“Pa pa pa…”

Rain was still falling, but it was no longer airy anymore. There were many now many trees around. These trees were nourished by the rain, and had already appeared much more luscious now.

Blue Maple didn’t return to the city, although he was proceeding in that direction initially.

But he stopped to kill.

He couldn’t return to the city due to the rednaming restriction. The guards in the city would stop and capture him. Then, he would be locked up. As for how long, it depended on the number of people he killed.

He stopped as he came under a tree. However, he didn’t do so to avoid the rain. The leaves were still very sparse, offering very little protection against the rain. When the rain passed through the leaves and pelted against one’s skin, it felt abnormally cold.

He stopped because Feather wanted to come out of his personal space.

Without a sound, Feather appeared behind Blue Maple. He appeared very indifferent as he looked at Blue Maple.

“Why did you kill them?” Feather questioned coldly.

Blue Maple didn’t respond to him. He faced his back towards Feather, as if he was a sculpture that had been rooted to the ground. At the same time, he allowed the raindrops to continue pelting him.

“You went to the Mercenary Union this morning and checked on the auction proceeds. Clearly, you had it premeditated!” Feather sounded a little agitated.

Blue Maple went to the Mercenary Union very early in the morning. He concealed himself while he was over. He didn’t do anything, as if he was a transparent soul. He was just watching everything that was going on in the union. When Dazed Kitty and the rest arrived, he even activated the active effect of his Vanishing Shadow – Extreme Stealth.

It was weird.

He even checked on the auction proceeds after that, although it was quite uncharacteristic of him to do that.

Blue Maple was waiting for Dazed Kitty and the rest!

At the Mercenary Union, he verified where they were going and took notice of when the payment from the auction entered his account. That was how he confirmed roughly when they were about to take action!

He even intentionally picked up a quest just to waste time and dragged his feet as he returned. This was all in a bid to chance upon Dazed Kitty and the rest!

This time, Blue Maple didn’t choose to remain silent. Instead…

“Yes, so what?” His back was still facing Feather as he coldly answered.

His straight reply left Feather astonished.

“Why?” Feather asked.

“Haih.” Blue Maple sighed.

He retrieved his glasses and started to clean the lenses without any reason. It was futile because the rain was still going to wet the lenses.

“You are really a child.” Blue Maple sounded a little helpless.

A kind-hearted child like Feather couldn’t watch something like this happen. The person who instigated it was even the partner that he had signed an equal contract with. Although he shared a similar image to Blue Maple, most of the powers that they possessed were conferred onto them by Old Man Fang. Personality-wise, they were still inherently different.

“Hmph!” Feather threw a tantrum and turned his head away.

“You are indeed just a child…”

“You still haven’t told me the reason.” There was still a hint of stubbornness although he sounded very cold.

“Reason? Think about it yourself.”

Blue Maple nonchalantly answered and put on his glasses.

“Ka…”

It was the gentle sound that he made while putting on his glasses.

“I can only tell you…”

He turned around to look at Feather. He was very composed, while his eyes were still clear and bright as ever.

“I’m a bad person.”

Suddenly, blue fire ignited around his body and burned whatever that he was wearing into ashes. Finally, that original blue coat that he normally wore appeared on his body.

“You’d even thought of changing your clothes…” Feather was astonished as he stared at Blue Maple.

He changed into a white coat to avoid anyone from instantly recognizing. That explained why Leah was initially a little confused.

Eventually, Blue Maple turned around and left. He left Feather standing alone under the tree, stuck in deep thought.

……

Feather returned to his indifferent self and followed Blue Maple. He didn’t say anything else and just re-entered into his personal space.

Blue Maple didn’t change his plan. He continued to venture on the initial path and tried to avoid places where there were many players.

However, he didn’t exactly get his wish. After all, he wasn’t very far from the city. There were still many players around. The maps around were filled with other players. It was fine if he stumbled upon ordinary players. But if he was unlucky…

“Hey! Hey! Take a look. There’s a rednamed player. Do we want to make a move on him?”

A bunch of players from a guild saw Blue Maple from afar.

The person speaking was their leader. His guild had been around for some time, but there weren’t many players in it. However, it was very well-known around the area.

Instead of well-known, it was probably better to claim that it was notorious.

“But we can’t see any information about him. He seems very weird too. Seriously, this rain is annoying! I can’t see anything clearly.”

The two people speaking were the heads of this guild. One of was called Robber and the other was called Bandit. Their names were very apt and they didn’t fail the names that they snatched up first in this game.

The person who spoke was Robber. He was a buff European guy. The second person was roughly the same, but he was a bearded European middle-aged man instead.

They were the chairman and vice-chairman of the Marauders’ Guild. They were involved in shady and criminal dealings in the game. When they weren’t trying to level up, they would be robbing other players or looting places. If they didn’t get what they wanted, they were even ready to kill.

However, they would flee when they encountered stronger players or teams. They also fled very quickly when it mattered. Their only requirement for shoes and other related gear was that they had to make them fast!

They loved shoes that helped them move much more quickly. Now that the mounting system that came with the pet system was open, their requirement for shoes also extended to their pets!

They were basically Warriors and intended to become Knights in the future. This was to make it more convenient for them to ride their pets and be wandering bandits.

If they weren’t Warriors, they were either Thieves or Archers. Not only were they very agile, they were also skilled in surveillance and anti-surveillance.

They loved rednamed players like Blue Maple. Killing a rednamed player wouldn’t cause them to be rednamed. On the contrary, they might even get a few drops. How much better could it get?

“It’s a little weird. He doesn’t have any gear with him. He only has a pair of weird-looking glasses on. I wonder if that’s a gear.” Robber found it strange.

Blue Maple was rubbing his tummy as he walked. They couldn’t see the ring that he was wearing.

“Exactly. If nothing drops, we would have wasted our time.” Bandit stroked his beard as he said.

“Never mind. Killing one person isn’t too much of a hassle either. Fuck that blue-haired kid!” Robber encouraged his subordinates to prepare themselves for an attack.

Bandit didn’t say anything. It seemed like he was going with the plan.

Blue Maple also realized something was wrong and he could see whatever that was happening on the opposite end.

“Hmm?”

With his Eyes of Heavenly Fire and the equal contract, he was strengthened and his vision was even better than the best Archers. It wouldn’t even be a stretch to claim that he was eagle-eyed.

“Robber? Bandit? That’s an interesting name.” Blue Maple was stunned for a moment when he saw these two names

He found some of the European names very interesting. He saw that many of them gave themselves very weird names. Although many Chinese did have weird names, it was probably because there were so many people.

Forget it. Let me get away from them. Seems like they are here to rob me. Blue Maple thought to himself. He engulfed himself in his Heavenly Fire and was ready to teleport himself a distance away.

Robber and the rest were also stunned when they saw the fire.

“What’s he doing? Making a move first?” Robber was confused.

“Fuck him, let’s screw him over!” Bandit was very vulgar as he invigorated the rest.

One Archer even took the initiative to fire an arrow. It seemed like a signal to start a fight.

They weren’t worried about alarming Blue Maple. After all, their shoes were supposed to increase their agility. It didn’t even matter what tier their shoes were. Even if they were of the lowest tier, they would still use them as long as they became faster with those shoes!

“Swoosh!”

An arrow shot straight towards Blue Maple!

Everyone charged towards Blue Maple at the same time!

Blue Maple could quickly dodge, but that would disrupt his teleportation. Slowly moving away wasn’t going to help him either.

“Tsk.”

Blue Maple scoffed in displeasure. He ceased the teleportation and used his fire to strike the arrow just as it was about to hit him!

Robber and Bandit tensed up when they saw this. However, the arrow had already been fired. They couldn’t back out anymore. It wasn’t the time to hesitate either!

What Robber and Bandit didn’t know was that the Archer had committed a foolish act.

That Archer also realized that it was the most foolish thing he had done in this game. As he thought of it, he smacked the hand that fired the arrow and said to himself: “Why can’t I control it?”

Blue Maple eventually retracted the fire into his body. He had completely given up on the intention of teleporting away.

“Forget it. I’m bored anyway.”

He thought to himself and retrieved his Abyss Sword from his left pocket. Against a bunch of greedy and bloodthirsty players, he still remained very calm and composed.

There were fifty-eight of them, but there was not one Priest. This also spared Blue Maple the need to kill the Priest first.

It made sense too. If these guys could win, they would never stray from a fight. But if they couldn’t win, they were quick to flee. Why would they need a Priest then? A Priest would only drag them down. Perhaps getting a few Priests might be on the agenda if they had their own mounts, but as of now…

Blue Maple was going to give them a free ride back to the city.

Because that would be where their spawn was…

“I shall keep my glasses on.”

Watching the bunch of degenerates screaming and shouting as they charged towards him, Blue Maple couldn’t help but think to himself.

Seems like…I’m a prey.

Interesting

A smile appeared on his face at this moment. Interesting things always caught his eye.

He believed that he was treated like a prey now…

But he had always been…

The predator!