NOVEL NEXT Chapter 989
<989 – Reclaimed Purity (3)>
As soon as the Summer Hide-and-seek began, Sadi Chocolate was the first to check on Oknodie.
Through the terminal in my mind, I sneaked into Oknodie’s awareness and gauged their position!
Next, I eavesdropped on Oknodie’s thoughts about where they might want to go and avoided those paths.
‘First off, I can’t hide on the ceiling no way no how.’
When the 100 seconds are up, I better jump!
As soon as I read Oknodie’s inner thoughts, Sadi Chocolate sprang from the lobby ceiling lights.
The spirits didn’t feel any unease watching the fleeing Sadi Chocolate. They were busy arguing among themselves about who would dangle from the ceiling, but then they all shrieked in unison.
“Gotcha!”
Oknodie, who counted all the way to 100, jumped straight up to the ceiling and captured the spirits with a high-powered vacuum cleaner.
“Alright, those caught by the seeker are sent to summer camp!”
“No way!”
“I don’t want to!”
Oknodie’s Guard Golems forced the resisting spirits along, dragging them towards the art pieces.
‘Scary child. How does a golem provide the capability to capture spirits, overcoming mere physical strength?’
Guard Golems, using attribute mana based on ordinary elemental powers, grabbed spirits who should have been out of reach with Dark Mana.
With that, I was convinced that once you get caught, no matter what type of mana you use, it’s game over.
But thankfully, Oknodie’s version of tag included hide-and-seek too.
If I just hide well, maybe I can survive.
Bam!
In a room close to the entrance.
The spirits, barely visible even when the lights turned on.
It was nearly impossible to catch spirits that had materialized as mundane objects unless you moved these objects just at the right moment to capture the spirit popping out.
“Is anybody there? Hmmm. This is peculiar… The remnants of mana feel a tad suspicious…”
“?!”
“I don’t see a single child. How am I supposed to find everyone? Ugh… I guess I’ll just have to do this!”
The spirits hidden in the room, overestimated by Oknodie, got a swift smack upside their heads.
Vwiiing!
Suddenly, the furniture started moving with the activated high-powered vacuum cleaner!
“No way!”
“Uwaah!”
The spirits caught by the vacuum, which selectively pulled only Dark Mana and Summer Mana from the Tomb of the Sword, were swept up en masse.
“That’s cheating!”
“The seeker catching runners with a vacuum?!”
“Magic tools are sorcery! Oknodie, step away from being the seeker! Back off… Ugh!”
Even their voices of defiance got swallowed by the vacuum, echoing back among themselves.
Roll roll roll.
Spirits caught by the vacuum were tossed one by one into capsules and thrown by the Golems to summer camp.
Now large-scale capture and rapid transport became a piece of cake.
This meant the seeker could go wild even more.
‘Oh no. Oknodie’s searching is going 12 times faster!’
‘Shh. Using sound magic is risky too. It might help track our locations.’
‘So creepy. If I had known, I wouldn’t have hidden in the hallway.’
Second-years made fake frames among the art pieces to pretend to be art themselves, hiding inside those frames!
Fortunately, Oknodie didn’t realize the fake artwork and passed by.
There were just too many spirits for them to capture all the runners.
‘But isn’t this a bit too fast?’
‘Three-second finishes in every room!’
There were even spirits bursting out and running as soon as they opened doors!
“Help, help me!”
“This room is hell!”
“Please save my spirit friend trapped inside!!”
Spirits desperately scurrying across the floor or begging Oknodie to use the vacuum as they clung to Oknodie’s legs, crying!
What on Earth did the Chairman do to the main house to make the spirits freak out like this, second-years wondered in fear.
Of course, Sadi Chocolate had implanted terminals inside every spirit long ago, so she already knew what was going on inside.
‘Why did they make a gateway to the nesting places of giant monsters right in the house…?’
To become the greatest villain in the world and the most infamous great evil, does one have to prepare this much?
As a candidate for great evil and an aspiring great evil, Sadi Chocolate learned from the traces of the great evil senior.
‘Yeah. If even the greatest villain, First Wahyhiemhai, lived by being prepared, I was way too complacent. I thought just avoiding Oknodie would be enough.’
The number of spirits dwindled.
That meant Oknodie’s range of movement widened.
Sadi Chocolate could see it.
‘Isn’t this a bit too easy?’
‘We need to send all the spirits into exile and train the friends to toss into summer camp!’
While having fun, Oknodie’s wicked ambitions were clear!
Sadi Chocolate thought.
If too many spirits aren’t left alive, then her friends will end up dragged away too.
What comes after that?
It would be Sadi Chocolate alone.
What would Oknodie think of her then?
‘If my friends are getting stronger at summer camp, wouldn’t Sadi Chocolate get stronger too if she trained in summer camp?’
When the seeker gets a 30-day run at being a master of hide-and-seek, how could Sadi Chocolate stand a chance alone against Oknodie’s assault?
Right now, the spirits utilized territory inside specific spaces to disable nature mana’s flow and invalidated detection means, but even with that, someone in that space was still detected and pulled along by the high-powered vacuum!
– Floor 4, spirits take cover immediately.
– Next is floor 3. Use the elevator or the stairs to detour.
Sadi Chocolate began supporting the survival of the spirits.
By peeking into Oknodie’s thoughts, I started rescuing the spirits about to be caught.
– Don’t open room 205. Any spirits who went inside have gone to the Netherworld.
– Also, don’t go into the sleeping room. It says on the entrance in spirit language that “Sleep is dying.”
Let’s prevent a situation where spirits get killed before being caught by Oknodie! The survival rate and duration of the remaining spirits dramatically began to increase.
But Oknodie wasn’t an easy child either.
Having no one to catch quickly dimmed their spirits.
‘Why is no one getting caught?’
‘Did they all run away outside the mansion without me?’
‘Am I all alone…? ’
Suddenly feeling lonely, Oknodie began to show signs of going dark!
‘No. If Oknodie turns dark, I’m the one who has to deal with the aftermath as the mind exchange source next to them!’
Sadi made a firm resolution.
“Did everyone hear? Oknodie is on the fifth floor, so head to the sixth floor…”
“Oh, wait! Guard Golem, Guard Golem!”
“Escape via the elevator? Good, if I can get in now… Oh, what the?! Why’s the golem coming out of the elevator?!”
“Alright, I told you to escape through the emergency stairs while the golems grab the fools. If I open the door… No way, a freakin’ robotic vacuum!!!”
Spirits caught one after another by Sadi Chocolate’s planned death order!
In this uncertain hide-and-seek, the fall of Sadi Chocolate, the beacon and guide for everyone, threw the spirits into despair.
“Damn it. Information we hear isn’t as good as info straight from our hearts, so we can’t not listen!”
The cruel participants of this game of hide-and-seek were ultimately caught one by one, thanks to Sadi Chocolate’s interference.
But wasn’t Oknodie satisfied with that?
The candidate for great evil, Sadi Chocolate, coolly ignored the victims’ complaints.
“Now, where could my classmates be hiding~? Hehe. Should I activate those coordinates I planted in advance?”
“?!”
But that was all an act, and once everyone knew their coordinates had been marked, the point of the hide-and-seek game vanished.
It was a massive setback for Sadi Chocolate too.
“They’re tracing our positions perfectly with the Golems. Sadi Chocolate sold our locations!”
“Students said it. This Sadi Chocolate is the culprit! Find the Betrayer. Let’s get ‘em!”
With fire in their eyes, spirits scoured the mansion, hunting for Sadi Chocolate before Oknodie could catch her!
Not even afraid of being discovered while they searched using territorial manipulation, they boldly unleashed mana waves for detection magic!
In a thorough search that was like a heaven-and-earth scan, they finally found Sadi Chocolate, swords drawn.
“This wicked witch. I will definitely catch you and hand you over to Oknodie before falling to summer camp.”
“The first-class seat on the path to hell is for you, witch!”
An existential crisis came for Sadi Chocolate!
But didn’t they say a three-year-old dog can recite poems?
After 30 days managing Oknodie’s mind exchange, Sadi was capable of mimicking the scheming of evil Oknodie.
“Detonation trigger activated.”
With Sadi Chocolate’s declaration, an explosion erupted!
Spirits swept up in the explosion emerged unscathed, breaking through the blast.
“Did you think we’d run away just because you made a scene to attract Oknodie?”
“That’s a major miscalculation. We’ve already prepared to die together, newbie!”
Moments later, Oknodie appeared.
“Come, take us away.”
“I’ll go with that witch, Oknodie!”
“Please do! This dining room, where we play ‘Who’s the murderer?’ is being guided by this Guard Golem!”
Spirits confidently calling for Oknodie couldn’t hide their bewilderment.
“Why is it the dining room instead of summer camp?”
“Were there art pieces in the dining room?”
“Why the hell are we playing ‘Who’s the murderer?’…”
Oknodie pulled out a mirror from their backpack.
“You wrote this nice and large on your back, didn’t you?”
“…!”
Sadi Chocolate’s explosion.
It wasn’t just an attack or a bait to lure Oknodie.
“You, you wicked witch!”
“Hmm. You only just realized? So slow.”
Sadi Chocolate.
She was not alone in being trapped.
[I am not a hide-and-seek participant.]
A mana imprint boldly imprinted on her back!
This was Sadi Chocolate’s ultimate bait, tricking everyone under the cover of the explosion.
And thus, the battle of masters of death acted as two evil forces ached and reserved a sequel to Oknodie’s fun game.