197. Cave of Trials - Stage 4
197. Cave of Trials - Stage 4
***
*
————
Left.
Archdemon's Prank: Guaranteed acquisition of 1 Legendary-Grade item. The probability of a 'terrifying' trap appearing increases by 5 times.
Right.
Resurrection of the Dead: Guaranteed acquisition of 2 Legendary-Grade items. A monster that met its death revives once (30% of Max HP).
————
*
Faced with the choices on screen, Minha wore a troubled expression as she wavered between the keys marked 1 and 2.
Rin had put the choice to a viewer vote.
From Rin's perspective, she seemed to have started the vote thinking both options were more or less the same, but Minha, now looking at the choices, was agonizing.
She wanted Rin to clear the dungeon, so she wanted to pick the slightly easier option, but she couldn't be sure which was better.
"Ah. Seriously, what am I supposed to pick?"
When the deliberating Minha suddenly looked at Minseong, he laughed awkwardly and spoke.
"Still, wouldn't option 2 be the better one?"
"Didn't Rin look kind of tired just now? And you want to pick the option where monsters come back to life once on top of that?"
"Well... monsters revived by Resurrection of the Dead don't repeat special patterns like instant-death attacks, so wouldn't it be better than a dreadful trap?"
Minseong shook his head, saying just thinking about it made his teeth chatter.
He knew well the notoriety of traps carrying the modifier 'dreadful.'
In nearly every raid, traps were often more of a concern than monsters.
The greatest variable in a raid was, in fact, the type of trap that appeared at random. Monsters, surprisingly, had many fixed appearances, so everyone adapted after experiencing them a few times, but traps didn't work that way.
The ground suddenly collapsing was common, hundreds of arrows could suddenly fire, and if you grazed a trap or took damage, you could be afflicted with all sorts of curses that severely disrupted raid progress.
And if you were an Another World pro player, everyone had a fair amount of raid experience.
Being a top-tier Arena user generally meant your in-game equipment was equally good. In reality, with about 20% equipment adjustment, it was only natural that people with better equipment were generally in higher Tiers.
In a game where 'RPG is the foundation,' the saying that equipment is skill held some currency, so almost no user blamed their gear.
So much so that there was even a saying: if you feel wronged, go farm.
"Is that so...? I don't have much raid experience, so I wouldn't know."
But unlike Minseong, Minha typed 2 into the chat with a subtle expression. She wasn't much of a hunter.
—2222.
Hunting and grinding didn't suit her, so she was a user who had focused on PVP.
Minseong, looking at Minha, asked with a dubious expression.
"Seriously, how did you hit Challenger before going pro?"
At the roundabout question of how she'd geared up without raiding, Minha let out a small laugh and answered confidently.
"Me? I bought a Mythic sniper rifle and climbed to Challenger."
"Wait, you bought a Mythic Weapon... with money?"
When Minseong asked in surprise, Minha nodded.
"Yeah. You can charge Another World cash and convert it into in-game currency."
Her point was, with a legal charging system in place, what was wrong with buying equipment with cash?
"Wow, seriously. Are you from a rich family?"
When Minseong voiced something he'd always been curious about, Minha blinked and shook her head as if to say not a chance.
"Compared to people who are actually rich, I'm not rich. I'm just well-off enough to live comfortably."
At Minha's casual remark, Minseong was simply speechless.
Even top rankers spent months raiding just to barely complete a single Mythic Item, and she'd simply bought one with money.
Mythic Items were items with few acquisition sources, and due to their rarity and outstanding performance, they commanded tens of billions of silver in-game and tens of millions of won in real-world prices.
On top of that, Gunner was a popular class. A Mythic sniper rifle would cost at least 40 million won.
Minha's way of brushing that off as simply having some leeway was truly astounding.
'The rich really are different.'
If she had the leeway to spend 40 million won on a single piece of game equipment, just how much leeway did she actually have in reality?
Minseong, in fact, didn't own a Mythic Item himself either.
Before the ACK Pro League existed, even Challenger Tier players all decked themselves out in Legendary Items as the standard, and back then, that was the best setup.
Most pro players, in reality, received Mythic-grade items as 'support' at the pro team level.
So there was even a condition attached that if you left the team, you had to return Mythic Items to the pro team. No matter how much your salary reached into the hundreds of millions, a single piece of equipment cost tens of millions of won, and no pro team simply gifted that to a player.
It was literally just 'support.'
Then, suddenly, Minseong thought of one player.
A player who wore Mythic Items in every equipment slot as her own property.
—Jeanne d'Arc.
He knew that, rather than 'support' at the pro team level, the team had gifted Jeanne d'Arc a full set of Mythic equipment outright.
Thinking about it made him feel envious again for no reason.
"Haaah."
"Why are you suddenly sighing like that?"
"No... I was just thinking I'm the only one without a Mythic Item."
At that, Minha stared at Minseong, then raised her hand. Looking at Minseong, who seemed lost in thought, she brought her hand to his forehead and flicked it.
Thwack!
"Hey, just buy one yourself. You get paid plenty by the team, so why are you pretending to be broke?"
When she scolded him, Minseong clutched his forehead and frowned.
"Ah. Why'd you hit me! And how am I supposed to invest tens of millions of won in one piece of equipment?"
"I barely tapped you, so quit being dramatic. And a guy in his twenties making a nine-figure salary pretending to be broke? If your fans saw you like that, you'd get cussed out, you know?"
"...Is a pro gamer some kind of office worker? Who knows what'll happen later, so how can I just blow through my earnings?"
"Minseong, were you always such a deep thinker?"
When Minha raised her voice in surprise, Minseong looked at her like she was being ridiculous.
"Ugh... I really want to slap every rich kid just once."
When he openly stared at Minha's cheek and grumbled, Minha laughed as if she found Minseong's behavior absurd.
"Are you really going to hit me too?"
Minha smiled slyly and tapped her own cheek. Minseong laughed awkwardly and shook his head.
"No, I mean... of course it's a joke."
"Hmm, a joke~?"
"Yes. A joke!"
Minseong, laughing awkwardly, had no immediate intention of buying a Mythic Item.
Having grown up in an extremely ordinary household, Minseong couldn't bring himself to spend tens of millions of won on a single piece of equipment, no matter how much he was currently earning a nine-figure salary.
He was serious about the game, but investing the majority of his earnings into the game... that felt wrong.
And while he was active as a pro, the team supported him, so why should he buy it with his own money?
[1111]
[222]
[11111?]
[Isn't this 2?]
[I think 1 is better]
[If 2 Legendary items are guaranteed, it's obviously 2]
[Resurrection of the Dead is also an annoying option though]
[If it's 5x probability, doesn't that mean a dreadful trap is almost guaranteed to appear?]
[2222]
[Wait, don't you know Rin picked the 3x final reward item count? It's 2 lol]
[For real, if the guaranteed reward is 2 Legendaries, what kind of dungeon is this]
[Don't guaranteed rewards appear in stage 5 choices even on Hard? Why is this showing up in stage 4?]
[Is that also included in the 3x item count? Then it's 2]
[People who've experienced that dreadful trap must be shaking]
[Someone's going to walk away with 6 Legendary Items guaranteed from Cave of Trials rewards!?]
[Ah right, there was the 3x final reward item count;]
After the vote started, the chat scrolled even faster with a wide range of opinions.
—Then I'll close the vote now.
Rin on screen manipulated the hologram and revealed the vote results.
And the result was option 2, so overwhelming it was only natural.
***
*
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Option 1: Archdemon's Prank 27%
Option 2: Resurrection of the Dead 73%
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*
With option 2 overwhelmingly ahead, Serin chose the right-hand path and was walking into the newly revealed interior of the cave.
Serin's steps were extremely cautious, and the composure on her face was no longer as carefree as before.
Clang!
In an instant, with the sound of something activating, the cave walls on both sides of Serin opened wide as if parting.
Swoosh!!
From the opened walls on both sides, enormous javelins shot toward Serin.
Clang-clang!
As Serin swiftly swung her Crescent-Moon Weight once to the left and right, the massive spears soon turned into handfuls of light and vanished.
"Quite the welcome right from the start."
The moment she entered the Stage 4 trial, the beginning was anything but ordinary.
Suddenly, she imagined: if this had been a 'dreadful' trap, it wouldn't have been relatively easy-to-deflect javelins, but hundreds of poison-coated needles raining down.
Whether monsters appeared or not, crises came without pause starting from the Stage 4 trial.
Step.
Step.
Clank!
As Serin moved forward again, she suddenly felt the floor give way, her eyes flew wide open, and she urgently hurled her Crescent-Moon Weight toward the cave wall.
Thunk!
As the blade of the Crescent-Moon Weight lodged deep into the wall, she was able to hold her body in midair even as the ground collapsed helplessly beneath her.
Screeeech!
Immediately, she pulled the cord connected to the Crescent-Moon Weight with her left hand to launch her body upward, while glancing at the collapsed ground below.
The ground, caved in deeply, was as deep as an abyss, and at the bottom, a lava zone appeared to be bubbling and boiling. Serin blinked blankly and muttered a single sentence.
"Didn't I definitely pick Resurrection of the Dead?"
Why on earth was a dreadful trap appearing?
Even if I hadn't thrown the Crescent-Moon Weight right away, I could have used the collapsed wall as a foothold to climb back up, so there was no real risk of me falling to my death. Still, feeling the ground collapse beneath me while I was walking was terrible for my heart.
After landing on flat ground, Serin changed her thinking.
Rather than expose herself to unpredictable traps like that, wouldn't it be better to cover the distance quickly and find a monster?
At least from the moment she faced a monster, traps stopped activating.
Her thought immediately led to action.
—Swift - Bloodstained Step.
She used Swift as a precaution, thinking ahead for any possible situation. Immediately after, Serin shot forward as if exploding.
———!!
As the cave floor rapidly expanded in view, she dashed through the cave step by step, truly like light.
Clank! Clang! Whoosh! Rumble-rumble-rumble! Whizz-whizz-whizz-whizz! BOOM!
Numerous traps activated simultaneously throughout the cave, and all sorts of sounds echoed. Serin couldn't shake the feeling that something had gone wrong.
It seemed Another World's system prevented speeding through traps, because the traps' speed increased in proportion to Serin's movements.
Clang-clang-clang-clang-clang-clang-clang!
Serin's reacting body went beyond acrobatics, spinning like a storm and swinging her Crescent-Moon Weight like mad.
Deflecting countless hidden weapons, javelins, swords, and arrows, Serin was momentarily speechless.
Swift might boost my reaction speed, but I still had to react to the traps and move my body myself.
In just a few seconds, Serin felt fatigue close to half of what she'd felt fighting the Grim Reaper, and she had no choice but to stop immediately.
Having covered quite a distance in just a few steps while using the skill, she felt dazed.
Her heart pounded so hard she wondered how she'd just reacted, deflected, and remained unharmed.
"That was... thrilling."
Inwardly, she had wanted to pick option 1 because she thought it would be troublesome if a raid monster like the Grim Reaper revived, but now that thought had completely changed.
Choosing Resurrection of the Dead was the best possible choice, and the viewers' vote was absolutely right.
If even a few of the traps that had just activated had transformed into dreadful traps, it wouldn't have been strange at all for one of her limbs to have been blown off.
[How did you survive;?]
[Someone's recklessly sprinting through Stage 4 of the Cave of Trials!?]
[Surviving that is even more impressive lololol]
[And all her limbs are perfectly fine, damn]
[Wow, I wondered what was happening for a second, was this also intentional?]
[Didn't at least 10 traps go off? And she survived that?]
[I think she expected to run into monsters, but not a single monster appeared, legendary]
[Monsters really just stopped appearing]
Serin smiled softly at the chat and began walking slowly again.
Clang!
In an instant, a massive spear shot up from the ground as if crossing toward Serin's chest, and Serin pulled her body back as if braking hard to evade.
Rattle-rattle-rattle!
Countless wire-like hidden weapons rained down from the cave ceiling. She evaded by stepping back widely.
Immediately after, with the continuous sound of traps, Serin got a sense of the Stage 4 trial.
'No monsters appear at all.'
That meant Stage 4 was a hellish trap zone.
Clank. Clang. Click!
As mechanical sounds continued to ring out with seams interlocking, Serin gripped her Crescent-Moon Weight tightly and stopped.
Boom!!
Immediately after, with the sound of something crashing heavily onto the ground, the entire cave shook violently.
Rumble-rumble-rumble-rumble!
Then, from ahead, came the sound of the earth trembling and something rolling toward her.
"...No way."
She couldn't see what it was, but with the feeling that she knew, Serin instinctively stepped backward.