kscans

Chapter 469 - Good Luck and Bad Luck

On the morning of their third day on Cat Island, Parfait's clan "Mont Blanc" and Orion's clan "Cats are God" began their activities in earnest.

They had taken their time because everyone had meticulously fortified their temporary base and thoroughly investigated the enemy clans, "Cretaceous" and "Highway Star".

As a result, they decided to split into three teams.

One team to gather catnip, the event item. A second team to produce consumables and defend the temporary base. And a third team to raid the enemy clans.

Given their combat strength, Parfait's group was assigned to the raid team. However, they were judged to be stronger in a small group rather than a large one, so they, along with Orion, formed a small elite unit within the raid team.

Their role was more of a skirmishing unit, but they were highly anticipated as a team that could stir up the battlefield.

Chris, who had been overly excited ever since arriving on Cat Island, had brought back a great deal of information and resources with her overwhelming skills, even during the investigation phase.

As a member of the Assassin Guild, she had high skills in setting traps, searching for enemies, and resource gathering. But on top of that, her real-life movements were so high-performance that people joked they wanted one of her for every household.

Currently, Chris was not wearing her trademark maid outfit. She had changed into a camouflage suit known as a ghillie suit. It was a camouflage suit made of grass and leaves that blended into the surroundings, and she could approach so stealthily that everyone gasped in surprise when she appeared.

"Ahaha, this island is truly wonderful! I want to stay here forever without logging out! By the way, I caught a frog and a snake. Which one do you want to eat?"

"Ah, right. I'll eat them after they're cooked. Please don't show me the raw ingredients."

Chris had fallen into a lifestyle of disappearing and reappearing without anyone noticing, and she was enjoying Cat Island so much that her skin seemed to glow even in virtual reality. It was because of her skills that they were a small elite team.

Incidentally, Chris had proposed that everyone wear ghillie suits, but the idea was rejected.

Aside from that, Trachiyo was here, though it was unclear if she would be of any help in a fight.

There was an item favored by tamers called a "Pet Whistle". It was a magical item that could summon a pet from a base or the Tamer Guild stables to its master's side. Although it could only be used once a day, it was a convenient item that could summon a pet regardless of distance.

It was an item one obtained after clearing a decent number of quests, but Orion had gifted it to her.

At first, Parfait refused to accept it, saying it was too valuable. But for Orion, who had been playing AFO for a long time, it was just one of many items he had in abundance. He said most tamers had one now and they didn't sell at all, so he was giving it to her. She accepted it with thanks.

And she had used that item to summon Trachiyo.

She couldn't speak with Trachiyo, but she could tell the cat was motivated. Upon being summoned and grasping the situation, she immediately began practicing her scratching attacks.

And so, their full-scale operation on Cat Island began.

The main objective for Parfait's group was to collect catnip.

At the end of the month, the clan with the most catnip and its allied clans would be granted an audience with Siegfried, the queen of Nyanko Kingdom. Therefore, they had to collect the catnip within the next week.

The two clans that had landed before them must have already collected a lot of catnip, so they couldn't get an audience without taking it from them. Thus, raiding the other clans was essential.

Their first target was the dinosaur clan "Cretaceous". It was decided they would raid them today.

At this point, Orion began to explain.

"To lure out Cretaceous's main force, the other raid members will charge them once. Then, they'll pretend to be defeated and flee back to our base. They'll probably give chase, and after that, we'll attack their weakened base."

An all-out battle would be very difficult in terms of strength. Even though the dinosaurs were physically specialized, their vitality and attack power were considerable. The opinion of Orion and the other clan executives was that they would almost certainly lose.

So, the plan was for Parfait's group to attack, targeting only the members who focused on production or defense. They would still have to fight the defense unit, but Orion was counting on Parfait's group's strength for that. In PvP, it was possible to overcome in-game stats.

"Also, regarding the catnip, we'll transport four-fifths of it to your temporary base, Parfait-chan. We'll only keep one-fifth at our base. It's okay if it gets stolen, but we want them to think we're storing it here, so defend it with all you've got."

There was one more crucial part of the plan. Parfait's group had another temporary base on Cat Island. Since clans could create their own temporary bases, both Parfait and Orion had set one up.

Orion's base was a decoy, designed to be okay even if it was attacked. The base where they stored the catnip was Parfait's group's temporary base, and it was thoroughly hidden. Chris was the one who had set it up, and it was so cleverly concealed that not only the "Cats are God" members but also Parfait's own group had trouble finding it.

Someone had asked if the enemy might be doing the same thing, but Orion said it was unlikely.

"I doubt those two clans would form an alliance with anyone else. Besides, this strategy requires trust between allies. There have been plenty of cases in past events where alliances were dissolved right before the event ended."

If the clan with the most catnip unilaterally dissolved the alliance, then only that clan would get to have an audience with Siegfried in the end. Such betrayals had happened in past AFO events. Therefore, you could only execute this plan with a clan you trusted implicitly.

"I trust you guys, Parfait-chan!"

As Orion said this to Parfait's group with a wink, the members of "Cats are God" chimed in with agreement. "Me too!" "Me too!" "Goes without saying!"

Parfait felt a little embarrassed, but thinking it would be awkward to say nothing, she said shyly, "I'm happy you trust us!" The older players' faces softened.

"A young person looking embarrassed is my second favorite thing after animals."

"Orion-san...?"

"Yeah. I deeply regret it. I got excited and said something I shouldn't have."

When Orion apologized, the surrounding players who had been saying things like "That," "I get it," and "It's precious" also bowed their heads and said, "Sorry."

Parfait was a little surprised at how many people had been thinking the same thing, but she accepted their apologies, figuring teasing younger people was a privilege of being older.

"I was thinking of betraying you at the last minute, but since you apologized, I'll let it go."

She had no such intention, but Parfait said it with a meaningful, lovely smile, which in turn flustered Orion's group.

In this cheerful atmosphere, the operation began.

Normally, they should have acted at night, but deciding that daytime was better for a flashy battle, the raid team headed towards the "Cretaceous" base in a large group with their pets.

Parfait's group moved separately from that team.

"Alright, Trachiyo, I'll teach you how to scout. Follow me!"

"Nya!"

When Chris, dressed in her ghillie suit, said this to Trachiyo, the cat, perhaps getting into the spirit of things, struck a saluting pose with her right front paw and immediately followed Chris.

"I thought Trachiyo was my pet, so why does she listen to Chris-chan...?"

Orion also looked puzzled by Parfait's muttering.

"I'm not sure, but it feels less like she's your pet and more like she's the whole clan's pet. I wonder when they added a system like that...? Anyway, while we're moving, I'll tell you about Cretaceous."

"Yes, please... though I already know they're a dinosaur clan."

"I figured, but I thought we should share some of the finer details. Like about their leader, for instance."

"Oh, I see. Then please, tell me."

"Okay. First, the leader of Cretaceous is a man named Deeger. As far as I know, his usual pet is a Quetzalcoatlus. It's a large pterosaur, but not as big as the real thing. It's only about big enough for one person to ride."

"A pterosaur, so it flies?"

"That's right. He's dangerous in aerial combat, and his diving attacks are seriously bad news. He's their main force, so I doubt he'll fight us, but it's probably best to run if you see him. I wish he'd run into Garland the dragon and they'd take each other out..."

Garland, the dragon from the Nyanko Kingdom faction. It was said to move like a fighter jet, shooting down players in the sky.

"Putting the dinosaur aside, what's he like?"

Generally, if a tamer focuses their skills on strengthening their pet, they themselves become weaker. It was common for dedicated tamers to be weak, and Orion's skill composition was like that. He could barely manage to attack with a gun.

"Deeger himself is strong, too. If anything, his pet is for transportation, and he does most of the fighting himself. He's the type to charge with a lance. If we want to beat him, we'll have to get him off that pterosaur at least."

"A charge?"

"He's good at hit and away tactics. You know, the type that attacks and then immediately pulls back? In one-on-one PvP, the combat area is limited, so he's not that strong, but in a field like this, he's unfairly strong. He just escapes into the sky, which makes him a pain to fight."

"That sounds like a hassle. Anything else?"

"Ah, right. There is one obvious characteristic."

"What is it?"

"He wears a dinosaur costume. A realistic Tyrannosaurus costume. I hear he never takes it off, to the point that even his own clan members have never seen his face."

"...He just got a lot weaker in my eyes."

"He's strong, regardless of how he looks!"

She hadn't planned on fighting him, but in Parfait's opinion, she'd be too unmotivated to fight an opponent like that. It was true there were players who wore things like horse masks, so she couldn't say it was entirely strange, but still.

And then, a thought occurred to Parfait. She might have just raised a strange flag. Her mother, Esha, had once told her she inherited that trait from her father.

Parfait had asked her father, Hayato, if that was true. Hayato had once remarked, gazing into the distance, that he had indeed lived a life full of bad luck. When she asked if it was really bad luck, he had smiled and said, "I guess it was good luck in the end," and patted her head.

If she truly had inherited her father's luck, she didn't know if it would be good luck or bad, but Parfait felt a little thrill of excitement, thinking things might get interesting.