Chapter 91
Chapter 91
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 91
Chapter Title: Calling in the Knights
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“Focus!”
“!??!?!”
An enemy, chiding them for their mistake!
Naturally, the members of the Black Tiger Guild were dumbfounded.
‘Is he insane?’
The difference in numbers was already overwhelming.
The difference in skill, too—though something felt off—seemed to be overwhelmingly in their favor based on what they were seeing.
He should be begging for his life right now if he wanted even a slim chance of survival. What on earth was he relying on to be so bold?
“……”
A strange unease and doubt filled the guild members, but that didn't change what they had to do.
After all, he was the one who had killed their guildmates.
For the honor of their guild and to avenge their comrades, they had to kill him, no matter what.
“Ignore what he says!”
“Attack!”
The Black Tiger Guild members charged toward Lee Shin.
It was then that Lee Shin’s demeanor changed.
‘I’ve taken enough damage.’
His health was around 30%.
There was no need to take any more hits.
Lee Shin lifted his head.
Attacks flew at him from all directions.
It looked as though there was no room to escape, but…
*Clang! Clang!*
“What!”
“He blocked it!? No…!”
Lee Shin casually swung his dagger a couple of times, deflecting their attacks to create an opening.
Simultaneously, he threw himself into the sliver of an opening that appeared.
Diving through dozens, hundreds of blades and spells, Lee Shin's actions seemed not just brave, but reckless.
In fact, most of the Black Tiger Guild members thought he would die right then and there.
But Lee Shin possessed the physical prowess and skill to actually succeed in such a reckless endeavor.
He calmly tracked the trajectory of every attack with his eyes and dodged them all.
[The attack misses.]
[The attack misses.]
[The magic misses.]
[The magic…]
[…All attacks have missed!]
A breathtaking tightrope walk!
“!??!”
“…Wh-what!”
The Black Tiger Guild members were horrified.
Some users even suspected it was a bug.
It was that hard to believe, even seeing it with their own eyes.
‘Why isn't it hitting him!’
‘What just happened?’
It looked like he just swayed his body here and there, and yet, every single attack missed.
It happened in such a fleeting moment that it almost looked as if the attacks had passed right through his body.
It was an optical illusion, of course, but an inevitable one, born from the fact that not a single member of the Black Tiger Guild was skilled enough to properly follow Lee Shin’s movements.
*Murmur, murmur.*
The guild members were in chaos.
A member of the guild’s leadership shouted.
“…Everyone, snap out of it! Don’t panic! He only dodged once! We still have the upper hand!”
“……!”
The speaker himself couldn't hide his own bewilderment, but his encouragement helped the guild members regain their composure.
They had been momentarily overwhelmed by the incredible feat he had shown, but as the leader said, the difference in their forces remained.
“Attack! ……Huh?”
But whether they regained their composure or not made little difference to the tide of battle.
Having achieved his goal, Lee Shin had no intention of fighting any longer.
Using the second dash of his Rush skill, Lee Shin broke free from their attack range and, without hesitation, turned his back on them.
‘Escape!’
And then he vanished like the wind.
A swift movement that left them with no thought of pursuit!
He was so different from moments ago that they wondered if he was even the same person.
“????”
“?”
The Black Tiger Guild members, who had been steeling their resolve, could only freeze and stare blankly at Lee Shin’s retreating back, caught off guard by his sudden escape.
“What was that…?”
* * *
After running for some time, Lee Shin glanced back and slowed his pace.
‘They’re not following.’
The enemy, stunned for various reasons, just stood there as if nailed to the spot, watching him go.
Turning his head forward again, Lee Shin checked his status window.
“Status window. Check health.”
[Current health is 27%.]
[Caution is advised.]
The system message warned him of his low health, but Lee Shin nodded in satisfaction.
‘This is about right.’
With his health this low, anyone could see he’d been severely beaten.
After regrouping with his party, Lee Shin made his way to the estate’s knight order.
“Why there?”
“You have to use the resources you have.”
“……?”
“You’ll see.”
As he entered the knights’ training facility, a few of them approached.
“Who goes there!”
“I’d like to see the captain.”
“What? What do you mean… hmm?”
The knight frowned at the unknown user asking to see the captain, but his eyes widened when Lee Shin presented a guarantee token.
As a knight of the estate, there was no way he wouldn't recognize the token engraved with the crest of House Aaron.
“P-Please wait a moment.”
“Mm.”
The flustered knight quickly disappeared into the training grounds.
Before long, the knight captain came rushing out.
He ran over so quickly, all semblance of a captain's dignity gone, that ‘scurrying’ seemed the only fitting word.
Standing before Lee Shin, the captain asked respectfully.
“*Pant, pant*, you wished to see me….”
“Yes.”
“What can I do for you?”
A knight captain NPC speaking formally to a mere user. It was a rare sight.
But the situation was a bit different now; the captain had been present when Lee Shin first met the Count.
He didn't know the exact details of their conversation, but he knew enough to understand they had a very close relationship.
Hadn't the Count even given him a guarantee token?
That was a sign of the Count’s immense trust.
The captain had no reason, nor need, to refuse such a person’s request.
“There’s something I’d like to ask of you. Is that alright?”
“If it is within our power, then of course, anything. What is it?”
“Actually…”
Lee Shin put on a grave expression as he answered.
His voice, now low and cautious, was a nice touch.
“The truth is, my life is being threatened.”
“…Pfft! *Cough!* *Gack!*”
The captain sputtered.
An answer he had never imagined!
Wiping his mouth, he asked Lee Shin with a bewildered look.
“…A threat of what?”
“A death threat.”
“Ah, now that you mention it…”
Having been summoned so suddenly, he hadn't noticed before, but now that he looked, Lee Shin’s body was covered in wounds.
Most of them were deep, sharp cuts and scorch marks, indicating they weren't from monsters.
It was more plausible that they were inflicted by people, specifically users (adventurers).
It was unlikely that the lord’s soldiers or knights would attack someone with a guarantee token, and the Aaron estate had excellent security, with almost no bandits or robbers.
The captain asked.
“Who did this?”
“I heard there was a dungeon, so I went to check it out, and they attacked me without any warning.”
“Ah……”
The captain nodded in understanding.
But he didn't seem inclined to get actively involved.
They hadn't directly harmed the estate, and since it was a matter between users, he judged it wasn't his place to intervene.
However, he couldn't just ignore an assault on a VVVIP with ties to the Count, so he offered a reasonable compromise.
“If you wish for protection, I can assign some of my men to you.”
“I’ll be fine, but…”
Of course, Lee Shin wasn't going to be satisfied with that.
He hinted subtly.
“Is that enough for you, Captain?”
“Pardon?”
“From what I saw, they were aiming for the lordship of this estate.”
“What? Surely not…”
The captain frowned as if it were nonsense, but what Lee Shin was saying wasn't entirely baseless.
Users could, in fact, become lords of an estate.
Either by clearing a national-level quest and being granted the title by the king, or by declaring an estate war and seizing it through battle.
The latter rarely happened due to the overwhelming power gap between user groups and high-ranking NPC factions, but…
It wasn't completely out of the question.
Lee Shin continued, building on that point.
“It’s not a ‘surely not.’ I heard it with my own ears.”
“!!!”
“They were talking about things like the number of guards in the lord’s castle, and the locations and numbers of key facilities in the estate.”
Lee Shin then added extremely specific details.
Since this was information he had actually learned from his conversation with the Count, it was naturally very concrete.
The combination of Lee Shin’s well-honed art of persuasion and the specific information made the captain waver helplessly.
“Wait, so the reason they were controlling the dungeon was…”
“Probably to raise funds. Whether it’s hiring mercenaries or gathering users, they would need a lot of money.”
“Those…!”
[The skill, <Deceive>, is activated!]
[The knight captain is successfully deceived.]
‘Got him.’
The captain had finally fallen for it.
Lee Shin delivered the final blow.
“In the first place, think about why I would have been attacked.”
“…Don’t tell me they were trying to take you hostage?”
“What else could it be? They probably intended to capture me and pressure the Count. I was targeted because I am weak.”
Lee Shin said, feigning a look of frustration.
…Of course, the truth was that Lee Shin had killed three of the Black Tiger Guild members first, which was the decisive cause, but that detail was conveniently left out.
Lee Shin held out the guarantee token and exclaimed.
“They dare to covet the lordship of this estate! We must capture them. Please, summon your men at once.”
[You use the special skill, <Mobilize>!]
Mobilize
Allows you to mobilize NPCs of the estate. The number you can mobilize depends on the NPC’s rank.
• You can currently mobilize a total of 20 knights.
* * *
Lee Shin’s instigation had a tremendous effect.
The knight captain, who believed Lee Shin’s slander hook, line, and sinker, immediately summoned his forces. As soon as they were gathered, they swarmed toward the dungeon.
“Let’s go!”
“Arrest them all!”
Watching their retreating backs with a pleased smile, Lee Shin said.
“We should go too.”
“Why?”
“To watch.”
“……”
“No, wait, I shouldn’t just watch. Maybe I should record this too?”
It was about time to prepare the next video.
Arthur responded to Lee Shin’s muttering.
“Are you going to upload this as a video?”
“Why not?”
“There’s no reason not to. By the time the video is edited and uploaded, those people will all be in the estate’s prison anyway.”
“That’s not what I’m worried about.”
“……?”
What Lee Shin was worried about was the video's reception.
Because he was mobilizing the knights, his own screen time would be almost nonexistent…
He wondered if it would still get enough views.
But Arthur shook his head at Lee Shin’s concern.
“Oh, that’ll be fine.”
“Why?”
“The topic is provocative.”
The Black Tiger Guild was a group that controlled a dungeon by force and collected tolls.
What Lee Shin was doing now was trying to uproot and destroy such a guild.
In other words, it was about ‘putting them in their place.’
“Putting them in their place?”
“Yes. There’s a lot of content like that these days.”
The defining feature of this type of content was that it was extremely provocative.
As a result, it often walked a fine line, making viewers feel either a sense of catharsis or displeasure.
It was a double-edged sword.
But this case was different.
Most users had experienced something similar to Lee Shin with large guilds’ control, so it was safe to say almost no one would feel displeasure from the video.
In fact, because it would create a sense of shared experience, it might get an even better response than his previous videos, which lacked much of a narrative.
“I’ll record it.”
“Go ahead.”
After a short, leisurely walk, they could see a commotion in the distance.
“Get them!”
“Ugh!? Wh-what is this!”
“Why are the knights suddenly…?!”
‘They’re doing a good job.’
The Black Tiger Guild members were being beaten by the enraged knights, completely clueless as to why.
Lee Shin silently watched the scene unfold, and when it was over, he approached the captain.
The captain said.
“We’ve captured them all. Would you like to check on them now?”
“No. For now, just lock them up, and don’t touch them until I’ve had a chance to check on them first.”
“Understood.”