Chapter 5
Chapter 5
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 5
Chapter Title: Manager Kim and Joker
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Manager Kim and Joker.
Both were players who had job-changed into assassin classes.
In fact, Leader Nam Joo-hyuk had agonized over whether to include Hae-jin himself or one of them when initially forming the party.
Massacre Park Hae-jin.
There had once been a time when he was called the strongest in 1-on-1s, but that was only because Joo-hyuk had guided him to become a Massacre.
Without Joo-hyuk's guidance, Hae-jin would have just been one of the middling players.
But Joo-hyuk had selected Hae-jin as one of the final six who would remain with him until the end, awakening in Hae-jin the strength needed to survive this damnable Survival Game.
Hae-jin thought of Joo-hyuk.
Joo-hyuk, looking at him with a proud smile, had said,
Whether to add a nuker to the party composition with Manager Kim and Joker for burst damage, or to go with the well-balanced hexagonal Massacre Hae-jin for sustained combat alongside the two physical dealers, Joo-hyuk and Hae-jin, as the top duo.
After that deliberation, Joo-hyuk had chosen Hae-jin, who could maintain his power in prolonged battles over someone who could take down bosses quickly.
But during the final regression, Joo-hyuk had said something.
He had insisted on including an assassin nuker.
Among the players, there were the three great assassins.
They were none other than the Manager Kim, Yoo Young-chul, and Joker just mentioned.
But Yoo Young-chul was a serial killer even in reality.
Though the leader's goal was to reach the end of the Trials' Arena no matter the sacrifices, they couldn't entrust their backs to a hobbyist serial killer.
After all, this was a party moving on the resolve to save the world.
So Hae-jin considered Manager Kim or Joker as recruitment targets for the remaining party slots.
‘Manager Kim would be better, but...’
Manager Kim was a 39-year-old uncle who ran a staffing agency and was a former special forces soldier.
He was also a tragic case.
If he had been just one year older, he might not have had to participate in the Survival Game.
But there was no helping it.
The Survival Game didn't discriminate based on a one-year age difference.
Still, despite being the oldest in this Survival Game, he was skilled enough to survive quite far into the late game.
And Joker.
He was a chaebol heir living in America.
His nickname came from the psycho villain in a famous work.
In that work, the chaebol was actually the protagonist hero, but the guy chose the villain's name.
Moreover, unlike Yoo Young-chul, who was a real serial killer, the American Joker was famous as a hero in reality.
Because he practiced noblesse oblige as a chaebol.
Thus, Joker was also a decent choice.
Plus, unlike Manager Kim, he was young.
21 years old.
In the prime of his youth.
But that didn't matter.
‘Right now, physical differences from age play a big role, but from mid-game onward, it's stats that affect players' physiques.’
Considering that Manager Kim survived into the mid-to-late game, even nearing 40 didn't mean he was particularly inferior to Joker.
So it was a tough choice.
Manager Kim, from the same country, easy to communicate with, proven skill, and seasoned.
Joker, overseas but a chaebol who could help in reality, with skills on par with Manager Kim.
In fact, looking purely at external factors, Joker's conditions were better.
Young, rich, and even a positive image as a chaebol in American society.
But Hae-jin, deep in thought, shook his head.
“Yeah, since they're both survivors until the mid-to-late game anyway, I'll observe them more until then and decide.”
Hae-jin decided to deliberate a bit more on which of the two to bring in as the new party member.
Putting aside the recruitment of the new party member for now, Hae-jin first organized his thoughts on the existing party members he planned to definitely recruit.
‘For now, domestically, there's the Archmage and the Divine Archer.’
The ‘Archmage’ referred to Speller ‘Lee Sang,’ the number one pro gamer worldwide.
A player famous for peaking in every game with magic-focused characters and as a mid-laner specializing in mages in AOS games.
Upon becoming a player, he reached the pinnacle of the mage class.
Hence his moniker, ‘Archmage.’
And the ‘Divine Archer’ was Kwon Na-ye, a national team archer for Korea.
She too became an archer fitting her specialty upon becoming a player, and her skills propelled her to the rank of Divine Archer.
For now, the two Hae-jin could most quickly approach in reality were these two.
They were fellow Koreans, after all.
Of course, come next week, national borders wouldn't be an issue for approaching anyone in reality.
Once he claimed his lottery winnings, Hae-jin would face no financial restrictions.
That meant meeting the remaining party members, the Saintess and the Sage, in reality would be no problem either.
Moreover, both were gathered in Italy.
The Saintess in Vatican City, the Sage in Milan.
‘I’ll have to go to Italy to see those two as well.’
He already knew where they were and how to reach them well.
He had moved with Joo-hyuk before.
Plus, right now, Joo-hyuk's knowledge was in his head.
Recalling the familiar paths as if he had met them several times before, Hae-jin finished organizing the people he needed to recruit as party members and thought,
‘For now, let’s secure the party members from the best roster Joo-hyuk put together. And I need to put this money to good use.’
It was all something he had experienced in the first regression, and above all, with all of Joo-hyuk's memories, doing this was no trouble at all.
With money, there was nothing you couldn't do in the world.
Still, even with all of Joo-hyuk's info in his head, Hae-jin felt the need to organize it.
So he went to the study space first and sorted it out there.
Regarding the party members from the roster Joo-hyuk deemed the best after multiple regressions, and how to invest and grow this illicit funds going forward.
For the illicit funds, rather than cash, there was a coin account set up under a proxy by the boss of the organization that had originally owned this house and committed crimes, which he planned to transfer to himself and then invest in selected places.
The investment methods were already firmly decided from Joo-hyuk's memories and info.
With all the organizing done, Hae-jin said,
“Alright, time to go see the kids?”
The ‘kids’ Hae-jin mentioned were ‘Lee Sang’ and ‘Kwon Na-ye.’
Both were at the Taereung Athlete Village.
Pro gamers, once officially recognized as national representatives, stayed at the Taereung Athlete Village for training when world championships were upcoming.
And with the world championships coming up soon, Lee Sang and Kwon Na-ye were gathered in one place.
Of course, since only he had regressed right now, meeting them would just make him look suspicious since they wouldn't know who he was.
But he still had to meet them.
‘If I just reveal who I am, they'll take interest on their own.’
If you picked the most talked-about figure after the end of the first Trials' Arena, it was Hae-jin.
Most zones were separate, so no one knew who was the best.
However, the sole hidden trial achiever was announced to everyone in every zone.
Thus, everyone knew Park Hae-jin, and the internet was abuzz with his kill count.
And in the process, Hae-jin earned a moniker.
‘Massacre.’
To take those two all the way to the end of the Trials' Arena, it was right to meet Lee Sang and Kwon Na-ye as soon as possible.
Having made his decision, Hae-jin used the skill he had employed to come to this house.
To the Taereung Athlete Village where ‘Lee Sang’ and ‘Kwon Na-ye’ were.
Whoooong-!
Taereung Athlete Village
No sooner had he arrived than Hae-jin used another skill.
‘Invisibility.’
Invisibility.
A magic spell that turned the body transparent.
Normally, this wasn't a time when he could use it.
Players could at best acquire one rune, stats, and equipment from the first trial.
But Hae-jin was different.
Having inherited everything from Joo-hyuk, he could use all of his abilities as well.
And among them were several skills to hide his presence.
No sooner had he cast Invisibility than Hae-jin's body gradually turned transparent.
He didn't bother erasing his presence.
At this point in time, there were no experts who could sense presences anyway.
No, even going into the mid-to-late game, catching Hae-jin's presence wasn't easy.
Unless it was a player with exceptional senses, no one had ever detected Joo-hyuk's presence before.
And now Hae-jin was wielding that very power of Joo-hyuk's.
Anyway, Hae-jin entered the Taereung Athlete Village.
He could see numerous athletes diligently preparing for competitions.
But none of them looked happy.
And they had good reason.
‘With this trial, so many of their comrades must have died.’
The Survival Game had caused countless deaths across Earth.
The condition for becoming a player was having a high soul rank as judged by the great existences, but no one knew exactly what that criterion was.
However, Hae-jin knew.
Among the fairly well-known people, who became players, who survived, and who died.
That was part of how Joo-hyuk always grew his funds with illicit money.
Most of the national team athletes preparing here had been dragged into the Trials' Arena.
In other words, they were here at the Taereung Athlete Village too.
Those who died in the Survival Game and thus died in reality.
Of course, being athletes, the proportion who died was lower compared to civilians...
But that didn't mean the deaths of their training comrades weren't heartbreaking.
Yet they couldn't abandon the competition, so the athletes kept training.
Seeing them, Hae-jin gave a wry smile.
‘Next week, they'll rage when they realize all this effort has gone to waste.’
Due to this Survival Game, nations worldwide had declared national disasters, canceled all national events, and entered disaster preparedness mode.
Thus, the athletes preparing for this year's world championships had no choice but their efforts to come to naught.
But that didn't matter to Hae-jin.
What mattered to Hae-jin now was that he had to recruit Lee Sang and Kwon Na-ye back into his party.
‘That's why Joo-hyuk sacrificed himself.’
With that thought, Hae-jin moved.
‘For now, the closer one is Na-ye's place.’
The space for pro gamers was added later toward the back, so from his current position, the archery training ground was closer.
Having set his first target, Hae-jin moved to the archery training ground in stealth.
And upon arriving at the archery training ground, he saw it.
Slightly over ten people practicing.
Among them stood out a female archer with striking looks.
The player who would become the Divine Archer.
It was Kwon Na-ye.
Hae-jin approached beside Kwon Na-ye, who had her hair tied back and was shooting her bow.
Then, he dropped his stealth and tapped her shoulder with his index finger.
“What... what the hell!”
Kwon Na-ye jumped in surprise and swung the bow she was about to shoot.
But her hands held neither bow nor arrow.
By the time Kwon Na-ye spun around in shock, Hae-jin had already snatched the bow and arrow from her hands.
Still holding the bow and arrow he had taken, Hae-jin greeted her.
“Hello?”