Chapter 65: One-Man Army (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 65: One-Man Army (1)
Jinhyuk nodded in satisfaction.
"Thanks for sharing so much useful information. It really was a huge help."
He had obtained information that would be incredibly useful for setting up his plans.
His curiosity had also been satisfied to some extent.
"Then... can I go now?" Melena asked with a desperate look on her face.
"No."
"Y-you said you'd spare me... didn't you? You promised you'd let me go if I told you what I knew!"
"Don't worry. I'll keep my promise."
Now that she had proven her worth, he had no intention of killing her recklessly.
Why throw away such a useful pawn after just one use?
He could keep using her in the future.
"But, you have to make one promise."
"A promise?"
"Yes. A promise."
Not a verbal one, nor a pinky swear, but a real promise.
A vow engraved upon the soul was a promise in its truest sense.
[Lv.3 'Brand of the Flame Soul' has been activated!]
The tip of Jinhyuk's finger glowed brightly.
"This is a token of your absolute obedience to me from now on. If you try to backstab me or rebel, you'll wish you were dead. So make your decision carefully."
Die.
Or obey.
There were only two choices.
And Melena...
"I... don't want to die."
...chose survival.
* * *
The harsh first night passed.
Around the time the warm sunlight began to illuminate the campsite,
"Mmmph."
Jinhyuk stretched as he got up.
It was a refreshing morning.
He felt as if all his accumulated fatigue had completely vanished.
Everything last night had gone smoother than expected, and thanks to a hearty, nutritious meal, his condition was at its absolute peak.
At this rate, I won't have any issues even if I have to fight with everything I've got.
The final remaining boss raid would be a chaotic, frantic battle incomparable to anything he had faced so far.
It'll be closer to a war than a simple battle.
Jinhyuk calmly reviewed the overall blueprint of the raid in his mind.
Needless to say, not even the slightest mistake would be tolerated.
Therefore, Jinhyuk prepared for every single variable—complex situations, optimized movements, and even the unexpected factors that could shatter all his assumptions.
He had prepared for literally every possible scenario.
After a few minutes passed, Jinhyuk finally opened his closed eyes.
In his hand, he held the key he had obtained from the Thousand-Handed Avalokiteshvara.
Ah. Before summoning the boss, wait.
I almost forgot.
There was one thing he needed to do.
Jinhyuk activated the 'Broadcasting System'.
[Welcome to 'Channel Unknown'.]
[Please select your desired category.]
A list of various categories cascaded down.
What he needed right now was to write a 'Notice'.
[I will not be streaming the boss raid. I'll edit and upload a strategy video later, so only those who want to watch it should tune in.]
The short, two-line notice was updated.
I've already drawn enough attention with the first broadcast anyway, so there's no need to stream the boss fight live.
His goal was to build up views for his videos and raise awareness for the 'Unknown' channel, not to giggle and chat with viewers while leaving himself open to the boss.
Less than a minute after updating the notice, dozens of comments were posted.
It seemed quite a few people had been waiting with bated breath.
-IssueTeller: Wow, look at this notice. He said he'd stream, but now he's suddenly replacing it with a video? Talk about a buzzkill.
-Nutella Jjajang: And he's already taking it for granted that he'll succeed? What if he fails and dies? Why would he leave a notice like this?
-Twitch Viewer Outranks the Unemployed: He's doing it because he's confident. Those of you who didn't watch yesterday's stream, just stay quiet. If you stay quiet, you won't look like fools.
-Pizza and Sweet-and-Sour Pork Are Damn Good: Yeah. He's on a completely different level from the veterans you guys are used to.
-SecondhandNation: Seriously? Is he really that good?
-Veteran Detector: I watched a bit yesterday too, and our Un-bro is pure Dubai crude oil.
-Memories of Diablo 3: Agreed. He's practically giving the developers hair loss. He cleared something by himself that even large guild raid teams struggled with.
-Mad Movie: Hmm. Sounds like he's counting his chickens before they hatch. No matter how strong he is, there's no way he can face an army of tens of thousands alone.
-Sae Yeong Eon Hwan: I'm definitely looking forward to seeing how he takes down the boss.
The channel's community board heated up with debates between the skeptics and those who trusted and waited for him.
I should pay some attention to the production value too.
While succeeding in the raid was a given, to make it a box office hit, the script, the angles, and even the actors on stage were crucial.
And of course, Jinhyuk had already devised a way to satisfy all of those requirements.
Well then, shall we get started?
Jinhyuk reached out his hand forward while holding the key.
It was empty air.
However, the moment the key made contact with a single point in the empty space—
Clack!
A sound like a locking mechanism clicking into place echoed.
['Statue's Key' is reacting!]
[The Master of the 3rd Floor responds to your call!]
Along with the appearance of the red status window,
Rumble, rumble!
A massive gate began to manifest before his eyes.
It was a gate so colossal that it couldn't even be compared to when the Thousand-Handed Avalokiteshvara had appeared.
"Whoa..."
An exclamation of awe escaped Jinhyuk's lips.
In width, it stretched across the bamboo forest until its ends were lost to sight.
In height, it reached the clouds, looking as if it might swallow the sky whole.
Soon after,
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
An immense number of stone statues emerged from beyond the gate.
An army of a whopping thirty thousand.
Most were heavily armored, one-meter-tall soldiers, but there were also ten-meter-tall medium-sized ones and fifty-meter-tall giant-sized ones mixed in.
And in the very center of all those statues stood the most ornately carved stone statue.
That guy was the Master of the 3rd Floor.
To be precise, the one yawning on top of that statue.
"Hmm. Did you come alone this time?"
A familiar voice drifted down from the very top of the statue's head.
Tingle!
Goosebumps broke out all over Jinhyuk's skin.
As expected.
So this is the boss's mana.
The 3rd-floor boss monster actually had relatively weak personal mana.
This was because its mana was dispersed due to commanding so many summons.
Even so, the pressure weighing down on his entire body was immense.
A boss monster was still a boss monster.
Jinhyuk scanned his opponent using 'Gluttony's Eye'.
However,
[The level difference with the target is too extreme to view the status window.]
The only response was a message stating that viewing was impossible.
Right then,
[The Luck stat and Adaptive Stat have neutralized the level difference.]
[Peering through the target's status window.]
The two stats shone brightly.
The Luck stat that failed against the Thousand-Handed Avalokiteshvara triggered this time!
Jinhyuk let out a small cheer.
——————————————————
Name: Muhon
Gender: Unknown
Age: Unknown
Level: 105
Strength: 72 / Agility: 101 / Stamina: 79 / Mana: 93 / Karma: 128
Unique Ability: Heartless Army
Skills: Lv.17 'Inescapable Net', Lv.15 'Batch Command', Lv.14 'Weakness Detection', Lv.14 'Military Tactics'
——————————————————
[Copy Condition: Since Mandala's level is 15 or lower, copying Muhon's unique ability or skills is impossible.]
A level of 105...
The raid teams of various guilds must have died in droves to him, considering that it normally would have taken well over a year for this guy's level to reach three digits.
No wonder his confidence is through the roof.
He's only a 3rd-floor boss, yet he puts on more ridiculous airs than a dragon on the upper floors.
Still, this wasn't bad.
In fact, it means it'll be even easier to catch him off guard.
Furthermore, the stronger the enemy, the greater the satisfaction his subscribers would feel when he overturned the odds.
The corners of Jinhyuk's mouth curled upward.
"Are you laughing?"
"Ah, sorry. I was lost in thought for a second. So, what was your question again?"
"I asked if you came here alone."
"Well, as you can see. Unlike a certain someone, I don't like hiding behind my subordinates."
Jinhyuk smirked.
At that provocative reply, Muhon's eyes narrowed.
A tiny crack appeared in his expression, which had been packed with the pride of the strong.
But it was only for a brief moment.
His wavering pupils quickly regained their composure.
"I'm afraid I do not enjoy exerting myself physically. Is it not the virtue of a monarch to reign from above and hand down commands?"
It was a relaxed retort.
Or rather, a retort that tried desperately to look relaxed.
No matter how much his level rose and how many victories he accumulated...
The inferiority complex stemming from his own lack of personal strength hasn't changed.
I guess that's why no one is perfect.
Everyone had at least one weakness to exploit.
"Well, in my opinion, the virtue of a monarch isn't hiding in the back during a fight, but leading from the very front."
"It is precisely because of fools like you that wars end so pointlessly. If the commander leading the charge dies, the soldiers following behind are wiped out. Do you not even know the most basic of basics?"
That wasn't entirely wrong.
However,
"Isn't it fine as long as you don't die, even if you fight at the very front?"
He didn't understand why people always assumed leading from the front meant dying.
As long as one had the skills to back it up, there was no better way to boost overall morale.
"...Absurd. Are you claiming you possess that kind of power?"
"Of course I do."
If there was no chance, he wouldn't have come here in the first place.
Nor would he have gone through all that trouble to gather the ingredients for victory.
Jinhyuk slowly gathered his mana.
"It seems you're quite confident in army-to-army battles... but chaotic melees happen to be right up my alley as well."
So let's have at it.
Since one of them would have to die to prove whose philosophy was correct.
With those final words, a bizarre-looking chessboard emerged from his subspace inventory.
['First Chessboard' has been activated!]
Sssss!
Blue lines began to etch themselves across the ground.
The intersecting lines formed a square grid.
It was working perfectly.
Next up...
This time, Jinhyuk pulled out the sculptures he had received from Lee Yu-ri.
Thousands of chess pieces carved from marble appeared.
Of course, these weren't toys made for playing a simple board game.
They were works of art carved with mana by the summoner Lee Yu-ri, with runic words engraved upon them.
As such, each chess piece would fully play its part as a soldier.
"A novel idea. Certainly, with that method, you could play soldier all by yourself."
Seeing the chess pieces laid out on the board, Muhon wore an intrigued expression.
But after a brief moment of surprise, his words dripped with heavy mockery.
"What do you plan to do with those tiny things?"
"Just wait. I'm not done yet."
Stop babbling. I'll shut you up in a moment, so just stay still.
Jinhyuk pulled out the item that would serve as the grand finale.
The item he had obtained after playing Anubis for a fool on the 1st underground floor of the Tower of Trials.
[You have used the 'Giant Pill'!]
It was indeed the Giant Pill.
The pills he had amassed in large quantities seeped into the bodies of the chess pieces.
And then—
Rumble, rumble!
The chess pieces, which were barely ten centimeters tall, began to grow at an explosive rate.
Two-meter-tall Knights, Bishops, and Rooks formed ranks along the horizon.
Pawns clad in heavy armor formed a phalanx, thrusting their spears forward.
The chess pieces were no longer toys.
Who could possibly mock these forces, now possessing the majestic aura of a true army?
Had he finally realized that things were taking a turn for the worse?
The smirk completely vanished from Muhon's face.
Grit!
Muhon gritted his teeth.
"...You bastard."
He had thought of him as a mere gnat he could easily swat away.
After all, a single human could be crushed with a mere flick of his wrist.
But not anymore.
The insignificant human had suddenly transformed into an enemy commanding a massive army that could no longer be ignored.