Chapter 80: The Red Zone and the Fine Art of Baiting

“Are you seriously not afraid of getting knifed one of these days?”

“I’m fine with getting knifed. As long as they come back stronger than me, they’re welcome to try.”

“…….”

Forget it. Just forget it. I’m the idiot for trying to have a normal conversation with this absolute gaming addict. As long as he doesn’t get knifed in real life, whatever. Honestly, why do I even bother worrying about him?

Realizing that arguing with Sephiroth was a completely futile exercise, I let out a soft sigh, prompting him to sling an arm around my shoulder with familiar ease.

“What now?”

“Our Blee, when did you prepare such a cute little surprise? I’m so touched I might actually cry.”

“Hey, give the present back.”

“Hyung will give you a kiss and shower you with love. Come here.”

“Hey!”

In the blink of an eye, he grabbed my shoulder and spun me around as if he were actually going to plant one on me. Is he out of his mind? I reflexively shoved his face away with a loud smack and scrambled backward. Sephiroth, who clearly hadn’t intended to actually do it, burst into a booming laugh.

“Our Blee is way too shy. It’s a real problem. Or should I give you a deeper one where more people can see?”

“That is literal sexual harassment.”

“Sure, sure. Report me if you want.”

Report him? If I submitted a ticket to customer service saying “Sephiroth is sexually harassing me,” they’d probably just reply with “Yeah, figure it out yourselves.” I wouldn’t have to listen to this nonsense if I just stopped hanging out with him in the first place, but……

“Ah, the tips are starting to roll in. Want to go crack some skulls?”

As a gamer, how could I possibly refuse to follow Sephiroth?

I’m clearly losing my mind too. Letting out a heavy sigh, I trotted right behind him.

Sephiroth immediately opened a teleport scroll. It was the most expensive tier of teleportation items, allowing instantaneous travel to specific coordinates upon entry. Tearing a second scroll for me without a single thought, Sephiroth materialized us right in front of a wide meadow. Through the lazily swaying tall grass, a familiar figure caught my eye. It was someone we had clashed with in the Battlegrounds before: Vergwalo97.

“Ah, f*ck!”

The moment Vergwalo97 spotted us, a curse flew out of his mouth. He panicked and instantly bolted across the meadow, looking like a thoroughly undignified pigeon fleeing danger. Sephiroth casually pursued him, turning the encounter into a sudden footrace.

Right then, my chat log lit up.

[Whisper] Sephiroth: Get ready.

[Whisper] Sephiroth: I’m letting him lead us straight to his buddies right now.

Huh? What is he talking about?

I fired up my brain cells to read between the lines. Basically, Vergwalo97 had anticipated that Sephiroth and I would show up, so he was trying to lure us into an ambush where the Endless guild could overwhelm us with numbers.

Then aren’t we just walking straight into a trap?

[Whisper] BlueberryWhiskey: Then why are you following him?

[Whisper] Sephiroth: Taking one head is fine, but…

[Whisper] Sephiroth: A massacre is way more fun.

Wow. He’s a psycho. A certified, unpardonable psycho…… I stared at Sephiroth’s back and shook my head in disbelief.

[Whisper] Sephiroth: Plus, there’s a bonus.

[Whisper] Sephiroth: The direction he’s running leads straight to the Red PVP Zone.

[Whisper] Sephiroth: Items drop on death there.

[Whisper] Sephiroth: Why loot one item when you can loot three?

He had already calculated the entire looting logistics. He was an organized psycho.

Yet, despite knowing full well that we were stepping into an ambush, my own feet didn’t slow down either. To be entirely honest, seeing Sephiroth charge in with that much confidence gave me faith that we wouldn’t lose. A significant portion of Ignas’s curse had already been lifted, and I was notably stronger than before.

Whatever, let’s just see this through.

At that exact moment, Vergwalo97 spun around on his heel.

“Idiots! You fell for it!”

“We didn’t—”

We didn’t fall for anything, I wanted to say, but before the words could leave my mouth, the ground beneath me erupted into a crimson glow. Danger. Before my brain could process it, my instincts took over, and I rolled backward. The very instant I cleared the edge of the red circle, the entire world shook.

BOOM!

With a deafening explosion, a massive pillar of fire shot up into the sky from the patch of grass I had been standing on a microsecond ago. If I had stayed inside, it would have been an instant death sentence. I clicked my tongue, looking at my cute little health pool that was still abysmally small compared to a max-level character.

“Focus.”

Sephiroth’s voice pierced through the chaos, followed immediately by the sharp whoosh of tearing wind. Twisting my body toward the source of the sound, I executed a clean backflip to my feet. Simultaneously, a massive white staff slammed into the exact spot where I had just been crouching. The ground cracked wide open, showcasing the terrifying raw power behind the strike.

“Tch.”

Two figures emerged through the smoke, both clicking their tongues. They were faces I recognized: Hyangi’sBerion and Brrrbrr. Hyangi’sBerion was a male character wearing a massive witch hat and a round monocle; he was clearly the one who had conjured the pillar of flame. Brrrbrr was a staff-wielder with a shaved head save for a single braided queue down the center. While I took in Brrrbrr’s appearance—clad in a red cheongsam over black pants, wielding a massive white staff—Vergwalo97 regrouped with them, bursting into a loud laugh.

“Brainless bastards. You’re both dead today.”

“Is that it? Just three of you?”

“What?”

Sephiroth’s smooth, resonant bass rippled through the grass of the meadow. Even from here, I could see Vergwalo97’s brow furrow. His hand tightened and loosened around the hilt of his sword in a restless, anxious rhythm. Having already tasted death at Sephiroth’s hands once before, he was clearly far more wary of him than the other two were.

“Man, I’m really being underestimated here. I thought I’d get to have some real fun against a crowd, but they only sent three pathetic casuals.”

“What?”

“What the f*ck is this bastard spouting?”

“Ignore him. He’s just a roleplaying edge lord. He won’t be talking like that once he’s dead.”

The three Endless members barked out their retorts and lunged forward in unison. Even as they closed the distance in a flash, Sephiroth didn’t even draw his axe, completely at ease.

And he immediately proved that his arrogance was entirely justified.

“Urgh!”

As Vergwalo97 rushed in to bring his sword down, Sephiroth smoothly slipped behind his back and clamped a hand firmly onto the rear of his skull. Gripping his head so tightly that escape was impossible, Sephiroth swung Vergwalo97 in a massive arc, hurling him backward. In that exact trajectory, Brrrbrr’s incoming staff slammed directly into Vergwalo97’s sternum. Because a staff that has left a player’s hands is treated as a neutral object by the game physics, Vergwalo97 absorbed the full damage of his own teammate’s attack—with a bonus stun effect to boot.

“F*ck!”

While Vergwalo97 and the staff-wielder cursed in perfect, accidental synchronization, Hyangi’sBerion finished casting his spell. Shards of fire, condensed into solid crystalline spikes, began raining down from all directions, tracking Sephiroth. However, Sephiroth had already glided out of the spell’s AOE with incredibly fluid footwork. It looked like their original strategy was for Vergwalo97 to draw attention while Brrrbrr landed a stun, allowing Hyangi’sBerion to nuke the stationary target. But since the very first step had shattered so spectacularly, there was no saving the rest of the play.

“What are you doing?! Just attack him!”

Hyangi’sBerion screamed. Vergwalo97 and Brrrbrr were already charging back toward Sephiroth. Brrrbrr was spinning his white staff in rapid circles to build momentum, creating a menacing gale-like sound as the wind gathered around it. A single clean hit from that would probably obliterate me, but I wasn’t particularly worried. Who was his opponent? It was Sephiroth.

And Sephiroth never failed to deliver.

Leaping lightly off his right foot, Sephiroth abruptly pivoted left mid-air. Caught off guard by the sudden redirection, Vergwalo97 looked up at him—and that became his fatal mistake. Seizing the micro-window of vulnerability, Sephiroth delivered a devastating kick straight into Vergwalo97’s ribs. It was a clean shot aimed precisely at the spot where Hyangi’sBerion was hiding. Crash! Vergwalo97 collided heavily with the mage, instantly canceling Hyangi’sBerion’s spell casting.

“Argh, f*ck!”

“Get a grip!”

Brrrbrr rushed Sephiroth with a desperate yell, but Sephiroth simply glided backward, utilizing smooth spacing steps to toy with him like an adult playing with a child. The long-reaching white staff looked incredibly pathetic as it repeatedly sliced through empty air. Sephiroth let out a mocking chuckle.

“What’s wrong? I’m right here.”

“Die, you son of a b*tch!”

“I’m overwhelmed by your enthusiastic fan reception.”

Was there any word better suited for him than “rabid dog”? Watching Sephiroth smirk as he effortlessly dismantled their desperate, life-or-death strikes was nothing short of awe-inspiring from a fellow gamer’s perspective. How could a human even move like that? I was standing there with my hands clasped, watching the spectacle like a spectator at a pro-wrestling match, when a frantic shout shattered the air.

“F*ck this! Hey, kill the girlfriend first!”

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