Chapter 8: Last two sips
As the forest was rapidly covered by a blanket of smoke, the villagers were all running in panic. The acrid sll of charred woods was filling the air, choking the lungs of any living in the periter. The villagers had no choice but to leave far away from the burning woods.
It was a dry season, and with mountains of dry leaves filling the ground, one small blaze could easily turn the forest into dust.
The fire started moving from every corner of the forest, seemingly attempting to et at the center.
Together with the cries of wild animals, Philip stood frozen inside the forest, stunned by his enemy's cruelty.
His mind was working fast, looking for a way to escape this entrapnt. However, as he kept on creating plans, he also kept on crossing them out as they were all imperfect.
"HAHAHAHA"
Philip laughed maniacally, his emotional state was slowly breaking apart. He was lost on what to do with this obstacle.
'Think! Think!'
While tears were coursing down his cheeks, Philip's wide smile still couldn't be extracted from his face.
Philip's state was extrely scary. It was like he had finally gone broken.
But Philip was forced to wake up as the smoke was starting to hurt his eyes and lungs.
He quickly stripped his undershirt and covered his nose and mouth with it, but Philip thought it was not enough as the shirt was too thin to filter the smoke.
Philip touched his pants and decided to use them, but when he was about to tear them off, a bottle rolled out from his pocket, creating a dropping sound.
He picked up the bottle, surprised. He almost forgot the gift his Auntie Marrissa gave to him.
Philip recalled his conversation with her and managed to rember that it was a bottle of dicine.
Because the gift was tily, Philip was actually suspicious of his aunt in his heart.
'What's her real identity? Was it because of her that he was found out?' Philip asked internally.
Philip opened the bottle and sniffed inside, trying to confirm its authenticity, whether it was dicine or just another trap designed by his enemy.
He thought for a mont then took a sip. Auntie Marissa has always been good to him. And Philip chose to gamble and trust this goodwill.
The taste made his tongue numb. Philip panicked, thinking it was poison, however, he quickly got over it and felt his body ache less.
The scratches from the sharp branches healed and faded, and his disheveled appearance slightly beca better.
"This is miraculous!" Philip exclaid.
He always knew that Auntie Marissa was not an ordinary person but he never expected her to be so great to create an instant cure for wounds.
After so ti, Philip trembled, as if realizing sothing. He looked at the bottle with 4 sips remaining and then at the forest. His mind quickly calculated the probabilities of success.
A few seconds later, Philip let out a deep breath and ran toward the direction of the fire.
***
Outside the simulated world, a lot of people were watching their television at ho in suspense. They were all filled with sweat as their eyes were focused on the screen nervously.
On the screen was a figure of a child covered with burns and blisters all around his body. While holding a dicine bottle in his arms tightly, his face turned red and ugly every ti he moved along the dancing fire.
The audience was breathless as if they felt his pain, however, the child never stopped and complained. He just ran and ran, forcing himself to move alongside the heat surrounding him.
While he was running, a man with a black top hat appeared at the bottom of the screen.
"Betting is now officially closed!" The man declared and continued, "Now, I will announce the result of your bets!"
"94.21% of the bettors were not optimistic at number 88 escape!" His eyes bulged exaggeratedly and smiled,
"Well, I understand where your decision is coming from. Who would have thought that number 88 would forget about the system? Of all of the 100 players, he is the only one, well not including number 46, to have not ever been linked to the system yet!"
The man continued, "And we have 5.79% bettors who were supportive of him! Hmm… Maybe we can ask our last season's winner of the Soulless Ga." The man winked at the person on his side and said, "What can you say about this, Ms. Elsa?"
The woman with long snow white hair and crystal pale skin cleared her throat and answered, "I think the bettors have slight confidence in number 88 for the fact that he was a product of a story with a bad ending.
She paused and continued, "And based on the history of the Soulless Ga, those characters would usually win in the end."
"Hahaha," the man laughed at her
answer and teased, "Just like you Ms. Elsa?"
Elsa glanced at her side and nodded seriously, "It's a proven fact. It doesn't apply only to ."
She stopped and declared, "However, personally, I don't think 88 would win this ga."
"Why so?"
"Because it's already too late. Other Bad Ending Characters would usually have steeled their mind from the mont they entered the simulated world. And with hard work and tenacity, they would have a comparative advantage against others.
"88 realized it too late. He had wasted eight years of preparation and information gathering.
"Please do rember this. The reason why bad ending characters would usually win the ga is because of their greed - greed for a happy life. However, everything went wrong for 88. Instead of fighting, he chose to remain hidden and fulfill his greed in the fake world."
The viewers nod in affirmation. They have been watching the show for 8 years, and within these years, other players were doing their best to adapt, thinking about the ga best in their minds.
Also, so of them had experienced a supernatural event that would increase their strength. However, for 88, his notable experience includes only the ti when he escaped the hidden intelligence unit of the governnt.
So the 94% bettor's decision was well-grounded.
After so point, the man announced, "Okay, I think there's nothing more interesting with this, so let's take a short break for a while. Stay tuned and don't change the channel! This is Osuda, your host for tonight."
While the screen was playing so advertisents, Osuda stood up from his chair and walked towards the backroom for a quick refreshnt.
Passing through the personnel staff responsible for watching the ga 24/7, he saw a particular girl looking at the screen, sobbing.
Osuda's curiosity peaked at this sight. Yes, it was normal for viewers to cry over the ga but the woman was different. She was a staff mber.
'After watching this cruel ga for years, there's still a staff mber who would cry over this?' He questioned internally.
However, before he gave it so more thought, a scream echoed around, distracting him. He was forced to stop thinking and walked over to the source.
"What happened?"
"Sir! Breaking News!" he exclaid excitedly. The staff then gave Osuda the screen showing the source of his excitent.
Upon seeing this, Osuda also beca excited, "Go! Go! End the break, Let's go live!"
The staff mbers moved speedily, and Osuda took his seat, preparing himself.
While he was internalizing his introduction, he saw the woman earlier turned into pixels and strings of numbers.
His eyes widened in an instant. Osuda knew about this occurrence as it had happened so tis in the past.
Osuda wanted to stop this transformation but he knew to himself that it was too late. While watching her dissolving in the thin air, he could only scream the word,
"AUTHOR!"
***
Philip ran towards the area where the waterfalls were located. This was the only way he thought he had the chance to overco the problem regarding both fires and escaping outside the forest.
His plan was to use the water to sohow minimize the pain from his burns, and in addition, use the falling water to deliver his body down to the bottom.
The plan was in truth, impossible, as the waterfall was more than a kiloter high. If Philip used this as an escape route and let his body fall below, this would normally result in death.
However, Philip had the dicine to cure critical injuries. If used on ti, his life would have a higher chance of being saved.
With this idea, Philip was starting to get his hopes high.
When he was close to his destination, Philip took a sip of the dicine.
His burns then instantly recovered and the pain was also slightly alleviated. Although the dicine had no effect on his stamina, he thought it was enough of a help. With his injuries getting healed, his weight was now lighter compared to before.
After so running, the crest of the waterfall was starting to reveal itself before his eyes.
Philip's hold on the dicine beca tighter as he prepared to carry on his plan.
However, when he was a few steps away from the brink, an arrow shot, hitting his legs.
Philip fell to the ground, feeling the pain of an arrowhead sinking deeply through his skin.
He raised his head and saw the n in their protective coats surrounding him from a distance.
It was then that Philip realized that his plan was predicted by his enemy.
Philip pulled the arrow away from his legs and took another sip from the bottle.
After so ti, the wound faded. He then glanced at the n and thought of another plan,
'With last two sips, can he escape from them?'
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