Chapter 135: Newbie Hunter
The news Luna brought as she barged into my room was quite shocking.
"That corpse is the work of a Newbie Hunter?"
"Y-Yes."
Luna seed unable to calm her excitent, looking quite flustered.
While finding a corpse was certainly surprising, considering Luna's usual personality, I wondered if it was really sothing to make such a fuss about.
"How can you be sure?"
A natural question arose.
It was true that a player being murdered in the middle of a big city like this was extrely rare, but that wasn't evidence of a Newbie Hunter's involvent.
Yet Luna was concluding that this incident was the work of a Newbie Hunter.
It was clearly strange.
"Well... if a player dies suddenly in a place like this, there's no other reason than a Newbie Hunter, right? If it was a targeted killing, it would have been much easier to deal with them once they left the city."
"It could be soone with a grudge aiming for a mont of lowered guard because they're inside the city."
"Even so, the risk is too high. Who else but a Newbie Hunter would do such a thing?"
Luna was speaking as if she had already concluded that a Newbie Hunter was behind this incident.
"What's your basis? You seem to have a separate reason for saying so."
Luna hesitated for a mont before her lips quivered as if she couldn't help it.
"......I saw a Newbie Hunter once before."
"You saw one?"
"Yeah. Once, a long ti ago, from afar."
"Yohan also said he had seen a Newbie Hunter before. It seems Newbie Hunters are more common than I thought."
"Huh? Kim Yohan saw a Newbie Hunter?"
"So he said."
"Hmm... Well, that could be. Since Newbie Hunters are everywhere."
"Anyway, assuming this is the work of a Newbie Hunter, what's your basis? What on earth made you so flustered?"
The Luna I've seen so far is always confident.
And she had the skills to back it up.
But the current Luna was excessively tense, unlike the Luna I knew.
"A Newbie Hunter is... a ghost."
"What?"
"Otherwise, how could they commit murders so simultaneously across the continent and disappear?"
"......."
I seriously pondered how to accept this preposterous claim.
"Do you perhaps believe in ghosts?"
"Ghost types actually exist, you know."
"That's true, but..."
This leaves with nothing to say.
"Is that the only basis for saying a Newbie Hunter is a ghost?"
"I told you, I saw a Newbie Hunter before. That white, shimring thing was definitely a ghost."
Luna shivered slightly as she said that.
I only realized it now, but Luna seed to be sowhat afraid of ghost stories or rumors.
The type to waste unnecessary energy on intangible subjects, perhaps.
"So, a ghost appeared in the middle of the city, killed a player, and disappeared again?"
"Yeah, yeah. That's exactly what I'm saying."
"......."
I didn't know where to start pointing things out, but I had to verify at least one fact.
"Ordinary Ghost types cannot enter a large city like Elysian. Large cities basically have temples established by the Punishnt Order."
"Hmm, that's true."
"And a Ghost type powerful enough to ignore the temple's barrier would cause so massive impact just by its presence. But nothing happened nearby."
The conclusion is simple.
"Therefore, it cannot be a ghost."
For a ghost to have murdered a player, none of the signs or phenona that appear with a ghost's ergence occurred.
A person killed them.
And there's a high probability it was another player.
"That's true, but... still, it was definitely a ghost."
Despite being unable to explain the reason, Luna was convinced that the Newbie Hunter she saw was a ghost.
"I don't know what you saw to say that, but whether the Newbie Hunter is a ghost or not, it's true that there's a high probability that a Newbie Hunter killed the player now. In any case, it's clear that a player was murdered in the middle of a big city."
"Hmm, that's right."
"So leaving this place right now would look suspicious, let's depart tomorrow morning."
Luna looked at with blinking eyes.
"Huh? Just leaving?"
"Is there a problem?"
"Um... not exactly, but I thought you'd look into the Newbie Hunter."
"I decline getting involved in troubleso matters unnecessarily."
It was true that I was curious about the Newbie Hunter's identity, but I wasn't keen on buying trouble by getting involved with soone dangerous enough for Luna to treat as a ghost.
Wasn't it a situation where it wasn't even clear if the Newbie Hunter was singular or plural?
"If you say so, Vell."
"Looking at the situation, it doesn't seem like any separate festival will be held, so let's stay in our lodgings today."
"That's a bit of a sha."
As she said, due to the murder incident in the middle of the city, the festival atmosphere that seed about to start quickly settled down calmly.
It was a bit unfortunate for Luna who was looking forward to the festival, but considering it was a ti to be cautious, it could be seen as fortunate.
"Then see you later at lunch. I'll play in my room for a bit."
"Okay."
After Luna returned to her room, having nothing else to do, I watched outside the window for a while, and upon seeing the corpse being carried out, I closed the window again.
‘Co to think of it, I rember there was a companion, but I didn't see them. Don't tell that person was also done in by the Newbie Hunter?’
If so, I couldn't rule out the possibility that Luna and I had also been identified by the Newbie Hunter.
Therefore, it would be good to leave Elysian quickly if possible, but rushing clumsily could rather lead to being discovered by the Newbie Hunter, so I decided to move slowly as originally planned.
‘Let's investigate for now.’
Just in ti, there was a very efficient and convenient ans for players to obtain information.
[Connecting to the Anonymous Bulletin Board.]
-Anonymous12: Tips for not encountering the Gunman on the 2nd floor of Akiro's Labyrinth oo
-Anteater: But the real Plague Mask Gunman must be leveling up like crazy right now.
-Hainbere: Ah, I'm giving up on the labyrinth walkthrough.
The Anonymous Bulletin Board was still in full swing with topics related to Akiro's Labyrinth.
Of course, that too would naturally be forgotten by people and quiet down after so ti passed, but at least until then, it would heat up the bulletin board.
Well, the reason I turned on the Anonymous Bulletin Board now wasn't to see topics about Akiro's Labyrinth.
[Title Search: Newbie Hunter]
Although it's a topic pushed to the back burner by Akiro's Labyrinth or the Plague Mask Gunman right now, the subject of the Newbie Hunter was originally always a hot potato on the Anonymous Bulletin Board.
Therefore, searching for Newbie Hunter brought up quite a few relatively recent posts.
-SpeculativeHeadcanon3: So, has the Newbie Hunter appeared lately?
-Anonymous21: The Newbie Hunter is quiet these days. Is he dead by any chance?
-Anonymous55: That damn Newbie Hunter is such old news lol Co to think of it, Newdeulbak77 isn't seen? Hmm...
Regrettably, among the many posts, there was no particularly new information about the Newbie Hunter.
Well, since the authenticity of the Newbie Hunter itself was unverified information in the first place, the circulating stories were inevitably all like ghost stories.
Should I say it can't be helped?
‘Newbie Hunter, huh...’
If asked if I had absolutely no interest in it, obviously that's not true.
The Newbie Hunter was, after all, one of the oldest topics on the Anonymous Bulletin Board, and it was true that I also had curiosity about it.
But information about the Newbie Hunter wasn't the kind I could know just by being interested, so I had half given up, yet I ended up facing rumors of the Newbie Hunter directly like this.
‘I wish nothing would happen but...’
Considering my unfortunate destiny, that was likely to be difficult.
Even if I don't know, won't I get swept up in troubleso matters in so way?
Staring at the Anonymous Bulletin Board for a long ti while lying comfortably on the bed reminded of the ti I used to fiddle with my smartphone on the bed when I was on Earth a long ti ago.
It was that comfortable, and as ti passed quickly, lunch ti arrived before I knew it.
‘...Annoying.’
Going down to the first floor to eat felt like a huge bother.
It seed Luna felt the sa, as the situation was quiet regarding the promise to et on the first floor at lunch earlier.
So I roughly bought a few dry rations from the auction house and ate them on the bed while watching the Anonymous Bulletin Board.
Perhaps this is happiness.
"Mmm."
Lazing around like that, my eyes gradually began to close.
It was a tough journey.
Resting for a mont should be fine.
Yes, just for a very short mont.
.
.
.
[‘Orb of Water’ protects the wearer.]
[‘Orb of Water’ deploys ‘Rotating Shield of Water’.]
Clang!──
When I ca to my senses, the first things I saw were the water shield rising to protect and the tallic sound of sothing clashing with it.
And reflexively, I activated Weapon Summon.
[Activates ‘Weapon Summon (??)’.]
[‘Lv.1’ Weapon is summoned.]
[Summons weapon, ‘Colt garrison B-09’.]
With a blue halo of light, the heaviness of the Colt Garrison B-09 that appeared in my right hand was transmitted to my hand.
As the water shield slowly disappeared, and the mont I aid the gun muzzle toward the assailant revealed soon after.
"Uh?"
I had no choice but to hesitate pulling the trigger for a mont.
Sothing white and shimring right in front of my eyes.
As far as I knew, there was only one such phenonon.
‘...Ghost?’
What was maintaining a faint form in front of now was clearly a ghost.
However, if there was one thing a bit strange for a ghost, it was that the ghost's attire was wrapped in black clothes all over the body like an assassin, covering the face.
Looking just like an assassin.
‘In all my life, an assassin ghost, what in the world...’
I couldn't hide my absurdity, but it was a clear fact that the assassin ghost right in front of my eyes was swinging a dagger at .
Swish!
Originally, Ghost types have no physical form, so they are bound to be quite limited in physical attacks.
However, as if the assassin ghost right in front of my eyes knew that weakness well, the dagger it was swinging was a weapon actually equipped with form and physical force.
Not only an assassin ghost, but I ended up seeing the sight of an assassin ghost carrying a real dagger.
‘I don't know what it is, but for now, eliminate it.’
It goes without saying, but there was a high possibility that the physical force a gun possessed wouldn't be very helpful against a Ghost type.
But the dagger is different.
Bang!──
The gun fired with the pulled trigger deflected the dagger the ghost assassin was swinging at once.
As the ghost assassin beca defenseless for a mont like that, I reached out my hand as it was.
‘Lion.’
[Yes.]
Demonic energy shimring from the outstretched hand was offered as the price for magic, and soon Spirit Magic was activated.
Spirit Magic.
Demonic Energy Slash.
As the swung slash of Demonic Energy cut down the ghost assassin at once.
[Kiyaaaaaaaaak───!!!]
A terrible scream like a wail echoed out.
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