NPC Code: Red Riding Hood

The noise coming from below ground woke me up in the middle of my sleep.  As I rose from my temporary bed, the figures of those soldiers entered my view. It also didn't look like these players were just scouts sent by Clement himself, but the main force searching for me.

If I run away now, I might escape these soldiers. That was my plan, not until my ears caught a different voice asking for help.

"P-Please, S-Save me! W-Whoever you are, please save me!" 

That sound came from a villager that lived inside the Mainland. If I was not mistaken, it was a voice that belonged to the alchemist I met before this death game happened.

As I glanced below, Clement and his soldiers had already breached the forest. He surrounded the woodlands with his army by his side, with three villagers gripped in his hands. All of them armed themselves with the weapons I fought before, but with added specs. Those soldiers even upgraded their weapons after a few hours.

The voice I heard came from the alchemist I guessed, with his wife and children beside him. Clement had his sword pointed at the unfortunate family, ready to kill them at any time.

"My scouts found here earlier. If you're a player, you shouldn't be worried about killing these NPCs, right?" Clement asked, and mocked me as he spoke. "But if you're an NPC, you wouldn't let something bad happen to them, do you?"

After saying those lines, Clement swung his sword and killed the man's wife. A fountain of blood gushed out from the girl's body, with the head rolling over to the side. The child and his father embraced the girl's dead body while weeping in pain. They couldn't do anything at all against a superior being who held their lives captive.

I clenched my fist after seeing such a brutal scene. However, I came to the realisation that I had done the same thing with other NPCs. My hands killed dozens of people already without feeling any remorse about them.

And when I finally wanted to change, my mind laughed at me. That brain of mine mocked me, saying that I was a hypocrite for sparing other people's lives. 

I even abandoned Okami and Ryoshi after fighting Alice, which led to Match's displeasure…..

"I didn't want to kill anyone….But what choice did I have?" I thought, while watching the entire scene unfold before me.

"Red, if you don't come out here, I will kill them all. But if you show yourself to me, their lives are as good as spared. You have my word," Clement exclaimed, with his eyes glaring at the broken family.

The player who witnessed the scene shivered at the sight of Clement. And when he abandoned his post and tried running away, Clement threw his sword and pierced the player that wanted to flee.

With a blaring sound, the sword pinned the man against the sturdy boulder. Upon squinting my eyes, that blade hit the player's heart, which spewed out blood after a few seconds. The unlucky player died instantly when Clement threw that sword.

All those who had witnessed the scene widened their eyes in surprise. The soldiers glided their eyes and stared closely at their member impaled against Clement's sword.

Clement called another soldier to his side and ordered him to get his sword back. As soon the other player heard Clement's instruction, the soldier rushed towards the stone. He pulled the sword out and returned it to Clement.

That madman retrieved his sword from the soldier and stabbed that lone player without any reason at all. It was just like what happened to the man that got impaled by Clement's blade. The soldier in front of Clement coughed out blood and died instantly before he could even speak.

"Nobody holds my sword but me," Clement married to himself, and pulled the sword back from the soldier.

As soon as he killed three individuals, Clement sheathed his sword back to his scabbard and looked around for me. 

"I am telling you, Red! If you refuse to go down here, I will kill every survivor of the Mainland," CLement shouted his final warnings at me, and resumed looking around for any clues. "I am not a fan of hide and seek games. So I will give you ten minutes to decide. Each ten minutes would be a dead villager by your hands. You're the one who's killing them, not me, Red."

Clement also instructed his soldier to remind him if ten minutes had already passed the clock. I, who heard everything above ground, went back to my safe place.

Clement was just like me when I first killed an NPC and two players without batting an eye. He knew that all these people were no match against him, even if they tried. Since the game developers placed cheat abilities and armours to him, Clement became one of the strongest NPCs in the game.

Eight minutes had passed by, but I hadn't made up my mind. I just stared into nothing when those minutes ran down through my life. Clement didn't give me the freedom to decide. After all I had been through, I couldn't just give up now and save those NPCs for my goal.

If I wanted to have a winning chance against Clement, I needed to prepare everything I needed. I would even retract my steps and ask Stormfly for help if I have to and let these villagers die in Clement's hands. 

I knew I wanted to change for Match, but my goal still resided inside my head. There was no way I would change for the better good and allow my chance to slip away from me.

After countless debates with myself, I turned my face away from the scene and launched myself from the ancient tree. As soon as I left the gigantic bough, a slicing sound echoed on the ground. It was the same tone that echoed earlier when Clement killed off the wife earlier. Another voice followed afterwards, which came from the alchemist. 

I didn't have to look at the scene, since Clement obviously killed two of the villagers at the same time. He was that kind of punk who would murder everyone he wanted to kill. And that family was the one his eyes caught, which was also my neighbours in the Mainland.

"So they knew I came from this village…." I whispered to myself, while pondering at the words they mentioned.

Clement wouldn't just randomly throw villagers in front of me and threaten me with those people. He had to choose someone that could be close individuals related to me, which led to the kingdom's villagers. Although I was not a part of Mainland, these villagers were still human beings I saw before my life had turned into shambles.

After killing that family for good, Clement yelled at the trees once again, "That's right, Red! You better run! I would run away if I would face off against myself too! You're nothing but a coward who lets other people die for you!"

'Says the man who killed three innocent people….But I know we're riding the same boat, Clement.' 

I wanted to say those words, but couldn't since I had a mission to fulfil. If I allowed my emotions to get the best out of me, I wouldn't have any chance of taking down that base and Asimov, the game developer of Code.

Within a few moments, I jumped from one branch after the other, escaping this place. I needed to recollect my ideas and return to the base to breach it.

However, a clicking sound nearby stopped me from my tracks. Those tones must have also alerted the squad behind me and a trap around my vicinity.

  I widened my eyes and searched for any traps I activated with my feet. And right after a few moments, hundreds of arrows rained upon me.

Thanks to my crimson eyes, those arrows passed through me like in slow motion. These traps were nothing compared to Alice as I evaded all of them in another branch.

But little did I know that Clement was one step ahead of me. As soon as my foot landed on a specific branch, a net caught me off guard. That trap did not even go through my heightened senses, despite activating my two glowing eyes. 

I couldn't use my [shadow walk] or lightning speed to escape that trap. I didn't know why, but the net launched at me almost instantly, which caught my body. If only I knew there was a hidden mechanism of these traps, maybe I would have gotten away easily.

However, Clement outsmarted me for this round.

It just showed that Clement prepared these traps as a diversion for the actual one to work. And Clement made that net with materials that I couldn't easily break free. It also had abilities of some sort that drained my mana at every second. 

If this continued, this net would kill me even before Clement could reach this place.