Chapter 97
Chapter 97
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 97
Chapter Title: Heresy Rumors and Yoruka's Stench
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“Ah, why! You promised to tell me about the Ice Archipelago! I even sent you all the footage from the vision!”
Im Seojun shouted at his older sister, Im Heejung.
“The really important part is missing, though. I told you—head straight back to Torn Bach. But you didn’t.”
“W-Well……”
“You logged in too late, and the whole situation was already over. Now no one knows how that black dragon was defeated.”
“Ugh……”
They aired two special broadcasts off the video I sent... and the views are through the roof. So unfair...
Im Seojun pouted, his lips sticking out.
“Still, thanks to me, we got a shot of that guy’s face. The broadcast had it mosaicked, so we’re probably the only ones who know what he looks like.”
“What do you mean ‘we’? I heard some folks from the wiped raid saw him too.”
“H-Haha……”
He scratched his head sheepishly.
“Well, at least it all wrapped up nicely. You found the Immortal’s Stake and made it back to the Third Papal See, right?”
“Yeah. This mess might reopen the Round Table that just wrapped up not long ago.”
“The clan leaders are gonna have their heads split open. All the big-name clans sat on their hands, and some total noob nobody’s ever seen turns out to be the hero.”
“Exactly. Things are gonna get noisy because of it. Some clans are friendly about it, but honestly, more are against him.”
Im Heejung nodded at her brother’s words.
“Looks like he was pretty aggressive with the raid teams. They all wiped in the end while he survived alone... They’ve got no room to complain.”
“What about you guys?”
“We’re leaning positive. We got the Immortal’s Stake thanks to him, after all.”
“But is it true? That Zion Müllenga was in league with demons.”
Even though it was just the two of them, she lowered her voice as if someone might overhear.
“Not sure yet. He seemed to use demonic power... but they say Bolton Kingdom’s launching an official investigation.”
“Demons, on top of a black dragon... Years in, and this world’s still full of mysteries.”
“We’ve barely cleared the 10th floor of the Labyrinth Tower, after all.”
“Phoenix Unit must’ve taken a hit to their rep too. The number one raid team stayed silent.”
Im Seojun nodded in agreement.
“Well... They’ve always been Labyrinth Tower specialists, so they don’t care much about mainland drama……”
The black dragon’s emergence had been a real crisis.
The community had posts slamming Keruga for looking the other way, but plenty defended him too, saying you can’t force it.
“Some on our side are even pushing to fill Sir Sharl’s vacancy with that guy.”
“Whoa... Seriously?”
“His Holiness is pretty curious about him.”
Im Heejung’s eyes sparkled at his words.
Pope John VII.
He was an unpredictable eccentric, to put it mildly.
A former inquisitor, he was a hardliner who rejected any church outside the Rasine Order.
Plenty of bad rumors swirled around him, but it was well-known that under Pope John VII, the Rasine Order had built the strongest knight order in its history.
In that context, losing most of the Glory Knights and the Holy King Knights...
The Pope’s fury had reached its peak.
“Ugh……”
Im Seojun pressed his temples, a headache blooming as he recalled being summoned and chewed out by the Pope.
Sigh... Getting scolded by NPCs just to play the game... So gross.
“The church hunting Torn Bach’s hero, huh... Sounds like some juicy stories are brewing.”
“Juicy? It’s giving me a headache.”
“Why?”
“The continent doesn’t have just the Rasine Order. If one church moves, the others do too.”
On the Central Continent, besides the Rasine Order, there were the Harden Order and Muha Order, devoted to the other two gods.
“No way... The Harden Order too?”
“Yep.”
Im Heejung’s face lit up in shock at his answer.
“Muha’s had pilgrims wandering around sometimes, but Harden’s been totally dormant.”
“Exactly. If the Pope’s thorn in the side, Harden Order, starts moving, there’s bound to be friction.”
“Whoa... Harden Order showing its face. How long’s it been?”
“You’d know better than me. Never happened once since I started Evil Tail.”
“Just once. Haven’t seen him since—he might’ve quit—but back in the day, a player as famous as Keruga.”
“……Pathfinder?”
She nodded at her brother’s guess.
“Right. Baal. He was a devotee of the Harden Order. You noobs wouldn’t know, but it was wild back then. The Holy Grail War—full-on war between the three orders.”
“Noob? I’m Priest ranking number one, you know.”
The war had over 7,000 combatants.
More than 2,000 players took part in the largest battle in Evil Tail history.
“Our ally Muha Order secretly teamed up with Rasine, pushing Harden to the brink of annihilation. A little more pressure, and Harden might’ve vanished from the continent.”
“And Baal stopped that?”
“Yeah. The two orders cornered Harden in Sudo Gorge. Turns out, it wasn’t them herding—Harden had lured them in.”
Im Seojun’s lips twitched.
The Sudo Gorge Massacre that ended the Holy Grail War.
A legendary battle.
Im Seojun had rewatched the archived footage countless times.
“Baal was one weird character. Insane quest clear speed, and his skills were anything but ordinary.”
All anyone knew was he was Ranger class.
But beyond basic daggers and bows, he wielded poisons, throwing weapons, even fist techniques.
“I know. He’d set poison traps all over the gorge. His poison took out 1,500 people.”
Terrifying lethality.
The gorge’s terrain helped, but it was beyond comprehension.
“Yeah. Weirdly, no one’s figured out what poison he used even now.”
Once Baal, etched in players’ minds differently from Keruga, vanished, so did the Harden Order.
“Maybe filling Baal’s shoes... But please, no Second Holy Grail War.”
“Yeah. That Pope hates heretics more than demons.”
He’d spare a demon before executing another church’s follower on the spot.
“Just hope it doesn’t spill into a kingdom war.”
Having lived through the Holy Grail War, Im Heejung knew full well—even in a game—the massive impact wars had on the continent.
“One kingdom got branded heretical during the Grail War and smashed flat.”
Players basing there suffered massively too.
It’s a game, but brutally realistic in some ways.
“The quiet Central Continent’s about to get loud.”
“You say that, but Sis, you look thrilled right now.”
“Of course! Nothing but Phoenix Unit grinding the Labyrinth Tower for ages—no real excitement.”
Why the Central Continent stagnated.
After the Holy Grail War three years ago, top players started playing it safe.
An unspoken rule: no risking lives, stick to territories, grab profits.
That birthed the top 10 clans and the Round Table.
“Two years of that. Just coasting, no change.”
Im Heejung spoke with clear dissatisfaction.
“Some clans like Ulld Alliance push quests... but progress is negligible.”
But that peace had shattered.
“Dragons appearing, elves showing up, demons too.”
Legendary beings from lore popping up all at once.
The official site listed them, but no one found them—folks thought it was placeholder text, no patch.
“All sparked by one guy crossing to the Central Continent. As an old-timer, it’s the moment I’ve waited for... but the clans won’t all welcome him.”
He was prime target for the top 10 clans.
“We’d love to recruit him if possible.”
“Uh... doubt a scrub outside Ranger top 1,000 can——Ow! Wooak!”
Im Seojun toppled onto the bed, hit by a flying pillow.
“Shut it, little bro. I leveled a skill a few days ago—now 998th.”
“Same difference... Kek!”
Im Heejung pressed the pillow over her fallen brother’s face and gleefully punched his side.
“Stop! Stop!!”
“Keep the useless chatter to a minimum from now on.”
“Ugh, then when are you ditching the alt, Sis?”
Ignoring her flailing brother, she stood up.
“Special broadcast tonight—gotta head out.”
“Special broadcast?”
“Phoenix Unit special. Keruga’s making some announcement. Might be late. Do the dishes and laundry properly. Got it?”
With that, she dashed out the door.
“Tch... Doesn’t even answer my questions.”
Left alone, Im Seojun could only smack the innocent pillow.
[Yoruka Village]
As they reached the village outskirts, Woojin raised a hand to halt the group.
-Stench...
Even before entering, an indescribable foul odor assaulted them.
Setsuna pinched her nose in distress.
“Probably... the smell from the mana mine excavators.”
Hiss——!! Ssshhh——!!
White steam billowed from the mine machines rumbling everywhere.
Woojin crouched low, surveying the village.
“Anyone living here would get sick just from the air.”
People were visible inside the village.
Yet, eerily, their faces held no vitality—like a city of the dead.
And as if to hide that fact, the portal was set up outside the village.
“This place wasn’t like this before……”
Even guide Karlan couldn’t hide his shock at the village’s state.
“Master, you see that?”
Peron pointed to a sign at the village entrance.
“Private property declaration. Explains the portal outside—keeps people from entering.”
Woojin looked where Peron indicated, and a red warning popped up.
“Guilty conscience means pulling stunts like this.”
What the hell were they doing inside?
Woojin scanned for infiltration routes through the acrid stench.
“Bro, over there!”
Everyone turned at Weden’s voice.
A miner staggered out of the mine, something heavy on his back.
Woojin nodded and tailed him.
Splash———!!!
The miner headed to a nearby clearing and dumped filth from his box.
“……Ugh.”
Even Woojin, who’d held it together so far, turned away this time.
Thud... Thud...
The miner, unfazed, staggered back into the village.
“Hold up a sec—I’ve got a question.”
Woojin grabbed him urgently before he entered.
“……?!”
At Woojin’s voice, the miner dropped his box in genuine shock, flailing wildly.
“Sorry. Didn’t mean to startle you.”
Seeing the man’s extreme reaction, Woojin figured calming him first was key.
“Just wanna ask something quick.”
“Uh... Uhhh...”
The man flailed his arms, mumbling something.
...What?
Woojin was baffled by the garbled speech.
“M-Muh... M-Muhmuh...”
Then the man opened his mouth wide, revealing the truth.
His tongue had been cut off.