Chapter 35
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 35
Chapter Title: Command
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"Huh? What did you say? I don't think I heard you right."
"Use your ten command rights to destroy the relic."
'Destroy the relic...?'
Hearing the order, Hwang Yong-min couldn't believe his ears.
Why would he destroy the very relic he was supposed to protect?
'Is he trying to force the round to end?'
If they failed to protect the relic, the round would end.
He could understand if it was a strategy to secure their current rankings.
But...
'It looks like it's almost over anyway, doesn't it? There's no reason to do that...'
In a few moments, the remaining gnolls would be cleared out, and the fifth wave would be over.
The round would end naturally even if they did nothing.
And since they had protected the relic, they would even receive an additional reward.
'So why?'
The angel had said there would be a penalty if the relic was broken.
There was no reason to forsake an extra reward just to incur a penalty.
'Besides, Black Scythe is pretty much guaranteed to be rank one.'
Considering the mountain of monster corpses he had piled up, he would undoubtedly be ranked first this round as well.
'He has nothing to lose, so why on earth...?'
As questions arose, so did his dissatisfaction.
Above all, he was unhappy about being told to use all ten of his command rights.
'If I use all my command rights, I can't make Seo Ah-rin my slave!'
If that happened, the biggest reason for becoming the area representative would vanish.
"M-may I ask why?"
Hwang Yong-min mustered the courage to ask, but Ryu Min just shot him a frosty glare.
"Shut up and do as you're told."
"Instead of ten, how about just nine..."
"I won't say it twice. If you want to die, make your choice now."
"..."
He was threatening to kill him if he didn't obey.
He had no choice, but Hwang Yong-min still had something to say.
"But, Sir Black Scythe... if I use all my command rights, I'm a dead man. If you could just leave me one..."
"Why would you be a dead man? I'll be the one protecting you, won't I?"
"Ah..."
"The contract is still valid even if you use all your command rights. Wasn't the condition that I protect you from other players in the first place?"
"Th-that's right."
'Then what was the point of me becoming the representative?'
Even as he answered, he couldn't hide his bitter feelings.
Without his command rights, there was no reason to have betrayed Jo Joong-sik, was there?
"Are we done talking?"
"...Yes."
"Then do as you're told."
"Y-yes, sir. I will do as you command..."
To save his own life, he had no choice but to obey.
"By the way, I'll designate who you use the command rights on."
"Yes, sir..."
Ryu Min looked at the nearby players and spoke.
"...Command these ten—[Shim Seong-gyu], [Little Chili], [Don't Touch Me], [SpringSummerFall]—to destroy the relic."
Hearing the nicknames, Hwang Yong-min was startled.
It was because the nicknames of all his bully friends were included.
'What? Don't tell me he did this on purpose...?'
Hwang Yong-min's gaze shifted to his friends.
They, too, looked bewildered, their mouths hanging half-open.
"Guys, I'm sorry. This is an order from Black Scythe, so please understand."
"What? You're not seriously..."
Hwang Yong-min reluctantly used his command rights.
He didn't want to use them on his friends, but he had no choice.
"Don't Touch Me, destroy the relic. SpringSummerFall, destroy the relic."
He issued the order to ten players, one by one.
Upon receiving the command, they ran toward the center of the village without even asking why.
It was a waste of his command rights, but what could he do?
'If I want to live, I have to do as he says.'
As he used his last command right, he bit his lip hard in frustration.
"I've... used them all."
"Good. I can see that you have."
Ryu Min knew without being told.
Each time Hwang Yong-min gave a command, his eyes had turned purple.
More importantly, the players had immediately rushed to destroy the relic upon hearing the order.
'An order given with a command right can't be refused.'
The ten players, now dominated by the command rights, would try to destroy the relic even if it meant being killed by other players.
'Ten people should be enough to break it.'
A smile crept onto Ryu Min's lips.
Hwang Yong-min was certainly easier to handle than Jo Joong-sik.
[Warning! The relic is under attack!]
[Warning! The relic is under attack!]
[Warning! The relic is under attack!]
Even without the stream of warning messages, people could tell.
The ten players under the command were openly attacking the relic in the center of the village.
"Hey! What are you doing? Stop it right now!"
"What do you think you're doing? Are you trying to get us all penalized?"
The surrounding players tried to stop them, but their words fell on deaf ears.
The command right was absolute.
*Clang— Claang—! Kkang—!*
The relic was diamond-shaped, but it wasn't as sturdy as it looked.
As ten players swung their weapons in unison, cracks quickly began to spiderweb across its surface.
"H-hey! It's going to break!"
"Someone stop those people!"
"Kill them! Just kill those bastards!"
Despite the shouts around them, the ten players were fixated on breaking the relic.
Even when a few of them were stabbed, they didn't stop swinging.
*Crack— Craaaack—!*
'It's over.'
Seeing the relic fracture, Ryu Min smiled secretly.
He knew exactly what was about to happen.
*Shatter—!*
[The relic has been destroyed.]
[You have failed the main quest.]
[As a failure penalty, the Agent of Heavenly Punishment will be summoned for 30 minutes.]
[Survive the Agent of Heavenly Punishment for the duration.]
[The round will not end until the time limit is up.]
"What? The Agent of Heavenly Punishment?"
"What's that?"
"Sounds like some kind of boss."
The players' eyes widened in unison.
They never imagined a boss would appear as a penalty.
[A hidden sub-quest is available!]
└Survive the Agent of Heavenly Punishment for 30 minutes
└Success Reward ▶ 3,000 Gold
[Time Remaining: 00:29:59]
"There was a sub-quest?"
The players were once again surprised by the sudden appearance of a sub-quest.
The reward, in particular, felt quite generous.
Many players hadn't even managed to collect 3,000 gold through all five waves.
"So we get 3,000 gold just for surviving?"
"Doesn't sound too hard."
"Just think of it as a game of hide-and-seek."
There were currently 2,700 players remaining.
If there was only one person who was 'it', they figured they could easily survive on their own.
Of course, Ryu Min's thoughts were completely different.
'Escaping from the Agent of Heavenly Punishment won't be easy.'
There was a reason the reward was so generous.
The players who realized this had grim expressions, but those who didn't wore confident smiles.
And Ryu Min?
He was naturally in the latter group.
If he wasn't confident, he wouldn't have deliberately broken the relic to reveal the sub-quest.
'If I had simply cleared the fifth wave and the round ended, I would have only received 2,000 gold as an additional reward.'
The reward for the sub-quest triggered by breaking the relic was greater than the gold received for protecting it.
This was why Ryu Min had revealed the sub-quest.
So why hadn't he broken the relic himself?
The reason became clear from the message that appeared a moment later.
[It has been confirmed that the relic was attacked by players.]
[A penalty will be applied to the ten players who attacked the relic.]
[All stats will be permanently decreased by 50%.]
It was because a massive penalty—a stat reduction—was hidden.
"What? A stat reduction?"
"Ah, fuck!"
The ten players, including the bullies, screamed in outrage.
It was even more unfair because it hadn't been their choice.
The bullies all glared at Hwang Yong-min with resentful eyes.
"S-sorry. I didn't know there would be a penalty like this..."
Hwang Yong-min apologized, but he was in no position to worry about others.
[For failing to protect the relic, a penalty will also be applied to the area representative.]
[All stats will be permanently decreased by 50%.]
"Ah..."
Speechless, Hwang Yong-min stared into the void with the face of a man who had lost his country.
"FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!"
He never dreamed that he, too, would receive a penalty just for being the representative.
No one did, except for Ryu Min.
'This is why I was reluctant to become the area representative.'
A permanent stat reduction was a fatal blow, directly tied to one's survival.
'And it completely crushes your will to grow.'
He hadn't warned against becoming the representative for no reason.
He had also avoided breaking the relic himself to evade the penalty.
*Slash—!*
"Krrrk!"
The last gnoll had just died by Ryu Min's scythe.
Yet, the round completion message did not appear.
"We killed all the monsters, so why isn't it ending?"
"Didn't you see the message? It won't end until the penalty period is over."
"So we have to hold out for another 30 minutes...?"
"It won't be hard if you just think of it as hide-and-seek."
Ryu Min inwardly clicked his tongue at the players' naive thoughts.
'I've repeated this dozens of times, yet their reaction is always the same.'
Every time he broke the relic, people would think so complacently.
It was because they didn't understand the difficulty of the penalty.
'I died twice to the third round's penalty alone, so that says it all.'
At first, Ryu Min hadn't known that breaking the relic would trigger a sub-quest.
He had just normally protected the relic and moved on to the next round.
'Then I found out when the relic was broken by chance.'
That was when Ryu Min experienced it.
Just how difficult it was to survive the Agent of Heavenly Punishment.
'I died twice. Even though I was skilled enough to survive up to the fifth wave.'
Of course, it was early in his regressions, so he was weaker than he was now, but he had still been confident.
It was just a matter of running and hiding for 30 minutes, after all.
'But it wasn't as easy as I thought.'
Out of 2,700 players, only about 500 survived.
A survival rate of less than 20%.
The 1,225 slots for achievers felt incredibly spacious.
It was, in a word, hellishly difficult.
'That is, if you don't know the strategy.'
Of course, the current Ryu Min was confident.
He had more than enough experience, and after learning the strategy, he had cleared it dozens of times.
'To others, it might be a penalty...'
But to Ryu Min, it wasn't a penalty.
On the contrary, it was an opportunity for massive growth.
That is, if he could kill the Agent of Heavenly Punishment.
'I have about 13,000 gold. If I get the sub-quest reward and kill the Agent of Heavenly Punishment, I can easily surpass 20,000 gold.'
Ryu Min had no intention of running from the creature.
Instead, he planned to kill it and reap the enormous rewards.
'That leaves me with 4,000 extra gold. With this, I can even buy two Normal-grade items.'
After calculating his surplus gold, he immediately opened the shop window.
He then purchased two pieces of equipment, each worth 2,000 gold.
[Assassin's Hood]
-Type: Helmet
-Grade: Normal
-Defense: 20
-Effect: Agility +3
-Durability: 250/250
-Requirement: Regular Grade or higher
-Description: A hood favored by a certain assassin. It seems it hasn't been washed, as it gives off a faint smell of blood.
[Agile Longboots]
-Type: Shoes
-Grade: Normal
-Defense: 15
-Effect: Agility +2, Movement Speed +5%
-Durability: 250/250
-Requirement: Regular Grade or higher
-Description: Black, form-fitting longboots. They may look stuffy, but they are surprisingly comfortable to wear.
Being Normal-grade, the options were nothing special.
But it was better than nothing.
'The more stats I can stack, the easier it will be to kill it.'
Besides, items bought from the shop could be sold back.
Though he'd only get back half of what he paid.
*Bwooooooo—*
"Is... is it starting?"
"I'm getting nervous for some reason."
The players tensed up at the sound signaling the start.
But Ryu Min alone was at ease.
'I'll kill that thing and reach level 30.'
Ryu Min was currently level 27.
By killing the Agent of Heavenly Punishment, he could definitely reach level 30.
He could also collect his 20,000 gold.
Then, he could buy the common skill as planned.
And that wasn't all.
'I can get the rune, the title, and even that item.'
A smile of anticipation touched Ryu Min's lips.
He was more than confident he could kill the creature.
It was because the creature was of the holy attribute, after all.