How is this possible! Did the dice fail? No it can’t be!

Could it?

Dammit, i’m panicking! I need to calm down and think rationally!

Calm down, there’s got to be an explanation for this! I should focus on the enemy first, i will figure this out later!

The attacks has already stopped, meaning the energy requirement for that attack must be massive. It will not be able to fire continuously. It either needs to recharge or it wastes too much energy that it can’t fire for long.

If i take the assumption that he has less that 2000 points, i doubt that he can use that attack multiple times. If he has more than 2000 points, then i'll be in trouble,  there are too many variables to consider.

The moment the barrier ends, he will most likely attack again. Thus i need to prepare for that. Unless he knows the specific timing of the duration of the barrier, he won’t be able to fire the gun a moment before the barrier ends. Meaning, i will have a least a second of dodging time for the next attack.

I glanced at the watch again, checking where the enemy was. It was northwest.

Wait a minute! How is this possible! The blast originated from the southeast and since only a few seconds has past since the attack, he couldn’t have gone far from there. The most he could do is change the angle of attack by a few degrees. There’s no way he could have attack from there! Unless...

Unless he dropped his watch! Dammit! He dropped his watch to make me believe that he was a distance away from here. Thus making me feel safe and not suspect a sneak attack.

Wait a minute! If he does not have the watch on him right now, that means he won't be able to locate where i am! Not only that, since he could attack me with great precision without relying on the watch to see where i was, this means he either have an ability that let him do that or he watching me with binoculars or with his eyes.

If he does have a skill or item that lets him find where i am, he would not need to make this trap. He could have just sniped me with that attack along my way here, when i was more relax and not aware of my surrounding as much.

Thus i can confirm that he does not have any skill or item that can locate me. Then this means he is eye distance away from here, thus he is somewhere in the general vicinity!

There’s no point in fighting him now, not only do i not know where he is, i don’t know what skills or items he have. It’s better to retreat for now and find him again later.

I took out a poisonous smoke bim and threw it onto the ground, trying to hide my path of retreat. I summoned a shadow clone and commanded it to rush out of the smoke from the southwest direction.

Holding my breath as long as i could, i ran in the opposite direction while using zetsu to hide my presence. I was betting on the chance that the opponent did not have any ability to pinpoint where i would be in the smoke without the watch.

While running, i tackled the motionless woman who was on the fallen log. Since figuring out the trap and learning about the use of leaving watches down as traps, i instantly knew that the women must either be a fake or is a dead body. With my tackle, the women topple over, revealing the dead body.

A dead body of a woman laid on the ground in a rigid sitting position. Her body was supported by branches and poles to hold itself together. Her body had many burns and she had a wretched expression on her face, meaning she was burnt alive. However, her body was not black or fully burnt. This meant that, after she was killed by fire, the attacker put it out so he could use the body as bait. From the fact that her clothes was not burnt, i deduced that she was burnt by the red flames that attacked me before.

Seeing the burnt body of the women, i felt disgusted and nostalgic. It reminded me of the horrible things i had done before the incident. Heck! It even reminded me of an old friend whose hobby was to burn things alive. Our clique would always hang out by the junkyard at night, lighting the raccoons on fire while we watch and laugh.

From the position of her body and how it was meant to look like a person alive, i deduced that the killer killed her by using that red fire blast and then set the body up. The killer had wanted to used the body as bait. If my senses weren’t sharp enough, i would have definitely died.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

I took off the woman’s watch and gained myself a key.. After getting the key, i quickly ran north, towards the other key that the enemy dropped.

My clone burst out of the smoke first, drawing the attention of the enemy to it. A burst of red spirit energy was instantly shot at it, decimating my clone. Under the heavy fire of the beam of energy, the clone was completely obliterated. Unlike before, when the clone died to the large burst of red energy, this time there was nothing left for the clone to turn into shadows.

Right after the shot was fired, i escaped from the other side of the smoke. I ran as fast as i could, sprinting toward the red dot north of me.

I assumed that with that much heavy fire power, it would certainly take a few seconds before it could be fire again. Thus i ran without the need to worry about getting shot at again.

Soon, i arrived at the spot where the red dot was. My green dot was completely overlapping the red dot on the watch. I looked around, trying find any noticeable place that it could be hidden in.

I searched for a few minutes until i found a rock as big my head with a large X on it. The X looked unnatural and seemed as if someone had scratched it using another rock.

I flipped the rock over and found a watch underneath it. I picked it up to get myself another key and returned it back it where it once was. I picked up the large rock with the X again and placed it on top of the watch, just like before.

You want to use the watch as a trap? Well, two can play that game. Let’s see you’ll handle having a taste of your own medicine.

I knew that since the enemy failed to me, he would either be returning here to get back his watch or run away. Thus i waited. if he did came back to take back his key, i would capture him. If not, i lose nothing but time. There was a chance he could be the raven, thus i had no reason not to wait for him to come back.

All i just need to do is wait for a hour or two. If he’s still not back by then, i will assume that he knows this is a trap.

Damn this guy though! Why is everyone i meet all trying to kill me! Don’t they know that working together in a team of 3 is the best way to win this game?

This is so irritating, i can’t kill him before finding out if he is a raven or not! Sigh, at least this is fun though. I was wondering when i would meet a competent opponent. Even if this guy is not a raven, this guy is pretty smart to think of using the watch as traps.

I hid myself in the bushes a few meters away from the watch and crouched as low as possible. I used zetsu to completely hide my presence and got ready with the electric baton. Using the baton, i could use it to paralyze the enemy with the electric shocks after i immobilize him with my aura.

Since i had to capture the enemy without killing him, i could not place remote control bims. Thus i had to immobilize him with my aura and then capture him if i wanted to question him. Since i wasn’t sure if he was the raven or not, i could not take the chance of accidentally killing the raven before i question him.

I waited patiently, fully ready and alert. While waiting, i used the time to think about the possible ways he could have cheated my dice.

Okay! Presuming that the dice is working correctly, what possible explanation ccould it be?

Is it due to wording? When i rolled the dice , i had asked for the chance of an enemy in the this round having more than 2000 points.

If it is due to wording, then it must be because of the word enemy! So since he could possibly be an ally before i met him, the dice didn’t factor him. Perhaps it’s because he could become my ally later? This could be a possible explanation.

Another reason could be is that the attack he performed could be his starting skill or item. Since i only have data on people from my arc, i don’t have enough info on weather it is possible to get something that powerful. Since my dice is powerful, this could also be the case.

If it is due to the dice not working, this could because only the latest roll of the dice work. I have not fully tested for the likelihood of the power of the dice lasting after rolling again. It could be possible that the power of the dice only works on the latest roll. Since i had rolled for the chance of there being a raven in this game, all my previous rolls could have been nullified.

Any or all of these 3 explanation could be right!

The only one of these 3, i have to worry about is the 3rd possibility. If it works that way, i need to check to make sure. If i make an assumption using the previous rolls as a guide, i would be making a grave mistake in the future. I need to check it as soon as possible.

If it is indeed the case, then i’m lucky i found this out early before i make an assumption using wrong information and getting myself killed by.

Thus right now, i should play by the assumption that the only info i have is that there is a high chance of there being a raven in this dome.

Shit, here he comes! Oh, it’s actually a she.

I watched from the bottom of the bushes, my eyes glued on the hooded figure approaching. A dark blue hood covered the her head while a light blue visor covered her eyes. I could definitely tell that it was a she by the fact that all she had on her were black shorts, black thigh boots and a black sports bra. Over her bra was a blue hooded leather jacket with a hood that hid her head.

Seriously? You are in a death game and you are wearing that?

Noticing how she was dressed, i almost cried out and gave myself away. I hurriedly calm myself and stopped grumbling. I focused on her and got ready to unleash my aura.

She walked towards the rock and lifted it up. The moment she was holding on the rock and was no holding onto the Gun around her belt, i unleash my aura and immobilize her. I instantly rushed out from the bushes and dashed towards her.

However unlike the rambo before, she was only immobilized for a second before a fiery red transparent flame appeared on her forehead. I ran as fast as i could, using nen to to increase my speed.

Seeing me appear out of nowhere, she hurriedly reached for her gun by her belt. It was a race against time, it came down to who could perform their action first. Would she pull out her gun and shoot me first or would i reach her with the baton first.

I got nearer, 3 meters left. Her hand clutch around the grip of her gun. She lifted the gun up towards my direction. As she i was lifting, i made my gambit. Using all my strength i could muster, i threw it towards her.

Blue arcs of lightning chirp as the baton flew like an arrow towards her. Just she was about the pull the trigger, the baton struck her. Under the effects of the static shock, she started spasming and squirming, unable to hold onto her gun and dropping it.

I tackled her down and hugged her arms together, preventing her from using it. Using the rope i got from the arc, i tied it around her while holding her hands together. However, just as i was about to start torturing her for info, she spoke in great shock “ Lawrence?”