Stepping out of the communication range, Isaac was left alone in the city to travel.
Luckily, Isaac was not a hunter and wasn't a participant in the manhunt; if he were, multiple people would've seen him as an easy target and tried to kill him to collect his scavenged points.
But aside from that, he still had to traverse through the city and carefully make his way to the foreign base… alone… with no one to help him… other than himself.
Slap!
A unified slapping noise echoed the empty street as both his palms clung to his cheeks, as he assured himself.
'I've ventured into forests alone dozens of times! There's no need to worry about this!'
Although he had replayed this sentence in his mind, he couldn't help but take the resting blade from his waist and clung to the sheath while stealthily traversing the city.
Fortunately, again, he was a person who learned to hide his presence when needed. And with his three days of scavenging and patrolling the city this past three days, he gained enough experience to avoid the eyes of others.
Occasionally, across his travels, he saw multiple people fighting. Those weren't the only areas where people fought in immense groups; there were dozens more of these warlike areas. Those areas weren't much of his problem; he had the power to avoid conflict, and of course, he chose that one.
The only thing that concerned him was the mere fact that there were too many areas like these near the designated buildings, and only two dozen blocks away from their base.
Then, after meticulous travel, he had finally met face to face with the designated building in front of him.
A towering, vegetated building. Well, to be more precise, "Buildings," the tower had two buildings that connected each other with multiple bridges that kept continuing up.
Within the ground, beside those two, were smaller but massive buildings that wrapped around them.
'Those small buildings were most likely facilities'
Subconsciously, as his panic rose, he pressed his earlobe, but there was nothing to press. The moment he had taken his finger from his ear, he saw the excess blood from the previous earpiece.
'Right… They're not here.'
He nodded to himself before making his resolve and walking his way to the entrance of the towers.
Taking a quiet gulp, he silenced his steps and rushed through the building at a steady pace. He was careful in his approach, not daring to become arrogant enough to make a scene. Things like that create too much noise. He was always persevering in what he did; he'd rather endure humiliation than become the center of attention.
For that same reason, he developed a careful and steady pace as a habit, integrating it into his own survival instinctively.
Many people might say he is a coward, and for his response, he would say:
'Being easy-going is better than being in the meticulous spotlight… It wouldn't hurt if I went slower, right?' thought Isaac, as he climbed the tower at an incredibly slow pace.
Then… THUD!
Isaac's body jolted in surprise as he hid in a nearby room. He left no trace of his presence as he did and hesitantly stuck his ear out slightly.
Sharp footsteps rang in the next corridor, growing louder than the last. Those same footsteps sent a shiver down his spine. This was the first time in a while that something had surprised him this way.
'A person…?!!'
Adapting to his previous experiences was an uncomfortable feeling for him; his radar was usually so sharp that he could detect a person from 10 to 20 meters away.
'This person… I didn't even feel her presence!'
Isaac pursed his lips, quietly adjusting his circular glasses.
He took a deep breath before making a proper decision.
'The best thing to do in this situation is…'
With a burst, he ran. 'Is to run!'
With all his might, he sprinted, not towards the lone girl, but away from her. Although after inspecting her, he realized she was wide open for a surprise attack. But decided against the idea.
He aimed primarily to collect the flag within this tower, not to provoke conflicts with others, especially for himself. But mostly because fear gripped him.
The world was vast, and even beyond that, there were more worlds larger than the last. However, at this very moment, he felt that the world had shrunk; if he were to face the girl in front of him right now, there's no telling who'll win.
He wasn't very confident of taking unnecessary gambles that cost him an abundance of points.
At the current moment, a shrill sense of danger raised every hair on his body as he instinctively unsheathed his blade from his waist and turned to meet the bitter expression of the woman he inspected.
CLANG!!
Their blades crashed evenly, pausing both of them in a daze.
At the roots of her scalp, her hair was a light brownish color that slowly cascaded into blond light highlights. It was so unique, Isaac thought she dyed her hair, but after close inspection, she realized it was all natural.
But what made him shiver all over were the dark sapphire eyes she had. So distant, yet beautiful, exactly like Haruo when he first saw his.
SHIIING!
***
At the far end of the city, a hundred blocks beyond the initial spawn point he had originally been, Haruo carefully strides to each shadow cast by the ruined buildings.
Beneath his pale eyes, he felt his eyes getting heavier by the day. Not once within the three days had he slept since he had travelled away from the base.
The white-haired man slumped to the ground and sat in the shade of the tight alleyway. From there, he gazed to his side and saw the hundreds of monsters that loomed on the streets, with multiple corpses being eaten by those towering figures.
With a silent sigh, he muttered:
"Oscar…"
Vleep!
[3 days, 13 hours, and 29 minutes since the test began.]
As he took each breath with careful consideration, he gazed at the monsters once again and felt underwhelmed by their sight. Because at that same second, a loud crash destroyed the entire block of monsters.
Heavy dust covered the area instantly, coating Haruo's face with soot as he looked away from the area.
Every living being within that block was turned to dust with the impact, and what was left of it was a simple spear lodged within the middle of the street.
'It's already been three days? Just how much stamina does that person have?'
While they were eight-foot-tall monsters that could easily crush human bones, none of them could compare to the monster that chased him down for three days straight.
Step! Step! Step!
A delicate, short figure made its way to grip the spear by its handle.
As the semi-pure made its way to Haruo's sight, he forced himself to stand up and quickly flee from the scene as if he had never been there.
However, as fate would have it, he was forbidden from traversing deeper into the city, far from the rest of the teams. That was due to the border system implemented within the test.
'Every day, exactly at night, at least a hundred blocks of land are confiscated.'
This was to resolve the pacing issues caused by the test. As Kilian had once said, this test would only last for a week at most. So by the end of the seventh day, there would be at least fifty blocks left for the players to colonize.
Unfortunately for Haruo, this meant his own routes were limited to only two ways, being cornered by the number one ranker.
'His detection skills are at least on par with mine and Ena's. Escaping by means of passing him without being detected is impossible without a scapegoat.'
He grumbled to himself as he deeply realized he had underestimated the total endurance and stamina the semi-pure had.
'In terms of physicality, he's equal if not greater than Ena. If I had known that earlier, then fighting him at the start would have been the best option.'
Stamina had always been Haruo's main weakness; it was what limited him the most in these types of situations.
It limited his ability, movements, and even focus at important moments. While at his peak, he could go toe to toe with the ranker, but if dragged, he was bound to lose one way or another.
Another reason he decided not to fight him was due to prior research he had conducted before the second test.
'It had said he was lazy, but for someone who hunted me down for three days straight with no rest, was that really applicable? That sort of dedication to a single test was already bizarre for a 'lazy' person like him. But, I guess I won't blame him, since you can't really change your manhunt until the bounty has perished.'
Haruo gazed at the closing of the border and saw multiple people entering the safe zones with their flags at hand.
People always had a chance to relocate to the safe zone once it closed; however, you had to bring along your flag unless you wanted to be disqualified. It was an easy way to gain flags.
And also why Haruo forced himself to venture deep within the farthest zones, despite the abundant monsters and zones.
He quickly hid on top of the many buildings and quietly observed the dozens of participants running while fighting each other for their flags.
So he waited, and waited… Until.
Swoosh!
Haruo tilted his head and dodged the flying spear by a tiny margin. He turned around and saw the two attuned eyes staring at him with a hostile calmness, completely reserved, as if his victory was already decided.
The semi-pure's trusty spear stuck on the cement railing near the white-haired boy's side.
Haruo clearly saw that Theodor's eyes were also filled with weariness. It was only to be expected, knowing he himself had been chased by him alone, by his stubborn pursuit.
Theodor weaved through the gap between them and sent a kick toward Haruo.
He responded by spinning to the side, making Theodor's foot contact the cement railing instead of him.
The semi-pure followed his trail, took his stuck spear from his side, twisted his side, and swept it cleanly towards Haruo while still having his leg on the cement railing.
Haruo forced his head as far as it could, yet, despite his best efforts, a side of his neck was slit open, just barely missing his throat.
He covered his injury with his palm and dashed towards the busy crowd from the building. Beads of sweat slowly accumulated as the minutes passed by. Through gritted teeth, he swung his other hand to his side and let his elbow hit a person's head directly, knocking them out and leaving a flag on the floor.
The white-haired boy abruptly slowed his pace, conserving his energy as he took a quiet sigh of relief.
He glanced over his shoulder and, just as he expected, saw Theodor's figure halted upon the unconscious person's body, with his face directed to his left, where four total teams fought for each other's flags.
'It worked!' Haruo thought, breathing haggardly.
'I had to sacrifice three days' worth of waiting just to survive.'
He breathed a sigh of relief, but also one of reluctance as he steadily quickened his pace.
'No lazy man would continue their pursuit for three days unless needed.'
If his research was truly correct, then Theodor himself was becoming fed up with this relentless chase. With his lazy personality, the only way to shake a person like him off that chase is to give him an option where he doesn't need to.
'And the option I gave him is more than satisfactory, five total flags. That's at least worth as much as my bounty.'
And since I was his chosen bounty, he was given another reason to derail from the bounty as of now; as long as he held the tracker for Haruo, he could always claim his head for another time.
'I couldn't even get a single flag,' he sighed.
'If I tried to get at least one, he would have kept chasing me. I would've died there.'
He shook his head before freezing his own injury to stop the bleeding. However, that meant his own neck was completely stiff and completely vulnerable for the time being.
'For now, I'll meet with Ena and Isaac.'
Resolute with his decision, he disappeared within the buildings and ran at an incredible pace.