Chapter 95: Mine.Mine.Mine.Mine.Mine.

Unfortunately for Kael, the Red Player tag was still active; he still needed a few more minutes for it to disappear. And from the looks of things, when Kael peeked from beyond the crumbled station, he couldn’t recognize any of those people coming toward him. They only had one thing in common: a wrapped bandana around their arms.

It wasn’t even a clean piece of cloth. It looked like someone had torn strips off old shirts and wrapped them tight enough to make their arms look bruised. A cheap uniform. A loud one. The kind of thing people wore when they wanted the world to know they belonged to something, and more importantly, that they weren’t alone.

“Probably snakes,” Kael muttered as he squinted his eyes.

The words left his mouth like a curse, and the second he said them, his body tensed as if his muscles had already decided they were about to sprint.

“Shit, it’s already worst-case scenario. I guess that Snake did manage to survive the night and inform his clan. This is bad,” Kael thought as he was about to go back into the tunnel system, but decided otherwise.

The tunnel was familiar, yes. It was also a coffin with extra steps. If they followed him down there, the chase wouldn’t end with him escaping. It would end with him cornered between a basilisk route and zombie boxes, and if he caused even a ripple in the wrong corridor, Dragon’s contract would snap shut around his throat. Or worse a Basilisk’s fangs would do an even better job at that.

“I can’t keep running… but, that doesn’t mean I should face a whole mob.”

His jaw clenched so hard it ached.

[Presence] he cast, and instead of walking back, he stepped forward.

The shift was immediate…subtle, sickening. Like being pushed behind a thin curtain, like the world was still there but had collectively decided he didn’t matter enough to render. The air felt heavier. His hearing dulled. Colors faded, washed into that familiar gray that made everything look dead even when it wasn’t.

The mob of people was slowly moving ahead, casually strolling, with weapons brandished, some on their shoulders, some in their arms, talking casually as if taking a stroll down the city.

They weren’t cautious. That was the first thing Kael noticed. No sweeping eyes, no nervous pauses, no whispered “stay close.” They walked like they owned the street. Like the street was already theirs.

But there was greed in their eyes, an obvious one. For the Hidden Piece and the hidden boss.

It wasn’t even hidden in the way treasure was hidden. It was hidden in the way power was hidden: rumor-fed, desire-shaped, with everyone convinced that if they got there first, the Tower would suddenly be fair to them. Kael had seen the way people looked at drops. This was worse. This was hunger with a plan.

Everyone wanted a bite of that cake.

Bravery doesn’t beat numbers. And though the basilisk is powerful, it can’t beat those numbers by itself.

If a fight does break out, Kael would lose the hidden piece. Even though he honestly was about to give up earlier, seeing others trying to take what he laid eyes on first, frustrated him.

It wasn’t rational. It wasn’t even helpful. But the feeling hit anyway, sharp and petty and human.

Mine.

Not because he’d earned it the “right” way, but because he’d bled for the knowledge. He’d survived the tunnel. He’d almost died for that first glimpse. He’d paid for being early.

Kael moved forward. With presence active, no one would be able to spot him even if he passed between them, and once he did, he believed he could get away from the train station and come back later to deal with Baltak.

He picked his steps carefully, placing his feet on broken concrete instead of loose gravel. He drifted closer, close enough to smell them now: sweat, old cloth, and the faint tang of metal from weapons that had been used too often to stay clean. He could hear fragments of their talk too, casual and ugly.

“…told you the station had something strange in it…”

“…if the bastard is still alive, we take him first…”

“…hidden boss, hidden rune, whatever, we strip the whole thing…”

It was awkward hearing so many people speaking at once, but from that bit of talk he could already confirm the goal of this group. To kill him and obtain the piece.

“You see that?” The words made Kael tense up.

One of the people from the mob pointed directly at Kael.

His arm lifted, finger stabbing the air….straight at where Kael stood, half a breath away from slipping past.

“Feels like something moved there…” he added.

Kael froze so hard even his lungs forgot how to work for a second.

[Too many eyes are on you, [Presence] is failing.]

’Shit!’ Kael cursed. This was something he never expected.

It wasn’t like the goblins. Goblins were dumb, unable to see in daylight, and were beasts that ran on instinct.

Humans were worse. Humans noticed patterns. Humans got paranoid. Humans believed in ghosts when they wanted an excuse to swing first, and that’s how he was probably noticed.

With many eyes now actively looking for him, [Presence] would fail. Even the basilisk alone was enough to destabilize that rune. But what if it was a whole mob?

He had thought he was invisible, especially since a whole mob of goblins couldn’t see him. But thinking about it, that mob of goblins had just woken up, they weren’t completely lucid and it was daytime.

[Presence] isn’t stealth, it’s simply a lowering of one’s existence and perception of the world. But if enough people are convinced that something was there. [Presence] becomes useless.

Kael’s body from their side became translucent, no longer transparent.

Like glass catching sunlight. Like heat haze. Like the outline of a man that the world didn’t want to admit was real, but couldn’t fully ignore anymore.

“fuck,” Kael turned his head to the only safe spot he could ever get into right now.

And it was not the station, there if they were to come down and follow him, they would chase him all the way to the basilisk’s nest.

So, the only safe spot was Baltak’s shop.

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