Chapter 74
Chapter 74
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 74
Chapter Title: Legendary Quest
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The second night had begun, and five hours had passed.
During that time, simply staying alive had earned him rewards.
'Survival rewards must be calculated at ten times the rate, too.'
What surprised him was that the survival rewards were also multiplied by ten.
Moreover, the longer he survived, the greater the increases became—nothing ordinary about them.
If he could avoid capture until morning like this, he'd rack up a pretty decent haul of Contribution Points.
But.
'I can't settle for just survival rewards.'
He had no intention of hiding away just for that paltry payoff.
An unexpected variable had cropped up, but it didn't matter.
He'd considered every possibility, reasoned it out swiftly, and was certain that Aheta wasn't looking for him.
So.
This was an opportunity instead.
'I'll move while Aheta's attention is elsewhere.'
The Moon Lord Aheta's gaze had been entirely hijacked by the 'Uninvited Guest'.
A million Contribution Points for pinpointing the intruder? Aheta must be furious.
But if that uninvited guest was a high dragon of ancient wyrm class, it wouldn't be easy to find.
Creators can't interfere easily with the Creation Abyss.
That's why he was borrowing the participants' hands instead of searching himself.
Park Chan-woo moved without hesitation, faster than anyone else.
As time passed, his stats amplified steeply, and his magic's power grew stronger in tandem.
Even his frail constitution eased up considerably as his stats rose.
Wherever 'Heavenly Punishment' struck, only dust remained without fail.
"Another shelter's been destroyed!"
"It's 'Ghost'!"
"Damn it! Find 'Ghost'!"
Before long, the doppelgangers had taken to calling him 'Ghost'.
And as if realizing his goal was shelter destruction, the number of fugitives hiding in shelters began to dwindle.
Instead, they prowled around the shelters, bloodshot-eyed in their hunt for Park Chan-woo.
But despite their frenzy, they couldn't find him.
'The Masterpiece Map shows all information around me.'
The map didn't just reveal hidden shelter locations.
It displayed info on every pursuer and fugitive nearby.
Pursuers as black dots, fugitives as red ones.
Thanks to that, he could track positions and paths in real time.
'197 pursuers and 133 fugitives within a 5km radius.'
The detectable radius was a massive 5km.
Considering normal maps barely covered 500m, this was tenfold as well.
No wonder the doppelgangers couldn't find him.
Park Chan-woo could move as swiftly and safely as possible.
Hunting lone small groups he could take down, avoiding large packs.
He destroyed two more shelters after that.
But after eight shelters lay in ruins, the doppelgangers hiding in them had sharply decreased.
By the eighth, there weren't even any fugitives left hiding.
No doppelganger packs circling the area hunting for 'Ghost' either.
"...They've decided to abandon the shelters."
Park Chan-woo smirked.
They'd realized they couldn't stop him.
A quicker decision than expected.
He'd noticed the doppelgangers exchanging info, but with their numbers, reaching a 'consensus' shouldn't have been easy.
'Shifting from packs to organized groups. Leaders are emerging.'
It was proof that small packs were merging into large-scale groups led by powerful figures with strong leadership.
An astonishing evolution speed.
Something that never happened in the past 'second night'.
'This is basically a showdown between humans and doppelgangers.'
Originally, it was content designed for humans to compete against each other.
Probably to sow distrust among humans and watch them crumble.
But then 'doppelgangers' appeared out of nowhere.
Why would Moon Lord Aheta and the Creators pull the doppelganger card against humans?
'...They've grown curious about humans.'
The picture was starting to form, bit by bit.
The big picture they'd painted.
Humans, whom they'd dismissed as worthless, had piqued their interest, leading to a massive doppelganger deployment.
Why else would they need doppelgangers?
They were desperately using them to replicate humans.
'To grasp every possibility humans hold, to extract their information via doppelgangers.'
But why all of a sudden?
Why now, when they hadn't done this before?
Nothing specific came to mind.
Unless some human had stimulated them enough to reshuffle the board.
'Han Shin' wasn't at that level yet.
Besides, Aheta was keeping his incarnation contract with 'Han Shin' a secret.
'Adora said it. A bunch of Creators joined the second night.'
Suddenly, Adora's message resurfaced.
He hadn't paid it much mind at first.
The doppelganger emergence had overshadowed it.
...But were those participants ordinary Creators?
'New Creators with no prior interest in Earth.'
They'd summoned hordes of doppelgangers using vast coins.
And Aheta had permitted it.
In other words.
High-ranking Creators—ones Aheta would even listen to—had started taking interest in this 'second night'.
And they were likely Creators who hadn't cared about Earth before.
Newfound interest.
Interest deep enough to invest heavily.
There must have been a trigger worthy of their attention.
'...Did conquering the Tower of Arrogance set it off?'
Probably conquering 'Arrogance'.
Word of that must have spread through the Abyss's core.
They were curious how a human—with talent worse than trash—had achieved what even the Twelve Races couldn't.
Maybe humans had some hidden talent they didn't know about!
So they were using doppelgangers to copy every human talent and piece of info.
'They're hunting for new possibilities from the human who conquered Arrogance. More precisely, they're after me.'
He nodded.
The scale was too grand for mere 'second night' antics.
His actions had stirred powerful Creators not in the original plan.
An unprecedented phenomenon.
'Things are getting interesting.'
Far from upset, Park Chan-woo welcomed the situation.
High-ranking Creators taking interest in Earth was hugely positive.
Especially before the Racial War kicked off.
'The demons are seeking a counter to the Twelve Races.'
The Abyss demons didn't touch the Twelve Races.
Nor did the Twelve Races touch the Abyss.
Both sides were too powerful—clashing would open the path to mutual destruction.
'If I can just show the possibility of humans ranking high in the Racial War... the demons won't hold back investment in Earth.'
Demons and Twelve Races.
Instead of all-out war, they'd chosen the 'Racial War'.
Entertainment for peace, you could call it.
The Racial War was like a giant colosseum.
Showing off prowess while enforcing contrived peace.
New races got entry rights too.
'But no race surpassing the Twelve has appeared in ages.'
The Twelve Races were overwhelmingly strong.
New races posed no threat.
They just toyed with them and turned them into slaves.
Humanity too—vast populations had vanished as their slaves.
Every Racial War, humans placed dead last, with 5% of survivors selected as slaves.
The first Racial War alone claimed 120 million as slaves.
Ten million each to the Twelve Races.
No one knew what became of those enslaved humans.
But they were surely turned into 'test subjects' and such, dying in the process.
'Sometimes other new races joined the Racial War, but humans always came last.'
Humans were the weakest.
Why would demons care?
As interest in Earth waned, Creation Abysses dwindled.
Fewer Creation Abysses meant humans couldn't grow stronger.
A vicious cycle.
Creators were an evil that had to be eradicated eventually—but they could be used for now.
High Creators showing interest in humanity at this juncture was a good sign.
'Then I need to show humanity's potential even more spectacularly.'
Ten million Contribution Points had been the goal.
He revised it.
'100 million. Or more.'
Time to truly threaten Aheta.
He'd planned to go easy, but now he'd devour it all.
To do that.
'Monopoly.'
Total, uncompromising monopoly was essential.
Park Chan-woo moved at once.
'Heavenly Punishment.'
Kwarrr rumble!
Heavenly Punishment rained from the sky.
And then.
'Magic Critical Hit (32%)' triggered!
'Double Casting (25%)' - Heavenly Punishment strikes twice.