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Chapter 143: Tactical Free-Range
Ronin didn't act rashly. He would wait until Kurapika's trio entered the game before making a move. Right now, Shizuku wasn't quite ready to face a Troupe combatant head-on. But if she had Neon and Kurapika supporting her from the sidelines, there was a real chance they could take down one of them. As for the remaining two? Those were all Ronin's.
As for Abaki, Ronin hadn't assigned her a task. He figured Kurapika would arrange something for her once they logged in. After all, the existence of spell cards in the game could greatly complicate combat, so they would need to make plenty of preparations beforehand. At the very least, they couldn't give the enemy any opportunity to pull out [Leave] and activate it mid-battle.
Even though he wasn't planning on striking before Kurapika entered the game, he wasn't going to just sit around either. He needed to verify the exact number of Troupe members in the party. To do this, Ronin had the player whose Binder contained the Troupe's names activate [Magnetic Force] to fly to the Troupe's location, and then instantly activate [Return to Start] upon landing to snap back to the Starting Point.
Ronin ambushed near the Starting Point. If the Troupe members tracked the player back, he would be able to use his Telescope Technique to confirm their status. After all, he had encountered the three known members up close and was familiar with their aura signatures, which satisfied part of the activation conditions for the Telescope Technique. The remaining condition was simply distance.
If the Troupe members didn't pursue them, he would have the returning player use [Return] to warp back to where they had just encountered the Troupe. If the Troupe had left, Ronin would use the Transformation Technique to disguise himself and head to the target location. If the Troupe was still there, the scouting player would immediately activate [Return to Start] again.
In any case, Ronin had four copies of [Return to Start], two copies of [Magnetic Force], and sixteen copies of [Return] in his possession. That was more than enough for him to play around with.
Ever since Bonolenov's trio had entered the game, they had been continuously inquiring about [Breath of Archangel]. The progress, however, was anything but smooth. It was baffling that for a game that had been running for ten years, there were still numerous cards whose acquisition methods remained a complete mystery to everyone. [Breath of Archangel] was one of them.
Fortunately, after a period of exploration and contacting Shalnark to explain the game's situation, Bonolenov finally found some clues. The clue lay in the shops of Masadora. All they had to do was continuously spend money to buy the spell cards sold in the shop. After buying them for over 10 consecutive days—purchasing at least 40 spell cards every single day—they received a message: [It is said that if one collects all the spell cards, they will be blessed by the heavens.]
That simple sentence set the foundational requirement for obtaining [Breath of Archangel]. Namely, collecting all forty different spell cards. Using stolen money, Bonolenov's trio had completed the prerequisite quest. Now, the difficulty lay in how to actually gather all of them.
Some low-difficulty spell cards could be bought directly from the shop. But the higher-difficulty ones required buying booster packs from the store to collect. Each pack contained three random spell cards, but exactly what they were depended entirely on luck and what cards were currently left in the global pool.
The strategy the trio adopted was to simply occupy the entrance of the spell card shop from the shadows. Whenever someone went in to buy spell cards, the cards they bought would become Troupe property the moment they walked out. This tactic only worked for three days before it failed.
For one thing, the city system flagged the three of them with red names, marking them as hostile PKers. All NPCs would look at them with sheer disdain—a direct consequence, of course, of the trio beating up the city guards and turning them into cards. The three of them couldn't care less about the dirty looks.
The other, bigger issue was that once players realized that everyone buying spell cards was mysteriously disappearing, nobody came to Masadora to buy cards anymore. This development forced Bonolenov's group to shift their approach.
They left Masadora and headed to the gambling city of Dorias, where they acquired [Risky Dice] and a massive sum of money. The money, naturally, was robbed. To the three of them, it was the fastest, most familiar, and most hassle-free way to make a quick buck.
Then, they returned to Masadora and began rounding up the players in the city, forcing them into the shop to buy spell card packs. Afterward, they made these captives roll the [Risky Dice]. If it landed on [Great Fortune], they'd open the packs. If it landed on [Great Misfortune], they'd toss the player out of the shop and let them die on the side of the road.
In no time at all, the area around Masadora became a complete ghost town. Anyone well-informed knew that a demonic trio had appeared here—the type of people who were utterly unreasonable and treated human life like dirt.
Under these circumstances, the guy Ronin had captured—who had previously been robbed by Bonolenov's trio in Masadora—activated [Magnetic Force] and spawned directly outside the spell card shop. His abrupt appearance was so sudden that even Shalnark, who had been watching with utter boredom as someone rolled the [Risky Dice] inside the shop, had a flash of surprise in his eyes when he turned his head. This was quickly followed by the delighted urge to snatch the guy right up.
But a split second later, as if getting a clear look at the situation inside the shop, the man who had just landed instantly activated another spell card and blasted into the sky.
"Huh?" Phinks let out a noise of confusion.
The [Risky Dice] in their possession were already gone. After all, it was still a B-rank difficulty Restricted Slot card, and there were only thirty copies in existence. Even after duplicating it with cards, it still hadn't been enough. The good news, however, was that after forcing people to roll seven dice consecutively, the number of unique spell cards in their hands had reached 36.
Which meant they were only four cards away from gathering the complete set of spell cards. Those four cards were [Prison], [God's Eye], [Mimic], and [Leave]. The acquisition difficulty for the first two was S-rank, with only ten copies of each in existence. The latter two weren't too difficult to collect, but were still quite rare.
"What was that about?" Bonolenov turned to look out the window. He was currently completely wrapped in bandages, his entire being exuding a gloomy aura.
"Probably came to scout the situation," Feitan shrugged. They hadn't exactly been keeping a low profile. In an otherwise peaceful game, the sudden emergence of players like them who completely threw the rules out the window was bound to attract a massive amount of attention from the player base.
"It just so happens we're running low on [Mimic] and [Risky Dice]. Should we chase after him and take a look?" Phinks cracked his wrists.
"Sure." Bonolenov had already summoned his Binder and pulled out the [Accompany] spell card. In that brief moment of eye contact, Bonolenov had recognized the poor bastard they had robbed once before. Back when they were robbing the shop, every player they let go was, in their eyes, just livestock—fattened up to continuously provide them with resources. Just like now!
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