The God of Controls' One-Coin Clear - Street of Murder (2)

The three beastmen who had been striding through the dawn-lit streets like kings suddenly stopped at the appearance of the system window.

They were a wolf beastman, a tiger beastman, and a fox beastman.

The fox beastman was a graceful, feminine figure.

She spoke first.

“A new player, huh.”

The wolf beastman, built like a rugged warrior, replied.

“Should we go after him first? Or farm first?”

The fox beastman shrugged.

“Isn’t it easier to hunt them before they’ve farmed anything? What do you think?”

The tiger beastman shook his head. He was the largest of the three.

In a low, serious voice, he said, “We farm. If we find him, we kill him. If not, we chase him down later. He might not even be our target. It’s a waste of time.”

“What if he gets too strong for us to handle?”

At the fox beastman’s words, the tiger beastman let out a small snort of laughter.

“Was that a joke? It was kind of funny.”

The wolf beastman wrapped things up.

“Still, let’s move fast. This is the easiest time to weed out the hiding bugs. We’ll snag one while we’re farming and pull the rest out in a chain.”

The wolf beastman sniffed the air, then grinned viciously.

The frantic scent of prey was drifting in from every direction.

Taeyang stood facing off against the tattoo-covered man.

Hyeonhye, watching the screen, bit her lip.

This is bad.

In the Street of Murder, starting a fight without farming first was never a good idea.

Every time a new player entered, supplies reset in every building.

Especially in the early phase of a stage, securing supplies was far more important than fighting.

Recovery potions, bandages, and various pieces of equipment.

While they were busy fighting, other players could easily sweep up the best items.

I don’t care about the gear, but we absolutely need the doping items.

Doping items.

These were buffs that only applied inside the Street of Murder stage.

There were many different kinds.

Potions that temporarily boosted physical stats like agility or strength.

Elixirs that turned skin as hard as stone.

Even sacred medicines that transformed blood into poison.

Doping items were the most critical factor in the Street of Murder stage.

Finally, Hyeonhye couldn’t stay silent any longer.

“Back off? After I already took a hit?”

“Can’t I just fight him? Kill him and take his gear.”

“Well…”

Even though Taeyang had achieved explosive growth in output after gaining mana perception, doping was still a variable he couldn’t ignore.

There was no telling what unknown abilities might pop out.

Taeyang couldn’t find any room to argue with Hyeonhye’s point.

After hesitating, he finally whipped his head around.

At that moment, the tattooed man called out from the other side.

“Hey! Let’s not make this harder than it has to be. Fighting each other is a loss for both of us, right? Sorry about the spear. You suddenly popped out so I threw it on reflex.”

After all, it was blue light. If it wasn’t his target, killing them wouldn’t raise his counter anyway.

Taeyang scratched the back of his neck irritably.

The fact that he’d been attacked first had soured his mood.

“Get lost. I’ll let it slide this time.”

Taeyang turned and entered the half-destroyed building.

Then the tattooed man called out to Taeyang again.

“Hey. Over there…”

“What?”

Taeyang turned back sharply.

“Ah, never mind.”

The tattooed man scratched his head awkwardly.

Since he had just crossed blows with Taeyang, he naturally assumed the guy had been in the stage for quite a while.

The destructive power to blow an entire building wall away.

By the tattooed man’s standards, that was impossible without doping.

The tattooed man wrinkled his nose.

“Damn, that’s a shame.”

A target that soft wasn’t common.

But chasing ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠after him and risking conflict felt too burdensome.

“Guess I’ll have to let it go.”

It was a shame to release prey he had basically caught, but not as much as his own life.

Must’ve found some amazing elixir somewhere. Tsk. Lucky bastard.

After confirming the man had left, Taeyang began searching the building.

“No doping items in sight.”

In the worst cases, you could search an entire building and still come up empty.

Soon, a glint appeared in Taeyang’s eyes as he searched.

“Hyeonhye, this…”

Hyeonhye noticed it immediately too.

Taeyang killed his presence.

His mind spun rapidly.

Signs of a search. → Someone is inside the building. → They didn’t attack Taeyang even though he was moving openly. → Someone is hiding their presence as much as possible and moving secretly!

And the surrounding situation.

There were signs that equipment had been touched, but none ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠taken.

Not a single recovery item like bandages or potions was visible.

In other words, whoever was inside the building was likely injured, and most likely a ‘blue light’ player being chased by someone (probably the tattooed man).

Clatter.

A tiny noise that he would have ignored just moments ago.

Taeyang shot toward the sound like lightning.

Boom!

“Found you.”

“Ah, haha. Hello?”

Yurik, who had been hiding inside the building, smiled awkwardly.

Giving up on running is the only option. My ankle is in no condition to sprint.

Yurik examined his ankle.

It was completely swollen.

Just touching it sent a sharp jolt of pain.

Moreover, Yurik had clearly witnessed Taeyang smashing through the wall.

Yurik decided to make the first move before Taeyang could act.

“U-um, excuse me!”

“Yeah?”

“I’ll give you all my equipment and elixirs. Just please spare my life.”

“Oh? You have elixirs?”

Elixirs couldn’t be stacked.

That’s why relatively common ones were often stored instead of used immediately.

They could be traded with other players.

Taeyang pondered.

In truth, the equipment and elixirs Yurik was offering could be obtained just by killing him.

“The elixirs you already consumed don’t drop when you die, right?”

It couldn’t be helped.

If corpses dropped the elixirs they had consumed, the Street of Murder stage would have turned into a hellscape of rampaging monsters.

I guess I’ll keep him alive for now.

There wasn’t much benefit to killing him.

Blue light appeared differently to each player.

For example, to the tattooed man, Yurik appeared as blue light, but to Taeyang he showed no color at all.

Yurik was a blue-light player, but not Taeyang’s target.

In other words, killing Yurik wouldn’t raise his kill counter.

And most importantly, there was something Taeyang wanted from Yurik.

The current player relationship chart.

The Street of Murder was a stage where the player count stayed constant—one player graduated, one new player entered, in a continuous cycle.

Taeyang needed to understand exactly how the stage was currently operating.

He had to decide on his playstyle.

If a large group of early players had formed an alliance and were collectively hunting the minority, he would need to hide his presence as much as possible, farm slowly and safely.

On the other hand, if a small number of powerful players were running wild, it would be more efficient to hide his presence but move relatively quickly while farming.

And though the possibility was low, if players of similar strength were fighting each other indiscriminately—

That would be the best-case scenario.

In that situation, simply farming openly would likely result in recruitment offers coming to Taeyang.

He would be able to grow comfortably while testing the waters.

“Ah, you want the general faction information too, right? The current situation is…”

As expected of a mage, Yurik was quite sharp.

His explanation was well-organized, allowing Taeyang to infer the current state of the Street of Murder stage.

Taeyang clicked his tongue.

To summarize, the current situation was that a small group of powerful players had formed an alliance and were hunting the rest.

“How many?”

“Three? Yeah, probably three. They started with four, but lately I only see three. One of them must have graduated.”

“Any chance they recruited someone else?”

“No. Those guys have zero interest in talking to us.”

At Yurik’s words, Taeyang tilted his head.

Hyeonhye found it strange as well.

“Those guys. They’re beastmen.”

Beastmen.

A superior race possessing both animal traits and human intelligence.

Even in the fantasy dimension of Eden, they were a special race that existed in extremely small numbers.

The reason there are so few is pretty tragic, though.

They looked similar to humans but had distinctly different ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠appearances.

Their civilization was also far behind.

It was the perfect environment for discrimination.

Eden’s civilization was only at a medieval level, so slavery was naturally present. Slave traders hunted beastmen like crazy.

To survive, the beastmen rejected humans and honed their martial arts to the extreme.

A race already suited for combat throwing themselves into martial arts with desperate fervor—the result was obvious.

If you hear rumors of a beastman who isn’t a slave, leave the area immediately.

It was a proverb in Eden.

“And those guys have already stacked every kind of doping possible.”

“Still, only three of them is lucky. At least we can buy some minimum time.”

The Street of Murder was a massive stage that used an entire city.

If they were lucky, they might graduate without ever running into them.

Right. He’d almost forgotten.

“Hey! Hand over the items.”

“Of course.”

Yurik quickly handed over his pouch.

Taeyang immediately opened it.