Chapter 180: The Seeker Who Heralds Ruin (8)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 180: The Seeker Who Heralds Ruin (8)
Just like how I, as a guild leader, had hidden the dungeon where the ‘Hundred-Year Evening Primrose’ was growing.
The leaders of other guilds each had a few dungeons of their own stashed away.
Why?
Because they’re useful in many ways.
Sometimes it’s to periodically harvest the valuable byproducts from monsters, other times it’s to hide assets from prying eyes, or even to use them for the guild’s benefit.
For their own various reasons, they deceive the Association and maintain private ownership of dungeons.
The interesting thing is that we guild leaders have a pretty good idea of where each other’s hidden dungeons are.
It’s not like we deliberately tail each other to find them. We’re rivals, and we have to move in response to each other’s actions, so that kind of information naturally gets mixed in with everything else we gather.
“This is a gold mine, a real jackpot.”
When the rate of the Seeker population decrease started to slow down, I hit a few of the unauthorized dungeons belonging to guild leaders I knew about. It turned out to be a pretty lucrative source of Seekers.
Over the past eight hours, the count had dropped by forty, and I had killed twenty of them myself.
And every single one of them came from the unauthorized dungeons of those damn guild leaders.
“Seriously, they could’ve been a bit more moderate with their stashes.”
These so-called esteemed guild leaders, fawned over by the nation, each had five or six dungeons hidden away.
At least in that regard, my conscience is clear.
I didn’t hide nearly as many as they did.
Besides, the one I had was just to grow a single flower to give to my wife, right?
I was even planning to report it to the Association as soon as I retrieved it.
Of course, that’s not my problem anymore.
After raiding all the dungeons I could remember, I’d finally hit a wall.
“There’s really none left…”
I was out of information. Even when I went to areas in different provinces where dungeons were clustered, no Seekers appeared on my map.
[Remaining Count: 28/300]
The number hadn’t changed in the last hour.
That meant it wasn’t just me; most people were unable to locate the remaining Seekers.
I reviewed the quest details that had been thrown at us so abruptly three days ago.
What did it say would happen if we failed to eliminate all the Seekers…?
[If you fail to eliminate the Seekers within the time limit, the probability of a disaster striking will increase.]
That phrasing is so damn vague.
It doesn’t say a disaster will strike, but that the probability of it striking will increase. What the hell is that supposed to mean?
Does that mean the probability just goes up, and it might not happen at all?
“This is really unsettling.”
What could it be?
The true nature of the disaster they mentioned.
Are they talking about common natural disasters like floods or earthquakes?
Or… does it mean some incident related to the dungeons?
The scene from that time flashed through my mind.
The horrific landscape of the ruined city I had wandered through after being transported in my sleep.
“Nah, it can’t be.”
I shook my head lightly to dispel the ominous thought.
The world wouldn’t end up like that just because we missed a few Seekers, right?
There were about two hours and thirty minutes left.
For now, let’s just keep moving and searching.
If it doesn’t work out… well, there’s nothing to be done about it.
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“Krrrk…!”
Thud!
As if it knew time was running out, one last, particularly frantic Seeker fell, and the given time was finally exhausted.
The fatigue is more intense than I expected.
I guess that’s natural, having cleared more than ten dungeons in a single day.
As I stretched, trying to shake off the exhaustion clinging to my body, a message window appeared.
[Time has expired.]
[To all participants, you have worked hard.]
[Settlement will begin shortly.]
A series of messages announcing the end scrolled down.
“…So it’s a failure.”
One thing was certain: we had failed to eliminate all the Seekers hiding in the dungeons.
“Twelve of them…”
A total of twelve Seekers had survived within the borders of South Korea.
Other countries were likely in the same boat, if not worse. I doubt any nation managed to block them off completely.
If we couldn’t even find them all in a country this small, how could larger nations possibly manage?
I exited the dungeon through the Safety Room.
“You’ve worked hard.”
Yoon Ji-an, who didn’t look much different from three days ago—though a closer look revealed dark circles under her eyes—greeted me with a forced smile.
“Is it… over now?”
It wasn’t my imagination… her question seemed tinged with desperation.
Even for an Awakened Being, driving and waiting for someone for three straight days couldn’t have been easy.
I immediately pulled her into a hug and patted her back.
“It’s over now. You really went through a lot.”
“Oh… no, not at all. You’re the one who truly worked hard, Do-jin. Although… I’m not sure why you suddenly went on such a grueling marathon.”
She’s a good person.
The fact that she silently followed a man on a forced march without knowing the reason shows just how loyal, discreet, and prudent she is.
Just as I’d expect from the office wife I picked out.
“Haaaah.”
I buried my face in the crook of her neck and took a deep breath.
“D-Do-jin…!”
I heard her flustered voice.
Was she worried about her body odor?
From my deep inhale, I could smell the faint scent of sweat.
“Ah, I haven’t washed, so I probably smell…”
I could feel her heartbeat, pressed against my chest, gradually quicken.
She didn’t need to worry so much.
“Don’t worry. You smell just right.”
Personally, I don’t dislike this kind of scent.
No, I’d say I actually prefer it.
How should I put it… you know those kinds of smells?
They’re not what you’d call pleasant, but they have a sharp, addictive quality.
Like that ‘cockaine’ thing, for instance.
It must be incredibly addictive for them to attach a drug’s name to a smell.
A woman’s body scent is similar.
Even in the same situation, the scent is subtly different, so you never get tired of it. It just feels like the addiction deepens.
Still in my arms, she fidgeted and asked.
“So now… where should I take you?”
A subtle hint of anticipation laced her question.
It seemed she’d been waiting for this very moment, holding onto my words from before to wait just twelve hours.
Betraying such trust would be a great sin.
“Should we go to the best hotel nearby? Or… a place that’s not as nice but we can get to the fastest?”
At my blunt question, her neck flushed red.
“…I’ll look for one.”
Yoon Ji-an, who had been keeping her head down, gently pushed me away with her arms and took out her smartphone.
“A nice hotel, and one that’s very close.”
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Swoooosh-
Lying down, I stared blankly at the ceiling, listening to the sound of water coming from the nearby shower.
“…She actually found one.”
Her determination was truly impressive.
I never thought she’d find a hotel that was not only decent but also so close.
She even booked it on the spot, all in one go.
Thanks to her, I could finally rest my weary body.
“I want to sleep.”
Lying here idly, the thought of sleep comes naturally.
If I put my mind to it, I could probably be out cold in three seconds.
But there’s one desire that surpasses my need for sleep.
“I want to get one off before I pass out.”
I’ve felt this for a while, but it seems the number one desire in my life is, without a doubt, my sex drive.
Even in this exhausted state, I want to blow a satisfying load with this sluggish body before I sleep.
Just sleeping now would feel… unsatisfying, like brushing my teeth but accidentally forgetting to brush my tongue.
As I savored the pleasant weariness and waited for her to come out of the shower…
[Settlement will now begin.]
“Oh.”
The settlement I’d briefly forgotten about while distracted by a woman had begun.
[Of the 10,800 Seekers that infiltrated Earth, you have successfully eliminated 9,982.]
[The probability of a disaster striking will increase according to the number of the 818 surviving Seekers.]
More of them had infiltrated than I thought, and more had been eliminated than I thought, too.
“818 of them…”
I don’t know if that means we caught a lot, or missed a lot.
I also have no idea what level the probability of disaster has risen to with 818 of them left.
“If you’re going to tell me, just tell me clearly, damn it.”
This way, even after hearing the results, I don’t know anything, which just makes me anxious.
[Individual settlement will now begin.]
[Participant No. 504, you have eliminated a total of 168 Seekers.]
I had traveled from Seoul all the way down to Busan and back up, visiting every place I could reach.
That was the number I’d earned through all that hard work.
There were 300 Seekers hiding in South Korea, and I took down more than half of them by myself. At this rate, I might be able to hope for a high rank.
[The ranking board will now be revealed.]
A massive message window, larger than any I’d seen before, appeared before my eyes.
Contained within the long window were the participants’ numbers and their ranks.
In that case, I just needed to scan down from the top.
[1st Place. Participant No. 1 (563 kills)]
“…Is that even possible?”
My spirit was crushed from the very start.
If first place had 563 kills, then how many did the rest of the top five get?
Let’s scroll down a bit more…
[2nd Place. Participant No. 2 (482 kills)]
[3rd Place. Participant No. 4 (319 kills)]
[4th Place. Participant No. 7 (225 kills)]
The gap between the ranks is quite large.
My broken spirit began to mend itself.
And finally.
[5th Place. Participant No. 504 (168 kills)]
At the very bottom of the top five, an incongruous three-digit number was sitting proudly.
“…It actually happened.”
I felt dazed.
Seeing the kill counts for 6th and 7th place made my heart clench.
[6th Place. Participant No. 11 (167 kills)]
[7th Place. Participant No. 18 (166 kills)]
It wasn’t just 6th and 7th place; all the ranks listed below me were like that.
The ranks were decided by a single kill.
“…I can only describe this as incredibly lucky.”
I’m not one to believe in luck, but I can’t help but think I was extremely fortunate this time.
That’s how dramatic it was when I found and eliminated that last Seeker.
As I was driving from one road to another, a single dot buried deep in the mountains saved me.
[A special reward will be granted to Participant No. 504 for achieving 5th place.]
[The reward is ‘what the participant needs most right now’.]
“What’s this now…”
What I need most right now?
…Nothing really comes to mind.
And who decides what I ‘need’ in the first place?
As one thought led to another…
[A large amount of Karma is granted as a reward.]
“Karma…?”
The bracelet on my wrist began to vibrate like crazy.
Simultaneously, something began to slowly fill the transparent bead.
A murky, gray, thick smoke.
The moment it filled about a third of the bead…
Another message window appeared.
[As your Karma has reached a certain level, your trait will be enhanced.]
[The trait ‘One with Aptitude’ has been enhanced to ‘Bearer of Karma’.]
[A physical change is about to occur.]
[Prepare for the pain!]
…Suddenly?
The moment I had that thought.
“Gah!”
The pain, like my entire body was being twisted and wrung out, made me black out for a moment.