A New Sponsor (1)

"Pitasha, come over here for a second, will you?"

"Yes, Master!"

She came running at once. Pitasha, who had been directing things from outside and gathering combat data, hurried over.

"I got a Trait Evolution Ticket. Right now my traits are Throwing, Overclock, Command, Fire Resistance, and Spear Technique — five in total."

"Hmm..."

Pitasha pondered for a moment.

"But you haven't really found any weaknesses to fix yet, have you? So rather than using it now, since you're going to keep clearing everything at 100%, why not just save it and see what you get from the random traits?"

"That's what I was thinking too. I only asked in case there was a trait I'd need to evolve."

After that, I had Pitasha build several more factories.

The drones I'd supplied this time could handle everything up through goblin warriors automatically, but there simply weren't enough of them, so they were distributed first to the students who hadn't yet reached adulthood.

One of the girls summoned from South Korea, drone in hand, posted a thank-you message to the community.

"Well, that's a relief... It really isn't easy for a girl to survive out there. Judging by her handle, she's got something water-magic related."

Beneath her post, plenty of comments had piled up asking her to detail exactly what equipment she'd been supplied with. She was drawing quite a lot of envy, too.

"Well, my situation's genuinely fine and there's no threat to my life, so let's get those factories running and start making some real money. At this rate, am I basically pulling in tens of billions of won a month?"

If I figured on returning about once a month, that worked out to earnings in the trillions of won per year.

And this time I'd added standard ammunition to the lineup, no less.

"The regular bullets can be produced at several ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hundred rounds a second. Let's also make freeze rounds, incendiary rounds, and binding rounds."

These weren't something I'd found in a shop — Pitasha came up with them herself, saying they'd be perfect for a situation like this.

Naturally — freeze rounds, incendiary rounds, and binding rounds show up constantly in games and novels alike.

All of these rounds were designed with lower lethality than standard ammunition, but built to massacre regular goblins en masse — roughly two or three goblins down per incendiary round.

Which meant a single emptied magazine could wipe out hundreds of regular goblins.

"Not bad. Oh, and the world server's been quiet lately."

Apparently each nation's government was building its own servers and throwing itself into gathering intelligence through the community.

Word was that anyone who obtained a Question Ticket was offered 5 billion won so the government could dictate what question to ask with it.

"This Question Ticket is a bit of a shame, but... whatever, it'll be fine."

South Korea's population is only around 60 million compared to other countries, so the number of Question Tickets is low to begin with.

On top of that, only about fifty survivors were left, and the odds of earning a Question Ticket by clearing with the crystal and every participant's durability at 100% were astronomically bad.

"So I'd better be the one to get it."

With that thought, I hovered my hand over the [Sponsor] tab, hesitated — and in the end, pulled away without opening it.

After that I took a short break, wandering around the place for a bit. I'd always been clearing trials ahead of schedule, so I had plenty of time — but being here instead of in my own warm, comfortable home left the place feeling nothing but desolate.

"...Still, it has to be done."

The moment I decided to run the Wave 22 trial, a gate appeared, same as always.

This time it was thirty regular orcs.

And three orcs bearing a single tattoo each.

The sniggering brutes were strolling out when they noticed the Raptors ringing them in, and hurriedly snatched up their clubs.

FWOOOOM—!

FWOOM—!

The orcs began bursting apart on the spot. The snipers needed roughly two seconds to blow apart thirty orc heads.

And the orc warriors immediately activated their tattoos and charged.

BANG!

"...Impressive."

The tattoo the orc carried this time was a tiger. When the light coiling around their bodies faded, they began flaunting monstrous strength.

True to form, this time it wasn't a mace but a colossal shield that deflected the incoming rounds.

The bullets punched clean through the shield and buried themselves in the orc's body, but it didn't die instantly. Apparently orc warriors were made of sterner stuff — this one had serious mental fortitude, and it simply hoisted its shield and started charging all over again.

"UWOAAAAAARGH!"

"Heavy Weapons Unit, advance."

THUD.THUD.THUD.

The massive Heavy Weapons Units — each four to five meters tall — began advancing into the fray. The orc faltered for an instant at the sight of their sheer size, then charged again anyway.

CLANG!

WHUMP.

A gigantic hammer swung down onto the brute's head, and the orc warrior was flattened like a pancake.

One of the orcs behind, charging with an iron club in hand, stared at the scene for a moment — then broke into a wide grin.

"Uuachaah! Fatachia! UOOOOOOOAAAARGH!"

I had no idea what it was saying, but going by what I'd seen in novels and anime, the aggressive temperament was clearly accurate.

At the charging orc's shout, the other orc quietly backed away.

And so it came down to a one-on-one standoff — Heavy Weapons Unit versus orc warrior.

"You don't have time for that. You think I'd honor something like you?"

BANG!

WHUMP.

"Chi... chikata! Fahura! UAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!"

Roughly, it seemed to mean something like you've defiled a warrior's duel—

"You're the ones who invaded. What are you yapping about? Dispose of it."

TWANG!

The orc died to the bullets raining in from every direction. And as its corpse crumpled, I gave the order.

"Next."

GUOOOOOOOO—

The gate spat out roughly thirty orcs this time. The difference was that while there were still three orc warriors, this batch included Orc Warrior (2).

One bearing a tiger tattoo — and one bearing a ram tattoo.

"UWOAAAAAAAARGH!"

RATATATATATATATATATA!

The hundreds of snipers I'd deployed shredded the orcs and Orc Warrior (1)s outright.

Watching its kin die in the blink of an eye, the double-tattooed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠orc warrior froze in shock.

"Let's see what that ram tattoo does."

"UWOAAAAARGH!"

FWOOSH.

The orc's tattoos blazed with light. Its muscles bulged and pumped under the tiger tattoo, and then, as the ram tattoo began to glow, a green energy suddenly flickered to life around its fists.

"That's... aura?"

"Battle qi, Master. Only orcs can use it. In a sense, you could even call it an Authority! Normally it's something they can only use from the 3rd Tier onward... so I suppose this one's a promising up-and-comer."

TWANG!

RATATATATATANG!

"Gah... guhak..."

WHUMP.

Even so, the brute buckled to its knees under sniper fire converging from every direction — fire it had no way to block.

"Must be the tiger tattoo pumping up its muscles? Its toughness does seem enhanced too..."

"...Hrk..."

The orc sprawled there, gasping out ragged breaths.

Shk.

The moment its breath stopped, rewards rose up behind it — a Random Trait Ticket for clearing Wave 22, and a Trait Reinforcement Ticket for clearing Wave 23.

"Oh, a random trait — Throwing? Ah, it got reinforced. So that's how it works."

Since I'd rolled Throwing a second time, there was now a Throwing +1 sitting beside it.

"It is one of my main skills, I suppose. Now, where on earth am I supposed to learn spear technique?"

"That's the problem, Master. We did extract spear-technique data from Earth, but it's next to useless. Things like swordsmanship have developed nicely, but spears get so little respect..."

She had a point. Spear technique had always been the weapon of common soldiers, while the sword was the symbol of the powerful — there was never going to be a proper, high-level training manual for it.

What little data existed was all ceremonial spear-dancing with no practical combat value whatsoever.

"Let's keep going."

From there through Wave 27, every clear yielded three random traits and one Trait Reinforcement Ticket — bringing my total stockpile of reinforcement tickets to two.

I hadn't decided yet where to spend them.

"At least two of these random traits I actually understand."

The moment I touched the crystal, the traits I'd been hoping for appeared.

Pop. Pop.

"Ha... so THIS is why the three squad-leader bastards kept bragging about their traits? I get it now."

They were always saying that for non-combat types like themselves, physical enhancement traits were absurdly overpowered. Now I understood exactly why.

Crrrack.

"You're bending steel without even reinforcing it? What the hell kind of trait is that? So then how far could Fire Resistance actually hold up?"

Curiosity flickered through me for a moment, but there was no reason to maim myself testing it, so I shelved the idea.

And Hwang Jinhyeok had supposedly enhanced Strength three whole times — just how much raw power was the man carrying? Impressive people, every one of them.

I was just about to test out my suddenly expanded physical capabilities with a bout against a regular orc when—

"What...? I never even touched the crystal — how is a message getting through? No, wait, more importantly — Huaguoshan? Isn't that Sun Wukong?"

The prank-loving, brawling monkey king. The one who attained enlightenment under the monk Tripitaka and then went and fought the Buddha himself.

Isn't he the original protagonist of that whole "you can't escape my palm" legend?

"Well. Let's take a look."

The moment I touched the crystal, a cascade of messages rose up. The Omnissiah's messages were among them, but that wasn't what mattered right now.

"Whoa."

Sun Wukong had just casually declared that I was using the Omnissiah's Authority.

Which meant... could it be that the unique traits were nothing more than the gods' Authorities diluted down and bestowed upon humans?

And if that hypothesis was right — what would happen if a human who already bore a unique trait then gained a second sponsor?

"So what exactly is your offer?"

Grin.

I couldn't sense a face, a body, anything — only the messages floating before my eyes. And yet something bled through between the lines all the same.

The unmistakable feeling that Sun Wukong was smiling.

"...Two unique traits?"