Chapter 82
Chapter 82
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 82
Chapter Title: Laying the Foundations (7)
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Ever since Kim Yul had screamed, there had been someone lurking nearby.
The marker on the map was red.
‘Monsters are black, Biharins are blue.’
And red meant a Player.
I couldn’t see them with the naked eye, but there they were, plain as day on my map combined with mana detection.
Their intentions were obvious: hiding their presence and trailing doggedly behind us.
At first, I’d been tempted to grab them right then and there for a proper attitude adjustment.
But I quickly changed my mind.
They might just leave on their own, or there could be more of them.
If it was the former, I’d let them go.
If the latter, I’d clean them up without leaving any loose ends.
Or maybe, deep down, I was holding out hope.
‘Human nature can’t be that frail.’
I didn’t want to believe that the moment the law no longer reached us, people would eagerly turn their blades on each other like it was nothing.
Even after what happened with Han Chang-sik, I’d apparently still clung to a sliver of hope in humanity.
So I’d hoped the lurker would turn tail instead of attacking us.
But as always, reality wasn’t some fairy tale.
The ones who came charging not for monsters, but for people, numbered nine in total.
And this was just one day after the servers connected—the number of Players who’d decided to kill fellow Players instead.
My mouth tasted bitter, but I had no intention of just taking it lying down.
‘Good timing, actually.’
Might as well wipe them all out at once.
Leaving them be would only hinder normal Players from growing.
I devised a plan to take them down in one fell swoop.
- K: When I give the signal, run back.
- Yokai: Are you nuts? You want me to go to those guys on foot?
- K: Not forcing you. It’s your call.
- K: But if you’re gonna ignore me, handle whatever comes after on your own.
- K: Don’t blame me if they surround you and strip you bare.
- Kj: What if I listen to you, hyung?
- K: At least I won’t let you die.
- Kj: …When do I run?
- K: Now.
- K: Hop on the red marker ahead.
I closed the chat window we’d been using moments ago and spoke up.
“You two listen well.”
Kim Yul and An Ki-jun, who’d climbed up just ahead of me, turned to me with stiff movements.
Not just them—even I was standing atop a horizontally deployed barrier.
The height was about twenty meters. Roughly the same as the eighth or ninth floor of an apartment building.
No ordinary human would be able to follow us up here.
‘But they’re not ordinary.’
Players could leap up using the trees.
‘They’re just frozen in panic right now, staring like dogs that lost the chase.’
They might figure it out soon.
‘Let’s hurry.’
I had no intention of letting them climb up.
Of course, even if they gave up on us now, I wasn’t planning to let them off easy.
Fortunately, there was a way to deal with them without lifting a finger.
An evolved monster that had been stationary near Meseo had detected the intruders and was charging over at terrifying speed.
Its mana, readable through detection, was around six or seven hundred.
‘Bigger than that giant croc from last time.’
Not just in mana—its size seemed much larger too.
That explained why the trees in its path were shaking violently and crashing down.
In fact, the silhouette I glimpsed here and there was comparable to a decent-sized bus.
When the evolved monster finally revealed itself, something unexpected appeared atop its head.
Just as we bore a symbol marking us as outsiders, it carried something too.
A black star about the size of a human head.
“W-What’s that…….”
As I observed the evolved monster, An Ki-jun asked in a trembling voice.
“Evolved monster.”
I gave the short reply, then lowered myself into a crouch on the horizontal barrier.
By then, the enemies below, who’d been staring up at us, had shifted their gazes sideways.
They’d noticed the evolved monster approaching.
I planned to gather intel from their clash with it.
To do that, I had to make sure they couldn’t escape.
First, I pulled a needle-like weapon about fifteen centimeters long from my inventory and handed it to Kim Yul.
It was a blackwood weapon I’d finished crafting a couple of hours ago.
“Lend you this. Block anyone climbing the trees.”
“Huh?”
“And from now on, don’t interfere with me.”
Without waiting for their responses, I exhaled deeply and began arranging my mana.
It used the same structure as when deploying a barrier, but the scale was incomparably larger than usual.
‘I can manage a twenty-meter diameter.’
With my current mana, I could barely hold it for a minute.
‘Make it generous.’
No point skimping on mana and letting them slip away.
Since it was larger than anything I’d made before, deploying the barrier took a fair bit of time.
“Scatter!”
It wasn’t too late, though.
“What the hell is this?!”
“No way!”
“Smash it! Clear this thing now!”
A dome barrier twenty meters in diameter, encompassing the evolved monster.
The shield meant to block external impacts had transformed into a prison trapping the sacrificial lambs inside.
The Players trapped within screamed their lungs out.
Naturally, the caged evolved monster targeted them.
“Hoo, ha.”
I gripped each strand of mana, concentrating fiercely to maintain the barrier.
On top of that, I had to keep up the platform we stood on, so I gritted my teeth hard.
Every time the charging evolved monster slammed into the barrier wall, it felt like the array might shatter.
But it held—just barely.
Like running in a dream, where you strain with all your might but barely move.
‘Definitely tougher in its complete form.’
The proper mana array I’d learned from the shop was nearly five times sturdier.
If I’d tried blocking that thing with my divided, custom-shaped barriers, it would’ve broken already.
But without knowing the reason, there was no way to improve it.
‘Self-study has its limits.’
Tinkering by splitting shop-bought arrays has clear limitations.
Should I ask Rashar for pointers?
‘No, her high rank comes from divinity.’
Her mana wasn’t normal—it matched nature’s flow, altered by divine intervention.
Plus, she was a knight, not a mage.
If I learned from her, it’d be swordsmanship or spearmanship.
That thought brought to mind a certain mage I knew.
‘Better to ask her to introduce me to another mage than go to that guy.’
I clicked my tongue briefly, shaking the orange-haired image from this morning out of my head.
“Guh.”
Another impact hit right then, leaving no room for further thought.
Grinding my teeth, I looked down into the barrier.
‘Two already.’
One dangling limp from the horn sprouting between the monster’s nose and forehead, screaming.
Another cleanly crushed underfoot.
Add the two I’d stiffened with attribute mana and finished off while breaking their encirclement, and that made four out of commission or dead.
The fact they still hadn’t used attribute mana or spells even now suggested they were all Gamma-rank Players.
‘Then the remaining five won’t last long.’
To extend the barrier even a little longer, I pulled out a potion.
‘Time to dope up.’
I downed three in a row, but depletion outpaced recovery.
Two or three minutes at best?
‘That should be plenty.’
I chugged another while watching the slaughter below.
“Are we…… just gonna keep standing here like this?”
Kim Yul asked in a voice stiff with tension.
I glanced at him lightly.
“What, you wanna go down and help?”
Kim Yul’s fingertips twitched.
“N-No, not that…….”
He said no, but his intentions were crystal clear.
Sure, he was a bit sly, but still within the realm of a normal guy who’d lived an ordinary life.
No way watching people die brought him joy.
It wasn’t joyful for me either.
Unlike Kim Yul, though, I didn’t feel the slightest urge to help or save them.
“I’m not some psycho who goes around killing innocents…….”
I rose slowly from my crouch on the barrier.
“But I’m not generous enough to forgive those aiming for my neck.”
The ones dying inside my barrier right now had planned to kill us and devour our mana.
I’d seen the murderous glint in their eyes.
The blood stench that assaulted my nose when they drew close lingered vividly.
‘It wasn’t monster blood on them.’
Sour, thick, spine-chilling.
Unmistakably the smell of human blood.
Just like the metallic tang I’d smelled that day covered in Han Chang-sik’s blood.
If these were random folks I’d bumped into in a hunting ground, I’d have jumped in to help.
I had the ability, and the capacity for that much goodwill and consideration.
But these weren’t random passersby—they’d pointed blades at me.
Hadn’t I vowed then, when I killed Han Chang-sik?
That I wouldn’t let flimsy sentiments weaken me against those gunning for my life.
I wasn’t immune to the aversion or unease toward killing.
But I had no intention of nurturing pointless guilt within myself.
The moment they targeted my life, tacit consent had been given.
So it was only natural for me to target theirs.
‘We’d both agreed to kill or be killed.’
I’d succeeded; they’d failed.
Just like last night in the Plang Forest, where they’d likely succeeded and others failed.
No hard proof, but I was pretty damn sure.
‘Doubt there are that many blatantly PKing after just one day.’
And their deaths were their own doing.
Sure, I’d lured the evolved monster knowing it was nearby, but they’d followed.
“So if you wanna help those bastards, use your own abilities. I’m not kind enough to stop you from playing the sucker.”
I drew a clear line, and Kim Yul didn’t press further.
All that was left were the dying Players’ screams and the evolved monster’s roars.
Occasional snaps of breaking trees, too.
Of course, it wasn’t a one-sided massacre from start to finish.
They were Players who’d cleared the beginner stage, after all.
When only three remained after two more deaths, they stabbed at the monster with blades in desperate fury.
Futile resistance, though.
“Hey, lend me your spear.”
I had no intention of just watching.
So I borrowed Kim Yul’s supply spear and hurled it downward with all my strength.
Slicing through the air, it impaled the gut of the one most aggressively drawing the monster’s attention up front.
As he collapsed, the last two didn’t hold out long.
Soon, all Players except us lay dead or dying.
I dismissed the wide-area barrier and chugged a fresh potion.
‘Absorb, purify, deploy—total chaos.’
Combat demanded attention on too many fronts.
As I dropped the barrier, the evolved monster’s focus shifted to us—the only ones left alive.
Fortunately, it didn’t leap up.
Instead, it battered aside broken tree debris as it barreled toward us.
I deflected the projectiles with my spear, gauging my recovered mana.
‘PK scum gave me a nice haul, but…….’
The oversized barrier had consumed a ton.
Covering unnecessary areas didn’t help.
For efficiency and utility, segmented barriers for key spots beat full-form ones.
If I could fix the durability drop, I’d use them freely in more scenarios.
As I mentally cataloged the issues, I glanced sideways.
An Ki-jun’s face was pale as a sheet.
‘Hit the mark nicely.’
Luring the PKers here and trapping them in the barrier had all been to see that expression.
For now, things were proceeding as I’d hoped.
Time to refill mana and prep for the evolved monster raid.
I calmed my mind to keep tension from stiffening my body.
I’d taken one down before, suffering hefty injuries.
‘But my hand’s different now.’
I could split barriers, and my attribute mana had grown.
It’d be smoother than last time.
“Things are gonna get dangerous now. Stay back.”
“……Huh?”
“That guy the spear hit might not be dead. Keep watch so he doesn’t bolt.”
With mana sufficiently restored, I exhaled and leaped down.
“Kraaaargh!”
The evolved monster roared savagely at my approach.
My mutter got completely drowned out.
“……U.”
The activation word for my accumulated magic tool—my true name—passed my lips, and mana surged from the ring.
Condensed at the spear tip, it sparked not its usual color, but pure white.
Now, time to test the might of over two thousand attribute mana.
Damn System