The Merciless Ones (2)
Somewhere in the vast Zero Mountains.
What was unfolding wasn't a battle.
It was a one-sided massacre.
PVP. Player versus Player.
Before the Cataclysm and after.
The outcome of PVP never hinged solely on absolute levels.
The top priority in player-versus-player combat was experience.
The greatest difference?
Players weren't monsters.
Even if they had psychology, they had no fixed patterns.
To gain the upper hand, you had to read your opponent's mind.
The members of Cheonha Tongil had considerable PVP experience.
From the moment they set foot in the guild until now.
Surviving as a member of Cheonha Tongil meant exactly that.
But.
"Sloppy!"
That was only by the standards of reality and players.
Their opponents were the Shadow Mercenary.
No matter how infamous players were for their misdeeds—even supernovas—they were mere grains of sand in the desert compared to the Shadow Mercenary's notoriety and PVP experience.
Third Seat, Henderson, laughed heartily.
"When you're killing folks on the battlefield, you see, you gotta go beyond sure and straight into thorough. Poke 'em sloppy in the chest, and that tenacious life won't snap, will it? You gotta twist the neck clean off like this!"
Whoosh!
He swung his hammer.
Crack!
"Gah!"
A strangled scream, and the head spun around.
The neck snapped, rotating 180 degrees.
A power gap that made their tenfold numerical superiority meaningless.
……Dangerous.
Instinct made his arms and legs tremble.
Yet Yuji O didn't back down.
The thought echoing in his mind.
If I retreat……!
His liege would be in peril.
To such a Yuji O, Vice Captain Wolf said,
"Fascinating. Most would snap out of it by now."
……What the hell was that out of nowhere?
Unlike the razor-sharp Yuji O, Wolf moved leisurely.
Good thing I prepped the crossbow.
He hadn't expected to bloody it so soon.
Muttering to himself, he eyed Yuji O again.
"Even an adventurer lord is still a lord, I suppose."
The Shadow Mercenary's commissions transcended the imagination of ordinary folk.
They'd been scarce lately, but in the past, requests to assassinate those with lordly potential never stopped coming.
"I'm quite the expert on those commissions."
Whenever they arose, Wolf volunteered.
The reason was simple.
Lords' physical prowess was rarely exceptional.
A shot from afar, and down they went.
However.
"Your lord is a tricky one."
Ryu Ojuncheon, was it?
This unique adventurer lord was different.
Perhaps from rolling in the shadows of the Arcana Continent.
To Wolf, the reason seemed clear.
"Your lord has made full use of his adventurer status. Before the Cataclysm, adventurers had the Blessing of Resurrection—they'd revive even after death. So he was never crushed from the start as a lord."
"……!"
Yuji O's eyes widened.
He bristled for a moment, but it wasn't wrong.
Indeed, his liege hadn't stood out among other rankers back when Arcana was just a game.
But that was the past.
Now…….
"Of course, even after the Cataclysm, he's leveraging adventurer advantages brilliantly. Actively using this world's weapons, no less. Efficient. Ruthless. The other adventurers could learn a thing or two."
Wolf glanced at his shoulder as he spoke.
A gunshot wound, with significant bleeding from his forearm.
He'd anticipated mana arrow speeds at best.
But bullets were far faster.
At least I learned it cheap.
"Damn, that stings like a bitch!"
Rackid's body was riddled with gunshot wounds.
Yuji O couldn't hide his shock.
Still standing after tanking all that……?
"But above all, what's impressive is how thorough he is."
"……?"
"Even deceiving his own subordinates."
Squeeze!
Yuji O gripped his sword.
He could shrug off provocations scratching his pride.
But slandering his liege? Unforgivable.
Even if it cost his life…….
As rage made his body twitch, the voice continued.
"Is that loyalty real emotion on your part right now?"
"What do you……!"
"How many does this make?"
"……?"
"How many of the Five Stars do you think we've taken down?"
Pig and wolf. That made two of five, right?
As Yuji O thought that,
"Rabbit mask—excluding you, it's ten."
"……What?"
"We passed five long ago. Who knows how many more ahead."
In that instant, Yuji O recalled the imposters.
Those idiots.
Unable to distinguish real from fake……!
"Well. Who's real, who's fake?"
"……?"
"Or rather, do they even exist in the first place?"
Wolf shrugged.
"Well, only your lord would know."
Thud.
Suddenly, masks tumbled from Wolf's hand.
Over five at a glance.
……No way.
Doubt sprouted in Yuji O's mind.
He wanted to refute, but couldn't.
The info he had on the Five Stars…….
Just that he was one.
Nothing more.
All that guy's words……?
Yuji O reflected on his liege's actions.
The doubt grew.
A tiny crack formed in his loyalty.
Zing—
A sharp migraine swept his brain.
Resisting status ailment, ‘Brainwashing’.
"……!"
As the class [Lord]'s unique skill effect vanished.
Yuji O's loyalty to his liege—no, to Ryu Ojuncheon—dissolved like foam.
When did it happen?
His mind reeled in chaos.
Since when had his voluntary loyalty been replaced by a status ailment?
Or had he ever truly felt loyalty to Ryu Ojuncheon……?
Click!
In that moment, the crossbow reloaded.
Only now, with the ailment gone, did his sharpened senses scream.
I'll die like this.
Hurl!
Yuji O flung away the damned rabbit mask and dropped to his knees.
"P-Please, spare me!"
Groveling was fine if it saved his skin.
But Yuji O was gravely mistaken.
About who they were.
His desperate plea was met with a voice brimming with delight.
"Hahat. Haven't heard that line in a while."
Henderson, face bloodied, grinned in pleasure.
Plink-plink—Rackid twisted his muscles, extracting embedded bullets, grumbling.
"Damn cliché begging, fuck."
"……."
Not even a flicker in the dry tone.
The Shadow Mercenary, dark underbelly of the Arcana Continent.
Begging for life was too commonplace to sway them.
The hells they'd waded through were far filthier and uglier.
Wolf never forgot that.
Wonder what the captain thought.
What had Kichi been thinking?
Wolf didn't know.
Kichi with a dagger in hand on a job versus Kichi drowning sorrows at the Golden Calf tavern…….
Even he, who'd watched her for so long, found the gulf alienating.
But one thing was certain: she hadn't wanted this.
Even if it meant dirtying her own hands.
She didn't want her unit's hands bloodied.
That's why she pulled this stunt.
Shouldering all of Shadow Mercenary's sins alone.
Vanishing after that absurd declaration.
Of course, Wolf had no intention of obeying such an order.
If it wasn't outright mutiny, she shouldn't have passed the Shadow God's Brand to him.
Besides.
'Like the captain, we don't deserve it either.'
Wolf smirked.
'That's why we refused your help.'
The adventurers' world.
In a way, they were outsiders.
Yet through seeing, hearing, feeling—they sensed it.
Your influence in this world, Lee Hoyeol.
Thus, to find Kichi.
Even knowing his aid was crucial, they'd refused.
'Tying yourselves to us won't do you any good.'
Odd, thinking back.
Why had Hoyeol embraced the Shadow Mercenary?
Someone might ask: simple employer-employee. Mutual exchange.
Hmph, half the story.
'Your help?'
Hoyeol needed no one's aid.
Not even as a faction.
The Empire's Lion Heart Knights aside, he pulled the strings of the Mage Tower itself.
Absolute support from adventurers, and lately, even legendary dragons chanting his epithet.
Wolf was certain.
'Just your way of showing consideration.'
Consideration.
A courtesy long forgotten.
Thus, Wolf resolved.
The Shadow Mercenary, indebted to you.
Would draw the line even more thoroughly from now on.
To the resolute Wolf, Yuji O cried desperately.
"Tell me what you want! Internal Cheonha Tongil info? Use me! I'm no longer Ryu Ojuncheon's puppet……!"
"Tch. Snapped out of it? Annoying."
"H-Hiiik!"
The voice came from behind.
Turning, Ninth Seat Dreshev yawned repeatedly, iron needles between his fingers.
"Vice captain, what now?"
The needles gleamed, awaiting orders.
"Hmm."
The goal: a magitech device called the Connector, linking this world and the Arcana Continent.
Reason for infiltrating Cheonha Tongil? Word spread they'd found three.
"Killing a few won't reveal it."
Unless they slaughtered the entire guild.
Finding the Connectors' whereabouts would be tough.
"Their lord isn't ordinary."
"Hmph, stabbing his own men in the back? Heartless bastard."
"Rackid, our captain's the same."
"Ha! If the Shadow Mercenary captain has blood and tears left, that's creepy enough! Where else you gonna find a lunatic like that?"
"Gotta pass that along to the captain."
"……Ahem, that was a slip."
Yuji O flinched at Wolf and Rackid's banter.
……Might live.
He seemed useful now.
Damn Ryu Ojuncheon.
Thanks to him not being ordinary.
In that fleeting moment, Yuji O's mind raced.
Where to latch on?
The status message made it clear.
Ryu Ojuncheon was untrustworthy, past and future.
Yuji O eyed the Shadow Mercenary.
……Cooperate for now.
Even if he'd stabbed his own men.
No other choice.
As Yuji O swallowed dryly, Wolf continued.
"No helping it. Stick to the plan."
The words fell.
Thrust!
Dreshev's iron needle pierced Yuji O's pressure point.
Perfectly suited to the plan.
Instant death, no external wounds.
Soon.
Step.
Sixth Seat Isabelmal, who'd watched, moved.
Her mana flared, and the toppled Yuji O rose again.
Whoosh—Only then did Wolf remove his crow mask.
"Hiding your thoughts from a lord like Ryu Ojuncheon? Not easy. High chance he'd reclaim control before spilling internals."
But corpses had no inner thoughts.
Necromancer.
Isabelmal's undead would be far more useful.
One issue, though…….
The undead's hallmark: vacant eyes.
Seventh Seat Alkari chuckled.
"But as you see, the lord's petty scheme made his men don masks themselves! Never dreamed it'd boomerang."
That was why they rated him a novice lord.
Ryu Ojuncheon.
He'd forgotten the most vital lordly truth.
"How could he not know the eye of the storm is safest?"
In contrast.
"Sir Hoyeol is the opposite."
Hoyeol went beyond the eye.
Driving himself to the absolute brink.
Vast talent plus lordly qualities? No wonder.
His actions screamed it.
Protecting not just himself.
But reality and the Arcana Continent too.
Alkari nodded slowly.
"Thus, Dragon Lord is no exaggeration."
*
Always more than imagination, they say.
Damn, Grandfell. How do you self-praise without batting an eye……?
I stared at my press conference replaying on screen.
-"The Black Dark Dragon. Merely one 'part' of me."
Why did my own recorded voice sometimes send chills?
Human nature, I guess…….
Silver hair fluttering on screen.
Jacket draped over shoulders.
And that brazen iron mask.
Watching it was pure agony.
……Not the time.
To forget this shame.
I needed to move, fast.
Physical strain over mental.
I moved to manifest a portal to the Zero Mountains, then paused.
Against my will.
My gaze stuck to the interview.
"No matter the haste."
The teacup tilted leisurely.
"Inquiry into tea must not be neglected."
So you're making me watch this nightmare to the end?!
Zero mercy for me, Grandfell……!