Chapter 178
Chapter 178
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 178
Chapter Title: ACT.32 Paradise (4)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
“Goddamn it!!”
Things had gone wrong.
Horribly wrong.
Where did it all start?
His hand, now red from slamming it on the desk, throbbed with a sharp pain, but the man paid it no mind.
‘All three mines were blown up?’
What kind of place was a Stigma mine?
Finding a naturally formed one was incredibly difficult; even across the entire world, you could count them on one hand.
That was why Bonghwang, Pentagon Eagle, and even the Order wanted them.
They were the source of Paradise's rapid growth, their everything.
And now, it had all vanished in an instant.
‘With all the mines gone, those bastards have no reason to maintain an alliance with us.’
It was a relationship of mutual exploitation.
But while Paradise needed them, they didn't necessarily need Paradise.
Vrrr.
The smartphone on the desk vibrated.
Caller: Seon Woo-jin.
Seeing the name, the man quickly answered the call.
-Can you prepare the Stigma I mentioned before?
His voice was a mixture of irritation and fatigue.
The man could feel his own irritation rising at just that one sentence.
“...I'm sorry. We've run into a problem on our end, and we're currently unable to secure any Stigma at all.”
-I believe I was told you'd have it ready by today.
“It couldn't be helped. Something unexpected came up for us as well...”
-That's your problem, isn't it! We're in a hurry over here too!
His voice rose.
The man's face twisted in a scowl.
‘Was it because of that bastard, the so-called rising star from China?’
The man recalled the conversation he'd had on the phone just yesterday.
Discord had broken out within the guild, souring relations with the Chinese prospect, Xiao Hui. To proceed, they needed to mend that relationship.
To do so, they needed at least an A-rank Stigma, carefully selected and sent over. They'd pay for it.
It wasn't a particularly difficult request, so the man had readily agreed.
However, who could have known things would turn out like this?
-We were trusting you, and now, thanks to you, we're in an even more difficult position.
“No, that's...”
-Enough. The Taegeuk Guild hereby cancels its alliance with Paradise. We will make sure you pay the price for this failed transaction. We'll see you later.
A dial tone echoed from the other end of the line.
He had hung up after saying his piece.
“Ha...”
The man clutched his forehead and let out a heavy sigh.
He'd thought the relationship would be difficult to maintain, but now, in the midst of a war, one side had just broken away.
In a state where Paradise could never win with its own strength, this was a massive blow, second only to the loss of the mines.
“U-Urgent news! Urgent news!”
Someone started pounding roughly on the door.
The man barely suppressed his throbbing headache and told them to enter.
The person who burst through the door was Park Hyeong-su, the one who had been in charge of the second mine.
“Urgent news? What is it now?”
“The mine was blown up! That bastard knew the location of the other mine too! He probably went there as well...!”
Bringing news he had heard a long time ago and calling it urgent.
The man's face finally contorted in anger.
Park Hyeong-su sensed something was wrong and immediately shut his mouth.
“The last mine was destroyed a while ago. You call this urgent news, arriving so late?”
“Th-that's...”
Park Hyeong-su broke out in a cold sweat.
Park Hyeong-su felt wronged as well.
He had dragged his injured body all the way to headquarters to report, only to be berated.
He felt tears welling up, but Park Hyeong-su quickly spoke up to defuse the situation.
“B-but I found out something important!”
“Something important?”
“It doesn't make sense for them to suddenly know the exact locations of the mines and launch a surprise attack, does it!”
That's true.
The man nodded.
“I heard it clearly. The Taegeuk Guild told them!”
“What?”
What had he just heard?
For a moment, the man doubted his own ears.
The Taegeuk Guild revealed the locations of the mines to the five major guilds?
Seon Woo-jin did know the locations of all the mines from exchanging information for business.
It was possible.
But why?
‘Those bastards...’
The man gritted his teeth.
Now he understood.
The reason the Taegeuk Guild had cut ties with them first, using an excuse.
It was to cover this up.
While subtly demanding compensation for the failed transaction.
“Relay this to all personnel.”
The Taegeuk Guild, which was supposed to betray the five major guilds and attack from within, had betrayed Paradise instead.
That meant dragging things out would only increase the risk of them being attacked.
The man spoke in a voice filled with rage.
“We attack Seoul. Immediately.”
***
As expected, Paradise launched an all-out war the very next day.
Leaving the forces in the southern residential area, where the Donghae and Taegeuk Guilds were, they led all their remaining personnel to attack our residential area from the east.
They had split their forces for the attack, but it was a decision that could only be called reckless.
“I can't believe they actually came...”
Seong Woo-hyeon shook his head as if he couldn't understand.
“They wouldn't have a reason to do that unless they were desperate.”
“That's because we made them desperate.”
“You've been up to something again, haven't you.”
Seong Woo-hyeon gave a wry smile.
As he spoke, he swung his sword, deflecting several blades coming at him in a single clash.
Just as expected of an S-rank Analyst's trait.
The ability to analyze one's surroundings with a single glance and perform only the most efficient actions.
If wielded properly, it was a terrifying trait that could throw an opponent off balance with a single exchange and lead to a fatal blow.
Not to be outdone, I spread my Black Flames and plunged into the enemy ranks.
“Aaargh!”
“F-fire! The fire won't go out!”
Every time I swung my sword, waves of Black Flame billowed out, incinerating those they didn't even touch.
If they tried to block with their swords, the Black Flames would travel up the blade, making it impossible to defend.
‘Most of them are C or D-rank.’
However, the tide of the battle felt strange.
Our side, having prepared in advance, should have been overwhelming them. And we were, in fact, pushing them back.
But looking at the other fronts, we were actually closer to being pushed back.
‘What's going on?’
The elite members of each guild were fighting.
With only one Guide and a few executives left, there was no reason they should be losing to Paradise's forces, right?
“Is that really true?”
Seong Woo-hyeon's face stiffened as he spoke to someone through the communication device in his ear.
“Se-hyeon-nim. Let's retreat for now. Something troublesome seems to have occurred.”
“What happened?”
“There are reports of unidentified, bizarre enemies. They say we're being pushed back helplessly because of them.”
I narrowed my eyes at Seong Woo-hyeon's words.
At this timing, there's only one thing that could be described that way.
But I should have taken care of that already.
“Understood. Retreating to regroup doesn't sound like a bad idea.”
My gaze fell upon the twins.
They looked mentally exhausted from continuously using their powers against people.
It was the perfect time to let them rest for a bit.
‘It could be something different from what I know.’
Just like how the experiment Kwon Seong-shin of the Geumeumdal Guild had was completely different.
I couldn't rule out the possibility that the war machine Paradise possessed had changed into something else entirely.
“Th-there were some strange things. They had human forms, but they were a bit too strange to be called human...!”
A short while later.
Inside the residential area, a survivor from the battle explained, his hands and feet trembling.
The battlefield had been clearly in their favor.
But somehow, they had started to be pushed back.
They had retreated to hold a meeting and find the cause, but the guild masters just frowned, seemingly clueless.
I exchanged a look with Hwang Chan-jin.
‘This is that, right?’
‘Seems like it. Didn't you say you destroyed the research facility?’
‘I definitely destroyed the research facility. The mine it was in collapsed too.’
‘Then you destroyed it too late. It seems stopping it one chapter ahead wasn't enough.’
Paradise, while researching ways to give system-like powers to non-players, created a loophole with the help of the Order.
It was barely a loophole, more like heresy.
The insane idea of grafting monsters onto humans.
With the world ending due to monster invasions, they were implanting those very monsters into human bodies to make them attack other humans.
That was the ‘Demonoid’ experiment being conducted in the third mine.
“So it's not the work of the unofficial guilds.”
“No. That's unlikely. The other two are doing their jobs well.”
Seong Woo-hyeon turned his gaze to the other two: the masters of the Hongryeon and Silver Hawk guilds.
“We've formed a separate unit to monitor the unofficial guilds' movements, but there's been no significant activity yet.”
“Hmph. There's no way those cowards wouldn't take advantage of this chaos. Just let them show themselves. I'll rip them out by the roots this time.”
Lee Min-hwa and Kim Hyo-jong each added a comment.
While Paradise, having lost Stigma as a bargaining chip, would find it difficult to draw in other groups, the saying "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" exists.
There was always a chance that the unofficial guilds, not wanting Paradise to fall, would intervene on their own.
‘Well, he's not stupid enough to wage an all-out war recklessly.’
The Guide of the Abyss, Kang Dae-ho.
Originally a simple player, but after a certain incident, he developed a strong animosity towards ‘players,’ including the five major guilds, and created Paradise.
The lore was that his own rank wasn't high, but he used his sharp mind to overcome physical differences.
The important thing here is that he's not a genius.
Just a little smarter than the average person.
In a moment of heightened emotion, it's difficult to calmly analyze the situation and think, 'Something is strange.'
I'd set things up with the Taegeuk Guild, so they were bound to suspect each other and have a falling out.
In other words, the unidentified 'something' that turned the tide of battle was Kang Dae-ho's trump card.
“...I just got a call from a guild member. They managed to take a picture from a distance.”
Lee Min-hwa zoomed in on the photo and showed it to us.
A grotesque figure that seemed to exist somewhere on the border between human and monster.
‘Demonoid.’
The culmination of Paradise's inhumane research.
To be precise, this is closer to a failure.
I wonder if there was another research facility, or if they had taken measures to ensure the lab wouldn't collapse even if the mine did.
I clicked my tongue lightly.
Would it have been better if I hadn't brought the kids and just dealt with it myself?
“They say it's strong enough to easily defeat several C-rank players at once. We should probably discard the notion that we have the upper hand in terms of strength.”
“What should we do? Should we pull back everyone monitoring the unofficial guilds and focus on quickly taking down Paradise?”
“That's not a bad idea. Using my head isn't my style. Can't we just smash both sides?”
“Kim Hyo-jong-ssi. How about you learn a little something called caution?”
“That's why I smash them cautiously.”
“Haha...”
Even if the Demonoids are just mobs, they can't be ignored.
They're quite strong, and they charge at enemies without any regard for their own injuries.
In fact, they seem to enjoy that style of attack.
Like giving flesh to take bone.
Almost like a berserker.
“I don't think we need to fight them.”
“Huh?”
“What?”
Seong Woo-hyeon and Lee Min-hwa asked at the same time.
“What's today's date?”
“Come to think of it, I haven't really been keeping track of the date since the world changed.”
Lee Min-hwa smiled bitterly and was about to take out her phone.
But before she could, Hwang Chan-jin spoke, his face showing a flash of realization.
“I see. There was no need to fight the Demonoids.”
“What was the moon like yesterday? If I remember correctly, it was close to a full moon.”
“That's probably right. I remember it that way too. It was more of a waxing gibbous than a waning one.”
“Then it's a full moon tonight.”
That's all we need.
It doesn't matter much if it's not a full moon, but the effect is strongest when it is.
Listening to Hwang Chan-jin and me, the guild masters' expressions grew increasingly complicated.
“Se-hyeon-nim. What you just said... what did you mean?”
“We just need to stall for a little while and then fight again. There's no need for us to rush. We can just hole up in this residential area and wait for the right moment.”
After saying that, I sat down on the spot and leaned against the wall.
Hwang Yu-jin stuck to her brother and began checking him for injuries.
The sight of Hwang Chan-jin obediently following someone's words was quite refreshing.
I lifted my head slightly and gazed at the horizon.
The sun had already set.
The moon was slowly beginning to reveal itself, so until it shone fully in the night sky.
If we just stayed quiet as mice for those few hours.
‘They'll collapse on their own.’