Chapter 23
Chapter 23
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 23
Chapter Title: Defend the Goddess Statue
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"Protect the goddess statue from monsters?"
"Monsters? So we're fighting those things?"
"This time it feels like a defense game?"
"Defense game my ass—it's telling us to guard the goddess statue from monsters until we're all dead."
"Damn it! I'm a production class!"
"Me too."
"Hah, production classes. Useless trash."
"What?! Fine, I won't help you then!"
"So when do the monsters show up?"
The system had announced it.
The objective for the players in the third Trials' Arena.
The players reacted in all sorts of ways upon seeing it.
Meanwhile, Hae-jin checked the number of current zone survivors and smirked.
'It's down.'
Out of the 5,000 who survived the first Trials' Arena, some were missing.
Had they died in the second?
No.
The second Trials' Arena was practically impossible not to survive.
With one day left until the deadline, they could've just grabbed any job in a rush.
Yet the survivor count had dropped.
Hae-jin knew why.
'Player infighting in the real world is finally starting.'
Reality conflicts.
This meant friction arising between players in the real world—killing each other.
The reason was simple.
Conflicts arose among those who had awakened as players in reality, leading to deaths and a drop in survivors.
But anyway, that wasn't important right now.
The third trial was.
Hae-jin knew the layout here well.
At first glance, from what the system showed, it seemed like they just had to protect the goddess statue from swarming monsters...
'They think they just need to protect the goddess statue without dying to the monsters.'
Of course, that wasn't wrong.
Do the defense well and survive, and you'd make it through the third Trials' Arena.
But Hae-jin didn't see the trial as mere 'survival.'
He had to achieve more than that.
'Not defense—offense.'
Offense.
The opposite of defense.
Defense meant holding a specific area; offense meant pushing forward while defeating incoming enemies.
But this was a 'hidden trial.'
So only Hae-jin thought differently.
He aimed to claim the hidden trial's reward here too.
That was when it happened.
"Park Hae-jin?"
A man approached Hae-jin.
Truth be told, almost no one had ever approached him before.
And for good reason—they'd all witnessed the slaughter he unleashed in the first Trials' Arena.
Zone Ranking 1st, a dangerous figure no ordinary person could touch.
That was Park Hae-jin.
Yet this guy was approaching and calling out to him.
'Who is it?'
Hae-jin looked at the man who called him.
He saw two men standing there.
And upon seeing them, Hae-jin understood.
'Jung Nam-gil and Kang Hee-soon.'
Jung Nam-gil and Kang Hee-soon.
They were two player murderers with criminal records for killing.
Excluding Joker, Manager Kim, and Yoo Young-chul, they were the ones holding their own in the Trials' Arena—players specialized in murder.
They had practically monopolized 2nd and 3rd place in Hae-jin's zone.
The reason was simple.
'No hesitation in killing, and they moved as a team.'
That's why they were together now too.
Hae-jin was well aware of how the two had teamed up.
Truth be told, in the first trial, both Jung Nam-gil and Kang Hee-soon had been just as bewildered as everyone else.
Well, that was normal.
Suddenly dragged into the Trials' Arena—who wouldn't wonder what the hell was going on?
But the two moved faster than other players.
After seeing Hae-jin butcher people without a second thought.
Both thought the same upon seeing him.
'What? You can legally commit murder here?'
Like the psychopathic killers they were, that's what crossed their minds.
No sooner had they thought it than Jung Nam-gil and Kang Hee-soon sprang into action, and in the short time Hae-jin had dominated, they managed to kill dozens.
However, at that time...
Lost in the thrill, Jung Nam-gil and Kang Hee-soon kept killing until they were overwhelmed.
By Park Hae-jin, the Massacre who slaughtered thousands alone.
Seeing him, both felt their hearts pounding for some reason.
Two emotions arose in them: fear and awe.
Fear at the existence of someone even more murder-crazed than themselves, and awe toward a being on a level beyond comparison who had committed a grand massacre.
Afterward, the two thought.
'Could I become like that?'
With that in mind, Jung Nam-gil and Kang Hee-soon committed nonstop murders in reality and during the second Trials' Arena.
After becoming players, killing felt far too easy.
Then, they ran into each other.
The two could sense it.
What they'd felt from Park Hae-jin?
No.
It was different from how they felt looking at him.
This was 'kinship.'
Normally, they'd glare at each other and feel compelled to kill because they didn't like it—but these two felt kinship in each other's eyes.
From the second Trials' Arena onward, Jung Nam-gil and Kang Hee-soon started teaming up.
And they saw it.
Even in the second Trials' Arena, Zone Ranking 1st was overwhelmingly Park Hae-jin, with 2nd and 3rd taken by themselves.
That convinced them.
If the two combined forces, they could crush everything in the current zone except Hae-jin.
Then, they thought.
'What if Park Hae-jin joined us?'
Wouldn't their survival odds skyrocket in this damned Trials' Arena called a survival game?
They even believed that teaming with him would elevate them from mere 'murderers' to 'Massacres.'
That's why they approached Hae-jin in the third Trials' Arena.
"What is it?"
Hae-jin asked upon seeing Jung Nam-gil and Kang Hee-soon approach him.
Casual speech, perfectly natural.
From the start, aside from Leader Joo-hyuk's party members in the Trials' Arena, Hae-jin never used polite speech.
Even his party members dropped the formalities once they got close, chatting casually.
Players could be allies one moment and enemies the next.
But.
Who were these guys?
Psychopathic killers obsessed with murder: Jung Nam-gil and Kang Hee-soon.
Even as a regressor, Hae-jin saw no need for basic courtesy with scum like them.
His assessment of the two was this.
'Pests who won't help player survival one bit.'
Even if the final survivors were limited once the last Trials' Arena ended, the more players survived each arena, the better—it made survival easier.
But that wasn't as easy as it sounded.
Take the 'reality conflicts' Hae-jin had recalled earlier.
Players who awakened got drunk on their own strength.
Drunk on power, they caused incidents and accidents.
Especially psychopathic killers awakening as players and committing indiscriminate murders.
Why?
Because once awakened as players, no law enforcement could touch them for crimes.
Laws applied to normal people.
Even with permission to shoot, bullets didn't faze strengthened players.
Legally, they couldn't be dealt with.
Naturally, with no legal judgment, criminal players rampaged even more gleefully.
Among them, plenty fought or killed other players, too intoxicated by their power.
And the most infamous of those criminal players were these two.
Hae-jin thought.
'Should I handle them here?'
As he pondered that, Jung Nam-gil spoke from the pair approaching him.
"Hello, Park Hae-jin. I'm Jung Nam-gil, and this is Kang Hee-soon."
Jung Nam-gil introduced them like that.
Deep down, he hoped Hae-jin would recognize them.
After all, excluding Hae-jin, they'd been top ranks in both the first and second Trials' Arenas.
Of course, Hae-jin knew about them.
Not because they'd been 2nd and 3rd, but because he'd known them even before regressing.
But Hae-jin had zero intention of showing interest.
"I see."
"Yes, do you know us by any chance?"
"Why would I know you two?"
"Hahaha, of course not. No need. But wouldn't it be good for both sides if you did?"
"Good for both sides?"
"You might've seen, but this guy and I took 2nd and 3rd consecutively after you in both the first and second Trials' Arenas."
"I see."
Seeing Park Hae-jin unmoved even after revealing they were 2nd and 3rd in the zone for both trials, Jung Nam-gil thought.
'Figures we don't even register to him?'
He'd half-expected it.
Given Hae-jin's results from the two previous Trials' Arenas.
Overwhelmingly dominant 1st place.
But Jung Nam-gil had no intention of backing off.
He was certain he'd benefit from sticking to Hae-jin.
Two overwhelming 1sts meant the guy had something special.
Tailoring his words to Hae-jin, who clearly didn't care about them, Jung Nam-gil continued.
"Yes. Of course, we know we're lacking compared to you, Hae-jin."
"You know you're lacking, yet...?"
It was a question of why they'd approach him if they knew they fell short.
Jung Nam-gil replied.
"Still, we thought we could be of help to you, so we came to say hello."
"Be my strength?"
"Yes, we'll do anything you command. Please accept us, Hae-jin."
"Yes, please accept us."
Kang Hee-soon echoed Jung Nam-gil's plea.
Seeing the two like that, Hae-jin thought.
'I can settle them here.'
Jung Nam-gil and Kang Hee-soon.
They were figures who'd become obstacles as the Trials' Arena progressed.
That's why he'd considered dealing with them now.
But they wanted to be his strength.
Hae-jin made his decision.
He'd handle Jung Nam-gil and Kang Hee-soon in this third Trials' Arena.
Having decided, Hae-jin spoke.
"Fine, if that's what you two think, I'll give you one piece of information."
"Information?"
"Yeah."
"What kind?"
Surprised that Hae-jin would share info with them, Jung Nam-gil asked.
Hae-jin shared it with him.
"That is..."