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HC: Pacifist | Ch. 321 - Off to the Races
🕑 Added 2024-08-08 14:12:02 +0000 UTCA crowd of lower-level players stood at the entrance of the mines, discussing their strategy. Some looked excited about the upcoming battle, stretching their virtual muscles and tentatively slashing their weapons in the air. Others kept to themselves, slightly grossed out about the prospect of fighting giant bugs in a musty mine.
Zin ignored them and headed down deeper. There was no point in sticking around the entrance where there was so much competition. He doubted many cockroaches would even make it here where there were so many players.
As Zin dashed through the dark corridors of the Charlesville Mines, he spotted more seasoned players. They were waiting nearer the cockroach, spawning points and avoiding their competitors. They had a look of quiet concentration, bracing for the upcoming swarm.
“The cockroach races have begun!” Eron sent a message with a screenshot of the system’s notifications.
Congratulations on participating in this edition of the Molympic Games!
The final sport is the cockroach race. Release three cockroaches into the tunnels. At the end of three hours, whoever has the most cockroaches left wins. If there’s a tie, moles can all join the hunt, and the game will continue until only one cockroach is standing.
Zin cracked his neck. Now, it was just waiting for the bugs to travel up here. The sound of skittering grew louder, and cockroaches suddenly started emerging from every nook and cranny in the tunnels.
The cockroaches are swarming the mines! Quick! Terminate this plague!
Cockroaches left: 20,000.
Time Left: 03:00:00
Zin decisively activated his eye-sight skill.
UV Scan!
Zin’s pupils gleamed bright purple, and everything around him changed. Zin had had this skill since level 15. Thanks to it, he’d accomplished much in the game. By expanding the spectrum of his vision, he often found messages and clues that led to secret maps and valuable items, one of which he’d given to Eron.
Violet Daisy Dye (Consumable)
Description: This dye leaves an invisible mark to the naked eye, but that can be seen with special items and skills.
Eron’s three cockroaches were covered in this special dye; if Zin ran into them, they would stand out like a lighthouse at night. Zin scanned the cockroaches around him, looking for Eron’s bugs. He spotted none. Finding three cockroaches in the middle of 20,00 was like finding a needle in a haystack. The cockroach races were a game that couldn’t be beaten with skill.
Since they weren’t here, Zin set out to find them.
Wisp of Smoke!
Zin’s body teleported in short bursts from one intersection to the next. Skirmishes were taking place all over the tunnels. Skills crackled, and weapons clashed as participants fought viciously to hoard event points. Zin ignored them and finally spotted one bright green light in a sea of dark purple.
There’s cockroach number one.
Zin teleported toward the bug and swung his daggers, killing every other bug around it.
Whirlwind of Blades!
10,231!
14,110!
19,219!
12,123!
Each slash of his blades was a swift and decisive strike. The cockroaches fell in a cascade of chitin and exoskeletons. Zin grabbed the lone survivor, hitting it with the pommel of his dagger.
Stun Lock!
With this skill, the cockroach became frozen in place, its legs twitching helplessly. Zin placed the stunned cockroach into a small bag and resumed his search for the other two.
In just 5 minutes of the event, the number of cockroaches had already dropped by 1,000. Zin hoped that none of Eron’s was among them. He traveled deeper into the mountain, his steps echoing in the expansive tunnels.
He found three bold players working as a team. They had backed against a wall fighting a swarm of dozens of cockroaches. Among them, there was another one of Eron’s bugs. One of the warriors was already engaging it in battle, and its health bar was dropping low.
Zin teleported into their midst and eliminated the players in a flurry of motion with swift, precise strikes. He stun-locked the second of Eron’s cockroaches and placed it in the bag, next to the other one. With this, his chances of victory were practically 100%. Even if a few lone cockroaches survived when the event ended, the chances that two would belong to the same player were next to none. He wasn’t going to stop yet, though.
Two down, one to go.
From then on, Zin wasn’t just looking for Eron’s third cockroach. The event had been going for 15 minutes, and there was a good chance it had already been caught. Therefore, he started speeding the event along. Wherever he saw a cluster of cockroaches, he struck, clearing the area with ruthless efficiency.
It's too bad he didn’t know which ones were Roth’s. It didn’t matter much because he would slaughter everything down here.
*
The cockroach races were the game with the most participants, by far. Virtually every mole signed up their stock for the event. Countless moles gathered around him, squeaking, eating, mingling, and having an early celebration of the Molympic Games.
Roth didn’t share their festive mood. He felt like he had aged years since the race began. All the information he had access to was the total number of cockroaches left and how many of his were alive. There was no scoreboard to assure them he was in the lead, nor cameras of his cockroaches.
To worsen it, he could see his opponent. Eron sat in a corner, looking smug and confident. He and Zin probably had sorted something out to ensure they would win. All that Roth could do was trust the Leafies. He didn’t even know what they would do to guarantee the survival of the cockroaches; he just hoped it would be enough.
*
In the second hour of the event, Zin found Eron’s third dyed cockroach. It lay lifeless on the ground. Whoever killed it hadn’t bothered to loot it, and the system had yet to remove its corpse.
Knowing there was no point in looking for Eron’s roaches anymore, Zin devoted all his attention to butchering every bug he could find. He tried to imagine Jaw-Long’s face in every cockroach he killed. It wasn’t difficult. The old man was like a cockroach in ways more than one. For one, he was almost unkillable. Secondly, he grossed him out.
Zin contemplated what would happen in a few hours while searching the dark corridors for the reflex of the mine’s lamps on the shiny, chitinous armor of the giant insects. Soon, after he was done here, he would go to the Core, find Jaw-Long in his moment of distraction, and finally taste the satisfaction of besting his old teacher.
*
“Do you think it’s still worth it to go down there?” a warrior asked one of his companions.
“There are only 100 left. It’s too much of a hassle to find them. Do you have any idea how many tunnels there are down there? Only the first two hours of the event are worth it.”
The warrior shrugged. “Whatever. What are you going to get from the mayor?”
“I was thinking of learning the [Prospector] skill.”
“Oh, cool. Isn’t that the one that makes ore veins appear on your map if you have the mining profession?”
“That’s the one.”
“Good call. I think I’ll get a new helmet.”
Players chatted and conversed about the event, waiting for it to end. Meanwhile, above their heads, huddled together on the cavern's ceiling, was a translucent, motionless shape. Keener players noticed it but dismissed it as a whimsical rogue using [Camouflage]. It remained still, too, waiting for the timer to hit zero.
*
As the hours passed, it became harder to find any insects. By the time the clock hit the two-hour mark, there were only 100 left. Zin spent the last hour of the event hunting 70 of these. Thanks to his efforts and those of other earnest players the counter hit the single digits.
Cockroaches left: 7
Time Left: 00:04:32
He had two of the survivors stunned on his bag, and the other five were probably lonesome cockroaches lost out there somewhere. Just in case, Zin kept traveling the tunnels. Behind one boulder, he heard a few skittering sounds and found one lonesome cockroach. He finished it at the last minute and reduced the number of cockroaches to six.
He was confident that he had this in the bag. There was no way that Roth’s cockroaches had survived. Even if one of them had, out of sheer luck, he still had two of Eron’s.
Congratulations! [Charlesville’s Cockroach Termination] is finished.
Congratulations to Zin for scoring the most event points.
You’ve won a new title: [Bug Squasher].
Bug Squasher (Rare)
Description: You are unmatched in your skill to get plagues under control.
Effects: When outnumbered 1 to 10 or worse, you get 50% bonus damage.
Conditions to unlock [Bug Squasher]:
Score 1st in the Charlesville’s Cockroach Termination event.
The title wasn’t half-bad, but Zin wasn’t interested in that. He called Eron immediately.
“Aha. Didn’t I tell you, Eron?” he said while triumphantly holding a cockroach by their antennae in his hands and waving them in front of the camera. He frowned. Instead of finding his business associate happy and cheering, Eron was scowling. “Eron? What’s the matter? Is it because you lost your trade agreement?”
“No. Roth still won.”
“WHAT?! It can’t be. That… all three… How?”
Zin was stunned. He had given his all to protect these two disgusting bugs and could still not save the third. If Roth won, that meant he had managed to preserve all his three cockroaches. Just how had he done it? Could he also transform into a cockroach?!
“Leave. Go do your route,” he said and hung up the call.
Zin took a deep breath. He looked at the clock and ran some numbers. He supposed he still had time to teach Roth humility before traveling to the Core.
*
Roth’s three cockroaches lay completely still on the cavern’s ceiling. On each of their necks was a golden castle. All three pulsed with bioenergy, forming a translucent shield that cloaked them from the stupid humans below.
This illusion was pitifully easy to see through compared with what they could produce back at their empire, and they couldn’t sustain such an illusion for much longer, but they could feel the mental waves of approval coming from underground. They had pleased their benefactor.
Mission accomplished. Return.
The soldiers slowly herded along the cockroaches toward one of the tunnels that connected the mines to the Molympic Coliseum.
*
Roth received the distant message from the treeants that they were coming back down. The connection was faint, so he still didn’t know how they had managed to keep all three cockroaches alive. However, he was glad they did. Thanks to them, he beat a record and won the last of the four Molympic Games!
Congratulations! You’ve broken a cockroach race record!
+100 reputation with all Molians;
You are offered a free level (You can only gain this bonus once per sport.)
Congratulations! You’ve won the cockroach race competition!
You win 10,000 gold;
You can write laws for the Molians for one month;
+100 reputation with all Molians;
+5 permanent wisdom (You can only gain this bonus once);
+5% cooldown reduction (You can only gain this bonus once).
Roth had gained three levels and 20 stats after coming here. He checked his place in the ranking and found he had climbed three places! Coming here really had been the right decision.
Ba-da! Ba-da! Ba-da!
Roth frowned. Why did he hear the bongos of the burrowthon again? Was there going to be a second round?
Into the large chamber walked in a procession of golden moles. In the lead, playing the bongos, was the previous winner of the burrowthon. He was followed by the Gold Diggers, Eron’s agent who’d been scripter for the last six months, and one last elite, an older mole that had won the cockroach races last month.
The ordinary moles parted to make way for the golden procession, and the previous champions of the Molympic Games kept marching until they stood before Roth. Roth frowned. What was this all about?
Comments
Julia Pennoyer
I thought the point was they did look up, they just couldn't fathom a cockroach having a stealth skill?
ByLAWphoto
I think being in charge of an army of diggers right when they're trying to usurp the gardens could be interesting
Harley Dalton Jr.
Tyftc
Ender419
I hope Roth is able to tweak the rules a little to his favor so he doesn’t have to play the games every month to maintain leadership of the molian race as well as all of the mining loot the moles acquire goes to the union & some to the Orges guild.
Ender419
I agree with you Coleman, that how can you not look up towards the ceiling when your goal is to kill insects in a cave/tunnel system. Goes to show that humans are pretty much linear in how they handle specific situations.
Coleman
I am actually impressed that in an underground bug smashing tournament no one bothered to look up. I suppose nobody wanted a rocks fall situation but that was hilarious oversight. Zin might get what’s coming to him if he tries to make a fuss after Roth’s big win. Especially since Roth may be in a position to meet the actual ruling body of the moles if the games are more of a front facing affair.
