Chapter 154
Chapter 154
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 154
Chapter Title: Truth Game (3)
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A warm breeze blew in Yuka's madness-filled eyes.
‘Rather than lose him, I’d die fighting alongside him.’
Kang Hyun-soo was the only one she could truly trust and rely on.
Dying together was better.
The problem was that Yuka's own mana had hit rock bottom.
Even if her mana had been full,
Yuka's skills alone couldn't turn the tide of battle.
‘Let’s use that skill.’
The newly acquired skill.
A one-time-use disposable skill.
The Golem of Ruin.
A tattered golemancer of despair and terror could only summon it by sacrificing their own life.
Yuka drew her dagger for self-defense and aimed it at her heart.
Just as she was about to thrust it in.
“A little late!”
“Sorry!”
Boom!
Kang Hyun-soo’s comrades, Song Hana and the Beast Emperor, revealed themselves.
These two were
the real Song Hana and Beast Emperor, not the fakes mimicked by the doppelganger.
They had originally planned to deploy them a bit later.
‘Who knew she’d try to summon the Golem of Ruin.’
Kang Hyun-soo had been observing Yuka continuously through his commander’s view while trading blows with the Orc Great Chieftain, who was the enraged Doppelganger King Talisman.
When she drew the dagger and aimed it at her heart, he jumped in surprise and quickly deployed Song Hana and the Beast Emperor.
‘The Golem of Ruin is a disaster in itself.’
It was the golem the Mad Blood Witch had created right before her subjugation by sacrificing her own life.
‘More subjugation team members died to the Golem of Ruin than to the Mad Blood Witch herself.’
Its skill rank would be low now, so the power would be weaker than back then.
‘But power isn’t the issue.’
He couldn’t let the Mad Blood Witch Yuka, whom he’d invested so much in up to now, end her own life.
Kang Hyun-soo, along with Song Hana and the Beast Emperor, engaged in a fierce back-and-forth battle with the doppelgangers, including the Doppelganger King Talisman disguised as an orc horde.
Fortunately(?), they gained the upper hand.
“Grrraaah! See you next time!”
As the tide turned, the Doppelganger King Talisman, transformed into the Orc Great Chieftain, spat out a clichéd villain line and fled.
“That guy might come back with his minions. Let’s get out of here first.”
Everyone nodded at Kang Hyun-soo’s words and evacuated the area.
A short while later.
Kang Hyun-soo’s group stopped once they thought the area was secure enough.
“By the way, Yuka, what happened to the others?”
Kang Hyun-soo asked the Mad Blood Witch Yuka about the whereabouts of Hayato’s party members and the civilians.
“Well, you see...”
The Mad Blood Witch Yuka explained the situation.
Kang Hyun-soo pretended not to know as he listened.
“The civilians are probably dead, but the party members might still be alive. Shall we look for them? They were comrades you spent a long time with, after all.”
At Kang Hyun-soo’s question,
“No. They’re the kind of scum who deserve to die anyway. And we can’t risk ourselves searching for them.”
The Mad Blood Witch Yuka replied with an expressionless face.
“Well, I suppose so.”
There wasn’t the slightest lingering attachment to Hayato and the others she’d relied on.
“And I want to join your party.”
The Mad Blood Witch Yuka declared her intention to join Kang Hyun-soo’s party.
“Ah, but there’s one condition to joining the party. It’s this...”
Kang Hyun-soo briefly explained his class.
“It’s a bit different from mine, but we’re both summoners, right?”
“That’s right.”
“If I become one of your subordinate commanders, it’s like becoming a summon, so we’ll never be apart, right?”
“Exactly.”
At Kang Hyun-soo’s response,
“I’ll be your commander!”
The Mad Blood Witch Yuka answered with a bright face.
‘It’s going according to plan, which is good.’
But he felt a chill down his spine from the eerie obsession.
‘Well, good is good.’
There was no backing out now.
Once she became a subordinate commander, her loyalty would increase.
‘I have to accept her under my command no matter what.’
Kang Hyun-soo used the Commander Appointment skill on the Mad Blood Witch Yuka.
[Player Kang Hyun-soo has used the Commander Appointment skill. Do you accept?]
[Yes] [No]
The Mad Blood Witch Yuka naturally selected Yes.
Flash!
[You have been appointed as a Battalion Commander.]
[All stats increase by 10%.]
“Wow! Hyun-soo, my stats really went up! Thank you so much!”
The Mad Blood Witch Yuka smiled brightly and expressed her gratitude.
“There’s one more.”
With those words, Kang Hyun-soo cast the Commander’s Blessing skill.
Thanks to consistent use, the Commander’s Blessing skill had also risen to S-Rank.
As a result, it showed a 30% stat amplification.
“It’s amazing!”
With the Commander Appointment and Commander’s Blessing, all of the Mad Blood Witch Yuka’s stats increased by a total of 40%.
“Oh, and there’s something I need to tell you.”
“What is it?”
At Kang Hyun-soo’s question, Yuka cautiously opened her mouth.
“I changed classes recently.”
“Changed classes?”
“Yes. Well, what it is... Ah, I’ll just show you.”
With that, Yuka opened her status window and the system message window from earlier to Kang Hyun-soo.
‘What?’
Kang Hyun-soo’s eyes widened at the system message window.
‘A class change system not registered in the Gaia System? A glitch?’
He’d never seen a message like this even before his regression.
And moreover.
‘U-EX Rank? What’s this?’
The Mad Blood Witch Yuka’s class rank was strange.
‘I thought there might be ranks above EX since the Ice King’s Necklace kept growing.’
But this was the first time confirming it directly.
‘Is this why she was so strong?’
The Mad Blood Witch Yuka was called humanity’s strongest player before his regression.
Even named players with divine titles couldn’t defeat her.
‘There are two reasons.’
One was her class that surpassed EX Rank.
The other was
the red system message.
Not registered in the Gaia System and marked as an error?
‘Someone tampered with the Gaia System.’
And the target of that tampering was humanity’s public enemy who had killed tens of millions before his regression?
‘The odds are high it was the Demon King’s doing.’
The Demon King’s army was the only entity that could breach the Gaia System’s defenses.
‘Breaching wasn’t enough—they could even intervene?’
Then not just the Mad Blood Witch Yuka,
‘Other public enemies might have been born this way too.’
Humanity’s public enemies
all possessed off-the-charts power.
They were also united by hatred and rage toward their fellow humans.
‘I don’t know how they intervened in the system.’
His pre-regression plan to eliminate all public enemies
might end up being pointless.
Even if he eliminated the public enemies early,
‘If another player meets the class change conditions?’
A new public enemy Kang Hyun-soo didn’t know about could be born.
‘Doesn’t matter.’
The disadvantage of his pre-regression info being twisted was expected anyway.
‘Offset disadvantages with the new advantages I’ve gained.’
Kang Hyun-soo himself had acquired numerous off-the-charts powers,
taken over the Rockto Empire,
and twisted the fates of many, including Song Hana, the Beast Emperor, and the Mad Blood Witch Yuka.
‘Just keep doing what I’m doing.’
Demon nobles or public enemies appear?
Before regression, even with countless named players combining forces,
they could only be taken down after massive sacrifices.
But now?
Kang Hyun-soo, his summons, and his subordinate commanders alone could handle them easily.
“Is something wrong?”
The Mad Blood Witch Yuka asked Kang Hyun-soo with an anxious expression.
Her anxiety stemmed from
‘What if he figures it out? What do I say?’
Worrying that disguising the tattered golem as an undead monster might be exposed.
“No. I was just surprised by the message and class rank I’d never seen before.”
“Oh, I see.”
The Mad Blood Witch Yuka’s face brightened.
“Let’s rest here for today and move out tomorrow.”
“Yes!”
Kang Hyun-soo’s group took a break.
Of course, even during that time, Kang Hyun-soo’s summons were swiftly wiping out orc hordes.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Song Hana.”
Song Hana introduced herself to the Mad Blood Witch Yuka first.
The doppelganger who had played Song Hana hadn’t exchanged a single proper word with the Mad Blood Witch Yuka, so nothing seemed off.
However.
“Yes, nice to meet you. I’m Sakazaki Yuka.”
Yuka greeted Song Hana with an expressionless face devoid of any emotion.
And it was the same with the Beast Emperor.
“Yuka?”
When Kang Hyun-soo called the Mad Blood Witch Yuka with a puzzled look,
“Yes, did you call me?”
A bright smile bloomed on the previously expressionless face of the Mad Blood Witch Yuka.
‘Something’s definitely off.’
Kang Hyun-soo’s expression hardened.
The current Mad Blood Witch Yuka
was clearly not normal.
The Mad Blood Witch Yuka he’d been with before
always responded with a bright smile no matter who spoke to her.
Now?
‘She’s completely different.’
The only one she showed her old self to was Kang Hyun-soo.
“These are comrades we’ll be with from now on, so wouldn’t it be good to get along?”
At Kang Hyun-soo’s words,
“Ah, yes! I’ll do that!”
The Mad Blood Witch Yuka smiled and replied.
However,
not much changed.
She never initiated conversation with Song Hana or the Beast Emperor.
If Song Hana or the Beast Emperor spoke first?
‘She smiles and responds, but it feels incredibly mechanical.’
At least she wasn’t expressionless like before,
so it didn’t seem too awkward at a glance, which was a relief.
In truth, this was only natural.
To the Mad Blood Witch Yuka, other people were
mere pests that only hurt her,
better off exterminated for her benefit.
The only exception was
Kang Hyun-soo alone.
Thus, with anyone but him,
she felt no need to build rapport or converse.
She was at least pretending to smile because Kang Hyun-soo told her to get along.
Otherwise?
She wouldn’t have acknowledged them at all.
From the Mad Blood Witch Yuka’s perspective,
sparing the lives of those pest-like humans was already an effort to avoid displeasing Kang Hyun-soo.
The Mad Blood Witch Yuka wasn’t stupid.
She was aware that indiscriminately killing others
would make Kang Hyun-soo dislike or find her strange.
‘Well, this is acceptable.’
Kang Hyun-soo knew the Mad Blood Witch Yuka from before his regression.
Thus,
he decided to be satisfied with this much.
Pushing her further to get along
might make her bolt in some unpredictable way.
‘Who knows where or how she’d run.’
After resting comfortably, Kang Hyun-soo’s group resumed their march.
“Grraaah! Humans!”
A group of orcs charged at Kang Hyun-soo’s party.
As Kang Hyun-soo, Song Hana, and the Beast Emperor swept away the front-line orcs,
“Summon Golem!”
The Mad Blood Witch Yuka summoned her golems.
Splurt!
Pooled blood on the ground merged into a Blood Golem,
bones into a Bone Golem, flesh into a Flesh Golem.
And then.
Boom! Crunch!
They obliterated the orc horde at terrifying speed.
At the same time, the numbers of Blood Golems, Bone Golems, and Flesh Golems rapidly increased.
‘The growth speed is insane.’
As expected of the player once called humanity’s strongest before regression.
‘Her max was over 10,000 golems, I think?’
A number that practically meant leading a division single-handedly.
‘And no permanent stat loss penalty like with One-Man Army.’
One drawback was that golem ranks depended on the monsters or players used as materials.
But even that
“Golem Synthesis!”
Splurt!
The proliferating golems merged into one
and
roared powerfully!
‘Could be overcome with upgrades.’
The remaining drawback was the mana required to maintain the golems.
However, that too
‘Could be maintained by consuming the materials composing the golems instead of mana.’
For Blood Golems,
they could be sustained by gradually consuming the blood they were made of, even without mana supply.
‘The Mad Blood Witch grows dramatically stronger the more large-scale slaughters occur.’
Before regression, she killed countless humans, continuously strengthening and multiplying her golems.
She commanded over 10,000 golems made from tens of millions of corpses.
‘But the Mad Blood Witch’s golem summon skill doesn’t require humans.’
She could use it on orcs just as well.
Rather than powerless civilians,
‘Using combat-capable orcs as materials would produce even stronger golems.’
In other words, the orc legion’s invasion
was a great experience point supplier for Kang Hyun-soo’s group and
the perfect golem material source to rapidly boost the newly joined Mad Blood Witch’s power.