Chapter 52
Chapter 52
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 52
Chapter Title: ACT.10 Throne of Greed (1)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The self-proclaimed Strategy King.
After learning of such a person when I rescued Han Hyeok-jun, and when I found out Nam Sang-jin was someone's subordinate.
I had suspected that this self-proclaimed Strategy King might be the one who had taken over the east.
"...The Strategy King, you say."
And today, that suspicion turned into truth.
-Yes. We haven't been able to find out her real name yet, but it seems everyone here calls her the Strategy King and follows her.
Her?
Even though I didn't show my face during my broadcasts, I did speak, so anyone who knew the 'Strategy King' would be suspicious.
She could get away with it by claiming she used a voice modulator program.
But for someone who watched the Strategy King's broadcasts for a long time, that alone wouldn't be enough to completely erase their doubts.
What kind of trick did she use?
"I understand. By any chance, have you found out about the Strategy King's movements so far?"
-I figured you'd be curious, so I looked into it. She stood out so much that it wasn't difficult to gather information.
Lee Seon-yul then recounted, step by step, the actions the self-proclaimed Strategy King had taken since the incident began.
Perhaps because her starting point was different from the original game, she didn't follow the original story, but she had done all the best things possible from her position.
And it was revealed that she was the one who had dealt with 'Han Hyeok-jun's situation' before I did.
In other words, the self-proclaimed Strategy King also has a friendly relationship with Han Hyeok-jun.
'I can assume she knows quite a lot about the game.'
She impersonated me without fear.
If she didn't know much and impersonated me clumsily, the consequences would be severe.
The fact that she impersonated me without hesitation must mean she's that confident.
Still, several questions remain.
'She must have had plenty of opportunities to move this way, so why did she choose to stay in the east?'
The east isn't a very good place to control.
There are many incidents and accidents, and it's a region that borders areas where major hostile forces are secretly active.
If anything, it should be a place with many obstacles to growth.
It's hard to deduce who she is.
She could be a viewer who watched my broadcasts.
Or she could be someone who also streamed the game to some extent, like me. If not that, she might be someone who was just engrossed in the game by herself.
If she were a streamer, I know a few names of those who played this game for a decent amount of time, but the possibility was low.
"I understand. Thank you for the information."
-Is everything alright on your end?
"Nothing much to report... Ah, Kim Ji-hyeon-nim has left."
-She left? Why?
His reaction was more surprised than I expected.
Since one of the two was supposed to stay and recruit me somehow, if both of them left, it would mess up their plans.
From Lee Seon-yul's perspective, who knew nothing, it was understandable to be flustered.
"It seems she went to investigate a major anomaly occurring nearby. She'll probably make contact with you, Lee Seon-yul-nim."
I added a brief update and then ended the call.
As if she had been waiting for the call to end, Jeong Ha-yeon immediately asked a question.
"How are the kids doing?"
"He said they've become a bit more dignified. It seems there have been quite a few battles over there as well."
"It sounds like they weren't hurt."
Jeong Ha-yeon swept a hand over her chest as if in relief.
"Question! What's a Strategy King?"
This time, it was Cha Eun-ha.
"The nickname of a famous... well, formerly famous person who streamed games."
"So you're saying he wasn't very famous recently."
"I guess so. He clung to a dead game all day, neglected to upload to places like YouXube, and only posted unedited, full-length videos over 12 hours long as if it were an obligation. With no one watching, how could it not fail?"
"You know about it in quite a bit of detail, don't you?"
"...It was a channel I used to enjoy watching."
"Hmm."
I flinched at Cha Eun-ha's sharp question but played it off naturally.
Her response was bland, as if she wasn't particularly interested.
It seemed she hadn't lost interest, as she continued to ask questions, but since it was all information from the call, I explained it briefly.
"So that means there are currently five major rulers."
"That's right. And among them, we are the smallest in scale. We do need to grow a bit bigger."
"It's not like survivors are fighting each other. Is there really a need to go that far?"
"Small and medium-sized bases are perfect for guys like Yang Gyu-hyeok to run rampant. And even in a large base, there's no guarantee the ruler isn't a tyrant."
In fact, it's more dangerous if a tyrant has taken over a large base.
They would grow exponentially by mercilessly extorting taxes.
And they would just become a pawn for the devil.
In fact, the ruler of the north I originally knew was a guy like that.
He was an idiot.
He thought he and the devil had a win-win relationship, but in the end, he realized he was merely a pawn. The sight of him wailing and shedding tears of blood in despair was so pathetic it wasn't even funny.
"...You're right. Then are you planning to conquer the smaller surrounding bases?"
"Not yet."
The time will come on its own.
Until then, I planned to get done what needed to be done.
"First, we'll secure the safety of this area. That way, the scattered survivors will feel safe enough to come here."
The northern region is a place that suffers from frequent attacks by various plant-type monsters.
Using the awakened Jo Min-ah's power will not only make it easy but also provide good experience. It's like killing three birds with one stone.
On top of that, some of the important dungeons in this area give rewards that are high-priority necessities for the next chapter, so it's not an option, but a must.
I turned my gaze back outside the window.
Jo Min-woo was panting, lying on the ground resting, but when our eyes met, he shot up and started training again.
I wouldn't say anything if he took a short break.
In fact, continuing without rest leads to exhaustion and is inefficient.
I let out a small sigh and continued speaking.
"Let's change the schedule. We'll start subjugating demonic beasts this evening."
Everyone there nodded, and the brief meeting ended.
As I leaned back, the chair creaked and made an unpleasant sound.
'The fake Strategy King and the other rulers. And Hwang Chan-jin.'
These were the things I needed to pay the most attention to right now.
I couldn't know the fake Strategy King's true intentions, but their reaction to what I'd do next would likely be the same.
I closed my eyes for a moment and imagined a scene where all the other rulers, assuming they had S-rank traits, teamed up to fight me 1-on-4.
I couldn't picture myself losing.
I would just make them all submit with an overwhelming difference in stats.
I finally burst into laughter and closed the status window.
***
"Hyaap!"
With a shout, a living branch was severed.
The branch, shaped like a person's gaunt arm, trembled before stopping its movement.
*Fwoosh!*
Seizing the opening, a blue fireball the size of a watermelon flew and hit its target.
It flailed with its remaining arm, trying to put out the fire, but that only caused the flames to spread.
After catching his breath, Jo Min-woo swung his sword again, and the beast collapsed, its strength gone.
"The firepower is sufficient."
"Really? That's a relief."
Jo Min-ah smiled brightly and scratched her cheek.
The current rank of the unique ability Jo Min-ah awakened, 'Witch of Blue Flames,' was A.
Because her base Mana stat was low, she couldn't display power befitting its rank, but being able to bring a D-rank plant-type demonic beast, a Treant, to a near-death state meant she could be used as a key part of our force for now.
[Character Information]
Name: Jo Min-woo
Gender: Male (15)
Strength: 11(+3) Stamina: 10 Agility: 13(+3) Mana: 6
Unique Ability: (No unique ability possessed)
Traits: Fighting Spirit (E), Martial Frame (D), Mana Circulation (C)
Skill: Aura (E)
Jo Min-woo was also starting to find his identity.
It was a big help that he gained traits and skills one by one through training to increase his mana proficiency.
Mana Circulation is a trait that slightly increases Strength and Agility stats, and Aura is a skill that consumes mana to temporarily increase attack power.
Since his Mana stat was low, the increase in attack power wasn't high, but it was much better than before when he had nothing.
'More importantly, that's not his main strength.'
The unique ability Jo Min-woo will obtain is already decided.
What I need to do is raise him to a state where he can use that power with maximum efficiency.
Above all, Martial Frame.
That trait only raises stats by a minuscule amount, but its base effect is insane.
"Wow. What's with these kids' growth? This is insane."
Cha Eun-ha, who was behind me, clicked her tongue in admiration.
She had insisted on coming along just in case, so I brought her.
I chuckled, thinking about what she said then.
She said she was coming along because I couldn't afford to lose my position as ruler by losing to some weirdo.
She must have been really burned by Yang Gyu-hyeok.
"I can train you too, you know."
"...No, I'm good."
Cha Eun-ha avoided my gaze.
Seeing her gaze subtly shift towards the kids, I had a rough idea why.
"If I followed your training methods, I don't think I'd live to see old age."
"I don't push them to the point of death, do I?"
"That's the problem, it's just short of death! Even my master wasn't that harsh!"
Hmm.
You can't achieve rapid growth without pushing that hard.
Trying to get stronger easily with less effort is just absurd.
Grinding for days on end when you're stuck is a basic tenet for any gamer.
Just then, Jo Min-ah, who had been listening quietly to my conversation with Cha Eun-ha, approached her.
"Unni. Why do you call him so formally?"
"Huh?"
"I've noticed you call him 'that guy,' 'hey you,' things like that."
"Then what should I call him?"
"Why don't you just call him Oppa?"
"What? Oppa? That's embarrassing. No way."
Cha Eun-ha waved her hands, looking disgusted.
Then she shut her mouth firmly.
I watched her for a moment before moving first.
"Enough chit-chat. We'll be at the Treants' nest soon. We need to move quickly if we want to get back before sunset."
The kids nodded and immediately tensed up.
Good. A slight smile touched my lips.
Since we'll have to go to war with people soon, these two needed to get more accustomed to using their power against living creatures.
I'm not expecting them to use lethal force against people.
They're still kids. I can take that into account.
But they at least needed to know how to incapacitate an opponent.
Otherwise, they would be the ones to suffer.
***
The Treants' nest was conquered easily.
Jo Min-ah unleashed all her mana in a preemptive strike, burning a large number of Treants, and the three of us—me, Jo Min-woo, and Cha Eun-ha—approached from three directions to eliminate the rest.
Relatively speaking, Jo Min-woo should have had a hard time facing a D-rank demonic beast alone, but perhaps due to the existence of Martial Frame, which could be called a broken trait, he was able to take down a Treant within two attacks without much difficulty.
Jo Min-ah's power was more unexpected than I thought.
I thought its power was gradually increasing, but by the end, it was showing fragments of A-rank power.
It was probably also thanks to the Testament that was still in effect.
There's nothing better than real combat experience.
"With this, we don't have to worry about demonic beasts for a while..."
I folded my arms, looking at the map of the entire Seoul area spread out on the desk.
The north, center, and east were practically decided.
There was still no information on the west and south. Other than what I already knew.
...Come to think of it, it's about time for Chapter 5 to start.
[With this, all the rulers of the major bases have emerged!]
Speak of the devil.
The swindling devil appeared in mid-air, wagging its tail.
The fact that all the rulers of the major bases had now emerged must mean that in other areas, there were clashes between the original rulers and the second-generation players.
I wonder if things have changed as I thought, or if the original people are still there.
[To all you many rulers, you must have had quite a bit of fun with taxes until now, right?]
It must be sending clones to each base to speak simultaneously.
I fixed my gaze on the devil with an unfriendly look.
[But... honestly, isn't something missing? You wish you could get more coins, don't you?]
The devil laughed.
A sigh mixed with a curse escaped my lips automatically.
Nothing good ever happens when that thing laughs.
[So, I've prepared something.]
The devil clapped its hands, and a system message appeared in my vision.
[A main quest has been generated.]
[Ch5 – Throne of Greed]
As there are not two suns in the sky.
O you who possess the qualifications of a king, seize the one and only throne.
Those who fear battle will lose even the right to do so.
Reward: Ruler Trait Enhancement, Crown Effect Enhancement
Upon Failure: The final victor holds all decision-making rights
Combat Grace Period: 12 hours
※Failure to engage in combat at least once within the grace period will result in the revocation of the ruler's qualifications.