Chapter 109
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 109
Chapter Title: Caravan Selection
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◀ ROUND 8 ▶
└Escort the caravan to its destination
└Eliminate the traitor
└Success ▶ ???? awarded
[All Zones]
└Participants: 3,047,910
└Completed: 0/1,523,955
[Current Zone C2-ESKA003]
└Participants: 2,166
└Completed: 0/1,083
The players who saw the quest tilted their heads in confusion.
“Escort a caravan to its destination?”
“Why a caravan all of a sudden?”
“Where is this caravan?”
A caravan was a group of merchants, which meant there had to be merchants in the first place, right?
“Is this some kind of role-playing thing?”
“Like, someone plays the merchant and others escort them?”
As if hearing their murmurs, the angel burst out laughing.
[Role-playing? Kyahaha, did you come here to act? As if we'd make you do something like that.]
“Then what do you mean…?”
[It means you literally escort a caravan.]
“So where is this caravan you’re talking about…?”
[I'd heard humans were an inferior species, but I never knew you were this stupid.]
Despite the angel’s mockery, the people remained silent.
No matter how much they badmouthed the angels behind their backs, the players clearly understood the power dynamic.
[Do you all think you're the only ones in this world? After you've already encountered other races like goblins, angels, gnolls, and orcs?]
“Ah…”
“Don’t tell me…”
[That's right. The caravan is from another world. There are three caravans from three different races. You will choose to escort one from the human, elf, or dwarf caravans.]
“We can choose which race to escort?”
“Elves and dwarves have caravans?”
“Wait, forget that. Are you saying elves from fantasy novels actually exist?”
The thought of seeing races from other worlds, previously only seen in fantasy, made some players’ hearts pound.
[The escort time is five hours. If you safely get the caravan to its destination, you pass the quest. Of course, there will be monster attacks during the escort, but don't worry too much. You won't be alone.]
“Not alone?”
“Are we forming parties like in Round 6?”
[Correct. Today, you will form unusually large parties. The 2,166 of you here will be divided among the three caravans I mentioned.]
“Divided?”
That meant they would have to act together in groups of at least several hundred, or possibly over a thousand.
[You must choose only one of the three caravans. Those who choose the same caravan will automatically be in a party. Of course, you cannot see what others have chosen.]
“A large-scale party…”
“So we all move with the common goal of escorting the caravan…?”
“This feels like a raid in a game.”
[For your information, each caravan has a different difficulty level—high, medium, or low—so choose carefully. I won't tell you which is which.]
“We have to pick one of the three at random?”
“So if you’re unlucky and pick the high-difficulty caravan, you’re screwed?”
In short, they had to choose based on the race alone.
“Since the difficulty isn’t shown, I guess we have to take a gamble.”
There was no way to deduce the difficulty level just by looking at the race.
Ultimately, they had to rely on luck.
Hoping to get an easy difficulty.
Ariel then explained the sub-quest.
[As you can see, the sub-quest is to eliminate the traitor. There is a traitor in the caravan you choose. It could be one person, or it could be several; I don't know.]
“There’s a traitor?”
“You mean among the escorts? A traitor?”
“Is this like a game of Mafia?”
[The traitor's goal is to prevent the caravan from reaching its destination. Naturally, the traitor is not in the same party as you. Which means if you attack them with a skill or anything else, you can kill them.]
“Ooh. So we can kill them?”
[If you succeed in finding and killing the hidden traitor, you will receive the sub-quest reward. Of course, the reward is only given to the one person who contributes the most to killing the traitor.]
The people nodded.
After hearing the explanation, they had a decent grasp of the situation.
[That's all for the explanation. In 10 minutes, you will select your caravan and the game will begin. I wish you all the best of luck. Kyahahat!]
Only after the angel disappeared did the crowd begin to murmur.
“Ha, so we have to choose one of the three.”
“I really hope I pick the low-difficulty one.”
“Wouldn’t the elf caravan be the easiest?”
“I’m going to pick the human caravan. The other races are a bit scary…”
“Me too. The human caravan seems the most comfortable.”
“Isn’t it a bad thing if too many people flock to one place?”
“You’re right. I bet a lot of people will choose the human caravan.”
“I’d better go somewhere else.”
“The dwarf caravan will probably be unpopular, so maybe I’ll go there?”
“By the way, how are the rankings decided?”
“Good point. If we’re all escorting a caravan together, what’s the criteria for the rankings?”
“I forgot to ask about that.”
“And what’s this about a traitor? Dammit.”
Everyone was chattering about the quest, and Min Ju-ri was no exception.
“Black Scythe. It says we have to choose one of the three races?”
“So it seems.”
“Where are you planning to go?”
“I wonder.”
There were three types of caravans.
Ryu Min knew which one would be the most popular.
‘People will flock to them in this order: human, elf, and dwarf.’
Humans would be popular because they were a familiar, kindred race.
Elves would attract those who wanted to see them in person at least once.
Dwarves, conjuring images of short, stout old men, would be the least popular.
‘If I had to choose one, the dwarves would be better.’
Having repeated his life, Ryu Min knew the difficulty of each.
‘The dwarves are the easiest. Then the elves, and then the humans.’
Unfortunately, the caravan that would attract the most people was also the highest difficulty.
The high-difficulty caravan featured monsters that required a player to be at least level 50.
This included trolls, gargoyles, skeletons, and minotaurs.
The medium-difficulty elf caravan had harpies, lizardmen, and werewolves.
The low-difficulty caravan would only feature orc-level monsters.
‘If you want to pass the round as easily as possible, you should choose the low-difficulty dwarf caravan.’
The main quest was fundamentally about escorting the caravan, but simply escorting it wasn't enough to guarantee everyone would pass.
‘The escort is just the basic condition for passing the round. The rankings are determined by who has the highest contribution.’
At first glance, it seemed like a party quest where everyone escorted the caravan together, but in reality, survival was determined by individual performance.
This meant competition was necessary.
‘Since weaker monsters mean you can get a higher contribution score, it’s best to aim for a high rank by tackling the low-difficulty dwarf caravan.’
Heo Tae-seok didn’t know this, but Min Ju-ri did.
‘After all, I told her everything through my prophecies.’
In other words, she knew that choosing the dwarf caravan would allow her to pass the round easily.
Even so, Min Ju-ri appeared to be conflicted.
The reason was simple.
‘The dwarf caravan has low difficulty, but it also gives less experience.’
Clearing it would be easy, but since the monsters were low-level, the experience gain would be small.
Conversely, the high-difficulty caravan was tough to clear but offered a lot of experience.
‘In other words, she had to choose between low risk, low return, or high risk, high return.’
This was why Min Ju-ri was hesitating.
*I know the dwarf caravan is low-difficulty. But if I tackle something too easy, my level won't increase much. Then the gap between me and Black Scythe will widen. What if he doesn't need my help anymore by then…*
Reading her thoughts, he saw she was worried that if the gap between them grew, Black Scythe would abandon her.
‘Such a pointless worry.’
Even if Min Ju-ri’s level was low, Bless was an incredibly powerful buff by default.
Ryu Min hoped she would survive for as long as possible.
“Democracy.”
“Yes?”
“What are you so worried about?”
“Oh, it’s nothing.”
“I don't know what you're thinking, but keep this in mind. Greed brings ruin. Survive as long as you can. That's the best path for you, for me, and for everyone else around us.”
“…”
Min Ju-ri was startled.
It was as if his words were aimed directly at her situation.
*Can he really read people's minds?*
He heard her thoughts but pretended not to, turning his head away.
‘This should be enough to make her choose the easy path.’
Sure enough, reading her mind again, it seemed she had decided on the dwarf caravan.
That was a relief.
‘I should have just told her to go with the dwarf caravan from the start.’
He hadn't specified a choice because he wanted to give her freedom, but now he was the one feeling anxious.
Worried that Min Ju-ri might be in danger.
‘No, that won’t happen. She passed this round even without my intervention, didn’t she?’
Heo Tae-seok was also deliberating but ultimately seemed to have decided to try the elf caravan.
‘Ma Kyung-rok, Ahn Sang-chul, Seo Ah-rin, Russell, Christine… The others will decide for themselves.’
Some would try to tackle the easy route, while those feeling greedy would choose the human caravan.
‘In any case, my prophecies should have been helpful. I told them all the pros and cons of each caravan and how to deal with the monsters.’
However, there was one thing he hadn't mentioned.
Anything regarding the sub-quest.
When asked about it, he had feigned ignorance.
Of course, there was a reason he hadn't said anything.
‘Even if they knew, they wouldn't be able to complete the sub-quest anyway.’
A moment later, after 10 minutes had passed, the same message appeared in everyone's vision.
[Caravan selection will now begin.]
[Please touch the caravan you wish to escort.]
└ 1. Human Caravan
└ 2. Elf Caravan
└ 3. Dwarf Caravan
They were listed in order of difficulty from high to low, but the players, unaware of this, chose with extreme caution.
“Ah, whatever. It’s all luck, isn’t it?”
“Let’s just see what happens!”
“I’m going with number 1, just like I wanted!”
“Let’s see what an elf looks like. Number 2!”
As soon as they selected a caravan, the players faded away.
It seemed they were transported elsewhere.
“Black Scythe. Where are you going to go?”
“I wonder.”
“I’m going to the dwarf caravan. Want to come with?”
Ryu Min shook his head at Min Ju-ri’s suggestion.
“No, thanks. You go on ahead.”
“Hmm, okay.”
Even though she knew about the difficulty levels, Min Ju-ri kept it to herself.
If she revealed anything about the prophecies, Ryu Min could be in danger.
*I’m sure Black Scythe knows what he’s doing.*
Min Ju-ri said her goodbyes before making her choice.
“Black Scythe. I don’t know where you’ll choose, but I hope you get a good result. I’ll cast a buff on you before I go, just in case we don’t meet again!”
Min Ju-ri’s buff enveloped Ryu Min’s body.
The corners of Ryu Min’s lips curved upward.
“You’ve got good sense.”
“Well then, I’m really going now!”
After Min Ju-ri selected her caravan and disappeared, Heo Tae-seok also came to say his farewell.
“Uh, Black Scythe. I’ll be going now, too.”
“Right. Go on.”
Heo Tae-seok chose number 2 and vanished.
Player after player around him was transported somewhere else.
“Hmm.”
Most of the people had gone, but Ryu Min still hadn't made a choice.
He appeared to be contemplating, but his mind was already made up.
‘My choice is…’
Ryu Min crossed his arms, his resolve hardening.
‘To choose nothing at all.’
At first glance, it seemed there were three options, but there was actually one more.
Choosing nothing.
Ryu Min hadn't known this at first, either.
‘I thought I had to pick one of the three, so I chose number 1 without a second thought.’
In the past, after trying to clear the quest with various caravans—1, 2, and 3—Ryu Min had begun to question the sub-quest.
Even when he changed caravans, the traitor in the sub-quest used the same abilities.
‘How can that be? Wasn't the traitor supposed to be randomly selected from within the caravan?’
While pondering this question, Ryu Min had accidentally missed the caravan selection window.
That was the first time he realized there was a time limit for the choice.
‘Now I know. Not choosing is the best option for me.’
It didn't seem like there was a time limit, but there was.
After holding off on his choice for exactly nine minutes, an additional message appeared.
[1 minute remaining to make your selection.]
[Failure to choose may result in a penalty!]
A message urging him to choose appeared, but Ryu Min knew.
Not choosing was the only way to reap the greatest benefit.
[10 seconds remaining. Please hurry!]
[9 seconds left, there's no time!]
…
…
[1 second left. This is really the end!]
[You have failed to select a caravan.]
The message that appeared next made Ryu Min’s lips curl into a satisfied smile.
[Player ‘Black Scythe’ now belongs to the traitor group.]