Chapter 158
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 158
Chapter Title: Slum, Daughter of the Spirit King - 1
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As Lee Hyun-wook walked the streets of Yggdrasil, he came across some rather shocking information.
- ...We've secured the Spirit King's daughter.
The ones speaking were a group of Players accompanied by Dark Elves.
They were likely pawns on the Villains' side, helping the Dark Elves infiltrate.
'But what do they mean, they've secured the Spirit King's daughter?'
The simplest interpretation was that they had kidnapped her.
It seemed their side was also aware of the Spirit King's existence and intended to use him...
'...Don't tell me they're planning to make the Spirit King go berserk.'
If humans kidnapped and threatened his daughter, the Spirit King wouldn't just stand by.
A plan was underway to use that to shake Yggdrasil from the inside out.
'I didn't think they'd just charge in recklessly, but to think they were already cooking up a scheme like this...'
The Dark Elf army, Titanomachia, and a rampaging Spirit King...
If that triple threat overlapped, even Lee Hyun-wook would be helpless.
It was a good thing he'd caught wind of the conspiracy beforehand, but he couldn't act rashly.
'First, I need to find out where the Spirit King's daughter is being held...'
As long as the enemy held a hostage, he had to be extremely cautious.
One wrong move could put the hostage, the Spirit King's daughter, in danger.
Very carefully, Lee Hyun-wook began to trail the Dark Elves.
And a moment later...
- This is Owl. We have a problem. Uh... there's a witness.
- What? What do you mean?
- When we secured the Spirit King's daughter, a woman who appeared to be her roommate witnessed the operation.
- Dammit... So what happened?
- We lost her. Team 2 is in pursuit. We'll find and eliminate her shortly.
He had found a crack to dig into within this dark conspiracy.
***
The Republic of Chad's largest city, Yggdrasil, was currently the wealthiest city in the entire world.
"Hah—so why am I so poor?"
Jack Hamilton, a level 16 mage Player living there, grumbled as he drank his beer.
Just as developed urban centers always had slums, Yggdrasil also had its own shantytown.
As the splendid city's prestige grew, low-level Player laborers from all over the world flocked to it. They began to gather in a place called the 'Blessing Exclusion Zone'—an area far from the World Tree where the mana concentration was thin and offered few benefits—forming a slum called 'Rutlet Town'. Jack, who had just turned twenty, was also a resident of Rutlet Town, working as a laborer in a mana potion factory.
"I was so full of hopes and dreams at first... Bro, I'm not gonna have to live like this my whole life, am I?"
he lamented, and the man drinking with him, Max Robert, clicked his tongue.
"Hey, stop whining and just work hard. If you get fired again, I can't help you."
"Don't worry, bro. You got me this job, so I'll work like my life depends on it."
"Yeah, please do... And once you save up some money and get some gear, I'll see if I can get you into our guild—"
"—Oh! For real? Don't you go back on your word! Nice, I'm gonna start living right from now on!"
It had been three years since he'd run away from his aunt's house, where he'd been living under her thumb, after awakening as a Player. He didn't have any particular talent, but he dreamed of one day joining a proper guild and hunting monsters.
*Bang! Bang!*
"...Huh? What's that sound?"
It was the sound of someone knocking on the front door.
"Jack, you expecting anyone at this hour?"
"Uh... no one besides you, bro."
"Who could it be this late at night? You didn't get a girlfriend, did you?"
"I wish, but no."
*Bang! Bang!*
The knocking was too rough, though. And he had no visitors who would come at this hour.
"Jack? I don't know who this girl is... but she sounds pretty pissed."
He put on the jacket he'd tossed on the floor and walked to the door.
Meanwhile, he instinctively gathered mana in his right hand.
Like any slum, the security here wasn't great...
But then...
"—Jack! Jack! It's me!"
It was a familiar, urgent voice.
*Click—* Jack hurriedly opened the door.
Standing outside was a girl with a tear-streaked face.
"...Hannah, what's wrong?"
Hannah Tate was a friend Jack's age whom he had gotten close to in Rutlet Town.
"Ja-Jack..."
But for some reason, she was sobbing miserably and glancing around nervously.
"Here, come on in."
Sensing something was wrong, Jack let her inside and began to scan the surroundings.
A low-rise apartment complex built of cheap concrete with not a single streetlight... the faint darkness barely held at bay by the distant lights of Yggdrasil... The night streets of Rutlet Town were bleak and eerie.
'Is someone... there?'
It was a given that all sorts of crimes happened in these ant-like alleyways.
It looked like something had happened to Hannah... but he couldn't see anything right away.
"Oh, it's Hannah? Hey, what's with you in the middle of the night? Are you two..."
Max, who had been looking at them with suspicious eyes, realized the gravity of the situation when he saw Hannah's face.
"...Huh? What happened to your face? Wh-what's wrong?"
She collapsed to the floor, letting out choked sobs. She must have run here in a hurry.
"Jack... J-Jane..."
Jane was the name of the woman Hannah had met at the potion factory a while back and had started living with.
She was still secretive about where she came from, which was suspicious, but she was a beautiful girl with greenish hair and jewel-like eyes that gave her an otherworldly, mystical quality.
"Huh? Did something happen to her?"
"Jane... she was... she was kidnapped..."
"—What? What did you just say?"
A crack—appeared on the face of Jack, who had been secretly crushing on her.
"Ha-Hannah, calm down and tell me again. What happened to Jane?"
Max handed her a glass of lukewarm water. After drinking it, Hannah spoke again.
"I went to the grocery store for a minute... and these men showed up..."
"What? Wh-who would do something like that to Jane? Has anyone been looking for her?"
"I don't know. But... the men saw me and chased after me."
She began to sob again as she said this.
"Jack, this... isn't this what Nicole was talking about, that thing she said as a joke?"
Another new name came up.
Nicole... she was another girl from the potion factory, around their age.
But she only showed up for three days before getting fired for not showing up.
Jack remembered her as a strange, peculiar girl.
Anyway, they had talked quite a bit during those few days...
"...You mean the prophecy?"
She had claimed, with her own mouth, that she could see the future.
"Yeah, she said something would happen to Jane, and a stranger would save her—"
Just then, Max clamped his hand over Hannah's mouth.
"—Shh, be quiet."
As an archer-class Player, his senses were sharper than others.
*Thud— Thud—*
Sure enough, a heavy sound was approaching from outside the door. This building, made of nothing but cheap concrete, had no soundproofing, and the lawless footsteps traveled through the walls, grating on their nerves.
*Thud— Thud—*
Max could also faintly hear a conversation outside...
"...Dammit, they're going to break down the door."
Max whispered, and Jack and Hannah's pupils trembled.
"B-bro, I can use Teleport!"
It could only move them about 30 meters, but it was the only way to escape this room.
However, Jack was only level 16, so casting Teleport took a fair amount of time. Max knew this and decided he had to buy time, so he moved toward the front door.
"Bro? What are you doing, it's dangerous!"
"—Shut up and just cast it, quick!"
Max waved him away and picked up his weapon—a crossbow—which was leaning against the wall.
*Click—*
The moment he raised the crossbow—
*BOOM—!*
With a loud crash, the thin iron door crumpled, and a burly man in a black suit burst in.
"Wh-who are you!"
*Thwip!*
Max reflexively fired a bolt, but the big man simply raised his forearm and easily deflected it.
"Dammit—try blocking this!"
Max shouted as he enchanted his crossbow, and an invisible magic arrow shot out.
*Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!*
But...
*Thud— Thud—*
The magic arrows all evaporated the moment they touched the translucent mana shield surrounding the burly man's body.
"Is that all you've got?"
He reached out, swatted Max's crossbow aside, and grabbed Max's neck with his other hand.
"B-bro! No!"
"Qu-quickly, run—"
*Crack—*
His neck was twisted at a right angle.
"No!"
At that moment, the Teleport spell Jack was casting completed, and the magic circle on the floor began to spin.
*Vwoom—*
Simultaneously, their vision blurred, and soon the two of them were standing on the road behind the apartment building.
"Dammit, bro..."
Max Robert, the neighborhood guy who had always looked out for him...
But there was no time to feel anger or grief.
"L-let's go!"
They had only moved a distance of 20 meters; those unidentified thugs would be on their trail in no time.
"Those bastards used a short-range teleport!"
"Dammit, split up and find them!"
Since this area wasn't properly policed, some smaller guilds acted as a self-proclaimed neighborhood watch.
But anyone who had lived in Rutlet Town for a few months knew that you couldn't trust them either.
If they went to the watch for help, there was a high chance they'd just be handed over to those thugs.
"Hah—hah—wh-what do we do now?"
"First, let's go to Mr. Hans's shop!"
If there was one man in this area they could trust, it was undoubtedly Hans Couture.
He was once a skilled combat Player who quit the guild life after getting older and settled down in Rutlet Town. The rumor was that he did it to help his less fortunate neighbors.
His character was widely known, as there wasn't a soul in this district who hadn't received his help.
"Max got taken down like that, but Mr. Hans is a level 46 warrior-class Player..."
In other words, not even the gangs or the local watch could mess with him easily.
Without a moment's hesitation, the two of them ran towards Hans's general store.
Soon, a single shop, shining alone at the end of the gray alley, came into view.
"Hah—hah—we're almost there, hang in there!"
Only Hans had the guts to stay open this late in Rutlet Town.
*Jingle—*
They practically slammed into the door, bursting inside as a cool breeze hit them.
"M-Mr. Hans—!"
At the counter, a burly, middle-aged man counting cash with a cigar in his mouth stood up.
"...Jack, who did this?"
He immediately understood that the two young people were being threatened by someone.
"I-I don't know. They broke down my door and... killed Max."
At those words, Hans's eyebrows twitched. As bad as the security was in Rutlet Town, breaking down a door and killing someone... he knew this was no ordinary matter.
"Jack, take Hannah and hide in the storage room in the back."
"...If those guys come, I'll help too."
"Jack, you brat. You're no help yet."
As he spoke, he placed a golf bag on the counter.
What he pulled out of it was none other than a two-handed sword.
*Shing—*
He drew the sword slightly before sheathing it again and setting it down at his feet.
"Hurry to the storage room. You think you've lost them?"
"N-no, but... Mr. Hans, I'm sorry."
They had run here to save their lives, but it was a huge imposition on Hans.
"If you're sorry, then get a job at a raiding guild and come do some weekend volunteer work."
He said with a grin, and Jack couldn't help but smile back.
Just being with Hans was enough to put a person at ease.
'Right, Mr. Hans will protect us.'
Jack and Hannah went into the storage room. There was a small window on the door.
Through it, they could watch a limited view of the inside of the shop.
*Jingle—*
A moment later, the chime rang as lawless footsteps stomped inside.
*Thud— Thud—*
Hannah asked in a tiny whisper who had come in. But the merchandise shelves blocked their view of the entrance and the counter.
"I can't see well..."
Still, if they pressed their ears to the door, they could more or less hear the conversation.
"Sorry, but we're closed for the day and were just about to lock up—"
"Nah, we're not here to buy anything. We're from the local watch."
"...I don't recognize any of you. Are you really members of the watch?"
Hans asked aggressively, and the other side seemed to be at a loss for words.
"...A young man and woman passed by here. You haven't seen them?"
It wasn't a polite question; it was laced with blatant hostility.
"Can't say I have."
A sneer could be heard in response to Hans's answer.
"Hah, what a load of crap..."
"......."
"We saw them come in here."
*CRASH!*
At that moment, they heard the sound of something colliding.
"Keuk— How dare you—in my shop—!"
They could tell Hans had roared as he drew his sword.
*CLANG! CLANG!*
The sound of clashing followed. A fight had broken out.
No, it was a duel.
A life-or-death battle between Players of considerable skill...
The fight ended sooner than they expected.
"...Old man, looks like you were something back in the day, huh?"
After that, they heard cackling laughter.
They didn't want to believe it, but even Hans had been defeated.
*Thud— Thud—*
They began to walk this way.
And this storage room had no back door.
'Dammit, my Teleport is on cooldown. What do I do now?'
Suppressing his pounding heart and gasping breath, he raised both hands.
Fireball, a basic attack spell that every mage could use...
All he could do was throw it the moment the door opened.
'No, it'll never work... this is insane.'
Hadn't even Hans, a level 46 Player, been taken down in an instant?
'What can a mere level 16 like me possibly do?'
None of his neighbors would be able to stop this.
*Jingle—*
Just then, another chime rang, and the approaching footsteps stopped.
"...Huh? Who are you?"
One of the thugs asked. It seemed someone else had entered.
"Hmm, who else would come to a general store?"
The owner of the voice then said "a customer" and casually walked further into the shop.
"Hey, can't you see what's going on here?"
"Well, stuff like this is pretty common in this neighborhood, isn't it?"
"Hah... you're a funny one, aren't you?"
After that exchange, the customer stopped in front of the mana tool display near the storage room and began browsing. Jack carefully stood up and peered through the small window to get a look at him.
A black hat, a black mask, a black backpack, black boots... at a glance, he looked like a traveler.
"Hey, sorry, but we're closed."
One of the thugs said as he approached him from behind.
"Are you the owner? Or is that guy on the floor the owner?"
The customer asked without turning around.
"Well... I'm the owner now, so how about you get out?"
"Great, I'll just buy this, so could you ring me up?"
He held out a small screwdriver.
At that, the bald thug snickered.
Then, without warning, he swung his hand.
*Smack!*
He knocked the small screwdriver out of the customer's hand.
"Huh? What do you want me to ring up? There's nothing there."
At the smug voice, laughter erupted from behind him.
That thuggish attitude... whoever they were, they were clearly a nasty criminal organization.
"Or, I could ring up the price of your life—"
In that instant—
*Whoosh— Thunk—*
A screwdriver flew through the air and embedded itself in the thug's neck.
"Gack—"
A hoarse sound escaped his lips, and the customer casually pulled the screwdriver out.
"Hmm, see? It's right here."
With a squelch, blood spurted from the carotid artery like a fountain, and the thug's body slumped to the left.
"You there, you look like an employee. Could you ring this up for me instead?"
At that moment, a heavy silence fell over the shop, and Jack instinctively covered his head.
"Kill that bastard—now—!"
*KABOOOOM—!*
With a roar, a massive fireball swept through the store.
The blast knocked over all the display shelves, sending goods scattering everywhere.
Immediately after, a burly man in a suit charged at the man like a rhinoceros.
"You—son of a bitch—how dare you—!"
He was the one who had killed Max and taken down Hans.
'Oh no, this is bad!'
To be able to take down Hans in one blow, he had to be at least level 60.
'I got another innocent person involved...'
But then—
*CRA—ACK—!*
The two fists—the burly man's and the customer's—collided head-on, and in that instant—
"Kahk—!"
—it was the burly man who screamed.
*BAM!*
The man's right hand was completely severed below the wrist, flying off and hitting the wall...
*BOOM—!*
As if a bowling ball had struck it, a large hole was blown through the wall.
'What just happened?'
A claw-like weapon had suddenly sprouted from the customer's right hand.
"Aaaargh— my-my hand—!"
In that instant, the customer's right hand slammed into the man's jaw, and blood sprayed from his mouth.
"My, my, the service here is terrible."
That's when Jack saw it.
"And I tend to complain... rather forcefully."
Two arrows materializing from the customer's waist...
'Uh... I feel like I've seen that somewhere before.'
It was definitely a scene he had witnessed somewhere, one that had been intensely seared into his memory.