Ethan's destination was the known source of [Immortality (Divine)]—a location burned into his mory.
He figured his attack power was already sufficient. What he needed now was survival capability.
Besides, according to the tiline, Immortality was the first Divine ability ever produced by the Carnage Faction. It should be discovered soon, marking the beginning of the longest battle in Ethereal's history.
He rembered that Ethereal once ran without server maintenance for seventy-nine consecutive days. That exact stretch was when the Carnage Faction had unveiled their first Divine ability.
But this ti, Ethan believed things would be different. If he could get the scroll, he was confident he could rewrite that history—in just twelve hours.
Checking the coordinates, he realized the location was extrely far from where he currently stood. He used Divine Teleportation to mark his present position, then set out in a straight line toward the objective.
The Carnage Faction map was enormous. Back in the day, it had taken him over ten hours to run from Harmony City to Springhaven. But here on the Carnage side, such distances felt trivial. Terra was naturally larger than Azure, and the map reflected that scale.
One advantage, though, was that teleportation costs for players were minimal here. Survivor players wouldn't enjoy this benefit until after national boundaries opened and teleportation fees dropped.
Looking at the map's scale, he realized he wouldn't reach his destination today. Even if he could, he wouldn't attempt to claim the ability scroll just yet. Tomorrow was the Combat Tournant. He'd wait until everything concluded. Otherwise, being unable to log out midway could create real-world complications—and that would be disastrous.
After running for a while, he noticed the surrounding terrain looked oddly familiar. Thinking back, he realized he had mined here before.
At the sa ti, a chorus of angry shouts rang out.
"You little punk, stop running if you've got the guts!"
"Who are you calling a punk?"
"I'm calling YOU a punk!"
"Well, okay then, punk…"
"Boss, this guy's playing mind gas with you!"
Ethan looked over and saw a group of Carnage Faction players chasing soone. The fugitive wore chain mail and carried a massive axe on his back. A Hunter class—specifically, a lee Hunter from Carnage.
This guy was bouncing around like a monkey. Sotis he turned back to hurl insults at his pursuers. Other tis, he stopped to dig holes in the ground, burying things before counting—one, two, three, four, five. Occasionally, he fiddled with random stones, flowers, and grass.
Ethan didn't think he was just being reckless. To be this calm while being hunted?
Soon, the purpose behind all his odd behavior beca clear. The chasers were hit by a series of traps.
So were suddenly entangled by a nest of snakes. Others triggered explosive rocks that blasted them backward. One stepped on a patch of frost that spread rapidly, triggering a wide-area slowdown. Another was sprayed with oil and then ignited by a trap that sent sparks flying. Flas erupted instantly, and agonized screams followed.
One particularly unfortunate player stepped on sothing that released a foul, black sludge, then imdiately doubled over, vomiting uncontrollably.
"Hahaha… that's bear shit I dug up from a den. Aged who knows how many years. Slls nice, doesn't it?" the Hunter shouted, laughing maniacally as he pointed at the vomiting player.
Ethan watched the whole thing from a distance, completely engrossed.
This guy knew how to play the survival ga as a lee Hunter.
While lee Hunters were known for close-quarters combat, traps were a crucial part of their toolkit. That's why people also called them survival Hunters. Their survival wasn't just about dodging hits—it was about turning the environnt into a weapon.
In Ethereal, players once debated whether Rogues or survival Hunters were the true kings of the wilderness. After much comparison, they realized the two couldn't even be asured by the sa standard.
Rogues were the kings of killing. Survival Hunters were the kings of escape.
In the wild, no one could catch a survival Hunter who truly wanted to flee. And no one could escape a Rogue who truly wanted to kill. If soone did, it only ant the Rogue wasn't worth their class.
The survival Hunter before him was clearly playing with his pursuers. If he wanted to escape, he would have vanished long ago. Didn't these idiots understand what kind of class they were dealing with?
Yet they kept chasing him, stepping into trap after trap. There had to be more to this than a random wilderness encounter.
Still, Ethan didn't care. Whatever their motives, it had nothing to do with him.
He stood, ready to continue on his way.
But then ca a thunderous battle cry.
Ethan turned to see a force of several thousand players appear behind him. Their formation spread across a massive area, completely encircling both him and the survival Hunter.
Within such a dense encirclent, Ethan believed he could still move freely as long as he remained in Stealth. The only real threat would be if the enemy used wide-area attacks. If he couldn't escape the blast radius, he'd be exposed.
Still, unless these players had real damage-dealing abilities, they couldn't hurt him. Even if he transford into Bear Form and let them focus-fire, Mages would need at least four rounds of casting to deal enough cumulative damage. And what kind of idiot just stood there getting hit?
Compared to the last ti he was surrounded by tens of thousands in Blackridge, this was nothing. These people posed no threat to him.
But what about the survival Hunter?
Why had the enemy mobilized thousands just to catch one guy? What made him so valuable?
Clearly, the smaller group from earlier had been tailing him, feeding intel. Soone had orchestrated this trap. And the Hunter—knowing full well he was being tracked—had played along?
Either he was a fool, or he had so serious confidence.
Ethan, who had been about to leave, decided to stick around. He wanted to see what this guy could do.
The survival Hunter finally stopped running. The players chasing him also pulled up.
He stood still, the playfulness gone from his expression. Calmly, he watched as the enemy forces closed in.
"LongerThanLuffy, you've got nowhere to run now!"
From among the massive crowd stepped a woman—a Necromantic Mage. She glared at the survival Hunter like she wanted to skin him alive.
So now Ethan had a na to go with the spectacle: [LongerThanLuffy].
He tried to recall the na from his past life, but nothing ca up. This player didn't exist in any of his mories.
"Was I trying to run?" LongerThanLuffy replied, completely unfazed despite the thousands of enemies surrounding him.
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