Chapter 33
Chapter 33
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 33
Chapter Title: ACT.6 The Result of Choice (7)
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“That guy is…!”
“The Bluffing Devil, isn't it?!”
[Bluffing? How hurtful.]
The devil pouted and floated lazily in the air.
Why the hell did this bastard show up here all of a sudden?
Fwaaa!
“Damn it.”
Distracted for just a moment, I barely moved before the next pattern began.
Fortunately, there was an empty platform nearby, so I moved to it.
Suddenly, the sight of people running around in confusion caught my eye.
As the pattern progresses, the number of platforms becomes insufficient.
It was inevitable that some would be left behind.
A chilling sensation, like a cold draft, settled on the back of my neck.
The devil wasn't supposed to appear here.
But I suddenly had a guess as to why it had shown up at this exact moment.
[I don't know why you're all so discouraged. Why assume it's over just because you're late? The darkness hasn't even fallen yet.]
Those who had been left behind listened intently to the devil's words.
This was not good.
The devil was the type to do anything for its own amusement.
What it wanted to see was...
[It's simple, isn't it? Just push someone else off the platform.]
It was the fracturing of a fragile balance.
“Push… someone else…?”
People's eyes wavered.
It wasn't that they hadn't thought of it.
It was just... inhuman.
Even if they were in danger, killing someone else to save themselves was morally and ethically wrong.
They had been subconsciously holding themselves back.
But if someone were to egg them on, saying, 'It's okay to do that'…
The moment that small boundary shattered...
The distrust among the people would reach its peak.
“Ugh!?”
Someone let out a choked gasp.
Someone who had been near the edge of a platform was suddenly pushed off, their spot taken by another.
It was the coward.
“Wh-what are you doing?!”
“I-I have to save myself first. Right? That's right, isn't it? It's your fault for turning your back… right?”
His cheek muscles twitched ceaselessly, and his pupils dilated and contracted.
The man who was pushed tried desperately to get back onto the platform, but he was a hair's breadth too late.
“No! Help me!! I don't want to die like this…!”
The man's desperate scream was swallowed by the darkness and vanished.
The people who could only watch had hardened faces, as if they had seen something they shouldn't have.
“Ha, haha. I did nothing wrong. This is only natural. That thing said so, didn't it? That this is how you do it…. Yeah. That's right. I'm not at fault. This is justified. I have to save myself first.”
Was it relief at having survived?
Or was it because he'd just sent another to their death?
With bloodshot eyes, he muttered something to himself as he stared at his trembling hands.
He looked, for all the world, like a man descending into madness.
“What do you think you're doing?!”
Jo Min-ah, who was on the platform right next to him, shouted. He flinched, but upon realizing it was a middle school girl who had yelled at him, his attitude changed instantly.
“Wh-who does a little brat think she's yelling at? You want to be the next one pushed off?”
A lost cause is a lost cause, to the very end.
Despite the several chances I'd already given him.
He hadn't changed one bit.
“Hey.”
Before an incensed Jeong Ha-yeon could step forward, Jo Min-woo, who was right beside Jo Min-ah, spoke up.
“Go on, push me.”
“Huh?”
“I said, push me. Let's see what happens to you.”
As he spoke in a low, cold voice and took a step forward, the coward backed away.
He didn't draw his sword.
I couldn't tell if he was too angry to think of it or if he'd made a conscious decision, but it was the right choice.
If Jo Min-woo had drawn his sword there, a bloodbath would have erupted on that tiny platform.
Fwaaa!
The next pattern was already about to begin.
A venomous glint appeared in people's eyes.
If they let their guard down, they might get stabbed in the back.
It had become a situation where they couldn't trust anyone and had to cling desperately to their own survival.
[Pfft, pffthaha. Kekekeke!! Idiots, what a bunch of idiots!]
Glaring at the devil, who was roaring with laughter as if things going its way was the funniest thing in the world, I started to move.
I had to do what I came here to do.
‘If I don't thin out the goblins now, it'll be a bigger problem after the pattern ends.’
Our numbers had clearly dwindled, while the goblins had been mostly unaffected by the pattern, widening the gap in our forces.
Normally, when a gate goes berserk, it becomes harder to deal with the monsters.
That much is true.
However, there was a reason I'd allowed the gate to go berserk, even knowing that.
Fight fire with fire.
Just as we were swallowed by the darkness that poured out when the gate first went berserk, the goblins are also affected by this pattern.
In other words, if I use this pattern correctly, I can eliminate the goblins easily, without much effort.
To do that, I need to expand the pattern's area of effect.
[The effect of the trait 'Wind and Moon' is activated.]
[While in combat, your Agility stat increases by 5.]
[Stamina consumption is reduced by 50%.]
[Agility: 40(+12)(+5)]
I felt my body become significantly lighter.
The 5-point boost to Agility was nice, but the more important part was that my stamina consumption had been halved.
It meant I could run nonstop until the gate was cleared without getting too exhausted.
‘I'll move as much as possible before the time limit for the next pattern runs out.’
The moment the darkness receded back into the ground, I sprang into action.
I cut down the goblins blocking my way and charged recklessly in one direction.
The goblins, caught off guard while spectating, couldn't react properly. Even if they wanted to, it was impossible.
Because the darkness pursued me relentlessly as I moved beyond the pattern's initial area.
Swoooosh...
[Kyaaaak?!]
With the darkness spreading beneath their feet, the goblins panicked too.
They had seen their own kind being swallowed, and they had watched the humans suffer for the last several minutes.
Even the goblins knew just how vicious this darkness was.
“Se-hyeon-ssi, what on earth are you doing?!”
“Don't worry about me!”
Before I knew it, I had reached the immediate vicinity of the gate.
Because it had been on the left side of the gate, I could see the shaman who hadn't been swept away by the initial wave of darkness.
“Krrrrr....”
Its appearance had changed significantly from when it was performing the ritual.
Before, it was just its clothes that were different; its body was green like the other goblins. But now, its skin was black, its body muscular, and it stood over two meters tall.
When a gate goes berserk, it upgrades the strongest monster in the vicinity.
The pattern alone was grueling, but now there was an evolved monster on top of it.
If this gate's berserk pattern wasn't so easy to exploit, I would have just been a troll.
“That's a goblin...? That's almost top-tier among C-rank monsters. That's the kind of power you'd expect from a Goblin Lord!”
Kim Ji-hyeon narrowed her eyes in disbelief.
She looked like she wanted to help me somehow, but she bit her lip and stayed put.
That was the right choice.
There was nothing worse than her coming over to my side, only for one of us to be unable to get on a platform.
‘Something's a little off, though...’
This is very different from the Goblin Shaman in my memories.
It was only supposed to be surrounded by a red aura, not change this drastically.
Something felt fishy.
Still, what I had to do remained the same.
“Kuaaaack!”
The wooden staff, having lost its original purpose, was swung viciously.
It was powerful, but slow.
[The power of the Sa-in Sword is amplified.]
On the other hand, it was easier for me to deal with it.
The evolution caused by the berserk gate doubles its 'unholy power'.
Which in turn, increased the power of the Sa-in Sword, which cuts down the unholy.
Chwaaak!
The goblin, slashed across the chest, screamed and staggered back.
Watching it, I clicked my tongue.
Too shallow.
It wasn't a blow that would have much of an effect.
Fwaaa!
If I kept pressing, I could land more effective hits, but this wasn't a situation where I could just focus on fighting.
I had to constantly pay attention to the berserk gate's pattern.
I put some distance between us and quickly scanned the area for one of the few remaining platforms.
‘This makes five.’
Most of the people I had intended to weed out had failed to clear the pattern and disappeared.
I had achieved one objective.
Getting rid of those who might have stabbed me in the back, and without lifting a finger.
But if the number of platforms decreased any further, my own team members might be left behind.
I shouted in a slightly high-pitched tone, as if I had just realized it.
“Stand on one foot, hold onto each other, and balance! Just because you're standing on the ground doesn't mean you have to use both feet!”
“Ah!”
“There was a way...!”
Using this method, the number of people who could stand on a single platform nearly doubled.
In fact, this was the solution to the pattern that allowed everyone to survive.
I had simply kept it to myself to deal with the traitors without getting my hands dirty.
I never once thought my companions would be eliminated.
Having followed me, they would have had more coins than the others, and thus, their stats would naturally be higher.
['The Devil Who Mocks the Heavens' snickers.]
My foot landed on a spot.
There was only a single footprint.
Even using the method I just mentioned, only one person could get on this platform.
But there was someone else there besides me.
It was the coward.
“......!”
Our eyes met.
Perhaps because he realized who he was up against, he panicked and his eyes darted around.
As I'd expected, it seemed he'd been pushed this way by the glares of the others.
I deliberately stood still and watched.
It was a final test to see how he would react.
“Ugh, uwaaah!”
The coward's choice was the same as before.
He thrust both hands forward, throwing his body at me to push me off the platform.
Faintly, the corners of my mouth lifted.
What a relief.
He was exactly the piece of trash I thought he was.
Whoosh!
I dodged the coward's attack with utter ease.
This was a man who couldn't even hunt monsters.
Even though he'd received the minimum reward, the gap between us was immense.
He must have been too panicked to even make that distinction.
“Huh? H-huh?”
Having thrown his full body weight into the push, intending to shove me off completely, he couldn't overcome his own momentum.
He lost his balance, and his body slowly pitched forward.
And then, in an instant, he fell off the platform.
“Aaaargh! S-save me! Help me!!”
As he was being devoured by the darkness, he screamed endlessly for help.
His flailing hands tried to grab onto me, but they only clawed at empty air.
His eyes seemed to scream.
*Please, save me. You could help me easily, couldn't you?*
And yet, he was the one who had smiled in relief after watching this same scene play out several times.
“P-please, save me! No, please save me! I was wrong! I-I just wanted to live…!”
“......”
“D-don't just stare... Uwaaah! Something just! Something feels like it's grabbing my leg!! Y-you bastard! Don't just watch, help me!! Hey! You son of a bitch!!!”
I turned my head away.
Soon after he was out of my sight, the sound of his screeching, like nails on a chalkboard, also faded.
I had given him several chances.
It was his own fault for not changing until the very end.
I only dodged his attack; I never directly pushed him off the platform.
Even if I wanted to save him, it was impossible while balancing precariously on one foot.
How could I, standing on one leg, bend down to grab a hand that was below my knee?
One wrong move, and I would be caught in the pattern as well.
I was 'forced' to be unable to save him.
['The Judge of Consecration' is silent.]
['The Angel of Benevolence' squeezes its eyes shut and turns away.]
As a result, the angels who adhered to absolute good did not reprimand me.
['The Devil Who Mocks the Heavens' watches with great interest while eating popcorn.]