Escape - Chapter 17.1
Chapter 17.1
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s nothing. Have a good trip. Maybe we’ll see each other again sometime.”
“Okay. Tell Luce I said hi and I want to be friends. I’ll be back soon.”
Woo Yune smiled brightly, seemingly unable to contain her joy at having made a friend request to Adeline.
A moment later, Woo Yune vanished without a trace.
“…She’s really gone.”
At the amazed voice, Bruja glanced at Adeline. She guessed Adeline must be feeling a little lonely now that her friend had left. It wasn’t like her to be fascinated by logging out. As Adeline turned to leave, Geto, who had been standing silently beside her, suddenly muttered, “Uh, I got a message. It’s Rahul.”
“What’s he saying?”
“He says not to let that woman go.”
“And if we don’t, what? Are we supposed to kill her?”
Bruja chuckled, as if amused by her own words.
“No, he says there’s a video circulating or something. Other guilds are trying to recruit her.”
“Hmm, I have a feeling she’ll say no.”
“Why?”
“Just a hunch.”
Bruja watched Adeline, who had stopped after turning away. ‘What nationality is she?’ Bruja wondered. Her elegant demeanor suggested she might be East Asian, but her distinct features made Bruja doubt it. ‘Yeah, she definitely doesn’t seem like she’d belong anywhere other than Leon.’
“Have you heard anything about the starting zone?”
It was a question directed at Geto, despite the obviousness of the situation. Adeline already knew, but she asked anyway. Geto was silent, as if considering the situation. Adeline looked up at him intently. His expression shifted.
“Five guilds, centered around Hero, have joined the fight.”
“I knew it. So that quest completion notification was a mistake, right?”
“No.”
“…?”
Intrigued, Bruja tore her gaze away from the woman she had been observing. Geto’s face was hard. She was about to ask what was going on when Geto’s lips twisted.
“Thirty-one ranked players participated in the timed quest. Approximately 10,000 non-ranked players also participated. The estimated population of the starting zone was five million.”
A few seconds of silence hung in the air. Geto took a sharp breath.
“Of those, it’s estimated that all but nine ranked players have been wiped out.”
“Puta madre (Crazy).”
The main quest, strange from the start, had spiraled into chaos. Something had gone terribly wrong. Humanity losing a frontier zone to monsters was
unprecedented in the history of Escape.
***
Full name: Erik den helige. Commonly known as Erik.
The guild leader of Leon and the world’s second-ranked player, he hailed from Northern Europe. Some pathetic users speculated that he was only so good because he lived somewhere where it snowed a lot in winter and he had nothing better to do.
In reality, few people had less need to play games than Erik. This was especially true considering he was the heir to ASL, Northern Europe’s largest airline. The young entrepreneur had started playing Escape strategically, considering the advantages of migrating the airline’s reservation system to the Escape server and the marketing potential of running an airship business within the game.
If people criticized the encroachment of large corporations into the gaming sphere, Erik would simply scoff, born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He was that kind of person. He wouldn’t hesitate to play the fool if it meant making money, but he’d also charge a king’s ransom for a single ticket.
“The guild leader was offline, so he doesn’t know the details, but it was absolute mayhem. We were stuck in District 12 the whole time. Those damn snakes just kept swarming us; how could we not die?”
“Even if there were a lot of them, they’re just Serpientes. There’s no way ranked players over level 100 could be overwhelmed by mere numbers.”
Erik rubbed his tired eyes and leaned back in his chair. Unlike other ranked players, for whom Escape was their livelihood, he had a life outside the game. He was particularly on edge, having been forced to come to work after less than three hours of sleep because of that ridiculous quest that had killed five million people.
The official website was currently down, overwhelmed by the outcry from players.
“No, hay el tipo que mató a Icador. (No, there’s someone who killed Icador.)”
“You mean that monster, the lord of District 12?”
Erik asked, irritably running a hand through his pale blond hair. His light blond hair and blue eyes, a testament to his heritage, made him appear colder than anyone else.
“Si. (Yes.)”
“Now that you mention it, we brought someone in regarding that incident.”
Erik looked pointedly at Geto and Bruja, as if just remembering. He was asking where ‘that woman’ was. The player at the center of all the rumors that had been swirling since the live broadcast. He had encountered her online before even logging in.
#whoisshe #她是谁 #누구세요
The hashtags had flooded the internet everywhere, along with the shocking quest. Real-time trending searches included Escape Live, Escape Woman, WooYuneTV, and Leon.
It was understandable.
Escape was a global phenomenon, not just a national one. With hundreds of millions of surviving users, one could only imagine how many people had played Escape over the years.
Ranked players in the top 100 were guaranteed a living and were more famous than most celebrities. They dominated advertisements and earned a fortune. Yet, the woman in the video was a complete stranger. To everyone in the world.
The video of her fighting had surpassed 300 million views in a single day. Names of ranked players with similar appearances were occasionally mentioned, but they vehemently denied it. And now, the subject of all those rumors was here, in Leon’s hideout.
