......

    Shin watched everything unfold, but he somewhat lost interest in dealing with these top experts for the time being as he became more interested in the agenda of these suspicious people as well as those perpetrators hiding in the distance.

    "Which one should I choose first?" he mumbled as he switched his gaze between the two directions.

    Even if he wanted to cause trouble and join the fun below, he could not just recklessly go rampant in there when there were still some people plotting in the darkness.

    A moment later, his eyes suddenly twinkled as an idea flashed in his mind. "Why do I have to choose when I can create a conflict with all of them."

    With that, he suddenly sent a message to Exheart, who survived an earlier battle due to the sudden appearance of the horde. He was telling the latter that some people were hiding in the cliff on their eastern side.

    After that, Shin gave the hooded individuals another glance before retreating deep into the woods to further hide himself and his tracks. Then he started sprinting toward the source of the dense plague energy that he was sensing.

    Swoosh!

    ...

    Down on the battlefield, Exheart, who was working with the adventurer teams that had a friendly relationship with him, suddenly paused.

    He had just gotten the message from Shin and could not help but complain a little. "Where the heck is this guy?? It feels like he has been watching everything from a safe place and taking this as some sort of entertainment."

    He pushed the Plagued Monster he was fighting back before signaling the nearby warrior to cover his place for a moment as he wanted to see what Shin wanted to say this time.

    Right after reading the contents of the message, he could not help but frown deeply before turning his head toward the cliffs on the eastern side of the battlefield.

    This place was quite like a basin as there were a few mountain cliffs surrounding it. Even though there was quite a distance away from those cliffs and the battlefield, it was still short enough to cover given the current stats of the players.

    He looked at the direction that Shin had indicated, trying to find the people that the latter was talking about. But he immediately frowned deeper after failing to find anyone despite using his ocular skills.

    "No one?" his already deep frown became even deeper as he found this. He did not doubt Shin even for a second as he somewhat knew the latter.

    Moreover, Shin had never sent any misinformation up until now. He also did not have any reason to do that, which meant that the other party was using a very high level of concealment ability or tool to hide themselves.

    Seeing that Exheart suddenly stopped fighting and was somewhat lost in thought, the leader of the adventurer team that he was working with immediately noticed this.

    He knitted his brow after seeing the frown of his friend. "This guy rarely shows any seriousness like this. Did he find something again?"

    Shin had only informed him about the hidden group and their location but did not specify if they were the perpetrators of this incident, so he had no idea about it.

    Cade stared at those figures for quite a while until the duration of his ocular skill ended. From his eyes, it felt like the mysterious group was veiled by the surrounding energies, making them blend with the environment naturally.

    He then turned to Exheart and asked. "How did you know?"

    Exheart shook his head as he said. "That is not important right now."

    He paused for a moment as he picked up his spear once again, planning to resume the battle. "You should inform your commander right now. Let them deal with it."

    Cade opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but no words came out from him. He then clicked his tongue before running toward his commander to report their discovery.

    If those people were indeed the perpetrators of this incident, then they had to pay the price for messing with all these forces.

    ...

    At the same time, on the cliff where the mysterious group was located, one of the members felt something strange and turned in the direction where Shin was previously located.

    Noticing his strange actions, the person standing beside him could not help but ask. "What’s wrong?"

    That member did not immediately respond, as he focused all his attention on the opposite cliff. After trying many methods and failing multiple times, he shook his head and said, "It is nothing. It must be my imagination."

    He kept on having a strange feeling that someone had been watching them from that cliff since earlier, but no matter what method or skill he used, he failed to uncover anything.

    Even if his senses were telling him that someone was observing them from that place, he had no choice but to forget about it since he did not find anything. After all, he was the one with the strongest ocular skill and eye techniques in their group, so he had full confidence in his scouting abilities.

    Since he had not found anything, his imagination must be playing a trick on him.

    "This operation must be putting a lot of stress on you. After all, we are tasked to get those items from those gods," said the other person. "We are facing the top gods of the game, so it shouldn’t be that easy."

    "Fortunately, someone is ’helping’ us right now. This is a perfect opportunity to assassinate them," he added.

    The member, who was staring at the opposite cliff earlier, nodded his head. "Those items have a guaranteed drop rate, so all we have to do is kill our targets as fast as we can and steal the items once they drop. We will retreat immediately after that."

    "Get ready, we will make our move once that chieftain-rank monster goes berserk," said the person standing at the forefront of the group.

    ......