Chapter 227
Chapter 227
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 227
Chapter Title: 51. Match Fixing (5)
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“Oh……?”
A foreboding sound like the heavens splitting open.
Yeongwoo quickly looked up at the dungeon ceiling and realized his mistake.
‘Did I go overboard?’
He hadn’t expected Dogo to react so immediately.
But then again, that bold provocation had gotten him timely help.
‘Still, you were hesitating in a situation like this.’
Of course, now he had to grumble to himself.
Kwajijik!
The problematic rupturing noise that had echoed from far away finally began right above the dungeon.
‘What’s making such a racket? Are they drilling through the ceiling or something?’
Yeongwoo could only tilt his head.
He had no idea what they’d sponsored, but couldn’t they just teleport it into the arena?
Like the subspace bomb they’d sent before.
In fact, Mara’s knights had entered via beams of light, and Toma’s laser barrage had passed cleanly through the dungeon ceiling before only exerting physical force inside the arena.
In other words, every company gathered here had the technology to enter the arena without damaging the dungeon.
Yet Dogo alone.
Kwagwagwak!
Was approaching with a deafening racket that pierced the eardrums.
‘C-crazy… is this for real?’
Dudududu……!
The air over the arena was even starting to vibrate.
Physical force was actively at work from outside the dungeon.
“Chairman, don’t tell me this is……?”
The moment Yeongwoo realized something and made a shocked face.
Ppak!
A different kind of bursting sound rang out, and the dungeon ceiling enclosing the arena and waiting room shattered.
“……!”
Yeongwoo wasn’t the only one—all fourteen other participants in the waiting room and Dragosh across in the arena looked up.
Because.
Kwaaaaaa!
A crude transport machine like a mining elevator protruded from the hole in the ceiling and dropped down.
Hwaaak!
In true free fall—and in that brief instant, Yeongwoo clearly saw it.
“Uh, uh……?”
A familiar face crammed inside the elevator.
Dry, reddish-brown skin.
Small but intensely solid-looking black eyes.
The identity of this alien, clad in heavy armor with a grim expression.
“Ge… pi?”
None other than Geppi, the Monoo tribe boy from planet Zar-gal.
The star of that ad where he became a space pirate with Dogo’s backing was here right now.
Kwaaaang!
The elevator soon slammed into the center of Arena 2, and from within, heavily armed Monoo tribesmen clutching massive clubs burst out.
‘What the hell? Why’d they get so huge in the meantime?’
Watching Arena 2 via the broadcast screen, Yeongwoo realized the Monoo people, Geppi included, were far taller than in the ad.
Considering Mara’s knights stood at five meters, these Monoo were roughly.
‘…three meters? Something like that. And six of those guys were crammed into that tiny elevator.’
Truly abysmal working conditions.
But their combat prowess was tremendous.
The moment they hopped out, they smashed the nearby mutants in an instant and lined up in the arena’s center.
Even the somewhat dim-witted mutant copies didn’t dare charge and began retreating to the arena’s outskirts.
‘W-what is all this? Dogo’s demolition crew or something?’
He couldn’t think of any other explanation.
Geppi and the other five Monoo were glaring at Mara’s knights while menacingly gripping their clubs.
Then Geppi stepped forward and said something to the knights.
‘Get lost or you’ll regret it,’ or words to that effect.
Geppi—no, more precisely, the final ultimatum from the pan-galactic weapons brand Dogo.
Yet the silver-white armored knights, backed by the Void Lord 「Mara」, didn’t yield to the threat.
Just as they’d done to Yeongwoo earlier, they raised a thumb on one hand and mimed slitting their own throats.
Suuu……
‘Yep, talks broke down.’
Watching the knight’s thumb move horizontally, Yeongwoo closed his eyes.
This might mark the start of bad blood between Dogo and Mara.
How dare a mere weapons merchant try to harm a god’s servant.
‘I provoked them into this… but is it really okay?’
When Yeongwoo opened his eyes again.
“……!”
The six Monoo were charging at Mara’s knights in unison.
A 6-on-2 fight.
The knights were far larger, making it look like adults versus children, but the reality unfolded very differently.
The moment the two sides clashed, Dogo’s side revealed its overwhelming firepower.
Club bashing.
The phrase fit perfectly.
The Monoo who’d instantly surrounded the two knights swung their clubs mercilessly, and with each strike, Dogo’s wedge emblem flared up large at the impact point before vanishing, repeating the process.
Which meant those clubs were.
‘…company products.’
This was part of the ad campaign in a way.
No sound transmitted through the broadcast screen, yet Yeongwoo could’ve sworn he heard thwacks and thuds.
That’s how brutally Dogo’s contractors were beating the knights.
Of course, the knights tried to swing their weapons in counterattack, but they failed every time.
Three Monoo per knight—one simply held a club at the ready and only struck the knight’s wrist whenever a counter was attempted.
‘Roles perfectly divided. These guys aren’t amateurs……’
Watching Mara’s knights fail to land a single counter and get cornered, Yeongwoo instinctively realized Dogo was an even scarier corporation than he’d thought.
‘Beating up anyone like this—won’t there be fallout? Especially since Mara’s the King of Ten Thousand Demons… he won’t just take this lying down.’
Even as Yeongwoo thought that, the six Monoo merrily clubbed the knights—and eventually.
Ttak!
One knight dropped his weapon.
Seeing this, the other knight hurriedly looked skyward and stretched out his hand.
‘Retreating? Or calling reinforcements?’
If it was a call for reinforcements, an uncontrollable escalation might begin.
“…….”
As Yeongwoo watched the screen tensely, Arena 2 lit up.
Mara had sent down a pillar of light, just like when deploying the knights.
And soon.
Shiiat!
The knights vanished right amid the Monoo gangsters who’d been double-gripping clubs to smash down.
Mara had decided to withdraw his guards.
However, Dragosh wasn’t included in this rescue—whether because he wasn’t considered a true follower—and remained alone in Arena 2.
―…….
Dragosh’s face was ashen.
But Geppi and the Monoo contractors didn’t spare the pitiful European a glance.
After double-checking no other knights remained, they simply boarded the elevator again.
“Huh? They’re just leaving like that?”
It was around then that Yeongwoo realized.
The orders Geppi, the Monoo space pirate, had received from Dogo weren’t to kill Dragosh, but to deal with Mara’s knights.
‘Dragosh is part of this dungeon too, after all… so they kept some boundaries?’
Cosmic law was hard to grasp.
Chiriririt!
A chain descended from the hole in the dungeon ceiling and latched onto the elevator carrying the contractors.
Geppi reached up to the elevator frame and tapped the chain twice.
Likely the return signal.
And then.
“Uh……!”
Geppi looked straight at Yeongwoo through the broadcast screen.
It was unmistakable.
Because he raised his thumb to the screen and flashed a ‘good job’.
“Was that… a greeting to me……?”
While Yeongwoo sat stunned, the elevator carrying Geppi and the Monoo contractors rocketed upward at tremendous speed.
Chwaaaaaa!
It vanished in the blink of an eye—so fast the whole audience might’ve thought they’d dreamed it—but the glaring hole in the ceiling immediately reminded everyone it was real.
The ‘weak’ knights, meant to rescue their charge in stage five, had their ceiling smashed in by thugs who beat them and chased them off.
Which meant for Dragosh now.
‘He’s as good as dead. Plenty of mutants left in the arena.’
Sure enough, the waiting room participants were clamoring and wailing on the broadcast screen.
At this rate, item 3—with only a single bet—strong survives, weak dies—would come true.
―%^%@##
―……!
Plus, the majority in the audience had bet on item 2, where the strong must die, so no one dared even think of entering the arena to create a variable.
‘Guess that seals my win. Even the score-obsessed won’t walk into this.’
Arena 1, where Yeongwoo was, still had the virulent poison storm raging, with about ten mutants remaining.
For any human, entering meant instant death.
Meanwhile, in the ‘weak’ Arena 2.
―…….
Dragosh remained, looking as if he’d lost the will to fight, along with over twenty mutants.
Dragosh was undoubtedly a considerable expert, but not enough to take on twenty mutants solo.
「Mara」 was an impressive patron, true—but he hadn’t enhanced Dragosh’s own capabilities.
‘This is why self-study is the way.’
Yeongwoo sliced through a mutant that had pierced the virulent poison storm and summoned the guest to cap off this dungeon.
Swish.
It was none other than.
Bbiriririk!
「Pumpkin-Colored Whistle」 - Legendary Necklace
【Calling friends.】
|Yeongtae, Taejun, Yeongheum
The three friends who were probably still pedaling away to charge the laser cannon at that very moment.