Arcane Sniper [Matan’s Shooter]

She burried her face in Leeha, even looking a little bit cute. However, because she was quite a tall woman, Leeha struggled and had difficulty breathing.

“Kwaaak! I- thought you were really going to shoot me-”

“W-wait! Kaak!”

“-Is it because of me? Huh? That? Thank you, really! For me, you-”

“No, that- for now, please get off of me! It’s heavy!”

It was like a scene from a movie, like lovers lying on the meadow, and confirming their love. However, Ram Hwayeon stopped moving after she heard Leeha’s words.

“……Huh?”

“What did you say?”

Ram Hwayeon felt the blood rushing out of her forehead. Of course, it wasn’t possible.

“No, that- my head hurts a little. Because you suddenly ran into me-”

Leeha, in his bewilderment, suddenly pointed his finger. Ram Hwayeon laid on top of him on the floor. The soft thing touching his stomach was probably….

“Oh? Ohh? No, wait! What does that-”

“T-this pervert!”

Paak-!

It was an attack that may have been the first PK declaration in the history of Middle Earth in Fibiel’s Royal Palace.

“Kikis, I hope the trap explodes. Right?”

“Hmm…. First of all, a recording. We could play it later. Kay needs to see this.”

Biyemi and Tale looked at them and smiled. Shin Nara, who was surprised, flustered, and bewildered by some kind of anger-like emotion boiling in her heart, couldn’t laugh.

“Hali-hali-nim! Hurry up and get the items! It will disappear soon!”

Biyemi laughed and pointed to the floor. Another shiny gift was waiting for its owner, next to Petyr’s body.

***

“Are you okay?”

“Yes. The members of the royal guards confirmed it, and the captain of the royal guards also acknowledged it. Lotzac, I am looking forward to tomorrow.”

Shin Nara returned to the conference room.

How much time had passed since Petyr made an uproar? The guards, who appeared in haste, nodded their heads when they checked Pety’s dead body and the trap that didn’t work.

Although it was the captain of the royal guard that kept the Sacraed Knights in chect, it was a fact that the king’s life was threatened.

His neck could get cuf off if he prioritized his self-interest, so of course he had no choice but to side with Shin Nara.

“Kikis, you’ve worked hard. In the next ten days, Petyr won’t come……. It will be difficult for the Midnight Circus members to break through the increased security alone-”

“Are you relieved now?”

“Yes.”

Biyemi nodded at Shin Nara’s question. The lizardia, Biyemi, had attracted people’s attention since he first appeared. However, at that time, it was mostly curiosity. Now, after his unknown conversation with Petyr, there was a trillion won question remained in everyone’s mind in awe.

“Biyemi-nim.”

“Yes?”

“That well, what did you talk with Petyr? It was like you knew each other.” “Kikis, well. It is like that. It doesn’t matter.”

“Again, you’re like that again. Please tell us quickly.”

Of course, while everyone was having hard time with Biyemi, Leeha still treated him comfortably. Because, it was nothing new. From the first time they met at Candle Castle, Biyemi was suspicious. In the first place, he already treated him with suspicion, so nothing has changed now.

“Perhaps- hmm- this is what I think. Biyemin-nim……. Is this your secondary character? No, rather than a secondary character- it’s a second character.”

“I heard it too. I was a little confused by the gunshot made by Ha Leeha-kun, but I clearly heard “Nguyen”…”

Shin Nara and Tale opened their mouths. That was the real reason they were in awe.. It was because, they had a vague idea of Biyemi’s true identity.

“It’s probably right. It’s been over 5 months since Middle Earth opened. In terms of Middle Earth time, two years have already passed. If it is now, it is possible that you have deleted your character you made in the beginning and made a new one…. And the Nguyen that Petyr spoke of was-”

“In the first month of opening, he was one of the top 10 rankers. If there’s Agromni Igor of the giant race, then there is Nguyen of the miyaw, a master that can be called the number one in the entire miyaw race…. Apparently, he vanished one day.”

“I know, because I have competed with him several times. Besides, he was also an assassin. Nguyen, poison assassin that was paired with Petyr The phase ‘When two cats danced, there would be no living being before them-’ was used to described their assassinations……”

“He knows an assassin’s skills and Midnight Circus well, even though you changed your race, you still chose a ‘poison-related’ job- I think Nguyen would be right……”

The two of them exchanged their thoughts.. These were facts that made even Ram Hwayeon’s pupil dilate. Biyemi, who was the main topic, only laughed intermittently with a kiskis sound.

“I-I heard of it from Hwajeong a few times. She said he even came to kill her! You-”

“Kikis, Ram Hwajeong was truly a Middle Earth genius. It was the first time I had gone with Petyr to assassinate someone and failed. She was so good at running away. It was the first time I learned that ice magic could be used that way. Kikis. Thanks to that, what started as a ranker hunting was blocked by Ram Hwajeong, who was rank 10 at the time, and I gave up on all that.”

Biyemi meekly admitted. He thought that there was no benefit on hiding it any longer.

Ram Hwayeon had a difficult time deciding how to deal with the man who had tried to killd her sister at least once. Of course, her thoughts on what was right depended on the price. Her eyes lit up for a moment and she looked at Biyemi, but soon her expression softened.

“T-That’s right! I thought Nguyen and Petyr was going to kill those in the top 100! There used to be a lot of talk about it, but they did not touch the top 10! Was it because of Ram Hwajeong…?”

It was Shin Nara who was surprised to hear the story behind the scenes(?). At one time, she was very nervous, and she was afraid to the extent of avoiding dark hunting grounds as much as possible.

“It was easy to get to the 11th place. Kikis. It was a fun time. If Ram Hwajeong got assassinated at that time, wouldn’t it have been possible to catch Shin Nara too?”

Biyemi laughed lightly. Even after hearing those words, Shin Nara did not feel bad. In fact, there were only a handful of people who have benn the target of two assassins and survived. It was not uncommon to have an expert that could fight againts a 2 vs 1 surprise attack and win.

“Then why…… why did you create another character? That was when Crazy Clown Petyr, no, ‘Benham Nguyen’ and ‘Surprise Petyr’ was skyrocketing.”

At Shin Nara’s question, Biyemi shut his mouth. Still, the lizardia and Leeha have known each other the longest. The lizard had a rare expression, but they could roughly guess just by looking at his face.

“You were betrayed. So you came back to get revenge. Even though you weren’t human before, miyaw is still pretty human-like, so you made your character into lizardia so you wouldn’t get caught, right?”

“Kis. As expected of Halihali-nim. That’s right.”

Leeha knew because he met Petyr Anyway, they were beastmen similar to humans. He must have thought that even if he recreated his character, there was a possibility of getting caught if Biyemi made his character into a human, giant, or wood elf.

‘He could hide it to some extent by customizing. However, he tried to be more careful. Had he been betrayed that much? How was he going to get revenge…?”

What could have been such a huge betrayal? Leeha remembered the bloody battle. If Petyr’s purpose was not to retreat, but to fight, the situation could have been dangerous enough for Leeha himself. No, rather, in such a situation, killing Leeha and running away would have been the choice that an ordinary assassin would do.

There was a reason why the expert assassin, Petyr, just wanted to runaway even though he knew there were people who were pursuing him or trying to catch him. It was a situation that Leeha could not fully understand. Betrayal that was enough to get a character deleted.

There was only one ‘result’ to which everything pointed to.

“That betrayal must have something to do with Petyr’s multilple lives. Maybe an item? Achievement?”

Biyemi’s expression hardened at Leeha’s speculation. He nodded slowly.

“It’s not a very pleasant story…”

“Can’t you tell us?”

Shin Nara looked at Biyemi and asked.

“Kikis, okay. If you want to face Petyr again in ten days, it would be good for you to know. Ah, don’t tell the second group that I was Nguyen. Especially Ram Hwajeong.”

Biyemi looked Ram Hwayeon gently and asked. As soon as she nodded her head, he finally began to recall his old story.

“As you know, the setting of the subhumans is that they are a minority group. Various settings were specialized so that the professions such as ninjas are advantageous to miyaw. They almost had no footsteps…. Most people who play miyaw will probably have no choice but to be an assassin.”

“Isn’t it induced that way?”

Biyemi nodded at Shin Nara’s question. In case of humans, when their character was created, they are randomly placed in Fibiel or Minis kingdom. However, subhumans were different. In the case of giants, they start from one of the human kingdoms, but wood elves, miyaw, lizardia, and other races have their own starting village. That’s the reason why it’s hard to see players of other races at low levels. Of course, there are players who belong to the human kingdom after that, and even if they belong to a country, there are players who go to a country where many of their races gather- Shazrasian federation for giants, for example.

Similarly, humans are free enough to change their country through asylum.

“You will find out when you play in the starting village, but it is because of the wish of the race. Kikis.”

“Wish?”

“It is a quest related to the legends and folktales of each race. Other races could not clear it…. A special quest only for a few races. The achievements and items that come out as rewards are beyond imagination.”

“I see. Then, in the case of miyaw-”

“Right. This is a quest related to the assassination. They have been sneaking in some clues at the beginner village even before choosing a profession, so of course we had no choice but to choose assassin as our jobs. Kikis. If you think about it now, it it absolute competition. It was unique to Middle Earth.”

Hearing Biyemi’s words, Leeha nodded. It was obvious what it would be like.

Thousands or tens of thousands of players were given similar quests, and only one of them can get complete it, or something like that.

‘In the case of the musketeers, it’s a very unpopular job, and I am glad they gave 3 people a chance. Even Kijeong said that the special quest related to Templars could not be completed. It seems to be the case for the miyaw assassins.’

Maybe it had something to do with the second human-demon war? Leeha carefully waited for Biyemi’s words.

“[An enemy that could not be killed using one life, what is needed to catch the Demon King is not hundreds of thousands of soldiers, but one assassin.] Kikis, the flow of different quest are intertwined. Petyr and I, who were overwhelmingly ahead from the very beginning of Middle Earth, finally reached a point that we agreed that cooperation was the key to clear the quests faster.”

As expected. At the words “Demon King”, Leeha nodded. Biyemi continued to speak after thoroughly examining whether the people around him would have understood his story.

“That was the reward from there. ‘A cat with nine lives ’……. Kikis, Middle Earth is a western game. Is there such a western proverb?”

“Huh?”

“That is the reward. Nine lives. Each time he meets a condition, he gains one life.”