Chapter 220
Chapter 220
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 220
Chapter Title: 50. Unexpectedness (5)
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‘Sort out the hierarchy?’
After checking the quest details, Yeongwoo reflexively glanced up at the ceiling beyond.
Thinking of the chairman who had probably approved this quest, or perhaps Dogo's shareholders.
‘Win the duel and secure votes from at least eleven strong contenders… That means win overwhelmingly.’
To do that, he just needed to make the opponent draw his sword again, then slice both the man and his blade in half like a bastard.
However.
“S-Sorry. I really didn’t recognize a true powerhouse.”
Tuende Mussa had already realized he was outmatched.
That the Eastern man before him possessed something beyond the extraordinary, a monster who lagged in nothing—not raw strength, not reaction speed.
“I’ve committed a grave discourtesy. I apologize. Africa does not wish to become your enemy.”
Tuende spoke these words as he very cautiously backed away.
Recalling the line Easterner 07 had tossed out while blocking his draw.
—Let’s stop here. I don’t want to become Africa’s enemy.
So, he was accepting the opponent’s warning.
But Yeongwoo’s stance had done a complete 180 in that short time.
“…Sorry, but draw your sword, Tuende Mussa.”
“W-What…?”
“Draw your sword if you don’t want to die…!”
With an Ankhaljin warning, Yeongwoo’s massive frame twitched.
Aiming a left body blow at the opponent’s abdomen.
“Is this guy completely insane?”
At that, the ‘Nightmare of Limpopo,’ Tuende Mussa, bulged his eyes and hastily drew the sword from his belt.
Because he’d realized the opponent was truly swinging a fist laced with killing intent.
‘Even if he’s strong, his skin can’t be tougher than a blade.’
Intending to sever the opponent’s arm first, Tuende swung his sword in a diagonal slash.
Shweeeeaak!
“Oh!”
“Aaah…!”
The spectators in the arena, who had gauged Tuende’s sword path, let out ambiguous sounds that could have been sighs or cheers.
Weren’t twenty martial experts from East and West gathered here, all strangers to one another?
If, in this situation, the Eastern expert’s arm went flying, what chaos would ensue?
‘D-Dangerous.’
‘Do we really need to provoke the Easterners?’
‘This could go wrong…’
As most of the room watched the clash of the two powerhouses with bated breath, Tuende’s blade truly sliced across Jeong Yeongwoo07’s forearm.
Slaaash!
As expected of identification number ‘01,’ a feat worthy of his prowess.
“Ugh!”
“Good lord.”
“These lunatics!”
Seeing Easterner 07’s right arm spin two full turns in the air, the spectators reacted in their own ways.
Fellow Easterners unconsciously gripped their scabbards in tension, while the Africans looked around with triumphant glee.
The Westerners, meanwhile, showed mixed reactions.
The main event hadn’t even started yet, and if the atmosphere turned hostile already, it wouldn’t end well.
But the truly brutal event came next.
“Mussa!”
Whoooosh!
The problematic Easterner, now missing his right arm, went for a left hook this time.
Of course, his movement was so fast that no one in the arena could even tell if the second punch he threw was a hook or a straight.
Instead.
Pooow!
This time, everyone could clearly tell the fist had landed properly.
“Urk…?”
Tuende Mussa, who had been standing tall, suddenly slammed into the floor.
The tide turned in an instant, silencing the previously rowdy arena.
“……?”
“W-What was that just now?”
“…Huh?”
Then someone pointed at Eastern—no, Jeong Yeongwoo07’s right arm stump.
“You see that? My eyes aren’t playing tricks, right?”
Everyone looked at where Yeongwoo’s forearm had been.
Blood dripped nonstop from his right shoulder, where raw red flesh was fully exposed.
The problem was.
Tsss…
Acrid smoke rose from where the blood hit the floor.
His blood was corroding the marble tiles.
【Corrosive Blood】
|Blood mutates to gain corrosive properties.
This was one of the effects from the newly equipped ‘Poison Dragon’s Heart,’ but to those unaware, it instinctively evoked fear.
“W-What the hell is that guy?”
“His blood’s melting the floor…?”
Meanwhile, Yeongwoo picked up his severed forearm from the ground, still leaking corrosive blood onto the floor.
Swoosh.
He then pressed it back onto his right shoulder.
Squelch!
With regeneration from the slime core, plus.
「Unfair Deal」 - Unique One-Handed Sword
【Inflicting wounds on enemies increases the wearer’s recovery rate.】
The effect of Unfair Deal rapidly healed the stump.
Shiiiish!
“Huh.”
“…What?”
A dozen mouths in the arena gaped open in unison.
They’d never even heard of a powerhouse like this.
And then.
Beep!
An alert from the dungeon system appeared with the signal.
「Time remaining until voting ends: 1 minute.」
Yeongwoo pointed at the ceiling with his right hand—which had been on the floor moments ago—and said,
“What are you waiting for? Vote for your strongest quickly.”
* * *
Votes: 17.
After waking the unconscious Tuende and urging votes, Yeongwoo secured the majority.
“Why… why did you have to hit me? I surrendered at first.”
Tuende lodged a rightful protest, but Yeongwoo couldn’t explain in detail.
How could he make the man understand it was the orders of the higher-ups somewhere above in the universe?
So Yeongwoo chose to play the madman.
“…Sorry. I just couldn’t hold back my anger for a moment.”
“…….”
In any case, everything was going smoothly for Yeongwoo.
Piiing!
[Quest Complete - “Hierarchy Sort”]
[Reward Issued]
|5 million karma
Not only had he earned 5 million karma with a single punch, but the feared resentment from the black legion had also been greatly reduced.
Shoooosh!
Soon, a card containing 5 million karma pierced through the lounge ceiling, but thanks to the dungeon advancing to the next phase right on cue, no one could demand an explanation from Yeongwoo.
「Voting completed.」
|Strongest: [19] Jeong Yeongwoo07
|Weakest: [20] Dragosh Korban24
19 and 20 elected.
An eerily coincidental result.
But the process had been so outrageous that rather than sense anything off, everyone focused on what came next.
“Betting time now?”
“By the way, how’s the ranking determined?”
Ranking.
This mattered to Yeongwoo too.
He hadn’t come here just for unique gear, after all.
‘To get the codex, I need a contribution score exceeding the max of 100.’
And this dungeon wasn’t about teaming up to clear stages.
‘It said there’d be betting… So we keep gambling, and the one who doesn’t get eliminated until the end is ranked first?’
Unclear.
The rules needed to be revealed to even guess.
And soon enough.
「Voting complete. Gambling begins now.」
With the message signaling the dungeon’s true start, one wall of the lounge slid aside, revealing a massive floor-to-ceiling window.
“Huh?”
“Wha, what’s that.”
“An arena?”
“What? Arena?”
At the word ‘arena,’ everyone rushed to the glass wall.
There, below on the other side, were two circular arenas set up.
Positioned so the lounge overlooked them.
“Why… why are there two arenas?”
“Probably one for the strongest, one for the weakest.”
“Huh? Then who’s the opponent?”
They’d assumed the strongest and weakest would fight each other, betting on the outcome, so confusion spread.
Two arenas meant the strongest and weakest faced separate foes.
“Monsters?”
“Probably. Maybe stages with increasingly tougher ones.”
With many dungeon veterans present, plausible guesses flew.
「Explanation of gambling rules follows.」
Bang!
Numbers 1 and 2 appeared above the arenas they overlooked.
Left was Arena 1, right Arena 2.
「Moments from now, the ‘Strongest’ enters Arena 1, the ‘Weakest’ Arena 2.」
“As expected, they split up.”
“Then we bet on strongest or weakest?”
Up to here, it matched expectations.
「Once arena transfer completes, betting on the items below runs for 5 minutes.」
“……!”
The betting options revealed at last.
As everyone stared wide-eyed at the glass, a huge hologram appeared beyond.
[1] Strongest survives, Weakest survives.
[2] Strongest dies, Weakest survives.
[3] Strongest survives, Weakest dies.
[4] Strongest dies, Weakest dies.
“Y-Yeah.”
“Only survival or death?”
With options out, all eyes turned to the voted Yeongwoo and Dragosh.
Because today, one of them had a high chance of dying here.
「Gambling runs five stages. At the end of the final stage, betting scores are tallied for rankings.」
There it was—the key ranking.
As explained, the one with most successful bets across five rounds took first prize.
Predict winners correctly in a row.
“So what do we base predictions on?”
“Yeah. Don’t we need to know what the strongest and weakest fight?”
As participants grasped the rules and demanded more, new text appeared over the arenas.
「In each stage, the two representatives fight mutant copies.」
“Mutant copies?”
“What’s that…?”
「Copies of mutants defeated by participants will be deployed to the arenas. Numbers increase sharply per stage.」
“What?”
“Crazy.”
“So, fighting multiple mutants?”
The room erupted in noise.
Randomly selected from mutants the twenty participants had defeated.
Their own kills could appear in the arena, drawing everyone in fast.
“Whoa, not easy…”
“Bad luck, and someone dies in stage 1.”
Everyone recalled the mutant that had troubled them most.
For Yeongwoo.
‘Kim Il-sung could show up again…?’
As he thought of the ‘Legendary Evil,’ the system revealed stage 1 difficulty.
「Stage 1 begins soon. Each representative faces two mutants. No special rules.」
Random mutants, 2v1 combat.
Child’s play for Yeongwoo, but not for Dragosh, headed to Arena 2.
“Damn it…”
He was already sweating coldly, fingers trembling faintly.
Yeongwoo approached and asked quietly,
“Mutants—how many have you faced max?”
Dragosh looked up at Yeongwoo with a pale face.
“Two… I’ve handled two.”
“…This is bad.”
Dragosh’s prowess mattered to Yeongwoo too.
He had to bet as well.
‘Still, he should pass stage 1. Bet on both surviving for now.’
But stage 2 was the issue.
—Numbers increase sharply per stage.
From the nuance, that ‘sharply.’
‘Doubles each time.’
Common sense said 2, 4, 6, 8, 10.
But cosmic common sense often differed from Earth’s.
‘No way 2, 4, 8, 16, 32…? Nah, they wouldn’t force the reps to die.’
If the latter, not even Yeongwoo could guarantee survival, let alone Dragosh.
‘Insane dungeon. Only spectators get thrilled.’
Yeongwoo glanced at Arena 1, his destination.
Then.
“……!”
A sudden thought hit him, and he pulled the coordinate locator from his pocket.
Swoosh.
「Coordinate Locator」 - Relic Tool
【Reveals coordinates of visible points.】
Could this work outside Earth?
「10 seconds until representatives transfer to arenas.」
With the transfer alert up, Yeongwoo pressed the locator and stared at a spot in Arena 1.
And.
“Ah…!”
With the aiming reticle, coordinates appeared.
〔II|l||-뤼포-917-005-3102-89〕