Chapter 135
Chapter 135
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 135
Chapter Title: Se-kyung Walker (1)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
No one opened their mouth in response to Yuri's proposal.
They simply kept their mouths shut quietly, rolling their eyes.
Right now, their minds were a tangled mess of all sorts of thoughts.
‘The fact that Yuri Holland is holding those armbands means even the Black Sword Troops are turning a blind eye to this situation.’
‘Is it really the right choice to fight Yuri Holland here and now?’
Would starting an all-out war with Squad 1 right now truly benefit them?
They posed that question to themselves, and everyone arrived at the same answer.
‘When judged coldly, Yuri Holland's proposal is far more reasonable!’
With that, their gazes turned toward the armbands Yuri was holding.
‘With so many top elites eliminated, Squad 1 is now closest to victory.’
‘If I buy one of those from Yuri Holland… I'll become a member of the winning squad.’
Sounds of people racking their brains could be heard here and there.
And as conflict was plain on their faces,
Yuri smiled and spoke words that would ease their worries.
“Ah, right. I forgot to mention this. For now, customers joining us from this point get no share of the victory points. However!”
“……?”
“Personal custom weapon forging rights are yours to take.”
“……?!”
No sooner had the words left his mouth than flames erupted from the eyes of Squad 7's squad members.
‘Right, that’s it! The weapon forging rights!’
A successive shocking twist.
They had been so fixated on the word ‘victory’ that they had momentarily forgotten about the rewards that came after.
Yuri had reminded them of it.
‘This is basically buying forging rights worth at least 50,000 to a maximum of 100,000 points.’
100,000 points.
It would have been an unimaginable sum back then.
But not anymore.
It was still a huge amount now, but not something they couldn’t handle.
Especially for top performers in the 50th Cohort like Squad 7's members—they could surely scrape together 100,000 points.
Of course, cheaper was always better.
‘The price between 1-5 and 1-10 is double!’
‘The first to move… gets 50,000!’
Those who had quickly done the math began eyeing each other.
And the first to act among them was none other than Nelly Blanc.
“Gunter, sorry!”
With a face that showed not the slightest apology, Nelly swiftly broke from the formation and dashed toward Yuri.
Startled by this, Pana and Ivan sprang into action as well.
“I’m going first!”
“Where do you think you’re going!”
As the two chased after Nelly, the eyes of the others watching changed.
“Damn it! You shameless bastards, is it okay to betray your allies this fast!”
“You’re running too! Don’t act like you’re not!”
“That’s why you should betray a bit slower—let me go first!”
People rushing forward one after another.
In the end, all that remained in Squad 7 were the three who had hesitated too long and missed their chance, fuming in frustration,
And Gunter, frozen in shock from the betrayal by his trusted squad members.
‘Ah…….’
Gunter stared blankly at the crowd gathering around Yuri.
“I was first!”
“Bullshit! Anyone could see I arrived first!”
His fellow cohort members arguing over who came first as they lined up.
Among them were those who had formed Squad 7 with him from the start, and others who joined later.
They had all been his squad members who, just moments ago, had sworn to fight together.
Yet those squad members,
The ones Gunter had trusted without reservation, were now lining up in front of Yuri, each taking an armband one by one.
The sight robbed Gunter of his thoughts.
At that moment.
A memory from the past suddenly surfaced in Gunter's mind, now blanketed in white.
[Haa… That’s just how it is. Because we’re in the same 50th Cohort, you think we’re real friends or something? Why don’t you all hold hands and do a nice little cheer together.]
[Get a grip. I’m telling you again—this is Cradle. And those things wrapped in the word ‘fellow cohort’ are your competitors.]
That day, Yuri Holland, who had pushed his cohort member beyond the black line, had said that.
Until just moments ago, Gunter had thought Yuri's words were wrong.
But no.
Now Gunter understood why Yuri had said it.
‘Was I… the one who was wrong?’
He could build camaraderie under the name of ‘cohort.’
But the fact that they were his competitors never changed.
He had forgotten that essence.
Schleman shook his head as he looked at the dazed Gunter.
‘…It’s over.’
Their numerical superiority had completely reversed.
Gunter, who should have been leading Squad 7, was out of it from the successive betrayals.
The remaining three squad members seemed to have lost the will to fight even before the battle began.
How could they fight like this?
That was Schleman's judgment.
Then.
Rip-.
Gunter tore off his own armband.
Thud-.
The ripped armband fell limply to the ground.
Having voluntarily wiped out Squad 7, Gunter stared at Yuri for a moment before turning and walking away.
No one tried to stop him.
“It’s over.”
Watching Gunter walk away, Schleman muttered.
Then he too turned and left, as if there was nothing more to see.
The others followed suit.
Starting with Gunter and Schleman, the squad members of the wiped-out squad departed one by one.
Soon, only Squad 1 remained in the clearing.
Clarice clicked her tongue at how swiftly the situation had resolved.
‘Clean. And perfect.’
Not only had they eliminated two elite squads without a proper fight, but Squad 1's forces had actually grown.
Yuri had orchestrated it all as smoothly as flowing water.
His plan and execution were so flawless that Clarice couldn’t stop admiring it.
The others were probably feeling the same.
They looked at Yuri,
Their eyes filled with curiosity about how he would move from now on during the remaining quests.
As if responding to the gazes upon him, Yuri opened his mouth.
“Alright, for now…….”
What came out was unexpected.
“Let’s rest!”
“…Rest?”
“Yeah, rest while we can.”
But to the squad members' still-dubious looks, Yuri smiled and replied.
“We’ll be busy soon. Gotta have some fun with those guys later, right?”
As he said that, Yuri pointed east.
Where faint sounds could be heard.
Raaaaagh!
Clang clang-!
“Of course, I don’t know how much fun we’ll have with those exhausted bastards.”
“……?!”
At his words, Clarice and the squad members realized.
‘Announcing the night raid… was for this!’
By leaking real info about the night raid, Clarice had built trust.
Schleman's faction had gained time to prepare, avoiding an easy collapse to the raid.
And that led straight to a massive clash that whittled down both sides' forces.
Yuri had probably intended this from the start, deliberately leaking real info.
‘Yuri Holland, you…….’
The onlookers' eyes deeply imprinted his presence.
* * *
While Squad 1 scattered here and there to rest,
Arin whispered softly into Yuri's ear.
“Hey, those armbands real?”
When Yuri readily offered the armbands, Arin suspected them first.
Yuri frowned at her whisper.
“I have a conscience too. What do you take me for!”
“Did you have one?”
“Yeah, a little.”
“…….”
“Anyway, they’re real. I got them straight from Glasses.”
“But you sold them at that bargain price? You?”
That was exactly why Arin thought the other armbands were fakes.
She was certain Yuri would have sold them for more.
Reading her thoughts, Yuri wagged his finger side to side.
“Bargain? I think this price is just right. I told you, I have a conscience.”
“Really?”
“Of course!”
“…For real?”
“Naturally! I priced them fairly after subtracting labor costs!”
“Labor costs?”
Yuri flashed a faint smile at Arin, who kept tilting her head at the sudden mention.
And just then, the sounds from the east stopped.
A signal that harvest time had arrived.
Yuri shouted in a loud voice.
“Now, let’s go pick up our victory!”
At Yuri's signal, Squad 1's squad members' eyes gleamed with fighting spirit.
* * *
A fierce clash.
In the end, surprisingly, the ambushed ‘Yuri Alliance’ emerged victorious.
“Haa, haa… Th-these bastards aren’t much.”
Squad 12's squad leader, panting heavily, forced a relaxed smile even as his legs trembled from exhaustion.
But inside, he felt different.
‘That was close.’
Pinned and cornered only briefly.
Despite their confident counterattack, Schleman's faction's assault was weaker than expected.
No—more precisely, the attackers lacked skill.
Strangely, Schleman's side had no proper elites.
They were failing to capitalize on the golden counterattack opportunity.
Finally, the Yuri Alliance members caught on.
‘Ah, no way? Did they pull the elites and send them to Squad 1?’
If they knew about the raid info, they must have known Yuri was coming too.
If they had singled out elites to handle Yuri separately, it explained the current situation perfectly.
Flames ignited in the Yuri Alliance's eyes.
‘If we just hold out… we’ll get our chance!’
The counterattacking Schleman forces numbering similarly to theirs meant about twenty elites were missing.
If those went down with Yuri Holland in mutual destruction, they could take the whole board.
To survive this counterattack crisis, the Yuri Alliance gritted their teeth and endured.
As a result, the enemies were wiped out, and four whole squads remained on the Yuri Alliance side.
Of course, even with four squads, only a little over thirty were standing unscathed, and they too were panting heavily.
But for them, this was as good as a great victory.
‘We did it!’
‘Now, just deal with Yuri Holland……!’
They were tired too, but Squad 1, facing handpicked elites of twenty, must be even more exhausted.
Even if Squad 1 won, their opponents wouldn’t be intact.
So everyone knew they had to move now, unspoken.
Thus, the ‘Yuri Alliance’ instantly morphed into the ‘Anti-Yuri Alliance.’
“Let’s go!”
The four squads, eyes blazing, began moving west.
How far had they gone?
“Where are you all rushing off to in such a hurry?”
Their target appeared in the direction the ‘Anti-Yuri Alliance’ was heading.
Alone, no less.
Naturally, the ‘Anti-Yuri Alliance’ faces lit up.
“Where to? Coming to see you.”
“Ha, never thought I’d be this welcome.”
“What happened to all your usual buddies? You alone? Did a lot of your friends get hurt? Heh heh.”
Seeing Yuri alone, they assumed his squad members were injured.
Yuri grinned at them as they excitedly threw barbs one after another.
“What are you talking about? Why would I be alone? I have lots of friends.”
“……?”
Question marks popped up over their heads as they faced Yuri's smile.
Seeing this, Yuri lightly beckoned behind him and shouted.
“Hey, guys! They’re teasing me for having no friends!”
No sooner had he spoken than the bushes behind rustled, and a group emerged.
“What? Who dares!”
“I’m hungry!”
Leading with slightly annoyed Arin and Poppi.
“At least it’s fortunate—we weren’t originally on the same side.”
“Does it matter now if we were originally allies or not? We’ve already betrayed them anyway?”
“Still, hitting people who were originally on our side feels a bit less guilty, right?”
“Hmm… so where does that leave me—originally on whose side?”
Pana, Ivan, Nelly, Clarice, and all the newly joined Squad 1 members.
The ‘Anti-Yuri Alliance’ panicked at the sight of Yuri's horde of friends.
‘W-what? Why are they coming out together?!”
‘H-how are they all wearing Squad 1 armbands? Squad 1 only had three!’
‘What the… what happened?’
As the confused ‘Anti-Yuri Alliance’ stared, Yuri's smile turned cruel.
He swung his hand dismissively and gave a short order.
“Trample them.”
At his words, Squad 1's squad members charged.
The startled ‘Anti-Yuri Alliance.’
But someone in the ‘Anti-Yuri Alliance,’ regaining composure, shouted.
“Everyone, snap out of it! We outnumber them by multiples!”
“Yeah, we can take them!”
Shouts boosting morale echoed here and there.
Soon clashes erupted, and after a few exchanges, the ‘Anti-Yuri Alliance’ realized something was off.
‘Th-these bastards……!’
‘Why are they… so full of energy?!”
The power in each counterattack was on another level from their own exhausted, collapsing states.
Boom-!
Argh!
Kuh!
Ugh!
Wherever Squad 1's squad members swept through, enemies crumpled helplessly.
Yuri watched silently.
Since the fight began, he hadn’t moved a single step, simply standing with hands behind his back.
Then he nodded in satisfaction.
‘As expected, sometimes freeloading is the best.’
He had extracted points as planned.
Shoved off the messy cleanup too.
Sure, he had discounted the armbands with some ‘labor costs’ in the process, but……
‘Still, it was profitable all around.’
Happiness colored Yuri's face.
Until everything was sorted.
Yuri didn’t lift a finger.