Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

'Someone is using a Perk on you, Eren.'

Alephee reported Eren after she sensed some interference acting on him from the Sansara World. She couldn't identify which Perk was being used. However, she was certain that it had been activated.

Eren stopped his gyro vehicle when he heard Alephee's heads-up. He felt puzzled and scratched his jaw and checked out his Sansara interface.

He did not have a debuff on him. So it could only mean that someone outside his team was trying to contact him using an unknown Perk he didn't have. Or it could be that someone was trying to locate his current position using some unknown Perk.

The gyro vehicle he was using was bought using Karma points. It was a one-person vehicle that had a very distinctive look. It had compact dimensions while allowing him to ride it comfortably. Behind the vehicle were two pixie-like wings that could be controlled to move in any direction.

Eren was wearing eye-protector gear to sustain the wind pressure he had to face because of riding such a vehicle. He also wore a simple leather jacket because it came paired with eye gear.

He had to admit that it was a liberating experience riding this single-person vehicle, even more than the expensive flying vehicle he had wrecked not too long ago. Not only did it make traversing this vast world easier, but it also allowed him to enjoy the ride.

The vehicle was dangerous to ride for normal rankers because it attracted a lot of attention with its peculiar mana signature and operating sound. And since it offered no additional protection, the rider could be easily targeted by long-range attacks. Or the participants could simply set a booby trap in the area using their Perks that would get triggered as soon as the vehicle passed over it.

However, Eren didn't care about attracting attention. In fact, he wanted to do exactly that. He wanted the participants to attack him so he could keep on earning more Karma points for three people including him. Therefore, the vehicle was an ideal fit for him.

Eren was still southbound. He knew the rough locations of a few places in the Sansara World. And maps of nearby places could be unlocked in the Sansara interface using Karma points. The butcher was checking them out using a rough grid search. He had no way of contacting Ivor because the guy had changed his identity and he wasn't aware of it.

Plus, normal communication methods didn't work inside the Sansara World. The participants needed to be within the same team or have the necessary Perk to contact one another. Even after having the necessary Perk, one must possess a certain Sansara communication key to establish a connection. He had to search for Ivor and Jason manually.

The butcher was sure that he would be able to find Ivor and Jason eventually as more Perks became available with the overall level-ups of the participants. However, finding Jason and eliminating him at the start of the game took priority.

Eren didn't want to let the Duke's son get too strong inside the Sansara World. He and Ivor only had maybe one shot at killing him. If Jason managed to gather some weird Perk, their plan to eliminate him would have to be scrapped. This was not the outcome Eren wanted under any circumstances. He had even compromised his own progress to prioritize finding Jason and Ivor as a result.

Eren stabilized his gyro vehicle and killed its movement. He had stopped his vehicle in an open area that had no hiding spots for miles on end. It offered him an unobstructed view of the desolate landscape.

The pixie-like translucent wings behind the vehicle stopped flapping when he did that. The vehicle had many elemental runes on it, most of which belonged to the fire and wind elements.

Eren took out his Sativa Stick and lit it up by bringing it neatly to the fire-element rune under the vehicle's seating arrangement. He took a long drag and looked around him as he waited for the "guests" to arrive.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Eren's wait was over as soon as he could finish his Sativa Stick. Guests started arriving in droves.

These participants used gyro pads. They skated on these floating devices.

Eren raised his eyebrows when he saw the number of participants who had arrived at the scene to greet him. Alehee confirmed that they were not wearing elven masks. Meaning all of them were rankers from Edinburgh and genuine students from any of the five academies.

'Alephee, when did I fuck with them? Do you remember any of them?'

The participants looked at Eren as if he was their sole target, an impression that puzzled Eren. The infiltrators from Layos at least had a reason to attack him because of how influential he was.

However, as far as he could tell, he had not messed up with any of the rankers from Edinburgh. At least not enough to warrant such a large-scale targeted attack.

'Not really. Nonetheless, I can tell most of them are from Royal Ren given their real ranking statuses which are hampered by Sansara World's restrictions.'

Eren released a dense amount of smoke through his nostrils as he tried to find anything that he did that was related to Royal Ren.

'Altashia?

No… Wait… I killed Rehaal Renar who was from Royal Ren.'

Eren smiled as he zeroed in on a possibility.

"Someone from Edinburgh's royal scions is after me."

Eren had said this in a low voice. But there was someone within the group surrounding him that heard it loud and clear.

"That's correct."

A man who looked like Rodrick Renar came forward on his gyro pad. He stopped at a safe distance away from Eren and introduced himself with a smile on his face.

"We finally met, Eren Elijah Idril. My name is Ceddick Renar. I have a proposition for…"

Eren shook his head and sighed as if he had already played this game before. He cut Cedrick off by speaking in a carefree manner.

"I am not releasing Rodrick Renar. Do what you want."