Chapter 41
Chapter 41
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 41
Chapter Title: Great Thief Online
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The plan was simple.
Kang-seok and the Keyman Guild's forces would raid the secret gambling den located in the basement of a famous hotel in downtown Roselburg to retrieve the Tear of the Green God.
A frontal assault like this was prone to complications, but the Keyman Guild, pressed for time, had no other choice.
In front of the hotel that housed their destination, the gambling den.
A man with brown skin sat across from the group inside the carriage.
His build was average, and his face, aside from a slight look of fatigue, was unremarkable.
He was what you might call the Korean stereotype of a South American.
The man's name was Hunt. Just as Loxley had said, he was a Player.
“What are your respective roles?”
They had rushed here, exchanging nothing more than simple greetings.
Having this conversation now, less than an hour before the raid, was a bit absurd, but it was necessary.
Seong Yu-jin answered with a friendly smile.
“I’m the tanker.”
“Melee DPS.”
“Ranged DPS.”
Kang-seok and Choi Yu-ra answered in succession. Hunt looked at the three of them one by one, then tilted his head at Seong Yu-jin.
“A tan… ker?”
“Uh, yes?”
Seong Yu-jin was wearing a rather plain traveler's outfit instead of her conspicuous red officer's coat and hat. But no matter what she wore, she was still a slender, blonde beauty.
“No, it's just… hmm. I guess that's how JRPGs (Japanese role-playing games) are.”
Hunt, who seemed unfamiliar with ‘this kind’ of game, mumbled with an awkward expression and then cleared his throat. He tried to dispel the awkward atmosphere before continuing.
“I'm more of a support. I'm more skilled in other areas than direct combat. I suppose my role is to be your guide.”
“A guide?”
This time it was Choi Yu-ra. Hunt nodded.
“I've stayed in Roselburg ever since I cleared the tutorial. I've been to our destination, the gambling den, a few times as well. I also have a rough idea of who will be guarding the Tear of the Green God.”
It was a plausible story. It made sense to have a local guide for this kind of job.
But Kang-seok tilted his head for a moment.
“Wait a minute. You said you've only stayed in Roselburg?”
“Yes, that's right?”
This time, Hunt had the same expression Seong Yu-jin had earlier.
Seong Yu-jin, noticing what Kang-seok found strange, asked carefully.
“Um, then how did you get Kron…?”
Roselburg was a well-developed commercial city, and its security was naturally good. One had to travel at least a full day's distance to hunt monsters.
Hunt was just as quick on the uptake, and he answered immediately.
“Ah, I earned Kron mainly through quests rather than hunting. Fighting monsters isn't really my thing.”
As the group had already experienced, it was possible to earn Kron through minor quests. After all, the task they were on right now was a quest.
‘Was his game not combat-related?’
But based on their experiences so far, the idea of earning enough Kron solely through non-combat quests didn't quite sit right.
Had this man named Hunt come from some quest-based adventure game?
‘I want to just ask.’
The question 'What game are you from?', which he used to ask so casually, somehow wouldn't come out. Hunt, for his part, didn't ask about their home games either.
“Anyway, please think of me as the guide for your party. We don't have much time, so I'll start explaining the job.”
The warriors of the Keyman Guild were waiting in another carriage. There was very little time left before the raid.
“Loxley seems to have been careful with his words, but I don't care, so I'll just be blunt.”
Hunt spread out a piece of paper with a faint smile, as if enjoying the situation itself. It was a blueprint of the hotel basement, the battlefield for this quest.
“The Richmond Guild is behind this. The actual perpetrators are the Kernel Family, one of Roselburg's criminal organizations. They're a typical crime syndicate that deals in gambling, prostitution, drugs, and that sort of thing. They're also one of the three thieves' guilds in this city, and they've been minions of the Richmond Guild for a long time.”
“There are three thieves' guilds? In one city?”
Hunt grinned at Seong Yu-jin's question.
“When there are a lot of people and a lot of money changing hands, a city naturally gets rough. Anyway, it's highly likely that the Richmond Guild and the Kernel Family don't know that the Keyman Guild knows the whereabouts of the Tear of the Green God. That's why they're still sticking around in the city two days after stealing it. In any case, this is an opportunity for us.”
With quick hands, Hunt wrote various details on the blueprint.
“The plan is aggressive yet simple. We storm the deepest part of the gambling den, grab Kernel while he's sitting with gorgeous women on his arms, and retrieve the Tear of the Green God.”
Hunt finished, pointing to a large room in the deepest part of the building.
His expression seemed to say, 'A pretty clean plan, isn't it?'
However, the expressions on Choi Yu-ra and Seong Yu-jin's faces were not pleased as they looked back and forth between the blueprint and Hunt.
Hunt cleared his throat again.
“Ahem, don't look at me like that. I know it's a completely insane plan, but it just goes to show how little time the Keyman Guild has. The enemy won't be expecting this kind of attack, either. And… seeing as the cautious Mr. Loxley came up with this crazy plan, he must have a lot of faith in your combat abilities.”
A frontal assault that could be described as brutish.
Of course, if one had enough power, there was no simpler method.
Kang-seok licked his lower lip for the first time in a while and asked.
“Do you know the Kernel Family's combat strength? Any particular figures we should watch out for?”
Hunt smiled faintly again. He tapped the blueprint with his fingertip and said.
“That's the most important part. The one you all need to be especially careful of is a man named Victor. His nickname is 'Kernel's Mad Dog,' and he's not to be underestimated.”
* * *
The sight of a bald giant, a good two heads taller than anyone else, being sent flying more than ten meters by a single kick before collapsing and foaming at the mouth, was truly surreal.
Kang-seok, who had kicked Victor away the moment they burst in, awkwardly lowered his foot. Everyone in the gambling den stared blankly back and forth between Kang-seok and Victor.
While Choi Yu-ra was the only one laughing cheerfully, Hunt let out a violent cough.
“I seem to have misjudged Mr. Loxley. This is an extremely efficient and sound plan.”
This was the same group that had literally slaughtered dozens of Rat Scavengers. An ordinary person who was merely strong stood no chance against them now. As Kang-seok himself had realized, Players were 'superhumans.'
“Uh, shall we continue?”
Seong Yu-jin, holding Almas in its scabbard to avoid unnecessary killing, gave a slightly foolish laugh, and Hunt nodded.
* * *
“Aaaargh!”
“Uwoooaargh!”
“Kyaaaaaaah!”
Amid the loud screams, the group advanced swiftly toward their destination, Kernel's room. Many tried to block their path, but they were no match for Kang-seok and Seong Yu-jin.
Even the warriors provided by the Keyman Guild could only trail behind the group with dumbfounded expressions.
“This is so different from what I imagined.”
“It's all for the best, right? Better than struggling.”
While Kang-seok and Choi Yu-ra chatted in a hallway littered with syndicate members in black suits, Hunt unlocked Kernel's tightly shut door. As if on cue, Seong Yu-jin kicked the door hard.
But what greeted them was not the expected syndicate boss, but half-naked women.
“He escaped to the rooftop!”
The moment they saw Hunt's face, the women shouted in unison, pointing to a secret passage. It was so immediate that one might suspect it was a trap.
Instead of interrogating the women, Kang-seok quickly ran toward the secret passage gaping in the wall. He could see several men frantically climbing a ladder that led straight to the roof.
It was absurd that the secret passage led to the rooftop of all places, and that it was a ladder, but this was no time to question it.
“I'm going ahead!”
Kang-seok leaped high from a standing start and kicked off the walls repeatedly. He shot up two stories in an instant and then began climbing the ladder with terrifying speed.
According to the blueprint, the hotel's top floor was the eighth floor.
After climbing to about the sixth floor, Kang-seok launched himself into the air. Combining an air dash and wall kicks, he reached the eighth floor and kicked down the secret door the men had escaped through.
The cold night air welcomed Kang-seok.
Kang-seok twisted his body to dodge a wooden plank swung down at his head, his eyes darting around.
He struck the jaw of the man in the black suit who had lost his balance from swinging the plank through empty air, knocking him down, then kicked down another man who was looking for an opening.
Catching his breath, Kang-seok quickly surveyed his surroundings.
On the rooftop, illuminated by the bright moonlight, were several small, roofed boats. And in the sky, a 'sailing ship' several times larger cut through the moonlight.
“Huh?”
Kang-seok let out a dazed sound without realizing it and blinked. Soon, Choi Yu-ra's voice came from behind him.
“An, an airship?”
She was panting heavily, exhausted from the climb, but that wasn't what was important.
An airship.
A ship that flies in the sky.
The reason the secret passage led to the rooftop and nowhere else!
It had just taken off, so its altitude was still low, but it was still well over thirty meters above the rooftop. Not even Kang-seok could jump that high.
[Kernel, who has the Tear of the Green God, is escaping on a medium-sized airship.]
“Hey, I have eyes, you know! Don't tell me you're Iris, just without the voice?”
Choi Yu-ra cursed at the text of light that seemed to be rubbing salt in the wound. Seong Yu-jin stood next to Kang-seok and pointed at the small boats nearby.
“Those look like airships, too, right?”
He understood what Seong Yu-jin was getting at. But having never seen an airship before, there was no way he could pilot one.
Moreover, even if he could pilot it, it was questionable whether it would even move.
It might need a key, like a car in the real world.
“Tsk, can't be helped.”
The voice came from behind them again.
Hunt, who had barely managed to climb to the rooftop, looked at the airship in the sky with an exhausted face and slumped his shoulders.
Instead of joining Kang-seok's group, who were stamping their feet in frustration, Hunt approached the nearest small airship.
Hunt had stayed in Roselburg ever since clearing the tutorial, but even he had never ridden an airship.
But despite that, Hunt opened the locked door with startling ease and stepped inside. He grabbed the controls and shouted the 'skill activation phrase'.
“This airship is mine now. I can do whatever I want with it.”
“Huh, Mr. Hunt?”
As Seong Yu-jin watched in bewilderment, the small airship lifted slightly. At the sight, which looked like it was hovering, Choi Yu-ra clapped her hands and shouted.
“Great Thief Online!”
The sandbox-style, full-fledged crime simulation game where you become an outlaw, steal cars, rob banks, and fight the police—a game good kids should never play!
[Party member Hunt (Male) has hijacked a small airship.]
[Fortunately, there are no police or airship owners nearby.]
No more words were needed. Kang-seok, Seong Yu-jin, and Choi Yu-ra laughed cheerfully and hurried aboard the small airship. Hunt pulled the controls, following the piloting method that had just appeared in his mind.
“Here we go.”
A medium airship and a small airship.
The moonlit chase had begun.