"Damn! You guys, clean this place up! Sevrance! We need to chase!"
"Mhm!"
Eve bellowed some order as she and Sevrance, the assassin in black, swiftly chased after Serin. There was great worry in Eve's eyes. After she made some progress in the game under the name of Miss I never Miss she was soon contacted by Sevrance, forming the TwinThieves guild together.
Not only was Sevrance strong in the game but even in the real world he was an expert assassin. With the strength of a blood strengthening stage martial artist and the skills gained in the game he was one of the most formidable figures of Falva Star's underworld.
Everything was great about the guild. Sevrance really treated her like a guild leader of equal importance. She had loyal guild members, could fight to her hearts content, and it was even somewhat… fun. It was a great time. But only until Serin one day reached out his greedy hands and demanded 20% of the guild's profit. Twenty percent for doing absolutely nothing! Eve had always been loyal to Serin but at only at that moment did she realise that he never treated her with respect.
Thus, she hatched a plan together with Sevrance to get rid of Serin. She convinced must of the gang, who were also members of TwinThieves. This was rather easy as since the start of the game everyone felt that Serin didn't have much potential left. However, the situation now showed that their judgment might have been a bit off...
"Damn it! Damn it! I can't believe that he has broken through to the constellation stage! He even hid it from me."
"He hasn't broken through yet.", said Sevrance calmly. "He's only extremely close."
"But it was enough to free himself from my skill! With his strength now, can we even kill him?"
"Of course. Don't forget that we have the game's skills. The advantage is still on our side."
Eve and Sevrance, who didn't reveal his real name, rushed through the hilly area, sticking close to Serin. However, it soon became apparent that Eve couldn't keep up despite her high agility. Just as she was about to tell Sevrance to go ahead by himself, a noise reached her ears. It was the sound of other vehicles. And whoever came out here into the wilderness would certainly not be an ally.
"F*ck!"
Eve couldn't help but curse. Even Sevrance couldn't keep his calm, wearing a grimace below his black mask. He took a deep breath, stared at Serin's back again and said:
"We need to go back."
"And let him escape?!"
"We have no choice."
Both of them wore ugly expressions but there was nothing they could do now. The sound of vehicles coming closer could still be heard and the likelihood of them belonging to the army was too high. They couldn't get caught. Not now that they were just about to take over Serin's gang. Furthermore, the transport they intercepted early was still waiting. They couldn't leave it behind. The client wouldn't care if Serin was replaced, but if they didn't get their goods the gang would be in trouble.
Thus, Eve and Sevrance suddenly turned around. Serin let out a loud laugh, before stopping himself.
A short while later five armoured hover cars arrived at the location where the transported had been intercepted. A soldier jumped out and instantly noticed the guards who had been tied up and thrown to the side.
Earlier, Serin and his group had made a big mistake which now actually profited Serin. They didn't take the consoles worn by the guards away. Through the consoles those guards could easily message others, namely the military. Thus, one of the convoys which was already on road could quickly come to aid, scaring away Eve and Sevrance.
But the soldier who had just arrived didn't immediately help the guards. Two others jumped out of the vehicles to do so while the first soldier retrieved a strange device from the back of a car and planted it at the ground. It stood on three metallic legs, looking somewhat like a small satellite. The soldier turned it on, and a bunch of light dots were displayed on a screen. These were the energy readings of the surroundings.
At the edge of the screen were two fast-moving bright dots. The soldier immediately knew that those two marked the stolen transporters. He ignored the rest as they were only weak signatures, most likely some weak beasts or perhaps even animals.
Some distance away Serin was moving with his body close to the ground and his breath subdued. As this wasn't his first time robbing a transport he had a good idea of the army's procedures. Thus, he used a technique to supress the energy in his body and avoided using any strength. Coupled with the special mask he was wearing he didn't stand out on the scanner.
Back at the location of the fight, the soldier frowned and quickly came to a decision.
"Lenni, Derek, you take one of the cars and follow them. I will complete the escort mission. Don't engage in battle, only transmit your location. I will call for reinforcements to pursuit."
"Yes, Sir!"
The two other soldiers saluted and moved swiftly. They rushed towards the last car of the convoy and talked to the people inside. A few young men and women stepped out of the car before Lenni and Derek jumped in and drove away.
The first soldier, clearly a superior, turned towards the people who left the car and spoke apologetically:
"I am sorry for the inconvenience. You see what has happened here. With four cars left it might be somewhat cramped, but we can still reach Mountain Gate City.
"Don't worry major, we understand."
The major nodded lightly. He waved towards one of the cars, signalling another soldier to get out, ordering him to keep the previously tied-up guards safe until reinforcements arrived. Afterwards the major directed everyone to get into the cars and the convoy drove off towards Mountain Gate City.
Inside one of the four cars sat Liam, now forced to squeeze uncomfortably with others. A few days ago, Liam received an invitation from General Reilly to scout another ancient ruin. As the general assured him that the ruin harboured no danger other than the void energy itself, Liam decided to agree after pondering for a while. However, he didn't expect that something would happen on the road. Really, leaving the city was not safe for ordinary people.
This was still because Falva Star had only been populated for a short time and order hadn't been completely established yet. However, with the emergence of players the situation was about to get better. Beasts would be less of a problem with more strong humans. Only other humans could cause trouble, but considering the entire population there were still more people inclined to do good or at least remain indifferent than those who would wantonly do evil.
However, all of this didn't have much to do with Liam. He was not interest in playing the hero. He only cooperated with the army because the ancient ruins left him curious and C unexpectedly issued a challenge again. Furthermore, he had to get used to ancient ruins so he could search for his parents after getting stronger.
While Liam was daydreaming the convoy soon reached Mountain Gate City. They met up with some local soldiers and continued into the mountain range adjacent to the city, driving deeper into the mountain towards an ancient ruin. On the way some blind beasts tried to attack but were quickly taken care off. Soon, the group reached a small base in front of a valley filled with violet fog.
As everyone got out of the car some of the hired players couldn't help but tremble as this was the first time they saw void energy in real life. Recalling the scenes of the 'War on the Void' which were circulating online right now these people almost regretted accepting the invitation of the army.
However, the major reassured them. The army wouldn't send civilians into any real danger. As long as they stuck to the rules nothing would happen.
There were many ancient ruins like this one where the only danger was the void energy. Before the emergence of the game only genuine starlight masters could explore them. But now even the weakest players could go. Soldiers also had consoles, but they had a lot of responsibilities, thus the army started to cooperate with civilian players over the last few months. It was just right to explore ruins with rather low energy readings as these ruins usually didn't hold any ground-breaking discoveries. But they still had to be explored once, after all… what if?
In front of the ruin the major reiterated the rules to everyone.
"As always, if you find something of value the army won't be stingy."
Those words caused everyone's eyes to light up. Only Liam remained somewhat indifferent. He didn't hope to discover any groundbreaking technology. His goal was learning more about the ancient civilization.