyone forgot about their initial sleepiness. If anything, they were pumped with adrenaline, running in every direction. Some ran for their lives from monsters, some ran in search of targets, and others ran to avoid getting targeted.Zen ran to look for a new babysitter with Damian in tow. The cyborg did not feel breathless, and Zen was envious. He wanted mechanical body parts too! He bet he could learn to use robotic limbs faster than the gym could build muscles on his scrawny body.By now, the game had changed drastically. Player map parts were no longer high in demand, and Guild Survivors had all five map pieces consolidated. Akiko had already located the first treasure and was holding onto it while she searched for a new one that Zen tasked. Likewise, Oritha and Sasha were on the lookout for their second treasure of the game.Liu Feng, Zen and Damian were supposed to be searching for the last treasure when they bumped into someone the
It was dark, and every tiny sound was magnified ten times by the echo in the cave. Zen was afraid. He felt his fear escalated when he heard Johan’s voice echo.The madman knew where they were. How? Zen had no idea. Nobody was in the area when he first found the cave, with Damian following behind him. The area tracker showed nothing. How did Johan know there were people in here?“Come out, come out, wherever you are! I smell more than rats in this place. Don’t worry. I won’t bite. I’ll just drink your blood from the bloody pieces of your flesh. HAHAHAHAH!!”Trembling but holding his breath and doing his best to erase his existence the way Liu Feng taught him, Zen shifted his body in front of Damian, pushing the cyborg closer to the wall.While Damian appreciated the gesture of bravery and his attempt to uphold Zen’s protection service, he knew it wouldn’t work. Johan “Terrorist” Bin Hashim gained his repu
Collecting the rewards for successfully defeating John’s cousin, the party members of Godly Food jumped into the portal leading to the next floor. Zen knew that the dungeon had different themes on every ten floors. The tenth floor of each themed stage would be different from the other stages in difficulty. It was why the vanguard team struggled with the twentieth floor’s boss. In addition to the stage mechanic’s difference, the final boss was also tougher to deal with. If not for the monstrous capabilities of the combatants, Zen doubted they could breeze through the first ten floors as quickly as they did.Anticipating a village or town vibe similar to the other floors from before, Zen was stunned to find himself in a rocky cave full of darkness. It had ominous vibes, and only Liu Feng moved confidently in the darkness. Everyone else minimised exploring further without a light source.“We’ll log out here,” Akiko informed Damian. “Y
After entering the boss dungeon den, Zen shivered. It wasn’t similar to a wolf’s den. If anything, it appeared closer to an actual dungeon, as if someone had deliberately attempted to imprison the boss here. The stale smell of dogs and many broken chains of different sizes on the ground spoke volumes about John’s cousin.Unlike the short werewolf, who remained in his werewolf form constantly, the boss was a monster who could transform. Depending on the moon cycle, it could be a violent and bloodthirsty monster or a broken man who lived in constant fear and misery of his curse.“He changes according to the moon cycle once the rampage begins,” Akiko explained. “I took a while to figure out how to kill him, even on the first run. He’s immune to damage on a blood moon. We need to finish it as soon as possible.”With a full party participating in a boss battle, Zen had faith they could conclude it before even the blood moon p
Finally approaching the final boss’s cave, Zen wondered if the storyline would change because they had let Han murder John brutally. His body had been hacked into pieces and scattered around the rotting forest. The maggots would get to it soon and reduce it to bones. Yet, the cruel butchering session remained fresh in Zen’s mind.Everyone in the party knew that feeling all too well. Having lived in the underworld, they sympathised with Zen, who had lived like a civilian his whole life. Although not everyone participated directly in the act of murder, they knew what it meant to take a life. Even Damian had seen it happen. He knew how to interrogate for information and was quite adept at the craft when required.“Don’t think too much about it,” Liu Feng was the first to break the silence. “He wasn’t even real. This is a game designed by the Godfather to find the next successor. It’s just another test.”Even if it wer
Even after many years of not being on talking terms with the rest of the family, Hans fitted right in when delving blows at the cowardly werewolf. Mai ripped out chunks of flesh with her teeth, snarling at it the whole time while Laura expertly force-fed the werewolf with different herbs with particularly nasty effects.Even with regeneration abilities, John could not recover from herbs that tasted nasty, gave him muscle cramps or made him itch all over. Laura truly knew how to make someone suffer, and Zen watched with morbid fascination at their different uses. Her apothecary skills were no less effective than those of Herbologist Hernie.“Can you heal him again?” Damian asked. “Han needs another round. Mai roughed him up a little too good.”With a priest in the party who did not worship any known religion, the torture session became smoother and more effective. No apology from John would appease the family’s anger. Although Zen did not
After listening to the story about John, Laura’s expression hardened. “That son of a bitch!” she spat. “How dare he prey on my granddaughter! Where is he now?!” Slightly terrified by the murderous aura, Zen reported that Sasha and Damian had the werewolf at Gabrielle’s hut. Mai had been ripping him a new one each time he regenerated. The girls had been doing a great job of making him miserable. Han was already there. “I can’t believe I’m last at the party. That wolf deserves to die. Even death is too cheap a price to pay after what he did to my husband and son.” For once, Zen agreed. Even if John was merely a character in the game, he deserved death. The fact that the game administrators did not grant John invulnerable stats meant that it was possible to kill the cousin of the floor boss. While waiting for Laura to pack her ‘tools’ and herbal surprises, Zen approached Liu Feng and thanked him for accompanying them. In real time, it was already past regular l
Studying advanced herbalism from Laura took more time than Zen expected. Thankfully, the game had a way of providing cheats for him. Instead of cramming all the knowledge into his head that would give him a splitting migraine, it provided a useful guidebook that would prompt him on what a particular herb does upon location and what combinations he could use it for with other known herbs. The problem was, to truly master this skill, he had to pass the final test. Laura’s pop quiz only had ten questions. However, there was a timer. While Zen could attempt it infinitely, there were thousands of herb combinations to remember. Not having any formal education in either of his past lives, the young chef faltered. “You may use anything in this cottage as a reference for your test,” Laura smirked. “All the best. I hope you won’t disappoint me.” Stressing over the best method to find what he needed, Zen tested a few things. Firstly, when Laura said that the new skill would inst
While the other party members gathered the family members for a reunion, Zen and Liu Feng finally found Laura’s cottage after taking a wrong turn. Funnily enough, it was the Seer who pointed out how they had been going in a circle before Zen realised he had misinterpreted the map. Knocking on the cottage door, Zen waited with his sworn brother. From inside, he could hear someone coughing badly. “Who is it?” the cranky old lady hacked as she cracked open the door. Instead of seeing her sloppy son or nosy granddaughter, Laura saw a cute priest and a handsome, long-haired warrior. The new adventurers surprised her. Were they lost in the forest? “What do you want?” she asked briefly before launching into a new coughing fit. It was a particularly nasty cold that had persisted for a week now without any signs of recovery. Despite all the herbal medicine she made, Laura did not see any signs of improvement. Perhaps she was getting on in age. Smiling, Zen show
It was a shame Zen was not with them. Sasha would have gone for a few more rounds, using the cowardly werewolf as a punching bag after Zen healed him. The more they dug information out from the pervert, the worse Sasha’s temper was. Damian did not stop her. The draconian needed somewhere to vent her anger, and it was best for it not to come his way. In truth, the cyborg felt a little sorry for Gabrielle, even if she were just a fictional character created for this virtual dungeon game. The cowardly cousin of the floor boss was no different from lowly thugs borrowing the influence of their powerful relatives to cause mayhem. Whimpering in fear and pain with his tail tucked in between his legs, the werewolf defect who could not transform into a human no matter the moon cycle kept a close eye on Sasha. Under the watch of the merciless draconian female, there was nowhere for him to run. He told them what they wanted to know and was alive for now. Given how tightly they w
Using hand gestures, Sasha signalled the countdown and Damian prepared his stunning spells silently. They only had one chance to catch the secret admirer off guard. Whatever he was doing was disgusting enough. Han wasn’t lying about the obsession. The stalker werewolf was plucking flower petals and chanting Gabrielle’s name to see if she would love him back. Each time the flower petals ended on a no, he would crush the flower, stomp on it and pick a new one, confessing his disturbing love to her before plucking off the petals of a new flower.“Oh, Gabrielle! What sweet rosy cheeks you have, all the better for me to bite into them when they are ripe! They were pink when you were a babe. They were red when you had a fever. I wonder if they’d bleed if I bit them… would you cry in pain and fear? It makes me so excited to think about it! Just wait a little more, my angel. You’d soon be an adult, and we could finally be together!”Disgu