( Leo's POV )
After resting for roughly 6 hours and rejuvenating his stamina bar back to maximum, Leo began to slowly make his way back towards the rebel controlled territory at a pace which did not deplete his stamina.
He enjoyed roughly 4 hours of nearly uninterrupted walking through the serene early morning scenery of the game, as he enjoyed the sunrise over the neighbouring farm fields and managed to cross a minor village before the players logged-in yet again.
Leo now had to cover roughly 20 hours of journey on foot to reach the safety of rebel controlled territory which meant that if he could survive the tide of players coming after him through the traditional gaming day, even if he was slow and made little progress, he could still definitely reach his destination by midnight, finally putting an end to his crazy adventure.
"One final push…" he muttered, steeling his resolve as he began to jog yet again, with the first notification of the day being the same one that exposed his location yet again.
**********
Aware of his ability to move through the night now, the righteous faction players quickly understood that if they failed to hunt him tonight, Leo was going to make it back to the safe-zone by tomorrow, which meant that it was a now or never for those who dreamed to hunt him.
However, for roughly 70% of the righteous players who were nowhere near his current location and could not reach in-time, the dream to hunt him down was already over, as only those who were tracking him from the start and were close-by, now stood a chance to finally mount a resistance.
"TheBoss still has to cross Redallion Town to reach the safe-zone. No matter what subroute he takes, all paths eventually converge at Redallion Town, and hence any meaningful ambush can only be set-up there" An analyst wrote on the forums as after analysing Leo's path thoroughly, he came to the conclusion that Leo was headed for Redallion Town.
According to him and a host of other experts, Leo was enroute to reach Redallion Town in 6 hours time, giving righteous faction players in the area ample time to assemble and set-up an ambush.
"Alone or in small parties of 100-400 people, we stand no chance against 'TheBoss'.
If 1400 top rankers failed to defeat him during the event, 2000 common players are most definitely not going to.
The only shot we have is to gather at Redallion and take down 'TheBoss' with a force of 10,000 men or more" A player wrote, as his post became upvoted and shared by thousands.
Slowly but surely, support for the ambush at Redallion grew, as a thousand…five thousand….. ten and soon twenty thousand men assembled at the place.
The news of the Emperor's death had sent the small town on its edge, however, surprisingly it remained one of the few places across the Empire where law and order did not collapse completely.
The local NPC authorities and local guard were successful in enforcing a curfew, managing the riot situation successfully, however, the situation still remained extremely volatile.
Hence, when thousands of armed players suddenly flooded to the town, tensions began to flare as the common NPC's did not take kindly to the foreign presence.
Hours passed by, and roughly around 40 minutes before 'TheBoss' was scheduled to arrive at the place, a small fight broke out between the righteous faction players and the NPC commoners, as a bunch of small kids pelted stones at a group of undisciplined players, who angrily retaliated by restraining and hurting the boys.
This small incident, when witnessed by the common populace, sparked an immediate unrest as riots broke out town wide.
Commoners began clashing with the players on the streets, as farmers and housewives armed with sickles and kitchen knives began demanding that the foreigners begone from their lands.
The towns mayor and local guards, also turned against the players, asking them to observe the curfew and not patrol the streets armed, which led to the players fighting back against the NPC's, making the situation turn from bad to worse.
For the players, this was their last shot at taking down 'TheBoss', and they could not observe a curfew under any circumstances, however, the local authorities were not willing to take 'No' for an answer.
Unfortunately, this led to a situation where by the time Leo reached the town, the players became too busy to even locate him, as he navigated the chaotic streets with ease and bypassed the town with his excellent hiding skills, managing to get around the last player holdout.
An hour later, as his location was revealed yet again and the players realized that he went past Redallion, all hope finally seemed lost, as apart from a few extremely determined and delusional people, all else lost hope to catch him.
"It's over…. We have lost–"
"In the end I guess it was just never meant to be"
"I guess it wasn't 'TheBoss' who won. It was 'We' who lost"
Sad messages like these flooded the forums, as the morale of the righteous faction players hit a rock bottom.
For Leo, the last day of his journey which he anticipated to be the most difficult, surprisingly turned out to be the most quiet as apart from killing a few hundred weak players, he encountered no major trouble at all!
In the end, by the time the normal gaming day ended, he was only a few dozen miles away from safety, as he could almost breathe the freedom from where he was.
"I've done it…. I've achieved the impossible!!!" He said to himself, clutching his fists, as only now did he let himself believe that he was going to make it…. That he was going to win against all odds.
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/// Bonus chapter for hitting the gift target, the previous tally was 3780/2500 which now resets to 1280/2500.
Let's go guys! We are completely on fire today– ///