Chapter 226
Chapter 226
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 226
Chapter Title: 51. Match Fixing (4)
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“68? Are these bastards fucking insane?”
As Youngwoo flew into a rage, blood gushed out from wounds all over his body.
Splash!
His skyrocketing blood pressure had squeezed it right out.
‘It was a dungeon impossible to clear from the start. What kind of gamble is this?’
Youngwoo fumed at the ridiculous difficulty, but ironically, the ‘gamble’ of this dungeon was playing out perfectly.
The two representatives elected just happened to be the promotional model for the pan-galactic weapons manufacturer ‘Dogo,’ and a servant of ‘Mara,’ the King of Ten Thousand Demons.
Judging by the martial prowess Mara’s knights had shown so far, Dragosh—the supposed ‘weakling’—had a very high chance of surviving even Stage 5.
Youngwoo, on the other hand...
‘68 mutants? The arena’s gonna be packed. Can I even handle that with artillery?’
On top of that, the laser cannon installed in the returners’ room wasn’t capable of unlimited fire.
The prisoners... no, his friends had to pedal directly to charge its energy.
‘At this rate, sniping Dragosh is out of the question—I might not even survive myself.’
68 mutants.
“......”
Youngwoo swallowed hard as he surveyed the vast arena.
‘Fuck, no wonder it felt too spacious.’
Was this difficulty even remotely reasonable?
‘No wonder the dungeon info said rare-grade. I figured there had to be something special.’
[Batoum’s Gambling Den]
| Dungeon Grade: Rare
| Difficulty: C
| Recommended Personnel: 20
This dungeon, ‘Batoum’s Gambling Den,’ was the first rare-grade one since the Reset.
‘Rare-grade at C difficulty... At this level, it’s basically impossible without an Irregular.’
As Youngwoo reflected on this possibly belated lesson, the final bets began.
「All participants, please complete your bets within the next 5 minutes.」
[1] Strong survives, Weak survives.
[2] Strong dies, Weak survives.
[3] Strong survives, Weak dies.
[4] Strong dies, Weak dies.
The final choice.
‘Most’ll go for 2. Some gamblers might pick 1 or 4.’
But no one would pick 3, Youngwoo boldly predicted.
With only one betting chance each, even high-rollers wouldn’t stake it on the option with the lowest odds.
‘If it were me pulling off the gamble of the century, I’d pick 4 over 3 any day.’
Unfortunately, Youngwoo was the ‘Strong’ listed in the options, so he couldn’t pick 4.
‘Fuck it, let’s throw down.’
Probably the boldest decision since his first golden ratio pick.
Youngwoo resolved to kill the servant of 「Mara」.
‘3. Bet on 3...!’
[3] Strong survives, Weak dies.
I live, you die.
Youngwoo placed his bet on 3, but the other participants were still deliberating, so the results didn’t show yet.
He turned to the broadcast screen, looking at Dragosh in Arena 2.
‘Bet that guy’s seeing 68 mutants for the first time too.’
As Youngwoo watched the screen, Dragosh’s head tilted upward right on cue.
He too was peering into Arena 1 via the broadcast.
“......”
—......
Their gazes met indirectly through the screen.
Then the two Mara knights guarding Dragosh looked at Youngwoo through the screen.
And then.
Swipe.
One raised his left hand, thumb out, and mimed slitting his own throat.
Somehow, he’d learned an Earth-style threat gesture.
“No, you fucking prick?”
Youngwoo raged again, but his wounds had mostly clotted, so no blood poured this time.
Those knights were underlings of the King of Ten Thousand Demons, after all. No reason to expect manners.
‘Fair enough. I already bet on 3, so I’m no better.’
If they were servants of the Great Demon God, he was the incarnation of karma born from implicit intent.
「Stage 5 betting is now complete.」
While Youngwoo traded glares with the knights on-screen, the 5 minutes ended, and the results appeared.
|Arena 1 – 3 votes
|Arena 2 – 10 votes
|Option 3 – 1 vote
|Option 4 – 2 votes
“Ah...!”
Five gamblers on 1 and 4.
And one on 3—the obvious ‘Strong’ himself.
‘Those on 2 are just securing the base reward.’
Either way, it favored Youngwoo.
If he made Option 3 reality, there’d be no ties this time.
「Betting complete. Stage 5 commencing.」
Finally, the system announced Stage 5, and the arena doors flew open on all sides.
Thud thud thud!
Mutants poured endlessly from within.
「Kraaaah!」
「Grroooar!」
‘My god.’
Hellscape.
68 mutants charging at once was straight out of hell.
And among them.
Fwoooosh!
A copy of the Poison Dragon Lim Gwang-ho, whom he’d met in Seoul.
‘Lim Gwang-ho...!’
True to his dragon kin, it didn’t pass through the door—instead gliding in from the pitch-black void outside.
Like a massive airplane.
‘This is dangerous.’
68 mutants, dragon included.
Youngwoo hastily drew his sword and swung a wide arc ahead, bisecting three mutants.
Slash!
Dozens more lunged from the flanks and rear. Before they could swarm him, he leaped into the air.
Leap!
「Climber」 - Mutant Pants
【Jump distance tripled.】
In an instant, he was dozens of meters up. Below, a golden trail fought alone.
Then.
Crunch!
It couldn’t withstand the horde and got dragged underfoot.
Youngwoo immediately called for artillery.
“Lüpo! 917, 005, 3090, 08!”
And right away.
Fwoooosh!
Not the laser’s bright light—a massive shadow engulfed him midair.
“Guh!”
The circling Poison Dragon had rammed him.
“You bastard!”
Tumbling headfirst toward the ground after hitting the dragon’s head, Youngwoo felt his heart pounding in unprecedented crisis.
‘Wh-why’s my heart racing like this?’
It throbbed so wildly he thought he was convulsing. Clutching his chest, he noticed.
“Ah.”
A green typhoon icon flashing in the corner of his vision.
‘Right. My heart right now.’
「Poison Dragon’s Heart」 - Legendary Heart
He shared a heart with this very dragon about to smash him into the ground.
And the effect of not refining it into a talisman was...
Boom!
“Hngh!”
Crashing to the arena floor with the enraged dragon, Youngwoo gripped his Sasenga tight and stabbed its forehead repeatedly.
Crunch, crack!
The writhing dragon’s green scales suddenly turned white.
The laser beam from the returners’ room had finally arrived.
Kaaaaboom!
Illuminating everything, the laser struck the arena center, vaporizing about 20 mutants—including part of the dragon’s elongated tail on the ground.
“......!”
Seeing the dragon apparently dead, Youngwoo stabbed its head once more, then raised his hand skyward.
Swipe.
And then.
“Protocol...?”
He activated the still-flashing green typhoon icon in his vision.
The Poison Dragon’s special protocol: Malignant Typhoon.
Then.
Whooooosh......
The air currents in the arena shifted oddly, and the surroundings slowly tinted green.
‘It-it actually works?’
Not just visual—the real virulent poison twisted the mutants’ faces as they filled the arena.
And looking just as sour was...
—......
Dragosh on the Arena 2 broadcast.
Youngwoo—the only current threat—kept pulling weird techniques, making him uneasy.
Dragosh had been watching Arena 1, the ‘Strong’ side, while his knights cleared mutants. Suddenly, Oriental 07 pointed at him and said something.
“What’s he saying?”
Of course, the broadcast had no sound.
He could only guess it was some threat, and his guess...
Whooooosh......
Proved mostly right.
“Huh?”
Arena 2’s sky soon turned white.
“Kn-knights?”
Sensing the insane laser—hitherto only on Arena 1—now targeting here, Dragosh urgently called his guards.
The knights slaughtering mutants froze and looked up.
「......」
They rarely spoke anyway, but this was different.
“It’ll be fine, right? This time too?”
Seeing the laser already descending, Dragosh asked again. The knights raised their weapons high.
Swipe.
Then.
Flaaash!
A massive golden dome formed around the tips.
“...Ooh.”
A defensive barrier.
And almost simultaneously.
Boom!
The planetary bombardment laser from cosmic arms giant Toma engulfed Dragosh and the two knights.
* * *
The end.
It’s over.
Toma’s laser barrage failed to pierce the barrier from Mara’s knights or whoever.
“Toma, you shit-eating fucks...!”
Youngwoo ranted at the broadcast, watching Dragosh and his gang unscathed.
“Ugh, you idiots!”
He cursed Toma, but deep down knew it wasn’t fair.
Mara was a god-tier being.
Lord of the Void, walker in the shadows of cosmic law. King of Ten Thousand Demons...
No mere arms corp could handle that.
He’d basically begged the impossible.
‘So after all this bullshit today, I don’t even get the top reward?’
Seething with injustice, Youngwoo ground his teeth and swung Sasenga.
Slaaash!
Two clinging mutants split in half, only for more to charge.
About 30 mutants left in Arena 1.
Thanks to Malignant Typhoon’s poison, the inherently weak ones were half-melted.
Plus Youngwoo’s venomous blood corroded attackers’ skin—no threat unless Stage 4 or 5 spawns.
But was that the issue?
‘At this rate, the three on 1 split the points.’
Youngwoo bet on 3: Strong survives, Weak dies.
He had to kill Dragosh before all mutants here vanished.
‘No way? What cards do I have left?’
Code Red.
Youngwoo’s mind raced.
‘Haven’t called friends yet. But those knights blocking artillery—friends can’t do shit...’
If no more artillery needed, call them later for contribution points.
Useless for now.
‘What’s left then.’
His gaze naturally drifted skyward.
Dogo, who’d shoved him into ‘Strong’ with a quest, had gone silent.
“Chairman?”
Youngwoo called to the sky.
No answer, of course. He glanced at the ad tattoo on his right upper arm.
“You watching? Sponsor a weapon—anything to kill that guy. Still tons of ad budget left.”
The chairman was surely watching.
A rival like Toma humiliated before the galaxy—no, the universe.
No way the competitive chairman missed that.
But no matter how he stared skyward, no sponsorship, not even a quest.
All pushy when forcing ‘Strong,’ but silent now with 「Mara」 opposite.
“What, you only flex when the opponent suits?”
Fury surged. Youngwoo snapped.
“Chairman, you scared? Is our Dogo just another shit company...?!”
The moment he trashed both chairman and company.
Rumble crack!
The sky over alien planet Lüpo split open by 「Dogo」.