Chapter 279
Chapter 279
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 279
Chapter Title: 63. First Prince (2)
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“What?”
Dogo flinched at Youngwoo’s words claiming the sword in the scabbard couldn’t possibly be the real Myth Bastard.
It was an absurd provocation, but astonishingly, the First Prince wavered for a moment.
Of course, he didn’t go so far as to draw the sword to check if it was true.
If Dogo had mindlessly pulled out the sword to verify, the battle would have ended in Youngwoo’s victory right then and there.
‘Damn, a failure after all?’
As Youngwoo regretted his shallow ploy falling flat, a voice seething with extreme fury leaked from inside First Prince Dogo’s helmet.
“…Myth Bastard?”
But the level of that fury was far from ordinary.
No matter how lame the taunt, it wasn’t enough to enrage a prince who’d been so smug just moments ago.
“…Huh? What, what is this?”
Youngwoo began to sense something was off.
At the same time, the black eyes, Desirak, flattened itself against the floor, upper body practically kissing the ground.
As if to say the prince was furious now, and big trouble was coming.
“What’s wrong with you?”
Seeing Desirak slam its head to the floor, Youngwoo instinctively stepped back before realizing belatedly.
“Ah……!”
At this point in time—this recreation of ‘Prince Dogo’ in the dungeon—the Besedel royal family had no Myth Bastard.
In other words, the sword in that scabbard had never been the Myth Bastard to begin with, and Dogo didn’t even know a sword called the Myth Bastard existed.
‘Then…….’
So why had First Prince Dogo flown into a rage at the mere mention of Myth Bastard?
‘Ah.’
Besedel royal family’s First Prince, Dogo Besedel, was actually a bastard himself.
And later on, this prince…
‘Killed a Transcender himself and forged the mythical Myth Bastard from its legacy…….’
It was the moment everything the Chairman had said like ‘I am the myth itself’ clicked into place.
“Eh! Then His Highness is really a bast……!”
Having grasped far too much at once, Youngwoo was about to utter ‘Myth Bastard’ again when—
Kwaaaaa!
Youngwoo’s surroundings were painted ultramarine as the enraged Prince Dogo surged forward like a tidal wave.
“Feel the eternal void’s time!”
“Guh!”
In an instant, Youngwoo was seized by the head and slammed mercilessly into the wall.
Kwaak!
By the original design, the boss fight should have ended the moment the challenger defeated all the guards and clashed once with the prince.
But because Youngwoo knew far too much about the real Dogo, everything had gone awry with him as the challenger.
As a result, this dungeon’s ‘Dogo’ was simulated at near-perfect fidelity—and thus…
“Vanish!”
Its power was implemented at a level close to the original.
Already, bizarre patterns were etching themselves around Youngwoo embedded in the wall.
This was a dimensional spell opening a gate to the void.
Of course, Youngwoo didn’t know that, but he could instinctively tell he was in deep shit.
‘F-Fucked up? Chairman, isn’t this an NG?’
Youngwoo shot a desperate glance at the ceiling, but there was no response.
Meaning he had to resolve this on his own.
‘What the hell do I do?’
Under Dogo’s overwhelming presence, Youngwoo’s limbs were completely immobilized.
This mad prince was seriously trying to seal a mere insect in the void.
This was the price for calling the Myth Bastard by its name.
“Hey, black eyes! Talk to the prince! This is against the rules!”
Youngwoo pleaded with Desirak sprawled on the floor, but it wouldn’t budge.
“No, come on!”
Shiii.
Meanwhile, the inside of the bizarre pattern turned translucent, revealing the void beyond.
Whooo……
The void itself made no sound, but to Youngwoo so close, it felt like a massive current shifting.
Not heard with ears, but sensed in the mind—the void’s infinite abyss.
“Fuck!”
Had he overstepped as a mere insect after all? Hadn’t all this happened because Jeong Youngwoo07 dared challenge beyond his scripted life?
“Aaah!”
Finally, the endless abyss began pulling at the back of his mind, and like a man running on collapsing legs, Youngwoo desperately fled toward the still-intact parts of his psyche.
Screaming at the top of his lungs.
“You fucking bastard! I’m a myth bast……!”
Suddenly, his throat locked up.
Had his speech been nullified already?
“I!”
Actually, the opposite.
“「Myth Bastard」……! I’m a Myth Bastard too! You crazy bastard Myth Bastard!”
Paaat!
The moment Jeong Youngwoo07 pronounced 「Myth Bastard」, an intangible wave rippled faintly from him, and Dogo released his head.
“What……?”
It was because he understood the transcendent language he’d just heard: 「Myth Bastard」.
Youngwoo’s second transcendent word, 「Myth Bastard」, was intricately woven with his own inner power and information about the myth ‘Myth Bastard’.
“……?”
The past remnant of Chairman Dogo—the First Prince Dogo—showed eyes filled with shock.
Through the meanings embedded in 「Myth Bastard」, hadn’t he indirectly glimpsed part of his own future?
The form of Chairman Dogo, who had forged the Myth Bastard into a myth himself.
Thus, that future—no, that ‘present’—meant the Dogo existing here now was…
“Prince, time to rest. Sorry about earlier.”
Hearing this from his chest, Dogo hastily tilted his head.
There—
Thud!
A mere insect with a hand already on his sword hilt entered his view.
“…You, no, I…….”
The prince’s voice trembled.
He’d understood far too much in that interim.
Even the fact that his timeline didn’t match this insect’s.
If this Dogo perfectly recreated the Chairman’s past, his deductive prowess would be extraordinary too.
So Youngwoo drew the sword before the opponent could finish reasoning.
Chwaaa!
The prince, who’d cast an intimidating shadow just moments ago, dissolved into a puff of smoke in an instant.
“Ah.”
Desirak with its head on the floor, the other guards on the ceiling—all the same.
Now left in the room were Youngwoo, and…
Sss.
The weapon of Prince Dogo still in Youngwoo’s hand.
「Prince’s Command Sword」 - Dungeon Item
【Gain control over Besedel royal guards.】
As expected, the weapon Prince Dogo carried was a gray straight sword, and a dungeon-exclusive item in itself.
The First Prince being the guard commander wasn’t just talk.
‘Whoa, does this mean…’
He could command all the guards in the citadel?
As Youngwoo’s eyes widened, system messages appeared.
「Survived the boss battle.」
「Drew record-breaking fury from the boss, granting an additional 5 Morality Score points.」
The long-awaited boss battle clear.
With that, Youngwoo’s Morality Score surged dramatically.
Paat!
[Morality Score: 14]
‘Ah, guess it’s time to head out.’
Confirming the score, Youngwoo scanned the prince’s room once more, turned, and saw the entrance opening right on cue.
Drddd.
He’d taken down the dungeon boss without swinging the sword once.
“Y-Youngwoo?”
Soon, Otavio’s voice came from the central passage outside the door, so Youngwoo tossed him the sword.
Whoosh!
“Thanks, worked great.”
Now in Youngwoo’s hand was the ‘Prince’s Command Sword’.
“Huh? That’s…….”
Next, Anu Bawa spotted Youngwoo’s new sword and showed surprise.
At that, Youngwoo finally pointed east.
“The key to getting us out. Everyone can relax now.”
* * *
Now east.
Just knowing they’d finally started toward the exit had Otavio and Anu Bawa beaming.
With Jeong Youngwoo—surely the strongest among all participants—leading, escape was only a matter of time.
Especially since…
Clank, clank!
The royal guards trailing in formation behind the three, including Youngwoo, were awe-inspiring.
“…Impossible.”
As Anu Bawa kept muttering, this was beyond anyone’s imagination.
Who could’ve predicted an item that let you command elite monsters as minions?
“…….”
But for Youngwoo, who’d long treated variants like slaves, it wasn’t that shocking.
“Taking every guard we meet as minions makes things easier, but… no more Morality Score farming, huh.”
Youngwoo scratched his chin with the command sword’s tip, sounding genuinely disappointed, leaving Otavio and Anu Bawa speechless.
‘Crazy bastard…….’
‘His baseline is totally different.’
Of course, the dungeon wasn’t full of only royal guards.
Assassins like those from the intro bedroom lurked throughout the citadel, but not being ‘elite’ monsters, killing them yielded no Morality Score.
So Youngwoo had long since delegated assassin cleanup to the guards.
Thanks to that—
Tat!
Whenever assassins burst from rooms along the passage, guards from behind shot out like lightning, swinging their blades.
An auto-hunt system in effect.
Hweeee!
This time too, a guard’s massive blade severed an assassin’s neck in one stroke, and Otavio dodged sideways in admiration.
“Truly incredible.”
Then, following his train of thought:
“If a murderer got this authority, all participants by now…….”
He cut off abruptly.
Realizing he’d said something unnecessary.
Hadn’t that monster just lamented not being able to farm more Morality Score?
If he used the guards from here to hunt remaining participants, he could rack up points endlessly.
“…….”
Sure enough, Youngwoo at the forefront said nothing.
Lost in deep thought.
Then suddenly—
“Eh, whatever. Boss battle locked in first place anyway.”
In other words, he’d briefly considered human hunting.
“R-Right?”
As Otavio forced a bitter smile and nodded, the building’s ceiling and side walls vanished.
They’d finally passed through the citadel into the outdoors.
‘…Exit’s really close now.’
Otavio stepped forward with eager anticipation when metallic clashes echoed from far ahead.
Cha-chang!
“Huh, this is.”
Anu Bawa, sensing blade-on-blade, cautiously moved behind Youngwoo, while Otavio gripped his sword properly and stared ahead.
“What is it? Big monster group?”
Otavio ventured carefully, but Youngwoo, checking the map, thought differently.
“The exit’s right behind that noise. So I figure.”
Remaining participants fighting each other, Youngwoo guessed.
If someone wanted to farm Morality Score by killing participants, the best spot was right before the exit.
Everyone would eventually find it within the time limit anyway.
And indeed…
Cha-chang! Piiing!
At the dungeon exit Youngwoo’s group reached, six participants were tangled in combat.
“Huh? These fuckers!”
Flames erupted in Youngwoo’s eyes at the sight.
Otavio thought he was furious at them blocking the exit, but reality was far off.
“No, don’t! Nobody die!”
“……?”
Ta-at!
Youngwoo rushed into the fray, and the eight guards protecting him shot out, slamming the six participants to the ground.
“What?”
“W-What the hell?”
“Guards……?”
The participants, ambushed from behind by guards, barely rolled their eyes in outrage when a gray straight sword loomed in their vision.
“Nice day out—why fight?”
“What?”
“What bullshit…….”
Hearing the unfamiliar voice, the six desperately craned their necks to look up.
Confirming their six gazes, Youngwoo dramatically extended one finger.
“Early Bird special: one bidder, lowest price release. Starting bid, 10 million.”
“W-What’re you saying?”
“What bid?”
In this chaos, one participant caught on.
The guards in the room were following the mystery man.
Eight of them, no less—the two with empty hands menaced with huge greatswords.
Ready to strike anytime.
“……!”
The ‘Early Bird’ who grasped this snapped his head up and shouted.
“T-Ten million!”
“Huh?”
“What?”
“That retard fuck!”
As the others gawked in disbelief, Youngwoo’s gesture freed the Early Bird.
The remaining five flipped out in protest amid the mess, and Youngwoo asked again.
“How much for the next one to buy their freedom?”
To the freshly freed Early Bird.
“……!”
The area fell silent for a beat, then Early Bird stared down one participant.
The very one who’d called him a ‘retard fuck’.
“Uh… can I pick just one instead of next in line?”
“Yes. Your call.”
Youngwoo nodded approval, and Early Bird awkwardly raised a hand, extending fingers like Youngwoo had.
Slick.
Five.
Going for 50 million?
As Youngwoo’s eyes widened at the twist, Early Bird raised his other hand too.
“…100 million.”