The Count’s Youngest Son is a Player

Chapter 113

Uuuung.

With a strange shiver, the scenery in front of me completely changed.

“Hmm, where is this?”

Stone buildings, 3 to 4 stories high, lined up along a narrow alleyway. It felt like a back alley in the city center. I took a moment to catch my breath and feel the energy around me.

“Definitely, the sensitivity of my senses and the detection range of psychokinesis have decreased.”

It was the aftereffect of reverting my skill proficiency to beginner level. Nevertheless, I could still clearly perceive up to around 3 meters and roughly grasp up to 10 meters.

“At least it seems like there are no players within the range.”

Bae Dohyun lightly jumped onto the wall, created a psychokinetic foothold in the air, took a step, and then jumped into a window on the second floor of a building.

Inside the simple room that looked like an inn’s chamber. He swiftly reached under the lonely bed, grasped something, and when he pulled it out, a piece of a golden horse bridle was in his hand.

“It might have seemed like a simple treasure hunt, but it’s actually a bit different.”

Inside the bridle, there was a mana stone fragment emitting a faint wave. Therefore, it was designed so that players with developed senses like Bae Dohyun could feel it even without directly seeing it.

After putting the bridle into his pocket, Bae Dohyun grabbed the window again and this time, he moved up the wall towards the rooftop of the building.

With movements so natural that it could make monkeys envious, he climbed onto the roof and first observed the surrounding terrain.

The expensive arena, created at great cost, offered a different battlefield for each match, living up to its reputation.

“I can think of it as a small baron castle.”

Looking at the mini-map to examine the terrain, he saw that the central area, Zone 1, looked like a small lord’s castle within the castle walls, with surrounding areas designed as residential areas, commercial zones, typical city layouts.

Of course, some areas uniquely had forests and there were wide fields as training areas with military camps. The zone where Bae Dohyun was stationed was Zone 8 on the mini-map, a commercial district in the west.

“Shall we slowly start then?”

The terrain was not advantageous due to the dense buildings and complex roads, with poor visibility and many hiding spots, making it a good terrain for sneaking around.

Of course, this applied to other players as well, but Bae Dohyun’s superior exploration ability was independent of the terrain.

While observing the terrain from the rooftop, he had already spotted three players nearby moving cautiously, hiding their bodies behind terrain features.

Even though they were moving carefully, trying to camouflage themselves, their awkward movements were clearly visible from above.

“It looks like he hasn’t been to the military.”

Indeed, it was natural since there aren’t many countries with conscription systems.

Click.

Bae Dohyun took out a crossbow from his inventory and aimed at a yellow-haired player about 30m away.

He hid behind the terrace railing of the pub, peeking his head out to scan the surroundings.

Boom, thud!

The bolt shot by Dohyun accurately pierced through the player’s forehead.

Right after firing the crossbow, as if he had no intention to see the outcome, Dohyun leaped and crossed over to the roof of a nearby building. In his hand, a javelin about a meter in length was now held.

Thud, thud.

A player with a sword and shield cautiously moving from an alley about 15m away drew Dohyun’s attention. Although the player seemed to be of Asian descent, they were not a Korean player.

Dohyun stealthily closed the distance to about 5m while keeping quiet, then hurled the javelin at the player’s back from the rooftop.

Swoosh!

Startled by the sound, the opponent turned around, but the javelin had already pierced through his side, embedding into the ground.

*Sucking in air*

Silently descending in front of the player who couldn’t even scream, Dohyun coldly thrust a dagger under his chin, extinguishing his breath. With no loud noise, he gently laid the player’s body on the ground and retrieved the javelin.

The golden logo of a falcon engraved on the javelin’s blade looked eerie bathed in the player’s red blood.

“Next is to the east, right?”

Stowing away the javelin in his inventory, Dohyun then took out a bow and arrow, leaped back onto the roof, and began moving stealthily, like a forgotten ruthless hunter in the world.

* * *

“Seohyun, how are you holding up?”

“I’m fine. It seems like there are no enemies within at least one block.”

A party consisting of one woman and three men gathered in the living room of a wooden house, keeping watch in all directions.

They were a party of Korean players. The female player who guided Bae Dohyun was the charming lady, Han Seohyun.

Following the strategy they had devised before the start of the test, they safely met in front of the intersection at the center of Zone 5 and moved towards the boundary of the zone to take their positions.

At that moment, a small silver object came in through the window. It was a cute little baby fox with fluffy and shiny silver fur wrapped around its forelegs, about half the size of a grown fox.

“Kwoolong.”

The fox made a cute sound and walked over, jumping into Seohyun’s arms.

“Good job, our Eunbyeol.”

Seohyun held the fox tightly. Eunbyeol was her summoned creature. Despite its cute appearance, it possessed combat power equivalent to a wolf and had excellent perception, easily detecting enemies in the vicinity.

Thanks to Eunbyeol, her role in this party was reconnaissance, using Eunbyeol to check for any enemies nearby upon their arrival.

However, even after confirming there were no enemies around, Seohyun’s expression didn’t seem very pleased. After hesitating for a moment, she finally spoke up.

“How about we go out to fight now?”

“Wait, wasn’t that discussion already settled? Surely our party decided to prioritize survival.”

“No, I’ve been saying from the beginning that we should actively engage in battle. And my thoughts on that haven’t changed.”

“Why? It’s clear that many qualifiers came from teams that focused on enduring battles until the end rather than engaging in early combat, even after looking at the statistics of the preliminary rounds for a few days. Is it because of that guy’s words?”

“No, that’s biased statistics…”

“Fine. Whether Seohyun agrees or not, we have no intention of moving. If you want, you can go out and fight alone.”

With a sardonic smile, her expression looked quite unlucky. Other players who were watching the argument from a distance whispered to each other.

‘She’s saying that because she can comfortably shoot arrows from the back. Honestly, we’re more likely to die first if a battle breaks out, right?’

‘Hey, quiet down. She can hear us.’

‘So what if she can? Maybe she thinks we’ll just follow along because she’s pretty.’

Seohyun bit her lip and remained silent. They were clearly not people with whom reasoning would work.

‘Of all the rigid people to encounter…’

The statistics the man was shouting about were made up and nonsensical. While it was true that many qualifiers came from teams that survived until the end, the claim that those teams avoided combat in the beginning was a complete fabrication.

In the end, it was the skilled team that survived, and since you need to increase your kill count to pass. They’re tactic of hiding in one place and just trying to survive was not very promising.

And she couldn’t shake off what Bae Dohyun had said. She had a gut feeling that there was absolutely no reason for him to tell her to rack up kills early on.

“Although I’ve already scored two kills, it might be hard to get more kills by sticking with them. But I can’t really move alone either. What should I do?”

Suddenly, she remembered the two statues she had hidden in her pocket. They were the scouting reports brought to her by her partner Eunbyeol.

“If things don’t go well, I might have to go with that man’s advice….”

As she organized her thoughts, it was almost time for the announcement of the first elimination zone.

“Get ready to move. The large-scale movements are as we’ve planned in advance….”

A man who thought of himself as the leader shouted, but Seohyun paid no attention to it because that was not her concern.

After the announcement of the first elimination zone, the real-time kill count of the players would be made public, signaling the start of the intense competition.

Seohyun couldn’t shake off the nagging feeling about the man named Bae Dohyun.

Ding-dong~.

“Great. We’ve cleared our area!”

There were small cheers from the party members. However, Seohyun couldn’t react at all.

“Oh my goodness!”

Her large eyes were fixated on the real-time kill ranking list, with her hands covering her mouth.

1st – Bae Dohyun (South Korea), 21 kills

2nd – Shoichiro (Japan), 3 kills

3rd – Go Garyong (China), 3 kills

……

Number of Survivors: 137

* * *

Swish, clang.

Bae Dohyun wiped the blood off his sword into the air, sheathed it, and stored it in his inventory.

Behind him, two corpses with slit throats and split chests were rolling in pools of blood.

“Hmm. I guess everyone has caught on now.”

Examining the system window, he closed it without hesitation and enlarged the minimap. He was currently in Zone 7, located south of the starting Zone 8.

Similar to the shopping district, the buildings were only about two stories high, with well-maintained roads making movement easy and exposed.

“Now, the real start begins.”

If someone were to hear him, they might think he was talking nonsense about already surpassing the pass line by far.

Up until the previous rounds, the average kill count for the top scorer was barely 10, and even the player with the highest kill count had reached only 13 kills.

Bae Dohyun had already surpassed the highest kill count in the preliminaries by a large margin. But Bae Dohyun’s goal was not simply to pass.

“He will instill an overwhelming sense of power in everyone’s minds. When people think of ‘Connect,’ they will think of Bae Dohyun. And when they think of Bae Dohyun, they will think of the strongest.”

The process had to be convincing to everyone.

“There is still a long way to go.”

Until now, he had been able to harvest kills relatively easily. He had been cutting down players one by one before the players in Zone 8 gathered together.

It was almost like assassination. Although he considered assassination a skillful and valid strategy, he felt it lacked ‘impact.’

People preferred flashy and rich battles over clean and straightforward encounters. They cheered more for those who won fair and square in head-to-head battles rather than through ambush or sneak attacks, regardless of their actual skills.

“So, from now on, I’ll change my approach.”

He had raised his kill count enough; now it was time to meet people’s expectations. With time running out, party formations should be over, and the kill ranking should be up, so players would start moving. If they didn’t move, he would make them move, even if by force.

“And while at it, I’ll also settle the debt with those guys.”

The team formation in Zone H had traces of Raul’s influence. He tried to avoid excessive interference, but there were certain individuals he really wanted to meet.

And Raul had invited ‘those guys’ to this battlefield without hesitation.

“I really, really wanted to meet them.”

Recalling the slaughter list he had carefully stored in his mind, Raul smiled a sinister smile.

(To be continued)