Chapter 114
Chapter 114
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 114
Chapter Title: Chapter 22: Party Play (5)
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After sending off Yang Tae-ho, I moved spots together with the Palao-affiliated Players.
Throughout that process, my eyes stayed glued to the community boards.
「Title: Non-Beta Outpost 5 - Poster: Venice
Content: So many Palao Players have gathered. What’s going on? If anyone knows the reason, mind sharing?」
- Grand Canyon: No idea either... but man, it was packed.
⌎ Takuya: It’s like, were there always this many Palao members?
⌎ Vanilla: Where did they all pop out from?
⌎ Squirrel: Something must’ve really happened.
- Eagle: But I heard Palao doesn’t discriminate against Players? They even do public raids. Is that true?
⌎ Vine Mandarin: Pretty much, yeah. Though they seem to treat their close ones more casually.
⌎ Manicure: They’re friendly even to members of other orders. I once met a Palao priest and was seriously touched.
⌎ Vine Mandarin: Honestly, at first I was worried because so many people talked about getting discriminated against by the order, but the Palao folks are all genuinely nice. They don’t look down on us, and they even try to teach us how to handle mana first.
⌎ German: Don’t impersonate them. You think Palao’s such a pushover that trash like you could join?
⌎ Vine Mandarin: I am Palao-affiliated, okay? Here’s my post with proof. Good enough? What about you?
⌎ Mackenzie: Whoa, no way, it’s real Palao.
⌎ Elizabeth: How do you know?
⌎ Mackenzie: Status window screenshot attached to the post.
⌎ Crescent Moon: Why doesn’t that German guy verify?
⌎ Squirrel: Probably failed the entry exam. Seems like he’s venting.
- Strawberry Cake: Jealous of Palao. The Purity side is super rude.
⌎ Manicure: Rude is an understatement. They treat you like foreign laborers.
⌎ Bus Stop: Spot on. Is that purification quota thing for real?
⌎ Crescent Moon: They wanna desert but took advance items.
⌎ Mask: And apparently they’re top-tier.
⌎ Manicure: Wanna transfer but no achievements.
⌎ Mackenzie: That’s how they became slaves.
- Elizabeth: Palao Order has low Player death rates too, right?
⌎ Vine Mandarin: Yeah, that’s the case. I heard just over 50 in the last three months.
⌎ Manicure: Whoa... that’s insanely low.
⌎ Grand Canyon: They all gonna go non-human like K? The difference is huge.
⌎ German: They’ve got way fewer members, that’s all. What’s so impressive?
⌎ Squirrel: Idiot, even adjusting for that, the death rate’s nuts? Other orders are over 20%, theirs is under 10%. Morons gonna moron.
⌎ Mask: Why’s this guy been raging since earlier?
⌎ Strawberry Cake: Lots of inferiority-complex types popping up lately.
That post became the trigger, and mentions of the Palao Order started flooding the community boards.
Then came something that poured fuel on the fire.
≪Important Announcement≫
Higher-level contaminated zones will open. Check contaminated zone info available through each outpost.
It was an all-server system notice.
But the news didn’t stop there.
「Title: Palao’s booking exclusive missions at 3-star contaminated zones right now! - Poster: Porsche
Content: You can check the mission list! It keeps growing.」
- Candle: Crazy, aren’t these the ones that cost order points?
⌎ Ballerino: Yup, looks like they’re going all-in with their order points here.
- Chocolate Cookie: Ooh, first exclusive order missions ever? Wanna go watch.
⌎ Anchovy: Me too!
⌎ Beret: This isn’t the time to be excited. They’re claiming hunting grounds.
⌎ Elliot: And? Suggest it to your own order. Ask for exclusive missions. Should’ve joined Palao knowing this.
⌎ Homerun: You confident you’d pass the entry exam?
- Beer: The gathering at the non-beta side for exclusive missions too, right?
⌎ Elizabeth: Probably.
⌎ Venice: Yup! Just asked a Palao Player I met at Non-Beta Outpost.
Palao Players suddenly gathering in one spot.
Followed by Palao Order exclusive missions.
With those two events overlapping, the community boards were plastered with talk of the Palao Order.
I skimmed through the buzzing community and nodded to myself.
‘Not bad.’
It was exactly the situation I’d aimed for, so of course it wasn’t bad.
‘Players are handled. Now just clear the missions properly.’
That should make it a hot topic even among the Viharan locals.
“Wow, they’re crazy fast.”
“Heard about it ahead of time, but still...”
“Looks like they’ve already decided what exclusive missions to book.”
While I was sorting out future plans in my head, the others heading to the assembly point with me were chatting among themselves.
Joseph from South Africa, Nadia from Spain, and Kirishi from India.
They were currently the group with the most interactions with me in the order.
There were plenty of other acquaintances, but those three were the only ones I’d call close enough to introduce.
They all had straightforward, no-nonsense personalities, so we hung out often.
The unique thing was that all three were main damage dealers focused on firepower.
I wasn’t lacking in firepower myself, and there was no need to recruit the same position for one party.
So I hadn’t formed a party with them.
We just went on occasional mobbing hunts together.
“But isn’t that too many? Already over 40?”
“What? Did our order have that many points?”
“They’re dumping everything here? Why all of a sudden?”
While I was checking the community, the trio seemed to have looked at the mission list.
Then they all turned to me with sly questions.
“Hey, you know something, don’t you?”
It was said with full certainty that I knew.
‘Well, I do know.’
It wasn’t a secret that I got special treatment in the order.
I was the only one staying at the Bennet estate, and I had frequent one-on-ones with Jordan.
“Why’s the order doing this out of nowhere?”
To explain properly, I’d have to rewind about two weeks.
Right after the seven major orders agreed to open higher-level contaminated zones.
The order leadership, focused solely on stockpiling points to upgrade Player buffs.
Me and Jordan, pushing to use points right away to solidify the order’s position.
There were all sorts of complicated back-and-forths, but the gist was simple.
After some heated arguments that bruised feelings, my side and Jordan’s gained the upper hand.
As a first step, we decided to claim the mission zones the system recommended to me.
This was to boost Palao’s popularity among Players.
‘People get stomachaches when their cousin buys land.’
If Palao Players kept hitting jackpots exclusively.
Everyone would die of envy. At the same time, serious transfer considerations would pop up.
It was the surest way to draw the eyes of Players familiar with capitalism.
All while parallelly improving the Viharan perception of the Palao Order.
‘The kickoff was recovering the order’s lost holy relic.’
That was why Palao Players had assembled today at Outpost 5 under the Vice Beta castle.
The plan was to head to the mission zones via spatial magic from here.
Gathering in one spot like this was a deliberate performance to flaunt Palao’s moves to everyone else.
That’s how I knew the full process of the order’s internal decision-making.
But I had no intention of explaining it to the trio.
‘Too much hassle.’
And I knew it wouldn’t benefit me to spell it out.
What I was doing was no different from subtly inciting Players.
It was to induce transfers while sowing dissatisfaction with their current orders.
No need to explain all that in detail myself.
The deed was done anyway.
All that was left was watching the spark I’d lit grow.
That should smack the gods who’d treated me like a disposable right in the back of the head.
‘Take that.’
For all those layered reasons, I substituted a simple piece of advice for a detailed explanation.
“Just.”
“Just?”
“Do the exclusive missions hard.”
They were system-backed missions, after all, so pockets would fatten nicely.
But with no way to know the backstory, the trio tilted their heads in confusion.
Instead of explaining, I waved them off, signaling I wasn’t going to say more.
Realizing they wouldn’t get answers, they clicked their tongues and backed off.
Then, as usual, they started chit-chatting.
“By the way, tons of people asking about death rates, huh?”
“Most of ’em are just picking fights.”
“Jealousy, probably.”
“Bet most couldn’t do what we did.”
“Honestly, I’m not sure I could do it again...”
“Now that you mention it... I’d have transferred if I’d racked up achievements during training.”
“You too? Me too!”
Wondering what they were on about, it turned out to be about the entry trainee training.
Players joining the Palao Order had to go through mandatory training.
It was a one-month course, grueling enough to puke your guts out daily using low-rank Players as punching bags.
And the ringleader was, naturally...
‘This really can’t get out that I led it.’
Thanks to that, Player death rates plummeted, but that wasn’t the point.
The point was, if it got out I’d suggested it, the order’s Players would swarm me to kill.
“I still have nightmares about it?”
“Shamel chasing you from behind?”
“Yeah, how’d you know?”
“I get ’em too.”
Seeing them secretly wipe away tears, it was clear.
I steeled myself to take that secret to the grave while swallowing a sigh.
I’d pushed for that initial training regimen knowing I’d catch flak, but for good reasons.
‘Can’t just sit by when a recruit’s death wastes divinity.’
Entry limit: 5,000.
That number meant the Palao divinity invested in this game could only buff 5,000.
But if a recruit dies? The divinity doesn’t get recovered—it just vanishes.
And plenty had already vanished that way.
You could tell just from the numbers on the order homepage.
[1029/4934]
When an order Player dies, the available slots shrink too.
When I first realized that, my blood pressure spiked so hard I nearly collapsed.
I even second-guessed if I’d picked the wrong order.
But even so, I didn’t want to transfer to another.
So what could I do? Solve the problem.
With no extra divinity incoming from Palao, losses had to be minimized.
Fortunately, the order leadership was keen on lowering Player death rates too.
So after discussions, we settled on “make ’em die less.”
With full backing from Palao’s top brass, the brutal training regimen was born.
As a result, not just me but all Palao Players endured hellish training.
And it genuinely helped Player survival.
They could swing spears and swords more systematically now.
But I couldn’t dream of admitting my involvement.
Especially seeing them glare murderously at Shamel, who’d run the training.
Even after arriving at the tent, the trio kept gnashing their teeth over training stories.
Finally, unable to stand it, I steered the conversation elsewhere.
“Enough yapping. Prep for the meeting.”
With the mission a day away, it was a perfect topic to refocus them.
“I’m not going anyway.”
“Nadia’s repping us.”
“Dumping it on me so you can slack? At least study the攻略 guide properly.”
“Yeees, yeees.”
With Nadia’s nagging as the cue, talk of hell training vanished.
Instead, the trio’s eyes fixed on empty air.
Checking the攻略 guide on the order homepage.
‘A manual designed for large-scale Player sieges.’
Made by experienced gamer Players and Jordan’s side pooling heads.
Per its contents, there was plenty to sort out before entering tomorrow’s mission zone.