Chapter 79: Pendariel, Mother of the Dead (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 79: Pendariel, Mother of the Dead (1)
[A new video has been updated on the Tower of Trials.]
The video uploaded by Jinhyuk threw the Tower of Trials community board into utter chaos once again.
-MeowMeowPunch: Wow. Did that giant guild really cause this whole mess just because they couldn't stop a single zombie?
-TaiwanIsNo1: For real, they're such a massive nuisance. It was already hard enough, and they went and turned it into Hell difficulty. I heard not a single player even knew about the hidden boss? How the hell are we supposed to clear this?
-LineUpCorrectly: Just how careless were they to not even survive the second wave? Honestly, it's disgusting.
-BlackTeaTteokbokki: I heard the large raid teams that tried to launch a preemptive strike on the Queen just got wiped out too. They were really promising prospects. Sigh. Those idiots screwed up, and innocent lives were lost.
A torrent of curses flooded the board.
Yet, the large Chinese guilds couldn't utter a single word of defense.
The Triads had been wiped out, and those belonging to the Murim weren't players, meaning they couldn't upload any videos to counter the claims.
Everything was unfolding exactly as Jinhyuk had planned.
-Twitch Viewer Outranks the Unemployed: Still, Player Kang Jinhyuk managed to draw the boss's aggro well, so a mass slaughter was prevented.
-KingGodEmperor: Seriously, if it weren't for Brother Kang, everyone in the small bases would've died.
-David H: That's great and all, but does it make sense for only five people to fight the Queen?
-Joseon'sBestSword: If it were anyone else, I'd doubt it, but Kang Jinhyuk is an S-rank player recognized by the strongest gaming nation. He's worth believing in.
-StarbucksMania: Just search Kang Jinhyuk and binge-watch his related videos. He's a card you can truly trust.
-Sae Yeong Eon Hwan: Won't Unknown show up at a time like this? I really want to see that player and Player Kang Jinhyuk fight together.
In stark contrast, public opinion of Jinhyuk soared to the heavens.
With even rankers dying left and right, the perception that Jinhyuk was their sole hope quickly spread.
"Oppa, didn't you set the stage a bit too large?"
Yu Yeon-hwa let out a soft sigh.
The Jinhyuk she knew always shattered common sense and found alternative paths, but she had never imagined he would flip the entire board like this.
She felt completely blindsided.
"Hyung, how did you even know there was a boss monster here?"
Lee Tae-min was equally bewildered by the current situation.
"Well, I just stumbled upon it while testing out a few things."
“……”
Stumbled upon it while testing things out, he says.
Though he spoke lightly, he must have made countless attempts and trials to discover such a hidden quest.
"You were the one who destroyed the mart too, right, Jinhyuk?"
Teresa asked, voicing her own curiosity.
"Well, who knows? I'm not entirely sure, but I doubt it collapsed on its own."
But Jinhyuk merely offered a sly grin and changed the subject.
"None of those trivial details matter. What does matter is, do you actually have a way to deal with the Queen?"
Finally, Cheon Yu-seong brought up the most crucial point.
Indeed.
Setting the stage and drawing the public's attention was all well and good, but without a brilliant plan to resolve it, this was nothing short of a suicide mission.
And of course...
"I have a way to win."
Jinhyuk knew the only way to bring this battle to an end.
Of course, the process wouldn't be smooth sailing.
But considering the rewards, it was well worth the risk.
"I'm glad to hear you didn't just do this blindly. So, what do we do now?"
"If I tell you the plan, will you do exactly as you're told?"
"I'll do whatever it takes to survive."
"Don't go changing your mind later. Your role is extremely important this time."
"……Spit it out."
Cheon Yu-seong nodded with a tense expression.
He likely assumed he was being given an incredibly difficult task.
Well, it was difficult.
Just a completely different kind of difficulty than what he was expecting.
"To hit them where it hurts, we need a massive-scale skill. The problem is..."
"The problem is?"
"It's quite expensive."
"Don't tell me..."
Cheon Yu-seong's face darkened instantly.
"Don't mess with me. Why on earth should I give you the Coins I've saved up? No, more importantly, why are you only trying to extort Coins from me?!"
There was Teresa, who was known to be wealthy, and Lee Tae-min and Yu Yeon-hwa, who were doing quite well for themselves.
Why, of all people, him?
"Yeon-hwa gave me the Twin Dragon Swords. Teresa has handed over her Coins before. And above all, don't be a cheapskate. I know the video you uploaded recently hit the jackpot in views."
"Damn it. You saw that?"
"Yeah, I did. It was surprisingly fresh and entertaining, quite unlike you."
The title was something like, 'Swordsmanship That Lets Even the Grandma Next Door Survive a Dungeon', right?
The promise of being personally taught by the Sword Saint was top-tier clickbait.
Of course, clickbait alone couldn't make it a massive hit.
But thanks to Cheon Yu-seong's overwhelming skill, the video blew up enough to enter the Hall of Fame on the very same day.
"I need to kill the guy who taught me how to blur faces."
"Don't be too hard on him. I only recognized you because it's me."
He had clumsily used editing techniques to avoid showing his face, but he couldn't hide the unique swordsmanship of the Soul-Chasing Sword.
He could fool anyone else, but not me.
After all, I was at a level where I could recite the forms of the Soul-Chasing Sword with my eyes closed.
"……I only did it because of a personal quest."
"Sure, sure. Whatever you say."
To grow as a Sword Saint, he had to clear a quest that required the recognition of the masses.
In the past, the player base was so small that the threshold was low.
But now, with the eyes of the entire world focused on them, he needed recognition not from dozens or hundreds, but in the millions.
"So, since I know your pockets are lined, make a donation for the team."
"How much?"
"100,000."
It was the exact amount Cheon Yu-seong had earned in Coin revenue.
Upon hearing the amount, Cheon Yu-seong's face twisted as if he had chewed on a piece of crap.
It was only natural, considering he was about to lose his entire nest egg that he had painstakingly saved for the future.
"Don't you have plenty of Coins yourself? Even if you don't extort them from me..."
"I do, but I'd hate to waste 100,000 of my own Coins."
Why spend from my own wallet?
When I have a reliable cash cow right in front of me?
"Hurry up and hand it over. We don't have time."
Jinhyuk beckoned with his finger.
I am the captain of this base.
And you are a crew member.
Above all, to face the mighty enemy outside, you must absolutely obey the captain's orders.
"……You. You really won't die a peaceful death."
[You have received 100,000 Coins from Player Cheon Yu-seong.]
Cheon Yu-seong spat out all his Coins while gritting his teeth.
Right then.
Thud—! Thud—! Thud—!
From far away.
Footsteps that shook the earth began to echo.
They were coming.
And at an incredibly rapid pace.
* * *
Excluding special floors like field-type or labyrinth-type floors, each floor of the Tower has a boss monster that rules over it.
Absolute beings defined by a single word: 'strength.'
However, their power does not necessarily correspond to the floor they rule.
This is because some choose to remain on lower floors relative to their actual strength, simply because they find climbing tedious, or because they happen to like the floor they currently occupy.
And Pendariel was one of them.
An apocalypse where everything had been destroyed.
This land, where only the dead could roam, was the ideal world she pursued.
"Kieee!"
"Kuaaa!"
Countless zombies roared in the middle of the street.
Yet, they did not move from their spots, as if waiting for something.
Right then.
Step.
Pendariel took a step forward.
Sssss...!
Thick smoke rose from the asphalt.
It was the 'corrosion' effect caused by Corpse Poison.
While ordinary zombies possessed some degree of Corpse Poison, Pendariel's was on a completely different level.
Not only would it corrode anything it touched, but it could even burn the very air around her.
"Is this... all humans... are capable of?"
Pendariel's mouth split into a wide grin.
Her entire body was drenched in blood, presenting a grotesque appearance.
Her pale skin and waist-length crimson hair were the stuff of nightmares.
"Ughhh..."
A man lying before Pendariel groaned.
Ian Smith.
Smith, a ranker belonging to the large European guild 'Pantheon', had formed a raid team to hunt the Queen immediately after watching the video Jinhyuk uploaded.
He had handpicked only experts who had played the Tower of Trials for over a year in the past and had recent experience in ruin raids.
Yet, this was the result.
The 55-man raid team had failed to even graze the Queen's clothes, and every single one of them had turned into a rotting corpse.
"How can such an absurd monster exist..."
No matter who came, they could never defeat this monster.
The very existence of such a creature defied all logic.
Smith looked up at the Queen one last time.
At the hollow, cold eyes of an absolute ruler.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
And that was the final memory of the ranker who had once been hailed as Europe's rising star.
"Except... for that human... kill them all. I will... kill him... myself."
Pendariel commanded the endless rows of zombies.
"Kieee!"
"Keeek!"
The zombies lunged forward in unison, sprinting ahead.
Three-meter-tall reinforced zombies took the lead to tank, followed by special zombies with elongated arms or grotesquely long heads.
These were all creatures that would normally only appear in the later stages of the waves.
Had it not been for the unique circumstance of waking the Queen, they would never have had to fight them right now.
But now, those powerful enemies had gathered in one place.
Crash!
Boom!
The plants guarding the entrance were completely obliterated.
The rock plants and self-destructing plants sacrificed themselves to hold the line, but they couldn't even last a few minutes.
It was only natural.
After all, these weren't the kind of enemies that could be stopped in just the third wave.
"It's over."
Watching the battle from afar, Pendariel was certain.
In just a brief moment, the insolent human would be dragged before her.
However, the telepathic message sent by the zombies invading the stadium completely shattered her expectations.
[Four humans are trapped inside ice. And the human you spoke of is nowhere to be seen.]
"Humans are trapped? Inside ice?"
Did they put themselves inside ice?
Out of fear of being tortured to death by her?
Or could it be...
'Do they have another scheme?'
Pendariel's eyebrows furrowed sharply.
They had intentionally provoked her to draw the zombies into their base.
What was the reason?
Questions began to pile up.
'To weaken our forces.'
After thoroughly dispersing her strength...
'...to hunt me.'
As her thoughts reached that conclusion, a cold chill ran down Pendariel's spine.
And at that very moment...
[Glacial Shaping Third Form, 'Ice Prison Kaleidoscope' has been activated!]
The distorted, pitch-black world was painted over in pure white.
And just like that...
Vrrrrr!
Countless walls made of icy glass completely enveloped the Queen and the zombies guarding her.