Chapter 168
Chapter 168
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 168
Chapter Title: A Sudden Time Attack
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Plenitas, the second daughter of the Graves family, had joined Sprinter at Lee Si-woo's request.
It was to secure information related to the base city and nearby clubs.
Five days had passed since she joined the club.
Plenitas had no choice but to leave the Sprinter club.
It wasn't because she caused trouble or aroused suspicion.
The club had simply collapsed in five days.
“Hmm, so… the club went under. Is that it?”
Intimidated by Lee Si-woo's almost accusatory question, Plenitas nodded repeatedly.
“Yes. There was nothing I could do. All the club members, except for a few low-ranking ones, died.”
“Died? Did they go to war with another club or something?”
Plenitas hastily shook her head as if telling him not to even mention such a dreadful thing.
“No, it's not like that. Sprinter's main conquest zone was Chapter 3, you see?”
Main conquest zone.
This referred to the chapter where the elite members of major clubs were permanently stationed, and it was common knowledge in this world that a club's class was determined by the level of their conquest zone chapter.
“But… there was an accident in Chapter 3.”
“An accident? What kind?”
“…A bad ending occurred.”
“A bad ending…?”
“Game over. From what I heard, a secret chapter opened, the story changed, the difficulty skyrocketed… and the clubs couldn't handle it and were wiped out. After that, the NPCs died too, and the chapter city was sealed. It became a dead zone that no one can enter.”
Lee Si-woo was momentarily speechless at Plenitas's words.
A secret chapter opened? Even though he hadn't gone there?
Weren't secret chapters supposed to open only when he reached a chapter and pulled the trigger?
Just as he was thinking something was strange, a system message appeared before Lee Si-woo's eyes.
[An error has occurred in the system.]
[The system has determined that leaving things as they are will cause problems with the clean data. A time attack system will now be implemented.]
[From this moment on, if all chapters are not cleared and the ending is not reached within one month, a game over will occur, and Residuum will be shut down.]
‘What? What is this all of a sudden?’
As Lee Si-woo was bewildered by this bolt from the blue, Plenitas tilted her head and pointed out the window.
“By the way, Nameless. Isn't that... the person we saw before, Luctator?”
Following Plenitas's pointing finger, Lee Si-woo's gaze fell upon Luctator, who had been sucking on a lollipop from a street stall, now being abducted by thugs who had thrown a cloth over his head.
Lee Si-woo, ignoring the kidnapped Luctator as if he were a stranger, spoke in an indifferent voice.
“Yes. That's him.”
“…Wasn't he with you?”
“He is, but don't worry about it. As long as his opponents are human and not monsters, he's the type to survive even in the pits of hell. More importantly, the Chapter 3 game over. Could you tell me more about that?”
Grumbling about how he was still as inscrutable as he was a few days ago, Plenitas began to tell him everything she knew.
* * *
The master of the Arang Clan, Kei, spoke to his club members.
“What's the status of our request for support?”
“It's the worst. No one is willing to step up.”
Kei grabbed his bald, hairless head as if to tear it out and shouted.
“These sons of bitches! Don't they know they're next after us? If this continues, Chapter 4 will get a game over, and Chapter 5 will be in danger right after! Don't they get it?”
“That's why the higher-ranking clubs are even more reluctant to act. They've sensed they're the next target and intend to preserve their strength and prepare as much as possible.”
“Instead of doing that, they should just support our club and defend Chapter 4! Just like how the secret chapter in Chapter 4 opened only after Chapter 3, which was handled by Sprinter and other small to mid-sized clubs, fell! If they support us, their conquest zones will naturally be safe too!”
“I agree that's the logical course of action, but just as this disaster struck out of the blue... we don't know what other variables might appear in the future....”
As Wavie, the club's brain and his younger brother, continued with his negative comments, Kei, having lost his temper, smacked him on the back of the head.
*Thwack!* With a satisfyingly sharp sound, Wavie clutched the back of his head.
“You bastard! Whose side are you on anyway!”
“Agh... Of course, I'm on your side, brother—no, Master.”
“Then, you punk! Instead of spouting negative bullshit that anyone with a mouth can say, give me a solution! A solution!”
“If I had one, I would've said it already. Do you think I'd be spewing this crap?”
“Agh! I oughta just!”
“…Master, don't just get angry like that. Don't be so negative. The situation has worsened with the opening of the secret chapter, but it's not like there's no hope, is there? Unlike before, a Knight Order has appeared in our city. And that strangely knowledgeable wanderer has shown up too.”
“The wanderer... Right, there's him. That's right. Thanks to him, our club managed to survive this time. If it weren't for him, we would have never known those strange white monsters were weak to silver bullets.”
“So, please calm down for now. It would be best to slowly use the club's assets to hire mercenaries instead of reinforcements. For now, our club is also doing everything in its power to protect the 'Walled City,' the stage for Chapter 4.”
Somewhat calmed by Wavie's composed words, Kei nodded and sank into his chair.
Then, as if remembering something he had forgotten, he asked in a sullen voice.
“By the way, that kid, Luctator. You found him?”
“Yes. Shall I bring him?”
“Yeah, bring him here. I'm already in a foul mood, and I won't be satisfied until I break the ankles of that fearless little brat who wrecked our guys.”
Just as Kei was spouting off, ready to half-kill Luctator, a youthful voice came from the ceiling.
“There is no need for that. I have graciously come here for your sake.”
Kei looked up at the voice that came suddenly from the ceiling. There, that same annoying brat was hanging from the ceiling light, his feet hooked onto it.
“Huh? Why are you up there…?”
“Why, you ask? I heard you were looking for me, so I beat up all your lackeys and came to find you.”
Luctator pointed his index finger at Kei with a sinister smile.
Feeling a strong sense of unease from the gesture, Kei retreated like a wary cat, his eyes sharp.
However, strangely, nothing happened.
Luctator, who had only pointed his finger as if it were a mere bluff, spoke.
“Well then, I shall take my leave. Fare thee well. Ah, and you lot. You said you were in Chapter 4, yes? Then don't try too hard. Just wash your necks and wait there. I shall soon visit that place, bringing along one unlucky fellow.”
After Luctator vanished with those words, Kei grimaced like a thug who had stepped in dog shit and spoke.
“Wavie. How many of our guys were in the club right now?”
In response to Kei's question, which implied a rebuke for how many men couldn't stop one little kid, Wavie licked his lips and said.
“The elites are in the conquest zone, so there aren't many capable guys here, but there are still easily over twenty.”
“The suits? They all had them, right?”
“Yes. They did, but... hold on. Let me check the situation.”
After a brief communication with the head of security via radio, Wavie continued with a grim expression.
“They said all the club members were hit in their vitals by strange iron nails before they could even put on their suits, rendering them combat-ineffective. That kid... he's no pushover.”
“I knew he was no pushover when our members got their asses handed to them by him before. Tsk, that's why I was going to kidnap him and threaten him into joining our club... We got royally screwed.”
“But just now, that kid made a strange gesture at you, Master. Are you hurt anywhere, or is there anything unusual?”
“Nothing particularly strange... wait a minute.”
Kei, who was about to dismiss it, suddenly felt like he'd been robbed blind and checked his inventory.
And then, he shrieked in a high-pitched voice.
“Damn it! It's gone!”
“Huh? Gone? What is?”
“What do you mean, what, you fucker! My sub suit! My sub suit is gone!”
His sub suit, the one carefully stored in his inventory.
And though it was called a 'sub'...
It was a precious suit boasting performance comparable to his main one, merely stored away because it wasn't a good match for him.
Kei, furious, roared.
“Find that damn brat right now! And you don't need to recruit that damn bastard, just wring his neck and get my suit back! Now—!”
* * *
In a cafe within the base city, Lee Si-woo, having heard all the information he could from Plenitas, rested his chin on his hand and organized his thoughts.
‘Secret chapters have started opening without my intervention. But... this raises a question. If chapters open without me, can they be cleared without me? And if so, how will that affect my future actions and position?’
However, Lee Si-woo soon dismissed the question that had popped into his mind.
In fact, it wouldn't be so bad if someone else cleared the secret chapters for him.
Recalling the hardships of Chapter 2, clearing a secret chapter was no easy task, and having someone else do it was a huge "thank you" from Lee Si-woo's perspective.
But Lee Si-woo wasn't the type to entrust his life to others or to ride on variables with unknown outcomes.
‘I have to solve this myself. Chapter 3 is already lost, and if I react complacently to a situation where the aftermath's effect on the story is unknown, I might end up in an irreversible mess... Wait, is that…?’
Deep in thought, Lee Si-woo spotted a man passing by the window and instinctively ducked.
Like a private investigator spying on an affair, Lee Si-woo kept his head down and watched the outside, his eyes twitching.
‘Is that… Adrian?’
The man in his thirties with the familiar red hair and eyebrows, Adrian, was strolling leisurely down the street outside the window.
He would occasionally stop to talk to complete strangers on the street, and every one of those moments was filled with an unparalleled vitality.
As if he were a terminally ill patient who had recovered his health and just stepped out onto the street.
‘How? How in the world… did he survive?’
But something was strange.
The more he looked, from head to toe...
His appearance, expression, the look in his eyes.
Everything about him seemed completely different from the Adrian he knew.
It was as if the shell was the same, but the core had been replaced with something else.
While Lee Si-woo was lost in thought about Adrian, as if being sucked into a vortex, Luctator came running up frantically, swinging his arms and legs, and shouted.
“Now! We must go to Chapter 4 now!”
Snapped out of his daze by Luctator's sudden appearance, as if he had never been kidnapped, Lee Si-woo asked in a bewildered tone.
“What? Elder? What are you talking about?”
“I told you before, didn't I? About that club, Arang or whatever, that was causing trouble.”
“Yes, you did.”
“I used 'Plunder' on their boss just for fun. But... I ended up taking something pretty good. Now those guys are chasing me. All of them, wearing suits and carrying personal firearms!”
Plenitas, who had been lying face down on the cafe table, dazed and exhausted from dealing with Lee Si-woo, suddenly lifted her head and spoke.
“Arang? The Arang from Chapter 4? You're being chased by them?”
“Do you know about them?”
“Of course I do! Nameless. You told me to gather information! More importantly, if they're chasing you, you need to move fast. They have countless explosives like grenades. Plus, they're bad news, willing to go all out at a moment's notice!”
Realizing from Plenitas's words that the situation was turning unfavorable, Lee Si-woo immediately stood up.
His thoughts suddenly turning to Adrian, Lee Si-woo glanced back out the window, but he had already disappeared from the street.
His mind a complicated mess, Lee Si-woo bit his lower lip.
The return of Adrian, whom he thought was dead, and the sudden implementation of the time attack system both weighed on his mind, but the first thing he had to focus on and resolve was the immediate crisis.
“Elder. Let's go. I originally planned to prepare a little more before heading out... but we have to leave right now. To the stage of Chapter 4, the Walled City.”