Black Online-Chapter 100: Machary’s Performance

"...Ready?"

Della asked.

She had her timer ready.

"Yes!"

Machary shouted, and he was already in a sprinting stance, ready to go, and the rest of the Fourth-Liners were also ready to go.

"Go."

Della said.

Without further ado, Machary took off running, and the rest of the Fourth-Liners followed closely behind him.

They disappeared into the depths of the cave.

"..."

Fang Raon sat down on the same rock that Machary used and noticed that Miranda didn’t go with them.

"I have a question."

Miranda said.

"Yes?"

Fang Raon asked.

"Why did you decide to go first? Going second has the advantage of the Fourth-Liners already knowing what to expect in the raid."

Miranda asked.

"...To put pressure on Machary."

Fang Raon replied with a smile.

"Pressure...?"

"Machary doesn’t want to lose to me. He has a very fragile ego. If he just takes it safe, and clear the raid successfully—even if his time is slow—he will most likely be chosen as team leader.

"However, since I did my time first, he wants to defeat me and do a faster time than me.

"I am sure he will be counting the time, and the longer he takes in the cave, the more anxious he becomes that he might not beat my time.

"It’ll force him to make mistakes... And mistakes he will make."

Fang Raon said.

’This is all psychological warfare? I know about Machary’s ego problems, but I never thought Fang Raon would use it as a weapon.’

Miranda thought to herself.

She didn’t think badly of Fang Raon for him doing something like that, as this was, after all, competition between him and Machary.

’I already witnessed it back in the Battle Island, but he is really good at reading people... I wonder if Machary will make mistakes just like he said he would do.

’If Machary gets others hurt because he wants to beat Fang Raon’s time, Della will be really angry at him.’

Miranda thought.

Curiosity grew, and she quickly bid farewell to Fang Raon and headed inside the cave to catch up with others.

...

"Huff! Huff!"

Machary sprinted ahead, running as quickly as he could, and the Fourth-Liners were desperate to keep up with him.

Before they even came across a single opponent, they were already getting quite winded, and some were starting to fall behind.

In that moment, they came across the hallway with frozen walls, and the temperature started dropping drastically.

’It is suddenly cold?’

Machary thought in surprise, but he ignored it and kept running through the icy corridors with everyone following behind him.

’He isn’t planning to do anything to the cold?’

The others thought in surprise.

At that moment, the icy walls cracked, and from there, icemen emerged with ice swords in hand.

"Ignore them and keep running!"

Machary shouted.

He thought that dealing with these icemen would just be a waste of time and didn’t want to waste even a single second.

Everyone nodded and kept running.

However, Rae, one of the Helpers, couldn’t keep up with the rest of the group and had strayed behind.

The icemen blocked her path.

"Ah..."

Rae stopped and saw everyone just running further away.

"Everyone, help me!"

She shouted, but they were already too far away to hear them, so she was left to fend for herself against the icemen.

The icemen raised their ice swords and slashed at her, and she defended herself with the Shield skill.

Her shield barely survived, but it showed signs of cracking, and the icemen kept pushing her back further.

"Blade of Light!"

In that moment, a couple of shining yellow light swords flew past her and pierced through the icemen with deadly accuracy.

All the icemen died.

"Ah..."

Rae turned around, and her eyes brightened as she saw Della walk over to her with a yellow grimoire floating beside her.

However.

Della’s expression didn’t look happy, and she didn’t have the usual smile on her face that she often had.

"Guild master!"

Rae greeted her with reverence.

"Come with me."

Della said with a serious tone and followed the direction where Machary and the rest ran off to.

...

"Huff! Huff!"

Machary stood over the dead Ice Queen, his sword stuck in her skull, and he then pulled it out.

All the Fourth-Liners were panting heavily. They were riddled with wounds.

’...There wasn’t any plan... Machary just wanted us to kill the icemen as quickly as possible just so he could have a good time...

’How fucking stupid is that...’

Niall thought to himself with an angry gaze.

Some of them could’ve died, but Machary didn’t care, because all he was caring about was doing good time!

"Let’s keep going!"

Machary shouted and kept running to the exit, and the rest grudgingly followed behind him.

In that moment, they stepped out of the cave and saw Fang Raon waiting for them outside.

"...That was pretty fast."

Fang Raon said.

He was also counting time and knew that Machary had just beaten his time.

"Hah... Yeah, it was."

Machary said with a scoff.

He was just quite satisfied with the performance and believed that they had just beaten his time, so he was very happy.

The Fourth-Liners were recovering their health by drinking their valuable health potions.

They weren’t as happy as Machary with that performance, as that completely sucked.

In that moment, three figures left the cave—they were Della, Miranda, and Rae.

"Rae, where the hell were you? We had a need for another Helper, but you were nowhere to be seen."

Machary said with a frown.

The Fourth-Liners looked over to Rae, and they noticed her disappearance and wanted to go back to look for her.

However, Machary only said, "She is fine, let’s keep going," as he didn’t want to waste time searching for her.

"You left her behind."

Della said with a smile.

It wasn’t her usual smile. It was a really cold smile. She was obviously really angry.

"...Huh, what do you mean?"

Machary asked with a frown.

"You were so obsessed with having a good time that you didn’t even notice that one of you got left behind!

"That was the worst performance I’ve ever witnessed. It was completely reckless and showed your clear lack of interest in your team members’ health!"

Della screamed.

It surprised the Fourth-Liners, as they had never seen her scream that loudly before, and even Machary was stunned.

"...What about my time?"

Machary asked.

"WHO CARES ABOUT YOUR TIME?"

Della screamed.

It completely silenced Machary, and he didn’t dare to speak another word.

"...We will make the final decision regarding the team leader’s position tonight. Please be prepared to present your case for why you deserve the role."

Della said coldly and walked off with Miranda.

"..."

Miranda threw a glance at Fang Raon, thinking, ’He knew that this would happen,’ and then turned away.