Chapter 92
Chapter 92
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 92
Chapter Title: The Strategy That Never Existed (3)
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“The Geumeumdal Guild attacked Gong Yeong-hoon?”
Jun Bo-ra nodded in affirmation.
The Geumeumdal Guild deliberately sought out and killed Gong Yeong-hoon.
What reason could they have had?
It’s easy to assume they did it because Gong Yeong-hoon was an obstacle to their goals, but...
‘Are they trying to stop us from clearing the Ark Gate?’
No, that can't be it.
They're supposed to be waiting for the guilds to form large expedition forces and enter the Ark Gate, but this is essentially preventing that from happening.
If it's for another purpose...
I need to change my perspective.
The reason they want to prevent the Ark Gate from being cleared.
“...Is it because of the virus?”
Even with the current virus, developing a cure is impossible, and containment is difficult.
They intend to collect the virus for some kind of research.
Furthermore, they want to use the virus to control Seoul.
Combine these three things, and one objective emerges.
They'll mutate the virus to make it more dangerous, and use it to reign as kings.
‘So they took action, thinking Gong Yeong-hoon could become a hindrance.’
I clicked my tongue with a *tsk*.
Now that they have the dimension stones and can easily control the virus, has our job become that much more complicated?
They must be well aware that the Ark Gate is releasing a powerful virus.
Therefore, it's easy to speculate that clearing the Ark Gate might make the virus disappear.
From their perspective, needing to acquire and use the virus, they have to stop players from entering in the first place.
This is possible because they've secured a way to win without having to wait for the strong players to be absent.
“The Geumeumdal Guild now is somehow different from how they acted in 'End of Apocalypse.' It's so different I'm starting to think my information was wrong. Oh, right, I heard you didn't join any guild?”
“I can gather information just fine without joining one. You, on the other hand, have been spreading useless rumors.”
“Useless? It's all strategy, strategy. And I wouldn't do anything that could harm you. That's why I came all this way to tell you what I found out. Comrades have to overcome crises together.”
“...Comrades?”
“Was I the only one who thought so!?”
Jun Bo-ra was aghast.
I had been thinking of it more as a temporary alliance than comrades.
I thought for a moment before nodding.
“Of course. We're comrades.”
“You probably just thought it'd be easier to use me if you called me a comrade.”
I ignored her sharp glare and fell back into thought.
I wonder how many dimension stones Geumeumdal has.
Even if the dimension stone fragments in the cylinder were small, they would still need a significant amount to create that many.
For the sake of my future goals, I have to stop them and take the stones before they use any more.
With Jun Bo-ra here, I could just teleport and charge in with her.
“Never mind. Oh, and this is the real reason I came to find you. All this time, I've been... Hwang...”
Just as I was deep in thought, my phone rang again.
Now that the communication network is restored, this phone that never used to ring is now ringing off the hook.
I turned to Jun Bo-ra, who had stopped mid-sentence.
“Is it important?”
“...Just answer your phone.”
Leaving the somewhat sulky Jun Bo-ra behind me, I answered the call.
Just then, Choi Seo-hee's panicked voice hit my ear from the other side.
-Leader! Dammit, things have gone sideways! This doesn't make any sense!
Choi Seo-hee is this flustered?
This was the same Choi Seo-hee who didn't lose her composure even when I discovered her identity and her life was on the line.
It would take something extraordinary to get her this worked up.
“Calm down and tell me what's going on.”
-A gate opened in the middle of the residential area! A massive amount of virus spread in an instant!! Didn't you say this wouldn't happen!?
“...”
I was bewildered too, but I didn't let it show.
Instead, my hand naturally went to my mouth.
“A gate in the middle of the residential area!? That never happened before!”
The call wasn't quiet, so Jun Bo-ra, who was nearby, heard everything and was horrified.
That's right. This wasn't in the original story.
But it was also something I had anticipated to some extent.
“Things are already very different from the original story. It's not just the events we know that are happening.”
Just look at Gong Yeong-hoon.
In all my countless playthroughs, I'd never once seen Gong Yeong-hoon die prematurely.
But this time, he died.
And the existence of dimension stones, which weren't in the original game, is somehow influencing all of this.
This is not good.
I hope the Ark Gate hasn't been strengthened too. That would be a problem.
“A gate appeared in the middle of the residential area?”
Choi Seo-hee, who must have been listening to the call, sidled up to us.
She looked like she knew something.
“Yes. Right in the very center.”
“Considering the locations where gates used to appear and the speed at which they were closing in, this should have taken at least another week...!”
Jun Bo-ra was right.
Considering the Ark Gate had only just opened, this happened in an extremely short amount of time.
I'd never seen this happen before, because whether I cleared the Ark Gate or not, it never took more than a week.
Suddenly, I remembered the mid-boss fight.
That monster also appeared several days early.
Could it be? Has the time limit really been drastically shortened compared to before?
“Don't tell me... that research...?”
“Do you know something?”
“...No. Not really.”
Choi Seo-hee clamped her mouth shut.
I didn't press her for more.
I'd find out anyway once I crushed the Geumeumdal Guild.
For now, the priority is to stop the virus from spreading in the residential area.
If I leave it as is, we'll be pressed for time.
“Jun Bo-ra. Teleport.”
“Aye, aye. I figured you'd say that.”
Jun Bo-ra finally seemed to understand the kind of treatment you get when you have the teleportation trait.
***
The residential area was already in chaos.
The outskirts of the residential area had already been sealed off because of the gates spewing the existing virus, which had reduced the size of the livable space.
Until then, the chaos hadn't been too severe.
*This is a safe zone where gates don't appear.*
*As long as we don't go into the restricted zones, nothing will happen.*
But that assumption had just been proven wrong.
“Hurry up and block this path!”
“The infected!? How do we move them!?”
“Get the players with psychokinesis! If we touch them directly, we'll get infected too!”
People from various guilds were desperately trying to contain the spreading virus.
They must have gathered for a meeting about the Ark Gate, only to get caught up in this sudden incident.
“Aaargh! My, my arm...!”
The virus is a colored smoke, so if you're paying attention, you can avoid it before it touches you.
However, being so close to the gate, it's difficult to dodge the virus when it appears so suddenly.
The person who just screamed was one such case.
With a sizzling sound, his arm began to melt at a rapid pace, already exposing the flesh underneath. Other people rushed toward him.
“Cut off the affected part or cauterize it before the virus spreads!”
“It'll hurt, but bear with it!”
“Gyaaaaaah!!”
A man who had conjured fire in his hand immediately pressed it against the corroding area.
The pain of having one's flesh burned while still alive could not have been small.
The man gasped and was on the verge of passing out, but just before he lost consciousness, someone with a healing trait treated him, and he finally calmed down.
They couldn't cure the virus infection, but they could treat injuries from other factors.
It was obviously better to endure the pain than to let the virus spread.
[The 'Angel of Benevolence' clasps her hands in pity.]
“Dammit! What's going on! The iron gate is corroding!”
“It's no use! We can't stop it from spreading!”
“Move aside.”
As people panicked because the usual containment methods weren't working, a woman appeared from the crowd.
The Master of the Hongryeon Guild, Lee Min-hwa.
She was ranked number one in flame-type abilities, even earning the moniker 'Flare Lord.'
*Fwoosh!*
If Han Hyeok-jun's flames were refined and disciplined, Lee Min-hwa's were destructive and wide-ranging.
At her gesture, a wave of fire formed and greedily burned away the virus.
The crowd's gasps of admiration were short-lived.
As if to mock her efforts, a large amount of green smoke billowed out from around the gate once more.
Lee Min-hwa's face contorted at the sight.
Continuing this would only exhaust her. Destroying the virus wasn't a solution at all.
“Gates that only spew viruses like that will never close. Not until the Ark Gate is closed. Since they don't close, they just keep spewing the virus. That's why we had no choice but to give up the outskirts and seal them off.”
Jun Bo-ra said, frowning.
“But they can't give up the center of the residential area, so they're trying to block it like that... There's no way. Unless you're a flame user on Lee Min-hwa's level, it'd be hard to burn all that virus. And it's not like she can just stand there and keep burning it. Ah, seriously! There's a limit to how much harder this can get than the original!”
She finally grabbed her head and let out a frustrated scream.
In the original story, a virus gate never appeared in the middle of the residential area this early.
So all we had to do was focus on clearing the Ark Gate without worrying about much else.
But this time, too many things are different.
I focused my attention back on the spreading virus.
‘The type of virus is different.’
It's green, not the usual purple.
That's the same virus leaking from the Ark Gate.
In other words, this is 'that bastard' inside the Ark Gate declaring a time limit.
*Come and find me quickly, before the entire residential area is covered in this enhanced virus.*
One way or another, the only way to stop it right now was to use the cylinders.
“I'll go stop it.”
“Huh? You have a way!?”
“Unlike someone.”
I took a large number of cylinders out of my inventory.
It had spread to about the size of a classroom, but it seemed possible to reduce it by half by placing the cylinders around it.
“Ah! D-danger!”
Rushing into the virus smoke was like a suicide mission.
That's why a few people screamed at the sight of me, but they soon fell silent.
“W-what...?”
“The virus is avoiding him, isn't it?”
“What's happening?”
I placed the cylinders in a circle, keeping a certain distance between them.
Then, the green smoke, repelled by the cylinders, became trapped as if in a barrier, unable to spread any further.
I'd put out the immediate fire.
‘Too many incidents are happening one after another.’
I'd only given the MV gun and cylinders I took from Geumeumdal to the Jamryong Guild.
This happened before the Jamryong Guild could distribute them to the other guilds.
If this had happened tomorrow, at least the guilds that had learned about the cylinders would have been able to respond quickly.
“How did you do that?”
From among the quieted crowd, Lee Min-hwa was the first to speak to me.
“You're Kim Se-hyeon-ssi, right? How on earth can you control the virus...?”
Lee Min-hwa's expression, which had held a hint of relief, hardened rapidly.
The moment I saw her gaze shift past my shoulder, I had a bad feeling that things were about to go wrong.
Because behind me stood Choi Seo-hee, along with Jun Bo-ra.
I'd been so focused on dealing with the virus that I'd momentarily forgotten that Lee Min-hwa and Choi Seo-hee were practically sworn enemies.
“Choi Seo-hee...”
Lee Min-hwa's voice trembled.
Choi Seo-hee had her face partially covered by her hood, but to someone who already knew what she looked like, it was as good as nothing.
How could she ever forget?
To Lee Min-hwa, Choi Seo-hee was the enemy who had murdered her younger brother.
Choi Seo-hee must have known that Lee Min-hwa was after her.
However, far from being flustered, Choi Seo-hee was wearing a cryptic smile.
...No way, did she just intentionally reveal herself to Lee Min-hwa?
“Why is Choi Seo-hee with you?”
I could tell from the slight upward tilt of her eyes that she was furious.
No, she had already half-lost her mind.
The proof was that Lee Min-hwa's pupils were now dyed a vermilion color, like the sun.