Chapter 219
Chapter 219
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 219
Chapter Title: 50. Unexpectedness (4)
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Beeeep!
Along with a long signal tone, simple personal details and face photos from numbers 1 to 20 lined up on the waiting room ceiling.
It was time to start voting.
‘When the hell was that photo taken?’
Yeong-woo tilted his head at his own front-facing photo attached under number 19.
And the number 20 participant, who still looked flustered.
“W-what is this?”
He asked while looking up at the ceiling.
Yeong-woo, who had been staring blankly at his own photo, belatedly realized.
That number 20 was asking him.
“…Are you asking me?”
When Yeong-woo asked to confirm, number 20 stepped back half a pace with a frightened expression.
“I-if I offended you, I apologize.”
“No, it’s not that…”
It was closer to absurd.
Out of all these participants, why had he chosen to ask number 19 of all people?
“I don’t really know either. I was the one who entered right before you, mister.”
Whoosh.
When Yeong-woo kindly pointed with his finger to his own face next to number 20’s seat, number 20 scratched his bald head and smiled awkwardly.
“Ah… Now that you mention it, yeah. I just… since the numbers are close…”
His explanation was that he’d felt some internal closeness because of the sequential numbers.
‘Not much of a thinker, huh.’
His judgment was so poor it made one wonder how he’d survived in this harsh world until now.
But ironically, the first conversation partner number 20 had picked was Jeong Yeong-woo07, a top candidate for East Asia’s strongest.
“You have to pick one person who seems like the strongest here, and one who seems like the weakest.”
As Yeong-woo explained, a voting interface appeared in everyone’s vision, including his.
「Please enter numbers in the blanks below.」
|Strongest:
|Weakest:
Then a warning message appeared.
「There are no abstentions or invalid votes. You must fill both blanks. Time limit: 10 minutes.」
‘Oh, 10 minutes? That’s more generous than I thought.’
Compared to the first dungeon, Iria’s Agony, which had given only 10 seconds for the noob choice, this was practically polite.
“If we pick a strong one and a weak one, what happens next?”
The troublesome number 20 asked another question.
Yeong-woo sighed inwardly but responded as kindly as possible.
“I don’t know exactly. It seemed like some kind of betting.”
Then he checked number 20’s name via the ceiling photo.
「Dragosh Korban24」
|Romania, Transylvania, Brașov.
|49 years old.
‘Dragosh Korban? Sounds like a game character.’
He’d seen plenty of foreign named players by now, but a Romanian was a first.
『Brașov 2 Swords』
‘Romania does it as 1 Sword, 2 Sword, huh.’
After confirming the opponent’s title too, Yeong-woo slowly looked around.
He had to pick a strong and a weak one as well.
Dragos, who had been scanning the waiting room following Yeong-woo’s lead, spoke in a hesitant tone.
“How do you judge who’s strong and weak… What do you look at?”
“Well, that’s…”
Equipment condition or aura, you’d have to judge based on that.
The moment Yeong-woo was about to say it, a sharp signal sounded, and a system message appeared in the air.
Beep!
「One Weakest vote has been cast.」
Then the number ‘1’ boldly stamped on Dragos, the number 20 participant’s photo on the ceiling.
Someone had voted him as weakest.
“Huh?”
Dragos Korban couldn’t hide his flustered reaction.
That response only made him seem weaker, and three more Weakest votes piled up in an instant.
Beep, beep, beep!
「One Weakest vote has been cast.」
「One Weakest vote has been cast.」
「One Weakest vote has been cast.」
‘He’s already caught in the momentum. Like stocks.’
Yeong-woo blankly stared at Dragos’s photo, which had accumulated four votes in short order.
With some opinion already formed, unless a big variable popped up, Dragos would take the Weakest role.
Of course, it wasn’t entirely baseless.
This Romanian was highly likely a dungeon newbie from the circumstances, and at about 170-something cm, he clearly hadn’t earned enough to invest in appearance mods.
‘Still, not that short—if he hadn’t stood near me, he wouldn’t have stood out as much.’
In this room, Yeong-woo could already spot at least three weaker candidates.
People shorter than Dragos with no standout gear.
Maybe one of them had straight-up voted Dragos as Weakest to deflect.
‘Well, mind games are part of the skill in rules like this.’
Beep!
Another Weakest vote flew in, putting a ‘5’ on Dragos’s photo.
Six more and he’d hit majority. Guaranteed win.
“Are you sure this guy’s the weakest? Once a few more votes pile up, you can’t change it.”
As Yeong-woo said this while looking around, murmurs rose from the martial artists from around the world.
“Might not be the absolute weakest, but relatively weak, sure.”
“ID ends in 24. Gotta be weak.”
“Then who do you pick? Fight it out for the remaining 8 minutes?”
No one seemed too serious about picking the Weakest.
Makes sense—nobody knew exactly what they’d bet on yet.
Most here had pursued strength since Reset Day 1 and proven it repeatedly.
So as long as it wasn’t them tagged Weakest, they didn’t care much.
Thus, inevitably.
Beep, beep!
「One Weakest vote has been cast.」
「One Weakest vote has been cast.」
「One Weakest vote has been cast.」
More votes poured into Dragos, who’d drawn even more attention from Yeong-woo’s comment.
“Ah… No!”
Dragos wasn’t some exceptional figure either—he freaked out seeing the number on his photo climb.
He himself figured he wasn’t top-tier among the 20 here.
Beep!
「One Weakest vote has been cast.」
In the end, Dragos took 12 votes and clinched Weakest. Now the 20 had to settle.
“No Strongest votes yet.”
“Yeah. Who’s the strongest here?”
“Usually the taller ones are relatively stronger, right?”
At someone’s offhand remark at the end, the ‘natural height’ guys stepped back a couple paces.
Then those who’d modded their height to 2 meters started getting attention.
Out of the 20, about 9 were 2 meters tall.
“More than I thought…”
“Height alone doesn’t mean strong. Gotta look at other factors.”
Overall build, muscle mass, gear worn.
Unlike Weakest selection, not a single vote was wasted here.
Everyone fancied themselves strong, so they were dead serious about predicting the top dog.
Of course, unavoidably the most eye-catching among the 9 candidates was.
“…That Eastern guy seems suspicious, doesn’t he?”
“Why isn’t he wearing armor?”
“ID 07 isn’t bad. Seems pretty strong.”
As expected, Jeong Yeong-woo07 got the most mentions.
Not just from speaking up boldly to everyone despite arriving late, but above all.
-Whirrr…
It was floating silently in the air for now, but that 2-meter golden greatsword screamed insane murder machine to anyone.
Then someone leaning in the corner of the waiting room drove the nail in with one line.
“That guy’s strong, yeah. Got a nationwide manhunt in China.”
“…!”
Yeong-woo whipped his head toward the unexpected attacker and immediately got it.
『Martial God Twin Heroes』
‘Ah, a Chinese guy.’
One of China’s top players, pissed from Yeong-woo’s title theft, was here.
And from that point.
Beep!
「One Strongest vote has been cast.」
A long-dormant Strongest vote shot to Yeong-woo.
“Picking 19 and 20 side by side?”
“Too coincidental, right? Trap?”
Even as some hesitated, Strongest votes for Eastern07 kept coming.
Beep, beep!
「One Strongest vote has been cast.」
「One Strongest vote has been cast.」
「One Strongest vote has been cast.」
His shady look actually fueled a gambling vibe—like that made him stronger.
In a way, this dungeon’s ‘gambling’ theme had already kicked off.
“Y-Yeong-woo, if this keeps up…”
Dragos, now locked as Weakest, gaped at Yeong-woo’s vote count.
If the main game was Strong vs. Weak duel, he wanted no part of this hulking Easterner.
But Strongest votes for Yeong-woo kept rolling, and the moment he neared majority at 8 votes.
Shing! Clang!
Suddenly a sword shot up toward the ceiling, piercing Yeong-woo’s photo marked with 8 votes.
“What?”
“W-who?”
“…!”
The abrupt show of force paused voting, and soon a hulking black man shoved through other martial artists to stand before Yeong-woo.
Thud!
“Why are votes piling up on this guy? You really gonna pick this punk as our rep?”
The self-proclaimed rival to Eastern07 was none other than.
『Limpopo’s Nightmare』
Tuende Mussa01, martial artist from northern South Africa’s Limpopo Province.
‘…Fuck, he’s risen high. Getting lip from some black dude now.’
Even his ID was 01.
But Yeong-woo and Tuende’s eye levels were almost the same.
Prime example of transcending birth grade, as briefed on Reset Day 1.
“I can’t accept you as the strongest here. No matter how I look, you don’t vibe top dog. Right?”
As Tuende jabbed a finger at Yeong-woo and scanned the room, others started nodding one by one.
“Well, yeah.”
“We haven’t fought, so who knows who’s really strongest.”
“The voted Strongest might rep us for something? Better pick the actually strong one.”
The room’s immersion was night-and-day from Weakest picking.
Then finally.
“How about they fight? We’ll judge.”
The Chinese guy who’d sniped Yeong-woo proposed a duel like he’d been waiting.
Then.
“Oh? Good idea.”
“Yeah. Duel! Settle it with a duel.”
“That’s the surest way.”
The waiting room heated up instantly as everyone chanted ‘duel’.
“Duel! Duel!”
“Fight! Only 4 minutes left!”
They even cleared space by stepping back.
Yeong-woo glanced troubled at the ceiling voting interface.
“Don’t even know the main game rules yet—smart to fight in the waiting room?”
Tuende twisted his dark cheek into an evil grin at Yeong-woo’s words.
“Scared now that it’s real?”
“No, not that…”
“Typical coward—long tongue!”
Taat!
Tuende Mussa01 reached for another sword at his waist.
But to Yeong-woo, it looked painfully slow.
‘What? Why so slow?’
Not just from Illustration 3-set buffs and stacked gear.
He’d just faced a dragon and Kim Il-sung from hell before coming here, so a mere human’s moves looked sluggish by comparison.
So Yeong-woo.
Grab!
Caught Tuende’s arm before the sword even cleared the sheath.
Then said with a serious face.
“Let’s stop here. Don’t wanna make an enemy of Africa.”
Weren’t all continents linking tomorrow?
Stealing South Africa’s title in this situation…
‘Already set to fight China and Japan—don’t need the black legions too. Nope.’
The moment Yeong-woo thought that, something unexpected happened.
It was.
Piiing!
“Ah…!”
Yeong-woo’s eyes widened at the ominous sound.
This was the noise when Dogo, source of tens of millions of evil deeds, issued a quest.
And sure enough.
Flash!
Yeong-woo’s vision flashed on one side as Dogo’s new commission dropped.
[Dogo] “Sort the Hierarchy”
<Mission> Defeat Tuende Mussa01 in a duel.
<Reward> 5 million karma.
<Special> Must acquire 11 or more Strongest votes.