The Heavenly Demon Plunders (5)
“What kind of bug is this?”
Dan-yeong, who had died in the maze without knowing why and then respawned, stared at the stone wall of her house and let out a dumbfounded voice. She was one of the people who had been grinding Thread seriously until recently. As such, she was well-optimized on how to start from nothing and tech up as fast as possible. Fully armed in record time, she had immediately rushed into the maze.
The maze had been patched to make pathfinding difficult, but it was still ultimately a farming spot. It wasn’t designed to be completely impossible to clear. Dan-yeong had been progressing smoothly through the dungeon using the veteran techniques only old-timers knew, but then suddenly the wall beside her shattered and she died.
Of course, breaking through walls to ambush players was one of the maze’s main tactics, but at this point in the game, there was no way to obtain magic powerful enough to actually shatter those walls. Before even talking about veteran techniques or good luck, it was physically impossible. Therefore, the correct conclusion was that it had been a bug.
“Haa. Fucking trash game. Stupid developers. One patch and the bugs are swarming again?”
That wasn’t a bug.
“What nonsense is that? There’s no way the walls could shatter at this stage of the game.”
“Hwaryeong-nim?”
As both a streamer and a viewer of several Turret broadcasts, Dan-yeong naturally knew about Hwaryeong. These days, it was probably harder to find someone in the community who didn’t know that name.
“Hwaryeong-nim broke the wall?”
If any other name had been mentioned, Dan-yeong would have simply told them to stop talking nonsense. But the name Hwaryeong had a strange power to make even the most ridiculous claims sound plausible.
If it really was that person who broke the wall and killed me, a kill log should have popped up…
“Yep.”
“Sorry. I didn’t realize it was Hwaryeong-nim.”
If it was Hwaryeong-nim, then yeah, that made sense. It wasn’t like this was the first or second time that person had done something that defied common sense.
“I can’t believe Hwaryeong-nim joined the streamer server. Did Enry invite them?”
“Crazy. Isn’t that power balance way too one-sided?”
The game Thread had the fun of growing by farming in the wild, but its true endgame was PvP between parties. Attacking, destroying, and plundering each other’s castles was the real point of playing Thread. Because of that, party strength was inevitably the most important factor in the game, and no matter how you looked at it, Enry’s party was on a completely different scale.
Enry was one thing. Pipi was a veteran among Thread streamers, easily in the top ten. And then there was Hwaryeong, who could shatter mountains with bare hands, split the sky, and flip the sea itself. Having those two together was basically a natural disaster.
Even if Hwaryeong fell naked into this world, people would call it a cataclysm, and now she even had Pipi—a reliable veteran—to back her up!
“We should never touch that party.”
If they messed with them and earned their grudge, the house they had worked so hard to build could end up becoming part of the grassland. Dan-yeong knew her place very well. She had no desire to become a moth flying into the flames.
“Dan-yeong!”
However, not everyone thought as rationally as she did. One of her party members, a woman named Myeongge, was the perfect example.
“What?”
“Let’s go hunt Hwaryeong-nim.”
Having had everything she had painstakingly farmed stolen by Hwaryeong not long ago, Myeongge had already lost her mind. Dan-yeong let out a sigh as if to say “are you even listening to yourself?” before continuing.
“Do you really think that’s possible?”
“Why not? Hwaryeong-nim is still a person.”
“Can we even call that a person?”
Could someone who could produce firepower comparable to Thread’s high-tier magic with their bare hands really be called human? Wouldn’t it be more accurate to compare them to the various boss-level monsters on the Thread continent? Like giants, giant wolves, or dragons? Actually, if you thought about it, they were probably even more dangerous than those.
“There won’t be another chance once they finish gearing up. This is the only opportunity while their equipment is still mediocre!”
“That’s true, but…”
“And most importantly, Hwaryeong-nim just finished farming the maze and their inventory must be completely full! It’s gonna be insanely good loot?!”
Dan-yeong rubbed her face at Myeongge’s suggestion to launch a surprise attack even if it meant losing their own gear once.
“What if they come raid our house afterward?”
“Then we just start over from scratch!”
“Who’s going to help us recover all the materials we’ve gathered here?”
“I’ll stay up all night and gather everything again! Don’t worry!”
“What about the other party members’ opinions…”
“They all agreed!”
When Dan-yeong looked around the room to check if that was true, everyone nodded. Their expressions varied, but it was clear they had all agreed to attack Hwaryeong. Dan-yeong realized at this point that she couldn’t stop Myeongge. Even if she refused, Myeongge would just lead the other party members to attack Hwaryeong anyway. And Dan-yeong would have to bear the consequences with them.
Rather than taking responsibility without any pleasure, it would be better to join the attack and fail spectacularly. Haa. She had been planning to play hardcore on the newly opened streamer server and build up some power, but it looked like that would be difficult now.
“Fine. But let’s do it properly.”
“Of course!”
Let’s think positively. If the ambush succeeded, they would gain a massive amount. The amount of items Hwaryeong-nim was carrying in their inventory right now had to be considerable. There were external benefits too. They could earn the title of “The Streamer Who Defeated Hwaryeong,” and from a broadcasting perspective, it would make for great content. Even if they failed, they could blame Myeongge and still recover somehow.
Anyway, today was only day one.
“Let’s get ready.”
Even if they lost, they wouldn’t let anyone say they got completely crushed.
*
There were quite a few incidents while escaping the maze. The obstacles inside weren’t limited to just walls, after all. There were various monsters and players they could encounter, as well as treasure chests. How heartbreaking it was to have to leave behind most of what they had obtained.
If only my inventory and Enry’s had been a little larger, we could have brought back so much more. But no matter how much I lamented it, the size of the bags wouldn’t increase. If I ever came back to this place, I would need to bring one more person whose only job was to carry bags.
Anyway, after much hardship, I finally succeeded in escaping the maze. I grabbed Enry and ran toward our base.
“Why do I always get treated like luggage?!”
“If you think about it for even a second, wouldn’t you understand? It is because you are luggage.”
“Can’t you please put me down?! My stomach is…”
“No. Endure it.”
“But—!”
Enry shouted that her treatment was unfair, but I had no time to listen to her complaints. The rampaging inner energy of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art was eating away at my body.
The problem was that escaping the maze had taken far more time than I had anticipated. The process of deciding what to pick up from the items scattered on the floor had been too long. Struggling between Enry’s outdated knowledge and the viewers’ unhelpful advice had wasted far too much useless time.
If this body had been somewhat familiar with martial arts, I might have been able to endure it somehow, but this body was closer to that of an ordinary person. There was a limit to how long I could force myself to hold on.
While running like that, I sensed the presence of several people in the distance. If they had simply been gathering resources, I would have ignored them and passed by, but that didn’t seem to be the case. They were lying in ambush. They had set up traps. And they were fully armed while holding their breath as much as possible. There wasn’t a single peaceful element to be found.
On top of that, as I drew closer, their tension only increased. It seemed their target was most likely me. Normally, since they had prepared so thoroughly, I would have taken my time to play with them, but I didn’t have that luxury right now.
Should I crush them with a mix of killing intent and inner energy? No. If I thought about it, these people were essentially my coworkers. What would be the point of shattering their hearts? If this had been right after I returned to the modern world, I might have done so, but the current me possessed discernment. Let’s just break them moderately.
“Enry. Hold on tight.”
“What?! What are you going to do now?!”
I decided to break through. Without slowing down, I continued running forward and deliberately stepped on the area where the trap was set. Light leaked out from the ground. I didn’t know what kind it was, but it was clearly some kind of magic. Since I had already anticipated this, I activated the Dosul I had drawn in advance. The surrounding energy vanished, and the magic disappeared without a trace.
“Attack!”
They must have been flustered that their preparations had vanished, but they quickly regained their composure and charged at me. There were six attackers. I returned the arrow flying toward my head using the principles of Geon Gon Dae Na I. One down.
Next, I dodged the sword flying toward my head and smashed its owner’s jaw. Even with a helmet on, they couldn’t prevent their brain from rattling. The attacker collapsed to the ground. Two down.
I avoided the spear flying at me from behind, grabbed its shaft, and redirected it, causing it to pierce the neck of the person trying to pounce on me. When the spearman panicked at having stabbed their comrade, I struck their solar plexus, causing their body to lurch forward. Four down.
I lightly took down the one who had lost their reason to fear and charged at me. Five down.
The last one remaining was a mage. She wildly waved her staff, screaming about why her magic wouldn’t activate, then saw my face, threw away her weapon, and raised both hands.
“S-Spare me! I’ll give you everything I have!”
“I don’t need it.”
There was no space to carry anything anyway. With those words, I ignored the mage’s plea and severed her neck. Now, no one remained in this place.
“Enry.”
Hurry up and tell me what’s worth taking from these people’s belongings. We don’t have much time left, so we need to grab only what we can and get out of here.
“...”
“Enry?”
Why isn’t she answering? When I turned my head in confusion, I saw Enry covering her mouth with both hands. Her face had turned a sickly pale blue, making it clear her condition wasn’t good.
“Is your stomach upset?”
When I asked just in case, Enry slowly nodded. Hmm. My movements earlier had been quite violent. So this game even simulates something like that? How realistic.
“Still, try to hold it in a little longer.”
It’s unfortunate, but I don’t have the luxury to be considerate of you right now. If I’m not careful, I might end up scattering all the items we worked so hard to gather across the grassland.
If it really becomes unbearable, you can vomit over my shoulder, so just endure it. Enry desperately shook her head as if to say she couldn’t, but I ignored her.
“Seriously, why did you drag me into the maze when you didn’t even know the way? If you had known the path, this wouldn’t have happened, right?”
Do you understand? This is all your fault. So don’t resent me.
Enry will remember this day.