Infinite Realm

Noguchi Juro stared at the wall in front of him in silence but in truth, his brain was lost in it's thoughts, recalling the events of the day.

'It costs a lot to treat Milio-Schripolises and it isn't easily cured even with modern day science, requiring constant treatments. Each of these treatments costs a couple thousands of ALDs. The first treatment might be more affordable but what about the later treatments... Even if little Sato gets into a big guild or starts making some cash, I can't let the kid take all the burden alone.' Juro thought.

The first medical treatment for Milio-Schripolises cost at least 5000 ALDs. It might sound cheap but one should remember that the average salary of most people is at most 6800 ALDs; Noguchi Juro's was slightly lower than that. Just the first treatment cost more than half of the salary much less the following ones.

*Sighs*

"Looks like I have to work harder otherwise... I would have to contact the clan."

The Noguchi clan was a behemoth in terms of martial arts and also finance. Though they were weaker than the Kurosakis, it wasn't by much. They were even said to be able to contend with the families that ruled over the ISJ. Rumours had it that the Noguchis would have done so quite some time ago when the Kurosakis also rose to power, but as a martial arts family, they focused on seclusion and didn't involve themselves that much in politics and so they remained as a major family and not as the controllers of ISJ. Nonetheless, the other families, including the major leader families of the ISJ, all steer clear away from the Noguchis and try as much as possible to avoid them unless when necessary.

So powerful were they that once upon a time, a very influential clan that felt they were strong, challenged the Noguchis' prestige. Within a week however, the entire family's business collapsed with some of their members dead. Dead! Rumour had it that the Noguchis did so since they had a feud with the family. But with no proof, they went away scot-free.

In the current society, murder was one of the most abhorred practices that was literally unforgivable no matter the reason so. Because of this, gangster and things only beat or injure their targets and don't even dare to kill them otherwise, the punishment wouldn't just stop at imprisonment. With the improved security and surveillance equipment and devices, no one dared to say that they could murder someone and get away with it. So for the Noguchis to have done something like that, this proved to show not only their power but also their influence as for sure, they would have had to have a hand in the security department, who helped wipe out all the data. For someone to do that for them even, that person had to have high devotion and loyalty to the family since the punishment for such a crime, if caught, was far worse than one could imagine.

With this, it was obvious to see that the Noguchis weren't a family one could easily mess with.

"But dealing with those guys...that's even worse." Old Juro sighed.

Juro had left the Noguchi clan after an incident sometime ago and so he didn't want to associate with them or go back. He even doubted whether they would help him after all, the reason he 'left' was actually because he was chased away.

. . . . .

'It cost me a lot but with him here, this battle is deemed to be in our favour even of this guy is an expert.' Blood Sword thought as he looked at the battle in front.

With a glistening light at it's silver tip, the dagger closed in to Sato.

At the last minute, Sato slightly moved his body to the right, dodging the dagger thrust that came behind from his left but not without being injured. Due to the close proximity of the dagger to his body, even if Sato had dodged it, it still managed to stab him at the side but the injury wasn't so serious.

-28 (122/150 Sato's HP) (AN: The same chapt no, lol)

Sato countered back against the mysterious attacker by slashing his sword against the figure. But like a slippery eel, the attacker had dodged the sword and retreated away.

'His [Agility]...he's more faster than I am.'

Sato was a level 8 player and he had faith in being one of, if not, the highest levelled player. He estimated that his attacker would be level 6 and level 7 at most. As a level 7 player, he would have less attribute points than Sato but that didn't mean that Sato exceeds him in every attribute after all, their attribute points distribution differed. As an [Assassin], it was understandable that his attacker would have a higher [Agility] than he did, even though Sato was at least 1 level higher.

"You might be strong but the very second I walked in here, your destiny was set. Why? Because you are human and we humans have weaknesses and limits." Blood Sword said.

As Blood Sword said so, he had managed to raise the moral of his teammates after all, seeing Sato bleed was enough to tell them that he was at least not unbeatable.

"Sneak attacks are dirty. Don't you have shame?" Fudo yelled.

"We're dark players. Shame doesn't apply to us." Crimson Scar smirked as if what he said was something to be proud of.

"Tch." Fudo twitched his lips out of disgust and frustration at Crimson Scar's shamelessness. Nonetheless, he didn't do anything as Sato still didn't ask for his help.

'I hope he knows what he's doing...'

Sato on the other hand, didn't have the luxury to speak as the other players ganged up on him. Even the Rangers had closed up the gap a bit to get better accuracy at him. With his enemies here and there, up and below, he had to keep his focus on them and also be alert against any other sneak attacks. This lead to him being fully focused and using his mental abilities a bit higher than before.

"I was planning to take him down in one shot but he proved a little more difficult." A player abruptly appeared beside Blood Sword. It was the assassin that had struck Sato just now. He had a black cape on that prevented his facial features from being seen however from the voice that just sounded, it could be ascertained that he was a male. A silver dagger was dangling from his right hand

"No matter. He will still die, one way or the other." Blood Sword replied with a wide grin.

Sato faced the other players that were still surviving. Because of the last stunt pulled by that mysterious attacker, Sato had to assign a large amount of his attention towards preparing for such eerie surprise attacks. As a result of this, the battle slowly turned into a stalemate.

'This can't keep going on like this.'

Thinking so, Sato stepped back by one step and suddenly moved forward in an elusive manner, dodging all the strikes and arrows fired his way.

'Martial arts : Butterfly steps.'

Butterfly steps was a simple movement technique that Sato had learnt from his Grandfather. Using this technique, he easily dodged both the projectiles and in attacks while still reaping the lives of other players. The good thing about this technique was that it made his movements looked random and unanticipated and so, even if that Mysterious attacker wanted drop ambush him, he wouldn't be able to predict Sato's movements.

"Arghhhhh!"

Body parts flew and blood spilled. The sounds of explosions and arrows flying was the theme of the day, alongside the continuous clanging of swords.

Sato had started out against 22 players but now, there were only 7 left.

"Send the back. They're useless to us now." The mysterious player said to Blood Sword. Though Blood Sword was the leader of this expedition, he still listened to the words of this man. No, he had to because he couldn't bear the consequences of not doing so.

"That's enough." Blood Sword shouted.

Upon hearing his words, the remaining 7 players retreated away with relief of their faces. Throughout the time they had fought Sato with their dead comrades, they could barely lay a finger on him because he was too fast for them. Most of the close combat players were either Berserkers, Guardians or Swordsman, so there was no way that they were faster than the level 8 Sato. They wanted to retreat before but they didn't because they couldn't bear to receive Blood Sword's fury neither could they handle it. So with Blood Sword calling the retreat himself, it was the best thing they could ever ask for. After all, Sato was like a war demon facing a group of flimsy mortal villagers; they stood no chance against him.

The mysterious player then looked at Sato. "From what you have displayed so far, I guess you're an expert class player. Using such useless weaklings against you would be almost pointless."

He then grinned wildly before continuing, " However, it's almost. Fighting such a large group of people should have put a lot of pressure on you and demanded a lot of mental power from your brain. Especially since you had to keep a look out for my surprise attacks. That obviously means you should be quite tired now.

"In a battle of experts, the state of the mind and body does a lot in determining the winner. Especially in one involving me, Biyo!"

The mysterious player abruptly took off the cloak covering him, revealing both his armour and facial features. The face was quite familiar to some of the players present but to Sato, this face was very familiar.

It was Biyo, the dark player who had caused the destruction of Blue Diamond Guild, Sato's class guild, back in Conquest.

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