GAMMT - Chapter 24

Chapter 24: Escaped

Fu Chuan had previously seen two flattened paths in the cornfield originating from different points. At the time, she guessed there were two people, but she had assumed they were working together. It was too much of a coincidence. She had speculated that anyone outside wouldn't have arrived so early. If they had, they must have been nearby from the start and would have immediately noticed the dungeon and seen the sky curtain.

For two unaffiliated people to be here by such a coincidence, and for neither to be an ordinary figure, could only mean she was unlucky.

But later… this person remained hidden, never appearing, and no new flattened paths were made. It was as if they were squatting in one place like a stone.

This was unlikely. She had fought the locust swarm, the BOSS, and this Chen Lixing over a wide area. If someone were hiding nearby, she would have surely sensed them. If even with her high agility she couldn't, it meant the other party's abilities far surpassed hers. In that case, why not just attack and kill her?

There was a logical problem here.

Fu Chuan had been pondering this while dealing with the hunter. Once the dust settled and she stood beside the corpse, she had reached a conclusion.

Her judgment was that the other party wasn't strong enough, at least not strong enough to take her down with certainty. It was similar to the hunter's assessment of her—they were wary and chose to wait for the right moment. But they did possess some special means. She guessed it was something like invisibility, camouflage as a corn stalk, or perhaps an Arcane art or item that allowed them to hide underground.

Since this person hadn't shown themselves after she killed both the mini-BOSS and Chen Lixing, they had either already left or were still hesitating.

So, she decided to be direct. As her fingers quietly drooped, she silently released her mental power…

Getting straight to the point, she called out towards the mountain.

Was there a response?

A few seconds later, the cornfield around Fu Chuan remained silent.

Gone?

Just as Fu Chuan was feeling suspicious… she suddenly felt a disturbance in the spider silk on the ground. She snapped to attention and leaped into the air.

Right where she had been standing, the spider silk she had secretly laid out had been pierced.

A patch of metal spikes had emerged from beneath the ground, like a mechanical trap from an old novel. The ground below was covered with a board of iron spikes; stepping on it would mean being impaled.

What Fu Chuan saw now was a square, spiked metal floor, about two meters on each side, that had thrust up directly from the earth.

Fu Chuan understood at a glance.

This was an Earth-element trap Arcane art: Square Iron Spike.

Trap-type Arcane arts were powerful, and once caught, it was difficult to resist, as they were designed to "trap" and "hit." However, they consumed a great deal of mental power, took a long time to cast, and were easily detected.

Therefore, this person must have a method for hiding underground. The soil had muffled the sounds of the incantation, camouflaging his trap.

Fortunately, she had been cautious and had covered the ground with spider silk early on. Even after killing the hunter, she had re-covered the surrounding area. She had sensed the danger in advance through the vibrations in the silk. Since she had suspected from the beginning that the opponent might be hiding underground, her preparations had paid off.

A close call.

Fu Chuan truly felt that both of these individuals had given her a near-death sense of urgency.

Ultimately, no matter how capable and seasoned a resource merchant she had been in her past life, here she was just an ordinary person with a less-than-ideal start. Her innate talent wasn't particularly superior; an initial mental power of 99 was only slightly above average, not exceptionally gifted.

That was why she had almost died twice.

Still shaken, Fu Chuan had no way to deal with the person hidden underground. But then it struck her: with such a method, they could have taken out both her and the hunter. Why didn't they?

Compared to her, who was already on guard after sensing something was off, the hunter should have been completely oblivious and an easy target. Could they really be working together?

No, if they were a team, the hunter wouldn't have been so unresponsive. He would have either been wary of a backstab from his partner or called for help. That meant the two didn't know each other.

If they didn't know each other but the person didn't make a move, it meant it was inconvenient to do so.

The pathing issue.

Fu Chuan quickly ran through it in her mind and confirmed two things.

Then, she gave the trap a cold look, walked toward the corpse, and positioned herself to face south.

As she bent down as if to loot the body, she said, "My friend, it seems you don't know this dead man. You had so many chances to kill him earlier, yet you chose to target me. That's not very kind. But I think the reason you didn't act on those many opportunities is that your camouflage method is fixed—a static Arcane art. The moment you move, I can easily detect you. So, it should be fine if I loot this body, right?"

She was really going to loot it. Would that person allow her to?

No, because they had seen her loot a body on the spot, grow stronger, and swiftly counter-kill the hunter.

Due to their limited time and experience, many of the younger generation were low-level Arcanists. The lower the level, the more pronounced the boost from acquiring resources.

He had seen the precedent and was wary.

So, the very instant Fu Chuan bent down to loot the corpse, the very instant she seemed to have locked onto the opponent's hiding spot among the southern corn stalks…

In an open space more than ten meters behind her, a dark… muzzle emerged from the ground.

Bang!

An object glowing with a metallic halo shot out. It was a bullet, but not from an ordinary firearm. It was a bullet enhanced by a metal-type Arcane art, summoning metal elements to augment it.

Faster, with stronger piercing power.

An armor-piercing, life-taking round.

But there was no armor to pierce. The instant she bent down, Fu Chuan had already executed an agile sideways roll into a half-kneel, then flung a Flame Blast at the spot where the muzzle had appeared.

The soil erupted. The dark figure, needing to be near the surface to aim at her, was close to the top layer of earth, so the blast blew him right out into the open.

When Fu Chuan saw him, she froze for a second, a "what the fuck" echoing in her mind.

A groundhog.

What she saw was a golden, fluffy, chubby groundhog, holding a gun and wearing gear.

What was this thing?

The groundhog was about seventy or eighty centimeters tall, short and stout. After seeing her, it leaped out with a screech and threatened her in the gruff voice of a middle-aged man, "Hey, you detestable human woman! You disturbed my beautiful dream! As a BOSS, I will summon my army to destroy you!"

Fu Chuan: "???"

The next second, Fu Chuan narrowed her eyes, feigning shock. "You can talk? A talking BOSS has to be at least level ten! Damn it, I can't beat you!"

She looked as if she was about to turn and flee.

But in the next moment, she dodged, swiftly raising her hand to launch an Azure Radiance Feather. The groundhog "BOSS" quickly fired a shot in return.

The feather effortlessly sliced through a dozen corn stalks, while the bullet also tore through several of them.

Both attacks missed. They were both too fast and too cautious. After attacking, they immediately ducked into the cover of the nearby corn stalks to break the other's line of sight.

Only then did Fu Chuan speak. "A non-human race, the Battle Earth Rat clan. Which tribe are you from? You love to lie so much, could it be the Ochs tribe?"

What BOSS? What army? This person was a member of a sentient race, just like humans. While the world of Arcane Throne might have offered players dozens of races and hundreds of bizarre classes to choose from, this world had no concept of players, but it did have the concept of diverse life forms.

It was just a great fusion. Humans were not the absolute rulers; the region she was currently in was simply human-dominated and human-ruled. It might not be the case in other empires.

But this groundhog had clearly mistaken her earlier shock for ignorance and was still trying to fool her.

Seeing his trick had failed, the groundhog grumbled, "Human girl, don't even think about getting information from me! If I'm not mistaken, you're low on mental power, aren't you? But I have a stockpile of ammunition and plenty of mental power. In a real fight, you're no match for me. I advise you, since you've already taken the reward from that big locust mini-BOSS, the hunter's reward should go to me. That's only fair. I wouldn't be bullying you then."

So logical, I almost fucking believed him.

But in a way, he wasn't wrong.

In terms of her current condition, she was indeed worse off than him.

So what should she do?

Fu Chuan, however, said, "Most members of the Battle Earth Rat family, unless they are of the royal bloodline, have a limited time they can remain hidden underground during their youth. Since there are no natural burrows here, after emerging, they need a certain amount of time for their talent to cool down before they can burrow back into the soil. I'm guessing you can't go underground again right now. And in terms of agility, you're far inferior to me, not to mention you're carrying a gun that weighs over three kilograms. You're right, I wouldn't beat you in a battle of attrition, and my maximum attack power might not match yours either. But are you sure you can last long enough to fight a battle of attrition with me?"

The groundhog suddenly sneered, "Try me!"

His level, Arcane arts, and even his equipment were superior to hers. If not for his constant wariness of her incredible agility, and the fact that those two had, by some stroke of luck, fought along a path that was always a bit too far from him to make a move, he would have killed them long ago.

She was definitely not his match.

But this human girl was quite stubborn. She said calmly, "Let's try then!"

In an atmosphere thick with the promise of a decisive battle… Swoosh! Fu Chuan turned and ran.

The groundhog: "???"

She ran? She actually ran!

Damn it, she dragged the corpse away! Aaaah! Cunning human!

The groundhog shrieked and gave chase, clutching its gun.

---

Of course she had to run!

Although Fu Chuan had earlier deduced that the opponent couldn't easily attack them due to the pathing issue, which helped her pinpoint his hiding spot, she also had a nagging feeling that he was much stronger than her. Seeing the shot he fired only confirmed it.

Damn it!

And a ranged gunman at that.

How could she fight that? Run!

But before that, she had to spout some nonsense to buy time to drag Chen Lixing's body away.

After dragging the corpse to her side, Fu Chuan looted it, stuffing the items into her bag without even looking at them, and sprinted away…

The groundhog couldn't catch up to her on foot alone and could only try to aim at her from a distance. But Fu Chuan was cunning; she set fires as she ran…

"Aaaah! Hateful human!"

The groundhog was covered in fur and terrified of fire. It had no choice but to dodge the scattered embers, chasing her through a sea of flames… Seeing the gap between them widening, it grew anxious and suddenly pulled a bottle of green potion from its small backpack, chugging it down.

A green-tier potion, Velocity Magic Potion.

The name was lame, like a cheap roadside soda, but it was indeed a green-tier potion worth several dozen green coins—very expensive. After drinking it… his body was enveloped in a mass of cyan wind, and his speed suddenly surged several times over. He zipped through the cornfield, rapidly closing in on Fu Chuan.

Fu Chuan sensed it. She glanced back and was startled.

Bang! A gunshot rang out… Fu Chuan tumbled messily into a patch of corn, grabbed her spider silk to launch herself up again, and then threw an Azure Radiance Feather.

So accurate!

The groundhog was also a little surprised by the accuracy of Fu Chuan's attack. After dodging, it was just about to fire a second shot when, suddenly!

Fu Chuan vanished.

The cooldown for Invisibility was over. She might have a chance to win.

The groundhog's expression changed drastically. It immediately prepared to retreat, terrified of being ambushed and killed while she was invisible.

Just as both sides had their advantages and their fears, Fu Chuan suddenly made a move.

While invisible, she didn't care about the noise she was making and sprinted away, not forgetting to shout, "Shorty, run!"

What?

The groundhog initially thought she was bluffing, but Fu Chuan raised her wrist to show him the red dot on it. Fu Chuan hadn't even needed to look at her wrist to sense the danger; her high agility had allowed her to hear a distant buzzing sound.

Was it a locust swarm?

With their combined strength, they wouldn't be afraid even if they encountered a swarm of five thousand locusts.

Unless…

"An airship is coming! It's fast!"

High speed meant a good airship, which in turn meant the occupants were likely very strong.

The groundhog's face changed… Run! Run now!

The reason Fu Chuan had warned the groundhog was that she feared if he were killed first, the enemy would then focus all their efforts on hunting her down.

She would rather he survived and they fled in separate directions. That way, her own chances of survival might be a little higher.

But the second they dove deep into the cornfield, a distant airship had already locked onto their red silhouettes.

Thermal imaging silhouettes, incredibly conspicuous in a cornfield.

Aim, strafe.

Kill them.

During the first wave of fire… Fu Chuan ran with every ounce of her strength. As she ran, she pulled a resource like the Low-Temperature Reliance from her bag and used it on herself.

Fuck, the lock-on is so accurate. It must be thermal imaging.

Swoosh. Fu Chuan instantly vanished from the sensor system. Combined with her own invisibility…

At the same time, the groundhog zipped into the earth.

Both targets disappeared simultaneously.

"Watch the movement of the corn stalks…" a young man had just said, when he saw a huge patch of corn stalks shaking.

That was because the cunning Fu Chuan was deliberately shaking them with her spider silk.

Damn it, they couldn't get a lock anymore.

"Strange, to find two tricky ones in such a low-level place. A mini-BOSS was probably killed by them."

They had detected the mini-BOSS with their equipment earlier. Now its signal was gone, which meant it was dead.

In that case, these two were worth hunting down.

It was on their way, anyway.

"Go down and search?"

A freckled youth, however, said it wasn't necessary. He pointed to the edge of the cornfield. "There's a fire inside, and it'll spread to them soon. They'll be afraid of getting trapped and surrounded by us, so they'll definitely try to escape. The best route is over there. Let's go!"

The airship flew over and descended to a height of seven or eight meters. Four team members jumped down first, landing at the edge of the cornfield… They saw soil-caked footprints on the smooth stones.

"They escaped. They react so fast. Used the waterway…"

The freckled youth gazed down the stream. The two were long gone.

Five minutes later, downstream, two soaking wet figures, one large and one small, crawled out of the water and sat on a large rock, looking particularly wretched.

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