Chapter 130
Chapter 130
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 130
Chapter Title: Checkmate (2)
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“Kill every last one of the doppelgangers!”
“Wipe out the traitors!”
Players from the Dragon Tiger Guild clashed fiercely with the doppelgangers in bloody combat.
‘They’re fighting better than I expected.’
Kang Hyun-soo, who had arrived at the doppelgangers’ hideout ahead of Baron Talliman via a spatial transfer gate.
He sat comfortably on a tree branch, leisurely watching the battle between the Dragon Tiger Guild players and the doppelgangers.
Kang Hyun-soo had ordered Doppelganger No. 1, disguised as executive Park Ji-hoon, to gather the Demon King’s minions and raid the doppelgangers’ hideout.
In that situation, Dragon King Lee Ji-yong and Tiger King Lee Geun-taek arrived with reinforcements.
And as Kang Hyun-soo had predicted, the reinforcements.
‘Consist only of the Demon King’s minions.’
Doppelgangers had the ability to steal others’ appearances.
Though Kang Hyun-soo had shared the method to counter them.
‘If there are too many allies, using it on each one individually is a hassle.’
On top of that, there was a risk the doppelgangers might expose the Dragon Tiger Guild leadership’s secrets.
So the Dragon Tiger Guild had mobilized only the human traitors contracted with demons for this battle.
‘Perfect.’
A bloody fight between the Demon King’s minions and low-rank demons.
From Kang Hyun-soo’s perspective, it didn’t matter who won.
Whoosh!
“Kill them!”
Dragon King Lee Ji-yong summoned dragonkin monsters to attack the doppelgangers.
Tiger King Lee Geun-taek also massacred the doppelgangers with ferocious momentum.
‘If the demons contracted with those two saw this, they’d be spitting blood.’
They’d granted their contractors great power to trample humanity.
And now that power was being used to crush the demons’ vanguard.
How absurd was that?
But.
‘They won’t find out.’
Even as a demon contractor, without a proper blood sacrifice, one couldn’t pierce the Gaia System to communicate with demons.
Moreover, through Doppelganger No. 1 disguised as executive Park Ji-hoon, he’d already sold them the drugs.
Doppelgangers were demons too, but.
‘From the moment they crossed into the Atlantis dimension, they’re bound by the Gaia System’s restrictions.’
Naturally, they couldn’t open dimensional gates to escape.
To communicate with superiors or comrades in the demon world, they’d have to pay a proper price too.
‘Well, it’s possible, I suppose.’
If it were Baron Talliman?
He’d sacrifice his subordinate doppelgangers to report this to the demon world.
But that.
‘Would actually backfire.’
The high-ranking demon noble contracted with Dragon King Lee Ji-yong and the high-ranking demon noble served by the doppelgangers.
‘Aren’t the same person.’
Given the demon world’s nature?
‘They’re likely rivals or outright enemies.’
Even if not.
‘Allies would still have trust issues.’
If this sparked a civil war in the demon world, that’d be ideal.
‘But even just mutual distrust is enough.’
Then demons coming to the Atlantis dimension would be wary of each other.
‘And human traitors contracted with demons wouldn’t be easily trusted either.’
Kang Hyun-soo was more than satisfied with that outcome.
‘You can’t fill up on the first drink.’
Sowing discord between demons and their contractors who distrust each other.
‘Was like taking candy from a baby.’
Especially since he planned to acquire a large number of infiltration- and disguise-specialized doppelganger summons from this incident.
It was even easier than sowing discord between the Dragon Tiger Guild and the doppelgangers.
‘No reason it’d be hard.’
The battle was fierce.
But victory was already tilting toward the Dragon Tiger Guild.
The doppelgangers had more numbers.
‘They didn’t earn their king titles for nothing.’
Dragon King Lee Ji-yong, who could summon top-tier dragonkin endlessly.
Tiger King Lee Geun-taek, rampaging as a half-human, half-beast.
Those two’s combat power.
‘Is on another level from the doppelgangers’ perspective.’
If there had been top-tier doppelgangers, it might’ve been different.
‘But they’re all dead already.’
Revived as summons under Kang Hyun-soo’s control.
They were now attacking their former kin on the battlefield.
Kang Hyun-soo had disguised his top-tier doppelganger-based summons, including No. 1, as Dragon Tiger Guild members and sent them into the fray.
For one simple reason.
Crack!
[Eliminated a demon and permanently absorbed its demonic energy.]
[Goddess’s Tear EX-Rank purifies the permanently absorbed demonic energy, converting it to the special stat Divinity.]
[Divinity stat has increased.]
To build up his Divinity stat.
‘As expected of a large-scale battle.’
Kang Hyun-soo’s summons, disguised as Dragon Tiger Guild players, didn’t engage aggressively in the fight.
They just.
Slash.
Subtly joined in, inflicting minor wounds on doppelgangers.
Stab!
And struck the killing blow when the chance arose.
‘The system counts even minor contributions as party hunting.’
Once the target died after that?
It registered as the party collectively hunting the demon.
In other words.
‘Even if my summons only inflict a small scratch, as long as it dies, I get credit for eliminating the demon.’
Of course, low contribution meant tiny experience gains.
‘But only I can permanently absorb the dispersing residual demonic energy through Goddess’s Tear.’
Normally, residual mana or demonic energy is partially absorbed by players, with the rest dispersing naturally.
But Goddess’s Tear permanently absorbs that naturally dispersing residual demonic energy to increase Divinity.
In simple terms.
The busier his summons were.
‘The more Divinity stacks up.’
The Dragon Tiger Guild players didn’t pay much attention to the summons’ actions either.
They were allies, after all.
‘This isn’t hunting for experience—it’s war.’
Not hunting for EXP gains, but war aimed at killing enemies, so no time to quibble over steals.
Plus, residual demonic energy absorption scaled with contribution, so actual losses were minimal.
‘Great.’
It wasn’t just the Divinity gains that were good.
[You’ve achieved the unbelievable feat of defeating a demon doppelganger.]
[Title: Demon Slayer D-Rank has grown to C-Rank.]
Even titles were auto-upgrading.
And.
[You’ve achieved the unbelievable feat of defeating a demon doppelganger.]
[Title: Demon Slayer C-Rank has grown to B-Rank.]
[You’ve achieved the unbelievable feat of defeating a demon doppelganger.]
[Title: Demon Massacrer F-Rank granted.]
‘They’re leveling up fast.’
Upgrades and new achievements were coming at an insanely rapid pace.
As expected of the Gaia System.
‘It’s generous with achievement recognition.’
He’d somewhat anticipated this.
But.
‘I didn’t expect it to be this quick.’
In the past, when a massive purge of human hunters and slave traders erupted from info Kang Hyun-soo leaked.
The Gaia System credited it all to him.
However.
‘Even then, achievements didn’t upgrade or multiply this fast.’
Because subordinates like Dark King Cecilia and Demon-Exterminating Spear King Jin Gu-pyeong, who acted on his orders.
And other players who joined the purge for achievements.
‘All got achievements too.’
But now.
‘It’s like I’m soloing the achievement for wiping out the doppelgangers.’
Otherwise.
Achievements wouldn’t upgrade this quickly.
‘No way?’
A hypothesis flashed through Kang Hyun-soo’s mind.
‘Can contractors with demons even get achievements from demon purges?’
It made sense upon reflection.
Awarding achievements for Demon King minions slaying demons?
What could be more ironic?
‘Demon King minions are players, but also humanity’s enemies.’
Unless the Gaia System was stupid.
‘It wouldn’t reward enemies self-destructing.’
But that raised another question.
‘Then why no achievements for eliminating Demon King minions? Or better, why can’t it strip player abilities from them?’
That would.
Drastically reduce players falling for demon temptations.
Even inform other players of existing Demon King minions via quests from Gaia System intervention?
Kang Hyun-soo’s mind grew complicated.
‘The Gaia System has no bugs.’
Kang Hyun-soo hated the Gaia System for forcibly dragging him from Earth to Atlantis and turning him into a player.
But separately.
As a player for over 30 years, he deeply trusted its perfection.
‘Though some things were incomprehensible.’
Delayed notification on accepting or rejecting the return quest reward.
Inflexible tutorial causing talented players to die en masse.
It felt like.
‘A pre-made program running automatically.’
If there were operators?
They’d do balance patches, adjust difficulty, fix bugs like the Demon King minions.
But if it was just a well-coded program auto-running without updates?
‘Expectations would be low.’
The name itself.
‘Gaia System, after all.’
A hollow chuckle escaped him.
‘No creator or operators, huh?’
It might’ve self-destructed after creation.
Or.
‘Created it but can’t intervene in operations.’
Either way.
The Gaia System wasn’t proactively stripping player abilities from Demon King minions or questing their identities.
‘It can’t, apparently.’
So inevitably.
‘I’ll have to crush them myself.’
Better than hoping a non-updated, non-patched Gaia System would do something.
Kang Hyun-soo had to personally smash the Demon King’s minions and demons.
‘Well, the rewards are coming steadily at least.’
Divinity had already surpassed 100.
And he’d racked up plenty of achievements.
‘The end’s in sight now.’
The doppelgangers were nearly wiped out.
The Dragon Tiger Guild had lost about a third of their brought forces too.
Even with Dragon King Lee Ji-yong and Tiger King Lee Geun-taek’s heroics.
‘Low-rank or not, demons are demons.’
The Dragon Tiger Guild suffered significant casualties from the doppelgangers’ desperate struggles.
But this was just the beginning, not the end.
Immense demonic energy was rapidly approaching.
‘Round 2’s about to start.’
Baron Talliman’s arrival time.
“Uwaaaaaah!”
The furious roar of Baron Talliman echoed from afar.
“You dare betray us!”
Baron Talliman glared at Dragon King Lee Ji-yong with a demonic face and shouted.
“Betrayal? What nonsense are you spouting, demon!”
But Dragon King Lee Ji-yong’s retort.
“We won’t fall for your divide-and-conquer schemes!”
Turned Baron Talliman’s world upside down.
“Dragon Tiger Guild heroes! Let’s exterminate the demons to protect the Atlantis dimension!”
“Waaaaah!”
“Full assault!”
At Dragon King Lee Ji-yong’s attack order.
-Grrrrowl! Follow the Dragon King’s command!
-Attack! Kill the Dragon King’s enemies!
Dragonkin monsters charged at Baron Talliman.
“Exterminate the demons and safeguard the Atlantis dimension!”
“Fight for humanity!”
Dragon Tiger Guild players shouted demon eradication and protection of Atlantis and humanity as they rushed in.
“Keuk!”
Witnessing that, Baron Talliman unwittingly clutched his throat.
From Baron Talliman’s perspective, who knew the Dragon Tiger Guild were demon contractors.
It was utterly ridiculous, enough to make his blood boil in reverse.
At the same time.
“You traitorous scum!”
An unbearable rage.
“I’ll kill you all!”
Surged from the depths of his chest.