Hanging next to a raging waterfall, Max refrained from making any sudden movements, worried that his dagger would come loose and he would plunge to an untimely death. The edges of his vision pulsated red, indicating he was low on health.
Looking at the cliff face, he thought about using an arrow as a makeshift piton to climb up, but doubted one could hold his weight.
‘Maybe two then?’
Just as Max was about to gamble his life on some poor-quality arrows, a voice called out to him from above, “Gun! Are you okay?! Hang on!”
Surprised, Max looked up and saw a familiar face poking over the edge; it was Edmond!
“Hey there! Come to hang out with me?” Max replied chirpily.
A large number of viewers groaned resentfully.
“I’m going to drop a rope down to you!” Edmond yelled, “You can climb up, right?”
‘Hm? Since when did this guy have rope?’
Max decided he needed to stop playing carelessly and pay attention to his surroundings more, otherwise he might fall into more rivers and such. “Yep, I can climb.”
A rope was flung down to him. Max grabbed hold of it and ascended it quickly, exhaling once he reached dry ground again. “Haha! Thanks, buddy!” he put his arm around Edmond happily and gave him a noogie on impulse.
“Ow, hey!”
“Sorry, sorry. What are you doing here, are the others with you?”
“The others? No, I was just following the river from the treeline and saw you get sucked over a waterfall. Wait, does that mean the others got out?!” Edmond looked at Max with sparkling eyes.
...Max had to stop himself from making an unforgivably bad joke and answered honestly, “Yes, they should be downstream. Everyone made it out fine. Oh, they’re behind you, actually.”
Edmond spun around and found the others were standing right there. Parker, the vice-captain, was at the fore. “Edmond!” The guard was enveloped in a warm hug. The hug was awkward because she hadn’t noticed Edmond was wearing a bag on his back and couldn’t wrap her arms around him.
‘So that’s where the rope was!’ Max hadn’t noticed it either.
“Gun! Thank you!” Parker also gave him a hug, which he hadn’t expected. Caught off-guard, he blushed a little, as without blood and dirt caked all over her face, she was actually pretty.
— Gun is the worst player
—It should have been me
—Is this how handsome people live?
—That’s it. I’m buying the game
The hug wasn’t as great as the viewers imagined, because Parker was wearing a tough leather tunic over her chest. At least she wasn’t wearing chainmail though.
...They probably didn’t have a large enough budget for chainmail.
Parker stepped back and peppered Max with questions, which he answered one by one. Meanwhile, Edmond spoke with his colleagues.
“Hey, why are three of you shirtless? What happened to your uniforms?”
“Uh...”
“It’s complicated.”
"?" Edmond wanted to inquire further after this suspicious response, but Max spoke up before he could, “We need to keep moving. There might be more orcs coming from the north, since there were still a few chasing Edmond.”
“Oh, actually, they went the other way.” Edmond dismissed the concern.
“Hm? The other way?”
“I hid at the river and watched them go north rather than south. They won’t be here anytime soon.”
“Oh. Well, we should be fine then... Let’s start walking anyways.”
Thankfully, orcs were stupid.
“By the way, who healed your injuries? Did Gun have healing potions?” Edmond raised a question.
Now that he looked properly, Edmond was right; their injuries had all healed up! Even the dude with missing limbs had recovered, with his legs having regrown all the way down to his toes. Lemonade must have brought them some healing potions. But then... where was Lemonade?
“Yes, we found them by just sitting by the riverside. Could it have been luck?” Parker was unsure, “I wonder who left them there?”
“That would be my friend, whom I asked for help,” Max clarified. “You’re sure you didn’t see anyone there? I thought he would come in person.”
“No, we didn’t see anyone...” Parker raised her eyebrows, clearly surprised by this revelation.
“Alright, give me a moment.” Max walked ahead and opened his stream chat. “Guys, where is he?”
—R.I.P Lemonade
—He lived a good life
—Killed by bandits
—This is why altruistic people don’t exist
—He got PK’ed
—Doesn’t even know it’s his fault lol
“He died?”
Max had a hard time reading the chat, as it was streaming past too quickly. Why were there so many people commenting? He looked to check his viewer count.
[Current Viewers: 20,463]
“What?! So many of you?!” Max was stunned. “Did he send all of you here after dying? Why was he PK’ed; was it random? Are they culprits nearby?” Max let off a string of questions.
—They were looking for you
—They’re still nearby
—He died like a minute ago
—He’s probably watching your stream now
Max was still prying answers from the chat when he noticed a group of people ahead.
“Parker, do you have a spare potion?” Max asked the vice-captain.
“Ah, Yes! There was one left.” She handed it over to him, “Sorry, I forgot you were injured.”
“No worries, but... be careful. These might be enemies up ahead.”
“Enemies?” Parker finally noticed the encroaching group, while Max focused on making himself combat-ready.
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
STATUS
Name: Gun
Class: Deadshot
Level: 8
EXP: 11%
Health: 290/290
Mana: 280/280
Abnormal State: None
Condition: Broken ribs, chest contusion, leg trauma, leg laceration, inhaled water
ATTRIBUTES
Vitality: 28 (+1)
Strength: 32 (+1)
Dexterity: 36
Agility: 36
Intelligence: 28
Wisdom: 28
Charm: -3 (+100)
Luck: 0
DETAILS
Subclasses: Ultra-Rapid Fire, Rapid Fire, Sniping, Kinematics Mastery, Marksmanship, Sharpshooting
Titles: Unique, Cruel, Headshot Harry, One Shot One Kill, Player Killer...
Active Skills: None
Passive Skills: None
Max skulled the healing potion and was surprised to find that it tasted like cola. The ability to sense taste had not been a feature in Hero of Liberation, so this came as quite a shock to Max.
“Halt! Who goes there?” Parker addressed the approaching group.
“Ah, we’re heroes! Pleasure to meet you, madam. We have some business with the otherworlder in your company.” One of the men responded, confirming they were players.
Max sized them up. There were seven players, all men with unknown levels. Judging by their equipment, three were magic users, while the other four practiced melee.
“What business do you have with me?” Max asked them suspiciously. “Are you the ones who killed my friend?”
“Your username is ‘Gun’, right?” A man who seemed like the leader stood out while crossing his arms, “You stole property from the Avaricius family. We killed your ‘Lemon’ friend because he was attempting to aid you, our enemy. We obviously wouldn’t let that happen.”
“Enemy? Stole?” Max was genuinely confused. That name sounded familiar though...
“Yes, you stole an item of clothing. A hat, I believe.”
‘...Oh! It must be about that guy!” Max recalled a certain entitled ‘young master’.
“I think I know what you’re talking about.” Max turned to face his NPC companions, “You guys can go ahead, I’ll meet you back at the village.”
“Huh? Are you sure?” Parker was surprised.
—Um what, he’s sending his allies away?
—Killing himself??
—Noooo I wanted revenge!
—The ppl in chat clearly haven’t been here long LOL
“I’m sure. This is a feud between heroes; you shouldn’t get involved.”
“Well, okay then. Men, with me!” Parker moved on ahead to Novus Village. The players made no move to attack them, knowing full well that the NPCs were higher level and would wipe the floor with them. Their orders were only to kill this ‘Gun’ guy, anyways.
“Alright, let’s talk.”
...
...
Lemonade watched Gun’s stream while lamenting his own luck. Who would have thought he would be killed as collateral damage on his first day of playing?
At least this guy’s stream was entertaining. He even nearly fell off a waterfall.
“All right, let’s talk.”
Lemonade couldn’t help but shake his head when he saw Gun sending his NPCs followers away. This guy would probably die as well. Which was a shame really, because he’d sent all his viewers over there hoping to give this guy some exposure.
Gun took a stylish black cowboy hat out of his inventory and spoke again, “Is this the hat you’re talking about?”
“Yes, that’s it. Are you going to give it back?”
“Right, Tristan, mm.” Gun mumbled to himself. “So, let me get this straight: you hunted me for several hours on launch day and killed my new friend over a feud for a hat which I didn’t even steal? Does that sound about right?”
“No, not the last. We’ve received official word from Tristan Avaricius that you stole the hat from him. You’re a thief and a liar.”
“Alright, got it. Wait here a moment.” Gun put the hat on his head and started walking backward slowly, while counting his steps. “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven...”
“What are you doing?” The player leader interrupted.
“One moment.” Gun put his hand up and ignored him. “Fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one.”
“Cut it out, we don’t have all day.”
“Alright, alright. This should be enough.” He drew some arrows from his quiver.
“Enough? For what?”
“For me to kill all of you, obviously. Did you forget that I’m an archer?”
Gun pulled his bowstring back and shot an arrow at the leader’s head.
“Uh?!” Lemonade involuntarily made a noise. He was attacking them?? One-on-seven?!
The shot struck the centre of the leader’s forehead and killed him instantly. He swiftly faded into a blue particle effect.
—OH SH*T
—1-shot?!
—Easier than orcs lol
—WTF IS THAT DAMAGE
The scene exploded into action as Gun fired two more arrows at the enemy melee players. Both of them landed as headshots and the players died without being able to resist. His fourth shot flew at an enemy mage, who was forced to leap sideways to dodge, cancelling his spell in the process.
Another mage wasn’t so lucky and took an arrow to the nose, resulting in instant death.
Lemonade watched his screen in shock. Was this guy fighting a 1v7... and winning?!
The last standing melee player managed to reach Gun and extend his sword, only to be hit in the face with a bow.
‘Hold on, he got hit by the bow itself??? Is it because it’s a longbow, it’s longer than the sword?!’
Lemonade was completely stupefied. Wielding his longbow like a bat, Gun smacked the swordsman in the face and sent him flying into a nearby tree. The crack of a bone breaking could be heard through the stream audio.
‘Th-this, this guy is awesome!’
Gun tilted sideways to avoid a conjured rock, before shooting the mage responsible, whose face dropped into a pile of leaves on the forest floor.
Nocking his last arrow, but not drawing it, he looked to the last man standing, whom had stood idly at the back of the group throughout the ordeal and not made any attempt to attack. The man stared back at him.
“...”
“...”
“You’re a healer, aren’t you?”
“Yep.”
Pew.
Gun put the guy out of his misery. Walking over to the guy with the broken bones, who was also still alive, he picked him up by the hair and pressed his head against a tree. He didn’t know what injuries this dude had, but they were probably quite severe, because he didn’t resist at all.
“Do me a favour. Tell your cute Tristan that if he wants to spread lies and attack me, he should at least do it in person like a man.”
Smash!
The head disappeared in his hand and turned into blue energy. With all the enemies defeated, Gun sent his hat back to his inventory and walked around to collect his arrows. “Avenged,” he muttered under his breath.
Lemonade realised his jaw was still down and fixed it back it to its natural position. What a scary guy! Were people just trolling when they said the archer class was bad? Rather than that, it looked more like it was too OP!
He scrolled down and hit the ‘follow’ button on Gun’s channel. This was definitely a good friend to have made!
—Is he hacking?
—That’s terrifying
—I got a headache just from watching that
—Boss, I’ll follow you, so spare me!
The other viewers were of a similar opinion, and Gun’s follower count rose rapidly.
However, the man in question had his attention elsewhere. Rather than celebrating, he stared down at his interface unhappily, like he’d just swallowed a slug.
[ Charm: -10 ]