Villain Hiring: Help! Author Wants Me Dead

Morning came way too fast.

I barely slept thanks to Kane's snoring sounding like a dying walrus, or whatever.

The sun was filtering through the trees like it was mocking us, and Vayu was already barking orders before I even rubbed the crust out of my eyes.

"Move your asses! Boss isn't gonna kill itself!" he yelled, annoying all of us.

We quickly packed our stuff in around five to ten minutes and took off into the woods like a bunch of caffeinated squirrels.

Eren led the way, stepping lightly even though he was built like a human tank.

Vayu and Kane followed close behind, their weapons ready while Lina hovered near me, still shy but at least not looking like she was about to throw up anymore.

Not even ten minutes into walking, Kane started whining.

"Are we there yet?"

"No, you oversized toddler," I snapped, stepping over a thick root that tried to injure my ankle.

"Stop complaining before I feed you to the first monster we find."That sentence must have scared the shit out of him since the guy made a big show of zipping his lips.

Good.

We could really use some silence right now.

Right then, all of out system's started beeping into the air, flashing a big, fat notification in front of us.

[System Update!]

Team D (Ren's Team) Points: 280 → 270 Team B (Lucas's Team) Points: 390 → 400

Everyone stared at the floating notifications.

"Huh," Kane voiced out, scratching his head. "Weird."

Then again:

[System Update!]

Team D Points: 270 → 200

Team B Points: 400 → 470

All of our mouths hung wide open.

The numbers couldn't be lying.

Team D's points were nose-diving.

And Team B's points were soaring like they bought Bitcoin at 10 bucks.

I felt my blood turn into ice as a weird notion started popping inside my head.

"They're... they're not losing monster kills," I whispered.

Everyone looked at me.

"They're losing team members," I continued, my voice going up an octave."They're getting wiped."

Vayu stopped so fast he almost banged into Kane.

"No way," Eren muttered, his eyebrows furrowing.

Another ping.

[System Update!]

Team D Points: 200 → 100

Team B Points: 470 → 570

The pattern was clear as day.

Kane gasped like he'd witnessed a live crime."Wait... wait… are you saying…?"

"Yes," I snapped. "Lucas's team isn't killing monsters."

"They're killing Ren's team!" Vayu finished, looking pissed and impressed at the same time.

Because holy hell—that was genius.

Why grind monster kills when you could just slaughter other teams and rob all their hard-earned points at once?

Lucas was playing chess while we were out here eating glue.

Pixie.exe officially blue-screened.

I felt myself physically turn pale as sweat broke out on my forehead.

"That psycho!" I said, my voice breaking. "Only Lucas would think of something that insane!"

"And it's working," Eren said grimly, pointing at the rankings.

Kane shook his head in awe. "Damn, man. We were out here debating cardio plans while Lucas wrote a new war crime strategy."

Vayu cracked his knuckles, a dangerous glint in his eyes."Well, guess we now know who to be afraid of."

Lina huddled closer to me, her eyes looking more terrified by the second. "This was supposed to be a monster hunt," The girl mumbled.

"Yeah, well," Kane said, smirking, "welcome to the Hunger Games, sweetie."

Ping.

Team D Points: 100 → 0

Team B Points: 570 → 670

"They're getting wiped clean," I said, my throat dry. "If we don't move fast, we're next."

Everyone nodded grimly.

The boss hunt just turned into a survival game.

What the actual fuck?

We sped up in record time.

No more debating.

No more pitying Lina.

It was run, fight, or die now.

And Lucas?

Lucas was already six steps ahead.

Vayu kicked a nearby tree so hard it cracked. "Change of plans!" he barked.

"We find that boss now. No more strolling."

"But—but—" Lina squeaked, trying to keep up as Vayu started running full speed ahead.

"No buts!" Kane shouted over his shoulder. "Unless it's mine, moving faster than yours!"

I groaned but forced my legs to move, sprinting after them.

As we ran, I could hear them throwing out new, half-panicked strategies.

"We could trap 'em!" Kane said, wheezing.

"No time," Eren said calmly, still running like he was jogging on a treadmill instead of booking it through murder forest.

"What if we split up?" Lina suggested weakly.

Vayu shot that idea down instantly. "And let them pick us off one by one? Not a chance."

Meanwhile, my brain was stuck replaying the horrible truth on a loop:

Lucas was smarter.

Team D was smarter.

We were basically background NPCs if we didn't pull our shit together fast.

I bit down hard on the inside of my cheek to focus.

Focus, Pixie.

Focus.

Suddenly, Eren raised a hand. "Tracks!"

He pointed at a cluster of massive footprints in the mud—way bigger than any normal monster we'd seen so far.

And following them was a trail of snapped trees and crushed shrubs like a bulldozer had just yeeted through the forest.

Everyone skidded to a stop.

"This is it," Vayu said, eyes gleaming. "Boss monster."

"And by boss monster," Kane said, "you mean giant, horrifying death beast that can probably one-shot all of us?"

"Exactly," Vayu said with a grin.

Kane gave a thumbs-up. "Sick. Love that."

I stared at the tracks, feeling a mix of terror and weird excitement bubbling up.

If we took down the boss before Team D even found it?

We could still win.

***

A/N: Please note that this is the second month of my premium and thus, from the following month, the offer of all priv tiers being below 99 coins would be over.

So I request you to continue supporting me with gifts and golden tickets, and motivate me to upload more chapters by the day.

Every 1500 coins worth gift = 1 Bonus Chapter.

Every 5000 coins worth gift = 5 Bonus Chapters.

Every 15 Golden Tickets = 1 Bonus Chapter.