Chapter 245
Chapter 245
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 245
Chapter Title: ACT.48 Cha Eun-ha (3)
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Of the ways to go up, the elevator was broken from a power overload, leaving only the stairs.
Now that I had blocked them with Black Flame, there was virtually no way for them to get upstairs.
A few addicts bravely stepped forward, but after seeing those who got too close to the Black Flame scream as the inextinguishable fire set them alight, forcing them to throw off their clothes, they were too terrified to move.
For those who still didn't get the message and charged, I simply knocked them unconscious.
Unable to watch any longer, Santiago lost his temper.
“You useless bastards... At this rate, there’ll be no Red Eye for any of you!”
“Once we take down Kim Se-hyeon, that fire will disappear! Don't be afraid!”
Santiago and the other A-Team members shouted relentlessly.
A ploy to wear me down before fighting, perhaps.
“What a strange way to incite them.”
“...What do you mean?”
“If you want drugs, isn't it much easier to attack the ones who have it and take it from them, rather than helping them for a reward? Your chances of winning that fight would be better, too, right?”
The look in the addicts' eyes changed.
Sensing the strange shift in the air, Santiago yelled urgently.
“To the one who kills him, I'll give 10kg of Red Eye on the spot! Even if you just deal some damage, it's 50g per person!”
The atmosphere changed again.
They went wild at the thought of getting so much just for landing a hit.
If they could be swayed so easily by a few words, things wouldn't have gotten this far.
Santiago bared his teeth in a grin.
“They're just a small fraction, anyway. The number of people we've been prepping is far greater than you think.”
Behind the A-Team, more and more people were continuously flocking in.
So many that it seemed like every citizen in Busan had gathered.
And if you looked closely, there were non-players mixed in among them.
Does this mean they indiscriminately created addicts just for this?
The number Jeon Do-jin and the others had predicted was just the tip of the iceberg.
“You heard that?”
I said, speaking to someone who was surely listening to all of this.
“Take care of all of them.”
*Fwoosh!*
The sound of air bursting echoed.
The addicts stopped moving, their bodies going limp as if all strength had drained from them.
“Wh-what the. These guys! They can't move!? Move! I said move!!”
“It's useless. Th-these people won't listen to you anymore.”
From beyond the wall of Black Flame, Do Beom-jin revealed himself.
Having finished his treatment, his complexion improved and his mind cleared, Do Beom-jin had used his unique ability, ‘Mind Hijacking’.
“Don't push yourself.”
“Just st-stopping them is f-fine. I-I have to repay my debt.”
Do Beom-jin said with an awkward smile.
He was still stuttering, a sign the aftereffects of the drug hadn't fully healed, but it didn't seem like he was overexerting himself by using his ability.
Do Beom-jin hadn't just been receiving treatment all this time.
In other words, his treatment meant he had come to understand Red Eye better.
This, in turn, led to the enhancement of his ability.
Right now, Do Beom-jin's unique ability was Rank B.
It was more than enough to control this haphazardly gathered crowd with a simple command.
“Damn it...!”
Santiago cursed and drew his machete.
The other two also drew their respective weapons.
One S-rank. Two A-ranks.
They weren't a team that engaged in much actual combat, so unlike the L-Team, not all of them were S-rank.
“How long can you hold them?”
“With this many people, I-I can probably manage for about five minutes...”
“That's enough.”
I put on the Goblin Cape and vanished.
*Thwack!*
One of them, struck in the temple, lost focus and collapsed unconscious.
Panicked at losing one of their own in an instant, the remaining two stood back-to-back, trying to sense my presence, but one of them was only an A-rank.
“There!”
Santiago managed to react, but it was only after the one guarding his back had already been taken down.
“Damn you, you cowardly bastard!”
“The one who dragged civilians into this is talking about cowardice.”
*Crack!*
Struck in the jaw, Santiago was momentarily lifted into the air.
I had hit the best spot to knock someone out, but he must have been pretty tough; Santiago's eyes shot open as he attempted a counterattack.
I narrowly dodged his spinning moonsault kick and parried the ensuing machete strike with my sword.
“Even if I can't see you, this position is enough...!”
Santiago thrust out his other hand.
A viscous, green liquid burst out.
It spread over a wide area, leaving no room to escape.
*Splat!*
The feeling of being doused in poison was even more unpleasant than I'd imagined.
“No matter how strong you are, as long as you're a living being, you can't be immune to poison! Rot away slowly!”
As if he'd been saving this move, Santiago's face gradually filled with ecstasy.
But that expression didn't last long, twisting as if played in reverse.
“Too bad.”
Santiago existed in EOA, too.
Did he really think I wouldn't know what kind of power he used?
“Another guy tried to use a drug bomb on me, but it didn't work either.”
I simply had no reason to be on guard.
[The effect of the item, ‘Yonggakju,’ nullifies all harmful effects.]
*Stab!*
“Kuaargh!”
Thorns shot up, piercing Santiago's shoulders and thighs.
Switching from defense to offense takes time.
That was why I didn't use darkness to nullify the poison, even though I could have.
Besides, with the Yonggakju, what was there to worry about?
“Guuuhhh...”
“The US is big enough. You could have run your business there. Why bother crawling all the way over here?”
“...Isn't it obvious? Maintaining this level of power costs thousands of coins. If we don't run a coin business on a guild-wide scale like this, we can't cover the upkeep.”
“That can't be the only reason.”
“...”
Santiago clamped his mouth shut.
Right. I already knew that part anyway.
I immediately asked what I was really curious about.
“How much do you make a day doing this?”
Santiago's lips moved.
The number was so far beyond my expectations that I couldn't help but let out a hollow laugh.
“...That's quite a lot.”
But if they were using all those coins, they should have been much stronger.
Even considering the stat limit, they should have had the combat power of the L-Team.
It was enough to forcibly raise A-ranks to S-rank.
And yet, they weren't.
“Are most of those coins sent to the Pentagon Eagle?”
“Of course. Didn't I say it was a business?”
The Pentagon Eagle.
And by extension, Salvatio.
It meant a massive amount of coins was flowing to them.
‘In EOA, the Pentagon Eagle used that massive hoard of coins to absorb other guilds indiscriminately.’
But things are different now.
Salvatio is operating in the shadows, using the Pentagon Eagle as its host.
If by some chance. Just one in a million.
If one of them discovered the ‘Stat Limit Removal’ like I did.
‘They could afford it for several people with plenty to spare.’
A chill ran down my spine.
The only reason I'd been able to stop their schemes so far was because I was the only one free from the stat limit.
The moment I lost that advantage, stopping them would become anything but easy.
Uriel did say it.
That this was a privilege granted to me.
However, I was in no position to take her words at face value.
Conversely, it meant that those who could access the system could arbitrarily grant that privilege to someone else.
“...This won't last forever, Kim Se-hyeon.”
Santiago gasped for breath, glaring at me.
“The reason we didn't bother hiding the warp gate is because there's no way to destroy it. The L-Team is constantly sending out bio-signals, whether they're dead or alive. Now that their marker is dead, the news has already reached our headquarters in the US. Reinforcements will be here soon, and you'll all be finished!”
Santiago burst into crazed laughter.
He looked like he was high, even though he wasn't.
The disgust I felt turned into pity.
“The warp gate is already broken. It's not operational.”
“What...?”
I snapped a pair of ability-suppressing cuffs onto the wrist of Santiago, whose face was frozen in disbelief.
“And by capturing you, I've met all the conditions for negotiating with the Pentagon Eagle.”
Darkness formed at Santiago's feet.
The shock of having his last resort shattered must have been immense; Santiago fell into the darkness without any reaction.
Two A-Team members remained.
I approached the one who had woken up but was pretending to be unconscious.
“So it's you.”
“Gah!”
The man, his wrist crushed under my foot, screamed and looked up at me.
An old-looking pocket watch fell from his hand with a clatter.
The ‘Time Traveler's Pocket Watch’ that Yeomryong had mentioned.
He only possessed it and didn't know how to use it properly, but by accidentally activating it and traveling to the future, he became the reason the ‘Future Jo Min-woo’ traveled to the present.
I opened the darkness beneath him and the last remaining member.
“This severs the chain of causality.”
“Aaaaaahhh!!”
And with that, all the A-Team members in Busan were dealt with.
In this world, the future Jo Min-woo would now have no reason to time travel.
“I-is it over?”
As I dispelled the wall of Black Flame, Do Beom-jin cautiously approached.
Cold sweat was trickling down his forehead.
Even though he'd said he could manage, ten minutes must have been a stretch.
“You can let go now.”
“But w-will these people listen to us quietly?”
“Well, about that...”
As soon as they were free from Do Beom-jin's influence, the addicts started looking ready to attack again. I spoke as if it were nothing.
“We'll have to get a little physical.”
***
The addicts' rebellion, if you could call it that, was suppressed shortly after.
They were just a ragtag mob, after all.
With the A-Team that had been holding back our stronger players all defeated, it was the natural outcome.
Two things were done first.
One was treating the drug addicts.
There were many addicts, but since not a single doctor or healing-type player had lost their life, there wasn't a serious manpower shortage.
As for how they remained safe amidst all that chaos, it was simply thanks to Alpha.
Do Beom-jin used Mind Hijacking to make them obediently receive treatment, and the doctors put out the most urgent fires by giving the addicts quick, temporary care.
After that, they began methodically treating the most severe cases first.
Perhaps because they had experience treating Do Beom-jin, who had been in critical condition, the medical staff was proficient, and Busan quickly began to return to normal.
[Main Quest has been cleared.]
[5000 Coins have been awarded as a clear reward.]
Stingy.
Compared to the chapters with Disasters, the reward is far too meager.
‘Then again, the game was always like this.’
The main quest clear reward was essentially just a bonus.
It was the kind of game where players had to find their own ways to earn coins within the chapter.
For example.
[The ‘Angel of Benevolence’ looks upon your good deed with pleasure.]
[You have been sponsored 1000 Coins.]
[The ‘Vicar of Light Who Condemns Evil’ nods, acknowledging that rehabilitation is also a valid method.]
[You have been sponsored 1500 Coins.]
[The ‘Seat of the Blindfolded Scales’...]
Like extorting coins from the angels by subduing the addicts without killing a single one and then treating them.
[The ‘Shadow Lurking in the Dark’ is curious about how you will use those you've captured.]
[The ‘Devil Who Mocks the Heavens’ expresses dissatisfaction, asking if things didn't end a little too blandly.]
Or hinting to the devils that I'd give them something satisfying next time.
Chugging down satisfying moments one after another isn't bad, but a fizzy drink tastes best after eating something dry or greasy.
[Don't you want me to show the real gods' messages?]
“Not for now.”
[I really can't figure you out sometimes.]
Besial muttered, clasping his hands behind his head.
‘It's a kind of filtering process.’
And the other thing.
Was Jeon Do-jin's funeral.