Chapter 195
Chapter 195
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 195
Chapter Title: ACT.36 Twisted Justice (3)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
‘You know, I think Yeong-jun likes Su-ji.’
‘Hey, why’d you have to say that?’
‘What’s the big deal? It’s not like we’re strangers. We can tell you, Hyung, and you, Nuna. Yeong-jun looks intimidating, doesn’t he? So none of the other kids tried to get close to him, but Su-ji, who happened to sit next to him, treated him without any prejudice. I think he started liking her back then.’
I recalled a chat I once had with the twins.
I remembered the way Go Yeong-jun had acted when we’d barely escaped the World Cup Stadium and boarded the subway.
I remembered how, when we sent them to the east, he had vowed to protect Su-ji no matter what.
“Just because it wasn’t of their own free will doesn’t mean it wasn’t murder.”
Had Jeong Ha-yeon recalled something similar?
Even as Go Yeong-jun glared murderously, she couldn’t immediately refute his words and bit her lip.
“Even if that’s true, you don’t have the right to punish them.”
“Then who will? The so-called law? It’s a miracle the law still applies in this world.”
“Go Yeong-jun…!”
“Don’t interfere. Anyone who gets in my way will be treated as an enemy.”
Shaking off Jeong Ha-yeon, he swung his sword at the people who weren’t even charging at him.
An act that completely disregarded the angels.
Losing the sponsorship of angels was a fatal blow.
However, if one’s actions were heinous enough to surpass that and attract the attention of demons, it was possible to not only offset the loss but to gain even more coins than before.
‘The only downside is.’
Demons loved stimulation.
If you killed ten people and got 1,000 coins, next you’d have to kill twenty, then fifty, to get another 1,000.
You would gradually become a blood-crazed murderer, ultimately fated to be killed by another player sponsored by an angel of the Absolute Good alignment.
Most importantly.
With the ‘Madness’ chapter still unfinished, there was a high probability that Go Yeong-jun could become another awakened of madness.
‘Zeta. Follow Ada, and if you get a chance, kill her immediately.’
Min Dan-ah had said that ‘Madness’ was artificially implanted in her.
It was possible because L-Team had secured Paradise’s research data.
As long as Ada, who still possessed that data and knew how to use it, remained.
The threat of ‘Madness’ would not disappear.
“…Have you ever heard the saying that the police are nothing but scapegoats?”
However, Jeong Ha-yeon still had no intention of giving up on Go Yeong-jun.
“There’s a different cause for all of this. There’s someone else who is truly at fault and must face judgment.”
Go Yeong-jun’s hand froze.
He stared at something in front of him with sunken eyes, then answered without looking.
“…It’s fine. There’s no reason for people with different ideas to travel together.”
As Go Yeong-jun moved, the brainwashed people hesitantly cleared a path.
Ada must have ordered them to stop him at all costs.
But they were too terrified of Go Yeong-jun to carry out that order.
“Hyung. I’ll be going my own way.”
“Wait…!”
Jeong Ha-yeon reached out a hand.
However, Jun Bo-ra stepped between them, preventing Jeong Ha-yeon from grabbing him, and Go Yeong-jun was gone in an instant.
“Jun Bo-ra-ssi, why…”
“I’m sorry. But I didn’t want to stop him.”
“There’s no way that’s the right thing to do!?”
“I just thought about it for a moment. If I were in the same situation, how would I have acted?”
Jun Bo-ra gave a dry smile.
“And I realized I wouldn’t have been much different.”
“…”
“Um… now that Yeong-jun is gone, those people are starting to look menacing again. Shouldn’t we do something about this first?”
“Are these people insane!? They’re just walking through the fire with their bare bodies!?”
As the atmosphere grew strange, Jo Min-ah cautiously tried to change the subject.
The wall of flames created by the twins had held them back to some extent, but they had to extinguish it when people started trying to force their way through, ignoring the fire.
With a long sigh, Jeong Ha-yeon turned around first, and Jun Bo-ra listlessly took her position.
It was her fault for not stopping him in time.
Jun Bo-ra’s face clearly showed that’s what she was thinking.
‘What should I do?’
While incapacitating the charging crowd with darkness, I stared intently in the direction Go Yeong-jun had left.
I could follow him if I wanted to.
If needed, there was also Jun Bo-ra’s teleport.
The problem lay elsewhere.
‘The cultists of Tarwi.’
Among the brainwashed people, a few individuals who were only pretending to be brainwashed stood out.
They weren't wearing the robes a cultist should, just ordinary clothes, but they couldn't hide their distinctive mana.
Only a few were out in the open like this; most were hiding one by one in the surrounding buildings.
Well, well. Were they planning to use everyone gathered here as a sacrifice?
After a moment of thought, I decided that stopping Tarwi was the priority.
‘If the ritual isn’t stopped, it will lead to a disaster, but madness can still be contained.’
There was also the low probability that Go Yeong-jun would become the ‘Guide of Madness’.
To awaken madness, a trigger that causes mental shock is necessary.
That trigger is usually the death of a loved one.
However, since Jeong Su-ji, who could be called Go Yeong-jun’s loved one, was already dead, it was actually difficult to satisfy the trigger.
On the other hand, if Tarwi were to perform the ‘ritual’ here, the entire eastern region would become no different from a dungeon.
“There are suspicious people scattered all around. Let’s take care of them first.”
“Suspicious people?”
“Another organization that conducted human experiments with Paradise.”
The twins’ faces hardened.
The fiends that had appeared during the war with Paradise.
The two of them had even witnessed that research lab when they followed me to the mine.
The thought that more of those things could appear must have put them on high alert.
“Don’t tell me, Tarwi…? They’ve entered this place!?”
“It’s not surprising. When you came to me looking like you were on death’s door, it was right after L-Team had finished dealing with them.”
Ada wasn’t the only problem.
As she realized this, the light slowly returned to Jun Bo-ra’s eyes.
To survive, one had to assess the situation and act, not despair.
Having impersonated the Strategy King, Jun Bo-ra possessed at least that much aptitude.
“…Let’s leave that woman to Go Yeong-jun. He’ll buy us plenty of time.”
“I wouldn’t expect too much.”
“It’s better than nothing.”
Jun Bo-ra’s playful smile made me chuckle.
Darkened, Avenger, One Who Lost the Light.
The traits and unique abilities Go Yeong-jun possessed allowed him to exert power far greater than his own under specific conditions.
Ada was an opponent who fit those conditions.
If we cleaned up the Tarwi cultists here and pursued them, we should be able to make it in time.
“I’ll hold them off here alone. You take the other three and teleport around to catch the ones hiding in the buildings. Min-ah should be able to pinpoint their locations. You can feel it, right? The people with that distinctly foreign energy.”
“Yes! Leave the detection to me!”
“You were good at finding things back when we were hunting the Disaster of Verdure. Alright, I’m counting on you, Min-ah.”
“Oh, and the last one, catch him a little later on purpose. I’ll give you a signal. The timing should work out anyway.”
“…?”
Though puzzled, Jun Bo-ra immediately used her teleport.
It’s better to show than to explain.
The guys mixed in over here… they must think I was left behind while the others chased after them.
As long as I’m not discovered, it’s fine.
“Drive out the fake!”
“Follow the real Strategy King!”
“…You look like you’d turn into one of them if you got bit.”
I let out a hollow laugh and stomped my foot.
*CRASH!*
A shockwave spread from where I stomped, shaking their balance.
This should blur their vision and make it hard to see.
*Shluck!*
With the sound of something protruding, the disguised cultists were impaled through the abdomen by spikes and died instantly.
Those watching from the upper floors of nearby buildings would soon notice the anomaly, but they were fated to meet a similar end.
“~~~!”
Buried under the sound of the brainwashed people’s chants, it wasn’t clearly audible, but it was a distinct scream.
It seemed they had already dealt with the two who were relatively close together.
That left two more.
*Fssst…*
Red lines began to appear all over the surrounding ground and walls.
The magic circle that is drawn when the ‘ritual’ begins.
Just as I expected, they were conducting the ritual on everyone here.
A ritual of this scale should be able to summon that direct subordinate of the ‘Disaster of Defiance.’
I fixed my gaze on the one farthest away.
I saw his body flinch as if he thought our eyes had met.
“Did you think you’d be safe just because you’re far away?”
*Swoosh.*
In an instant, I gathered darkness, shaped it into a spear, and then.
*WHOOSH!*
Aiming for his brow, I threw it with all my might.
“Ugh?!”
Perhaps able to see and react due to the distance, he dodged it by a hair’s breadth.
He placed a hand on his chest as if to calm his pounding heart and caught his breath.
Then, a slight sneer touched his lips.
I gestured with my chin as if to tell him to look behind him.
“Gack!!”
He was dead before he could even turn around.
Behind him stood a dark soldier, its eyes gleaming.
A piece of darkness had detached from the spear, transformed into a soldier, and cut the man down.
Now only one remained.
*Fwaaat!*
Lines connected with other lines, forming a specific shape.
The magic circle was now on the verge of completion.
“Now!”
The moment I shouted, a small scream melted into the air.
*Woooong…*
The lines, unable to proceed any further due to the slight delay, stopped just short of meeting each other.
Success.
I sheathed my sword as I looked at the players who had frozen as if petrified.
The ritual proceeds in three stages.
Binding of the sacrifices, forced injection of mana, and manifestation of the purpose.
What I intended to use was the ‘binding’ stage.
It’s a mechanism that exists to prevent sacrifices from escaping while the magic circle is being drawn, but used this way, it could be a rather useful restraint.
Jun Bo-ra, who had teleported back, marveled in amazement.
“Who knew you could use it like this…?”
“It doesn’t last forever. Immediately…”
[‘Zeta’ has taken fatal damage and will be unsummoned.]
The unexpected situation made me stop mid-sentence.
I furrowed my brow slightly.
‘Ada shouldn’t have had the military power to block Zeta’s attack.’
Could another member of L-Team have come to support her in that time?
No matter how fast a player was, they couldn’t get here from Busan that quickly.
The only remaining possibility was an item.
‘There are many ways to defend against darkness.’
That was a major weakness of the ‘Lord of Darkness’ trait.
Ada could have bought something from the shop in that time.
To be able to block Zeta’s attack and force a reverse-summon, she must have either spent an enormous amount or used an item with a limited number of uses.
A permanent effect would cost hundreds of thousands of coins, so it was safe to assume the latter.
There was a cooldown before I could summon Zeta again, which meant I had to deal with Ada myself.
“We’re going after Ada immediately. We need to stop her before she expands her forces.”
My companions nodded.
The sponsorship messages, which usually distracted me at every turn, were sparse.
The ‘Madness’ chapter wasn’t over yet, but considering L-Team had made contact with ‘Tarwi’ beforehand, it wasn’t that strange.
Things must be in an uproar on their end as well.
They might not be sponsoring, but they were still watching from time to time, so I couldn’t act carelessly.
‘Angels are a kind of watchdog.’
I recalled what ‘Crow’ had said in the original game.
There wasn’t a single thing wrong with that statement.
***
“Nice to meet you. Is this our first time meeting face-to-face?”
-…You’re not Grace. Who are you?
“You should have been contacted beforehand. I’m Ada, from L-Team.”
As Ada gave a gentle smile, the woman on the left screen tilted her head in response instead of answering.
-This item has a communication limit of five minutes. Let’s proceed quickly.
On the right screen was a man dressed in a black priest’s habit.
Ada’s lips unconsciously turned down slightly.
‘Salvatio…’
A ‘secret society of progressors’ to which only Roberto and Grace belonged among L-Team members.
The other two on this video call were members of Salvatio, scattered across different countries.
Ada was a progressor herself, but she didn’t know that much about the original game, so it was impossible for her to join Salvatio.
Ada barely managed to control her emotions and smiled again.
“According to what a contact from the Order told me, a Korean player ‘killed the Succubus’… In that case, you’ll be taking action as well, correct?”
At Ada’s question, the long-ponytail-wearing woman, Sie, raised the corners of her mouth into a wide grin.
-Of course we will. We can’t let those Taegeuk bastards get away with it.