After some time, the night arrived quickly as the golden sunset was replaced with a black sky filled with stars. Under the silver light of the moon, the world became quieter, but it never stopped.

In the forest far away from Axel’s city, a young man was dashing from a tree to another. His speed was beyond what the eye could follow, leaving a shadow in the night.

Despite that, his movements didn’t cause any sound, like he wasn’t there at all. The tree branches only swayed a little, like it was the wind moving them.

Once in a while, the shadow’s speed will accelerate a lot, turning into a flash before slowing down.

In the darkness of the night, Kyle was traveling at his fastest speed in the wild, even accelerating his speed using a shadow steps skill.

It has been a full day and night in his journey towards Axel. Although the journey is long because he has to run from another kingdom, his speed is more than enough to cross this long distance in less than three days, it would have been less if he didn’t have to take breaks.

{No change in the mission…} Glancing at the side-mission, Kyle narrowed his eyes while concentrating on jumping with quick speed.

However, Kyle couldn’t help but think about this mission. Looking at the unchanged progress, a frown appeared on his face.

Should he feel happy that the competition is low or maybe he’ll arrive first? No, on the contrary, Kyle has a bad feeling about this side-mission, especially after he headed to Axel.

Usually, the players will feel happy with having a special mission, but no, for those who understand a little about the Horror Space, a mission like this means a good reward, yet a big danger.

Moreover, this special mission seems much more tolerant than usual. Although death missions are rare in the Horror Space, having a special mission with no punishment is playing on Kyle’s nerves.

If Kyle saw at least one of the two devices being planted, he’ll not be like this, but no progress, and a place like the main plot location is very suspicious.

After all, those who love to get in conflicts will surely go to the protagonist’s location and try to fish for benefits. However, he chooses to go into the other kingdom and steal some stuff while waiting for the storm in the plot points to calm down. Yet, nothing happened. For a player, this calm is really abnormal.

The more he thought, the more Kyle felt something big was happening behind his back. This feeling is the worst because it reminded him of his first mission where he was almost completely helpless.

{I have passed the capital, so it shouldn’t take me a long time… I need to change my plans} Kyle thought about his situation, but then, his eyes widened. Without any hesitation, he moved his head back at his fastest speed.

A black shadow of an arrow passed in front of his eyes. The arrow didn’t have any sound, and if it weren’t for slight airflow and Kyle’s instinct, he’d be head shotted now.

However, he didn’t have any time to slow down before another arrow appeared like a ghost behind him. Ignoring the pain in his neck because of the sudden movement, Kyle took his dagger and blocked the arrow before jumping to another tree.

Despite that, the arrows were like ghosts in the night, coming from random directions while aiming at his vitals. Kyle twisted his body in mid-air avoiding another arrow before landing on a new tree.

{Dammit, is it a player or someone else? No, that’s not important for now} Quickly scanning the surroundings with his eyes, Kyle didn’t have hope of finding anything, even after looking at the chaotic trajectory of the arrows.

He can clearly see that the enemy is very professional and didn’t leave any clues to their location while gasping Kyle’s location precisely despite him using stealth.

{No, this isn’t completely helpless. The arrows aren’t that fast, maybe it had something to do with their sneaking ability} Kyle thought of a quick plan before he moved because the arrows appeared again.

{The enemy changed his location or maybe this is a trap} Avoiding an arrow by moving arrows the numerous trees, Kyle frowned because of this slight pause in attacks.

The arrows were a lot, but they were very precise and hidden, which means the enemy is trying to play safe. Kyle waved with his dagged, shattering two arrows before activating a speed skill and disappearing.

When the buff disappeared, Kyle appeared 10 meters away, but he met with three arrows from different directions. Switching his grip on the dagger, three flashes appeared before the arrows were cut down, but before Kyle calmed down, his eyes widened.

Just behind the arrows, two others were hidden, even Kyle couldn’t detect them because the airflow of the first three disturbed his senses.

{Gasping my weakness this quickly!!} Using all his strength, Kyle rolled backward, avoiding his death before trying to stand up.

However, the enemy didn’t let him go as five arrows arrived. These were more visible than the others, but they were faster and blocked his escape route. Not only that, when Kyle tried to stand up, his foot slipped a little because of the mud on the ground. In this situation, this is fatal.

Kyle didn’t even have the time to curse in his mind as he waved his dagger desperately and blocked two arrows. This was definitely a trap! He was guided into this muddy ground as he lost his chance to escape.

In his desperate expression, another arrow appeared from a hidden position. It had a slight shade of red color and was treating the air like a missile. However, at this moment, Kyle’s desperate expression vanished as he touched the sheath of his dagger.

A transparent barrier instantly appeared, blocking all the arrows before Kyle used Shadow steps. He vanished from his place like a flash before flying towards the red arrow’s direction.

140 meters away, a woman holding a longbow frowned before she used her finger to tape the bowstring. When Kyle passed the red arrow, the arrow shone with a bright light before exploding.

An ear-splitting explosion echoed in the night as the forest was ignited on fire, however, the woman didn’t care about the result as she wanted to retreat. The last arrow should have exposed her location, but then, she raised her bow.

From behind her, a dagger appeared like a mirage before getting blocked by the bow. Then like mist vanishing, Kyle appeared like a ghost behind her.

{Fuck! It’s the wind freak!!} Kyle cursed when he saw the crazy woman before he stabbed again in a tricky angle.

The dagger moved like a snake while aiming at the woman’s neck, but she just let go of the bow and rotated to the left, avoiding the hit before grabbing the bow with her other hand. In an instant, she took another arrow and aimed at Kyle in this close distance.

Kyle had to retreat while throwing the dagger in his hand. The woman also had to move back a little before she changed the target to the dagger.

The arrow deflected the dagger, but the women didn’t relax because Kyle took an uzi from his storage space, and without another thought, he shot.

Kyle saw the wind freak had a barrier expanding from her bow before he closed the distance while using all the bullets of the gun to suppress the woman. His speed was very fast as he was already near her and read to attack from the gap in the barrier.

The woman was slightly blinded by all the bullets on the barrier before Kyle raised the dagger as she opened her mouth and bit some sort of a pill.

*Bang!*

The pill did the same effect as a flashbang, which made Kyle miss the attack, but he didn’t stop. Despite being blind, he still raised her leg and kicked the woman, sending her flying, but she just used his kick to make a distance.

“What the fuck is wrong with you wind freak? This isn’t even a killing mission, why are you after me?!” Kyle cursed while staring at the woman he called wind freak, landing on the ground.

“Hmph! You’re just in the way, that’s all” The woman answered coldly before she frowned and said ” And you dare to insult my way of wind?”

“What a joke! Come back when you have a fucking wind ability, you delusional bitch!” Kyle directly mocked the woman like he already had enough of the wind bullshit.

“You!!” Clenching her teeth, the woman stared at Kyle with hatred as the pupils started to grow larger, almost covering all the green color in her eyes.

{Is that the Gene Lock?!} A terrible chill engulfed Kyle’s mind, but he quickly calmed down.

“Are you wasting that now? Or do you really have the confidence to catch me now? If you had a good wind ability, that might be possible” Kyle said with a smile because he knows that there’s no way that the women have a high-rank Gene Lock.

“Tsk!” The woman calmed herself as she stopped the skill activation. She’s well aware of how slippery her target is, so she just missed the chance and now Kyle should have a couple of ways to escape.

It’s not like she didn’t want a wind skill, but in the Horror Space, you can’t always get what you want. A normal wind skill is useless for her at this stage while the strong one will cost a lot and won’t necessarily be the best option to get stronger.

Kyle also secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Gene Lock is one of the signature skills that separate them from the world’s aborigines. Although it’s risky to get and expensive, even at the lowest rank, it can turn a pussy of a man into a killing machine.

“Then what do you want?” The woman asked with a cold voice. She didn’t have any good impression of Kyle, especially when he always called her a wind freak while her name is Susan. That was one of the reasons she wanted to kill him.

“Cooperation and before you laugh or sneer, tell me, did you feel something wrong in this mission? Also, don’t tell me you didn’t notice that the chest’s drop became almost nonexistent in this world” Kyle’s words made Susan frown, like recalling some of those ‘accidents’.

The chest drop is like loot. Killing people or creatures from the world will lead to a chance for a chest to drop. The drop chance and rarity are related to the strength and luck of the player, but in this world, it became almost nonexistent, which made Susan and Kyle feel something off.

The monsters chasing after her, almost falling from a cliff, and some other accidents that made her doubt her luck. Susan didn’t understand why, but that didn’t stop her from grinning and saying ” Cooperation? On what basis? Stabbing each other in the back?”

“Of course, what else would the cooperation be?” Kyle lifted his eyebrow as Susan lowered her bow slowly before she said ” Then, what do you suggest?”

If the cooperation between them was something else, both of them will not accept it. They know that only benefits were the reason for them to be here, so a small cooperation while guarding against each other is the best for now. Of course, if this was a killing mission where you can get a player chest, it’ll be a different story.

“I assume you’re going to Axel, right? Let’s take a step back and try to gather information from the nearest towns before advancing any further” Kyle said as Susan pondered for a moment before agreeing. Although her style is to sneak and kill from afar, she had to admit that the situation is so weird.

“I see, then happy cooperation” Kyle jumped from the tree and got closer to Susan to handshake, but she made some distance calmly while walking forward before saying ” From you look, you should know this world better than me *Sigh* I spend three mission in movies world I forget anime’s world exist”

He might be trying to act nicely, like a sign of goodwill, but Susan knew he’s just trying to close the distance because close combat isn’t her strong point.

Kyle waved his hand like he didn’t care at all. He didn’t bother answering Susan because her words are basically trying to get information for free. However, this conversation raised some doubt in Kyle’s mind.

{I have only been to movies’ world, this has to be the first anime one… Why did I forget about this?} Suddenly, Kyle frowned, but he hid it from Susan as they sprinted to the next town.

However, how could he forget that the Horror space mainly consists of movies’ theme worlds? Only because he was a part of a big guild, he knew about Konosuba’s secret information. But if this was the case, then why didn’t his guild master tell him about this?

Kyle kept those doubts in his mind, but he already changed his plan. At the first sign of things going out of control, he’ll immediately abandon the mission because at that moment, the danger will surpass the benefits. Probably, Susan is thinking the same, after all, their lives are more important.

Meanwhile, at Axel’s town, two shadows were jumping from one building to another. However, no one could spot them, like they didn’t exist.

{These thief’s skills are really convenient and effective} Leone couldn’t help but to be amazed, even if she had them for a couple of days.

Unlike the normal assassins, who need to take years of training, just having a card and some skills allow a complete novice to perform some very difficult skills, even some abilities that match Teigus. At first, this made Leone sigh for how lucky this worlds’ people are.

“Leone-san, why are following me… Again” Chris, who was wearing a mask, said with helplessness while looking at Leone.

She sighed when remembering how Leone actually spotted her at night, trying to steal from the same noble. That situation was really awkward as Chris didn’t find a way to explain herself.

“Eh? Why can’t I follow you? You’ve to admit that we make a good team to steal from the rich!” Leone landed on top of a building as Chris held her forehead and said ” No, I’m not stealing, I’m just…”

“What? Then taking those expressive and rare artifacts isn’t stealing, huh? Interesting” Leone’s look made Chris blush because she really can’t explain it.

“Also, I’m disappointed!” Leone’s words made Chris tilt her head in confusion.

“I thought you’re professional. We, true thieves, never steal, we only borrow” Leone made Chris stare at her with a blank expression before she said ” Borrow?”

“Yes! We only borrow… just permanently” Leone saying those words with full confidence made Chris sigh again before jumping away.

“Wait for me!” Leone said before following Chris. They are both going to the same noble mansion anyway.

However, Leone had another goal aside from making some money. The noble they’re robbing have good connections to the guild and the capital because his son works in that branch. She wants to borrow some papers and documents from his office, nothing more.

After all, what the guild announced for adventurers isn’t fake news or lies, but they don’t always say the full story.

Leone felt like she’s working a lot these days, but this is worth it because she had her plans in mind.

With those thoughts, Leone increased her speed. Turning into an unnoticeable black spot with Chris.